Is the Philippine Military Supporting Terrorism?

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

In 2001 U.S. military aid to the Philippines increased from $2 million to $80 million. The war on terrorism was going splendidly. Then a Pentagon spokesperson said U.S. troops would 'actively participate' in combat operations. The public outcry was massive -- a clause in the Philippine constitution does not allow for combat by foreign soldiers -- and the joint military operation involving more than 3,000 U.S. troops was called off. In the six months since the Pentagon foot-in-mouth there has been a significant increase in terrorist attacks. The question is, writes Naomi Klein in The Nation, who is really behind these attacks?

On July 27 a group of 300 mutinous soldiers rigged a Manila shopping mall with C-4 as a soapbox for accusing the Philippine government of supporting terrorism so as to justify increasing U.S. military aid and intervention. Klein writes that the soldiers claims include:

• that senior military officials, in collusion with the Arroyo regime, carried out last March's bombing of the airport of the southern city of Davao, as well as several other attacks. Thirty-eight people were killed in the bombings. The leader of the mutiny, Lieutenant Antonio Trillanes, claims to have 'hundreds' of witnesses who can testify to the plot;
• that the army has fueled terrorism in Mindanao by selling weapons and ammunition to the very rebel forces the young soldiers were sent to fight;
• that members of the military and police helped prisoners convicted of terrorist crimes escape from jail. The 'final validation,' according to Trillanes, was Father Rohman al-Ghozi's July 14 escape from a heavily guarded Manila prison. Al-Ghozi is a notorious bomb-maker with the group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to both the Bali and Marriott attacks;
• that the government was on the verge of staging a new string of bombings to justify declaring martial law.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print