{"article":{"id":22253,"heading":"did CIA fake terror bombings i philippines?","author":"brian","created":"2002-11-14 05:44:20","modified":"2013-11-10 23:46:59","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:46:59","article":"

A DISTURBING PIECE OF NEWS We GOT IN THE MAIL:

From: deleted@yahoo.com<\/a>

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<\/a>

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<\/a>)

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<\/a>)

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<\/a> *

http:\/\/www.messagecycle.com\/<\/a>]

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<\/a>)

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<\/a>

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<\/a>

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<\/a>

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<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"remember lavon affair in 1954? Has US done something similar here?","numcomment":17,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/11\/22253.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":72674,"heading":"Mr","article":"Everyone knows the "C.I.A." is a terrorist org . for the U.S. Government and each poor nation in the world should wake up and stop taking bribes and the intimidation that the U.S. and the C.I.A. gives out !!","author":"Bobby (the) Brain","parent_id":22253,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-15 18:35:35","modified":"2003-07-15 18:35:35","fileurl":""}]}