Mamasapano Massacre & ISIS in the Philippines

[rlogan 2,036]

My last post on various guerilla wars, terrorism, gangsterism & etc. in the Philippines was censored by the moderators who think "happy" posts instead of facts and official US State Department warnings about the safety of US Citizens traveling in the Philippines is what we're about on VisaJourney. Formally a war in a matter of short order by virtue of Obama's war on ISIS, about to get the rubber stamp from congress.

I've tried to post information on the Maguindanao Massacre for example with not one person convicted yet, over 50 civilians massacred for the crime against running against the Ampatuan dynasty. Is it five witnesses now that have been assassinated? In our city of Iligan, the mayor is currently in jail and under indictment for attempted murder of a political rival. The most popular radio show host in the region, exposing city corruption on his show, was threatened on air and then assassinated in 2013. Our grocery store was bombed, the closest bridge to us was bombed, American Steve Kindy was assassinated in a jeepney in Iligan in broad daylight in front of an entire crowded street of people... Steve was running an orphanage for victims of the war on Mindanao that has killed around 130,000 people now. It is unsoilved and never will be solved, like the majority of cases.

So now comes the Mamasapano Massacre. It's in Maguindanao, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). At least two high-value international terrorists were being hunted, one with a

$5 million US FBI reward calling himself "Marwan". It was a joint US government operation, with reports of combat personnel, a helicopter, and a drone along with Philippine National Police,the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). There is a congressional investigation underway, plenty of news articles, conflicting with each other and none adding up.

This operation was apparently planned and led by someone suspended from office, who met with the President and field personnel, as we are finding in this investigation. The president was much more involved than he initially claimed, and of course he was because of the joint US Forces/Philippines nature on a high value international terrorist operation. Zulkifli Abdhir is the real name of the main target, a Malaysian who has trained at least hundreds of IED bomb makers in the Philippines alone.

He had two wives, children, and ran around this area for years, they say leading the Kumpulan Mujahedin Malaysia, Jemaah Islamiyah. The BIFF has been protecting him There seem to be two MILF guys getting this $5 million, and the FBI claims to have confirmed DNA of Marwi, obtained in this way (?):

Marwi is surrounded in his hut. He resists, the firefight starts. 44 PNP are killed, two survivors being held now in secret. 18 MILF Killed and some BIFF too. The casualty count is currently around 250 - so that means hundreds of combatants. The fact 44 out of 46 PNP were killed - this qualifies as a massacre on sheer numbers alone but facebook pictures are circulating showing executions and mutilations of PNP personnel. It looks like the operation was overwhelmed, they texted for help, the US threw in a helicopter, drone, and what we now euphemistically call "advisors", and a couple of survivors were rescued, the rest massacred. The survivors claim to have killed Marwi, cut his finger off, and escaped in this US-powered rescue operation.

This is the biggest firefight since Zamboanga was destroyed in 2013. The big picture is that the war started in the 1960's because the Philippine national government pushed Muslims off their land in order to immigrate a huge wave of rebels from Luzon and elsewhere, "Christian" settlers of former NPA guerillas mixed with other settlers who formed up the "Rats" militia to do the dirty work. The Moro National Liberation Front, MNLF, was the first coordinated homeland defense organization for the Muslims. They made a settlement with the government that created the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. The biggest splinter group to continue fighting was the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, MILF. So the government negotiated with the MILF and reached a settlement with them that the MNLF now objects to. So the MNLF went back to fighting the government and Zamboanga was the biggest disaster so far.

In this spot where the massacre just happened, the MILF and BIFF are allies. Allies with ISIS, in addition to each other. Abu Misry Mama is the spokesperson for BIFF and has proudly announced that. Abu-Sayyef has by Youtube announced their alignment with ISIS too. So far, hundreds of Filipinos have left to train with ISIS. Most are from this region. The Mayor of Davao says 100 left in July 2014.

Some group called the Ghuraba has already proclaimed Khilafah Islamiyah has been established (Islamic Caliphate). It is this region, the south, that is a boiling cauldron of alphabet-soup ISIS-aligned or gangster-run strongholds they just waded into with this capture debacle. It is the region we think is being pacified with a pending congressional law codifying the most recent agreement, now on hold since they are killing and wounding each other by the hundreds.

Dole Philippines is an American company that owns an enormous amount of this highly productive agricultural land, the Davao-Cotobato region, and that alone is going to incite in a region first based on Islamic law, were never conquered by the Spanish, remained unconquered by the Americans, and are still unconquered to this day. 44 out of 46 killed, boy that is an annihilation of Philippine National Police, their elite forces. Wow.

As I understand it, this operation was called off a number of times, the President was deeply involved with this one, they sent in their elite forces, commanded by someone suspended from office, lol, and they got creamed. A lot more of them died. Almost wiped out in toto, and survivors rescued by American forces. Civilian deaths, of course too, including children. A catastrophe. At least one high value target escaped. Wonder what he'll be up to in the near future.

