* Yazid Sufaat says that, contrary to some media reports, he was successful in developing anthrax, but prefers other bugs; he views anthrax as good for sabotaging, but not killing
Posted by DXer on April 30, 2015
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
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
• While there are no signs Malaysians are heading to Afghanistan now the Taliban has regained power, police will continue being ‘one step ahead’, counter-terrorism chief vows
Amy Chew in Kuala Lumpur
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3173510/malaysian-scientist-who-ran-al-qaedas-anthrax-lab-freed-police
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
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! It’s a hoot! 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. Does that also bar you from writing or giving interviews?
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. 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 in correspondence with me pled the Fifth Amendment and would not the strain he was using. He is as amiable as he is pious. I posted on Sacramento bulletin board seeking info from former classmates but no one responded.
DXer said
Why does Ronald Kessler think that it is easier to weaponize biological weapons in Afghanistan than in a more developed country? Yazid Sufaat would have been happy to move his lab to Pakistan or Indonesia, for example. The work in a covert lab is done behind closed doors.
Biden’s Mindless Comments Endanger America
https://www.newsmax.com/ronaldkessler/anthrax-gates-osma-panetta/2021/08/30/id/1034278/
Now, with CIA assets in Afghanistan virtually gone and an entire country capable of paying millions to leading scientists, the terrorists will be able to carry out bin Laden’s master plan — wipe out the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Going back to 1998, bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, was his Islamic duty as part of his pursuit of jihad. Over the course of decades, bin Laden dispatched his lieutenants to attempt to purchase or develop nuclear and biochemical WMD to inflict mass casualties on the United States.
In fact, for my book ‘The Secrets of the FBI,” Dr. Vahid Majidi, an assistant FBI director who was the chief of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, told me that when American forces invaded Afghanistan after 9/11, they found that al-Qaida was already at work on what Majidi called a “nascent” weapons of mass destruction effort involving chemical and biological weapons.
Biological weapons such as anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague, and ricin toxin alone could wipe out millions of Americans.
Ricin kills cells by inhibiting protein synthesis.
Anthrax spores reach deep into the lungs when inhaled.
They are then able to replicate in blood, travel to the lymph nodes, and produce toxins which lead to death.
“The notion of probability of a WMD attack being low or high is a moot point because we know the probability is 100 percent,” Majidi told me.
“There is going to be an attack using chemical, biological, or radiological material,” Dr. Majidi explained.
DXer said
Taliban Return May Revitalize Southeast Asian Terrorist Groups
Commentary by Zachary Abuza
2021-08-16Email storyComment on this storySharePrint story
https://www.benarnews.org/english/commentaries/asean-security-watch/taliban-abuza-08162021185452.html
“Jemaah Islamiyah’s operations chief Hambali and al-Qaeda anthrax researcher Yazid Sufaat were in Afghanistan on 9/11 waiting to procure a virulent strain that could be produced in a Malaysian lab.”
DXer said
“Similarly, multiple reports document al-Qaeda efforts to procure biological weapons, including anthrax, botulinum toxin, and ricin. In the remnants of the al-Qaeda camp in Derunta, Afghanistan, captured documents revealed plans for a biological processing facility focused on manufacturing anthrax to be supervised by Zawahiri and Mohammed Atef. 12 Zawahiri also funded and recruited scientists to develop an anthrax program in Pakistan and later Indonesia. 13 Under interrogation, the notorious operative “Hambali” of the al-Qaeda affiliated Jemaah Islamiyah declared that al-Qaeda had successfully developed anthrax. This claim was subsequently confirmed by U.S. forces who found traces of high-grade anthrax at al-Qaeda safe houses in Afghanistan. 14 ”
Next Generation Weapons of Mass Destruction and Weapons of Mass Effects Terrorism Lewis A. Dunn Science Applications International Corporation Andre DeMarce, Rebecca Givner-Forbes, Amanda Grosiak, Matt Kovner, Stephen J. Lukasik, Ned Moran, Thomas Skypek, William Yengst Jennifer L. Perry Defense Threat Reduction Agency Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, January 2008
DXer said
“Mohammed Atef, the military chief of al Qaeda, tapped Hambali, the leader
of Jemaah Islamiyah, to find a director for this project. Hambali chose Yazid Sufaat, a JI
associate who had received his degree in chemistry and laboratory science from the University
of California in Sacramento. Motivated by the ideological justification provided by bin Laden’s
fatwas and statements and by the approval from his own organization, Sufaat met and
interviewed with the al Qaeda leadership. He then moved to Afghanistan and set up a lab to
create anthrax near the Kandahar airport.13 His plans were ultimately thwarted by a
combination of problems shipping lab materials into Afghanistan, the American attack of
Afghanistan after 9/11, and his own arrest in Malaysia in December of 2001.14 Nonetheless,
the fact that al Qaeda set up a lab to manufacture Anthrax is important in and of itself. It
marked a defining moment in Salafi terrorism, as al-Qaeda utilized its network connections to JI to
access the technical skills it lacked to proceed with chemical weapons manufacturing.
