Philippines Terror Threat Rising
Charles Johnson
Thu Apr 28, 2005 at 2:24 pm PDT • Views: 208
The Philippines is becoming a center of organization and training for the global jihad: Anti-US Terror Threat Grows in Philippines. (Hat tip: Ed Mahmoud.)
MANILA, Philippines — Security experts see growing signs of a link between Al Qaeda and home-grown terrorists in the Philippines, raising fears that attacks against the United States could be launched from a country that used to be a U.S. colony.
“The terrorist threat in the Philippines has gone to a high point, especially with the concentration of Al Qaeda morphed into a group called Jemaah Islamiyah,” said Gen. Avelino Razon, director of the Philippine National Police.
Intelligence reports indicate that longtime separatist groups that have been fighting the Filipino government for an independent Islamic state are hooking up with Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asia’s version of Al Qaeda, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.
Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a string of attacks in that region, including the 2002 Bali hotel bombing that killed 202 people, a blast at Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott hotel the following year that killed 12 and the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta last September that killed 10.
Just this week, a letter written by a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah said the group is planning an attack similar to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, said Singapore’s minister of home affairs, Wong Kan Seng. Indonesia authorities seized some documents after a homicide car bombing at the Australian Embassy but it was unclear if the letter was among them.
Frank says: