Cops Find Plot To Kill Philippine Leader

Government Alleges Islamic Militants Planned To Assassinate Arroyo, "Other People"

(CBS/AP)  The Philippine government has uncovered an alleged plot by al Qaeda-linked militants to assassinate President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, officials said Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, head of the Presidential Security Group, said "other people" and foreign embassies also were targets of planned terror bombings.

Military chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said the plot allegedly was hatched by the extremist Abu Sayyaf group and its Indonesia-based ally, Jemaah Islamiyah.

Arroyo's planned visit to the Philippines' premier military academy this weekend was canceled because of the revelations, Prestoza said.

The reported assassination plot followed an announcement by security forces that they were going on high alert over an alleged communist rebel plan to infiltrate protests to demand Arroyo's resignation over corruption charges.

Prestoza said police uncovered the assassination plot last week.

"It's not only the president who is the target, but also other people ... and embassies," he said without offering specifics.

He said Arroyo's attendance at an alumni homecoming of the Philippine Military Academy on Saturday in northern Baguio city has been canceled and the rest of her schedule was "under assessment."

"I in particular can say if there is a threat to her security and I can say whether she can make a trip or not, and the president knows this," he said. "When I say she cannot (make a trip), she knows and she will follow because she believes what I say."

A police counterterrorism officer said a captured member of the al Qaeda inked Abu Sayyaf told investigators late last year that his comrades, working with Jemaah Islamiyah and Manila-based Filipino Islamic converts, plotted a bomb attack in Baguio against unspecified targets that was believed to be scheduled for December.

Philippine security officials speculated that the targets could include Arroyo, who did not spend Christmas Eve with her family in the cool mountain resort city as she had traditionally done in the past, or U.S. diplomats, who have a consulate there, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The police officer, however, said investigators failed to find other evidence that would back up the Abu Sayyaf member's claim. No bomb attack occurred in Baguio in December.

The Abu Sayyaf and its allies have been blamed for numerous kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, including a blast that triggered a fire that killed 116 people on a ferry in Manila Bay in February 2004.

Arroyo's leadership is threatened not only by Islamic extremists, but from a growing political opposition movement operating within the parameters of the law.

Opposition leaders dismissed the military's announcement of heightened alert as a ploy to discourage crowds from joining a protest rally Friday in Manila's financial district, Makati, to demand the resignation of Arroyo and other officials.

Political tensions have increased since the dramatic emergence last week of a corruption witness, former government consultant Rodolfo Lozada Jr., who linked a former elections chief and Arroyo's husband to an allegedly overpriced $330 million government broadband contract in Senate testimony. Both men have denied the allegations.

Arroyo has since canceled the contract, but has not directly spoken on the alleged involvement of her husband.

At the end of November last year a group of heavily-armed rebels led by former high-ranking military officers and one lawmaker launched a coup attempt in Manila, briefly taking control of a luxury hotel and demanding Arroyo's ouster.

Heavily armed national police officers poured steady automatic gunfire and teargas into the hotel for about 20 minutes to end the siege.

The leader of the dissidents said that he and his troops would surrender. Live television broadcasts showed dramatic images of national police officers, who support the president, streaming into the building as clouds of teargas poured out.

Wow! Another show!!!! A threat from Jemaah Islamiyah, and afraid to go the premier military academy! Which one is the threat, the military or the terrorist? She thinks all Filipinos are stupid! Can she not think of a sensible and (valid) reason to give the populace? I rest my case!

[prinzowhales]

LloydBest8--Lars just misunderstood the article and feels threatened...He thinks they blew up a ''fairy''--not a ''ferry.''

[prinzowhales]

Both of the groups named have been tied for years to Indonesian Military Intelligence, the Manilla Regime and US intel. More horse hockey from the fear-mongers.

[zootallures2]

"Maggie''s Farm"

I ain''t gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more
No, I aint gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin'' me insane
It''s a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain''t gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more.

I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s brother no more
No, I aint gonna work for Maggie''s brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel
He hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin
If you''re havin'' a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s brother more.

I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s pa no more
No, I aint gonna work for Maggie''s pa no more
Well, he puts his cigar
Out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door
Ah, I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s pa no more.

