A DISTURBING PIECE OF NEWS We GOT IN THE MAIL:
From:
deleted@yahoo.com Date: Sun Nov 10, 2002 12:23 am
Subject: CIA CAUGHT FAKING TERROR IN PHILIPPINES!
The following set of three articles below unmasks both the Bush-Cheney
regime and its principal local partner, the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo-Angelo
Reyes government, of their lies that they are seriously fighting terrorism
here in the Philippines. For these articles show that *they themselves are
the ones coddling the terrorists in our midst.*
Michael Meiring, an American with British and South African references who
was seriously hurt by a blast caused by high-powered explosives *in his own
possession* last May 16 in Davao, has been exposed as a terrorist by a true
advocate of good government, Davao City Prosecutor Raul Bendico.
And what did the US Embassy here, the NSA (National Security Agency of the
US), the CIA, and the FBI do? They immediately gave Meiring full protection
from Davao police authorities last May; gave him the attention of an expert
doctor assigned by the US embassy; the local US vice consul paid his bills
in Davao; and they whisked him pronto to a naval base in San Diego, where
these alphabet soup agencies desperately hope he won't be followed by the
trail of terrorism he left behind.
And that is how the US government *actually* handles terrorists caught
red-handed: with tender loving care! Obviously, both Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and Angelo Reyes did not mind that this terrorist got
away. (They never raised a hoot!) They *clearly did not mind that this
terrorist--and, more importantly, his partners in crime here in the
Philippines, both American and Filipino, both in and out of government,
both at low and high levels--are not dragged into the searing light of
public scrutiny and indignation!*
But their actions on this case run awfully afoul of the widespread yearning
of Filipinos and Americans from all walks of life to be freed of this
scourge. A scourge that is *actually fostered at the highest levels of both
the Bush-Cheney and Arroyo-Reyes regimes.* A scourge that is *part and
parcel of the insidious covert action apparatus worldwide of the
21st-century power-mad Reich with Dubya Bush and Cheney as its crime-soaked
figureheads.*
Unless Meiring is brought to court and prosecuted for his crime, unless we
support Davao City Prosecutor Raul Bendico's and Davao Mayor Rodrigo
Duterte's courageous efforts against Meiring and his handlers, we might
never begin to untangle the web of terrorism that stalks our land today,
and we will remain hostage to the Agenda of Chaos, Fear, Unhappiness and
Mass Disempowerment of these Masters of Terror and War.
The first article is the centerpiece of the three-part expose below. It was
posted at the main indymedia website. The webpage seems sloppy though; some
text isn't reversed on the black background, but shows up when you copy and
paste all the webpage's text to, for example, Notepad.
The second article is among the earliest of the news items re Meiring ever
posted, which showed up at the Philippine Daily Inquirer's (PDI) website.
(Funny, PDI didn't carry over the Meiring story to its May 17, 2002 website
edition; obviously, it's not a main story in its printed edition then, if
ever it came out.)
The third article is a gem: it's the only extensive investigative report on
the Meiring affair that ever came out, even until now. Dorian Zumel-Sicat
and Jeannette Andrade has put one over our more lettered so-called
Investigative Journalists in TV, radio and print. (I hope that's not an
effect of grants they accepted from CIA-linked foundations!) We challenge
these Great Investigative Journalists to follow Zumel-Sicat and Andrade's
trail to unveil The Real Terrorism in our country now.
Please print the articles below, read them carefully, pass them on to
everyone who are now hostaged by these SuperTerrorists, and let's get
better organized and continue to mount direct concerted democratic action
to expose this and other despicable and barefaced acts of high complacency
with the real Terrorism in our midst.
FIRST ARTICLE:
US FAKING TERROR IN PHILIPPINES
Craig Hanley, October 10, 2002
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=209145&group=webcast Q: Why did the White House rescue and hide Michael Meiring, the CIA-linked
American "terrorist" bomber now wanted in Mindanao? A: The Pentagon wants
new bases in Asia, and it is killing civilians to get them.
Meiring case unmasks covert campaign to justify intervention.
Filipino media can't keep up with American spook sightings. Despite
official denials, one story from Mindanao will not go away:
AMERICAN BLAST VICTIM IN DAVAO TAGGED AS TERRORIST
Jun Bersamin, Radio dzMM September 27, 2002
(also posted at
http://www.bc-alter.net/dfriesen/wwwboard/messages/1597.html)
DAVAO CITY - The City Prosecution Office on Friday tagged the American
victim of an explosion in his hotel room four months ago as a terrorist.
City Prosecutor Raul Bendico said findings from the investigation of the
case indicated that Meiring apparently attempted to set up explosives
intended to blow up Evergreen Hotel when the accidental explosion went off,
mangling his lower limbs.
