meting out final justice. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night. tonight on "war stories" jihad in the jungles of southeast asia, and for two american missionaries. >> island resort. >> the dream became a nightmare. >> we were sure we would die. >> and a special operations commander enters the fray. >> unconventional warfare and unconventional operations. >> the philippines operations have had successful operations. >> hunting terror in paradise. that is nextn "war stories." for years, islamic radicals have used this canopy as a safe

haven for spawning terrorists. this is "war stories" and i'm oliver north coming to you from the sue lieu province in the philippines. we are on grounds from where groups like abusaayaf and others have killed scores of filipinos while terrorizing scores of people. counter terrorism is taking place here by the filipinos backed by the united states, and join us as we look at this global war on terror. unconventional warfare, unconventional operations. >> the military is more than gun-kicking gun slingers. solving complex military problems.

>> working behind the scenes, training, advising, assisting local military the forces. >> a lot of military sharing. >> provide medical care to those who are in need. >> engineering projects, preparing the schools. >> creative problem-solvers who can operate with the local populations. >> very important that we maintain a high standard. >> it is pretty independent and train to be that way. >> as soon as i got into the special forces, i knew that i had found a home. >> the people here genuinely like americans. >> colonel dave maxwell is the commanding officer of joint operations task force in the philippines. >> thinking man's game. that is what it is about here. >> his team consists of sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines.

the exact number is classified, but the total is under 1,000. >> the philippines and the united states are allies and we have a special relationship and a long history together. >> the philippines, more than 7,000 islands became an american colony in 1898 after the spanish american war. but u.s. authority ended when world war ii began. 8, december, 1941, hours after the attack on pearl harbor, just after the philippine were the relationship was forged in blood. perhaps no place better symbolizes that than this

hallowed ground. the american cemetery here in manila is the final resting place for 17,202 u.s. service men and philippine scouts killed in world war ii. general mccarther was one of the few who escaped ordered to australia by president roosevelt it took him three years to fulfill his most famous promise. >> people of the philippines, i have returned. >> by the following year, the japanese had been defeated and they were were granted full independence. >> on behalf of the united states of america, i do hereby recognize the independence of the philippines. >> average filipino just loves americans. we probably have the biggest support for america in the whole world.

>> gloria arroyo's father served with the underground resistance during the occupation. she attended georgetown university in 19d 70 and in 2001 she became the president of the philippines. >> when you were a student at georgetown -- >> yes. >> did you think that you would be the president? >> no, i did not imagine that i would be the president of the philippines. even at that time, we were supportive of the united states, and together in the war against korea and the war against vietnam and now we are together in the war against terrorism. >> we know that dating back as far as 1995, terrorists have trained here and been linked to al qaeda. >> be behind the walls of the manila walls, this famous plot took place, and the master minds were ramzi yousef who tried to destroy the world trade center

in 1993, and his uncle, the notorious shaikh mohammad which is to use liquid explosives to blow up airliners over the pacific, and they also wanted to assassinate pope john paul in manila, but before the pope arrived, this hideout caught fire and the police discovered the hideout. they were tracked down and jailed where they remain today. but they realized that radical islam had taken root here. >> local and international terrorists are here. >> al qaeda is more than willing to provide hem with the munitions, and the financial support and resources. >> marine brigadier general john o'toolen. oversees the response to the war on terror. >> this is the apex of the

terrorist triangle which reaches up to the southern philippines, south of malaysia and connecting with indonesia. everything moves somehow through that area. >> the thousands of islands in the archipelago are spread over the hundreds of thousands of miles of ocean. in the southern philippines the population is almost exclusively muslim and quite the opposite in the north where the population is christian. these muslim regions are claimed suffer from neglect. >> they claim that they want to create a pure islamic nation and these are the people that are outside of their foreign terrorists. >> the leader of the philippine military response to terrorists is armed chief of staff. >> we are pursuing them in the southern island and particularly in the southern island where they have been cornered.

>> to understand the unique challenge of fighting terror here, "war stories" traveled to the lush tropical islands of sulu. this is a task force comet, a special task unit. we were allowed to are reveal his identity. >> we are allowed to assist in the helping the island. >> others we could not identify. >> a lot of it is compiling of information so they can get good actionable intelligence so they can effectively act against the asg. >> the asg or the abu saayaf group is one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the world. task force comet conducts civil

military operations to deny terrorists a safe haven by providing good will to the people. >> they conduct civil engineering projects, and provide medical care, and projects that give rise to terror. >> one of the contributions of the support is the u.s. supported, and of course, it is the u.s. agency goals is the infrastructure development. >> major general ruben rafael is the comet commanding officer. >> construction of the roads and the buildings and other type advancement has affected our advancement. >> unconventional warfare is about using special operations, special forces to solve or assist in solving complex economic problems and that is what we face here. >> all to stop these islamic groups hell-bent on creating terror. >> they are an extraordinarily dangerous group. two american missionaries

