We keep reading about this skunk and his secretive global Fu Manchu style ties to just about every single Islamic extremist action around the world. Below is the latest report, from the always reliable AP news. Do ya all think Bin Laden and his network are genuine threats that need to be deactivated...or might he simply be a thickheaded chap demonized by international press and governments that want to provide us all with the next Evil One to hate?
Jeff
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Philippine Rebels, Bin Laden Linked
By Jim Gomez
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2000; 2:41 p.m. EDT
MANILA, Philippines –– Muslim guerrillas recently received $3 million from suspected international terrorist Osama bin Laden to buy new weapons, a top military official said Tuesday.
Armed forces vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim said bin Laden sent the money through a rebel emissary who received the funds in a Middle Eastern country last month.
Calimlim, who also heads the military's intelligence service, said the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels are planning to purchase arms, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, from North Korea. He said the rebels met a North Korean official in a hotel in Malaysia last month to discuss a possible arms deal, Calimlim said.
The Philippines and North Korea are planning to establish diplomatic relations as early as next month. For many years, Manila refused to forge ties with the North Korean government because of suspicions it had backed Filipino Marxist guerrillas.
"While undertaking emergency procurement, they don't want to talk peace and they are waiting for an opportunity to strike again," Calimlim said in a radio interview.
The group's spokesman Eid Kabalu denied Calimlim's allegation.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the larger of two rebel groups battling the government for an independent Islamic state in the impoverished southern Philippine region.
On Monday, the rebels indefinitely postponed peace talks scheduled to resume June 28 because of a continuing military offensive against their forces.
President Joseph Estrada gave the guerrillas and government negotiators until June 30 to reach a peace deal.
Calimlim did not say where he'd learned of the alleged arms purchase, but said the military was working with international law enforcement agencies to monitor foreign financiers of the guerrillas.
Bin Laden, a Saudi-born millionaire who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, is wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 244 people.
Kabalu said the Manila government is trying to link the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to terrorists to blacken their image.
Bin Laden funded the construction of mosques and Muslim religious schools in the southern Philippines in the 1980s but has never given any money to his group, Kabalu said.
Government negotiators have proposed a political settlement that would expand an existing Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, homeland of the country's Muslim minority.
The military has seized more than 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front camps since launching an offensive two months ago that has triggered the worst fighting in the southern Philippines in more than 25 years.
Jeff
========================================
Philippine Rebels, Bin Laden Linked
By Jim Gomez
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2000; 2:41 p.m. EDT
MANILA, Philippines –– Muslim guerrillas recently received $3 million from suspected international terrorist Osama bin Laden to buy new weapons, a top military official said Tuesday.
Armed forces vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim said bin Laden sent the money through a rebel emissary who received the funds in a Middle Eastern country last month.
Calimlim, who also heads the military's intelligence service, said the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels are planning to purchase arms, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, from North Korea. He said the rebels met a North Korean official in a hotel in Malaysia last month to discuss a possible arms deal, Calimlim said.
The Philippines and North Korea are planning to establish diplomatic relations as early as next month. For many years, Manila refused to forge ties with the North Korean government because of suspicions it had backed Filipino Marxist guerrillas.
"While undertaking emergency procurement, they don't want to talk peace and they are waiting for an opportunity to strike again," Calimlim said in a radio interview.
The group's spokesman Eid Kabalu denied Calimlim's allegation.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the larger of two rebel groups battling the government for an independent Islamic state in the impoverished southern Philippine region.
On Monday, the rebels indefinitely postponed peace talks scheduled to resume June 28 because of a continuing military offensive against their forces.
President Joseph Estrada gave the guerrillas and government negotiators until June 30 to reach a peace deal.
Calimlim did not say where he'd learned of the alleged arms purchase, but said the military was working with international law enforcement agencies to monitor foreign financiers of the guerrillas.
Bin Laden, a Saudi-born millionaire who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, is wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 244 people.
Kabalu said the Manila government is trying to link the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to terrorists to blacken their image.
Bin Laden funded the construction of mosques and Muslim religious schools in the southern Philippines in the 1980s but has never given any money to his group, Kabalu said.
Government negotiators have proposed a political settlement that would expand an existing Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, homeland of the country's Muslim minority.
The military has seized more than 20 Moro Islamic Liberation Front camps since launching an offensive two months ago that has triggered the worst fighting in the southern Philippines in more than 25 years.
unishment of dissenters or converts by imprisonment and death.