Call for an all-party panel to evaluate police evidence and issue report
on FBI finding that Malaysia was ''one of the primary operational
launch pads'' for the September 11 attacks and has become “a key
front in the war on terrorism”
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): Two
days ago, DAP had proposed an independent commission to review the police
evidence on Kumpulan Militant Malaysia (KMM), Jemaah Islamiah and al Qaeda
activities, links and networks in Malaysia and to issue a credible report
on the threat posed by militant Islamic terrorism, national and international,
for two reasons:
-
the mixed, confusing and even contradictory statements by the
government and the police over these issues in the past six months; and
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the differences between the United States and Malaysian intelligence on
terrorist activities in Malaysia, which came to a head over the Newsweek
report citing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data that Malaysia
was “a primary operational launchpad for the Sept 11 attacks on the United
States”.
Although the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
had vehemently denied the allegation, countering that the actual
launch pad for the September 11 terrorist attacks was the US itself, the
issue has not been put to rest and is most likely to upstage
Mahathir’s visit to the United States in the next few days to attend the
World Economic Forum (WEF) in New York to speak on two themes “Ensuring
Capital Flows in a Risk Averse Environment” and “The Role of Islam in the
Modern State”.
Two days ago, as a result of the Newsweek report, a Malaysian in the
United States said that Malaysia was finally getting into the news
in the United States on FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS every evening as a “terrorist
hotbed”, and there is going to a replay of such unhealthy focus with adverse
effects for Malaysia’s investment climate in the American media following
the latest report in the daily USA Today that “Preparations for the
September 11 attacks on the United States took place in Kuala Lumpur” and
on the new FBI report that described Malaysia as ''one of the primary
operational launch pads'' for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The USA TODAY report, which described Malaysia as “key link in plot”
for the September 11 attacks, said:
“Several al-Qaeda operatives met in Malaysia during 2000 to plan
the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to a new FBI
report that says the predominantly Muslim nation has emerged as ‘one of
the primary operational launch pads' for the attacks.
“Some of the al-Qaeda operatives also planned to blow up the U.S.,
Israeli, British and Australian embassies in nearby Singapore with 4 tons
of explosives, senior U.S. officials say.
“Together, the FBI report and interviews with the officials suggest
why U.S. leaders increasingly see Malaysia as a key front in the war on
terrorism.
“The FBI report, examined by a USA TODAY reporter, also sheds light
on the alleged activities of Zacarias Moussaoui, the French citizen who
was the first person charged in the USA in the Sept. 11 investigation.
“The report says Moussaoui, 33, got money for flight training in
the USA from Yazid Sufaat, an alleged al-Qaeda operative in Malaysia who
previously had met with two of the 19 suicide hijackers. U.S. agents have
not linked Moussaoui directly to any hijacker, but this is the second time
they have tied him to an alleged al-Qaeda paymaster suspected of supporting
the
hijackers.
“The U.S. indictment that charges Moussaoui with being part of an
al-Qaeda conspiracy to kill Americans alleges that al-Qaeda operative Ramzi
bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni cleric and associate of hijacking leader Mohamed
Atta, also sent money to Moussaoui last year. Bin al-Shibh is the subject
of an international manhunt.
“According to the FBI report and U.S. officials:
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In January 2000, Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhamzi, two hijackers
aboard the jet that hit the Pentagon, met with other al-Qaeda members in
a condominium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The operatives included a suspect
in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. That attack killed
17 sailors.
The meeting was hosted by Sufaat, a member of the militant Muslim
group Jemaah Islamiah, which U.S. officials say is linked to Osama bin
Laden. Soon after the meeting, Al-Midhar and Alhamzi entered the USA and
enrolled at a flight school in San Diego.
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In October 2000, Sufaat met with Moussaoui in the same condominium.
Law enforcement officials allege that he gave Moussaoui papers identifying
Moussaoui as a ‘marketing consultant' for Infocus Tech, a Malaysian company.
The papers were signed by ‘Yazid Sufaat, Managing Director.’ (Infocus Tech
officials say Moussaoui never worked for the company.) Sufaat agreed to
pay Moussaoui $2,500 a month and $35,000 up front, U.S. authorities say.
Moussaoui arrived in the USA in February 2001 and deposited $32,000 in
a bank in Norman, Okla. He attended flight schools in Norman and in Minnesota
before he was arrested on immigration charges in August. FBI agents found
the papers that mentioned Infocus Tech in Moussaoui's apartment in Minneapolis.
Moussaoui now is being held in Alexandria, Va., awaiting a federal
court trial in October. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Sufaat,
37, was arrested Dec. 9 as he returned to Kuala Lumpur from Afghanistan,
where authorities say he fought against the U.S.-led coalition. He is one
of 23 suspected al-Qaeda operatives who have been detained in Malaysia.
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Also in October 2000, Sufaat received instructions from another
alleged al-Qaeda operative, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, to purchase 4 tons
of ammonium nitrate, a powerful explosive. Authorities say Ghozi, 30, an
Indonesian also known as 'Mike’ and 'Abu Saad,' was a demolitions expert
for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group seeking to create
an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
Sufaat bought the explosives through a company he owned called Green
Laboratory Medicine, according to law enforcement sources. They say he
planned to bomb the U.S., Israeli, British, and Australian embassies in
Singapore, as well as office buildings that housed U.S.-based companies.
Ghozi was arrested Jan. 15 in Manila by Philippine immigration officials
acting on a tip from police in Singapore. Malaysian officials say the 4
tons of ammonium nitrate -- four times the amount used to destroy the Oklahoma
City federal building in 1995 – has disappeared from the warehouse where
the plotters had been storing it. They say they believe the explosives
have been taken out of the country.”
For the past six months until early January, Ministers have repeatedly
denied that Malaysia had any connection with al-Qaeda. Deputy Home Minister,
Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin not only told Parliament last October that no links
had been established between KMM and al Qaeda, the Defence Minister, Datuk
Seri Najib Tun Razak said in November that Malaysia was not a transit point
for international terrorists including the al Qaeda and it was wrong
to paint the country in that manner as implied by some parties.
The whole “pretence” collapsed however when out of nowhere, the Prime
Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad admitted that the al Qaeda
network had recruited about 50 Malaysians into its operations in an interview
with the Japanese magazine Chuokoron on January 10, and a fortnight
later, this figure of the number of Malaysians with links to al Qaeda
quickly escalated to another 200 when the Inspector-General of Police
announced another batch of ISA arrests.
On Tuesday, AFP quoted Najib as telling reporters after a meeting of
regional intelligence chiefs that “a terrorist network” in Southeast
Asia had been "partly paralysed" by recent arrests, including the infrastructure
they've built, although it is not known how many of their agents or terrorists
might be “keeping low for now”.
Malaysians, who only read the local media, must wonder as to the identity
of this “terrorist network” in Southeast Asia.
Najib’s statement comes as no surprise to readers of the international
media, which had been full of reports of KMM, Jemaah Islamiah and al Qaeda
activities, links and networks in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the
Philippines, but it must have come as quite a surprise to Malaysians,
which do not carry such reports, raising the question as to their veracity
and why there is an official policy to black them out in the local media.
In the circumstances, DAP calls for an all-party panel to evaluate
police evidence and issue report on FBI finding that Malaysia was
as ''one of the primary operational launch pads'' for the September 11
attacks and has become “a key front in the war on terrorism”, after getting
a copy of the FBI report concerned as well as asking for all available
information from the United States intelligence authorities.
(31/1/2002)
*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman