Their terrorist activities range from bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion, to name a few. For almost a decade since its inception, the Abu Sayyaf focused their terrorist activities solely in the Philippines. However, when the right opportunity came, in 2000, the group kidnapped several foreigners and international journalists in Sidapan and demanded ransom. In a May 2001 kidnapping incident involving twenty people including three Americans, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded one of the Americans captives. They held the other two American missionary couples, the Burnhams, but only Gracia was freed. One of the spokesmen for the group relayed that they really wanted to kidnap Americans to rationalize that they are not afraid of them and that they wanted to fight the American people. Further, they revealed that Western hostages give larger ransom payments. According to Clark (2002) who reported for the Center for Defense Information, “from then on, it operated as an organization with global reach, focusing not only the creation of an independent Muslim state but the founding of a commission to improve the plight of ethnic Filipinos in Malaysia and, eventually, the release of incarcerated World Trade Center bomber Ramsey Yousef, a group ally who trained them in explosives.”&nbsp.From the time the three hostages were kidnapped, the Philippine government has coordinated with the local government of Sulu and with the Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross regarding the status of the conditions of the victims. The government has endorsed the no-ransom policy in the ICRC kidnapping. Coordination with governments of the Swiss national and Italian national regarding the no-ransom policy has also been relayed.