* In written correspondence with the Case Closed blog, the Sacramento State graduate and former Malaysian Army Captain Yazid Sufaat has invoked the “Fifth Amendment” and declined to disclose the b. anthracis strain he was using.
Posted by DXer on April 28, 2015
CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat,
You should write a book now about the things you know and explain things from your perspective.
Your amiability will lead you to be highly readable.
Malaysian scientist who ran al-Qaeda’s anthrax lab freed from police monitoring, official says
• Yazid Sufaat, 58, has been allowed to leave the house and use the internet as a ‘free man’ since being removed from surveillance in November 2021
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3173510/malaysian-scientist-who-ran-al-qaedas-anthrax-lab-freed-police
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat,
If you like, you can post a guest essay on this blog. Simply avoid any subject that you consider problematic. The subject could even be your perspective on world events unrelated to the events relating to Dr. Zawahiri’s anthrax program. For example, you could write about Ukraine — or about the suggestion by some pundits that Russia may resort to chemical or biological weapons.
DXer said
Bin Laden anthrax scientist under house arrest after jail, December 3, 2021,
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1587831/world
KUALA LUMPUR: A US-educated biochemist with links to Al-Qaeda and Daesh was on Wednesday released from prison by Malaysian authorities.
Yazid Sufaat, who recruited militants for the terror groups and tried to help Osama bin Laden develop anthrax for use as a biological weapon, will remain under heavy police watch.
The 55-year-old walked free from the Simpang Renggam penitentiary in Johor and was sent to his home in Bandar Baru Ampang in Selangor, on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
He has been placed under house arrest and will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device, said Royal Malaysia Police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay. In addition, Sufaat would not be allowed to leave his home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and had been barred from using the internet.
The scientist, who trained militants for the late terror group leader Bin Laden and spent several months trying to produce anthrax in a laboratory near Kandahar airport in Afghanistan, has been jailed three times in the past 17 years on various terrorism-related charges.
Sufaat will be required to report to local police twice a week and can only leave the vicinity of his house with written permission from the Selangor police chief.
However, Nasir Abbas, a former senior member of JI who is now involved in the Indonesian government’s deradicalization program, told Arab News on Thursday that rehabilitation efforts had so far failed to change Sufaat.
“He still wants to engage in violent jihad. I am sure that once he is free, he will still campaign his cause to ordinary people,” he said.
Comment: Hey, Yazid Sufaat. Check out the National Geographic made-for-tv show! Have you noticed that you cannot get credit for your lead role from 20 years ago! Even when your role was established through documentary evidence? You are invisible to the world. It’s your superpower.
I realize you are barred from the internet. But does that also bar you from writing or giving interviews? Go to the cafe during the day but stay away from that salt.
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat has been out since November 2019.
Terrorist linked to Al-Qaeda will be freed next month, confirms Malaysian police chief, Oct 23, 2019
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/terrorist-linked-to-al-qaeda-can-be-freed-next-month-malaysian-police-chief
Terrorist linked to Al-Qaeda will be freed next month, confirms Malaysian police chief
A 2013 image of US-trained biochemist Yazid Sufaat being escorted by police officers outside Ampang Magistrate Court in Kuala Lumpur.PHOTO: NST
Nadirah H. Rodzi
Malaysia Correspondent
• PUBLISHEDOCT 23, 2019, 7:06 PM SGT
KUALA LUMPUR – Unrepentant Malaysian terrorist Yazid Sufaat, who acquired 4 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in 2000 in preparation for a foiled bombing plot in Singapore, will be freed from prison next month, Malaysia’s national police chief said on Wednesday (Oct 23).
He confirmed the report in the The Straits Times last Saturday that the 55-year-old US-trained biochemist, who once attempted to produce weapons of mass destruction for Al-Qaeda, would be released from Simpang Renggam prison where he has spent two years in detention, the maximum allowed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota).
“He has served his sentence, and only if he commits an offence after his release, will the police take action,” Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador told reporters after officiating the 69 Commando Golden Jubilee at the General Operations Force base in Ulu Kinta, Ipoh.
“Just to detain him based on people’s perception, we (the police) will not do that. (But) we understand people’s concern, that he has the capability and was deeply involved in terrorism activities,” he said.
Mr Abdul Hamid said the police would not challenge the release.
In the 1990s, Yazid attempted to cultivate and load anthrax onto weapons in Afghanistan.
His home in Kuala Lumpur had also been used by senior Al-Qaeda members for meetings. At one meeting, plans to crash planes in the United States on Sept 11, 2001, were discussed.
He is the only Malaysian with direct links to the attacks.
Despite spending almost two decades behind bars and undergoing an extensive deradicalisation programme, Malaysian police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay has described Yazid as “the most challenging militant” for the authorities to rehabilitate so far.
The final decision on his release will be made by the Prevention of Terrorism Board and an official with the Home Ministry has told The Straits Times it has not convened to discuss the matter.
“We believe this is the police’s recommendation (to release Yazid). We will wait for the Malaysia Prison Department (Prison Department) to share its input with us first before we make a decision,” the source said.
The board, the source added, would need the recommendations from both the police and Prison Department before arriving at a decision.
“The Prison Department will need to share its assessment of Yazid, like a report card, with the board. If they believe that Yazid has still not been fully deradicalised, then there’s a possibility that the detention order will be extended,” the source said.
Yazid, a former army captain, was first arrested in 2002 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allowed for indefinite detention without trial.
He was released in 2008 after undergoing rehabilitation and showed signs of “remorse” and “repentance”.
He was detained for a second time in 2013 under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act – the legislation that replaced the ISA – for recruiting new members for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
This led to a four-year jail sentence in Perak’s Tapah prison.
In December 2017, Yazid was rearrested under Pota after the authorities found that he had been recruiting fellow inmates for Al-Qaeda while in jail.
Yazid also held weekly religious classes in 2012 at his house in Ampang, Selangor, where he recruited several individuals, including a 21-year-old man, Muhamad Razin Sharhan Mustafa Kamal.
DXer said
“20 Years After 9/11, Al-Qaida Retains a Deadly Relevance in Malaysia,” Dec 2, 2021
Rueben Dass and Jasminder Singh
https://thediplomat.com/2021/12/20-years-after-9-11-al-qaida-retains-a-deadly-relevance-in-malaysia/
“In 2001, Yazid Sufaat was alleged to have gone to Kandahar to help al-Qaida develop anthrax as part of the group’s biological program.”
DXer said
In the fictionalized “Hot Zone: Anthrax,” said to be “inspired” by true events, Episode 6 has a news commentator saying the FBI had no one in custody. Actually, in December 2001, the Malaysians who arrested Yazid Sufaat when he tried to enter the country. But the Malaysians were not cooperating with the FBI. It was not until Fall of 2002 when the FBI first interviewed him. Mueller even went to Malaysia to seek cooperation. Yazid Sufaat attended Sacramento State.
Yazid Sufaat and Hambali had been doing background work on Al Qaeda’s program for a couple years prior to 9/11, to include travel to Indonesia. Dr. Ayman’s associates had already announced that they planned to use anthrax to retaliate for the imprisonment of the Blind Sheik and other EIJ leaders that had been rendered. But the US press apparently didn’t read the press in other languages. The CIA had a database called the FBIS that contained such a translation.
DXer said
Daniel Dae Kim on the Significance of His First Lead Role Being the Face of the FBI on ‘The Hot Zone: Anthrax’
By Danielle Turchiano
Plus Icon
https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/daniel-dae-kim-hot-zone-anthrax-significant-representation-1235088686/
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat, what exactly is Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, saying in his video? Even if you are not allowed to use a computer, surely one of your friends has a sense.
Feared terrorist leader who is believed to have orchestrated the Bali bombings reveals sick web of secret Jihadist fundraising posing as charity boxes in normal supermarkets
• Terrorist leader Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, arrested in November
• Senior member of militant Jemaah Islamiah and orchestrated the Bali bombings
• Zulkarnaen revealed the terror group had fundraised by using fake charity boxes
• Indonesian police said over 20,000 boxes had been placed around the country
• Stall and supermarket owners had no idea the boxes were funding terror group
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 00:40 EST, 27 December 2020 | UPDATED: 00:40 EST, 27 December 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9090119/Terrorist-leader-reveals-sick-web-secret-Jihadist-fundraising-posing-supermarket-charity-boxes.html
They have released video of Zulkarnaen talking to officers after his arrest and detailing his role in a series of deadly bombings in his homeland.
