50 Filipinos among Bin Laden fighters?

Filipino Muslims as Taliban warriors?

Military intelligence agents are looking into reports that some Filipino Muslim extremist rebels have joined the Taliban army and the terrorist group of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Intelligence reports from the Russian Federation indicated that around 50 Filipino Muslim fighters, apparently members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, were monitored in two Taliban camps in Afghanistan, along with nationals from the Middle East and Central Asia.

A copy of the Russian report, submitted March 20 to the chairman of the United Nations Security Council Committee, was obtained by the Philippine Permanent Mission to the UN, which forwarded copies in July to the Department of National Defense, the Armed Forces’ deputy chief of staff for intelligence and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

The document stated that Russian spies have located a terrorist base of Bin Laden in Charasyaba near the Afghan capital of Kabul.

"In Charasyaba, there are several hundred fighters from Arab countries (including) 50 Filipinos and 40 Uigurs (tribesmen)," the report stated.

It added that the base was being used for technical support and repair of weapons.

"The eight divisions of the Taliban under Mohammad Tarek, a Sudanese, includes — besides Pakistanis and Afghans — Chechens, Uzbeks, Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Kashmiris and nationals from Arab countries," the document said.

It said there are at least 74 training camps, supply depots and headquarters of Bin Laden, the Taliban Army, Pakistani extremist fighters and other terrorist groups spread out all over Afghanistan.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan clarified, however, that the Russian report has yet to be verified by appropriate authorities and hence, could not be taken at face value.

"This report had not been confirmed by our government and so we could not categorically accept its authenticity," Adan told reporters.

He also pointed out that the report did not have a list of names of the alleged Filipino Muslim fighters in Afghanistan.

"We will act on this. We will confirm... we will verify. We don’t have the names, only an estimated number. I don’t think this is accurate, but we will check," he said.

Adan emphasized, however, that the document confirmed earlier reports regarding links between Bin Laden and the Muslim rebels groups in Mindanao, specifically the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the smaller but more radical Abu Sayyaf, self-styled freedom fighters engaged in mass kidnapping for ransom and other criminal activities.

The US State Department has tagged the Abu Sayyaf as one of the 27 international terrorist cells of Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda worldwide network.

Adan said the AFP intelligence community would check if the Filipino Muslim trainees in Afghanistan were still there or have returned to Mindanao.

He recalled that during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the so-called International Islamic Brigade had recruited Muslim fighters from all over the world to fight side by side with Afghan warriors in resisting the Soviet Army.

"In fact, the founder of the Abu Sayyaf, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, was a mujahideen in Afghanistan," Adan said.

He noted that poor and uneducated Muslim youth were enticed into joining terrorist cells abroad on the pretext of enhancing their Islamic faith.

"Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, instead of going to a religious school, some of these terrorist groups were able to take hold of them (young recruits) and they are given military training instead," Adan said.

US Pacific Fleet chief visits RP

Admiral Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet, made a brief visit to the Philippines and held secret meetings with ranking government officials.

The visit came amid group presence of US forces in Clark Field in Pampanga and Subic Bay in Olongapo, Zambales, former US military bases in the country.

Fargo reportedly met Tuesday evening with National Security Adviser Roilo Golez aboard the presidential yacht BRP Ang Pangulo docked at Subic Bay.

Others present at the meeting included a ranking official of the Philippine Navy and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Felicito Payumo.

In a telephone interview with The STAR, Payumo described the meeting as merely "social," adding it had nothing to do with President Arroyo’s offer for the use of Clark and Subic by American forces engaged in the campaign against international terrorism in retaliation for the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and the Pentagon in Washington that left hundreds of people confirmed dead and more than 6,500 more still missing and already presumed dead.

"I understand that Fargo and Golez were classmates in Annapolis," Payumo said.

Fargo reportedly left by helicopter early yesterday morning.

Payumo said he has not received any word either from Malacañang or US officials regarding the use of Subic by US naval forces.

"I suppose that the US vessels that could come here would be no bigger than those which had docked for (joint) exercises under the Visiting Forces Agreement," Payumo said.

While the Department of Foreign Affairs announced that joint military exercises between the two countries have been indefinitely shelved in the aftermath of the attacks where two hijacked commercial planes slammed into the WTC while a third plowed through the Pentagon, the presence of American troops has been increasing in Subic and Clark.

Lt. Col. Charles Hotchkiss, deputy commander of the 600th Air Base Wing of the Philippine Air Force at Clark, has said intelligence agents have been deployed in Clark and nearby areas, but declined to say if the deployment had something to do with the arrival of US troops involved in America’s all-out war against terrorism.

During a visit to Angeles City over the weekend, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said the opening of Clark and Subic to US forces might trigger attacks on the two facilities by local rebels or terrorist groups.

Domingo also said the Federal Bureau of Investigation has provided her office with a list of some 180 suspected international terrorists who might try sneaking into the country.

She said they have started counter-checking the FBI list against the roster of 4,500 to 5,000 foreign nationals in the country. — With Ding Cervantes