Interestingly, it did this based on the religious justification and leadership of one individual,
Osama bin Laden.”
“Next Generation Terrorism: Weapons of Mass Destruction and Weapons of Mass Effects”, co-authored by Jennifer L. Perry of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The January 2008 report was the product of a collaboration between the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Advanced Systems and Concepts Office and Science Applications Interational Corporation.”
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat, have you seen the video to see what Zulkarnaen says about you?
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
VIEW: A new generation of bioweapons could make catastrophic pandemics tomorrow’s new normal
Updated : April 12, 2020 08:55 PM IST
https://www.cnbctv18.com/healthcare/view-a-new-generation-of-bioweapons-could-make-catastrophic-pandemics-tomorrows-new-normal-5673871.htm
TERRORIST groups have had a sustained interest in producing bioweapons. In 2002, for example, evidence surfaced that al-Qaeda had set up a small laboratory in Kandahar to experiment with bioweapons, along with other kinds of toxins. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, revealed Malaysian businessman Yazid Sufaat had sought to create an anthrax-based bioweapon. But, because of the formidable technological challenges involved, none of these attempts is believed to have made any real progress towards generating a usable bioweapon.
Evil as al-Qaeda pursuit of biological weapons might be, it—and other similar terrorist groups—are only emulating the behaviour of nation-states. From the use of smallpox against Native Americans by British forces in 1763, to the large-scale production of anthrax spores, brucellosis, and botulism toxins by the United States and United Kingdom, nation-states also pursued biological weapons programmes through the modern era.
DXer said
In his new book, Mark Kortepeter writes: “As my USAMRIID colleague, Ted Cieslak, likes to say when he lectures on the subject (one time prompting a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI],” “If I am a terrorist, my favorite weapon is anthrax.”
In contrast, detained Bin Laden supporter Yazid Sufaat, one of Al Qaeda’s anthrax scientist, says that while he was successful developing it as a weapon, he thought it was more useful for sabotage rather than killing.
DXer said
Kortepeter writes, in discussing the Robert Stevens anthrax case: “In medicine, there’s a saying: “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” Common diseases occur commonly. However, on October 7, 2001, we had a stampede of zebras thundering toward us, but we didn’t know it yet.”
(One AI experts advises in a new book about AI weirdness tells me that AI is fond of detecting giraffes.)
DXer said
DXer said
https://www.rt.com/news/473957-yazid-sufaat-al-qaeda-chemist-released/
Al-Qaeda-linked chemist who tried to weaponize ANTHRAX released from Malaysian prison
21 Nov, 2019 08:47 / Updated 1 day ago
“Yazid Sufaat, a biochemist accused of having close ties to Al-Qaeda and plotting terrorist attacks, has been freed from prison after serving two years behind bars in Malaysia. Authorities say he will be monitored closely.
The 55-year-old Malaysian national is accused of using his degrees in biological science and chemistry from California State University to aid and abet Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
He is implicated in a series of terrorism-related crimes. In the 1990s, he allegedly tried to create weapons of mass destruction by loading a lethal strain of anthrax onto munitions. In 2000, he attempted to bomb Singapore using four tons of ammonium nitrate.
