 The United States is considering tagging some members of the Philippines' mainstream Muslim separatist rebel group, currently in peace negotiations, as terrorists for allegedly working with known terror groups, the US ambassador said Wednesday. Francis Ricciardone said Washington supports peace talks to end three decades of armed struggle for self-rule by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but wonders why some members are "cooperating with world-class murderers...If we are able to push forward the identification of those people and, in some way, make it harder for them to travel internationally and to move money back and forth, then I think we'd like to do that," Ricciardone said. "We have serious questions about the MILF," he told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. "Evidently, some elements of the MILF are, at a minimum, tolerating — we think doing more than tolerating — cooperating with world-class murderers. We're talking about people who are involved in the Bali bombings and who are proud of it." | "Yeah. If only all those heavily armed, masked, camouflage-wearing young men would let us visit those secret training camps and ammo dumps deep in the jungle, we'd have a better idea what to call them. But we don't want to rush to conclusions. Don't want anyone's feelings to get hurt, see." |
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