Is Terrorism Behind Mysterious Crop-Duster Crashes in Philippines?
Five crop-duster planes have crashed on the terror-plagued island of Mindanao in a short period of time. Annie Jacobsen says that while it may feel like Mindanao is half a world away, the island's plantations are linked to the international food supply chain. Is it time to start worrying about what's being sprayed on your bananas?
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There have been five crop-duster plane crashes on the terrorist-plagued island of Mindanao in the Philippines in a 90-day period. The most recent incident happened on December 6. Three of the five crashes occurred on the same day, November 19-and in the same, early morning hour. One incident involved two crop-dusters that collided in mid-air. All five crop duster crashes occurred within a 50-mile radius of one another (in a region called Davao del Norte), and all five involved privately owned aircraft used to spray chemicals on food.
Mindanao is a terrorist stronghold, with three major terrorist organizations-two Islamic groups and one communist group-running training camps there. The Islamic terror groups are Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); the communist terror group is called The New People’s Army. In 2005, US Ambassador to the Philippines, Joseph Mussomeli, called Mindanao the “new Mecca for terrorism,” and warned that the area was so lawless and porous it ran the risk of becoming “like Afghanistan.” In July 2007, the two Islamic groups ambushed 80 Filipino Marines on nearby Basilan Island, killing 14 and beheading ten.
The U.S. Department of State currently sponsors a program on the island of Mindanao called “Arms to Farms.” The program aims to help members of the Islamic terrorist organizations to lay down their arms and farm bananas instead. The bananas farmed on Mindanao make their way to U.S. households, often in the form of banana chips, according to the U.S. Consulate website.
Mindanao is the Filipino production headquarters for multi-national agricultural giants like Dole and Del Monte; both corporations have major plantations on the island. Dole Food Companies-the world’s largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables-employs 5,000 workers in Mindanao. According to the Global Business Coalition, Dole’s banana production accounts for “approximately 30% of the country’s banana industry.” The first of the five crop duster crashes occurred on a plantation owned by Dole.
Most people in the Untied States are familiar with the concept of the crop duster threat-that spray planes could be used to disperse chemical or biological agents into the food supply chain. Only a few days after 9/11, the FBI learned that Mohammed Atta and other Middle Eastern men had visited an airport in rural Florida to inquire about crop dusters. The men returned several times over a seven-month period. Information about crop dusters and chemical agents was also found on the computer of convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui (he emailed the University of Minnesota inquiring about a “short course you offer to become a crop-duster.”) To date, the FBI has interviewed more than 3,200 crop duster owners and operators in the U.S. through a program called “Operation Tripwire,” which aims to identify sleeper cells.
But back to Mindanao and the crop-duster crashes there. On November 20, 2007, the Air Transportation Office (ATO)-the Philippines’ equivalent of the FAA-suspended the use of all crop dusters on the island pending a probe into what happened. A few days later, officials determined the crashes were accidents. “Sabotage is impossible,” ATO official Frederick San Felix, told The Philippine Star. Then a fifth crash happened, on December 6, 2007. Officials have yet to comment.
Here’s a rundown on the Mindanao Island crop-duster crashes as they were reported in newspapers in South East Asia, China, and the Middle East.
September 6, 2007, 7:30 a.m: a crop-duster plane explodes and crashes in the remote village of Barangay Talomo. Sun Star Philippines reports:
A pilot from Davao City was killed when the plane he was flying crashed…According to a report aired over GMA News Davao, the incident happened at around 7:30 a.m. in Barangay (village) Talomo while the plane was spraying chemicals at a banana plantation owned by Dole-Stanfilco.
According to eyewitnesses on the ground, the plane was “engulfed in smoke and explod[ed] in mid-air before falling to the ground.”
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15 Comments
Susan Katz Keating:Excellent analysis, Annie - and a great catch. Many thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Dec 21, 2007 - 8:56 am Morton Doodslag:“…I’d be inclined to think these [crop duster crashes] are the work of the New People’s Army…” - Dr. Abuza, Professor of South East Asian Studies at Simmons College.
It’s never the Muslims, is it, Dr. Abuza. It’s never Islam.
Thanks for bringing this to light, Annie.
Dec 21, 2007 - 1:07 pm Spook Two:Arms for Farms. Sounds like FBI is there.
Dec 21, 2007 - 3:27 pm Eldridge:“‘Sabotage is impossible,” ATO official Frederick San Felix, told The Philippine Star.”
This sounds a lot like something the FBi would say. The same way they always say, “Terrorism is ruled out,” when something fishy happens here. I agree with Spook. The Bureau is on the ground in Mindanao. They don’t want people freaking out and canceling their orders for bananas.
Dec 21, 2007 - 3:52 pm Steven D:Some relevant information for you:
The Asian suppliers contributed a measly share of 0.04% in the US market for banana with the Philippines having the biggest share, supplying a volume of 1,608 metric tons valued at US$1.9 million.
Source
America gets far and away most of its bananas from South and Central America.