It’s also believed that Yazid had undergone military training in Afghanistan and met Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. He may have even been present at a meeting where plans regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks were discussed.
Yazid is also said to have recruited terrorists for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda – actions which earned him the two-year jail term which he just completed. In total, he has spent 12 inconsecutive years behind bars.
Malaysian authorities say that the US-trained chemist will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device and remain within a specific district Kuala Lumpur. He will also need to report to police twice a week if he hopes to stay out of jail, according to media reports.”
Comment: There is no denying Yazid Sufaat’s amiability and (as he is quick to point out) his good looks. Even without sharing his political or religious views (or his immodesty), we can hope that he finds a meaningful path that avoids running afoul of police restrictions. His family loves him very much. I personally think that he should avoid preaching at the mosque as that could start him down a slippery slope.
If the article above is referring to the meeting at his condo by the 911 planners, I have never understood him to have been present for that particular meeting. It has been my understanding that he just made his condo available. It is his time at KSM’s residence in Pakistan on 9/11 that I have pointed to as significant, as that was when Adnan El-Shukrijumah was there and called his mom to tell her he was coming to the US.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
https://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Repeal laws that allow detention without trial; immediately release all detainees
By Charles Hector -29 Oct 2019
https://aliran.com/civil-society-voices/repeal-laws-that-allow-detention-without-trial-immediately-release-all-detainees/
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) is shocked by a news report (Malay Mail, 19 October 2019) entitled “Home minister: Malaysian militant linked to 9/11 won’t be freed next month”.
The report refers to one Yazid Sufaat, a 55-year-old biochemist, allegedly a Malaysian militant linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, who is now in detention in Simpang Renggam under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (Pota), a detention-without-trial law.
Detention-without-trial laws allow for the arrest and detention of persons without trial for a period of two years, which can be extended indefinitely two years at a time.
These detainees have never been tried, found guilty and convicted by court and as such have been denied the fundamental right to a fair trial.
DXer said
The previous article that was referenced above:
Home minister: Malaysian militant linked to 9/11 won’t be freed next month
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/10/19/home-minister-malaysian-militant-linked-to-9-11-wont-be-freed-next-month/1801786
Saturday, 19 Oct 2019 02:49 PM MYT
BY BEN TAN
Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it was not true that Yazid will be freed following the expiry of his Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) 2015 detention order. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
PONTIAN, Oct 19 — The Home Ministry today denied that Yazid Sufaat, the Malaysian militant linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, could be freed from detention next month.
Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it was not true that Yazid will be freed following the expiry of his Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) 2015 detention order as there were other procedures to follow before a decision is made.
“I (as Home Minister) can’t make the decision until the Prevention of Terrorism Board convenes a meeting where a recommendation will be made based on the detainee’s behaviour while in prison.
“Only then can the Home Ministry make a decision,” Muhyiddin said after meeting volunteers and officers from the Pontian People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) here today.
Muhyiddin was responding to an earlier news report that Yazid, a known terrorist, is expected to be released from Simpang Renggam prison in November, where he had spent two years in detention under Pota 2015 which allows authorities to detain a suspect without trial for that period of time.
Earlier today, Singapore-based news portal The Straits Times reported that Yazid who was caught with four tonnes of ammonium nitrate for a planned series of bombings in Singapore in 2000, could be freed from prison in Johor next month.
The 55-year-old US-trained biochemist who is also a member of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network, has been imprisoned three times in the past 17 years for terrorist-related activities.
Pota is an anti-terrorism law that was passed by the government on April 7, 2015. It enables the authorities to detain terror suspects without trial for a period of two years.
The law also does not allow any judicial reviews of detentions. Instead, detentions will be reviewed by a special Prevention of Terrorism Board. The bill has been criticised by opposition elements as a reincarnation of the former Internal Security Act, which was revoked in 2012.
