Malaysian authorities have arrested 10 terror suspects, including two Nigerians, with alleged ties to Umar AbdulMutallab, the Nigerian at the centre of the Christmas Day attempt to bomb a United States airliner.
The development is coming on the heels of the US State Department’s denial that it had revoked AbdulMutallab’s visa.
Malaysia‘s Home Minister, Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein, who announced the arrests Wednesday, said they were mainly foreigners linked to a global terrorist network.
According to The Detroit News, quoting a state-linked New Straits Times newspaper, those arrested included two men from Nigeria, four from Syria, and one each from Yemen and Jordan, said Mr. Syed Noh, head of a rights group that aids people detained under Malaysia‘s Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
They were among 50 people arrested while attending a religious talk by a Syrian university lecturer on January 21 at a home near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia‘s largest city, Noh said. The others, according to the newspaper, were later released.
The report said foreign anti-terrorism agencies told authorities that the suspects were in Malaysia and were linked to the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear during a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
But the report, according to The Detroit News, did not say how it obtained the information or how they were linked, even as the Home Minister refused to elaborate on why the suspects were detained, but said they posed a “serious threat” to security.
The suspects include students at a Malaysian university, Syed Ibrahim said. He urged the government to charge them to court or release them.
Over the past decade, Malaysian authorities have held more than 100 militant suspects, mainly alleged members of an Al-Qaeda-linked network that has been blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombing on Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.
A top State Department official said on Wednesday that AbdulMutallab’s visa was not revoked in order to protect a larger investigation.
The Under secretary for Management at the State Department, Mr. Patrick Kennedy, said AbdulMutallab’s visa was not taken away at the request of federal counterterrorism officials following concerns that doing so would have foiled an investigation into Al-Qaeda threats against the US.
Reuters had reported earlier in January that the State Department had revoked AbdulMutallab’s visa.
The news agency had quoted State Department’s spokesman Mr. P.J. Crowley, as saying that AbdulMutallab was stripped of his visa after the attempted attack, as were an unspecified number of others suspected of links to terrorism.
But The Detroit News on Wednesday quoted Kennedy in a testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security as saying, “Revocation action would‘ve disclosed what they were doing. Allowing AbdulMutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, rather than simply knocking out one soldier in that effort.”
When asked about why the State Department wouldn‘t revoke the visa despite indications he was involved in a terror plot, Kennedy reiterated his assertion that intelligence agencies sometimes request visas not be revoked “for the purpose of rolling up an entire network, not just one person.”
The denial came during a hearing on Capitol Hill into the events surrounding the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam.
Washington politicians have focused criticism on two key areas: the intelligence community breakdown that led to AbdulMutallab being able to board the plane, and the handling of the suspected terrorist after his apprehension.
Malaysia is no longer a safe place for holiday...
Only the blind cannot see what is happening in Malaysia.
The US is smart...they've advised US citizens to avoid Malaysia.
Many in this forum have loudly denied the existence of Islamic terrorists in Malaysia (linked to Al-Qaeda). These people are either friends of the terrorists .....or themselves are terrorist.
The Malaysian authority should check them out.
With info from CIA, the police have arrested a few foreign terrorists....two men from Nigeria, four from Syria, and one each from Yemen and Jordan.
The development is coming on the heels of the US State Department’s denial that it had revoked AbdulMutallab’s visa.
Malaysia‘s Home Minister, Mr. Hishammuddin Hussein, who announced the arrests Wednesday, said they were mainly foreigners linked to a global terrorist network.
According to The Detroit News, quoting a state-linked New Straits Times newspaper, those arrested included two men from Nigeria, four from Syria, and one each from Yemen and Jordan, said Mr. Syed Noh, head of a rights group that aids people detained under Malaysia‘s Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
They were among 50 people arrested while attending a religious talk by a Syrian university lecturer on January 21 at a home near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia‘s largest city, Noh said. The others, according to the newspaper, were later released.
The report said foreign anti-terrorism agencies told authorities that the suspects were in Malaysia and were linked to the 23-year-old Nigerian accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear during a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
But the report, according to The Detroit News, did not say how it obtained the information or how they were linked, even as the Home Minister refused to elaborate on why the suspects were detained, but said they posed a “serious threat” to security.
The suspects include students at a Malaysian university, Syed Ibrahim said. He urged the government to charge them to court or release them.
Over the past decade, Malaysian authorities have held more than 100 militant suspects, mainly alleged members of an Al-Qaeda-linked network that has been blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombing on Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.
A top State Department official said on Wednesday that AbdulMutallab’s visa was not revoked in order to protect a larger investigation.
The Under secretary for Management at the State Department, Mr. Patrick Kennedy, said AbdulMutallab’s visa was not taken away at the request of federal counterterrorism officials following concerns that doing so would have foiled an investigation into Al-Qaeda threats against the US.
Reuters had reported earlier in January that the State Department had revoked AbdulMutallab’s visa.
The news agency had quoted State Department’s spokesman Mr. P.J. Crowley, as saying that AbdulMutallab was stripped of his visa after the attempted attack, as were an unspecified number of others suspected of links to terrorism.
But The Detroit News on Wednesday quoted Kennedy in a testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security as saying, “Revocation action would‘ve disclosed what they were doing. Allowing AbdulMutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, rather than simply knocking out one soldier in that effort.”
When asked about why the State Department wouldn‘t revoke the visa despite indications he was involved in a terror plot, Kennedy reiterated his assertion that intelligence agencies sometimes request visas not be revoked “for the purpose of rolling up an entire network, not just one person.”
The denial came during a hearing on Capitol Hill into the events surrounding the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam.
Washington politicians have focused criticism on two key areas: the intelligence community breakdown that led to AbdulMutallab being able to board the plane, and the handling of the suspected terrorist after his apprehension.
Malaysia is no longer a safe place for holiday...
Only the blind cannot see what is happening in Malaysia.
The US is smart...they've advised US citizens to avoid Malaysia.
Many in this forum have loudly denied the existence of Islamic terrorists in Malaysia (linked to Al-Qaeda). These people are either friends of the terrorists .....or themselves are terrorist.
The Malaysian authority should check them out.
With info from CIA, the police have arrested a few foreign terrorists....two men from Nigeria, four from Syria, and one each from Yemen and Jordan.
What about the Malaysian terrorists ?
Surely among those thousands who have attended the religious talks held by Al-Qaeda activist, a university professor in KL over months....there mast be hundreds of LOCAL Islamic terrorists.
Why no actions was taken against them!
The Malaysian authorities are reluctant to act against the Al-Qaeda terrorists, but was forced by the USA to do so...
Al-Qaeda has many friends and supporters in high places, in Malaysia (Dr. M is one of the many)...
01/02/10
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