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the group that we are fighting today are the group that abducted tourists from a resort and that included martin and gracia burnham. the muslim extremists were in the southern part of the

philippines and we didn't think would affect us. >> martin and gracia burnham had worked for 18 years in the philippines as missionaries. martin was a pilot to support other missionaries. >> martin was flying and something that he loved to do. i was cooking for people and being on the radio. you deal with the heat and the bugs and the critters and the schedules that don't go right, and the weather, and we loved what we did. we were really enjoying life in the philippines. >> after years of a hard work, the couple planned a a brief getaway, and a weekend at the dos palmas island at the edge of the sulu sea. >> it was too costly for us to afford, but i thought that our anniversary was around the corner and it would be our treat. >> in 2001, martin and gracia arrived at the seaside cottage. >> it was beautiful there, and

we went to bed that night, and before dawn, the next morning right at dawn, there was a banging on the door. three guys with m-16s broke the door in. and one of them took martin right out, and one of them came over the bed and lowered his weapon at me and said, "go, go, go." >> the missionaries along with another american, californian guillermo sobero were ordered to board a speedboat. >> they took advantage of the tourist trade. >> some of them had masks on and just armed to the teeth. and when they had gotten all of us in the boat, then they began to shouting allah akbar, god is great. that is when we knew who had us, and it was the abu saayaf. >> the primary means of raising

money is kidnapping that. they'll kidnap local citizens for just a few thousand pesoes but they will look for larger targets, mostly westerners and americans to help them raise hundreds of millions of dollars of ransom money. >> never the philippines knows about the abu saayaf and they chop off people's headand we kn were in big trouble. >> for five agonizing days the overloaded boat with the hostages traversed the sulu sea until they reached a island of steep mountains and dense jungle. >> we thought that when we got to the island that the cell phones would work, and the concessions would be made by the philippine government, and that we would all go home. >> but the nightmares were beginning. >> the base camps are deep in the jungles. they use small paths to move between the camps and the mountains. >> i'm a city girl, and i don't

like to the camp. here i was walking through the jungles, sleeping on the ground or for a few hours before we hiked some more. >> it is generally muddy, and overgrown and thick and dark and dank, but for them, it is their backyard and they know the trails. >> the leader, the emir of the abu saayaf was john >> he was the figure head. >> he was very flamboyant. they talked about osama bin laden quite often. bin laden was a hero to them. >> the hostages with were also forced to make videos to support the terrorists' ransom demands. >> i martin burnham and my wife, gracia, were taken hostage by the abu saayaf terror group.

>> they had martin do a statement one day with a video camera to give all of the grievances against the government. >> they are targeting europeans and citizens of western nations. >> the abu saayaf group started to get press and attention. >> but as the days and the weeks turned into months, the burnham s fell into despair. after four months of captivity in the jungle and no connection to the outside world, they were allowed to listen to one of the radios. >> you could tell something was up, and i was allowed to go over there, and i was not invited, and martin patted the ground and said to me, "listen to this, something has happened in

america." they were listening to "voice of america" and listening about the planes that had hit the twin towers. >> coming up -- >> we were sitting there aghast. and they were of course jumping around patting each other on the back. >> the philippines' marines close in on the marine base to free the burnhams. that is next.

it was like a window in time. we heard what had happened in america. >> september 11, 2001, every american remembers where they were that day, and gracia burnham certainly will will never forget. >> they were held inside of a camp. >> each night i was chained to the tree, and my wife is no longer chained.

they have given her some freedom as a lady. and i'm thankful for that. >> as their captors, the abu saayaf were triumphant. >> they were certainly jumping around. and then we heard nothing else about it. >> four months after 9/11 special forces began to arrive quiet in the philippines to help them with their fight against terror. >> and they requested help from our special operations to eliminate safe havens. >> especially on the island. by march the island was crawling with armed forces. >> and we were being hunt and we had sporadic gun battles. every time we we were found, there was a gun battle. it was rambo-style camp. and we wanted to be negotiated out.

when we first got there, there were about 80. then we joined up with a group of 120. that was quite a line of people walking through the jungle. we would eat the amount of food that we were given and we started to steadily lose weight and began starving. >> last night they started with the pre-dawn breakfast and the boys started with the rice, but there was none left for us. >> the terrorists wanted money, but the abu saayaf had harassed the captors by staging proof of life photos. >> they would tell me to smile. i thought, am i supposed to smile. >> the noose was tightening. >> they would move them regularly with the small outrigger boats. with powered engines. >> and this is the deputy of the

marine corps southern command, and he would receive information from the locals about where the terrorists were hiding. >> we would try to link it up with the intelligence and the military operations. >> 7 june, 2002, 13 months into the martin and gracia's ordeal, 500 philippine soldiers and marines closed in on the camp. >> they opened up fire on us. there was a big gun battle, and i kept thinking that this is my last moment. we knew what to do. you drop. but before i got to the ground, i was hit in the leg. i slid down the steep slope we were on, and i came to rest beside martin and i looked over at him, and he was bleeding from his chest. then i started hearing the abu saayaf retreating down the river. >> four terrorists were killed and the abu saayaf including

janjalani fled the jungle. >> i looked at martin and he was white. that's when i knew he was dead. he had a good heart, and he always thought the best of everyone. >> a wounded gracia was flown by helicopter to the embassy in manila. >> and during our ordeal, we were repeatedly lied to by the abu saayaf. >> i remember having peace that one of us was going home to our children. as i went to sleep that night, i thought, my martin is not chained. for the first time tonight martin is not chained. he is free. >> the philippine government gives the order of capture or kill, and the u.s. steps up the assistance next on "war stories." at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact.

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at ally bank no branches equalsit's a fact.. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. keep it here for the latest in business and financial news. this is war. the philippine fight against islamic terror. colonel, tell me what this is now, and what it used to be. >> well, this is now the headquarters of the marine batallion 101, but this used to be the camp of rogue camp. >> it isn't the only islamic

terror group in the philippines. the mnlf has since signed a peace agreement with manila. today a faction of that group continues to fight the government. in may 2007, the colonel who is the commander of the second marine brigade met them in bloody battle. you led one of the counterattacks? >> yes, the final assault. >> this is the colonel who is under fire and leading from the front. how many casualties did you take? >> four u.s. killed in action, and 39 wounded. >> no americans were involved in the fight, but the philippine casualties mounted a u.s. army special forces medic stepped in. >> we took shelter in a bunker, and then i was asked to assist in treatment of casualties. >> how bad? >> we had severe casualties at this time. several amputation, and gunshot wounds and shrapnel wounds, and