Key role of US in Exodus bared

From the Daily Tribune (Sep 14): Key role of US in Exodus bared

BUNGLED OPERATION WITH MAJOR FALLOUT — EX-U.S. MILITARY BRASS

Operation Plan Exodus that hunted international terrorist Marwan, contrary to claims of President Aquino that it was a success and was a purely Filipino operation, was a failure and was heavily participated in by American forces, a Sept. 10 Los Angeles Times (LA Times) report quoting US military officials said.

“It was a bungled operation and it has had major fallout,” the LA Times report quoted David Maxwell, a retired Army colonel who commanded the U.S. special operations force in the Philippines in 2006 and 2007, as saying.

The report made an account of the January 25 incident in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on the perspective of American military officers who were involved in Philippine anti-terror operations.

The disastrous operation was undertaken by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) which lost 44 of its members to Muslim rebels who engaged them in a firefight including elements from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that the government is negotiating peace with. The report confirmed that “five or six U.S. counter-terrorism advisors assisted from a police command post nearby, tracking the assault team in live video from a U.S. surveillance aircraft circling overhead. 

“Their main role was to provide tactical, live intelligence,” the report said quoting a Philippine officer who was present in the operations.

The training of the SAF commandos were supervised by the Americans.

“U.S. military advisors supervised training of the police unit at a seaside resort and in the jungles of Mindanao before the raid. They also provided night-vision goggles, maps and a hand-held retinal scanner to confirm Marwan’s identity,” the report said.

“After a firefight, the American-trained team rushed in and radioed ‘Bingo, Mike One’ to the command post. ‘Operation Exodus’ appeared a success. The wispy-bearded target (Marwan) was dead,” the report said.

“But his death came at a dreadful cost: 44 police commandos and four civilians were killed, along with 17 militants, in a fierce daylong battle after the initial assault,” it said.

The bloodshed triggered bitter recriminations in one of America’s closest allies in Asia, and put sharp new strains on Manila’s security relationship with Washington, the report said.

The report attributed to the botched operations the decision of the US government to withdraw elite forces stationed at the U.S. Special Operations Command in Zamboanga and end its 13-year operations.

The US military mission peaked at 600 personnel and worked with Southeast Asian allies to degrade regional terror networks linked to al Qaeda since 2002 or shortly after the tragic 911 attacks in New York.

“It had been sent to the Philippines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and had become a model for U.S. counter-terrorism teams later deployed around the globe,” according to the report.

The report noted the debacle marked an inglorious end to a little-known 13-year U.S. military advisory operation in the Philippines, an effort credited with improving its army and police and with reducing the number of insurgent groups.

At its height, five years ago, more than 600 U.S. special operations troops deployed to Muslim-dominated Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines, according to Maj. Karolyn McEwen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific.

It added that President Aquino’s government delayed plans to give U.S. troops, warships and aircraft wider access to military bases that the Obama administration sought for its strategic “pivot” to Asia as a result of the incident.

“The planned expansion has been stalled since,” it said.

It added the botched raid also left a landmark 2014 peace deal between the Philippine government and the MILF in tatters, sparking a renewal of violence by insurgent groups.

The report said while the Americans avoided a direct role in the fighting, they instead trained police and army units, advised them on counter-terrorism operations and ferried them around, sometimes in aircraft flown by U.S. contractors.

“Over time, the U.S. focus increasingly turned to trying to capture or kill Marwan, who was believed hiding in western Mindanao. He became “HV1,” the highest value target in the Philippines,” it said.

Helping the local forces to find “the bomb maker proved maddening for the Americans. Security forces had launched nine unsuccessful operations against Marwan since 2006. But he got away each time,” the report said.

“On the night of the assault, some of the police officers fell behind in crossing rivers and trekking down dark jungle trails. Only a third of the assault team had reached Marwan’s hut when the shooting started about 4 a.m.,” the report said.

It added that the commandos “eager to get out . . .skipped the retinal scanner and cut off a finger instead, sticking it in a Ziploc bag.”

“But hundreds of Islamic fighters from other villages soon joined the battle. They pinned down the assault team and 350 other police officers who had deployed in the jungle to guard their escape,” it said.

U.S. advisors, relying on aerial video, helped some commandos “elude large enemy formations, thereby avoiding further casualties,” the report said quoting a police investigation.

After the 14-hour battle, a Black Hawk helicopter flown by Pentagon contractors landed and U.S. Army medics helped treat the wounded and collect the dead, U.S. officials said.

“A few days later, Philippine police turned over the finger to an FBI agent in the city of General Santos on Mindanao. He rushed it off to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.,” it added.

“Two weeks later, the FBI issued its result: ‘After a thorough review of forensic data and information obtained from our Philippine law enforcement partners, the FBI has assessed that terrorism subject Zulkifli Abdhir, also known as Marwan … is deceased’,” the report said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in a report submitted to a Senate panel investigating the incident said that based on their discussions with the United States authorities, they were able to ascertain that the planning and the execution of the Oplan Exodus were 100 percent Filipino planned and implemented.

‘Alternative’ version on Marwan slay

A Senator, meanwhile, branded as a slanderous claim that if proven to be untrue, the damage to reputation of those involved will be irreparable, the supposed new leads that President Aquino claimed the government is pursuing over who gets credit in the killing of Marwan.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto issued this warning yesterday amid the latest twist in the controversial Mamasapano incident where the subject slain international terrorist, Malaysian national Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, was supposedly killed not by the elite police troopers but by his own aides.

The latest theory came following President Aquino’s statements last week saying that he’s pursuing a new lead on the Mamasapano debacle after what he claimed an “alternative version of events” surfaced recently.

The said incident left 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) dead.

“The people may not be forgiving of those who vilify the valor of those who gave up their lives for the country. They were not given posthumous honor, and now they are being made to suffer posthumous insult,” Recto said in a statement.

“If unsupported by facts, the claim is slanderous. It has the effect of devaluing the heroism of the SAF 44. Those who are peddling a revisionist take on what happened in Mamasapano should come up with solid proof,” he said.

Recto demanded a full disclosure of the details surrounding the said incident last Jan. 25, including the declassification of some highly-sensitive information if only for the truth to come out and address the issue on who really took down Marwan.

Video operations, if there’s any, should be made public now especially if there’s a footage showing that indeed it was the SAF membes who killed Marwan, he said.

Also, Recto said all communication logs including audio recording between SAF and forward bases must be revealed as well alongside the terminal ballistics report, to determine the type of weapons used, the report of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on the death of Abdul Basit Usman, the medico-legal and autopsy report on Marwan to determine his cause of case, including the proximity of weapon discharge and point of entry and exit of bullets.

“Was the operation monitored in real-time by a satellite or drone circling above? Also the report on post-incident investigation of the PNP-SOCO, if there’s any, should now be revealed,” he added.

“Because if what they are alleging will be later proven false, the damage to their reputation will be irreparable. The people will find them guilty of this crime : character assassination of the dead. Dead heroes tell no tales but they leave behind traces of the truth,” Recto said.

The Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs is now considering the reopening the probe on the Mamasapano incident in the light of the developments on the case.

“I am interested to hear what this alternative version is all about and allow the men and officers involved to give their own assessments,” Sen. Grace Poe, committee chair said, adding that what everybody wants to know is the truth. 

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/key-role-of-us-in-exodus-bared