and hold them hostage in their strongholds in the southernmost Philippines. They made fools of the Philippine military and reaped tens of millions of US dollars, in hard cold cash, for their efforts. In May 2001, Abu Sayyaf struck again, this time kidnapping numerous Filipino and foreign hostages from a resort on Palawan and transporting them hundreds of kilometres across open sea, outrunning the Philippine Navy, back to their stronghold on the Philippines' southernmost pirate islands. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vowed to crush them and sent in the Army and Air Force, just as Estrada had done in 2000. First time round, all that the military had succeeded in doing was bombing, terrorising and killing innocent Muslim civilians. In 2001, the Army actually cornered the Abu Sayyaf band holding the hostages, on the island of Basilan; there was a battle, with more civilian deaths and then the kidnappers simply vanished. Compelling evidence emerged later in the year that senior military commanders were in cahoots with Abu Sayyaf, were easily bribed and had made a profitable arrangement to split the huge ransom payments from the previous year's takings. So Abu Sayyaf and its hostages simply melted back into the Basilan jungle. They were holding three American hostages -- in June, they beheaded one. But they have held onto the other two, a missionary couple from Kansas. The US showed no interest beyond sending out Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to look into a crime involving US citizens. (In November 2001 there was