Suspected terrorist arrested in Manila

A police bomb disposal unit rush to a safer area, December 21. After last year's five deadly explosions Manila is on high alert.

MANILA, Philippines -- A Jordanian man has been arrested by police in metropolitan Manila after they discovered 281 sticks of dynamite at his home.

Police also recovered other ingredients for homemade bombs and Arabic poems about a holy war against the United States, when they searched Hadi Yousef's apartment after taking him in for questioning.

The arrest is part of a clampdown on international terrorism as Philippine authorities investigate potential links between stashes of explosives and terrorist groups.

Only a week ago President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo put police on alert to prevent a repeat of the five simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 22 people in Manila during the last holiday season.

War poem seized

Police seized numerous Arabic-language documents, including poems about a holy war against the United States, in Yousef's apartment.

Other items impounded include wiring, a dry cell battery and three cell phones that may have been used in assembling a bomb.

As part of stepped-up security since September 11 Filipino officials have detained a number of nationals from the Middle East for questioning.

If the Jordanian in Manila is involved with terrorist activities it will not be the first time.

Police in Manila have also said that associates of bin Laden -- Ramzi Yousef, Wali Khan Amin Shah and Hakim -- traveled to the Philippines in 1995 to plot the killing of Pope John Paul II and plan bombings of U.S. airliners and an attack on CIA headquarters.

Manila police only managed to arrest one of the associates -- Abdul Hakim Murad -- for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that left six people dead.

All three were eventually convicted of a failed plot to bomb airliners.

Al Qaeda links?

National police chief Gen. Leandro Mendoza told the Associated Press that his agents arrested Yousef after obtaining a warrant to search his apartment in Balanga City, 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Manila.

Hadi Yousef Alghou is a five-year resident of the Southeast Asian nation and is married to a Filipino woman.

Mendoza said police are looking closely for ties with the al Qaeda network directed by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.

This comes after the United States said that a Muslim rebel group active in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf, is linked to al Qaeda -- an organization that it blames for the September 11 attacks.

Security forces are still trying to locate two Americans and a Filipino the Abu Sayyaf is still holding hostage.