Michael Meiring, 65, of California, was rushed to Davao Medical Mission
Hospital on May 16 after the blast inside his room at the hotel located on
Ramon Magsaysay Avenue here. Meiring was charged with illegal possession of
explosives and reckless imprudence "for failing to practice proper
attention and diligence regarding the handling of explosive materials."
But he was reportedly whisked away by agents of the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation and brought to the United States. Authorities want Meiring
brought back to the country to face the criminal charges filed against him.
THE WHITE HOUSE RESCUES A TERRORIST
What is unusual about the case, The Manila Times reported, is that Meiring
was whisked out of Davao, past the Philippine National Police guarding him
at the hospital, and on to a chartered plane, accompanied by what
Immigration officials described as agents of the US National Security
Agency and agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The National Security Agency intervention, confirmed by Immigration Deputy
Commissioner Daniel Queto, sparked intense local speculation as to why an
agency that reports directly to the Office of the President of the United
States would send an entourage of bodyguards to speed Meiring to a hospital
in Manila.
Security tightened around the wounded man immediately. Press were told that
only his doctor—handpicked by the US Embassy—had access, and Meiring was
promptly airlifted to San Diego, home to a US naval base. The American
Embassy has refused comment. Vice-consul Michael Newbill settled the
hospital bills in Davao City.
The Manila Times quoted a friend of Meiring who said he was told by a
Filipino in Davao, carrying a message from the US Embassy that Michael
would never be charged with a crime in connection with the explosion. The
investigation will end up as a stonewall. Michael will be protected
and...the incident will be shortly forgotten, if you're willing to forget it.
Officials in Davao City will not forget. The suspicious blast took place
during a wave of terror bombings across Mindanao as US and Philippine
troops conducted anti-terror exercises. President Arroyo threatened to
declare a state of emergency and demanded that lawmakers rush through her
tough new anti-terror bill. Rush it through they did.
Now Prosecutor Bendico says the US-shielded `terrorist' was trying to blow
the hotel up.
The Philippine Star explained why his findings are worrisome:
CIA WHISKS AWAY BRIT-AM BLAST VICTIM; NOW IN US
Edith Regalado July 9, 2002
(archived at
http://www.philstar.com)
DAVAO CITY — The efforts of government prosecutors here to go after a
British-American national who was the victim of a hotel blast on May 16
could very well prove futile as the US Central Intelligence Agency has
already taken him in custody in California.
Highly reliable sources told The STAR Michael Terrence Meiring, 65,
reportedly was deployed by the CIA, sometime in the early up to the mid
`90s, on assignment here in Southern Mindanao...
"He overshot his mandate. That was why the Americans had to find a way that
he could be spirited out of the country fast because the CIA has to also
take hold of him," the same source said.
three bracketed paragraphs form the rest of the Philippine Star article:
("Meiring lost his left leg and suffered severe burns in various parts of
his body when an explosive went off inside his room at the Evergreen Hotel
here May 16. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents from the US
Embassy in Manila reportedly sneaked him out of a Davao City hospital four
days after the explosion and was brought to the Makati Medical Center for
treatment.
"Local officials here, including the police and the city prosecutors, have
demanded that Meiring be brought back to Davao City to answer the charges
of illegal possession of explosives as well as the possible filing of the
non-bailable offense of destructive arson.
"Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was particularly irked by the way the
American embassy facilitated Meiring’s transfer to the Makati Medical
Center which he described as arrogant and without due respect to local
officials concerned. 'Meiring is now in California and the CIA has taken
hold of him already,' the same source said.")>
WHO IS MICHAEL MEIRING?
Here is the `confusing background' of the American terror bomber handled by
the National Security Agency of the Bush White House, compiled by Dorian
Zumel-Sicat and Jeannette Andrade for a three-part Manila Times
investigation that ran May 29-31, 2002.
Meiring was born in 1932 in South Africa and later became a naturalized US
citizen. His wife Angela is a nurse at a 7th Day Adventist hospital in Loma
Linda, California. He has been described as a surgeon, a con-man, a student
of medicinal herbs, a treasure hunter and, most recently, a terror bomber.
Charred US federal bank notes were found in his exploded hotel room, with a
three-week old fax from Derek S. Fawell, of 3 Glenhurst Avenue, Yorkshire,
England that read: "With regard to your ordnance disposal problem, I have
talked with our experts. They will be at your location upon the time frame
that you instruct. The device that you have described is highly volatile
and must be dealt with quite delicately."
Meiring's company letterhead, PAROUSIA International Trading, Inc., also
lists a UK address: Patchole Manor, Kentisbury Ford, North Devon, England.
Under the address are the words: When in residence. The address of record
for Meiring in his passport and with US authorities is 381 Smokeridge
Trail, Calimesa, California.
He first came to the Philippines in 1992, where he spent almost a year in
Metro Manila and North Luzon in the company of agents of the National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and under the protection of Ricardo Diaz, the
NBI Chief of Interpol.
In and out of Davao City for the past 10 years, Meiring had close ties to
well-placed government authorities in southern Mindanao, national
government officials and Philippine National Police officials like Colonel
Segundo Duran. Others in the circle: former Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief
Hashim Salamat and suspected New People's Army (NPA) leader Father Navarro.
Meiring also has close ties with `shady people' like MNLF Commander Tony
Nasa and others in Cotabato who acted as `front men' for his dealings with
the Abu Sayyaf.
He spent millions of dollars while in the Philippines, the source of his
funds unknown. According to The Manila Times, "his trail leads back
to...boxes supposedly containing US Federal Reserve notes and bonds
obtained from the Abu Sayyaf."
Meiring told David Hawthorn, an American, he'd found a "fabulous treasure"
in US Federal Reserve notes and, in 1992, sold a `box' full of them worth
$500 million plus. That loot was said to be part of an old war chest for
American and Filipino guerillas fighting the Japanese.
The MNLF, MILF, and Abu Sayyaf have recently sold similar US bonds and
notes to finance their arms purchases. Local authorities have made several
arrests.
Meiring fronted for a very wealthy, powerful group in Manila. He and his
American and Filipino associates were known to use explosives throughout
the south for `treasure salvage' and to supply other `treasure hunters'
with explosives.
Philippine intelligence officers refused to let The Manila Times publish
the names of `current' treasure hunters in Mindanao because they are all
being monitored for links to the MNLF, MILF, Abu Sayyaf, and other radical
Islamic fundamentalists.
Older names in the `game' cleared for release are almost as exotic as
Michael Meiring. Many have been linked to undergound Muslim independence
campaigns in Mindanao. In 1990-91, Bob Gould from Hayward, California,
Filipino-American Frederick Obado and others in Davao City made plans to
invade Sabah, Malaysia.
A close friend of Gould from Fremont, California, Nina North maintained
contact with Obado from 1990-92. The Manila Times reports that North was
linked to the CIA, involved with ?back door? transfers of gold bullion from
the Philippines and regularly dealt with representatives of Osama Bin Laden
and high officials in the Mid-East.
So, to answer the question directly:
Michael Terrence Meiring is a Manila-controlled CIA-connected White
House-protected explosives expert who spent the last ten years in the
southern Philippines hanging out with Filipino intelligence and police
brass, Muslim rebels and other `shady people'.
He equipped many of his acquaintances throughout Mindanao with explosives,
spent large sums of mystery cash and traded in US Federal Reserve notes
with the Abu Sayyaf Group - terrorists who regularly use the notes to buy
weapons....a gang that provided the excuse for the new US-Philippine
military alliance.
Meiring is an American with a base in England and explosive expert
colleagues in England who were contracted to assist him with his `ordnance'
endeavors at the time he blew his legs off while making a bomb in his hotel
room during the region-wide terror bombing spree that traumatized Mindanao
five months ago.
A boo-boo that earned a chop-chop hush-hush Uncle Sam medevac to San Diego....
...for the rebel-friendly man Prosecutor Bendico classified as a terrorist
two weeks ago.
NOTES FROM THE US TERROR UNDERGROUND
The Meiring episode is the best substantiated of several wild reports this
year that have Filipinos convinced there's a "stealth invasion" of their
country underway. Consistent themes include the involvement of Meiring's
favorite Muslim rebel armies -- the MNLF, MILF and Abu Sayyaf - and the
invasion of Sabah, Malaysia.
On February 21, Rosanna Halong, wife of notorious Abu Sayyaf leader Abu
Sabaya, phoned Radyo Agong dxMD in Koronodel City and announced that her
husband was in on a CIA plot to break Sabah away from Malaysia and fuse it
with Mindanao to form an independent country - a plot long popular with
CIA-linked treasure hunters like Gould and North.
Halong insisted her husband hatched his version with Jeffrey Schilling.
Sabaya took Schilling captive for eight months in the jungle after he
suspected the Berkeley grad was a CIA agent. Schilling swore the mix-up was
the fault of his friendship with another Zamboanga-based African-American
named Shaun, a `former Marine' the rebels `had met' earlier.
"Perhaps he was also a CIA agent," Schilling said matter-of-factly, "and
due to my association with him they assumed I was also a CIA agent."
