Sad news - JSOTF-P standing down.

[98Z5V]

Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines.

 

According to this, they'll be standing down.

 

US reportedly will disband anti-terror force in Philippines

Published June 26, 2014

 

 

June 11, 2014: In this photo released by the Philippine National Police Public Information Office (PNP-PIO) in Manila, Philippines, Khair Mundos, a top commander of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists and has acknowledged receiving Al Qaeda funds to finance bombings in the country, undergoes a police booking procedure following his capture near Manila's international airport. (AP Photo/Philippine National Police Public Information Office)

 

After more than a decade of helping fight Al Qaeda-linked militants, the United States is disbanding an anti-terror contingent of hundreds of elite American troops in the southern Philippines where armed groups such as Abu Sayyaf have largely been crippled, officials said Thursday.

 

But special forces from the U.S. Pacific Command, possibly in smaller numbers, will remain after the deactivation of the anti-terror contingent called Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, or JSOTF-P, to ensure Al Qaeda offshoots such as Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah militant network do not regain lost ground, according to U.S. and Philippine officials.

 

The move marks a new chapter in the long-running battle against an Al Qaeda-inspired movement in the southern Philippines, viewed by the U.S. as a key front in the global effort to keep terrorists at bay. It reflects shifting security strategies and focus in economically vibrant Asia, where new concerns such as multiple territorial conflicts involving China have alarmed Washington's allies entangled in the disputes.

 

A year after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. military established the task force in the southern Philippines to help ill-equipped Filipino forces contain a bloody rampage by Abu Sayyaf gunmen, who carried out bombings, terrorized entire towns and kidnapped more than 100 people, including three Americans.

 

Although U.S. forces are barred by the Philippine Constitution from local combat, the advice, training, military equipment and intelligence, including drone surveillance, that they provided helped the underfunded Philippine military beat back the Abu Sayyaf. U.S.-backed Philippine offensives whittled the militants' ranks from a few thousand fighters -- mostly drawn from desperately poor hinterland villages -- to about 300 gunmen, who survive on extortion and kidnappings for ransom while dodging military assaults.

 

"Our partnership with the Philippine security forces has been successful in drastically reducing the capabilities of domestic and transnational terrorist groups in the Philippines," U.S. Embassy Press Attache Kurt Hoyer said in a written response to questions sent by email by The Associated Press.

 

The remaining terrorists, he said, "have largely devolved into disorganized groups resorting to criminal undertakings to sustain their activities."

 

That success has led U.S. military planners in coordination with their Philippine counterparts "to begin working on a transition plan where the JSOTF-P as a task force will no longer exist," Hoyer said, adding there were currently about 320 American military personnel left in the south.

 

There were about 500 to 600 American military personnel in the south before the drawdown.

 

Hoyer said a still-unspecified number of U.S. military personnel from the Pacific Command would remain under a new unit called the PACOM Augmentation Team to provide Filipino forces with counter-terrorism and combat training and advice, and "ensure that violent extremist organizations don't regain a foothold in the southern Philippines."

 

He suggested the remaining American personnel would move away from training exercises with Filipino combat units in the field, and shift to working with Philippine security forces at unified commands and headquarters units.

 

The timing of such withdrawals from counterterrorism campaigns from the southern Philippines to Afghanistan has been a dilemma for the U.S., which must ensure that remaining extremist forces are not able to bounce back.

 

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Philippine officials have been notified of the U.S. move and expressed confidence that Filipino forces could deal with any lingering threat from Muslim extremists in the south, scene of a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

 

Gazmin said with the scaling down of the U.S. presence in the south, the Americans would renew a presence elsewhere in the country to help address another security worry -- China's increasingly assertive behavior in the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing, Manila and four other governments have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes.

 

The U.S. and the Philippines, which are defense treaty allies, signed a 10-year pact in April that will allow possibly thousands of American forces temporary access to selected Filipino military camps and enable them to preposition fighter jets and ships.

 

The Philippines' efforts to protect its territory have dovetailed with Washington's intention to pivot away from years of heavy military engagement in the Middle East to Asia, partly as a counterweight to China's rising clout.

[98Z5V]

 

 

A year after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. military established the task force in the southern Philippines to help ill-equipped Filipino forces contain a bloody rampage by Abu Sayyaf gunmen, who carried out bombings, terrorized entire towns and kidnapped more than 100 people, including three Americans.

 

 

 

It also wasn't a year after 9/11 attacks.  I was there in mid-Jan 2002.  There's alot of details left out of that article, but I can point you to alot of details about that initial operation.

 

Research Martin and Gracia Burnham, Deborah Yap, Guillermo Sobero.  Research Abu Sabaya, and all of the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group).

[98Z5V]

For more readily available info, search out the following terms:

 

JTF-510

OEF-P   (Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines)

Abu Sabaya

Khadaffy Janjalani

 

I can give several more names to search for, that reveal a $hit-ton of intel from open-source Phil-news, but that just wouldn't be right.

[survivalshop]

Damn Tom , didn't you hear that the war on Terrorism is over , the King said so , we don't need troops any where ,any more .This will come back to haunt us & more so, the Philippine people.

