THE PHILIPPINES will pass on to Germany, France and Finland information obtained from a captured Abu Sayyaf leader that could lead to the dismantling of terrorist cells, the military said Monday.
| Finland? You mean like on the other side of the world? With reindeer and Lapplanders? The country that probably has absolute least in common with the Philippines? |
Military chief General Narciso Abaya assured diplomats from the three countries Monday that Manila was willing to share with them information obtained from the militant, Galib Andang, a military spokesman said.
The three governments consider this month’s arrest of Andang, alias Commander Robot, "a serious blow to the Abu Sayyaf and more widely to terrorism," Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said. Andang led a faction of the al-Qaeda-linked group that kidnapped 21 Finnish, French, German, Lebanese, South African, Malaysian and Filipino tourists and resort workers from the Sipadan diving spot off Borneo Island in April 2000. All hostages were released in batches after several months, allegedly after payment of ransom reaching up to 25 million dollars and provided by Libya. Abaya promised the diplomats access to any valuable intelligence data Andang might divulge, including the scope of the Muslim group’s operations in the south, Lucero said. "They asked whether the (military) will allow their respective investigators to have access to Robot and the chief of staff gladly told them that the (military) is willing to share with them" any information, he said.
| "We're still wringing stuff out of him. Any time we want more, we just have Big Narciso, here, whack him on the stump a time or two." |
Troops captured Andang on December 7, effectively neutralizing Abu Sayyaf which has carried out numerous kidnappings and deadly bombings against Christian and foreign targets in this overwhelmingly Catholic country in the past decade. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said last week Manila would allow German prosecutors to interrogate Andang, after a court in Goettingen said it wanted him extradited to face trial there for the abduction of a German family of three who were among the Sipadan hostages.
| "Oh, and we'd like to borrow the stump thumper, too." |
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