http://www.war-times.org/current/art1.htm in their latest issue printed a correction to a previous piece that mentioned Abu Sayyaf. Said they were bandits w/o a program except for kidnapping.
U.S. to leave Philippines even with militants at large Local politics limited training of Filipino force
Tyler Marshall, John Hendren, Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Isabela, Philippines -- Most U.S. military forces in the southern Philippines, the largest Pentagon deployment outside Central Asia in the war against terrorism, will leave this summer even though an Islamic extremist group linked to al Qaeda continues to operate in the region, according to U.S. and Philippine government officials.
About 660 U.S. troops, including 160 Special Forces members, were sent early this year to support a long- stalled Philippine military effort to crush the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas and free three hostages, including American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. The Kansas couple were kidnapped from a nearby resort a year ago this week.
Abu Sayyaf, which spouts Islamic fundamentalist ideology but lives mainly off a lucrative kidnap-for- ransom business, beheaded American hostage Guillermo Sobero last July.
With their high-tech surveillance equipment and superior weaponry, the U.S. forces boosted morale among both the Philippine military and much of the war- weary civilian population when they arrived in January.
Now the deployment has become more of a cautionary tale. Here, as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the war against terrorism also is a battle against poverty, rampant government corruption and a fierce resistance to central authority that has endured for generations.
Officially, the Green Berets, Marines, Navy Seabees and other U.S. forces were sent to train, advise and support about 3,500 Philippine combat troops trying to hunt down about 100 Abu Sayyaf rebels on the small southern island of Basilan.
Announcing the deployment late last fall, as well as $100 million in military aid to Manila, Bush administration officials said Abu Sayyaf had links to al Qaeda and called the Philippines an important new front in the global war on terrorism.
Indonesian national Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a prominent member of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah, which has been tied to al Qaeda, was arrested in Manila. Other militants have taken shelter among the country's minority Muslim population, mainly in the south.
But the administration's program immediately ran afoul of Philippine domestic politics and fell behind schedule. Nationalist politicians, including the Philippines' vice president, Teofisto Guingona, fought to limit the U.S. military's role. American soldiers were never allowed to join combat patrols hunting for Abu Sayyaf fighters, the group's headquarters or the American hostages.
Officials said this week that the six-month deployment of U.S. troops will end as planned July 31, and most U.S. troops will withdraw whether or not the Burnhams are freed or Abu Sayyaf is eliminated.
A small group of military engineers who arrived on Basilan in April may stay on to help improve wells, roads and an airstrip.
"Obviously, we're impatient to see the Burnhams released . . . but the fact is we have methodical program and time management to help improve the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines," U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said in an interview. "(The exercise) seems to be on time and proceeding well."
But some challenge that positive view and question what U.S. involvement has achieved.
"It's a travesty that they (the U.S. Special Forces) could come and go with Martin and Gracia still in captivity," said Robert Mycell, a Manila-based spokesman for the Burnhams' employers, the New Tribes Mission of Sanford, Fla. "This will be very difficult for people to understand."
Armed Abu Sayyaf members kidnapped the Burnhams and 18 others at a resort on the Philippines' Palawan island last year. They beheaded the only other American in the group, Sobero, and repeatedly have threatened to kill the Burnhams and a local nurse they also are holding. The other hostages have all escaped or been released.
The Bush administration, fearful that the Southeast Asian nation could become a breeding ground and launching pad for terrorist attacks, has restored close ties with Manila after a decade of relatively little attention. Senior Philippine military officers talk of using the $100 million in U.S. military aid to upgrade antiquated communications equipment and enhance night-vision capabilities.
After a botched payoff attempt in March, rebel leaders have put feelers out for new ransom negotiations for the Burnhams, and rumors fly about an arranged release or a rescue attempt by Philippine forces. None of the reports has yet proved substantive.