And he revealed the secret meetings that led up to the decision by JI to bomb two nightclubs in Bali in October 2002, along with how other bombings were planned and executed.
DXer said
What does Yazid Sufaat say about this Indonesian biologist Zulkarnaen? What does Hambali say?
Indonesian Police Arrest Militant Leader Associated with al-Qaida
By VOA News
December 13, 2020 04:20 AM
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/indonesian-police-arrest-militant-leader-associated-al-qaida
Ramadhan said the police officers met no resistance from Zulkarnaen, who is suspected of being behind the 2002 bombing attack on the resort island of Bali that left more than 200 people dead, and an attack in 2003 on Marriott Hotel in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, that killed 12 people.
Police said they received a tip about Zulkarnaen’s location as they were interrogating several suspected militants arrested last month.
The United Nations Security Council had included Zulkarnaen on an al-Qaida sanctions list since May 2005 as the network’s representative in Southeast Asia, and directly associated with former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan’s Taliban.
A biologist by background, Zulkarnaen was among the first Indonesian militants to go to Afghanistan for military training.
DXer said
Before pandemic, Trump’s stockpile chief put focus on biodefense. An old client benefited.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/before-pandemic-trumps-stockpile-chief-put-focus-on-biodefense-an-old-client-benefited/2020/05/04/d3c2b010-84dd-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html
By Jon Swaine, Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Aaron C. Davis
May 4, 2020 at 8:35 a.m. EDT
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat’s conditions of house arrest are akin to being under lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. Is he bingeing on Ozarks on Netflix? The Money Heist? I’m enjoying The Money Heist now. I’m in Part 4. I thought the escape of Murillo from police custody was particularly implausible.
But I messed up the settings and now the action is narrated and there is an English voice-over. Total chaos and my IT person is under quarantine elsewhere.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1587831/world
Bin Laden anthrax scientist under house arrest after jail
• Sufaat, 55, recruited militants, tried making biological weapon agent near Afghan airport
KUALA LUMPUR: A US-educated biochemist with links to Al-Qaeda and Daesh was on Wednesday released from prison by Malaysian authorities.
Yazid Sufaat, who recruited militants for the terror groups and tried to help Osama bin Laden develop anthrax for use as a biological weapon, will remain under heavy police watch.
The 55-year-old walked free from the Simpang Renggam penitentiary in Johor and was sent to his home in Bandar Baru Ampang in Selangor, on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
He has been placed under house arrest and will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device, said Royal Malaysia Police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay. In addition, Sufaat would not be allowed to leave his home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and had been barred from using the internet.
The scientist, who trained militants for the late terror group leader Bin Laden and spent several months trying to produce anthrax in a laboratory near Kandahar airport in Afghanistan, has been jailed three times in the past 17 years on various terrorism-related charges.
He was first arrested in December 2001 and sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2013, the former military officer was convicted of recruiting members for Daesh and received a four-year jail term, and in 2017 he was arrested again for Al-Qaeda recruitment among fellow inmates.
In the 1990s, Sufaat joined Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian extremist group led by Indonesian militants. In 2000, he acquired four tons of ammonium nitrate for a series of foiled bomb attacks in Singapore.
Months before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, he hosted meetings for senior Al-Qaeda members, during which they “spoke about the possibility of hijacking planes and crashing them,” according to the 9/11 Commission Report.
Dr. Danial Yusof, who leads a research unit on extremism at the International Islamic University Malaysia, told Arab News that the decision by the Prevention of Terrorism Board (POTB) to release Sufaat came after an evaluation process that included agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police, prisons department and the Ministry of Home Affairs, and which put “national security as primary consideration for release.”
Sufaat will be required to report to local police twice a week and can only leave the vicinity of his house with written permission from the Selangor police chief.
According to Yusof, the measures were aimed at preventing Sufaat from reoffending and carrying out further recruitment.
Meanwhile, he said a major challenge for Malaysia’s deradicalization and rehabilitation program, would be the repatriation of around 140 former Malaysian followers of Daesh who are expected to return from Syria and Iraq.
With many of them being women and children, it would be a “test for Malaysia’s compassionate approach in counterviolence and extremism,” he added.
Yusof noted that Sufaat’s case could serve as a “reference point” for deradicalization of the individuals and their reintegration
into society.
However, Nasir Abbas, a former senior member of JI who is now involved in the Indonesian government’s deradicalization program, told Arab News on Thursday that rehabilitation efforts had so far failed to change Sufaat.
“He still wants to engage in violent jihad. I am sure that once he is free, he will still campaign his cause to ordinary people,” he said.
DXer said
“In a post-Covid future, some countries and nonstate actors will be tempted to seek the capacity to create plagues, and every country will need to defend against them.”
Comment: I think Zawahiri would avoid an infectious disease because of the risk of blowback — as would most any state actor.
I trust Yazid Sufaat’s lovely family is safe and well. Upon an earlier release, he and his wife had a cafe — which is a rough business to be in nowadays.
I don’t think Yazid Sufaat would have turned to an infectious disease for the same reason.
I have no special insight into whether the plague wiped out that one Al Qaeda camp as some analysts have suggested.
If it did, it seems that it would disprove my suggestion — while at the same time giving Zawahiri added reason to avoid an infectious agent.
Personally, I think Zawahiri is either dead or disabled — recycling the Aafia piece a while back was pretty lame. I didn’t bother to read it but I would not have been surprised to see that it was a cut-and-paste of his article with the same title subject.
https://WWW.WSJ.COM/ARTICLES/THE-CENTURY-OF-BIOWEAPONS-11588025901?MOD=HP_OPIN_POS_2
• OPINION
• GLOBAL VIEW
The Century of Bioweapons
The coronavirus’s disruptive effects will inevitably inspire evil minds to acti
By Walter Russell Mead
April 27, 2020 6:18 pm ET
A laboratory scientist cultures coronavirus for testing in Frederick, Md., March 19.
PHOTO: ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Covid-19 does not appear to be a genetically engineered plague unleashed on the world by supervillains—but its massive global impact shows how effective such a weapon could be. That will have consequences.
The current pandemic, we may hope, won’t live up to its full hype. It may be less destructive and even less costly than many feared. Reliable treatments may soon become available, and societies will figure out ways to protect the most vulnerable while allowing the normal business of life to resume. Covid-19 will presumably at some point become through antiviral therapies a manageable hazard, like HIV/AIDS before it, or be conquered by a vaccine.
Yet less than three months after the first known Covid-19 death in the U.S., more Americans have died of this disease than fell in battle during the Vietnam War. It has disrupted more lives, thrown more people out of work, and at least temporarily closed more businesses than the Great Depression.
And of course the U.S. is not alone. Much of the world has been shut down; global trade has been upended in ways not seen since World War II, and the spreading economic and geopolitical fallout from the pandemic is already on course to dwarf the consequences of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The political consequences of the pandemic are only beginning to emerge. In Europe it has ripped open the wounds left by the financial crisis, with indebted southern countries furious over what they see as a lack of solidarity from the frugal north.
Yet by the standards of past pandemics, Covid-19 is a relatively mild disease. Many of those infected appear to remain asymptomatic; only a very small percentage of cases require hospitalization, and of those, more end in recovery than in death. World-wide, Covid-19 has killed about 200,000 people. That estimate is subject to revision, and the numbers will grow, but compared with the Spanish influenza, smallpox or the Black Death, Covid-19 has a long way to go.
It turns out, however, that our technologically sophisticated global way of life is a lot more vulnerable to disruption than the simpler world of our ancestors. Not only can diseases that once traveled on foot or horseback now hitch rides on jet aircraft; the intricately balanced elements of a modern economy can be thrown into chaos by a few weeks of quarantine.
These truths mean that both at the national and global level we will have to devote far greater resources to public health. But they mean more than that. There has been much controversy over whether the coronavirus escaped from a wet market or a research laboratory. Wherever it came from, the virus has provided the world with an extraordinary demonstration of the power of weaponized biology.
The 20th century was the Age of Physics, when scientists first learned to split the atom and create weapons powerful enough to destroy civilization. The 21st century looks now to be an Age of Biology, when the capacity to unleash gene-engineered plagues on one’s opponents—or their crops—can provide countries with a strategic advantage.
Imagine a country whose scientists produced something like the coronavirus and also a vaccine. The virus could be released, causing chaos and destruction, but one could protect one’s own people from the plague—and offer the vaccine to the world if one’s demands were met. Now imagine a jihadist group or other criminal organization with the same power.