[shibiwan]

Ugh... not good. That's just sending the wrong messages to the terrorist groups, with ASG being the prime concern.....

Edited June 27, 2014 by shibiwan

[planeflyer21]

Things are going to get lively again over there.

 

Pretty soon to be over here.

[LAR8Autoshucker]

Wait... I thought potus personally killed bin laden and all the other bad guys in the world with his pen and his phone. Whats the big deal? We got nothin to worry about right?

[gnatshooter]

Probably finished the job in the Philippines like they finished the job in Iraq.

[98Z5V]

The job was pretty much finished by August 2002.  From January to August 2002, we assisted our Phil brothers in reducing their numbers from almost 1,000, to about 100. 

 

From that point on, it was "stabilization," and it's been going on ever since. 

[jtallen83]

It also wasn't a year after 9/11 attacks.  I was there in mid-Jan 2002.  There's alot of details left out of that article, but I can point you to alot of details about that initial operation.

 

Research Martin and Gracia Burnham, Deborah Yap, Guillermo Sobero.  Research Abu Sabaya, and all of the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group).

 

 

Sad how the media and the political elite start to rewrite history before the chapter is even closed. They did the same thing with the Iran-Contra affair. When I watched the congressional hearings I was constantly yelling questions at the TV, they just left out a whole part of the operation. They don't necessarily lie but conveniently change dates and definitions to suit their timeline and story. 

You should write down every detail you can think of so the generations after you can find the real true story. My father was a photo interpreter for the Air Force in the early 60's, spent part of that time in the Philippines doing targeting work for Vietnam. He knows things about Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis that are still not public but he will not write it down because he is afraid they would put him in jail.

   To this day many events of the Civil War are being changed in history books due to the study of soldiers diaries and letters home, someone will search out the reality some day!

[392heminut]

It's my understanding all the U.S. military operations in Okinawa will be relocating to bases now being built in the Philippines in the next few years and the Okinawa bases will be turned back over to Japan.

[gnatshooter]

My dad hit the beach at Iwo Jima. He was not happy when the island was given back to Japan and they built a golf course there. Well okay, it was worse than "not happy".

[unforgiven]

God bless you'r dad brother jt,glad he made it back home.

[jtallen83]

My dad hit the beach at Iwo Jima. He was not happy when the island was given back to Japan and they built a golf course there. Well okay, it was worse than "not happy".

We due tend to be benevolent victors......for better or worse.....

[jtallen83]

God bless you'r dad brother jt,glad he made it back home.

To this day he trusts his government will take care of him. He patiently waits the 6-9 months between doctor appointments at the VA. He's had cancer a few times, one of these days he will wait to long between appointments. They do send him a check every month for being doused with agent orange, wish he would use that money to get REAL healthcare...........he thinks that if he waits a bit longer they will get there $hit together <laughs> funny, but then not so funny..........

[98Z5V]

 funny, but then not so funny..........

Very true.  I wonder when the mid-to-late 90's Anthrax shots will start fucking people up... 

[planeflyer21]

Very true.  I wonder when the mid-to-late 90's Anthrax shots will start fucking people up... 

 

That's scary.

[98Z5V]

Scary - now - to look at this news article from late 2010.  So many people had no idea what was going on over there, or that we were even there in the first place - let alone, what we were accomplishing there, and why we were there...

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39444744/ns/world_news-asiapacific/#.VB-fXhbncxE

Edited September 22, 2014 by 98Z5V

[shibiwan]

Problem is, ASG and JI are still active in the region. Lots to learn though, lots to learn.

Edited September 22, 2014 by shibiwan

[blue109]

Very true. I wonder when the mid-to-late 90's Anthrax shots will start fucking people up...

they are. there's a large group of vets who got shots from the same lot who are in REALLY bad shape and VA isn't doing anything. the stories are horrifying. I found my old shot card and my shots (6 of them, whole series) came from 2 different batches. the first lot was only a few numbers above the lot that hurt people.

[shepp]

That's no bueno!!

[98Z5V]

they are. there's a large group of vets who got shots from the same lot who are in REALLY bad shape and VA isn't doing anything. the stories are horrifying. I found my old shot card and my shots (6 of them, whole series) came from 2 different batches. the first lot was only a few numbers above the lot that hurt people.

 

I had almost a whole series completed whilst in the lovely land of South Korea, and they fucked up my shot records.  Something with the stamp, not the shots.  Arrived back in the Land Of The Free, and had to start that $hit over again, because if that "stamp."    Even my individual shot record wasn't enough to appease the shot-gun-happy medics at Ft Lewis, upon my return.  Double Dose. 

 

I'm blaming everything on this.  When I lose my $hit here, it's because of those fucking Anthrax shots.  <dontknow>

 

Brace yourselves, men.  :banana:   I feel my Anthrax acting up again. 

 

Seriously, though - research as much as you can about the stuff in the PI, starting Jan 2002.  The Palawan Kidnappings were in May 2001.  I can only say so much about it.  One day, I may be able to post pics. 

Edited September 23, 2014 by 98Z5V