Update 3: Politician charged over Philippines massacre

Authorities have filed murder charges against a politician over the massacre of 57 unarmed civilians in the Philippines, state-run media reported Thursday. Andal Ampatuan Jr, who is the mayor of the town of Datu Unsayalso and the son of a Philippines provincial governor, had voluntarily turned himself in for questioning Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how many murder charges Ampatuan would face in Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, in the southern Philippines. Five other people believed to be connected to the massacre were also being prosecuted, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported. This group includes three police officers.

Suspicion had fallen on the Ampatuan family, key allies of the Arroyo administration in the Maguindanao region of southern Mindanao province. The massacre is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history.

The man charged in the grisly killings of at least 57 people in the Philippines claimed his innocence from his jail cell, blaming instead the leader of a militant Islamic group. Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the provincial governor of Maguindanao, was charged with seven counts of murder.

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American Indicted for Ties with Al Qaeda

A 26-year-old American-born Long Island man who traveled to Pakistan and trained in a Qaeda camp there last year has been charged with taking part in a rocket attack against a United States base in Afghanistan, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday. The man, Bryant Neal Vinas, who was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, last November, was also charged with assisting Al Qaeda by providing “expert advice and assistance” that was “derived from specialized knowledge of the New York transit system and the Long Island Rail Road, communications equipment and personnel,” according to the papers.

The court papers, a criminal information charging Mr. Vinas with conspiracy and carrying out the attempted missile attack, providing material support to Al Qaeda and receiving military support from the group, did not mention a specific New York City plot involving the Long Island Rail Road. The papers, filed by prosecutors in the office of the Brooklyn United States attorney, Benton J. Campbell, also say that he attempted the attack and received “military-type training” from and on behalf of Al Qaeda between March and August 2008.

• "LI terrorist: LIRR knowledge came from riding it", Newsday, 7/23/09.
• "Long Island Traitor Trained To Be Suicide Bomber", New York Post, 7/23/09.
• "Long Island Man Charged in Attack on U.S. Base in Afghanistan", New York Times, 7/22/09.

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