Amin Baco, alleged Malaysian JI member and IS follower (photo provided by intelligence source 'Pokemon')
(UPDATE - 3:03 p.m.) A former Armed Forces chief on Tuesday urged the creation of a task force culled from various intelligence agencies to thwart what he said is the “serious” threat posed to the country by the Islamic State and its sympathizers.
Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon issued the call even as a retired police intelligence officer who now helps run a security think tank said foreigners who have sworn allegiance to IS continue to roam Mindanao looking for recruits to their cause.
This was confirmed, also on Tuesday, by a well-placed police source who said four members of Jemaah Islamiyah, including Marwan, who had been erroneously reported as having been killed in an airstrike on an Abu Sayyaf lair in Sulu in 2012, are in Mindanao and actively seeking recruits for IS. The source said they had been joined by a Saudi national named Abudrahman.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs said 23 Filipinos are scheduled to arrive from Syria, where the IS has seized a wide swathe of territory, on Tuesday, bringing the total of repatriates from the war-torn Middle East country to 5,496.
Biazon proposed that President Benigno Aquino III form the intelligence task force from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation and order it to check reports of sympathizers of IS, which is also called by its former name Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, in the country.
"We cannot ignore these reports," Biazon said at a news conference.
"We have to remember the history of the Abu Sayyaf. Organized in 1979 to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, they were together with Osama Bin Laden, with Al Qaeda, fighting the Russians. When the Afghan war finished in 1989, the Filipinos who joined the war, imbued with Al Qaeda fundamentalism, came back to the country and what happened was Abu Sayyaf was born. What if there are indeed Filipinos being recruited by the ISIS, especially the young people?" Biazon said.
On Monday, retired police officer Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza, who is now president of the Philippine Institute for Peace Violence and Terrorism Research, said his group has received reports “from the ground” that some Abu Sayyaf members have been assisting foreign jihadists look for recruits, specifically in the Lanao provinces, the Zamboanga Peninsula and in Sulu and Basilan provinces.
Mendoza, who retired in 2008, is credited with busting “Oplan Bojinka,” an Al Qaeda operation that is widely acknowledged as the precursor to the 9/11 attacks on the US.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, said aside from Marwan, the other JI members recruiting for IS are known as Quaim, Mawiya and Abu Saad.
It was not clear if the four work with another JI member, Malaysian Amin Baco, alias Abu Jihad, who an intelligence operative codenamed “Pokemon,” earlier said had also begun recruiting for IS.
Biazon warned that reports of IS recruitment, if true, could affect the peace agreement between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Should any IS recruits who return to the country could pose a threat not only to government but to the new Bangsamoro homeland to be created as a result of the peace pact with the MILF.
Mendoza said among the local extremist groups that have pledged allegiance, or “baia,” to IS are the Abu Sayyaf and the Khilaga Islamiya Movement. Reports say the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, which broke off from the MILF, and the Rajah Solayman Movement, which is composed of converts to Islam, have also done the same.
There were earlier reports that some 100 Filipinos have gone abroad to train and fight with IS, and that two have been killed fighting in Syria, although the DFA has said these remain unverified. And the BIFM has denied sending its men abroad.
Mendoza said the allegiance promised by local extremists to IS is not a minor thing.
“Filipino Muslims are considered members as they pledge their allegiance … this is not (merely) sympathy … this is in compliance to the existence of the Caliphate” that IS claims to have established in wide tracts of Iraq and Syria, Mendoza said.
Such vows of fealty, Mendoza said, are considered for the “sake of Allah or Quital Fi Sabililah Jihad.”
“The expectation and belief of IS (is that) all militant Islamic organizations are now part of the Islamic Caliphate’s army,” Mendoza said.
“There’s now debate (over which) category Philippine militant organizations belong. Are they adjuncts, branches, support groups or affiliates (of IS)?” Mendoza said.
What is not in dispute, he added, is that IS’ membership is “multi-national,” adding that a jihadist who professes allegiance to the movement does not need to be physically present in Iraq or Syria to be a member.
Mendoza also wondered why the national government refuses to validate the existence of Filipino IS members despite multiple reports from local government units.
But newly appointed PNP public information chief, Senior Superintendent Wilben Mayor, told reporters in Camp Crame that all queries about terrorism and IS-related issues should be addressed to the multi-agency Anti-Terrorism Council.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/96410/intl-task-force-vs-is-urged-amid-threat-of-jihadist-recruitment
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