 THE Philippines announced today one of the co-founders of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group had been arrested after being detained at Jakarta airport using a false passport. Indonesian authorities picked up Abdul Basir Latip at Jakarta airport on November 21, but he was only brought back to Manila on Wednesday, said Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) spokesman Ricardo Diaz. He is accused of serving as a conduit of funds between al-Qaeda leaders in Saudi Arabia and the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history, said Diaz. ``His involvement was not as a fighter but as a finance officer and the conduit for al-Qaeda to facilitate transfer of funds to the ASG (Abu Sayyaf group),'' said Diaz. The United States is also seeking Latip's extradition for the Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping of American missionary Charles Walton in the southern Philippines in 1993, Diaz added. Latip, who was allowed to speak with reporters after arriving in Manila, denied any direct links to the Abu Sayyaf. ``I was not a member of the ASG but I am a close friend of Janjalani,'' he said. Latip said he was returning home to the Philippines from Jordan when he was detained during a stopover at Jakarta. The Australian 
 MANILA, Philippines — An official says dozens of suspected Islamic militants stormed a jail in the volatile southern Philippines, freeing 31 inmates in a nighttime attack that sparked a gunbattle in which two people were killed. Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul of Basilan island says about 30 gunmen destroyed a concrete wall and then barged into the provincial jail in Isabela city before dawn Sunday to free several detained Muslim guerrillas, adding that other inmates also dashed to freedom. Police say at least 31 inmates escaped, including suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a large Muslim rebel group engaged in peace talks with the government. Sakalahul says the jail assault sparked a brief clash that killed one attacker and a jail guard. FoxNews
 ACCORDING to Karl von Clausewitz's dictum, "the aim of any war has to be a situation better than when hostilities began". After nearly a decade of the global war on terror, how do we know if the situation has improved? One measure may be the cadence of terrorist attacks.
So far this year, more than 7500 people have been killed in more than 5000 incidents across four continents.
That is a significant improvement on last year, when more than 15,000 people were killed in more than 11,000 terrorist attacks.
Despite a clear desire to do so, Osama bin Laden and his central al-Qa'ida leadership have been unable to replicate the mass-casualty atrocities of the 2001 airlines plot against the US, nor can they get their hands on a nuclear weapon. Can we therefore say that terrorism is a declining security threat and the situation is better than when hostilities began? Public opinion in Australia supports this view. An Australian Strategic Policy Institute survey on national security and defence last year found terrorism had dropped to 13th out of 14 touchstone issues at the 2007 election.
Two-thirds of Australians think terrorism is now a part of everyday life. Climate change is the new terrorism.
But when we asked if the government was doing all it could to prevent a terrorist attack, the public's response was more equivocal. Only half thought the government was on the ball. Despite the investment of nearly $10 billion since 2001 in national security measures, 41 per cent of respondents said governments should be doing more.
That there has not been a serious terrorist attack on Australian soil since the Sydney Hilton bombing in 1978 leads some to argue that the threat is so low, national security funding should be channelled elsewhere. As Peter Clark of the British police said recently, "The current terrorist threat is of such a scale and intractability that we must not only defeat the men who plot and carry out appalling acts of violence. We must find a way of defeating the ideas that drive them." The number of terrorist attacks across the world may have decreased, but the corrosive ideologies that drive international terrorism continue to gain traction from Somalia to the southern Philippines. And the focus of this ideological brainwashing is increasingly directed towards children. In Indonesia, the radical Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir is focusing its attention on schools, providing reading materials and instruction to teenagers advocating the overthrow of secular democracy and the introduction of Islamic law and a caliphate. Although such organisations stop short of promoting violence, the radicalising link between propaganda and terrorism has been well-established. As internet coverage expands, so too does the extremist message. Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia runs a sophisticated website that rivals global news organisations. Teenagers are the greatest users of the internet, and interactive social networking websites provide terrorist groups with new opportunities to recruit and radicalise. It is no surprise the terrorist organisation in Somalia is called al-Shabaab (the youth). For the ideology to succeed it must constantly seek new recruits. As a new generation of terrorists is formed, the international community appears incapable of responding in a comprehensive, strategic way. To date, the global war on terror has been split between 95 per cent military operations and 5 per cent ideological operations. That must be reversed, because it is winning the ideological war that will ultimately determine whether we succeed or fail against the present wave of religious terrorism. Carl Ungerer is director of national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Australian