Over time, the danger will grow as humanity develops better and more efficient ways to hack the genetic code and create organisms on demand. Biological laboratories, even sophisticated ones, are cheaper to build and easier to hide than the factories necessary to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons.
Weaponizing disease was practiced long before the modern era. Attacking Hittites seem to have driven infected people into enemy lands as early as 1000 B.C. In 1346, attacking Mongols catapulted the corpses of plague victims into the besieged Crimean city of Caffa. More recently, both Axis and Allied governments developed biological weapons during World War II, and Japan deployed them on a significant scale in its war against China—including the use of ceramic bombs containing bubonic-plague-carrying fleas against the city of Ningbo.
In a post-Covid future, some countries and nonstate actors will be tempted to seek the capacity to create plagues, and every country will need to defend against them. The ability to recognize new diseases quickly and to develop treatments and vaccines has become a cornerstone of national defense.
Resilience also matters. Hardening cities, health systems, businesses and supply chains to make them less vulnerable to disruption must be a priority for the future.
This will be hard and expensive, but as Margaret Thatcher used to say, “There is no alternative.” The world has changed, and we must adapt.
DXer said
“Yazid Sufaat under police’s watchful eyes, sys IGP”
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/11/540925/yazid-sufaat-under-polices-watchful-eyes-says-igp
“He (Yazid) was freed on several conditions and we are confident that we are taking good care of the matter.”
“Don’t worry about it. The conditions set are quite strict and that will help us monitor him,” he told reporters at a Deepavali Open House organised by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry here, on Thursday.
Yazid, who had direct links to the September 11, 2001 incident in the United States, was detained at the Simpang Renggam Prison in Johor for two years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (POTA).
Abdul Hamid also said the police would also continue to engage with Yazid in the rehabilitation process.
“We will never give up on helping those who were involved in any element whether it’s Daesh or LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) or any form of terrorism element, to return into the society,” he added. — Bernama”
DXer said
The Terrorism Board should inquire as to the strain of anthrax that Yazid Sufaat was using — and where he acquired it. In the US, there is no statute of limitation on murder.
1 day ago –
Prevention of Terrorism Board to decide on militant Yazid Sufaat’s fate
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/10/531456/prevention-terrorism-board-decide-militant-yazid-sufaats-fate
Yazid, a US trained biochemist, has been detained at the Simpang Renggam Prison, near Kluang, for past two years under POTA where the law allows the suspect to be detained without trial for two years.
In Kuala Lumpur, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador said a detainee should be released if he has repented and has shown good behaviour.
The nation’s top cop said he had yet to receive the latest feedback regarding Yazid.
“I am of the view that a detainee should be given an opportunity to be released if he has repented and has shown good behaviour,” he said.
Yazid, a former army captain, was first arrested in 2002 under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
He was released in 2008 after undergoing rehabilitation and showed signs of “remorse” and “repentance”.
However, he was detained for a second time in 2013 under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), the legislation that replaced the ISA, for recruiting new members for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
This led to a four-year jail sentence in Tapah prison.
In December 2017, Yazid was re-arrested under Pota after the authorities found that he had been recruiting fellow inmates for al-Qaeda while in jail.
***
According to Singapore’s Straits Times, Yazid attempted to cultivate and load anthrax onto weapons in Afghanistan in the 1990s.
His home in Kuala Lumpur was also used by senior al-Qaeda members for meetings, it said.
In one meeting, they discussed plans to crash planes in the United States on Sept 11,2001.
The Straits Times said Yazid was the only Malaysian with direct links to the attacks.
https://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Al Qaeda anthrax scientist Yazid Sufaat, at last report, was due to be released in Malaysia this month. Perhaps given the FBI’s failure to keep the Ivins’ emails that it relied upon in concluding Yazid Sufaat was not responsible for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings, Yazid Sufaat could write a book about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program so we can better judge the FBI’s “Ivins Theory.” A book by Sufaat would better help us understand whether former FBI Agent and book author R. Scott Decker got it wrong in relying on his key witness, who has written a book explaining that she thought murderous astral entities were attached to her patients and that she got her special psychic powers from an alien who controlled her through a microchip implanted in her butt. Maybe Decker got it wrong and just failed to read his key witness’ book she had published on Amazon. Maybe we can at least encourage him to read Yazid Sufaat’s book so that the public can more reliably assess the FBI’s Amerithrax legacy.
In his January 17, 2019 decision, Judge Contreras of the United States District Court in Washington, DC, summarized:
“The Plaintiff in this case, Kenneth J. Dillon, is among many who have expressed doubts about the FBI’s ultimate conclusion over the years. A historian and author, Dillon questions whether Ivins was involved in the attacks at all. In pursuit of evidence that might support this belief, Dillon submitted to the FBI two different requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. The first of these requests asked for various pieces of evidence that Dillon believes the FBI possesses—particular emails that Ivins sent or received and certain lab notebooks that belonged to Ivins. The second request asked for thirty-eight pages of the FBI’s Interim Major Case Summary (“IMCS”), a 2,000-page report produced in 2006, four years before the FBI concluded its investigation. Dillon asked for the report’s twenty-two-page table of contents and its sixteen pages that discuss Ivins.”
DXer said
Ilmuwan Biokimia Al Qaeda Asal Malaysia Bebas dari Penjara Tahun Depan
Safaraz
Kamis, 30 Agustus 2018 15:10 WIB
https://akurat.co/news/id-300553-read-ilmuwan-biokimia-al-qaeda-asal-malaysia-bebas-dari-penjara-tahun-depan
AKURAT.CO, Ilmuwan Malaysia bernama Yazid Sufaat yang juga pemimpin Al Qaeda di Malaysia akan dibebaskan dari penjara tahun depan. Ia bertugas membuat senjata pemusnah massal. Yazid jugalah yang merancang laboratorium persenjataan Al Qaeda di Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Laboratorium itu digunakan Yazid untuk membiakkan virus anthrax. Atas perbuatannya Yazid sudah tiga kali ditahan di penjara Malaysia dalam kurun 16 tahun ini.
“Dia akan bebas dalam tengah tahun depan,” papar Ayob Khan Mydin Pichay, kepala kepolisian Malaysia cabang divisi antiterorisme dalam International Association for Countertorrorism and Security Profesionals (IACSP) dikutip dari Channelnewsasia, Kamis (30/08).
Setelah bebas Yazid selalu merekrut anggota baru lagi untuk menambah personel ISIS. Di tahun 2013, ia ditahan selama 4 tahun di penjara Tapah, Perak. Selanjutnya di tahun 2017 ia kembali ditahan selama 2 tahun setelah kedapatan merekrut teman satu selnya di penjara Perak. Kepala polisi Ayob masih yakin Yazid adalah ancaman keamanan.
“Fakta bahwa ia pelaku aktivitas terorisme setelah bebas dari ISA dan merekrut tahanan di Tapah menunjukkan tidak adanya pertobatan,” papar Ayob menambahkan. Di sisi lain pakar antiterorisme Ahmad El-Muhammady yang mewawancari Yazid di penjara tahun 2016 percaya jika Yazid tidak akan kembali mengangkat senjata.
“Saya melihat ada kelelahan dan kesepian dalam dirinya karena hukuman penjara yang panjang. Ia ingin kembali ke rumahnya. Saya tidak menyanggah pemikiran radikalnya masih kuat. Namun perilaku terbijak untuknya saat ini adalah menghindari terorisme,” papar Ahmad yang juga dosen di International Islamic University Malaysia.
Jika ditanya apakah masih akan ada upaya menemui Yazid dari kelompok teroris, jawabannya adalah ‘tentu saja’. Namun apakah Yazid masih rela pertaruhkan kebebasannya setelah lama jauh dari keluarga? Menurut Ahmad tidak.[]
Rough translation:
Source of Al Qaeda Biochemistry To Be Freed from Prison Free Year Next Year
Safaraz
Thursday, August 30, 2018 15:10 pm
https://akurat.co/news/id-300553-read-ilmuwan-biokimia-al-qaeda-asal-malaysia-bebas-dari-penjara-tahun-epan
AKURAT.CO, Malaysian scientist Yazid Sufaat who is also Al Qaeda leader in Malaysia will be released from prison next year. He was in charge of making weapons of mass destruction. Yazid also designs the Al Qaeda weaponry laboratory in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The laboratory used Yazid to propagate anthrax. For his actions Yazid has been detained three times in Malaysian jail in 16 years.
“He will be free in the middle of next year,” said Ayob Khan Mydin Pichay, head of the Malaysian police division of antiterrorism division in the International Association for Countertorrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP) quoted from Channelnewsasia on Thursday (30/08).
Once free Yazid always recruits new members again to add ISIS personnel. In 2013, he was detained for 4 years in Tapah prison, Perak. Subsequently in 2017 he was detained for 2 years after being recruited by his
fried in Perak prison. Chief of Police Ayob still believes Yazid is a security threat.
“The fact that he was a terrorist actor after being free of the ISA and recruiting prisoners in Tapah showed no repentance,” said Ayob added. On the other hand, an antiterorist specialist Ahmad El-Muhammady who interviews
Yazid in prison in 2016 believes that Yazid will not return any weapons.
“I see there is fatigue and loneliness in him because of a long prison sentence. He wants to go back to his home. I do not argue that radical thinking is still strong. But the current behavior for her is avoiding terrorism, “said Ahmad, who is also a lecturer at International Islamic University Malaysia.
Asked if there would be an attempt to meet Yazid from a terrorist group, the answer was ‘of course’. But is Yazid still willing to risk his independence after long distances from the family? According to Ahmad no. []
Comment: Crediting what the FBI claims, by implication, is his innocence of the anthrax mailings, then I would free Yazid Sufaat. He may have strayed last time he was released, but if the FBI is vouching for his innocence, then I say let him free so he can be a truth-teller and return to his loving family. If it turns out he admits responsibility for the anthrax mailings, then it will be R. Scott Decker and AUSA Lieber’s fault. And they can explain to the victims of the anthrax mailings why they made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear in the Amerithrax Investigation Summary.
DXer said
Aimen Dean book extract: how al-Qaeda tried to build a poison-gas bomb
Aimen Dean
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aimen-dean-book-extract-how-al-qaeda-tried-to-build-a-poison-gas-bomb-fmk0fnc0g
“With disturbing relish, Abu Nassim placed a rabbit in a glass aquarium by the lakeside and started piping in the hydrogen cyanide. White fumes started to fill the aquarium, and within seconds the poor creature started furiously licking its lips. Its breathing quickened and it started scratching furiously at the side of the tank before losing muscle control, rolling onto its back and convulsing. Finally, it was dead. The whole process had lasted a minute.
Subsequently, Abu Kabab’s team would use the same aquarium for tests on dogs. And it was filled with much more than hydrogen cyanide as the experiments evolved. We tested chlorine and then cyanogen chloride. Then came phosphine, a toxic gas based on rat poison and phosgene….”
Comment:
My friend, James Vandevelde, was authorized by the CIA CTC at the seminar pictured below to explain that Al Qaeda’s anthrax program was more tightly compartmentalized and controlled than Abu Khabab’s chemical program. (See his filmed presentation).
Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax program was kept more secret and was more tightly held. At least it apparently not been penetrated by the MI6 spy that had penetrated Abu Kabab’s chemical program.
Nonetheless, I imagine that even jihadists share gossip over meals and volleyball. What are Aimen Dean’s thoughts on Yazid Sufaat’s anthrax work?
Geographically, which was located where?
Below, at the conference, I question the former key scientist in the FBI’s haz mat unit who was the only one known to have made a dried powder out of Ames anthrax from Bruce Ivins’ Flask 1029.
Being a good Marine, it is time Robert Mueller run toward justice — and leave no man on the field.
DXer said
Would President Trump plead the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination?
Trump doesn’t have to comply with Mueller subpoena
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/05/07/giuliani-trump-doesnt-have-to-comply-with-mueller-subpoena-shan-wu-nr.cnn
DXer said
Ezra Cohen-Watnick:
The difficult thing is to decide what’s important and what’s not. Let me save you some time. Amerithrax was totally botched. That is your starting point.
R. Scott Decker is an FBI Agent who in a book last year explained that he did not collect samples from abroad for a full two years after the anthrax mailings.
It was known that Ayman Zawahiri had sent an infiltrating scientist to Porton Down conferences — and other European conferences — for a couple years at Zawahiri’s request. He wrote Zawahiri to say that the targets had been achieved. DIA gave me the declassified correspondence pursuant to FOIA. (See JB Petro).
The Blind Sheik’s lawyer had announced that Dr. Ayman was going to use anthrax against US targets to retaliate for the rendering of the Blind Sheik and senior EIJ jihadists. (see CIA’s FBIS)
Rauf Ahmad, according to DIA, would come annually to Great Britain. DIA’s James Vandevelde — later of the CTC — could provide some background.
Your mission — if you decide to accept it — is come to understand who was responsible for Decker’s failure to collect any samples abroad for two years — while Amerithrax, the largest whodunnit in history, was botched.
Why did Mueller and Comey allow it while allowing the FBI to become fixated on Hatfill?
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
WW3 fears: Britain makes anthrax vaccine available amid chemical attack preparations
THOUSANDS of anthrax vaccines are to be made available after Britain joined four European nations in allowing a US drug to be made commercially available.
By Marco Giannangeli
PUBLISHED: 08:07, Sun, Apr 15, 2018 | UPDATED: 22:24, Sun, Apr 15, 2018
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/946274/ww3-anthrax-fears-vaccine-chemical-weapons-britain-gavin-williamson
The decision, weeks after the Salisbury poisonings, comes as the UK continues to list anthrax as the number one biological threat in terms of a terror attack. Last month Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that soldiers “at the highest readiness” would be provided with the anthrax vaccine “providing them with vital protection”.
A report by the European Commission has warned that chemical and biological stockpiles in Syria, which have also been used by the Islamic State over the past five years, could make their way over to Europe.
“Incidents have shown Daesh’s (Islamic State’s) interest in innovating and developing biological and radiological weapons,” it stated. EU warnings in 2015 said that members “must prepare for the possibility of a chemical or biological attack on their territory” emphasising the “particular risk that terrorists might use sarin, ricin or anthrax”.
More than 150 cases of trafficking radiological, biological and nuclear materials are reported each year to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Britain has a small vaccine stockpile controlled by Porton Biopharma, a company linked to Porton Down and Public Health England.
DXer said
Britain’s Novichok Chaos Brings Back Memories of Anthrax Attacks
• By Peter Isackson
• • April 6, 2018
https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/novichok-sergei-skripal-poisoning-britain-anthrax-attacks-us-news-41521/
“Those are the known facts. Two questions remain, Whodunnit and why?
Here is Gabriel Schoenfeld writing in The Los Angeles Time in August 2008: “Whether Ivins is conclusively shown to be the perpetrator, or whether he was an innocent man hounded by intrusive surveillance and public humiliation into suicide, questions about the FBI’s performance are piling up. The bureau’s horrific track record before 9/11, and its single-minded focus on Hatfill after the anthrax attacks, raises the suspicion that, in the dramatic events of last week, we are glimpsing yet another monumental screw-up, one fully worthy of the FBI’s inglorious recent past.”
Since no one has published anything resembling a reasonable account of motives of whichever scientist at Fort Detrick may have prepared the anthrax, readers will draw their own conclusions.”
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
From where was the cyanide mailed in December 2001? And from where were the later letters mailed that referenced the cyanide?
Details of a cyanide threat against Tiger Woods and the 2001 New Zealand Open revealed
30 Mar, 2018 12:07pm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12023296
A scientist working for the New Zealand police revealed that the substance in the sugar packet had tested positive for lab-grade potassium cyanide.
Starnes said that the author of the threatening letter outlined a view that New Zealand’s security for the tournament was relaxed, and said that Woods represented US suppression and the exploitation of the Islamic people of Southeast Asia.
The author also claimed to be “an enemy of America, the Great Satan, as well as the Israeli regime and claimed allegiance to Islamic Jihad”, Starnes said.
“This letter’s ramblings included the opinion that America had not learned its lesson from 9/11 and he basically accused America’s foreign policy of suppressing the weak.”
Starnes said that the specific mention of a desire to orchestrate suicide attacks and violence against both Tiger Woods and New Zealand citizens resulted in major security concerns for both the New Zealand and United States government.
The government then asked the US Embassy not to go public about the threat letter.
“From a law enforcement perspective, I completely understood the importance of holding the information close so as not to telegraph or compromise their investigation and security plans to the letter’s author,” Starnes said.
New Zealand police tightened security at the golf open at Paraparaumu, north of Wellington, and warned the public to be vigilant against food and drink tampering, but were not more specific.
Other letters referencing a cyanide attack were sent to the New Zealand Herald in the same year.
DXer said
By 2002, I was referring to Al Qaeda’s experiments with cyanide gas and the Moro Front’s purchase of pathogens. But I would have to dig deeper for past references to New Zealand.
Al Qaeda, Anthrax and Ayman: means, opportunities, motive, and modus operandi
November 20, 2002 rev.
https://cryptome.org/alqaeda-anthrax.htm
Glad that sort of thing never happens in the U.S.
UPDATED: Police report toxic cyanide missing from UM lab
Madeline Broom, Ryan OConnell
Mar 8, 2018
http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/updated-police-report-toxic-cyanide-missing-from-um-lab/article_7e21d9e0-22f3-11e8-a12f-dbc731b0a1a0.html
DXer said
Super Bowl anti-terrorism documents left on plane
Posted 7:35 am, February 5, 2018, by CNN Wire
http://wtkr.com/2018/02/05/super-bowl-anti-terrorism-documents-left-on-plane/
There has been a drumbeat of criticism surrounding the BioWatch program since its inception in 2003.
Multiple government reports issued over the course of more than a decade have raised questions about its cost and effectiveness.
“Since 2003, approximately $1 billion has been spent on this program,” according to a 2013 memo by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s oversight subcommittee. “After more than a decade of operation, DHS still lacks crucial data demonstrating the effectiveness of the current technology.”
The report also noted differences of opinion within the government about the program.
“Several statements by DHS about the performance of the BioWatch program are disputed by other government scientists or contradicted by information obtained in this investigation,” the document said.
A 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office struck a similar tone when it said “considerable uncertainty” exists about the types and sizes of biological attacks the system could detect. The report states that because DHS did not develop “performance requirements” for the program, the agency could not make informed decisions about how to upgrade it.
An agency official noted in an email to CNN that “Biodetection is one aspect of a layered approach to biodefense,” and that “DHS continues to develop requirements and field enhancements to our national biodefense.”
DXer said
R. Scott Decker writes at page 23 of “Recounting the Anthrax Attacks”
“they drafted subpoenas for the laboratories on the CDC list. Once issued, the orders would ask: Which scientists used Ames in research, where and when they had gotten it, had they shared with with anybody, and if so, with whom? But foremost, in the back of everyone’s mind, and in discussions between Director Mueller, the attorney general, and White House staff: Had the Ames strain found its way overseas? To Iraq weapons scientists, or into crude al-Qaeda laboratories?”
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
https://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The December 16, 2004 AMX Weekly Report explained that Ames strain of anthrax was detected at Afghanistan’s anthrax lab:
“Analysis of samples collected OCONUS, for the presence of Bacillus anthracis
An OCONUS mission was conducted by FBI personnel from the WFO, HMRU, and partners from other intelligence agencies in May 2004. Numerous samples were taken from several sites including buildings, wells, and buried latrines. The samples were transported CONUS and were accessioned and processed by the BFAC. Three samples tested positive for the presence of Bacillus anthracis by PCR.
Further strain typing results from these samples revealed that these samples contain DNA from the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis, consistent with the evidence.”
DXer said
It turns out that both FBI and CIA testing detected the Ames in Afghanistan
The March 25, 2005 AMX Weekly Science Update explained:
“Separately obtained samples from the same OCONUS location by another US Government agency were strain-typed at Northern Arizona University. These samples were obtained prior to the May, 2004 sampling mission. These results are consistent with the earlier strain typing results described above.”
DXer said
In news reports today, Mike Rogers, former Congressman from Michigan, is being considered to be FBI Director.
Congressman: Intelligence gathering first step in stopping bioterror
Thursday, May 13, 2010 @ 2:34pm by Nick Rees
Prophylactic measures to fight biothreats are important, Congressman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said, but intelligence gathering is the most important method of stopping a bioterror event.
Rogers, a permanent select member of the Committee on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Terrorism, spoke last week at a NATO Parliamentary Assembly hosted by Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.
“Any defense vaccines that we have are second tier,” Rogers said. “It’s an important second tier and it needs to exist, but the first tier is intelligence.
“The best way that we can stop a bioterror attack is to know what the threat is. We don’t have that knowledge without great intelligence.
“There are biothreats out there. Most of them we know about, some we do not. We know where some of them are in development, some we do not.”
Rogers said that intelligence is needed to not only know where an attack will take place but by what means the attack will happen.
“We don’t want to buy 5,00 vials of X if they’re working on Y as a threat,” Rogers said. That doesn’t help anybody.
“This is equally as important as a missile defense conversation because it’s easier to locate a missile and a missile system and a radiological element than it is a biosubstance that could kill equally, if not more, of our population.
“For sheer chaos and panic, imagine a bioagent going off anywhere in the world. It would shake the confidence of not only that population but of the world population.”
Rogers said that intelligence will also aid in stopping threats by catching them in the developmental stages of planning rather than once the threat is made real.
“I can’t stress that enough,” Rogers said. “In the international community, we’ve improved our intelligence relationships, which lets us know what to order and what we need to prepare ourselves. That’s hopefully how we know to intercept a problem before it becomes a real problem.”
Rogers said that the United States must work to not only better prepare itself and broaden its intelligence interests but also to work with intentional partners in broadening their intelligence.
“It’s going to take leadership in all of our elements of government to make it happen,” Rogers said. “It’s the reality of the world we live in today.”
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Former DIA head Flynn was the fellow who, upon leaving the DIA, suggested that an attack by Al Qaeda using anthrax was a huge, underestimated threat.
And Chris Ruddy — the Newsmax managing editor meeting with Trump who wanted Flynn ousted — was the fellow who arranged with me to have an essay on the Al Qaeda anthrax threat appear in that publication.
So while I am not political — and have both liberals and conservatives in my extended family — I have to say that it has been interesting to see the shifts in fortune and changes in personnel over the past few months.
Personally, I would like to see Amerithrax reopened. People are not yet on the same page in Amerithrax and the FBI’s controversial Ivins Theory has not yet been adequately vetted due to the documents being wrongfully withheld.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
I have written Jackson Landers, who wrote the piece in the Smithsonian today. He has written a book about eating invasive species and writes freelance for The Smithsonian.
“Hi!
I realize in the context of your article, [the phrase “cave in Afghanistan”] was just hyperbole.
But wanted to pass on some facts about Al Qaeda’s anthrax lab (which moved from Kabul to Kandahar) so the phrase does not mislead anyone.
Al Qaeda’s anthrax lab was never in a cave.
In May, it was in Omar Hospital in the pathology lab.
Then with the arrival of a lot of equipment obtained from Pakistan, it was moved to Kandahar.
It was not in a cave.
Garvey, PhD, now head of forensics for Philadelphia PPD — who did the testing of the strain detected in Afghanistan while he worked for the CIA — says the anthrax detected was the Ames strain. He has said this in a published paper online.
(When I sent Yazid Sufaat a picture of the anthrax spore concentrate that was cultivated in the Afghanistan vaccine lab, he refused to identify the strain). The Taliban controlled the lab, as was explained early on in an Economist article.
Richard Lambert, former head of Amerithrax, has publicly said that the FBI is withholding a staggering amount of information exculpatory of Bruce Ivins.
He has sued as a whistleblower in federal district court.
I obtained from DIA the plans for Al Qaeda anthrax lab. It was very sophisticated. Abdul Rauf refused to cooperate with me unless I paid him money. (The CIA interviewed him in a Pakistan intelligence safe house where they were served tea and cookies by Rauf Ahmad’s servant).
The head FBI scientist, in any event, has publicly said at the official presentation that no sophisticated equipment was needed. The anthrax could have been air-dried. Indeed, it turns out Ivins did not even have a lyophilizer available to him.
Tom Ridge says the anthrax was tested by Al Qaeda on animals.
I have interviewed the Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat and he does not deny Al Qaeda’s responsibility for the anthrax mailings.
Sufaat met with Adnan El-Shukrijumah at KSM’s house at the time (9/11) that Adnan called his Mom in Florida to tell her he was coming back to the US.
These things — and evidence from KSM and Hambali on the issue — are being suppressed by the FBI. See public statements by former lead Amerithrax investigator.
p.s. I see you have written a book about eating invasive species. That seems a wonderful idea. Note, however, that the mute swan has been in New York since the 19th Century. Trumpeter swans first began breeding in the wild in New York State, OTOH, in the 1990s (according to the NYS DEC). A couple of juveniles escaped from Robert Congel’s game preserve upstate. So please don’t encourage anyone to eat my mute swan Ernie. ; 0)
Mute swans actually eat LESS than trumpeter swans.”
