This May 2, 2000, BBC article on the "militant Islamic group" Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, originally bore the title "Swordsmen of God at war," as evidenced by the first web crawl at archive.org captured on May 11, at 18:18:20. Interesting, within five months, editors had changed this dynamic lead-in to the banal interrogative, "Who are the Abu Sayyaf hostage-takers?" as captured by another web crawl on Oct. 7.
The article itself doesn't beat around the bush---my pun intended. Referencing unnamed "analysts," a claim is made that this group of criminal bandits and rebel outlaws were, by its actions, "trying to spark a religious war."
However, in psychology terms, such a bold idea could very well be described as a projection of the selfsame analysts, along with the BBC headline writer who rethought the impact her agenda-driven words were having on the public, making them sound less like a concept being launched, then the skeptical tone of a professional who gathered facts, and not conclusions.
An analysis of the BBC's reporting on the phenomena of the emergence of Abu Sayyaf banditry reveals who the true ideologues were, separating out the purposefulness of those with power to form public perceptions, from authentic reporting on a supposedly political group's inane goals and self-defeating methods, which the most frequent reportorial adjective employed called "confusing."
Not much energy was put into creating a backstory for the hollow puppets of Abu Sayyaf, whose purported hostage-taking and violent posturing could only have manifested itself under the umbrella of official sanction. So the real battle was between the propagandists with an immunity to cast myths about, and journalists whose credibility demanded that a certain logic adhere to reality and that it get into print..
The total control of media monopolies allowed for a truly delusional story to be told about the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11th, 2001, which were undertaken, in the Bush administration's memorable phrase, by people who "created their own reality." As a construct, the allied outrages of the Abu, which served a precursor role as opening act to warm up an international audience for Muslim vilification, didn't enjoy the same level of storytelling hegemony found on the ground in America, not least because of the presence of a nearby Islamist press with dogs in the fight.
Compared to the dry sterility of the media record of 9/11, its Philippine counterpart reads like a passion play
[First web capture May 11, 2000] Tuesday, 2 May, 2000, 10:49 GMT 11:49 UK Swordsmen of God at war The militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf is one of several guerrilla organisations involved in a recent resurgence of violence in the Philippines. The group is operating in the south of the country, where other militants have been warring for almost 30 years for an Islamic state, independent of the mainly Christian Philippines. Abu Sayyaf - or "Father of the swordsman" in Arabic - was named after a mujahedin fighter in Afghanistan in the 1980s, where a number of its members fought against the Soviet-backed regime. Previously a faction within the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), it split off in 1991 to pursue a more fundamentalist battle against the Philippine authorities. Religious war Hostage-taking is the latest in a series of actions which began in the early 1990s with a spate of bombings, assassinations and kidnappings of priests and businessmen.
In December 1994, the group bombed a Philippines Airlines plane on a flight from Manila to Tokyo, killing one passenger. But most of its activities have centred on southern Mindanao. An attack on the town of Ipil in 1995 left 50 people dead, and a grenade attack on a department store in Zamboanga in 1998 injured 60. Analysts say such attacks show the group - which is believed to have a core membership of around 200 - is trying to spark a religious war. The Philippines Government says Abu Sayyaf has been trying to evict Christians from its Basilan Island base.
As well as suspecting links with the mastermind behind the US World Trade Centre bombing, Ramzi Youssef, Manila believes it is connected to the man who tops America's most-wanted list, Osama Bin Laden. Analysts say that Abu Sayyaf has received arms and munitions from Afghanistan. Leaders
The founder of Abu Sayyaf - Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani - was an Islamic scholar. He was killed in a clash with the Philippine Army in December 1998. The group responsible for the latest hostage-taking appears to be led by Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot. He has been allegedly involved in earlier kidnappings. Moderates The Moros, who converted to Islam in the 14th century, have long resisted the Philippines' Catholic rulers, dating back to the Spanish colonial period.
The current violence dates back to 1972, when then President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law. Abu Sayyaf is the most militant of the anti-Manila groups and wants an independent Islamic state in Mindanao - an impoverished region with an annual income a mere fifth of the national Philippines average. Moderates are calling simply for the implementation of a planned 13-province autonomous region in the southern Philippines. The MNLF - from which Abu Sayyaf split - announced a ceasefire in 1996, and is pursuing talks with government officials. A third group - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which numbers around 15,000 fighters - had also been on ceasefire, but has now halted all dialogue with the government after military assaults on its camps. | [Renamed version first captured Oct. 7, 2000] Tuesday, 2 May, 2000, 10:49 GMT 11:49 UK Who are the Abu Sayyaf hostage-takers?  The militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf is one of several guerrilla organisations involved in a recent resurgence of violence in the Philippines. The group is operating in the south of the country, where other militants have been warring for almost 30 years for an Islamic state, independent of the mainly Christian Philippines. Abu Sayyaf - or "Father of the swordsman" in Arabic - was named after a mujahedin fighter in Afghanistan in the 1980s, where a number of its members fought against the Soviet-backed regime. Previously a faction within the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), it split off in 1991 to pursue a more fundamentalist battle against the Philippine authorities. Religious war Hostage-taking is the latest in a series of actions which began in the early 1990s with a spate of bombings, assassinations and kidnappings of priests and businessmen.
In December 1994, the group bombed a Philippines Airlines plane on a flight from Manila to Tokyo, killing one passenger. But most of its activities have centred on southern Mindanao. An attack on the town of Ipil in 1995 left 50 people dead, and a grenade attack on a department store in Zamboanga in 1998 injured 60. Analysts say such attacks show the group - which is believed to have a core membership of around 200 - is trying to spark a religious war. The Philippines Government says Abu Sayyaf has been trying to evict Christians from its Basilan Island base.
As well as suspecting links with the mastermind behind the US World Trade Centre bombing, Ramzi Youssef, Manila believes it is connected to the man who tops America's most-wanted list, Osama Bin Laden. Analysts say that Abu Sayyaf has received arms and munitions from Afghanistan. Leaders
The founder of Abu Sayyaf - Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani - was an Islamic scholar. He was killed in a clash with the Philippine Army in December 1998. The group responsible for the latest hostage-taking appears to be led by Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot. He has been allegedly involved in earlier kidnappings. Moderates The Moros, who converted to Islam in the 14th century, have long resisted the Philippines' Catholic rulers, dating back to the Spanish colonial period.
The current violence dates back to 1972, when then President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law. Abu Sayyaf is the most militant of the anti-Manila groups and wants an independent Islamic state in Mindanao - an impoverished region with an annual income a mere fifth of the national Philippines average. Moderates are calling simply for the implementation of a planned 13-province autonomous region in the southern Philippines. The MNLF - from which Abu Sayyaf split - announced a ceasefire in 1996, and is pursuing talks with government officials. A third group - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which numbers around 15,000 fighters - had also been on ceasefire, but has now halted all dialogue with the government after military assaults on its camps. |
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*Here I want to throw in an extremely rare, 7.94KB-sized AP news photo. In it, we're told, authorities are confiscating an Abu Sayyaf weapons cache; but in the foreground, not so full or centered that we would feel hit over the head by it, is an apparently custom designed Abu Sayyaf flag in the tradition of nation-states. With its ominous, curved yellow Islamic banana, (a symbol for "binding"), with "Abu Sayyaf" possibly translated as "Father of the Hypodermic Needle," all we'd need is that fat manifesto we were promised and a decoder ring and we're set.
In studying the BBC's reporting on the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, I assembled a list of links to almost 600 BBC articles, from first mention of the name, until the close of 2002, when the saga just starts to loop endlessly repeating itself, although the supply of funny new names for crops of villains is inexhaustible. Since there is no way of knowing if the list is nearing comprehensiveness, I use it to note sins of commission but not necessarily omission.
