Philippines Arrests Terror Plot Suspects

by Ma Nguyen Tong

27-1-2002

In a move that perhaps revealed the scope of the al Qaeda terrorist network's involvement in southeast Asia, Philippine authorities said on January 19, 2002 they had arrested three men possibly linked to a group of suspected al Qaeda terrorists arrested in December for a plot to bomb U.S. targets in southeast Asia.

Authorities in Singapore in December 2001 had arrested 15 suspected terrorists supposedly linked to al Qaeda. The group told Philippine authorities to look for an Indonesian named Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, 30, also known as "Mike the Bomb Maker," in connection with the alleged plot on U.S. targets. The Singapore government asked Philippine authorities to search for al-Ghozi in December, and immigration records led to his arrest in Manila on December 17.

Al-Ghozi was a member of the Jemaah Islamiya terrorist cell, the group the Singapore government said was plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other interests. While under interrogation, al-Ghozi told police about three men in General Santos City, in the southern Philippines, who were linked to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim separatist group in the Philippines. Authorities found and arrested the three Filipinos, all of them brothers.

The arrest of those men -- Mohammad Malagat, Almuctar Malagat, and Mualidin Malagat -- led police to one tonne of explosives and detonating devices that police could have been intended for targets in southeast Asia. Philippine police said they were also looking for two other Indonesians as part of the same investigation. When pressed for details, police said they were broadening the net in their effort to fight terrorism in the Philippines.

The link between the MILF and the al Qaeda network, if true, could mean changes for the government's relationship with the separatist group, which was currently involved in peace talks with Manila. But most Filipinos in the street think that the MILF had nothing to do wit al Qaeda and that somehow the United States had orchestrated this event because very powerful economic interests in the United States were opposed to the Arroyo government being involved in any cooperative negotations with Muslim groups in the south of the Philippines. In fact, the MILF had never shown interest in being involved with any outside Islamic groups, and its interests were purely domestic. In itself, the event, as described by the United States and American media, is counter to the normal developments associated with the group and the Philippine government. Hence, the perception in the streets is quite correct.