DXer said
DXer said
Kenya says arrests key member of militant group plotting attacks
Source: Reuters – Tue, 3 May 2016 17:55 GMT
Author: Reuters
http://news.trust.org/item/20160503175759-kopt0
In a statement, Kenyan police said Muhammed Abdi Ali was arrested on Friday as a suspected member of an east African militant group with links to Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria and inspired offshoot groups elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa.
Ali worked as a medical intern at a hospital in eastern Kenya before his arrest and also studied at a university in neighbouring Uganda, the police statement said.
“Ali has been engaged in the active radicalisation, recruitment of university students and other Kenyan youth into terrorism networks,” it said.
His militant group was also planning “large-scale attacks akin to” the Westgate Mall, the statement said, and Ali’s network included medical experts who were plotting a biological attack in Kenya using anthrax.
DXer said
US Biological Quarantine: A Look at the Legal Framework
KT Rooney – Journal of Legislation, 2016 – scholarship.law.nd.edu
http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1649&context=jleg
DXer said
Managing Emerging Health Security Threats Since 9/11: The Role of Intelligence
Patrick F. Walsh
pages 341-367
Publishing models and article dates explained
• Published online: 28 Jan 2016
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08850607.2016.1121048
DXer said
Just as the Malaysian Government has acted corruptly in concealing Yazid Sufaat’s role in the Al Qaeda anthrax program, the government officials have acted corruptly on a breathtaking level. Both the Prime Minister and the Attorney General he appointed should resign in order to avoid being prosecuted.
Before there can be peace, there needs to be justice.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-30/swiss-probe-of-malaysia-fund-finds-possible-misuse-of-4-billion
Swiss Probe of Malaysia Fund Sees $4 Billion Possible Misuse
Shamim Adam
January 30, 2016
The Swiss Attorney-General’s office said in a statement Friday that during an investigation of 1Malaysia Development Bhd., four cases involving allegations of criminal conduct and occurring between 2009 and 2013 have so far come to light. It has been ascertained a small amount of funds were transferred to Swiss accounts of former Malaysian public officials, according to the statement. The Swiss authority is seeking help from the Malaysian attorney general to determine whether funds were misappropriated.
“The monies believed to have been misappropriated would have been earmarked for investment in economic and social development projects in Malaysia,” the Swiss authority said in the statement. “To date, however, the Malaysian companies concerned have made no comment on the losses they are believed to have incurred. The object of the request for mutual assistance is therefore to advise the companies and the Malaysian government of the results of the Swiss criminal proceedings, with the aim of finding out whether losses on this scale have been sustained.”
Multiples Probes
1MDB, whose advisory board is headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been the subject of overlapping investigations in Malaysia, as well as overseas jurisdictionsincluding Singapore and Hong Kong amid allegations of financial irregularities.
***
While an initial Malaysian auditor general’s report in July on 1MDB didn’t reveal any suspicious activity, the nation’s central bank had made requests for the attorney general to initiate criminal proceedings against the debt-ridden company. The Malaysian attorney general’s office dismissed the central bank’s requests, which alleged that 1MDB breached the Exchange Control Act.
o Wrongdoing
Separately, the attorney general closed the door on a graft investigation into Najib this month, clearing him of wrongdoing over a “personal contribution” of $681 million from Saudi Arabia’s royal family, and funds from a company linked to 1MDB that appeared in his personal bank accounts. Under Malaysia’s federal constitution, the decision to initiate criminal prosecution lies solely with the attorney general.
Najib has maintained the funds were not used for private benefit, with $620 million later returned to the Saudi donors, although there hasn’t been a clear explanation as to what the rest was spent on or where that money is now. Both the premier and 1MDB have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
DXer said
No time limit for criminal prosecution, say lawyers on Najib’s cases
The Malaysian Insider-7 hours ago
Another example, he said was former Internal Security Act detainee Yazid Sufaat and cafeteria worker, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, who had their …
Amer said there were instances where the Attorney-General’s Chambers initially decided to take no further of action but subsequently decided to charge the suspect on grounds there was new evidence. Another example, he said was former Internal Security Act detainee Yazid Sufaat and cafeteria worker, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, who had their earlier charges dropped by A-G due to the emergence of fresh evidence. “A prosecution witness during cross examination by the defence disapproved the accusations that the two were promoting terrorism and were not members of a terrorist group. “The defence then wrote to the A-G who dropped the charges. Similarly, the A-G could frame charges if there are new developments,” he added. On Wednesday, Yazid, 52, and Hilmi, 36, were each jailed seven years for withholding information on terrorism activities in 2012 after they pleaded guilty to an alternative charge. Amer said the MACC in Najib’s case had a duty to continue investigations if they found new leads that strengthened their case. Since there was no time bar on criminal prosecution, the law also did not prevent a new public prosecutor to review the investigation papers, so long as the accused and relevant witnesses were available. –
See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/no-time-limit-for-criminal-prosecution-say-lawyers-on-najibs-cases#sthash.9akzfnw1.dpuf
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat jailed for seven years
Pure Wan Omar
hmetro.com.my
Kuala Lumpur: The High Court here today sentenced to seven years in prison for former Internal Security Act (ISA), Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim cafeteria aide on charges of refusing to provide information about terrorism.
Comment:
To keep you on track for an October 2017 released hoped for by Soraya, let’s go back to this question of the strain of b.anthracis you were using.
Please confirm for the record what strain it was.
Thanks.
p.s. I’ve asked your wife to get you a motorcycle — so you can blow past the recent years of detention.
p.s.s. Tell Soraya to never retweet Bilal again. That’s foolish.
DXer said
Ex-army captain gets seven years jail term after pleading to lesser terrorism info omission charge
BY AIZYL AZLEE
JANUARY 27, 2016
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ex-army-captain-gets-seven-years-jail-term-after-pleading-to-lesser-terrori
The prosecution later withdrew the two original charges after the two men agreed to accept the alternative charge.
High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin sentenced the duo to carry out the maximum penalty from February 7, 2013 when they were detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma).
“We have always maintained our innocence. The original charges against us are baseless and the use of Sosma was an abuse of process. There is no evidence against us. We do not promote the commission of terrorist acts nor are we members of Tanzim al-Qaeda,” Yazid said in a statement.
Lawyer New Sin Yew who acted for Yazid said the defence had called on the prosecution to drop the charges following a cross examination of the latter’s star witness that had provided evidence of Yazid and Hilmi’s innocence of the initial charges.
“The evidence was exculpatory of the accused persons and thereafter the defence made a representation that the charges be dropped,” New told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Yazid, a former army captain, was initially accused of knowingly encouraging terrorist acts with the intention to promote an ideological purpose that is intended to threaten the public in Syria, while his cafeteria assistant was charged with abetment.
Yazid had been released from a seven-year ISA detention on November 28, 2008.
DXer said
Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Director from 2003-2005, says that Al Qaeda was doing experiments on anthrax in animals.
What is his sourcing? Al Qaeda anthrax lab Yazid Sufaat, in a written interview I conducted with him, declined to tell me the strain he and his assistants were using. And he refused to tell me what Abu Khabab (Midhat Morsi) was using in his experiments on animals — rabbits, I believe — in August 2001. (He complimented that question though). The famously filmed dog experiment involved something else. What does Yazid Sufaat’s vaccinated lab assistant — secretly detained in Israel for years — say? Why should another dollar be spent on biodefense if the USG cannot — 15 years later –identify the anthrax strain being used by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan? The money is being misspent all right. Shut down all biodefense labs until the USG stops playing hide-the-ball about AQ’s anthrax program — to include both the strain Yazid Sufaat was using and the identity of the second lab that infiltrating scientist Rauf Ahmad visited on his mission to acquire virulent anthrax. Transparency and accountability has been just a PR slogan for the DOD on these two issues.
DXer said
Rough, very possibly mistaken, translation of a report on the 19th trial in Yazid Sufaat’s trial today:
Kuala LUMPUR-the High Court today was told there are no police reports made against ex-prisoners Internal Security Act (ISA), Yazid Sufaat during recording usrah taken secretly by protected witnesses between July to October 2012. Inspector Shafez Adil Ahmad, from the Special Branch in Bukit Aman however denued that Yazid did not commit any offence during that period. ‘ I do not agree with the proposed advocate (Yazid didn’t do any offence), ‘ he said during cross-examination by a lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad in the trial case of Yazid, 51, and cafeteria Assistant, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, 35, allegedly involved in promoting terrorism. The 19th prosecution witness that said, he does not agree with the proposed Amer Hamzah that police reports made against Yazid on 23 October 2012 is an action he thought up later. [I think: Ahmad Shafez agreed that every time the recorder was used.]
