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| Southeast Asia |
| MILF calls CIA's report ridiculous |
| 2002-09-18 |
| The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has vehemently denied playing host to any member of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group, saying it has "never trained any foreigner inside Camp Abubakar", its largest military facility. "All those admitted here were legitimate members of the MILF and absolutely there were no foreigners in our roster," said Sammy Al-Mansoor, deputy chief of staff of the MILF. "We only accept members of the Ummah... and paying guests..." The MILF was reacting to the report by the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) featured in the Time magazine in its latest edition. According to the report, Omar Al-Faruq, 31, had confessed that he was "al-Qaeda's senior representative" in Southeast Asia and that he was under instruction by senior al-Qaeda operatives to "plan large-scale attacks against US interests in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and other states in the region." In 1995, Faruq, the report added, was able to reach Camp Abubakar where he was trained as a "terrorist". "Terrorists," even without the scare quotes, are trained to "kill people," sometimes by "chopping their heads off." That leaves innocent people "dead." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |