NewsMine — war-on-terror — alqaeda — dutch-alqaeda — Viewing Item

Unemployed teacher Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020822/ap_wo_en_ge/netherlands_filipino_revolutionary_1 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020822/ap_wo_en_ge/netherlands_filipino_revolutionary_1 AP World - General News U.S. declared terror suspect in the Netherlands says he's an unemployed teacher on welfare Wed Aug 21,10:54 PM ET By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer UTRECHT, Netherlands - Jose Maria Sison portrays himself as an unemployed professor, a Filipino refugee living on welfare and a political consultant who leads a contemplative life of reading and writing in this medieval Dutch university town. Intelligence agencies around the world have a different picture of the bespectacled, 63-year-old revolutionary. The Dutch security service says Sison has been directing the National People's Army in the Philippines for more than a decade, in one of the longest- running and most violent communist rebellions. Last week, the United States added his name to its list of international terrorist suspects. The move has refocused the attention of Dutch authorities on the man who has lived here since the 1980s. Sison founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968 and its military wing, the 12,000-strong National People's Army which has led a 34-year insurgency. But his role in anti-government activities is unclear since he fled into exile in the Netherlands in 1986 after spending nine years in prison in his own country. The Philippines' military claimed that he regained the leadership of the clandestine Communist Party within a few years of leaving his country. For years he has led rebel delegations in on-and-off negotiations with the government, calling himself the chief political adviser. Now Sison says he's no longer even a party member and can only speak as an insightful onlooker about Washington's demand for a crackdown on the party and the rebels. "I don't instruct. I don't order," he said. "It would be a stupid movement if they had a leader thousands of miles away. There are superior organs of leadership." Sison hardly looks threatening, and his cramped office shows little evidence of subversive activity — just a colorful woven banner above the door saying: "Cherish your New People's Army." At Washington's request, the Netherlands has seized his bank account and is seeking assets of the National People's Army and the Communist Party. It has instructed the European Union ( news - web sites) to blacklist Sison. The 2001 annual report by the Dutch intelligence agency said Sison's dealings with the Communist Party bring him into contact with Philippine Muslim rebel groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf, which are responsible for kidnappings and attacks. The report said the intelligence service had been monitoring Sison since 1992 when it determined that he was leading the National People's Army, which was "responsible for a large number of violent actions in the Philippines, resulting in 100-200 deaths annually." In 1993, the agency warned the government in a confidential memorandum — since included in public documents — that Sison and his organization posed a potential threat to national security. "They can make accusations. But can they prove that?" Sison countered in an interview at the headquarters of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Sison led a handful of university intellectuals in founding the Communist Party during the repressive regime of Ferdinand Marcos. The rebellion began with a ragtag group of about three dozen guerrillas. But poverty and injustice during Marcos' 20-year rule caused it to swell to about 26,000 fighters at its peak in the mid-1970s. Sison was arrested in 1977 and freed after Corazon Aquino took control in the "people power" revolt in 1986, when he left the country. Dutch authorities allowed him to stay while his asylum application was considered. It was rejected in 1997, but he has remained awaiting the results of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. It cannot send him back to the Philippines where he could face the death penalty. Sison laughed off the announcement that his assets have been frozen, insisting his only bank account — shared with his wife — contained 1,245.46 euros (dlrs 1,220.45 cents) as of Tuesday, when he could still make a withdrawal from an automatic teller. The United States claims the communist rebels extorted millions of dollars from Filipino businessmen and politicians and syphoned it to secret accounts in the Netherlands, controlled by Sison. Sison appeared flattered by the subversive label given him by Washington, but said he's "overrated" by Western governments. "I have no affiliation at the moment. I'm a sympathizer," Sison said. I have "no weapon but my tongue."

Detention one year Dutch nab 8 Fundraising alqaida Released suspect Tapes stolen passport Unemployed teacher Files Listed: 6

Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security Archives

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purpose of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.