Over 50 killed in southern Philippines fighting

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Over 50 killed in southern Philippines fighting
Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:08AM EDT

By Manny Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine troops shelled Muslim rebel
positions and raked them with helicopter fire overnight on
the southern island of Jolo after a day of intense fighting
in which at least 58 people, including 26 troops, were killed.

The fighting which broke out on Thursday morning is the
heaviest in the volatile Philippine south for almost three
years, but the military said it suspended operations at
daybreak on Friday following a request from the provincial
governor.

"We got a call from Governor Abdusakur Tan to suspend
operations because of a Muslim holiday," said Major-
General Ruben Rafael, the local military commander. "We
have agreed."

The military said the rebels were from the Abu Sayyaf,
which is linked to al Qaeda, but the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim rebel group which
signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, said
its cadres were involved.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP20752520070810

[Judi Lynn]

1. How time flies! It seems only a couple of years since they used to claim the rebels there

were "communists."

Some of American PsyOps officer, Major General Edward Lansdale's finest career achievements were revealed to the world when he was working in the Phillipines:

Edward Lansdale had just installed Ramon Magsaysay as Philippine defense minister and planned to run him for president, but first he had to deal with the peasants. "In an area thought to be harboring a team of Huk guerrillas, Lansdale's ambushers snatched a peasant one night, punctured his neck with two holes, vampire-fashion, hung the body by the ankles to drain it of blood, then put the corpse back on the trail. When the peasants found the toothmarked bloodless corpse, the entire Huk unit moved away. The novelty of these games amused Lansdale, who slyly passed them on as combat anecdotes, enchanting his CIA superiors.... Lansdale's experiments were given top priority." (page 145)
(snip)

http://www.namebase.org/books85.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But the war against the Huks had some new wrinkles, particularly the modern concept of psychological warfare or psy-war. Under the pioneering strategies of the CIA's Maj. Gen. Edward G. Lansdale, psy-war was a new spin to the old game of breaking the will of a target population. The idea was to analyze the psychological weaknesses of a people and develop "themes" that could induce actions favorable to those carrying out the operation.

While psy-war included propaganda and disinformation, it also relied on terror tactics of a demonstrative nature. An Army psy-war pamphlet, drawing on Lansdale's experience in the Philippines, advocated "exemplary criminal violence -- the murder and mutilation of captives and the display of their bodies," according to Michael McClintock's Instruments of Statecraft.

In his memoirs, Lansdale boasted of one legendary psy-war trick used against the Huks who were considered superstitious and fearful of a vampire-like creature called an asuang.

"The psy-war squad set up an ambush along a trail used by the Huks," Lansdale wrote. "When a Huk patrol came along the trail, the ambushers silently snatched the last man on the patrol, their move unseen in the dark night. They punctured his neck with two holes, vampire-fashion, held the body up by the heels, drained it of blood, and put the corpse back on the trail. When the Huks returned to look for the missing man and found their bloodless comrade, every member of the patrol believed the asuang had got him." {See Lansdale's In the Midst of Wars.}

The Huk rebellion also saw the refinement of free-fire zones, a technique used effectively by Bell's forces a half-century earlier. In the 1950s, special squadrons were assigned to do the dirty work.

"The special tactic of these squadrons was to cordon off areas; anyone they caught inside the cordon was considered an enemy," explained one pro-U.S. Filipino colonel. "Almost daily you could find bodies floating in the river, many of them victims of Valeriano's Nenita Unit. {See Benedict J. Kerkvliet, The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines.}
(snip/...)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost22.html





Left to right Allen Dulles, Gen. Ed Lansdale, Gen. Charles P. Cabell, Mr. Nathan Twining.
(Dulles former CIA head)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the person with too much time on his hands, he can entertain himself for ages looking up the various "hijinks" by this mature man, often involving murder, perpetrated upon the helpless peasants of poor countries all over the world.

[David__77]

3. The largest Filipino insurgency is communist-led.

The New People's Army has been fighting since 1969, and, I believe, played a key role in setting the stage for the end of Marcos' reign in the 80's. There have been peace talks before, but always collapse because the state and the oligarchy will not restrain their murder of progressive activists. The NPA supports autonomy for the Muslim southern areas and the Muslim and communist guerrillas do not collaborate, but they also are not antagonistic toward each other.

[rodeodance]

2. "linked to al-quida". I do not know waht to believe.