He also agreed that the transcript on 7, 14 and 21 July that is removed from the recorder shows no information stating the discussion happening on that date. Meanwhile, during re-examination by the Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Ishak Yusuf, Ahmad Shafez said he will make prior intelligence by collecting all the information before referred to superiors. Yazid faced two charges of terrorism with the intention of encouraging threatened civilians in Syria and became a member of the Group Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia while Muhammad Hilmi allegedly colluding with it. They allegedly do such acts in a house in Taman Bukit Ampang, Lorong Mutiara 2, Lembah Jaya, Ampang, here. The trial before Judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin continues tomorrow. -Bernama
Original source:
KUALA LUMPUR – Mahkamah Tinggi hari ini diberitahu tiada laporan polis dibuat terhadap bekas tahanan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA), Yazid Sufaat sepanjang rakaman usrah diambil secara rahsia oleh saksi terlindung antara Julai hingga Oktober 2012.
Inspektor Ahmad Shafez Adil dari Cawangan Khas Bukit Aman bagaimanapun menafikan bahawa Yazid tidak melakukan apa-apa kesalahan dalam tempoh itu.
“Saya tidak setuju dengan cadangan peguam bela (Yazid tidak lakukan apa-apa kesalahan),” katanya ketika pemeriksaan balas oleh peguam Amer Hamzah Arshad dalam perbicaraan kes Yazid, 51, dan pembantu kafetaria, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, 35, yang didakwa terbabit dalam aktiviti menggalakkan keganasan.
Saksi pendakwaan ke-19 itu berkata, beliau juga tidak bersetuju dengan cadangan Amer Hamzah bahawa laporan polis yang dibuat terhadap Yazid pada 23 Oktober 2012 adalah suatu tindakan yang difikirkan kemudian.
Berhubung alat perakam audio yang digunakan, Ahmad Shafez bersetuju bahawa setiap kali rakaman baharu dibuat, beliau akan memadam rakaman terdahulu selepas memuat naik ke dalam komputer riba miliknya.
Beliau juga bersetuju bahawa transkrip usrah pada 7, 14 dan 21 Julai yang dikeluarkan daripada alat perakam itu menunjukkan tidak ada sebarang maklumat yang menyatakan perbincangan berlaku pada tarikh tersebut.
Sementara itu, semasa pemeriksaan semula oleh Timbalan Pendakwa Raya, Mohd Ishak Yusuf, Ahmad Shafez berkata, beliau akan membuat risikan terlebih dahulu dengan mengumpul segala maklumat sebelum dirujuk kepada pegawai atasan.
Yazid berdepan dua pertuduhan menggalakkan keganasan dengan niat mengugut orang awam di Syria dan menjadi anggota kumpulan Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia manakala Muhammad Hilmi didakwa bersubahat dengannya.
Mereka didakwa melakukan perbuatan itu di sebuah rumah di Taman Bukit Ampang, Lorong Mutiara 2, Lembah Jaya, Ampang, di sini.
Perbicaraan di hadapan Hakim Datuk Mohd Azman Husin bersambung esok. – Bernama
DXer said
Very rough translation of news from court yesterday in Yazid Sufaat’s trial:
Yazid claims the Parliament ‘ seize ‘ the right of God August 26, 2015 1:11 pm KUALA LUMPUR 25 August – Some recordings organised by former prisoner usrah Internal Security Act (ISA), Yazid Sufaat played at the High Court here today among them claim that individuals who invite to democracy are the taghut (extreme and extremely wicked). In the recording the Parliament and usrah body perunda ngan also allegedly had seized the right of God in making rulings and laws. In fact, those who uphold the man-made law also considered as ‘ Satan that invites other man to worship (to other creatures) besides Allah ‘. Such statements are part of the contents of 12 recordings recorded in session usrah hidden by one of the participants of the ceremony which also protected prosecution witnesses (Zenvo).
Such statements are part of the contents of 12 recordings recorded in session usrah hidden by one of the participants of the ceremony which also protected prosecution witnesses (Zenvo). A few more recordings will be played tomorrow in order to ensure its authenticity before each recording involved including transkripnya admitted as part of the prosecution evidence in the trial against Yazid and the cafeteria Assistant, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim each face two charges involve violence.
Comment:
This is pretty tame stuff so far — the argument that democracy is un-islamic has been made for years by some. For example, two new political parties in Egypt in 1999 were chastised by the Blind Sheikh. The Blind Sheikh was approached in the US prison and asked if it was okay for the islamists to seek democractic reform — that is, to operate through the existing reform in implementing a shariah state in Egypt. The Blind Sheikh said no.
As I recall, Montasser Al-Zayat, one of the organizers of the new party, relented to the Blind Sheik’s view — with the explanation that following the majority rule might put you in conflict with God’s law.
But in a free society, expression of this view cannot, without more, justify being imprisoned — at least not consistent with the FIrst Amendment as interpreted in the US by the Supreme Court over the years.
I’ve made plain my view that Yazid Sufaat was behind the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings and is a serious security threat. In correspondence with me, he does not deny it and instead pled the Fifth Amendment.
But if I’m wrong — as is the FBI’s position — then I haven’t yet seen justification for his imprisonment.
Let him go on Oprah and debate Trump about whether churches and mosques are a serious waste of valuable real estate.
Let him appear on stage and asked by a reporter what strain of anthrax he and Barq and the other fellow were using.
Original source:
Yazid dakwa parlimen ‘rampas’ hak Allah
26 Ogos 2015 1:11 AM
KUALA LUMPUR 25 Ogos – Beberapa rakaman usrah diadakan oleh bekas tahanan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA), Yazid Sufaat yang dimainkan di Mahkamah Tinggi di sini hari ini antaranya mendakwa bahawa individu yang mengajak kepada demokrasi adalah orang yang taghut (melampau dan amat zalim).
Di dalam rakaman usrah tersebut, Parlimen dan badan perunda ngan juga didakwa telah merampas hak Allah dalam membuat hukum serta undang-undang.
Malah, mereka yang menegakkan undang-undang buatan manusia juga dianggap sebagai ‘syaitan yang mengajak manusia lain untuk beribadat (kepada makhluk lain) selain Allah’.
Kenyataan-kenyataan tersebut merupakan sebahagian daripada isi kandungan 12 rakaman sesi usrah yang dirakam secara tersembunyi oleh salah seorang peserta majlis tersebut yang juga saksi terlindung pendakwaan (ST1).
Beberapa lagi rakaman akan dimainkan esok bagi memastikan kesahihannya sebelum kesemua rakaman terbabit termasuk transkripnya diterima masuk sebagai sebahagian bukti pendakwaan di dalam perbicaraan kes terhadap Yazid dan pembantu kafeteria, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim yang masing-masing menghadapi dua pertuduhan membabitkan keganasan.
http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/mahkamah/yazid-dakwa-parlimen-8216-rampas-8217-hak-allah-1.128523
Beberapa lagi rakaman akan dimainkan esok bagi memastikan kesahihannya sebelum kesemua rakaman terbabit termasuk transkripnya diterima masuk sebagai sebahagian bukti pendakwaan di dalam perbicaraan kes terhadap Yazid dan pembantu kafeteria, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim yang masing-masing menghadapi dua pertuduhan membabitkan keganasan.
DXer said
New leader named for Buffalo FBI office
2 hours ago(
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — An FBI agent with experience investigating Internet and international terrorism has been chosen to lead the agency’s Buffalo office.
FBI Director James Comey announced the appointment of Adam Cohen as special agent in charge of the upstate New York office on Thursday.
Cohen most recently served as the section chief for the FBI’s Counterterrorism Internet Operations Section, managing investigations of terrorists’ use of the Internet.
He began his FBI career in the New York City field office in 1997.
Cohen will report to Buffalo in early October.
http://poststar.com/news/state-and-regional/new-leader-named-for-buffalo-fbi-office/article_8b992edb-4e56-56b2-ad29-85f2de6a3d5e.html
Comment: What is the status of Yazid Sufaat’s trial?
DXer said
Updated: Tuesday April 14, 2015 MYT 9:04:48 PM
Defence in Yazid terrorism trial wants journalist removed as witness
BY QISHIN TARIQ
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/04/14/Court-Yazid-Journalist/
DXer said
Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat says he was in fact successful in developing some bugs but then his laboratory was destroyed in bombing. He viewed anthrax, however, as mainly useful for sabotage, not killing. He prefers a bug that kills more quickly and reliably. Yazid Sufaat says that before taking the lead of Al Qaeda’s anthrax program he had been part of a secret Malaysian Armed Forces biological weapons program.
