Al-Qaeda, JI fund terror in RP: Report
Al-Qaeda, JI fund terror in RP: Report
Jim Gomez, The Associated Press, Manila
Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah terror suspects in U.S. custody have told interrogators they financed operations in the Philippines through a money trail that has been uncovered with the recent arrest of a local militant, officials said Thursday.
Hambali, the suspected operations chief for the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah captured last August in Thailand, disclosed that about US$25,000 was sent to a terror cell in the Philippines last year through a man identified only as Zulkipli, the security officials told reporters.
Al-Qaeda's operations chief, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the suspected architects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, also told interrogators that his group has funneled funds for terrorist operations in Southeast Asia through Jemaah Islamiyah, the officials said.
"You can imagine the kind of activities that that money can support," Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita told a news conference. The money was apparently used for planning exercises but there was no immediate evidence it had financed actual attacks.
The Philippine military has said that about 30 Jemaah Islamiyah operatives may be hiding on the main southern island of Mindanao to train Filipino militants.
Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, and Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan last March, are both in U.S. custody in undisclosed locations.
National police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said that U.S. authorities helped the Philippine government uncover the financial network. They also provided information from the debriefing and interrogation of Hambali and Mohammed, he said.
According to a Philippine government report seen by The Associated Press, Zulkipli asked a Filipino accomplice who worked as a money changer, Jordan Abdullah, to convert the dollars into pesos, the local currency. The money was deposited in Abdullah's local bank account last July and some was later transferred to Zulkipli's bank account.
In the following weeks, some of the money was given to a Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert identified only as Marwan. Another chunk was used to buy a safe house in southern Cotabato city, where Zulkipli stayed. The money was also used for Abdullah's foreign currency exchange business, the report said.
Senior Supt. Romeo Ricardo, head of a police anti-terrorist unit, said Zulkipli was arrested in Malaysia late last year.
Abdullah was arrested April 3 in Cotabato, about 880 kilometers (545 miles) south of Manila, and has provided details that helped Philippine authorities unravel Jemaah Islamiyah's money trail and the bank accounts used to hide funds intended for attacks and training, the officials said.
A handcuffed Abdullah was presented to reporters at the Department of National Defense Thursday. As he was being led away, he was asked whether the charges were true, and replied: "No."
Philippine military and police intelligence officials have intensified anti-terror operations in Cotabato since last year to monitor and capture suspected Jemaah Islamiyah operatives. One key suspected operative arrested last year, an Indonesian named Taufiq Rifqi, is believed to have also handled finances for the group, officials said.
Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the October 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, and other attacks across the region.