DXer said
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/sentence-done-10232019163232.html
Police: Malaysian Terrorist Linked to 9/11 Attacks is Set to be Freed Next Month
Ali Nufael
Kuala Lumpur
2019-10-23
Educated in the United States
A bio-chemistry graduate from the University of Sacramento in California, Yazid joined Jemaah Islamiyah terror group shortly after its founding in 1993. He was tasked with developing anthrax as a bio-terror weapon for al-Qaeda, investigators said.
In January 2000 key al-Qaeda members met at Yazid’s home in Kuala Lumpur to discuss terror plans, according to reports. He also allegedly provided lodging to two Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
Yazid was flown to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001 under the command of Ayman al-Zawahiri to spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport, according to the 9/11 commission report.
He was in Afghanistan during the Sept. 11 attack and later fled through Pakistan to Malaysia where he was caught by authorities and jailed under ISA at the Kamunting Camp prison, which housed convicted terrorists and political detainees.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters the government would wait for the Prevention of Terrorism Board to decide Yazid’s fate.
Muhyiddin said the board would meet next month to examine details of Yazid’s detention.
“I have not come to the final decision, I just reviewed the matter and the two-year detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) is likely to end soon,” Muhyiddin said, according to state news agency Bernama.
“Regardless, there is a procedure before the final decision is made through a single board where it will look at circumstances during the detention period and how he (Yazid) has behaved, whether he has improved or not,” he said. “This will be looked at and then the decision will be made.”
Comment: Yazid Sufaat perhaps could agree to avoid preaching on religious matters and thus avoid the difficulties that have arisen previously. It would be fascinating if he wrote a magazine article or even a book about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program.
I asked him if a book was in his plans and, as I best recall, he said (to paraphrase) that he would if that was part of the Big Guy’s plan for him.
https://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Two days ago:
Malaysian terrorist with links to Al-Qaeda and 9/11 could be released from prison next month
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysian-terrorist-with-links-to-al-qaeda-and-9-11-could-be-released-from-prison-next
KUALA LUMPUR – Unrepentant Malaysian terrorist Yazid Sufaat, who acquired four tons of ammonium nitrate in 2000 in preparation for a series of bombings in Singapore before the plot by the Jemaah Islamiah terror network was foiled, could be freed from prison next month.
That has raised the alarm among counter-terrorism officials in Malaysia.
Comment:
I don’t know Yazid Sufaat’s current thinking. But from my correspondence with him when he was last released, he seems an affable romantic. (In another lifetime, he went to Sacramento State about the time I represented the Sacramento Utility District in litigation against PGandE; he is perfectly fluent in English). While he pled the Fifth when I would ask him if he was responsible for the anthrax mailings, the Malaysian authorities might want to shed some light on that.
The CIA detected Ames strain at his lab in Afghanistan. Then the FBI — which had very acute conflicts through its scientists LB and JB — disregarded the CIA’s finding. “Imagine the liability” is the phrase that comes to mind when you understand the facts of the access that LB and JB respectively allowed scientists who supported Bin Laden. Rauf Ahmad’s written correspondence with Zawahiri that DIA gave me shows that one scientist, Rauf Ahmad, went to a BL-3 lab for Zawahiri to gain access to virulent anthrax. Another shared a suite at GMU with the Ames researchers who had the biggest biodefense award from DARPA in history, to include Russian defector Ken Alibek and a former USAMRIID Acting Commander. The Salafist and convicted seditionist stateside had access to the repository that FBI lead scientist JB had oversaw at American Type Culture Collection (“ATCC”) which shared facilities with GMU.
Imagine the liabiility indeed. Amerithrax has always been about CYA. If the District Court judge does not order disclosure of the evidence potentially exculpatory of Bruce Ivins, it will be a tragic day when Ayman Zawahiri attempts to make good on his decades-old aim to destroy Washington DC and New York City.
For its part, in 2002, when Mueller went there, Malaysia did not want to be viewed as a platform for staging the 911 attacks. (The hijackers did key planning at Yazid Sufaat’s condo in KL.) The FBI did not even interview Yazid Sufaat until November 2002 and then it was only briefly to inquire about Moussaoui.
