THREE HELD IN MANILA-BASED BOMB PLOT AGAINST U.S. AND ISRAELI EMBASSIES

The plot to destroy the World Trade Center was hatched by a cell of Islamic terrorists based in the Phillipines. Today news comes that such Phillipine-based cells are still active and seeking to attack American interests:

Philippine authorities say they have arrested three suspected Middle Eastern
militants suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb the Israeli and three other
foreign embassies in Manila.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita says one man was arrested in Manila, while the others were separately captured recently in the south.

"There is a high probability that they are involved in some kind of plan to sow trouble," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters on the sidelines of an annual anti-terrorism and business security conference.

One of the militants was arrested in Manila and the two others were separately captured in the southern Philippines recently.

Ermita refused to provide details, but two senior Filipino security officials told The Associated Press that investigators were verifying intelligence information that the three may have been involved in an active plot to bomb the U.S., British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Manila.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Authorities believe the three may have links with the Indonesia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent southern Philippine-based group blacklisted by Washington as a terror organization.

Both groups have been blamed for deadly bomb attacks, including the February 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that killed 116 people in the country's worst terrorist attack.

Funding for the plot has been secured, indicating that the planned attack against any of the embassies may already be in an advanced stage, one of the security officials said, adding that all the embassies concerned have been notified.

At least one of the three suspected militants identified himself as Jordanian, but investigators were trying to verify their identities. One was arrested at a Manila airport Feb. 15 and follow-up operations were under way, he said.

A Jordanian terrorist, working in the Phillipines, on behalf of an Indonesia-based Muslim terrorist group, plotting to attack American and Israeli embassies.

And, some doubt whether we are really engaged in a global war against Islamofascism.

SHEESH.