FBI cites PNP for key role in disrupting terror networks, after confirming Marwan DNA match

From InterAksyon (Feb 5): FBI cites PNP for key role in disrupting terror networks, after confirming Marwan DNA match

After confirming that initial tests showed the tissue sample provided by Philippine authorities belonged to international terrorist Marwan, the FBI said it will continue to work closely with the PNP. The latter's cooperation has greatly boosted the task of "identifying and disrupting" terror networks worldwide, said FBI - a recognition that invites recollection of the PNP's key role in unravelling in 1995 a major terror plot that predated the 9/11 attacks.

An FBI statement issued late Wednesday basically confirmed earlier information from reliable News5 sources about the "DNA match" confirming Marwan - whose real name is Zulkifli bin Hir - was indeed killed by the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) sent to apprehend him in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25. The SAF mission had achieved its main goal, Philippine officials stressed earlier, referring to the neutralization of Zulkifli bin Hir aka Marwan. But they conceded it exacted a heavy price: the death of 44 highly-trained SAF men, including six officers in a needless 12-hour firefight that apparently was caused by lack of coordination between the police and military.

A statement from David Bowdich, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office was furnished News5: "Although the results of the DNA examinations do not provide absolute identification, the results do support that the biological sample provided by Philippine authorities came from Marwan."

According to Bowdich, the FBI’s case against Marwan "is one of many investigations we have conducted in cooperation with our Philippine counterparts." The Bureau values its partnership with the Philippine National Police, Bowdich added, describing it as "among the strongest in the world." The Bureau will "continue to work in close cooperation [with PNP] to identify, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist networks."

Asked about the US report, acting PNP chief Leonardo Espina said the government will make a statement on the issue shortly.

"Hopefully it will be today," he told a news conference on Thursday.

If confirmed, the death would be a boost for President Benigno Aquino, who has been savagely criticised over the police killings.PNP shared with FBI info on 1995 terror plot

It will be recalled that in 1995, it was the PNP-SAF that foiled the terrorist plot to kill Pope John Paul II who was visiting Manila. The trove of information in a laptop seized by the Philippine police from a Manila apartment was shared with FBI, which later pieced together the pattern of activities that the particular terror cell, led by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, had planned out, according to a New York Times exclusive then that was also carried by its Philippine partner newspaper, TODAY. The information included the kill-pope plot. Yousef 's group was also behind the bombing of Philippine Airlines flight 434 from Cebu to Narita, which killed a Japanese passenger; and was a co-conspirator in Oplan Bojinka.

Yousef and his cohorts had escaped from Manila after the plot unravelled, but were finally tracked down in Pakistan, and tried in New York - both for the first bombing (in 1993) of the World Trade Center where six were killed, and for the plot hatched in Manila to attack US planes. A dry-run of the latter was believed to include the planting of a bomb on PAL Flight 434, and was seen to be the precursor of what would ultimately become the 9/11 attacks.

The PAL pilot in Flight 434 successfully landed his plane at Narita despite the damage caused by the bomb, and Filipinos testified at Yousef's US trial.

Yousef is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison for his role in the 1993 bombing that damaged the World Trade Center - eight years before the iconic twin towers would completely come down in the 9/11 attacks of 2001.

According to an account by New York Times in January 1998, Yousef was sentenced "to spend life plus 240 years in prison. And he defiantly proclaimed in court that ''I am a terrorist and I am proud of it.'"

The NYT report added: "Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy of Federal District Court in Manhattan urged that Mr. Yousef spend his sentence in solitary confinement in a Colorado prison, the nation's most secure, calling him an ''apostle of evil'' who ''wanted to kill for the thrill of killing human beings.''

The sentences applied to two separate cases, said the NYT. "The first, the World Trade Center bombing, predated the 1994 Federal law that broadly expanded application of the death penalty. The other case involved Mr. Yousef's conspiracy, hatched in Manila and never fully carried out, to bomb American passenger airliners in the Far East. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in that plot."

As Yousef railed against Israel and justified his resort to terrorism vefore his sentence was pronounced, the NYT report said: "Judge Duffy listened patiently and then said to Mr. Yousef, who had claimed to be an Islamic militant, that ''you are not fit to uphold Islam.'' The judge then picked up a copy of the Koran and read several passages from the bench suggesting that Mr. Yousef's acts violated the teachings of Islam. ''Your God is not Allah,'' Judge Duffy said. ''You worship death and destruction.''

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/104415/fbi-cites-pnp-for-key-role-in-disrupting-terror-networks-after-confirming-marwan-dna-match