 An armed group in the southern Philippines is holding at least 57 civilians hostage, government officials have said. The hostages, including several schoolchildren and their teachers, were among a group of 75 kidnapped in the small village San Martin in the province of Agusan del Sur on Mindanao island early on Thursday. Eighteen people were released following several hours of negotiations, Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan of the Philippine National Police told local media, but dozens of others remained held hostage. Military officials have said they believe the kidnappers are members of a civilian paramilitary force known as the "Perez group". Police were reportedly pursuing the gunmen, who appeared to be using the hostages as human shields to escape after a clash with authorities in a nearby village on Wednesday. Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said it was unclear what the group wanted although police say there is no political or religious motive for the kidnapping. She said the group was known to local police having been armed by the Philippines government a decade ago to fight against communist insurgents in the area. The group is similar to the force suspected by authorities of carrying out last month's massacre of 57 political activists and journalists in a nearby province, also on the island of Mindanao. Jaime Milla, a local police official, told the Associated Press the gunmen believed to be behind Thursday's kidnappings were former militiamen who had been dismissed and turned to banditry and extortion. He said the gang was known to have previously targeted mining and logging companies in Agusan del Sur and nearby provinces. Our correspondent said that last month's massacre and now Thursday's kidnappings had many Filipinos questioning whether it was a good idea to arm these groups in the first place, when the army should have been fighting the insurgents. "People are saying this was a monster the government had created, and it's now come back to bite them," she said. Al Jazeera
 Prosecutors in the Philippines have formally filed 25 murder charges against a man accused of leading a election-related massacre on the southern island of Mindanao that outraged the nation. The charges against Andal Ampatuan Jr, the son of the governor of Maguindanao province, were filed in a court in the southern city of Cotabato, which has jurisdiction over the site of the massacre. According to prosecutors, at least 10 witnesses have said Ampatuan Jr led the gang of gunmen that carried out the killings of political campaigners and journalists. Ampatuan Jr has denied the charges. Prosecutors allege armed followers of the Ampatuan clan murdered 57 people including the wife and two sisters of their political rival, Esmael Mangudadatu. Also among those killed were journalists, lawyers and other civilians. Edilberto Jamora, the prosecutor in the case, said Ampatuan Jr was only being charged with 25 murders so far because authorities had only processed 25 death certificates. Ampatuan Jr is accused of leading the killings to prevent Mangudadatu from challenging him in the May 2010 race for governor of the province. Ampatuan's father, together with six other clan members, have been summoned to submit affidavits in the investigation into the massacre in Maguindanao province. They are also suspects in the investigation, but have not been charged. The Ampatuans control many local positions in the southern province of Maguindanao and have hundreds of armed followers there. Prosecutors said the killings were carefully planned and that more charges will follow. Jovencito Zuno, the chief state prosecutor, said at least one witness alleged that the Ampatuan clan had gathered in the patriarch's mansion in the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak days before to plan the killings. The graves were dug in advance and a backhoe positioned to bury the bodies, prosecutors said. Police said earlier they took into custody six officers, including the Maguindanao provincial police chief and his deputy. Two inspectors among them were allegedly seen during the massacre with Ampatuan Jr, said Erickson Velasquez, head of the criminal investigation division. The massacre has also embarrassed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president, who has longstanding ties with the Ampatuans. Arroyo has declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighbouring province, ordering troops and police to confiscate unlicensed weapons and restore order. But few think the measures will go far enough in the region which is notorious for its political warlords who have been outside the central government's control for generations. Al Jazeera
 The lead suspect accused of organising the massacre of at least 57 people in the Philippines has turned himself in to police, officials have said. Andal Ampatuan Jr is a local mayor and member of a powerful political clan in Maguindanao province on the southern island of Mindanao.
He has denied any responsibility for the killings. Ampatuan Jr gave himself up to Jesus Dureza, a presidential adviser, in the provincial capital on Thursday and was expected to be flown to Manila for formal questioning, officials said.
"The family voluntarily surrendered him and they agreed that he will be investigated," Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, a military commander, said. "The family voluntarily surrendered him and they agreed that he will be investigated," military commander Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said.
