Welcome to BASE21

By Cassandra Beardsley
SEA Correspondent

During April, it was revealed that United States Special Forces, employed to hunt down Osama bin Laden, had narrowly missed capturing their target yet again.

However, Afghanistan and its surrounding regions isnt the only place where the US led war on terror is focusing. It seems that South East Asia is now under the microscope and 160 US Special Forces are taking part in joint military exercises with Philippine soldiers against the al Qaeda-linked kidnap group, the Abu Sayyaf.

Malaysia and Indonesia have also been identified by senior intelligence officials from the region as having terrorist cells sponsored by al Qaeda. The intelligence officials say that rebel movements within the three countries can no longer be considered as local conflicts because al Qaeda operatives have infiltrated these regional movements. They also say that al Qaeda infiltration began in 1995, led by Abdul Hakim Murad and Ramzi Yousef, both now in US prisons Yousef for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, and a man known as Hambali, who got funding from Osama bin Laden to create the network.

Earlier this year, Philippine authorities released documents they had seized from one terrorist cell and passed on to the FBI, which revealed a clear plan to recruit Islamic extremists, train them as pilots in the US and then have them, board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. Then he will hijack the said aircraft, control its cockpit and drive it at CIA headquarters. Other buildings to be targeted included the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The documents werent dated 2001, or even 2000. They were dated 1995, and according to Philippine police investigators, if the FBI had treated them seriously, September 11 may have been avoidable. They also believe that Hambali helped plan the September 11 attacks, perhaps using the 1995 plan as a blueprint.

The current US presence in the Philippines doesn't seem to have deterred terrorists in the region however. On April 15, the city of General Santos was rocked by three bombings, which saw 15 people killed and 71 injured. Five suspects are now in police custody, two of which claim they have received training at Islamic terrorist camps overseas. But Filipinos from the island of Basilan, where the US Special Forces are based, are saying that they want the US forces to stay beyond the original 6-month time limit, saying they have helped calm down what was once an uncontrollable area.

Apart from the Philippines, which is a mostly Christian nation, the US may be fighting an unwinnable war against terrorism in South East Asia.

This is because Malaysia and Indonesia, which are predominately Islamic, haven't given their support to the US led war on terrorism and have struggled to even define what an act of terrorism is.
At the recent Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called by Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohomad in response to the September 11 attacks, and held in Malaysia, a declaration was made, which expressed opposition to, any unilateral action against any Islamic country under the pretext of combating international terrorism. This was of show of solidarity with Iraq, which the US has identified as a major terrorist threat.

Referring to the OIC declaration, the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said, The Kuala Lumpur Declaration that we have just adopted demonstrates our collective resolve to respond to developments affecting Muslims and the Islamic umma and nations in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. We have demonstrated clearly that all acts of terrorism are against the divine teachings of Islam.

However, there was no clarity in the declaration as to whether acts, such as suicide bombings of civilians should be deemed as terrorism; nor was there any singling out of particular Islamic militant groups. Dr. Mahathir did suggest to reporters however, that all deliberate acts on civilians should be classified as acts of terror.

Clearly, what it all boils down to is the division of Islam from the rest of the world. Muslims make up one fifth of the worlds population and to the rest of us it seems that they are the troublemakers. It was Muslims who hijacked the planes on September 11. It was a Muslim responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993. Muslims are claiming that they are the ones responsible for the bombings in General Santos. Muslims are suicide bombing in the Middle East.

Of course, all of these acts are performed by extremists who are a minority and are actually against the divine teaching of Islam , but until every single person on this planet decides to respect the beliefs of everyone else, acts like this will continue. And with both Malaysia and Indonesia being predominantly Islamic and not taking a firm stance against such acts, it seems that they are ideal places for the harboring and training of the terrorists who commit these acts. (Its believed that Hambali met with two of the September 11 hijackers in Malaysia during January 2000 and was last seen in Indonesia.)

Therefore, despite dozens of suspected terrorists having been arrested in South East Asia over the last few months, unless the two governments decide to co-operate with the US in its bid to fight terrorism, as the Philippines has done, they will continue to be a breeding ground for terrorists