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| Southeast Asia |
| Secret RP-US Plan To Deploy Rapid Force |
| 2002-12-04 |
| A secret plan involving Philippine and American military indicates the deepening US involvement in Philippine efforts to stamp out Muslim separatist and communist insurgencies. Oh, goody. Another "secret plan" hits the papers. The plan also deals with new concerns over the presence of suspected foreign and Filipino terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. With US help, the Philippine military is set to create a strike force that could be rapidly deployed against local terrorists and insurgents and be used in UN peacekeeping work, according to an official and a confidential plan. A Filipino general, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday that the plan by Manila and Washington was still "in a conceptualization stage," with the United States seen as playing a key role in organizing, training and arming such a force. The secret plan said the new unit, dubbed the Armed Forces of the Philippines Rapid Deployment Force, would be created to respond quickly to "small-scale crisis" within the Philippines, act as Manila's designated force for UN operations, and contribute "to any regional and international military response to crisis." Aside from anti-insurgency and counterterrorism, the force could be used for relief work during natural disasters, noncombatant evacuations, search and rescue, and peacekeeping, according to the plan prepared last year. The new force would be separate from US-trained and equipped Philippine forces called Light Reaction Companies that were used to battle Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on Basilan island this year, the general added. US Special Forces have trained two LRC units and are committed to training two more in close combat, hostage retrieval and sniping, he said. Seems like they have been doing pretty good. Hope they keep it up. |
| Posted by:Steve |