From InterAksyon (Mar 8):
'IMPORTING WAR?' US role in disastrous Mamasapano raid under scrutiny
Two US soldiers in civilian clothes assist in the evacuation of a wounded SAF personnel from the PNP provincial office in Shariff Aguak Maguindanao, to the Army's 6th Infantry Division camp in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao. FERDINANDH B. CABRERA/MindaNews
A disastrous raid on alleged Islamic militants has ignited
the worst political crisis yet for Philippine President Benigno Aquino -- and
questions about the extent of any US role in the operation are
deepening his discomfort.
Some Philippine lawmakers are asking whether the US military
played a leading role in the operation in January, which ended with 44 police
commandos dead in a field in the country's Muslim-majority south.
They point to reports that a US drone was overflying the
area at the time, and said to be beaming back real-time images to US commanders
as the fiasco unfolded.
Senate President Franklin Drilon, a powerful member of
Aquino's ruling Liberal Party, is one of at least five senators to have raised
questions about what the United
States knew.
"Did the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) know
beforehand about this operation?" Drilon asked the head of the police
commando unit Getulio Napenas, who lost his job over the affair, in one
hearing.
"Or any US
armed forces personnel, did they know about this operation beforehand?"
Under the terms of an anti-terrorism training deployment,
the US is not permitted to
engage in combat in the Philippines.
A US
government official told AFP that its troops helped evacuate casualties, but
that the operation was "planned and executed by Philippine
authorities," and declined to comment further.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario,
meanwhile, declined to give a direct answer when asked about any US role, speaking only in generalities about
American help to Manila
in suppressing militancy.
"With the United States,
we have very close counter-terrorism cooperation," del Rosario, who has
repeatedly said elsewhere that the operation was led by the Philippines,
told AFP via text message.
The pre-dawn raid by police commandos on a secluded farming
village controlled by Muslim rebels in the south was meant to be a surprise
attack to capture or kill two men on the US government's global list of
"most wanted terrorists."
Even though one of the alleged militants was reported
killed, hundreds of rebels quickly outnumbered the police, trapping a big group
in a cornfield and killing the 44 commandos during a day-long battle.
National security silence
The botched operation has seriously damaged Aquino, and also
forced his national police chief to resign.
But many politicians, traditional media and netizens are
broadening the net to encompass possible US involvement as they probe the
affair.
Both Houses of Congress have launched inquiries into the
raid, and those investigations have unsuccessfully sought to get specifics on US involvement.
In the hearings, broadcast live on television, authorities
have declined to give a full explanation on the extent of any US role, citing
security issues.
In one instance, Napenas began detailing some of the US involvement,
stating that American "counterparts" provided intelligence, training
and maps.
But before he could elaborate, Justice Secretary Leila de
Lima, who was at the hearing, quickly intervened to silence him.
"May I interject? May I just remind the officer that he
is already dwelling on matters of diplomatic relations and military
intelligence," she said.
In another hearing, Napenas confirmed a US helicopter
was brought in to evacuate the casualties, although authorities have refused to
disclose where it came from.
Philippine and US authorities have also said the severed
finger from a corpse believed to be from the killed militant, Malaysian
national Zulkifli bin Hir, was given to the FBI.
The FBI said it did a DNA test on the finger, which showed
it was likely from Zulkifli.
US
military involvement in the Philippines
is not unusual, as the two nations are longtime allies.
Until last month, the United
States had a unit of about 500 to 600 special forces in
the southern Philippines
that trained local troops to fight Islamic militants but was itself not allowed
to be engaged in combat.
Importing war?
Senator Grace Poe, another powerful Aquino ally and tipped
by some to succeed him as president next year, sought answers in one of the
congressional inquiries about the reports that a US drone monitored the battle.
Those reports said the drone fed footage back to a Philippine
command center in which US
authorities helped to direct the police commandos into, and through, the deadly
battle.
"I am concerned because actual participation, if any,
of US forces in the operation of a purely law enforcement operation, like
service of warrants to accused, albeit known terrorists who are themselves
wanted criminals in the US, should not be allowed," Poe told AFP via text
message.
Aquino's critics have called on him to resign, but the
biggest potential consequence could be the damage the affair has done to his
efforts at ending a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the south that
has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
A plan to secure a peace treaty with the nation's biggest
Muslim rebel group before his term ends in mid-2016 is in jeopardy, as some
politicians in Congress use the botched raid to fan opposition to the deal.
Ramon Casiple, an independent political commentator, said
Aquino needed to give a detailed response or risk allowing anti-US sentiment to
build.
"The senators and the public are (also) asking if we
were dictated upon... it's a question of sovereignty," he told AFP.
"Why was a foreign government allowed to bring their
war here?"
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106489/importing-war-us-role-in-disastrous-mamasapano-raid-under-scrutiny