Stories like the following explain why locals assume that every Yankee is a
spook in a country where Philippine Senator Aquilino Pimentel describes the
Abu Sayyaf as "a CIA monster." A group, he points out, whose original
members were organized, funded and trained by Ronald Reagan's secret agents
in the 1980s and sent to Afghanistan to help kick out the Russians. Twenty
years ago, that skullduggery was overseen by exactly the kind of people
Michael Meiring hung out with, in exactly the same part of the country.
Four days before Sabaya's wife said her man was an American puppet, the
Daily Zamboanga Times reported on a new and improved super-power puppet
army in Mindanao. The term "Bangsamoro" as used below means "Filipino
Muslim people":
NEW REBEL GROUP WANTS NORTH BORNEO
Bangsamoro News Agency February 17, 2002
A new emerging powerful revolutionary group in Mindanao yesterday revealed
that the Bangsamoro people of Mindanao have now decided to include in their
objective the liberation of North Borneo, which they claim as part of their
traditional homeland...
The leaders of the group, who refused to be identified for the meantime so
as not to preempt their formal declaration of liberation of Mindanao and
North Borneo in due time, told the Bangsamoro News Agency that their
organization was organized in November last year, has now more than 50,000
strong armed forces in Mindanao and another 50,000 in North Borneo with
highly sophisticated firepowers, including anti-tank, anti-aircraft
surface-to-air missile (SAM). Their forces, they said, is fast growing in
number.
The group claimed they are receiving financial and logistic support from
super-power countries, which they refused to identify. But apparently one
of these countries is the United States of America (USA).
The group is also highly confident that the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF)* of Chairman Nur Misuari and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)*
of Chairman Salamat Hashim and other armed groups in Mindanao fighting
against the Philippine government, as well as the people of Sabah and North
Borneo....will support their aspiration.
The group is also confident that the development-oriented Christian**
settlers in Mindanao will support the independence as one country of
Mindanao and North Borneo.
The same group also called on the peace-loving and democracy loving people
of Malaysia to reject the "arrogant, dictator and greedy" leadership of
Mahathir Mohammed if they don't want the wrath of the mighty American
power, and instead, install a true pro-people, God-fearing and democratic
leader.
The group proposed the formation of the "United States of Mindanao and
North Borneo".
One month later, the Indigenous People's Federal Army (IFPA) went public,
calling on the Arroyo government to amend the national constitution. A
spokesman for the heavily armed `defense forces' warned of a social volcano
unless Arroyo set up separate federal governments for the indigenous
people, Muslims* and Christians**.
Weeks before Michael Meiring blew his legs off while preparing to blow up
the Evergreen Hotel, IFPA leader Roger Adamat was identified as the man
behind the bomb scares in Manila and Cotabato intended to dramatize the
group's bid for a federal state.
The IFPA circulated cell-phone text messages throughout General Santos City
that 18 bombs were primed. At 3:15 pm on April 21, a powerful explosion
outside the FitMart shopping mall killed 15 people, including four
children, tricycle cab drivers, street vendors and a passerby.
And Ms. Arroyo demanded and got her tough anti-terror bill.
Michael Meiring's controversial NSA-sponsored "flight" three weeks later
and his new status as a wanted terrorist is of great interest in the wake
of the recent mystery bombing that just cost a Green Beret his life, and
which has been attributed to the Abu Sayyaf.
This bombing comes as Ms. Arroyo prepares to sign a Mutual Logistics and
Support Agreement with the Bush Administration that will give the Pentagon
wide-open access to the Philippines.
Securing such access was a major objective before September 11, 2001.
WASHINGTON, MANILA, TAIPEI & BEIJING
The future of the American-Filipino `anti-terror' alliance became clear
last month when Arroyo took up the issue of granting landing rights to
Taiwanese military pilots.
That move is a US orchestration to formalize a Washington-Manila-Taipei
triad in the South China Sea and coincides with the offensive return of the
USNS Bowditch.
The same American spy ship that sparked last year's deadly mid-air
collision of military planes over Hainan Island was back looking for
trouble last month in coastal waters off the People's Republic. The Chinese
insist the new intrusions of the Bowditch violate international law. The US
Navy says PRC patrol planes `harass' the crew as they gather data for battle.
Six months after the director of the CIA warned Congress about the 400
missiles Beijing now brackets the Straits with, Congress sent its new
Foreign Relations Authorization Act to President Bush. Newly signed into
law, the bill upgrades Taiwan to major non-NATO ally status and orders US
flags to fly at American buildings on the island Beijing calls a renegade.
The US has been heading towards China via the Philippines ever since Mr.
Bush took office.
Months before September 11, The Role of Southeast Asia in US Strategy
toward China, a Rand Corporation study, advised Donald Rumsfeld that he
must re-base American forces in the Philippines in order to retain US
military dominance in Asia.
