Philippines Arrests 2 Tied to Terror Financing

Philippine authorities said Thursday that they had arrested two international terror suspects, a Jordanian and an Indonesian, who were allegedly involved in financing operations for the Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah terror networks.

Officials identified the Jordanian as Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil, 36, a suspected Al Qaeda operative and close associate of Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Mohammed Khalifa, who spread Bin Laden’s influence in the southern Philippines during the 1990s.

At the time of Abdeljalil’s arrest, authorities said, he was attempting to sell property that Khalifa had acquired in the Philippines. Officials said the attempted land sales were a sign that Al Qaeda and its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah, were feeling the pressure of financial sanctions and trying to raise money for their operations.

“This shows that the Al Qaeda-Jemaah Islamiah flow of funds is drying up or is shut off by the vigilant pursuit of international agencies,” said Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo, whose agents arrested Abdeljalil. “That is why they have to resort to selling off real estate, which exposes them to the risk of identification and arrest.”

The second suspect arrested was identified as Taufek Refke, an Indonesian who is alleged to have been Jemaah Islamiah’s No. 2 leader in the Philippines.

In a ritual that Philippine authorities often conduct for major arrests, Refke was paraded before the media and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Manila on Thursday.

“We have exposed a large cell of the Jemaah Islamiah,” Arroyo told reporters as Refke, 23, stood behind her in handcuffs. “The terrorists are falling one by one. This reduces the weight of terrorist threat across the broad range of targets in our country and across Southeast Asia.”

It is unclear whether the arrests of Refke and Abdeljalil are connected or whether the two men knew each other. Abdeljalil, who has two Philippine wives, was arrested Sept. 25. Refke was arrested Oct. 2.

Authorities say Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah work closely together. Many Jemaah Islamiah operatives received military training at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. There appears to be some overlapping membership, and the groups have carried out joint operations. Al Qaeda reportedly helped finance two major terror attacks carried out by Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia, the Bali bombings that killed 202 people on Oct. 12, 2002, and the JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed 12 on Aug. 5, 2003.

During the 1990s, Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Khalifa, was a pivotal figure in developing militant Islamic groups in the southern Philippines. Authorities say he had ties with many extremists, including the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping gang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and financed some of their activities through a network of charitable organizations. Khalifa also was linked to the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, and later established their base in Manila. Authorities remember Abdeljalil from that period as a key aide to Khalifa who was involved in purchasing land from 1993 to 1995.

“He was really the point man for Khalifa on financial matters,” said police superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, who investigated the terrorist network.

According to “Philippine Jihad Inc.,” a book by Mendoza detailing the activities of extremists in the Philippines, Abdeljalil provided food supplies to the Abu Sayyaf gang during a period when its members were being intensively hunted by police. Abdeljalil was arrested in 1994 but released for lack of evidence.

After Khalifa left the Philippines that year, Abdeljalil took over his businesses on the island of Mindanao, said Domingo, the immigration commissioner.

Shortly before Abdeljalil’s arrest, authorities discovered that he was selling land belonging to Khalifa and his Philippine wife in the Mindanao city of Zamboanga.

Domingo alleged that Abdeljalil owned a house in Zamboanga that was used as a meeting place for Al Qaeda members operating in the region and that a construction firm he owned there was a front for financing the activities of the terror network.

The arrest of Refke, the alleged Jemaah Islamiah operative, was first announced Sunday. Authorities said he was involved in liaison and financial activities for Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian terrorist network, which is led primarily by Indonesians. Police raided a house allegedly used by the group in the Mindanao city of Cotabato and found bomb-making equipment, but at least eight suspected members of the group got away.

Authorities say Refke received military training from Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi, a leading Jemaah Islamiah terrorist and bomb-maker who escaped from jail in Manila in July and was gunned down last week near Cotabato in what police described as a shootout.

It was unclear whether the manhunt for Al Ghozi produced evidence that helped lead investigators to Refke or Abdeljalil. Arroyo said that at least 30 Jemaah Islamiah members, many of them Indonesian, have been operating in the southern Philippines. A manhunt, the president said, was underway to track down those who remain in the country.

“Reports have it that a large number of his cohorts in training have returned to Indonesia,” Arroyo said, “but he stayed here to become the moneybag of the JI in Mindanao.”

*

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