Ampatuan Jr has been named as the lead suspect in what is believed to be the Philippines' worst ever politically-linked killings. His father, Andal Ampatuan Sr, is the provincial governor who has been grooming his son to succeed him in elections due next year. The family also has close political ties to the Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, although on Thursday officials in Arroyo's party said Ampatuan Jr, his father and a brother had been expelled following an emergency meeting of the party leadership. Following his surrender, Ampatuan Jr was taken into military custody and flown out of the provincial capital in an army helicopter. More at Al Jazeera
 PHILIPPINE security forces have secured the territory of a powerful clan linked to the political massacre of 57 people and started disarming its militiamen, officials said. An AFP photographer witnessed armoured personnel carriers patrolling highways in the southern province of Maguindanao and television footage showed police commandos surrounded buildings in major towns controlled by the clan. National police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said security forces had arrested some of the gunmen linked to Monday's massacre while the army said it was hunting for many other suspects. "Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said on ABS-CBN television. "That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations." He said the army has also disbanded the provincial Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, militiamen under the control of the family of the alleged massacre mastermind, Andal Ampatuan Jnr. National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said the entire police force which had been providing security at Ampatuan Jnr's office had been relieved. Ampatuan Jnr is the mayor of a town in Maguindanao while his father of the same name is the provincial governor. Police said about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a group of journalists, on Monday. The victims were snatched as they were travelling in a six-vehicle convoy to nominate Mangudadatu as the opposition candidate for provincial governor in next year's elections. They were shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name. Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far, and police are still searching for more possible victims. The Australian
 As Weasel Zippers says: "What a disgrace. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the areas it controls, beheadings, numerous terrorist attacks etc. not that this would bother Obama...." "Obama sends letter to Philippine Muslim rebel leader," from Deutsche Presse Agentur, November 14 Manila - US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to the leader of the main Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, a guerrilla official said Saturday. The letter to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ibrahim was delivered to rebel peace negotiators by Deputy Assistant State Secretary Scot Marciel, according to Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the MILF secretariat. Ameen said Marciel and two other US diplomats met MILF peace negotiators headed by Mohagher Iqbal on November 6. Ameen did not disclose the contents of the letter but said it was a response to a letter Murad sent to Obama after he won the election last year. On Friday, US State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the Philippine government and the MILF to conclude a peace deal before the end of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term next year.... With thanks to JihadWatch
 Gloria Arroyo, the Philippine president, has said "no effort will be spared" in the hunt for those behind what is believed to have been a politically-driven massacre in the south of the country. Local media reports on Tuesday said that at least 46 people were believed to have been killed in the attack, up from an initial death toll of 22. The victims were part of a group of people abducted in Maguindanao province by around 100 armed men. Among those killed were the wife and family members of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local politician, as well as journalists. The army has linked the killings to political rivalries ahead of next year's local elections.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday afternoon, Arroyo said she was determined that those behind the killings would be held "accountable to the full limit of the law". "The chief of staff has ordered the establishment of check points and choke points and as of last night, the military elements were in place to preserve peace in the areas.
"Additional troops have also been deployed to the area last night to further secure the area," she said. Earlier officials in the president's office said she had ordered a state of emergency in the area, following what they said was the worst political violence seen in the country in recent history. Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner, a spokesman for the Philippines military, said that about 500 more soldiers had been sent to Maguindanao province on the island of Mindanao "to go after the criminals" believed to be behind the killings. He said the troops were under orders to arrest the followers of Andal Ampatuan, the incumbent governor suspected of being behind the killings. "We maintain the Ampatuans are the suspects," Brawner told the AFP news agency. On Monday, the military said 22 bodies - most female, some beheaded and mutilated - had been found in a mass grave in a remote mountainous area. Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from the Philippines, said Ampatuan is known to be closely-associated to the government and a close ally of Arroyo so people are watching to see what action the government will take. Ampatuan is seen to have delivered the votes that swung the 2004 elections in Arroyo's favour, so people in the province fear he may not be punished if he is found to be behind the killings, she said. Meanwhile Mangudadatu, whose family members, including his wife, were among those killed according to the military, told local radio that at least four people had survived the attack. He said the survivors were safe under his care and "will come out at the right time". Mangudadatu told local television network ABS-CBN on Monday that he had been warned about the dangers of standing for the governorship against Ampatuan.
