NYTimes.com Article: U.S. Combat Force of 1,700 Is Headed to the Philipp

This article from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by threehegemons@aol.com.


Just when you weren't thinking about the Phillipines...

Steven Sherman

threehegemons@aol.com


U.S. Combat Force of 1,700 Is Headed to the Philippines

February 21, 2003
By ERIC SCHMITT 




 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 - The United States will send more than
1,700 troops to the Philippines in the next few weeks to
fight Muslim extremists in the southern part of the
country, opening a new front in the campaign against
terrorism, Pentagon officials said today. 

The first troops are to be deployed within days. Unlike a
six-month mission last year that involved 1,300 American
troops, it will not limit United States forces to an
advisory role allowing them to fire only in self-defense,
military officials said. 

The operation will last as long as necessary "to disrupt
and destroy" the estimated 250 members of the extremist
group Abu Sayyaf, one official said. It steps up the battle
against terrorism as the United States prepares for
possible war with Iraq and continues to hunt Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan. 

Under the new plan, about 750 ground troops, including 350
in the Special Operations forces, will conduct or support
combat patrols in the jungles of Sulu Province. About 1,000
marines, armed with Cobra attack helicopters and Harrier
AV-8B attack planes, will stand ready aboard two ships
offshore to act as a quick-response force, and provide
logistics and medical support. 

Negotiations between the two countries have been under way
for months, officials said, but Abu Sayyaf's repeated
attacks and the bombing death of an American Green Beret
last November spurred the Philippine president, Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, and the American defense secretary,
Donald H. Rumsfeld, to agree on this plan. 

President Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said on Monday
that American troops would be sent to Sulu Province, but he
described the mission as an "exercise" that would "more or
less" resemble the mission last year on Basilan Island. 

A Pentagon official said tonight that one reason for
telling reporters today about the new mission in the
Philippines was that Mr. Bunye had mischaracterized the
scope of an operation that had already been agreed upon in
private. President Bush signed off on the operation after
being briefed by Mr. Rumsfeld last week, officials said. 

Dispatching American commandos to the jungles of the
southern Philippines gives Pentagon officials a chance to
show that they can, as they have asserted, fight a war with
Iraq and still hunt down terrorists elsewhere. 

Welcoming help from the Philippines' former colonial ruler,
the United States, has proven a delicate issue for
President Arroyo. But she has now said she will not seek
re-election, and some diplomats said that could make it
easier for her to weather any political fallout. 

The Philippine Constitution prohibits foreign troops from
carrying out unilateral combat missions, but the American
forces will technically play a supporting role in the
Philippine-led operation, a distinction that may allow Mrs.
Arroyo and her supporters to skirt the legal issue. "It's
something they will have to finesse," one senior American
official said. 

American officials suggested that the American track record
in the Philippines in recent months might help overcome
Philippine skepticism. By leaving on schedule and honoring
the restrictions on accompanying combat patrols, the United
States assuaged many fears that the training mission last
year on Basilan would turn into a permanent American
encampment. Since then, smaller numbers of advisers have
been in the Philippines on training missions. 

The new combat operation reflects the Pentagon's growing
concern that militant Islamic networks pose an increasing
threat to Americans in Southeast Asia. 

It also indicates that the mission with Philippine forces
last year on Basilan failed to quell the Muslim guerrilla
movement. Only one major Abu Sayyaf leader was killed
during that operation, and the group's other leaders have
since reorganized in Sulu Province, principally on Jolo
Island. 

While the American-led mission effectively drove Abu Sayyaf
from Basilan and parts of southern Mindanao, the
American-trained Philippine forces have not sustained the
momentum. Abu Sayyaf has been tied to a string of recent
bombings and attacks in the southern Philippines, including
an explosion outside a karaoke bar last November that
killed Sgt. First Class Mark Wayne Jackson and two
Filipinos and injured many more, Pentagon officials said. 

"The Philippines have a terrorist problem and we have
offered our assistance," a senior Pentagon official said
today. 

In a sign of the importance the Pentagon is placing on the
mission, the American forces will be led by Maj. Gen.
Joseph F. Weber, the commander of the Third Marine
Division, based at Okinawa. 

The Bush administration has declared Abu Sayyaf a terrorist
organization. A decade ago, when the group was founded with
a goal to create an Islamic state, Osama bin Laden sent a
brother-in-law to coordinate with the group. He provided
money and sought to arrange a merger between Abu Sayyaf and
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a much larger group in
the Philippines. 

American and Philippine intelligence officials have said
the relationship never developed, and Abu Sayyaf
degenerated into thugs who kidnapped for ransoms. The group
kidnapped several Americans, including Martin and Gracia
Burnham, missionaries from Kansas. Mr. Burnham was killed
in a botched rescue by Philippine soldiers on June 7, as
was a Filipino nurse, Ediborah Yap; Mrs. Burnham was
wounded, and has since returned to the United States. 

Some American officials believe that in recent months, Abu
Sayyaf has established connections with Jemaah Islamiyah, a
radical network that seeks an Islamic state across
Southeast Asia. 

A military assessment team is expected to arrive in the
Philippines in the next few days, and a full force could be
conducting combat operations against the Abu Sayyaf group
within a month, a Pentagon official said. 

As they have for months, the United States Navy will
continue to fly regular P-3 reconnaissance missions over
the Sulu Archipelago to provide badly needed intelligence
to Philippine Army forces and American Special Operations
forces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/international/asia/21FILI.html?ex=1046801788&ei=1&en=1165cc695e1a28c1



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters 
or other creative advertising opportunities with The 
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media 
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to 
help@nytimes.com.  

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company