Whats wrong with US anti-terror aid?
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-11-2015 WED)
The question has been raised by several senators and some media pundits in the course of the investigation of the Mamasapano tragedy. There is a widespread public belief that the cause of the senseless sacrifice of the Special Action Forces (SAF) 44 plus 20 is BS Aquino’s prioritizing of a US-funded and guided anti-terror project to neutralize international jihadist-bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir alias “Marwan,” and that not even the lives of the fallen SAF commandos should jeopardize an even higher priority US geopolitical “gerrymandering” project--the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-BangsaMoro Basic Law that shall effectively carve out a new state in Mindanao. This belief has led many to question Philippine reliance on US “aid” against terrorist forces.
Marwan is accused of the 2002 Bali Bombing, classified as an international terror incident; hence, the US and international arrest warrant against Marwan. He is said to be the leader of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) in the Philippines but may only be a figurehead used to create the impression of numerous organizations that actually only share one general, limited mass base. Wikipedia says Marwan is protected by the purported MILF splinter group, BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), but documents filed before the US District Court in California confirm Marwan is protected by the MILF. Yet the US plays Big Brother to the MILF in the BBL project--indeed, an inconvenient truth for those who have swallowed the US anti-terror mantra hook-line-and-sinker in justifying US anti-terrorism “aid” so readily.
Let us look into other cases of real US attitudes toward terrorism, such as the bomb that exploded in 2002 at the Davao Evergreen Hotel. There, a frequent American tenant, Michael Meiring, was discovered to be assembling bombs when one accidentally went off and severely injured him. Brought to the Davao Medical Mission Hospital, the US Embassy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) swooped in, secured the hospital, prevented Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and the police from investigating, paid the hospital bills, and flew Meiring out to the US of A. Meiring’s bombs are believed to have been among those used in several Davao blasts, including those in the wharf and airport at that time.
Another example of US terrorism duplicity is the 2000 abduction case of Afro-American Jeffrey Schilling, who was allegedly “kidnapped” by the Abu Sayyaf but later discovered to be related to a top Abu Sayyaf leader through Schilling’s girlfriend, and supplying communications equipment and arms to the Abu Sayyaf. When President Joseph Estrada ordered an assault on the Abu Sayyaf, then US President Bill Clinton sent his Defense Secretary William Cohen with a handwritten note requesting Malacañang to halt the assault as US citizen Schilling may be put in harm’s way. Of course, the Abu Sayyaf bandits would also have been saved from the onslaught of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that could have wiped them out. Erap naturally did not oblige.
So the question now is: Did the US hunt down Marwan in the Philippines in the common interest of both countries, or was it because only the Philippines will you find so-called leaders who would allow such an operation that smacks of total surrender of national sovereignty? Countless news reports confirm that the funding, training, equipping, monitoring, up to the immediate export to the US of Marwan’s finger for DNA testing was by the US. Now, based on Aquino’s claim that he was lied to amid the “gaps” in Alan Purisima’s testimonies, even who the top man is in the Philippine chain-of-command is put in doubt. Moreover, we can’t imagine neighboring Malaysia or Indonesia agreeing to such a totally US-run operation.
My answer to those who ask “What's wrong with US anti-terror help?” is this, “Are you sure they are here to help fight terrorism in the Philippines?”
Confirmed US support for the MILF--an organization that has taken up arms against the Philippine Republic and has given aid and comfort to the likes of Marwan and the BIFF, which fronts for the protection of Marwan, and defends the Abu Sayyaf whenever the AFP is running after it--is an indirect support of terrorism against the Philippines and its people. This is no different from US Gen. Wesley Clark admitting last February 22 on TV that “ISIS Got Started with Funding From our Closest Allies” (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, et al.).
President Joseph Estrada proved once and for all that we are better off without outside help when he crushed the MILF in 1999. It's worth remembering that US allies in the Organization of Islamic Conference funded the Moro National Liberation Front while the US would not even sell ammunition to then President Marcos and the AFP; yet we still won militarily and diplomatically.
Whenever foreign countries help, they help our enemies for fear of a stronger and more independent Philippines. Malaysia funds the MILF while the US gives it international legitimacy for it to set conditions that hamstring government law enforcement repeatedly, leading to such fiascos as Mamasapano.
Only Filipinos will solve problems of Filipinos for the real benefit of Filipinos.