A Rand board member since 1977, Rumsfeld joins Dick Cheney and Paul
Wolfowitz as leaders of a militaristic "Blue Team" that sees China as a
"competitor" which must be "contained" and kept "afraid" as part of the
"hedging strategy" recommended in the Rand study. Wolfowitz, an old
Indonesia hand, has been particularly outspoken in regards to the Fujian
missile bases.
The Rand study helped give birth to the new National Security Strategy of
the United States, which justifies pre-emptive strikes to enforce American
global economic supremacy and specifically cites the PRC as a top-of-mind
target.
AND LONDON?
Meiring's British connections and the Bangsamoro claim to multiple
superpower sponsors for the rebel army in Mindanao and Sabah raise a very
interesting question.
At this stage of the game it is impossible to tell if the robust
Anglo-American military alliance is active in Asia. But Philippine Defense
Secretary Angelo Reyes has been briefed in London repeatedly and Prince
Andrew was recently in Manila promoting stronger naval ties and weapon
sales to assist Arroyo with her "maritime challenges". The Arroyo
government has already authorized anti-terror partnerships between her
national police forces and Scotland Yard, the Special Boat Service (SBS)
and other British commando.
And Tony Blair is sold on a global crusade he perceives as altruistic. For
all the fine reasons spun out by neo-imperialist guru Robert Cooper.
GAMING THE ZONE: WILD MEN IN BORNEO?
An alliance willing to defy the UN and to use first-strike nukes as it sees
fit will not hesitate to `fudge' a little chaos in order to secure
long-term power projection bases in Asia. The United States has fudged
chaos in the Philippines before.
The first President Bush saluted America's first covert Filipino-Muslim
freedom fighters, and his son's inner circle has its own reasons to
resurrect the secret Muslim army trick. As soon as Arroyo signs the
Pentagon's proposed mutual support agreement, any unrest in Sabah,
Zamboanga City or Mindanao means the US must intervene.
The Rand study advised the Pentagon to keep the zone "warm" militarily.
That is the purpose of the current rolling series of anti-terror exercises
against the CIA's Abu Sayyaf Group. That was also the likely purpose of the
terror-bomber rescued by the Bush White House.
Future events will reveal America's game plan for Southeast Asia and who
the confederates are.
Last month, after a series of disturbances in Sabah work camps, Malaysia
expelled an estimated 30,000 undocumented Filipino laborers from the
troubled state in North Borneo that so many CIA plots seem to target...a
state where the Bangsamoro army claimed in February to have 50,000
insurgents armed and funded by the USA and other super-powers.
To protest the expulsion, Arroyo immediately moved to renew the Philippine
claim to Sabah. The President has ordered her chief Army officer to prepare
for all emergencies and to develop the `new rules of engagement' `we need'.
To guarantee the safety of returning workers, she has proposed the
permanent stationing of a Philippine navy ship off the Sabah coast.
On October 6, she called for even closer security ties with the United States.
[Primary research Zamboanga City, Manila, S. Leyte. *
global@devil.com *
http://www.messagecycle.com/]
2ND ARTICLE:
BRITON, 4 FILIPINOS INJURED IN DAVAO HOTEL BLAST
Posted: 5:09 PM (Manila Time) | May 16, 2002
Agence France-Presse
(archived at
http://www.inq7.net)
DAVAO – A British man and four Filipinos were seriously injured in two
separate explosions in the southern Philippines on Thursday, police said.
Michael Meiring, said to be in his mid-60s, was believed to have lost both
legs and was rushed to hospital after the blast in his room at the
Evergreen Hotel in Davao City, city police chief Samuel Yordan said.
Police had initially identified him as Michel Mering but hotel records
showed his real name.
The hotel management said Meiring is a Briton who had been staying at the
hotel for several years while hunting for treasure in the troubled southern
Philippines, Yordan added.
The region is said to be a trove of loot left by departing Japanese troops
in World War II.
The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined but police have
ruled out "outside perpetrators" and said it could have resulted from
equipment stored in Meiring's room.
A fire resulting from the explosion was swiftly put out.
"Since he is a treasure hunter, it is probable he had explosive materials,"
Yordan told Agence France-Presse.
Chief Inspector Fe Basan said it was likely the victim would lose one leg
and was still in critical condition.
A gift-wrapped bomb went off outside the public market of Midsayap town in
the south about four hours later, injuring four people, said the Midsayap
police chief, Sr. Supt. Raul Supeter.
He said one of his men was among the injured after he found the
suspicious-looking package inside a market stall and carried it outside the
marketplace, preventing potentially greater casualties.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
There have been several deadly explosions in the south in recent months,
some of them linked to Muslim separatists.