I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s ma no more
No, I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s ma no more
Well, when she talks to all the servants
About man and God and law
Everybody says
She''s the brains behind pa
She''s sixty-eight, but she says she''s twenty-four
I ain''t gonna work for Maggie''s ma no more.

I ain''t gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more
I aint gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain''t gonna work on Maggie''s farm no more.

[runningralph]

terrorislam is merely quoting well known facts.

[lloydbest1]

Posted by brianbwb at 05:07 AM : Feb 14, 2008
Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 05:57 AM : Feb 14, 2008
Posted by nikkicatt1 at 07:28 AM : Feb 14, 2008

Terrorislam8 (or lars008) shows up on a lot of these threads and he really has a fly in his rear end about Muslims. There are some people (fortunately not many) who have what I believe is an inborn or hardwired tendency toward hatred and hostility. It has to have an outlet, and when it is found these folks can NOT leave it alone. Each will ride their personal hobby horse right into the ground.
Terrorislam8''s not the only one. Fred Phelps and his anti-homosexual crusade is another example. The late, unlamented Rev. Paul Hill with his penchant for bombing family planning clinics is yet another. Then there are all those white (and not necessarily southern) knuckleheads who are entirely too attached to their white sheets and burning crosses.
I have personally had to deal with a few like our anti-Muslim warrior and have found that even if the object of their hatred is eliminated or taken away, they''ll simply find another.
By the way, I was silly enough to try checking on the sources t-8 presents on his numerous posts and of those I could actually access, nearly all of them were almost laughably unreliable.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by terrorislam8 at 06:04 AM : Feb 14, 2008

what do you call an ideology that:

kills you if you don''''t join it...

Easy answer...the Neocon regime...they''re already responsible for how many deaths?

[nikkicatt1]

terrorislam8: You have me very confused. You are a Muslim and you are or are not PROUD of the killing, raping and terrorism?
I have many Muslim friends and not one has every done a harmful act. We have found the common ground in our relegions - family values, fair and ethical treatment of others and a belief in heavenly rewards.

[cfin5]

Those guys want to kill EVERY leader that''s not a muslim. So no surprise here. Give them the "Pershing Treatment" if you really want to fix the problem like he did. Don''t cost nothing to test out some like rumors. You politically religious correct weenies want to worry about the rights of those who are sharpening their throat-slittin'' butcher knives longing to dull them up on YOU,.....you''ll never rid us the problem. I say black-out the al-Qaeda "CANNIBALS" from the news media entirely and then get to work. They''ve had plenty of free news coverage waging the PR war. Pick them turkeys off starting at the rear if you know what I mean.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Abu Sayyaf was always more radical than any other organization in the Philippines. They started off by slaughtering, massacring a village, a Christian village, in Mindanao." Posted by terrorislam8

Sounds like something you would have really enjoyed seeing, bet you wish you had seen it first hand...

[brianbwb-2009]

"The police officer, however, said investigators failed to find other evidence that would back up the Abu Sayyaf member''s claim. No bomb attack occurred in Baguio in December."

They could ask lars008, he knows all about it, and just can''t wait to see a new theater of death...

[brianbwb-2009]

"Wonder why Bush/Cheney has sic''''d Al Queda on the Phillipine leader? Don''''t they have enough chaos going on in the Middle East to keep them happy?" Posted by RowdyTexan2

The only thing that our idiot in chief had to do with it was to create the perfect boogie man, now any coup attempts, or other power struggles, popular uprisings, protests against multinationals, anti dictatorial revolutions, struggles to build new nations, etc., all of these can now be called "Al Qaeda", and promptly eliminated, and you will have the war and death worshipers busy advocating the destruction of innocents, as we see here.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by terrorislam8 at 05:52 AM : Feb 14, 2008

And you are a paranoid fruit loop supporter of the Neocons and their jihad against all of Islam, so?

[rowdytexan2]

Wonder why Bush/Cheney has sic''d Al Queda on the Phillipine leader? Don''t they have enough chaos going on in the Middle East to keep them happy?

[brianbwb-2009]

"islam practices slavery on non muslims
islam practices apartheid on non muslims
islam practices rape on non muslims
islam practices rape on babies and animals
islam practices genocide on non muslims" Posted by terrorislam8

As have Christians, Atheists, Americans, Jews, and every other group of like minded peoples.