 MANILA - Authorities arrested a former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) member in the southern Philippines, a report said Saturday, amid suspicions he was involved with local Islamic militants. Immigration, police and military personnel arrested Yussof Umar Animour, 41, also known as Yusop Omar, in the town of Sibalu in the southernmost islands of Tawi-Tawi on November 1 for illegally staying in the country, an Immigration Bureau report said.
However sources in the intelligence community believe he has ties with local Muslim militants who have battled the government. Intelligence reports say that in 2000 he was spotted in a Philippine camp with insurgents of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) while the military was launching an assault against the group. It was unclear what he was doing in the Philippines at the time of his arrest.
| Hmmm, let's see, a Palestinian, on the run, five thousand miles from home, in a land with an active Muslim insurrection, running with a crazed bunch of jihadis ... nope, sure can't figure that one out ... |
Omar was as a communications specialist with the PLO in Lebanon from 1982 to 1984, then went to Manila to study in 1986. However schools rejected his application because he did not have a student visa, the bureau report said.
He then stayed with Muslim friends in Manila until he left for Sabah, Malaysia in 1989, only to be jailed there for three years for posing as a Pakistani, the report added.
| Figured that out when he demonstrated he could read and write ... |
Omar later slipped back into the Philippines and married a Tawi-Tawi woman.
| Umar-umar and tawi-tawi did the old boinko-boinko ... |
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