3RD ARTICLE: (A three-part article from The Manila Times)
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
TREASURE HUNTER A PLAYER IN A MORE ABSORBING TALE
By Dorian Zumel-Sicat, Correspondent
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/may/29/top_stories/20020529top5.html First of three parts
Michael T. Meiring had basked in the shadow of inscrutability. By some
accounts, he is a treasure hunter, and a physician who dabbled in herbal
medicine. There is mention of a wife, a nurse who worked in a hospital in
California. He doesn’t smoke, and drinks only occasionally.
It is said he has been in and out of Davao City for the past 10 years,
always staying in Suite 306 of the Evergreen Hotel. The talk in Davao is
that Meiring hobnobs with influential political personalities in Mindanao,
among them Nur Misuari and Hashim Salamat.
An explosion in his Davao hotel suite on May 16 ripped off that mantle of
obscurity, exposing Meiring to the public limelight. What has been
revealed, however, is a more complex man whose trail leads back to South
Africa and a box supposedly containing US Federal Reserve notes.
Since the May 16 blast, there have been attempts by authorities to keep the
circumstances surrounding the incident hush-hush.
Meiring lost both his legs in the explosion, which also left a big portion
of his body badly burned. What is unusual is that he was reportedly whisked
out of Davao on a chartered plane, accompanied by what Immigration
officials described as agents of the US National Security Council.
The mystery doesn’t stop there. Meiring’s present whereabouts are unclear.
One report said he was taken to the Makati Medical Center in Makati City,
where he is still under intensive care. Another version has it that Meiring
was flown to San Diego, California after a brief stay at Makati Medical.
Piecing together an accurate story about Meiring will be difficult. But
there are indications that he is part of a bigger, more spellbinding tale,
one detailing a quest for treasure, intrigue and, possibly, double-cross.
What is definitely known about Meiring is that he was born in 1932 in South
Africa and later became a naturalized US citizen. He first came to the
Philippines in 1992, where he spent almost a year in Metro Manila, where he
stayed at the Sundowner Hotel or the Manila Garden Hotel.
While in Manila he went around with two agents of the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI). He was in the Philippines primarily to hunt for
treasure and do research in herbal medicine. His wife, Angelita (or
Angelina) is a nurse at a 7th Day Adventist hospital in Loma Linda,
California.
Meiring had close links with some well-placed government authorities in
southern Mindanao as well as with national government officials. Included
in this circle are former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman
Nur Misuari and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Hashim Salamat,
and even suspected New People’s Army (NPA) leader Father Navarro.
Meiring’s connections with rebel leaders made the military wary about him.
He was under surveillance by more than one intelligence unit on more than
one occasion. Still, there was little to add to his dossier.
Meiring is believed to have spent millions of dollars while in the
Philippines. Where he got his funds was not known. Medical research grants
from South Africa could be one source. “He has told me that the South
African government gives him some support,” says Meiring’s private
secretary, Sylvia Durante.
According to close friend, American David Hawthorn, Meiring told him he had
found a fabulous treasure in US Federal notes.
The way Hawthorn told it, Meiring in 1992 was able to sell a “box” full of
US Federal Reserve notes worth more than $500 million.
That box was one of 12 said to be part of a war chest for American and
Filipino guerillas fighting Japan forces during World War II. After the
war, the boxes disappeared.
Thursday, May 30, 2002
A TIMES EXCLUSIVE
TREASURE HUNTER HAD WHITE SUPREMACISTS FOR ASSOCIATES
By Dorian Zumel-Sicat, Correspondent and Jeannette Andrade, Reporter
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/may/30/top_stories/20020530top6.html Second of three parts
Philippine and US investigators chasing the case of Michael Meiring, the
American who sustained critical injuries from a mysterious explosion in his
Davao hotel suite, have to dig through a wide circle of acquaintances —
ran-ging from South African anti-apartheid warriors to American white
supremacists.
The Manila Times confirmed yesterday from a source at the Makati Medical
Center that Meiring remains confined at the hospital’s cardiovascular unit.
The Times also learned that police in Davao City had finally filed illegal
possession of explosives charges against the American.
The Times tried to visit Meiring but was told only his doctor — handpicked
by the US Embassy — has access to him. The Times was also not allowed to
see any of Meiring’s watchers.
A close friend of the American had earlier claimed Meiring was airlifted to
San Diego, California. Other American sources from the California city,
home to a sprawling US naval base, also insisted yesterday that Meiring had
arrived there.
Among the most startling developments in the Meiring case was Immigration
Deputy Commissioner Daniel Queto’s admission last week, that no less than
agents of the US National Security Council had brought Meiring from Davao
to Manila.
CONFUSING BACKGROUND
At the time of the blast, journalists were confused about Meiring’s
nationality. Some dubbed him British, others American.