The US is the single biggest importing country of banana with total import volume of 3.8 million tons valued at almost US$1.4billion in 1997. The US has a 28.3% share of the world’s total banana importations. The Latin American countries dominate the US market for banana. Costa Rica and Ecuador are the top exporters capturing half of the US market for banana at a combined volume of 1.8 million tons. Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia have a combined share of 40% of the US market for banana, exporting a volume of 1.5 million metric tons.
Source
The Philippines also exports about roughly 16,000 toms of banana chips to the US. I couldn’t find how large a market share that represents, but I assume it is still significantly less than what we import from Latin America.
I think the concern about Islamic terrorists in the Philippines poisoning our banana supply is probably overstated.
Dec 22, 2007 - 10:51 am Jordan Malone:Isn’t it far more likely that any crop dusters flown by, and subsequently crashed by, future terrorists are the result of sloppy flying lessons?
If this is in any way terrorist related — and that’s a big if — I suspect that the Philippines is just a big safe parking lot if you’re a terrorist needing crop-duster flying practice; the bananas are not significant.
Dec 22, 2007 - 12:03 pm Morton Doodslag:I agree with other posters that if this is anything, it’s probably not so much about the bananas as it is about terrorists failing miserably on a recon run, or wiping out known pilots to infiltrate the region with their own - all of it is a stretch, but I admit I went to my kitchen to check on the labels.
Guatemala.
Few!
Having gotten that out of the way, we can’t be too sanguine — look at how easily the Chinese recently poisoned our pets, and are still sending contaminated toys to our kids. I’m not suggesting a paranoid conspiracy viz. the Chinese, but simply pointing out how easily poisonous foodstuffs and other things are getting through everyday. With the intent, and let’s face it, the Muslims want to see us dead, and with the proper poison, and let’s face it, the Muslims are looking for it, tens of thousands of us could be piosoned and dying before our government got savvy. We’re left flapping in the breeze, and the Muslims remain free to plot their evil Islamic Jihad across the spectrum.
Dec 22, 2007 - 8:36 pm Dan D:I do not see anything sinister in this. If you have ever been to the Philippines this would not surprise you. The Jeepneys that haul people everywhere are wired together with duct tape, not figurative, literally. I saw many that had a 2X4 for a brake pedal. Once, a Philippine air force officer was questioned on the number of very old aircraft in the air force. He replied they are all safe. “All the bad ones have crashed already. “
Dec 23, 2007 - 7:47 pm tioedong:Ditto the above: Most of the bananas from here go elsewhere
LINK
Philippine bananas are traditionally exported to Japan , Iran and Korea …
They are trying to get a larger share of the US market…
As for planes crashing: if it’s terrorism, all you need to do is put something in the fuel line. If you want to poison bananas, spraying is inefficient, since the fruit hangs below the leaves, which would catch most of the spray, and of course the pickers and transporters would be poisoned first from handling them. I doubt any thing sprayed on the fruit would get inside to what is eaten.
Dec 23, 2007 - 11:28 pm tioedong:Ditto the above: Most of the bananas from here go elsewhere
LINK
Philippine bananas are traditionally exported to Japan , Iran and Korea …
They are trying to get a larger share of the US market…
As for planes crashing: if it’s terrorism, all you need to do is put something in the fuel line. If you want to poison bananas, spraying is inefficient, since the fruit hangs below the leaves, which would catch most of the spray, and of course the pickers and transporters would be poisoned first from handling them. I doubt any thing sprayed on the fruit would get inside to what is eaten.
Dec 23, 2007 - 11:30 pm Holden:Having all of this happen on Mindanao isn’t as spooky as Annie J. would have you think. The population of the Philippines is close to 90 million people and Mindanao is the country’s biggest island with perhaps 20 million residents.
Perhaps we should focus our energy on figuring out how Hillary killed Vince Foster!
Dec 24, 2007 - 6:14 am Greg:This is truly the most amusing example of bedwetting terror-fear-mongering I’ve come across in a long time. It reads like something from a “Reefer Madness” sort of film. “The world’s banana consumer would be wise to wonder, what’s being sprayed on my banana?” Classic.
Seriously, though–I read through this whole tedious post waiting for some explanation of why crop-duster crashes in a “terrorist-plagued” region somewhere should make me question “what’s being sprayed on my banana.” Is the theory that terrorists have sabotaged these planes so that the terrorists can fly their own planes, spraying some sort of sinister agent onto “my banana”? If not, please explain why “my banana” is in danger.
Oh, I also liked the faux officiousness of this: “…should send up red flags with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).” Oh, so that’s what FBI stands for! What style guide are you all using over there at Depends Media?
Dec 24, 2007 - 10:17 am Mike:Um, yeah, but I usually PEEL my bananas before eating them…
The whole thing sounds rather hysterical…
Dec 24, 2007 - 3:19 pm Howard:The article gave me comfort knowing that at least Ms. Jacobsen is looking in every potential terrorists nook and cranny for Intelligence, unlike the last time when cries went unheard of dust croppers being used as pilot trainers. You need only to read Ms. Jacobsen’s book, Terror in the Sky, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again, to realize there is no watching the hen house. No one.
Dec 24, 2007 - 7:51 pm labradog:This is a great conservative paranoia parody site! But conservatives don’t really need your assistance to look foolish, now, do they?
Dec 26, 2007 - 6:55 am