Filipino Muslim Rebels Tied to Afghan War
Sept. 24, 2001 -- Like many international terrorists, the Abu Sayyaf group has its origins in the 1979-89 jihad or "holy war" to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan.
Influenced by Wahabism, an ultra-conservative form of Islam that dates from mid-18th century and espoused by the Saudi royal family, the Abu Sayyaf is known to have ties with many Muslim causes.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Filipino investigators have renewed their efforts to crack down on the Abu Sayyaf and their links to the operations of indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The Philippine military today announced it had arrested Mohammed Faisal Dompol Ijajil, a suspected Abu Sayyaf supply chief with suspected links to bin Laden.
Speaking at a news conference in Manila, marine brigade commander Colonel Renato Miranda told reporters Ijajil would be interrogated "on all angles," including any links with bin Laden.
Ijajil was arrested on the southern Filipino island of Basilan last week as a suspect in a murder connected with the Abu Sayyaf, Miranda said.
Deadly University
Abu Sayyaf was the last of the seven main Afghan guerrilla groups to be formed, and organized late in the Afghan war with the Soviets— only about three years before the Soviets withdrew.
Abu Sayyaf, which means "father of the sword" in Arabic, was founded in 1986 by an Afghan professor named Abdul Rasul Abu Sayyaf.
Some of the original veterans of the Afghan jihad, and their sons and grandsons and those trained by them, have been operating with destructive effect since the 1980s from Egypt and the Philippines to Algeria and New York.
As the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the CIA's powerful Pakistani partner, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate) found itself losing control of the Afghan fighting groups.
Although the ISI continued to train and equip some for warfare against India in Kashmir and Punjab provinces, Abu Sayyaf had also established a "university," north of Peshawar, Pakistani , to train terrorists in the methods taught by the CIA and ISI.
Senior Pakistani police officials said it trained terrorists for the Philippines, the Middle East, North Africa — and New York — and a senior Pakistani officer acknowledges that 20,000 volunteers were trained in the Peshawar "university" and that after the 1979-89 war ended, the alumni "looked for other wars to fight."
Abu Sayyaf moved operations to the Philippines, ostensibly to support the generations-long battle for an independent Muslim state in the southern islands.
Among their leaders were two brothers, named Qaddafi Aburazak and Qaddafi Janjalani, supposedly given the same first names due to their father's esteem for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been mixing in Philippine affairs since the 1970s.
Other Afghan veterans ended up stimulating unrest, rebellion and civil wars in Pakistan itself, India, Sudan, Egypt Algeria, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania. Their proclaimed goal was to establish Islamic states, according to the commands of God, around the world.
Ramzi Ahmed Youssef, jailed for life for the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, is believed to have frequented the Abu Sayyaf school.
Dangerous Alumni
Youssef's work with Abu Sayyaf became known in 1994 when, on Dec.11, a bomb aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Manila to Tokyo killed a passenger and injured six others.
The Abu Sayyaf group claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call.
FBI, CIA and Filipino investigators discovered that Youssef was the master planner of this and other unsuccessful attempts to bomb 11 other airliners, all American, over the Pacific on the same day.
Shortly after the bombing, Filipino security forces raided a Manila flat used by Youssef and found strong evidence of a plot to kill visiting Pope John Paul II when he visited in January 1995.
Ties Come Closer Home
After a long international manhunt, Youssef was arrested in a safe house belonging to bin Laden in Islamabad, Pakistan. He was extradited to the United States and later given a life sentence in a New York federal court.
ABCNEWS has learned that when Philippine intelligence foiled the plot to assassinate the pope, a laptop containing plans for using U.S. airlines against American targets, particularly government buildings, was captured.
In recent times, Abu Sayyaf kidnapping sprees have included the abduction of U.S. citizen Jeffrey Schilling in August 2000 and of three U.S. citizens, including California native Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipinos from a southern Philippine resort in May.
Schilling was released in April 2001 while the Abu Sayyaf has repeatedly claimed to have beheaded Sobero, although reports of the decapitation have not been confirmed.
ABCNEWS has learned that bin Laden was allegedly very displeased with Abu Sayyaf rebels for releasing Schilling.
According to the Filipino military, funds were funneled to Abu Sayyaf rebels by a "front" charity group run by one of bin Laden's brothers-in-law who is married to a Filipina.
Filipino military sources said the money was used to build mosques and schools in the south of the country.