How a small band of former Filipino Afghan mujahideen, trained by Bin Laden, make international headlines by daring hostage raids and beheading of their victims.

As the twelfth most populous nation, the Philippines diverse religious and ethnic population makes it an ideal example of the changing tenet of what is deemed national security post 9/11. Issues previously considered social or public are now viewed as security issues. Food production is now analyzed in the context of food security and environmenta

Written by a reserve officer who spent a tour in the Philippines producing a classified history for US Special Operations Command, this first-ever publicly available history of OEF-P provides both a detailed accounting of the operation's successes and a model for trainers and advisers providing assistance to host-nation security forces around the globe. Stentiford emphasizes that what made OEF-P a success was an adherence to time-honored principles of counterinsurgency: insisting that host-nation forces take the lead and conducting operations with a minimal footprint that bought the essential time for the mission to succeed. Success in the Shadows is both a fitting tribute to the operators who performed this vital mission and a primer for those who will be called upon to do so in the future.

Contents: (1) The Rise of Islamist Militancy in Southeast Asia: Overview; The Rise of Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia; (2) The Jemaah Islamiya (JI) Network: History of JI; JI¿s Relationship to Al Qaeda; JI¿s Size and Structure; (3) Indonesia: Recent Events; The Bali Bombings and Other JI attacks in Indonesia; The Trial and Release of Baasyir; (4) The Philippines: Abu Sayyaf; The MILF; The Philippine Communist Party; (5) Thailand: Southern Insurgency; Current Government¿s Approach; Little Evidence of Transnational Elements; (6) Malaysia: Recent Events; A Muslim Voice of Moderation; Maritime Concerns; Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Malaysia; Terrorist Groups in Malaysia; Malaysia¿s Counter-Terrorism Efforts; (7) Singapore: U.S.-Singapore Coop.

This book examines the intersection between national and international counter-terrorism policies and civil society in numerous national and regional contexts. The 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001 led to new waves of scholarship on the proliferation of terrorism and efforts to combat international terrorist groups, organizations, and networks. Civil society organisations have been accused of serving as ideological grounds for the recruitment of potential terrorists and a channel for terrorist financing. Consequently, states around the world have established new ranges of counter-terrorism measures that target the operations of civil society organisations exclusively. Security practices by states have become a common trend and have assisted in the establishment of ‘best practices’ among non-liberal democratic or authoritarian states, and are deeply entrenched in their security infrastructures. In developing or newly democratized states - those deemed democratically weak or fragile - these exceptional securities measures are used as a cover for repressing opposition groups, considered by these states as threats to their national security and political power apparatuses. This timely volume provides a detailed examination of the interplay of counter-terrorism and civil society, offering a critical discussion of the enforcement of global security measures by governments around the world.

A critical take on the convergence of human rights discourse with the counterterrorism agenda revealing its effects on developing countries.

Abu Sayyaf (AS) emerged in 1990 as a splinter group composed of former MNLF fighters and Filipinos who had fought in Afghanistan. It resorted to terrorist tactics, including executions of civilians, bombings, and increasingly kidnappings for ransom. The AS leadership established links with Jeemah Islamiah, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in SE Asia that used Mindanao for training and organizing terrorist strikes. Contents of this report: The Philippine Response to 9/11; Historic Muslim Insurgency; AS: Origins, Strength, and Operations; Connections to Al Qaeda and Jeemah Islamiah; Links to the MILF; Philippine Gov¿t. and AFP Policies and Oper.; The 2002 Balikatan Oper.: U.S. Support Role on Jolo Island and in W. Mindanao; U.S. Military Involvement.

For anyone wishing to understand the next, post-9/11 generation of al-Qaeda planning, leadership, and tactics, there is only one place to begin: Southeast Asia. In fact, such countries as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia have been crucial nodes in the al-Qaeda network since long before the strikes on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, but when the allies overran Afghanistan, the new camps in Southeast Asia became the key training grounds for the future. It is in the Muslim strongholds in the Philippines and Indonesia that the next generation of al-Qaeda can be found. In this powerful, eye-opening work, Maria Ressa casts the most illuminating light ever on this fascinating but little-known "terrorist HQ." Every major al-Qaeda attack since 1993 has had a connection to the Philippines, and Maria Ressa, CNN's lead investigative reporter for Asia and a Filipino-American who has lived in the region since 1986, has broken story after story about them. From the early, failed attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II and Bill Clinton to the planning of the 9/11 strikes and the "48 Hours of Terror," in which eleven American jetliners were to be blown up over the Pacific, she has interviewed the terrorists, their neighbors and families, and the investigators from six different countries who have tracked them down. After the Bali bombing, al-Qaeda's worst strike since 9/11, which killed more than two hundred, Ressa broke major revelations about how it was planned, why it was a Plan B substitute for an even more ambitious scheme aimed at Singapore, and why the suicide bomber recruited to deliver the explosives almost caused the whole plan to fall apart when he admitted he could barely drive a car. Above all, Ressa has seen how al-Qaeda's tactics are shifting under the pressures of the war on terror. Rather than depending upon its own core membership (estimated at three to four thousand at its peak), the network is now enmeshing itself in local conflicts, co-opting Muslim independence movements wherever they can be found, and helping local "revolutionaries" to fund, plan, and execute sinister attacks against their neighbors and the West. If history is any guide, al-Qaeda revisits its plans over and over until they can succeed -- and many of those plans have already been discovered and are here revealed, thanks to classified investigative documents uncovered by Ressa.

This report examines the 14-year experience of U.S. special operations forces in the Philippines from 2001 through 2014 and the activities and effects of special operations capabilities employed to address terrorist threats in Operation Enduring Freedom—Philippines through training and equipping Philippine security forces, providing operational advice and assistance, and conducting civil–military and information operations.

"Despite the liberation of Marawi, in the Philippines, from the siege of terrorist groups associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Philippines continues to confront the virulent threat of terrorism affecting international peace and security. To make sense of what transpired during the Marawi siege and the panoply of security challenges in its aftermath, this book brings together the scholarly analyses of various counter-terrorism experts who examine the siege from a number of perspectives, including the long history of Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and the persistence of the Abu Sayyaf Group, the rise of ISIS in the Philippines, the financing of terrorism, the trauma created by the siege, and the continuing problem of violent extremism in a country long beset by internal armed conflicts.Edited by the Philippines' top counter-terrorism scholar, the volume offers readers insightful studies on why and how the siege happened by describing the role of various armed groups in the Philippines that have pledged allegiance to ISIS. This is the first effort to examine in-depth the Marawi siege within the larger global terrorism landscape. It will be of interest to scholars, students, journalists, policy makers and laypersons who want to know more about the siege and the continuing threat of terrorism in the Philippines."