from Creeping Sharia:
Founding member of al Qaeda-linked group pleads guilty in kidnappings of Americans
Posted on July 31, 2010 by creeping
via Founding member of militant group pleads guilty in kidnapping of 16 vacationers.
WASHINGTON — A founding member of a Muslim militant group has pleaded guilty in the kidnapping of 16 people, including four Americans, at a Philippine resort 15 years ago.
During an appearance in federal court Wednesday, Madhatta Haipe admitted that he and several armed members of the Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped the vacationers for ransom.
Haipe was extradited from the Philippines to the United States last year, and at his sentencing Dec. 14 he will face up to life in prison on each of four counts of hostage taking.
Abu Sayyaf is suspected of having received funds and training from al-Qaida and is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
Its bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings of hostages have made it the Philippines’ most brutal rebel group.
More – it’s just a short leap from professor of Islamic studies to waging jihad full-time:
Considered a bomb expert, Haipe, 48, was the Abu Sayyaf’s secretary general and finance officer. He is also a former professor of Islamic Studies at Mindanao State University and a member of the Moro National Liberation Front
Haipe told the court that he organized the kidnapping of four Americans, one US permanent resident and 11 Filipinos who were vacationing in the forested and mountainous Traan-Kine Spring Resort near Lake Sebu in South Cotabato, on Dec. 27, 1995.
Haipe said he told the hostages that they would be held for ransom. He warned the group, which included six children, that Abu Sayyaf members would track and kill them if they told anyone about their kidnapping after their release.
The hostages were forced to march up a mountainside. Some of the adult hostages had rope tied around their hands or neck.
Four hostages were released shortly after being kidnapped to allow the group to collect a total of P1 million in ransom, a statement released by the US Embassy in Manila said. Four days later, the remaining hostages were freed.
Haipe is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Richard Roberts on Dec. 14, and faces up to 25 years in prison as part of a plea agreement.
The Abu Sayyaf, a US-designated terror organization, was founded in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network to fight for an independent Islamist state in Mindanao.
Its members often resort to kidnappings, mainly targeting foreigners and Christians, to raise funds from ransoms. Failure to pay ransom often results in the beheading of the hostages.
The group is also capable of much bigger strikes, such as the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that claimed more than 100 lives. It was the nation’s worst terrorist attack
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