Meiring was formerly a citizen of South Africa, of British descent. He fled
to the United States, sources said, towards the end of South Africa’s
apartheid regime.
While the same sources said Meiring was a doctor for the South African
police, they also stressed his ties to the African National Congress of
Nelson Mandela, and hinted that he fled because of pursuit by state
security officials.
American David Hawthorn, a close friend of Meiring, claimed the blast
victim had confessed passing to Mandela’s government the proceeds of a box
of old US federal notes. That box was one of 12, containing an estimated
$500-million worth of notes.
Hawthorn said Meiring showed him a letter from the South African government
and a US Treasury permit to back his claim. Hawthorn also saw a “packing
list” that had a cover sheet printed with the words “US Army,” the Army
seal, some numbers and a group of upper case letters. Meiring, he said,
claimed the list represented the serial numbers of the missing notes,
dating back to 1937.
DOUBLE CROSS?
Meiring had spent the last nine years looking for more boxes and other
treasure, securing a permit during the Ramos administration to recover
treasure from sunken Japanese and American ships around Mindanao, and to
look for gold bars and “Victory” notes.
It was then that he entered into a partnership with private hunters.
According to both Hawthorn and secretary Silvya Durante, Meiring had
fronted for a very wealthy, powerful group in Manila. He returned to the
country six months ago to buy another box of federal notes but was told the
treasure was still in Mindanao. After a month, the impatient Meiring flew
to Davao, after getting information on the box’s whereabouts.
The American’s friends fear the Manila group, threatened of losing the box,
could have plotted against Meiring.
The group, they told The Times, was connected to a long-time Meiring
financier, James Rowe of Nevada, who joined the victim during a 1993 visit.
WHITE SUPREMACIST?
Rowe is executive producer of Wild Rose Productions, an independent film
and video documentary company based in New Green Valley, Nevada, near Las
Vegas. One of the projects of Wild Rose was to do a documentary on
Yamashita treasure allegedly hidden and recovered by highland tribes in
parts of Mindanao.
American intelligence analyst Dan Crawford said Rowe had links to a
right-winged, white supremacist and tax revolt group in Nevada that is
linked with the neo-Nazi party of the United States and the “Fifth Reich”
in Germany.
Treasure hunters claim much of Yama#####a’s ‘treasure’ was money, jewels,
and gold belonging to the Nazis. Their descendants, inspired by some of the
surviving and aged minion of Adolf Hitler, are in search of that treasure,
believing that they can recover it, they can revive the movement and
fulfill their dreams of a world run by a superior Aryan race.
Those same people harbor a deep-seeded resentment against Nelson Mandela
and those who dismantled the racist apartheid system of South Africa.
Meiring, being a supporter of Mandela is considered a “traitor” to the
white race.
Another right-wing associate of Meiring is an American named Chuck Ager,
from somewhere in Colorado, USA. Ager is a mining engineer. He was tasked
by Meiring to supervise more than 30 tunneling operations in search of the
remaining 12 boxes and the Yama#####a treasure. In all, Ager was in charge
of more than P5-million worth of mining and digging equipment purchase over
the years by Meiring from a hardware store in the vicinity of the Evergreen
Hotel.
FEARFUL
Both Hawthorn and Durante claimed that Meiring had feared for his life in
recent weeks. Each time that Hawthorn asked why, Meiring would only say,
“it has to do with the treasure.”
The intelligence source also said that within three weeks of the blast,
Meiring was in communication with a man from England named Derek S. Fawell,
of Yorkshire. Fawell knew Meiring well, according to communications from
him to Meiring that was recovered by the source. “With regard to your
ordinance disposal problem, I have talked with our experts. They will be at
your location upon the time frame that you instruct. The device that you
have described is highly volatile and must be deal with quite delicately,”
says one paragraph of that facsimile communication shown to me by the
source. Fawell’s address is listed as 3 Glenhurst Avenue, Yorkshire, England.
On Meiring’s company letterhead, PAROUSIA International Trading, Inc.,
with Evergreen Hotel, Davao City address and telephone number, is a UK
address: Patchole Manor, Kentisbury Ford, North Devon, England. Under the
address, in italicized letters are the words: When in residence. The only
address of record for Meiring, in his passport and with US authorities is,
381 Smokeridge Trail, Calimesa, California.
Almost immediately after the blast, security tightened around Meiring.
Hawthorn told The Times: “I was told by a Filipino in Davao, carrying a
message from the US Embassy that Michael would never be charged with a
crime in connection with the explosion. The investigation will end up at a
stone wall. Michael will be protected and eventually taken back to the
safety of the United States. The incident will be shortly forgotten, if
you’re willing to forget it.”
But even that doesn’t explain why a treasure hunter and collector of
medicinal herbs merited attention from the powerful US NSC.