Source:
Al Qaeda anthrax lab tech says he had been part of Malaysian Armed Forces biological weapons program
http://www.freemalaysiakini2.com
“A biological warfare programme
Among the longest-serving ISA detainees in history, Yazid, currently under travel, asset and arms deals sanctions imposed by the United Nations, believes his incarceration has to do with his “expertise”.
Trained as a biochemist on a government scholarship in the United States, this top student of the Royal Military College who retired as a captain with the army was part of a biological warfare programme under the Defence Ministry.
Osama Laden, Yazid was hesitant to reveal details about the government’s “secret” programme which was later scrapped, describing it “a long story”.
“When they (the police) first took me in, I didn’t tell them (about the government programme). I didn’t want them to know, didn’t want the liability to fall on the government, to pass the buck to someone else.
“Finally, they managed to get a report from their ‘friend’ and they wanted me to clear things up. I didn’t want to clarify (anything), so they took my wife in,” said the father of four.
His wife, Sejahratul Dursina @ Chomel Mohamed, was held under ISA for two months and after this was placed under a movement restriction order for six years.
“If you want to be released from ISA, just follow what they say and admit to all the charges… I refused to do so and they kept me for seven years… because I don’t want to sing (Negara-ku).
“I don’t want to sing. Why should I (when) the country had betrayed me?” Yazid asked.
***
The other two individuals linked to 9/11 who stayed in the Sungai Long condominium were Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi – two of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon.
The duo, according to the United Nations, had stayed at Yazid’s condominium in January 2000 to attend what the UN termed an “al-Qaeda conference” in Kuala Lumpur.
“I was not there. At that time I was in Pakistan and Afghanistan, building a hospital there,” Yazid said.
Next to the hospital, he said, was a laboratory where he is accused of developing biological weapons – an accusation not levelled at him during his detention under the ISA, but earning him the moniker “Anthrax CEO”.
Favourite bugs
CBS News reported that US intelligence doubts that Yazid developed the anthrax strain, while a leaked Guantanamo Bay document posted on Wikileaks noted that a Yemeni detainee said Yazid had “poor lab techniques”.
But Yazid said that he was in fact “successful” in developing some “bugs”, but the laboratory was destroyed when the Northern Alliance forces bombed Kandahar.
“I can still find (anthrax) if I want to, but what for? It has no commercial value. Anthrax is only good for sabotaging, it cannot kill.
“It’s not my favourite bug, anyway. I’d rather use bacteria or virus yang betul-betul(really) hit you and give you one or two hours before you die.”
DXer said
Michael P. Garvery, formerly FBI and CIA and forensic scientist on Amerithrax, said of the Amerithrax investigation: “While the FBI would perform extensive investigations on each consultant in order to verify his/her suitability to assist the investigation and rule them out as a subject of the investigation, this unique aspect of the investigation could be correlated to a forensic examiner, who is suspected of a sexual assault, being consulted on and examining the sexual assault evidence in the same case.”
I would have you choose the scales used rather than limit you.
Dr. Garvey is now head of forensics for the CIty of Philadelphia.
Excerpts from Dr. Garvey’s PhD thesis:
-“In the Amerithrax investigation, the FBI report discusses OCONUS samples that had inconsistent results for the presence of B. anthracis and possibly even indications of the presence of the Ames strain. However, these results were ultimately discarded by the FBI due to the inconsistencies in the various testing results, sampling procedures, and methodology used by the FBI and IC. As this case never reached trial and the details of this intelligence based collection is mostly classified, it cannot be fully addressed.”
-“The reporting suggests that B. anthracis consistent with Ames strain was identified from this location. However, without full disclosure of the scientific data, one cannot ascertain whether these results are reliable. If reliable, did these results indicate the presence of Ames strain in an Al Qaeda lab from a laboratory transfer or is there an isolate of B. anthracis that is located in the undisclosed region of the world that developed similar markers to the Ames strain through parallel evolution. More importantly, these results show the importance of fully understanding the limitations of an assay in order to better explain its results.”
-“While the FBI would perform extensive investigations on each consultant in order to verify his/her suitability to assist the investigation and rule them out as a subject of the investigation, this unique aspect of the investigation could be correlated to a forensic examiner, who is suspected of a sexual assault, being consulted on and examining the sexual assault evidence in the same case.” (p. 79)
Source:
“Microbial Forensics and U.S. National Security: Science and Strategy”
Garvey, Michael
Date: 2014-08
http://digilib.gmu.edu/dspace/handle/1920/8957
DXer said
CIA pushback: Senate Torture Report selectively omits that CIA learned “important information about al-Qa’ida’s anthrax plotting and the role of Yazid Sufaat”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 11, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/cia-pushback-senate-torture-report-selectively-omits-that-cia-learned-important-information-about-al-qaidas-anthrax-plotting-and-the-role-of-yazid-sufaat/
Senate Torture Report: Yazid Sufaat’s assistant Al-Barq alternately would say “I made the anthrax” or “I lied”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 10, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/senate-torture-report-yazid-sufaats-assistant-al-barq-alternately-would-say-i-made-the-anthrax-or-i-lied/
If Yazid Sufaat and his assistants had not been working with virulent anthrax at the Kandahar lab, there would have been no reason for them to have been vaccinated
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 22, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/if-yazid-sufaat-and-his-assistants-had-not-been-working-with-virulent-anthrax-at-the-kandahar-lab-there-would-have-been-no-reason-for-them-to-have-been-vaccinated/
Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat’s former assistant indicted in Israel for holding biological weapons
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 5, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/al-qaeda-anthrax-lab-director-yazid-sufaats-former-assistant-indicted-in-israel-for-holding-biological-weapons/
DXer said
2014 Straits Times report : Into what weapons did Yazid Sufaat attempt to load anthrax?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 23, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/2014-straits-times-report-into-what-weapons-did-yazid-sufaat-attempt-to-load-anthrax/
Moussaoui testimony: After Moussaoui got in trouble with KSM for Yazid Sufaat’s unauthorized purchase of 10 tons of ammonium nitrate to blow up the US embassy in KL, AQ #2 Atef formally tasked Moussaoui with buying and learning to fly a crop dusting plane for use in an attack
Posted on February 6, 2015
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/moussaoui-testimony-after-moussaoui-got-in-trouble-with-ksm-for-yazid-sufaats-unauthorized-purchase-of-10-tons-of-ammonium-nitrate-to-blow-up-the-us-embassy-in-kl-aq-2-atef-formally-tasked-mou/
In today’s installment of a continuing series, Al Qaeda anthrax lab technician Yazid Sufaat defends his decision to go to Afghanistan to work on his “anthrax project” for Al Qaeda
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 20, 2012
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/interview-yazid-sufaat-released-in-november-2008-says-he-met-osama/
Al Qaeda anthrax lab tech Yazid Sufaat discusses Zacarias Moussaoui in this 2011 French language television interview
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 28, 2012
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/al-qaeda-anthrax-lab-tech-yazid-sufaat-discusses-zacarias-moussaoui-in-this-2001-french-language-television-interview/
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat was happy with the anthrax work when he stayed with KSM for 6 days in 2001 and when he reported to Dr. Ayman on the results of his research with virulent anthrax in August 2001 with Hambali; in his correspondence with DXer, he seems happy today also (and very much in love).
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 1, 2012
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/yazid-sufaat-reported-he-was-happy-with-the-anthrax-work-when-he-stayed-with-ksm-for-6-days-in-august-2001-at-the-time-he-reported-to-dr-ayman-on-the-results-of-his-research-with-virulent-anthrax/
In February 2002, NEWSWEEK described Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat’s role in the 911 attacks that killed 3000 civilians.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 29, 2013
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/in-february-2002-newsweek-described-al-qaeda-anthrax-lab-director-yazid-sufaats-role-in-the-911-attacks-that-killed-3000-civilians/
Hank Crumpton Says Yazid Sufaat’s “mission was bio-attacks against American targets”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 14, 2012
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/hank-crumpton-says-yazid-sufaats-mission-was-bio-attacks-against-american-targets/
Before his recent arrest, Yazid Sufaat declined to tell DXer the strain of the “anthrax spore concentrate”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 29, 2013
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/before-his-recent-arrest-yazid-sufaat-declined-to-tell-dxer-the-strain-of-the-anthrax-spore-concentrate-harvested-july-4-2001/