| A Jordanian suspected of being an al-Qaida operative and of helping channel funds to the group's terror operations in the Philippines has been arrested. Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil — believed to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law — was arrested in the southern city of Zamboanga on Sept. 25 on charges of having an expired visa. He was being interrogated, and Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said he could face criminal charges. She described Abdeljalil as the "point man" of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman married to one of bin Laden's sisters. Philippine officials accuse Khalifa of helping establish al-Qaida's terror cell in the Philippines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, using a charity organization to funnel money to the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group. After Khalifa left the Philippines in 1994, Abdeljalil took over his businesses on the main southern island of Mindanao, Domingo said. She cited a military intelligence report that Abdeljalil was in constant touch with Khalifa, whose whereabouts are unknown. The intelligence report said that before his capture, Abdeljalil represented Khalifa in business transactions and signed documents on his behalf. He was also trying to sell land in Zamboanga owned by Khalifa and his Philippine wife, Alice Yabo, Domingo said. She claimed that Abdeljalil's house in Zamboanga was used as a safe-house and meeting place for al-Qaida members operating in the southern Philippines, and that his Zamboanga-based construction firm was a front for funding the terror group's activities here and abroad. She said the Jordanian, who has two Philippine wives, obtained a temporary resident visa from the immigration bureau in October 1995, but failed to extend it when it expired in October 1998. |