Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Michael Meiring: Blast from the Past

A name I wish more people knew is that of Michael Meiring. And I wish we knew more about him than next to nothing.

Meiring is an American national and self-described "fortune hunter," who was seriously injured May 16, 2002 in an explosion in his Davao City hotel room on the Phillippine island of Mindanao. Screaming in pain, his legs mangled, Meiring told police someone had lobbed a grenade through his window. Actually, the explosion had originated inside a metal box with which Meiring had checked in.

Just three days later, an FBI team arrived at his hospital room and spirited him stateside before the matter could be investigated, despite arrest warrants, an order that he not leave the country, and "without the knowledge of any police, military or government official in the city or region," in the words of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who called Meiring's FBI-aided flight an "affront to Philippine sovereignty."

From The Minda News excellent three-part series on the Meiring mystery:

The circumstances behind Meiring’s sudden departure from the hospital, inspite of his serious condition, raised questions about his real identity. A number of officials in ‘for background only’ interviews, speculated Meiring may have been an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Meiring himself, according to those who had spent some time with him, refered to himself as CIA although he would qualify that to mean “Christ In Action.”

Four months after the incident, Davao City Prosecutor Raul Bendico announced that findings from the investigation of the case indicated that the accident occurred when Meiring was attempting to set up explosives intended to blow up the Evergreen Hotel.

When Meiring checked in on December 14, 2001, he was carrying two heavy metal boxes. He repeatedly warned hotel employees not to touch them, and instructed that his room be cleaned without chemicals. Davao police determined that the explosion originated inside one of the boxes. Among the documents recovered from the box was an officer identification card of the Moro National Liberation Front’s Bangsamoro Armed Forces, bearing Meiring’s name, photograph and September 17, 1935 as date of birth.

The Manila Times reported May 29, 2002 that Meiring

...had close ties to well-placed government authorities in southern Mindanao, national government officials and Philippine National Police…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.

Again from The Minda News:

Meiring, according to a source who knew him up close but requested not to be named because "grabe ang connection nyan" (he is well-connected), had visitors from various sectors, rich and poor, congressmen, councilors, a governor, military and once, the source said, Meiring complained he was duped by a police general.

The source said Meiring's predictions "always came true" such as the peso-dollar rate reaching this and that level. But what the source cannot forget was when Meiring said in January last year that with the Americans coming for Balikatan, sporadic bombings were to be expected and there would be a "big one." When the source asked Meiring if the General Santos City bombing on April 21 last year was the "big one," Meiring reportedly said no. Fifteen persons were killed and 55 others were injured in that blast.

The Mindanao Times report a day after the blast quoted Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as saying the police investigated Meiring the Friday before (May 10), after the intelligence community found him "highly suspicious" for bringing in boxes in and out of the hotel.

The police had good reason for their heightened suspicion. Mindanao had been enduring a terror campaign of bombings, including an explosion less than a month earlier in General Santos City which killed 15 and injured 55 more. And for the two days before Meiring's accidental explosion, bomb threats had forced the early adjournment of the regular session of the Davao City legislature and sent employees of around nine government agencies in the Council building scampering for safety.

Do you remember the mutiny of junior officers of the Philippine Army in Manilla, in the summer of 2003? They accused their military brass and the Arroyo government of conspiring with the United States in "Operation Greenbase," which involved the staging of bombings on the island of Mindanao in order to justify an increased US presence in the country.

Some particulars of what they were alleging:
  • Senior military officials, in collusion with the Arroyo regime, carried out last March's bombing of the airport in the southern city of Davao, as well as several other attacks. Thirty-eight people were killed in the bombings. The leader of the mutiny, Lieutenant Antonio Trillanes, claims to have "hundreds" of witnesses who can testify to the plot.
  • The army has fuelled terrorism in Mindanao by selling weapons and ammunition to the very rebel forces the young soldiers were sent to fight.
  • Members of the military and police helped prisoners convicted of terrorist crimes escape from jail. The "final validation", according to Trillanes, was Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi's July 14 escape from a heavily guarded Manila prison. Al-Ghozi is a notorious bomb-maker with Jemaah Islamiah, which was linked to both the Bali and Marriott attacks.
  • The government was on the verge of staging a new string of bombings to justify declaring martial law.
At the time, Naomi Klein seemed the only Western observer paying informed attention, and was certainly the only one who was informed by the widely-unknown Meiring story:

...the soldiers were not the first to accuse the Philippine government of bombing its own people. Days before the mutiny, a coalition of church groups, lawyers and NGOs launched a "fact-finding mission" to investigate persistent rumours that the state was involved in the Davao explosions. It is also investigating the possible involvement of US intelligence agencies.

These suspicions stem from a bizarre incident on May 16 2002, in Davao. Michael Meiring, a US citizen, allegedly detonated explosives in his hotel room, injuring himself badly. While recovering in hospital, Meiring was whisked away by two men - who witnesses say identified themselves as FBI agents - and flown to the US. Local officials have demanded that Meiring return to face charges, to little effect. BusinessWorld, a leading Philippine newspaper, has published articles openly accusing Meiring of being a CIA agent involved in covert operations "to justify the stationing of American troops and bases in Mindanao".

Yet the Meiring affair has never been reported in the US press. And the mutinous soldiers' incredible allegations were no more than a one-day story. Maybe it just seemed too outlandish: an out-of-control government fanning the flames of terrorism to pump up its military budget, hold on to power and violate civil liberties. Why would Americans be interested in something like that?