Friday, May 31, 2002
A TIMES EXCLUSIVE:
SPIES, TERRORISTS ATTRACTED TO TREASURE HUNTERS’ CIRCLES
By Dorian Zumel-Sicat
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/may/31/top_stories/20020531top6.html Conclusion
LOST and hidden treasures are the stuff of which legends are made. The
legends of the treasures of Mindanao are full of international intrigue,
accounts of treachery and betrayal, tales about shadowy characters, shady
deals all mixed with a bit of the noble and of compassion.
Michael T. Meiring was critically injured in a blast that gutted his hotel
room, Suite 305 of the Evergreen Hotel in downtown Davao City on May 16. He
will not fully recover from those injuries. Both of his legs were amputated
at the knee because of irreparable compound fractures. He suffered first to
third degree burns in 40 percent of his body. The “who” and “why” of the
blast remains unknown amidst an array of speculation by investigators and
reporters.
Meiring’s background is murky but that, military defense officials note, is
par for the course. Terrorists and intelligence operatives of all stripes
about among treasure hunters’ circles.
The Americans have used treasure hunting as a cover for intelligence
activities. In 1963, a C-47 US Air Force Cargo plane crashed somewhere in
the central highlands of Mindanao, sinking into the depths of a lake that
has yet to be charted. Top secret is the tag on this story.
According to sources in the United States who will remain anonymous, the
plane was carrying the stolen cache of Madame Ngu who fled from Vietnam in
1963 after a successful US-led coup. The light was unmanifested and had no
flight plan. But sources say that it was enroute to Clark Air Base. There
is record of a sole survivor of the crash, Airman Lawrence Havelock.
Havelock reported struggled to Cagayan de Oro, where he was treated at a
hospital for exposure and minor injuries. Later he was repatriated and then
mysteriously given a general discharge from the US Air Force.
Several years after his discharge Havelock returned to Mindanao to try to
find the crash site and the plane. He never did. He returned to the States
broke and in debt. He finally ended up convicted of a federal fraud.
Terrorists, too, have been known to put up treasure hunting fronts. The
three Vietnamese terrorists arrested last year for plotting to blow up the
Vietnamese Embassy here were assets of the US intelligence community. They
and their Japanese colleague were also involved in treasure hunting — and
the export of marijuana. They had links to close friends of deposed
presidents Joseph Estrada and Ferdinand Marcos and their patroness and
financier hobnobbed with a poseur who called himself a son of Marcos.
There are other names that come up in the treasure hunter game.
Intelligence officers allowed The Manila Times to publish only the names of
those involved during the 1990s, saying “current” names of the list were
being monitored for links to a strange circle of white supremacists and
Islamic fundamentalists:
Bob Gould (in the Philippines in March of 1990 and June of 1991) came from
Hayward, California. His connection was a Frederick Obado,
Filipino-American, who was linked to a group of Kodar Kiram, son of the
late Sultan Jumalul Kiram and younger brother of Rodinod Kiram. Gould and
others in Davao City made plans in 1990 and 1991 to invade Sabbah and claim
it for the Sultanate of Sabbah-Sulu. Gould has connections with a
Libertarian group in California and is the subject of an Internal Revenue
Service investigation on tax evasion.
Nina North. A close friend of Gould. Her acquaintances claim she has
connections to the Central Intelligence Agency, but those connections are
too vague. In 1990, 1991, and 1992, she maintained contact with Obado and
was dealing with high officials in the Mid-East, including representatives
of Khadaffy and Bin Laden, with regard to transfer of gold bullion from the
Philippines, through the “back door.” North is from Fremont, California.
Andy Gould (no relation to Bob), an Australian and John Lawrence, a Brit,
both hangers-on in Ermita (back in the early ’90s). They also had dealings
with Obado, Bob Gould, and Swihart with regard to gold bullion and the
Yama#####a treasure.
“Tinoy” Simbahon of Magpet, North Cotabato. A treasure guide. His wife had
met with Obado and Gould on several occasions in the Manila Pen back in
1990. He had met with Obado and a certain De Lara, in late 1991 in Magpet
to make a deal for the purchase of gold bullion. Simbahon had admitted to
Gould that he was secretly working for Swihart to help Muslim independence
in Mindanao.
Fred Eder, Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a tailor. But he has a corporation
registered under the name of Rose Mining and Exploration Company, with
headquarters somewhere in General Santos City. Simbahon is a partner. This
is the group that enticed Obado and Gould to look for treasure. Eder is
also somehow connected with a Fil-Am group that once supported the defunct
Movement for Independent Mindanao (MIM). On radio station KNDY, Honolulu,
as late as 1999, Eder was heard advocating independence for Muslim Mindanao.
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=25636