Free Republic

THE three main Southeast Asian Islamic terrorist groups have had a strong, secret alliance for almost 20 years, which continues to train Jemaah Islamiah's bomb-makers, intelligence documents reveal. The documents, compiled from interviews with a senior JI defector and other sources, confirm long-held suspicions that two training camps of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern Philippines are the nerve centre of regional terrorism. The former JI leader's admissions defy claims by the Philippines Government and the MILF that militant training in the camps ceased four years ago, at the start of delicate negotiations about autonomy for the Muslim...

Boston Teen Arrested in McAllen Break-In An 18-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged today with breaking into a McAllen pawn shop and stealing handguns. An officer found Atbin Hoshang Forghan of Canton, Massachusetts, outside Danny's Pawn Shop before dawn. Forghan allegedly was carrying stolen munitions, a bulletproof vest and a switchblade. Forghan was arraigned today on charges of burglary and possessing prohibited weapons. Bond is 550-thousand dollars. Investigators say Forghan traveled to McAllen by bus from the Boston area earlier this week and he had visited the pawn shop. McAllen police also contacted Homeland Security officials. An investigator with the...

ZAMBOANGA CITY, 6 August 2003 — Hashim Salamat, the reclusive leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has died of complications from a heart ailment and an acute ulcer, the separatist group finally confirmed yesterday. MILF officials admitted that Salamat died on July 13 and that he was was buried on the same day in the town of Butig in Lanao del Sur province, about 900 kilometers south of Manila. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Salamat, the founder of the MILF, had been bed-ridden for three weeks. “He was 70 years old. That’s just an estimate because we don’t...