Those who disbelieve on principle that governments, even "friendly" governments, might stage false-flag terrorist actions upon their own people, simply don't know the material. Likewise for those who cannot imagine the covert agencies of the United States having a hand in such duplicitous atrocity. But they're in luck: a report this weekend on corruption in senior ranks of the Philippine military suggests much more material could be forthcoming shortly from that particular front of the "War on Terror." Especially given the remarks of Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, who said "there are times when the marketplace of ideas has to be suspended to avoid the creation of another problem."


18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Christ and Action" and the armagedddonist term "Parousia" are certainly suggestive. Personally I find protestant and catholic/jesuit conspiracy theory about as credible as the UFO/hollow moon stuff. Nevertheless, it appears the CIA's use of missionary organizations in the Philippines goes back to the Wycliffe Bible Translators and Summer Institute of Linguistics in the 1950's:

"Over the years, WBT/SIL's close relationship with U.S. government officials and allied foreign leaders has earned the missionaries a reputation as "assets" of the CIA. In the Philippines in the early 1950's, for example, WBT/SIL representative Richard Pittman befriended Ramon Magsaysay, the politician the CIA promoted after it's defeat of the Huk guerrillas. Once Magsaysay was installed as Philippine president, he awarded WBT/SIL a contract to work on the islands. [It should be noted that the Rockefellers fund a Magsaysay Scholarship]http://www.seekgod.ca/wycliffe.htm

5:32 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That quote is actually from Sara Diamond's book Spiritual Warfare.

5:51 a.m.  
Blogger Jeff Wells said...

An invaluable resource re: the CIA's use of missionary organizations is "Thy Will Be Done (The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil)" by Gerard Colby.

8:25 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I say Jeff, I don't know if you already saw this:
A Mr. Michael Meiring , part of the 'Ocean Drilling Program Technical Team' received a Meritorious Service award from Texas A & M President, former CIA director Robert Gates in 2003.


[url]http://hr.tamu.edu/pmsa.html[/url]

11:34 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Juxtapose this story with the one last year of the British soldiers(?)caught tooling around the Basra area dressed as locals and carrying explosives in a civilian vehicle. Arrested,they had to be rescued from an Iraqi jail by Brit troops. Who are the terrorists again? Who bombed the Spanish trains? 9/11? WTF!?!? (And for that matter,is the "anonymous" posting his search history livininBrisbane,perhaps?)

3:16 p.m.  
Anonymous wolfenstein said...

The home of the infamous european toxic clan, psycho urban fraggers that pawn the virtual return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory battlefields.

10:27 p.m.  
Anonymous justpub said...

Just Pub, a dumb return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory comic strip by feuersturm.

10:27 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Penyakit ini umumnya muncul karena penderita mengejan terlalu keras pada saat buang air besar. Dengan mengejan terlalu keras, maka pembuluh darah di sekitar anus dapat melebar dan pecah menimbulkan infeksi dan pembengkakan yang berakhir pada masalah wasir atau ambeien tersebut.

5:16 a.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

salah satu cara yang efektif untuk menghilangkan kutil yang tumbuh di vagina adalah dengan obat herbal denture indonesia.Obat yang mamapu menghilangkan kutil sampai akar akarnya.Obat herbal denature penghilang kutil kelamin aman untuk organ kewanitaan karna obat herbal denature terbuat dari bahan herbal pilihan.

2:47 p.m.  
Blogger ok said...

obat kencing nanah De Nature

Obat Kencing Nanah Gang jie dan Gho Siah.Gonore adalah penyakit menular seksual (PMS) yang disebabkan oleh bakteri  Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Bakteri ini dapat ditularkan dari orang ke orang selama aktivitas seksua.Untuk Pemesanan Obat Penyakit Kelamin Kencing Nanah di 0812-2854-1999 atau Pin BB 53E87F23

12:13 a.m.  
Blogger Pengobatan Ambeien Wasir said...

Nuwun sewu kula bade nderek promosiuntukandayangterkenapenyakitkulitsepertikadasataukudiskinitelahhadirobat herbaldaride natureyangsudahterbuktikhasiatnyamantab!!!!!!!!

4:21 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Apabila anda sedang mencari pengobatan kutil kelamin untuk pria maupun wanita segera kunjungi kami http://obatkutilkelaminwanita.blogdetik.com cara mengobati kutil kelamin pada wanita tanpa harus menggunakan operasi cukup dengan menggunakan obat khusus kutil kelamin paling manjur dari klinik de nature manjurserta sangat aman untuk ibu hamil

9:06 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bukan hanya pengobatan medis saja tapi ada juga pengobatan rumah alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menyingkirkan penyakit kutil kelamin ini. Intinya, karena kutil ini muncul di daerah yang sensitif, maka anda harus mencari pengobatan yang terbaik pada kulit Anda dan jika diperlukan juga dibantu dengan tenaga medis yang professional. Sebab dokter akan menjadi sumber informasi yang baik untuk mengobati penyakit ini.

2:48 p.m.  
Blogger Pengobatan Ambeien Wasir said...

MANTAB * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***

10:34 a.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kadang disertai
dengan sakit saat kencing, perih, organ intim terasa panas menyiksa,
gatal,..

2:33 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

penyakit yang ditularkan melalui hubungan seks : vaginal, oral dan anal. Juga dapat menular melalui persentuhan kulit dengan daerah yang terinfeksi.

12:45 p.m.  
Blogger obar herbal manjur alami said...

111111111111111111111111111111

5:05 p.m.  
Blogger obar herbal manjur alami said...

111111111111111111111111111111

12:59 a.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Google