(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”)
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-11-2015 WED)
The question has been raised by several senators and some media pundits in the course of the investigation of the Mamasapano tragedy. There is a widespread public belief that the cause of the senseless sacrifice of the Special Action Forces (SAF) 44 plus 20 is BS Aquino’s prioritizing of a US-funded and guided anti-terror project to neutralize international jihadist-bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir alias “Marwan,” and that not even the lives of the fallen SAF commandos should jeopardize an even higher priority US geopolitical “gerrymandering” project--the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-BangsaMoro Basic Law that shall effectively carve out a new state in Mindanao. This belief has led many to question Philippine reliance on US “aid” against terrorist forces.
Marwan is accused of the 2002 Bali Bombing, classified as an international terror incident; hence, the US and international arrest warrant against Marwan. He is said to be the leader of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) in the Philippines but may only be a figurehead used to create the impression of numerous organizations that actually only share one general, limited mass base. Wikipedia says Marwan is protected by the purported MILF splinter group, BangsaMoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), but documents filed before the US District Court in California confirm Marwan is protected by the MILF. Yet the US plays Big Brother to the MILF in the BBL project--indeed, an inconvenient truth for those who have swallowed the US anti-terror mantra hook-line-and-sinker in justifying US anti-terrorism “aid” so readily.
Let us look into other cases of real US attitudes toward terrorism, such as the bomb that exploded in 2002 at the Davao Evergreen Hotel. There, a frequent American tenant, Michael Meiring, was discovered to be assembling bombs when one accidentally went off and severely injured him. Brought to the Davao Medical Mission Hospital, the US Embassy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) swooped in, secured the hospital, prevented Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and the police from investigating, paid the hospital bills, and flew Meiring out to the US of A. Meiring’s bombs are believed to have been among those used in several Davao blasts, including those in the wharf and airport at that time.
Another example of US terrorism duplicity is the 2000 abduction case of Afro-American Jeffrey Schilling, who was allegedly “kidnapped” by the Abu Sayyaf but later discovered to be related to a top Abu Sayyaf leader through Schilling’s girlfriend, and supplying communications equipment and arms to the Abu Sayyaf. When President Joseph Estrada ordered an assault on the Abu Sayyaf, then US President Bill Clinton sent his Defense Secretary William Cohen with a handwritten note requesting Malacañang to halt the assault as US citizen Schilling may be put in harm’s way. Of course, the Abu Sayyaf bandits would also have been saved from the onslaught of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that could have wiped them out. Erap naturally did not oblige.
So the question now is: Did the US hunt down Marwan in the Philippines in the common interest of both countries, or was it because only the Philippines will you find so-called leaders who would allow such an operation that smacks of total surrender of national sovereignty? Countless news reports confirm that the funding, training, equipping, monitoring, up to the immediate export to the US of Marwan’s finger for DNA testing was by the US. Now, based on Aquino’s claim that he was lied to amid the “gaps” in Alan Purisima’s testimonies, even who the top man is in the Philippine chain-of-command is put in doubt. Moreover, we can’t imagine neighboring Malaysia or Indonesia agreeing to such a totally US-run operation.
My answer to those who ask “What's wrong with US anti-terror help?” is this, “Are you sure they are here to help fight terrorism in the Philippines?”
Confirmed US support for the MILF--an organization that has taken up arms against the Philippine Republic and has given aid and comfort to the likes of Marwan and the BIFF, which fronts for the protection of Marwan, and defends the Abu Sayyaf whenever the AFP is running after it--is an indirect support of terrorism against the Philippines and its people. This is no different from US Gen. Wesley Clark admitting last February 22 on TV that “ISIS Got Started with Funding From our Closest Allies” (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, et al.).
President Joseph Estrada proved once and for all that we are better off without outside help when he crushed the MILF in 1999. It's worth remembering that US allies in the Organization of Islamic Conference funded the Moro National Liberation Front while the US would not even sell ammunition to then President Marcos and the AFP; yet we still won militarily and diplomatically.
Whenever foreign countries help, they help our enemies for fear of a stronger and more independent Philippines. Malaysia funds the MILF while the US gives it international legitimacy for it to set conditions that hamstring government law enforcement repeatedly, leading to such fiascos as Mamasapano.
Only Filipinos will solve problems of Filipinos for the real benefit of Filipinos.
(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”)