The US President is more widely expanding the war on ISIS and congress is going to give it to him. There are no boundaries in this war and we have a whole region of the Philippines that has announced its alliance with ISIS. All of this tells us that the exercise of serious caution is required for us in the Philippines. I have a house in this region, just outside the ARMM, and when we are there we have a security policy. I am not going to detail it because that is part of our security policy. We take it very seriously and more so as we look into the future.

Edited February 11, 2015 by rlogan

[Blueblood 5]

Logan, my God. Why hasn't this been reported AT ALL by the Western media? I listened to NPR and watched a bit of CNN at the gym today; nothing about this at all. 44 our 46 PNP killed? That's awful. Just horrendous.

My fiancé happens to be from Mindanao was considering a trip home (she lives in metro-Manila) before coming to the States.

This is just so horrible for the PNP and their families, but how could it happen? Wouldn't they have had superior firepower, support, and technology than the MILF fighters?

I am very sad to learn this. This is a sad day for all of us who love the Philippines.

[VOL 425]

I am surprised this has not made any news in the USA as well. Tragedy

I maintain a house in Davao City and this is the safest city I have ever encountered in Philippines, but there are many places in Mindanao that I will not travel.

All these ABU Sayaff/MILF/BIFF make this part of Philippines a hotbed violience

[Blueblood 5]

Guys, of course I'm being serious here: What the hell happened out their? Usually, when an organized, well-armed military or police unit attacks a group of terrorists/bandits/outlaws, while it may be bloody on both sides, ends up with far fewer casualties for the gov't side. But in this case, the PHP was massacred.

What the hell happened out there?

And again today, ZERO news about this in west, but ISIS remains front and center, of course.

[biaobiao 40]

up until now... they cant get their stories straight.

sucks that these 44 men died because of unorganized operation.

the senator who questioned the officers were right. how these officials be so stupid that they have their operation about 4:30am when these MILF/BIFF would wake up around that time to prepare for their morning prayer (and yes... these people still prays 5 times a day as per Islamic practices)

and now these rebels are threatening that if the BBL Bansangmoro Basic LAw ( agreement between the BIFF and the government) will not pass through.. then it might end up again in war....

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

There are many problems with this and they are:

1. They sent an URBAN SWAT style team in a JUNGLE environment. These are two totally different environments and they probably were not trained to go in the Jungle.

2. The ARMY was repeatedly asked for assistance all day, and they just sat there literally a few miles away and did nothing, they could hear the shooting for christ sakes. There were other SAF men ready to help but no order was given to them to help out.

3. What is not being reported that much is that the SAF were surrounded on 3 sides with a river to their back. They fought literally almost all day until they ran out of ammunition.

4. They were in a known MILF stronghold and were ambushed by over 2-300 armed men.

My wife is from Mindanao as well and I love it there. But I also know that there are areas in western and southern mindanao that I can't/won't go in for my family's sake. So I will just stick to the Davao Region where there are only NPA.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/82827-timeline-mamasapano-clash

Logan, my God. Why hasn't this been reported AT ALL by the Western media? I listened to NPR and watched a bit of CNN at the gym today; nothing about this at all. 44 our 46 PNP killed? That's awful. Just horrendous.

My fiancé happens to be from Mindanao was considering a trip home (she lives in metro-Manila) before coming to the States.

This is just so horrible for the PNP and their families, but how could it happen? Wouldn't they have had superior firepower, support, and technology than the MILF fighters?

I am very sad to learn this. This is a sad day for all of us who love the Philippines.

Where is your fiance from if you don't mind me asking? I can tell you if it is safe or not.

Edited February 12, 2015 by cyberfx1024

[VOL 425]

I have seen some pretty gruesome videos on the Youtube, and they tend to be removed just as fast as they are added.

I am curious why this hasn't made headlines in USA.

[biaobiao 40]

US troops has been questioned too why their planes are there.

the news is more on the middle east. I think that is more news worthy. These was a mission gone bad due to lack of trust and coordination.

I have seen some pretty gruesome videos on the Youtube, and they tend to be removed just as fast as they are added.

I am curious why this hasn't made headlines in USA.

Here in my place, they were selling copies on DvDs and they were arrested. It was for about 75cents hehehe

[ForgottenNotes 12]

I have seen some pretty gruesome videos on the Youtube, and they tend to be removed just as fast as they are added.

I am curious why this hasn't made headlines in USA.

Same here, it's crazy this has not made USA News on any level as I've seen lately...

[Blueblood 5]

Especially with my fiancé being a Filipina, this is starting to get on my nerves with our (completely lousy) main stream media here in the US. What ISIS has done is horrible, awful, and of course unlawful. But what happened in Mindanao was no better, and sadly the body count was extremely high.

Yet MSNBC, FOX, CNN, and the others...crickets.

I just don't get it? My best guess, and it's just a guess, is the MSM types don't find it "interesting" enough bc they just see as Asians killing Asians? Whereas ISIS is Middle Eastern and they've been murdering whites and Asians?

The MSN is pathetic and their indifference to what happened in Mindanao is appalling.

[VOL 425]

A little reference to it here on the Wall Street Journal - A semi trusted new source in USA

http://www.wsj.com/articles/philippine-military-behind-president-after-coup-plot-is-revealed-1423804780

Edited February 14, 2015 by VOL