None the less, by using the BBC's search function with reverse date, it would appear that with the BBC's Asia-Pacific bureaus and extensive general reporting in the Philippines, there wasn't a mention of Abu Sayyaf's name by the BBC until late 1998---and I do mean late, since this opening bell could have been the death knell of the 200-member organization, as in an unduplicatable feat, authorities located Abdurajak Janjalani, the group's founder and chief, somewhere in his "jungle lair," slash "mountain stronghold," and summarily shot him dead.
January 11, 1999, BBC News, Sierra Leone: A muddled and brutal conflict
August 6, 1999, BBC News, Sierra Leone: Who are the kidnappers?
August10, 1999, BBC News, Rebels release last hostages
Manila Standard - Apr 4, 1995
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, page 2, Senate probes Ipil carnage, by Marichu Vilanueva,
Senate leaders decided yesterday to investigate failure of the intelligence arms of both police and military establishments in preventing the April 4 simultaneous arrcks by Muslim terrorist group Abu Sayyaf in Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur.
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, page 3, Raiders use hostages as human shields,
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, page 3, Ramos sacks Southcom chief, by Fel V. Maragay,
Deeply dismayed over the military's failure to foil terrorists' attack on Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur Tuesday, President Ramos yesterday sacked Brig. Gen. Regino Lacson as head of the AFP's Southern Command and replaced him with Maj. Gen. Edgardo Batenga, who headed the Northern Command.
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, "Abu Sayyaf: Bandits or global terrorists?" by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer, page 3,
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, Lessons from the raid on Ipil, by Amante E. Bigornia, page 9
Six months ago, they were dismissed as "bandits" on the verge of extinction. Today, officials call them part of a vast network of Islamic extremists including defendants in the World Trade Center bombing.
Little is known about the Abu Sayyaf group, which officials blame for Tuesday's raid on the town of Ipil, which left at least 46 dead, 47 wounded and the southern community in ashes.
But authorities are now alarmed at the possibility that 16 years after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, violent Islamic fundamentalism has spread to the Muslim community in the Philippines, estimated to be 6 million strong.
The recent violence has emerged at a time the government thought it was about to resolve the 25-year Muslim separatist crisis in the southern Philippines.
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Nearly all that is known about the Abu Sayyaf group...comes from the Philippine military. The group has never generally disseminated a coherent manifesto outside of its circle of members and sympathizers. Its leader is Aburajak Abubaker Janjalani, a 34-year-old former teacher from a mixed Muslim-Christian family on Basilan Island 880 kilometers south of Manila.
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Last July, Abu Sayyaf members waylaid a bus on Basilan, killed 15 Christian passengers and took about 35 more hostage. All were eventually released after local authorities paid about $7,700 in ransom.
The military then launched attacks on Abu Sayyaf strongholds and claimed that the group had been destroyed. Later, commanders admitted the fighters simply fled deeper into the mountainous jungle.
Concern about Abu Sayyaf began to heighten about five months ago.
Last Dec. 11, a caller purportedly fr54om Abu Sayyaf telephoned The Associated Press to claim responsibility for an explosion aboard a Philippine Airlines jet en route to Tokyo from Cebu. The plane landed safely on Pkinawa, but one Japanese was killed and 10 others injured.
Officials dismissed the claim, saying Abu Sayyaf lacked the technical skills.
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April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, page 8, Editorial, Fanciful speculations,
The "height of negligence," President Ramos fumed as he condemned the failure of the military to anticipate the attack last Tuesday on Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur.
April 7, 1995, The Manila Standard, page 6, Nikki: What intelligence?
Senator Nikki Coseteng yesterday described as "wasted" the P1.3 billiuon intelligence funds of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the National Security Council, as she chided the authorities' failure t discover the planned attack of some 200 heavily-armed Muslim extremists on the municipality of Ipil, Xamboanga del Sur. ....
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