Saturday, January 24, 2009

Nine Months Before 911

FATHUR ROHMAN AL GHOZI, the Al Qaeda-trained Indonesian explosives expert, was arrested on Jan. 15, 2002 for a series of deadly blasts at three separate locations in Manila that became known as the Rizal Day 2000 Bombings.  While in custoday, he revealed to authorities (possibly under torture or mind bending OPM music) the location of high explosive caches amounting to over a ton of Bali-type mass destruction. He was killed in Mindanao three months after escaping from the "High Security" detention facility of the Intelligence Services of the AFP (then led by Victor Corpus) -- by reportedly bribing his jail guards and jumping the fence to a waiting taxi outside.  Today, three of his henchmen and co-conspirators heard that they are about to become permanent residents of the New Bilibid Prison (Muntinglupa).
MANILA, Philippines – A Manila court on Friday sentenced three men to serve 20 to 40 years in prison for killing 22 people and wounding about a hundred others in the Rizal Day bombings in Metro Manila in December 2000.In a 74-page decision, Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 29 Presiding Judge Cielito Menaro Grulla declared Saifulla Yunos alias Mukhlis Yuno, Abdul Fatak Paute, and Mamasao Naga guilty of multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, and multiple attempted murder.
The following scary thought occurs to me.  Perhaps the "Rizal Day Bombings" were really just dry runs for a one kiloton blast.    Did we dodge a Bali-type bullet in 2000, or what?  This would certainly fit the pattern of the foreign terrorist personalities that have been in Manila and used it as a testbed for various methods of terrorist attack.  Who am I referring to?  The most notorious of course are Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his nephew Ramzi Youssef--of the second and first World Trade Center attacks, respectively.

There could now be some second thoughts and second guessing on President Obama's ordered closure of the Guantanamo Bay facility within a year, with the not entirely unexpected development that  former Gitmo inmate  has reportedly "returned to the battlefield" and has become al Qaeda's deputy in Yemen.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well as I said before we are sitting ducks!

It is a herculean task to secure our seas.
Our coast guard cannot even respond to maritime disasters on time;kidnappings have happened time and again.
Even if we secure our seas,there is still the old fashioned way of getting in;via our airports.
Imagine,having hosted the would be bombers of the WTC on more than one occassion.
Now we are even asking the US troops to leave and go home,since that is also the plan for IRAQ.

Now on Gitmo, before it became a "torture chamber", the validity of its lease for its naval bases was also an issue.

I Think Obama and his advisers must think during the one year waiting period of the repercussions.
One possibility is to transfer them to another prison. Then what is the use of transferring them? What do the pressure groups want to happen release all of the terror suspects and enemies of the US? Takot lang nila.

Rumors of torture won't die,it was rumored to be happening all over the world ,even movies have shown that it is a worldwide practice.
If obama wants to erase the stigma of gitmo as a torture chamber, a change of address won't remove that stigma, unless he really wants to release all of them.

Dave said...

The Philippines has dodged more than one bullet. Some of these go back into the Ramos administration. Overall performance of the Filipino Security Agencies has to be considered pretty good.
The one really sour note was when the Clintonistas poured some critical information down the memory hole for reasons best known to themselves and of course this is no reflection of the Filipinos.

The projected closing of Gitmo is a cheap and easy way of mollifying the left. I daresay we shall see some "weasling" on this before all is said and done.

Overlooked is why Gitmo came about. The Clintonistas by the way did get their hands on a few prisoners. These simply disappeared with no intelligence being gleaned.

I digress. The reason for Gitmo was a matter of (a)jurisdiction
and (b) recognition. Were they to be transported to the US proper, Federal courts would have jurisdiction as if they had been apprehended in the USA. Been next to impossible to interrogate them
or even to keep them imprisoned with a lack of admissible evidence. Congress could enact
legislation removing jurisdiction but has not chosen to act. And such legislation might well prove tricky to enact or uphold.

While the imprisoned are to be treated as humanely as are Prisoners as War, they cannot, say again CANNOT be accorded POW status under the Geneva Convention. Why? Because to do so would extend de facto diplomatic recognition to their employers, Al Qaeda, Taliban, etc. Does anybody in their right mind wish to do that?

Gitmo was an ingenious stopgap measure that has worked well. Which is why some people oppose it. Unfortunately, that aforementioned lack of legislation
has sabotaged its utility and even usefulness. So Barack Obama has simply bought some time with a high-profile but somewhat meaning-free executive order.

Anonymous said...

Quick question: how many terrorist suspects have the USA subjected to torture-methods since 9/11?

Over five-hundred? Between one hundred and three hundred? Between fifty and two hundred?

Does Abe Margallo want to know that it actually is less than two hundred?

Will Abe believe if Bencard claims less than fifty?

Will DJB say less than 20?

Tongue's Wrath said...

These terrorists have no right to go under the protective mantle of the Geneva Convention. They're not even signatories.

john marzan said...

i think arroyo can make sipsip to obama by taking their gitmo prisoners.

then we can execute them al ghozi style after a "great escape" by the inmates.