Advertisement

Al Qaeda Funds Used in Philippines

Share
Times Staff Writer

The Al Qaeda network transferred at least $25,000 last year to suspected terrorists in the southern Philippines to conduct operations and carry out bombings in the turbulent region, Philippine authorities said Thursday.

The donation was initiated by two top Al Qaeda suspects now in U.S. custody -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and a cleric known as Hambali -- and was carried by couriers through Malaysia and Thailand before reaching the Philippines, the officials said.

The money was intended to finance the activities of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian terrorist network led mainly by Indonesians and responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people.

Advertisement

About half the money was eventually transferred to a suspected Jemaah Islamiah bomber who uses the alias Marwan and remains at large. Philippine officials have warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack before Monday’s presidential election.

Military and police officials laid out the alleged terrorist money trail in a news conference in Manila on Thursday.

They said the transactions demonstrate the close alliance between Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, which has carried out dozens of bombings in Southeast Asia and has been known to operate as far away as Australia and Pakistan. Al Qaeda earlier gave Jemaah Islamiah members at least $35,500 to finance the Bali blast and $45,000 for the 2003 Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing that killed 12, Indonesian police said last year.

Philippine authorities say they were first informed about the $25,000 payment by U.S. intelligence officials who interrogated Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America, and Hambali, an Indonesian cleric who is a top figure in both Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah. Both men have a long history of involvement in terrorist activities in the Philippines and are being held by the U.S. in undisclosed locations.

The officials said the sum is probably only part of the money sent by the global terrorist network to Islamic militants in the southern Philippines, who seek to break away from the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

“I will not be surprised if this is not the only remittance made from Al Qaeda to the Philippine JI,” Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters in Manila. “More bank accounts are expected to be uncovered and frozen.”

Advertisement

The information provided by the U.S. helped lead to the arrest of several members of a Jemaah Islamiah cell in the Philippines. In October, police raided a safe house for the group in Cotabato City that had been purchased with about $4,000 of the Al Qaeda money. Among the items found in the house were bomb-making materials and manuals in Indonesian describing how to make biological and chemical weapons, said Col. Romeo Ricardo, head of a Philippines anti-terrorism task force.

Al Qaeda has been active in the Philippines since at least the mid-1990s. Authorities say Mohammed, Hambali and other operatives once plotted to kill Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila and to blow up 12 airline jets over the Pacific Ocean. Hambali also allegedly helped organize and finance bombings in Manila in 2000 that killed 22 people and injured more than 100.

The trail of money outlined by the Philippine authorities offers a rare insight into how Al Qaeda has contributed to terrorist operations in distant parts of the world.

Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003, told U.S. interrogators that he gave money for Jemaah Islamiah’s Philippine operations to Hambali, officials said.

Hambali, who was arrested in Thailand last August, confessed that he had transferred $25,000 one month earlier to a cell in the southern Philippines that was working with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group that has long fought the government in Manila.

Hambali, who was in Bangkok at the time, gave the money in various currencies to an associate named Bashir bin Lap, also known as Lilie, who traveled to Thailand’s border with Malaysia and handed the money to an unidentified courier, authorities said. The courier returned to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, and flew to the Philippines island of Cebu. There he gave the money to Zulkifli, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiah cell.

Advertisement

Authorities say Zulkifli flew to Cotabato City and handed the money to Jordan Abdullah, an associate who ran a money-changing business. At Zulkifli’s instruction, Abdullah allegedly gave half the money to Marwan, the purported bomb expert. In the following months, several bombs went off at markets and malls in the region, but it is unclear whether Marwan or other Jemaah Islamiah operatives were connected.

Abdullah bought the safe house, kept some of the money for future operations and gave $1,500 as a dowry to Zulkifli’s bride, the sister of a Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander.

Soon after his wedding, Zulkifli was arrested in Malaysia. Abdullah was arrested last month in Cotabato City. Authorities believe that after Zulkifli’s arrest, an Indonesian named Usman took over as Jemaah Islamiah’s leader in the Philippines. The military has said the militant group may have as many as 30 operatives hiding in the southern Philippines and training local militants.

*

Times special correspondent Sol Vanzi in Manila contributed to this report.

Advertisement