Al-Ghozi Escape a Mockery of ‘War on Terror’: Expert

Reacting to the mysterious escape from prison of suspected terrorist Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a Boston-based terrorist expert, Dr. Zachary Abuza, told Bulatlat.com that the incident is a mockery of the “war on terror.” “$5 million in counter-terrorism aid (the money pledged by visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the time of the escape) is not going to address underlying incompetence, lack of professionalism and corruption (in the police force),” he said. 

By Carlos H. Conde
Bulatlat.com Mindanao Bureau

DAVAO CITY – The escape from prison on Monday of Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, the Indonesian who became the highest-ranking Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operative in the Philippines, was a “mockery” of the war on terrorism, a terrorism expert said Tuesday.

“It is really sad that this guy who was arrested because of good police work and the cooperation of the Singaporeans should get off like this.  It really makes a mockery of the war on terror,” Dr. Zachary Abuza said in an email interview. Abuza is the author of the soon-to-be-published book, Tentacles of Terror: Al Qaeda’s Southeast Asian Network. He is also a professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Simmons College, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Al-Ghozi (right) in handcuffs

Abuza said he was not surprised by Al-Ghozi’s escape from the heavily guarded and walled Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP), where many a high-profile suspect had escaped. He cited the case of suspected terrorist Wali Khan Amin Shah, who escaped from his Pakistani prison in 1995. 

“It is an embarrassment,” Abuza said, that the escape occurred during the state visit of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a visit that was highlighted by pledges to fight terrorism in the region. But, he added, “$5 million in counter-terrorism aid is not going to address underlying incompetence, lack of professionalism and corruption.”

Al-Ghozi, 32, escaped along with two alleged members of Abu Sayyaf, an extremist group that has abducted and beheaded foreigners. It was not immediately clear how the three managed to get out of the heavily-guarded Camp Crame, the sprawling headquarters of the PNP in Quezon City.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has dismissed the police officers assigned to guard the escapees. The police immediately launched a nationwide manhunt. “If you see them and you have a gun, shoot them,” Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, the country’s police chief, said during a press conference in Manila on Monday.

Bangkok arrest

Al-Ghozi was arrested last year while about to leave for Bangkok, investigators said. His arrest led police to a cache of more than a ton of explosives in General Santos City in southern Philippines that, according to him, were to be used for attacks in Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, he was charged for illegal possession of explosives and was later sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The Singaporean government said Al-Ghozi and other members of the Jemaah Islamiyah were involved in a plot to bomb the American, Australian and Israeli embassies in Singapore in 2001. Using a video camera, they conducted surveillance operations of the embassies.

In his sworn statement to Philippine prosecutors in September last year, a copy of which was obtained by this reporter, Al-Ghozi was tasked to buy 5 to 7 tons of explosives from the Philippines for use in the Singapore attack. He went to Singapore in November 2001 to take part in the surveillance along with other members of the JI.

“While I was there, we went to the areas where the embassies of the United States and Israel were located. These embassies were our primary targets and one of the reasons why I bought explosives in the Philippines,” Al-Ghozi said in his deposition.

The Singapore plot was thwarted after Al-Ghozi’s companions were arrested.

In his deposition, Al-Ghozi said he was selected for the plot by Riduan Isamudin, also known as Hambali, a close associate of Osama bin Laden. In recent weeks, Indonesian authorities have rounded up several key members of JI but Hambali remains at large and the Bush administration considers him one of the most wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia.

Rizal Day bombings

Prior to the Singapore operation, Al-Ghozi and the others were planning to carry out attacks in the Philippines. On Dec. 31, 2000 (Rizal Day), bombs exploded in different parts of Metro Manila including at a Light Rail Transit station, killing 22 people.

In the same sworn statement, Al-Ghozi said Muklis Yunos, the man who also confessed to the Rizal Day bombings in 2000, complained to him against the administration of then President Joseph Estrada, which bombed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Camp Abubakar. Officials had said that Yunos was the MILF’s top operative in its so-called special operations group that was tasked with carrying out bombings and other terroristic attacks – a charge the Front has repeatedly denied.

Al-Ghozi said that, “as Muslim brother, I relayed the complant to Faiz and Hambali and they agreed to support the group of Muklis. While I was here, I was the one who planned how to exact revenge against the Estrada administration, by bombing Metro Manila like the airport. Faiz and Hambali agreed to help Muklis’s group how to carry out jihad in the Philippines. I took some money from the money Faiz sent to buy explosives that were to be used by Muklis’ group.”

“Faiz” is Faiz Abubakar Bafana, a top-ranking Jemaah Islamiyah operative in Malaysia who recruited Al-Ghozi into the group and who acted as his financier for his Philippine activities. He was among those arrested in connection with the Singapore plot.

After his introduction to Faiz in Malaysia, where Al-Ghozi worked in Faiz’s construction company, Al-Ghozi went back to Indonesia to meet other Jemaah Islamiyah members. He was later sent to the Philippines. “I was asked to go to the Philippines to look for contacts for our movement to establish an Independent Islamic State and our jihad. Another reason for my trip to the Philippines was to buy explosives to be used for our activities. In fact, the money I used to buy the explosives in the Philippines came from Faiz and Hambali,” Al-Ghozi said in his deposition, a copy of which was obtained by this reporter.

Philippine ambassador

Al-Ghozi also admitted to Filipino and Indonesian investigators that he was the one who detonated a bomb that nearly killed the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia in August 2000. The envoy was hospitalized for several weeks.

Al-Ghozi came to the Philippines in the mid-90s. According to Philippine intelligence officials, he stayed for long periods of time in Muslim communities in Cotabato and Manila. He quickly settled in, even mastering the local language. He also allegedly trained in bomb-making at Camp Abubakar, officials said.

In his book, Abuza said the Philippine cell that Al-Ghozi created “was a major logistics cell for the network responsible for acquiring explosives, guns and other equipment.” Al-Ghozi, by his own admission, went about these tasks by using ATM accounts with false names. He used a passport with the name Randy Alih. His postal identification card bore the name Edris Anwar Rodin. He also went by the name Sammy and Mike.

Al-Ghozi was born on Feb. 17, 1971, in Central Java, Indonesia, where he studied in the Islamic school ran by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the Indonesian cleric now standing trial for terrorism in Jakarta. Sometime between 1993 and 1994, he trained with the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where he allegedly hooked up with several MILF members.

The MILF has repeatedly denied that Al-Ghozi had gone to their camps and even trained there. On Monday, the MILF said it would take part in the hunt for Al-Ghozi. Bulatlat.com

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