Mangudadatu said he stayed behind in the capital Manila and sent his wife, Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, to file his nomination in Maguindanao on his behalf. Maguindanao is one of the most politically tense provinces in the country. The governor position is hotly contested because it is the seat of the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao, she said. More at Al Jazeera
 Twenty-one people who were among a group abducted in the southern Philippines have been killed by armed men. Major General Alfredo Cayton said in a radio interview on Monday that the bodies had been found, but could not confirm who carried out the killings. "Our army troopers have reached the area where the vehicles and those held were taken ... they were shot by the armed men," Cayton said. "We have recovered 21 bodies. Our men are continuing to scour the area to find the others," he said. Hostage-takers earlier seized 29 people, among them the wife of Esmael Mangundadatu, a local mayor, his aides, supporters and journalists. Military officials said Mangundadatu's wife was among the dead. The journalists taken captive were accompanying Mangundadatu's group to a local elections office to file his candidacy for governorship of the predominantly Muslim Maguindanao province in the autonomous Mindanao region in the May 2010 vote when they were captured by the kidnappers. The Mangundadatu family is known to have a long-running feud with the family of Andal Ampatuan, Maguindanao's incumbent governor. Marga Ortigas, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Philippines, said the families were well known to be political rivals. "This particular governor position is hotly contested because it is the seat of the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao and the incumbent has been there for years." Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, a military spokesman, said that the hostage-takers had links to Amputuan. Brawner said there were about 100 armed men, most of whom were deputised as government guards by Ampatuan's family. He said the leader of the group that staged the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan's sons. Ampatuan was not immediately reachable for comment. Ortigas noted that Maguindanao was one of the most politically tense provinces in the country. "It is the site of three different armed insurgent movements," she said. "Elections in the Philippines over the last few years are becoming more and more violent, particularly in the area." Al Jazeera
 A 79-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest abducted in the Philippines a month ago was freed early Thursday and neither country paid any of the kidnappers' $2 million ransom demand, Irish and Filipino authorities said. The Rev. Michael Sinnott said he was not harmed but complained of arduous journeys as kidnappers took him by sea and through jungles to evade government troops. "I was treated well. Once I had been kidnapped and brought to the boat, that was very rough," he told Manila's ABS-CBN television from a military camp in southern Zamboanga city. He said he was not angry with the kidnappers, whom the Philippine government suspected had ties with a large Muslim rebel group. "They gave me lectures on their ideology but apart from that, they treated me well." Irish President Mary McAleese called Sinnott's freedom the answer to the shared prayers of millions in both countries. "He is clearly a man of great resilience, strength and courage and we wish him well as he seeks to recover from such a trying ordeal," Mrs. McAleese said. And Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the government would help the priest enjoy "a speedy reunion with his family and friends." Six armed men abducted Sinnott Oct. 11 from his missionary home on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, escaped by speedboat, and took him into the jungle. Officials had feared he could suffer a fatal heart attack because he was still recovering from heart-bypass surgery. Rumors persisted that he had died in captivity. Philippine security officials blamed Rev. Sinnott's kidnaping on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group that has fought for decades for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Catholic country. But the rebels denied involvement. Rebel leader Mohagher Iqbal said his group applied "pressure and our moral authority" on the kidnappers to release Rev. Sinnott. Chief Philippine negotiator Rafael Seguis credited Moro rebel leadership with persuading the kidnappers to hand over the priest. Senior military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said Sinnott was debriefed in the southern military camp before flying to Manila later Thursday to be greeted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Maj. Dolorfino and Mr. Seguis said Philippine authorities paid no ransom. Read more here,,,, Source: WSJ
 An Irish priest was kidnapped Sunday in the southern Philippines, his missionary society said. Father Michael Sinnott, part of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, was kidnapped at about 7:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) “from outside his home in Pagadian City, Province of Zamboanga del Sur, Mindanao, as he was taking an evening stroll in the garden,” the society said in a statement. “Four or five armed men burst into the garden and bundled Fr (Father) Michael into a pickup truck and drove to a local beach. The vehicle was abandoned and burnt. Fr Michael was taken away in a speed boat.” The Mindanao area has been gripped by violence and repeated kidnappings as government forces battle Islamic militants who seek a separate Islamic state. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has described dire conditions in the region, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, many of them holed up at evacuation sites. Source: CNN Wire
April 02 THREE Red Cross workers kidnapped in the Philippines by Islamic militants who have threatened to behead one of them are "alive", Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, the ANSA news agency reported. The hostages - an Italian, a Swiss and a Filipino - "are alive according to information in our possession", following "contacts with our compatriot", Mr Frattini said. The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas had said they would behead one of the trio unless Philippine troops effectively ceded control of the island of Jolo, where the army has been battling the militants, by March 31. Source: The Australian
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Muslims Against Sharia condemn the murderers responsible for Philippine Congress bombing that left 2 dead and 8 wounded. Our prayers are with the victims of this atrocity. We send our condolences to their loved ones. May the perpetrators be caught swiftly.
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THE Philippines announced today one of the co-founders of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group had been arrested after being detained at Jakarta airport using a false passport. 
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