Maybe the Malaysian authorities should get over it and share what they know about Yazid Sufaat’s work with anthrax. For example, is the CIA’s conclusion he was using Ames accurate?
Otherwise, let Yazid Sufaat go so he can co-author a book with me about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program.
Meanwhile, someone should tell Yazid Sufaat to allow his religious fervor to take the backseat to his love for his family. His wife is as gracious as he is. Regardless of what one thinks of his religious or political or murderous terrorist views, his love for his wife always seemed a strength of his character.
https://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Viewpoint: Was CIA ‘too white’ to spot 9/11 clues?
• 10 September 2019
By 2000, the “anti-modern, uneducated rabble” had swelled to an estimated 20,000, mostly college educated and with a bias towards engineering. Yazid Sufaat, who would go on to become one of al-Qaeda’s anthrax researchers, had a degree in chemistry and laboratory science. Many were ready to die for their faith. …
As John Brennan, then director, put it: “The study group took a hard look at our agency and reached an unequivocal conclusion: CIA simply must do more to develop the diverse and inclusive leadership environment that our values require and that our mission demands.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49582852
Comment: When I corresponded with Yazid Sufaat, he pled the Fifth Amendment concerning the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. But he did not deny responsibility.
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
Remember Amerithrax AUSA Kenneth Kohl? When he was not leading Amerithrax — where the key emails said to implicate Bruce Ivins were not kept according to the FBI — were destroyed by someone — he also served as Resident Legal Advisor to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
Now that would be an interesting book — co-authored by AUSA Kohl and Kuala Lumpur-based Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat. Yazid Sufaat is due to be released from prison soon. AUSA Kohl, based on his selective presentation of (now destroyed) evidence in the Amerithrax Investigation Summary, reasoned (by implication) that Yazid Sufaat was not responsible for the anthrax crimes — that the emotional disturbed guy, Bruce Ivins, who was conducting the night and animal weekend checks in the B3 lab — was responsible. But if he wanted history to accept his conclusion, then he should not have allowed the DOJ/FBI to destroy the evidence that he was relying on.
Deputy Chief, National Security Section / Assistant U.S. Attorney
United States Attorney’s Office
August 1990 – Present 28 years 2 months
Washington, DC
Supervises the investigation and prosecution of international and domestic terrorism prosecutions, export control violations, espionage, unlawful disclosure of classified information, threats to the White House, U.S. Capitol and senior public officials, extraterritorial violent crimes against American citizens, immigration violations, and other sensitive matters that implicate national security.
• Resident Legal Advisor to Malaysia / U.S. Embassy-Kuala Lumpur
U.S. Department of State
January 2011 – August 2015 4 years 8 months
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
From 2011-2015, Ken served as DOJ’s first Resident Legal Advisor to Malaysia, where he worked in Kuala Lumpur as a consultant to Malaysia’s Attorney General on terrorism and counter-proliferation issues. During Ken’s tenure, Malaysia overhauled its counterterrorism laws, repealed its Colonial-era preventive detention regime, charged over 30 foreign fighters in civilian criminal court, implemented new export control laws, pursued aggressive enforcement action against proliferation networks, and tackled reforms relating to police corruption, freedom of assembly, religious and racial harmony, and countering the online narrative of ISIS and other violent extremist groups.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkohl
Summary
Supervises the investigation and prosecution of international and domestic terrorism cases, export control violations, espionage, unlawful disclosure of classified information, threats to the White House, U.S. Capitol and senior public officials, extraterritorial violent crimes against American citizens, immigration violations, and other sensitive matters that implicate national security.
Over 30 years’ experience with the Justice Department as a federal prosecutor and trial attorney, handling complex homicide and narcotics cases, as well as civil and civil rights litigation.
From 2011-2015, Ken served as DOJ’s first Resident Legal Advisor to Malaysia, where he worked in Kuala Lumpur as a consultant to Malaysia’s Attorney General on terrorism and counter-proliferation issues. During Ken’s tenure, Malaysia overhauled its counterterrorism laws, repealed its Colonial-era preventive detention regime, charged over 30 foreign fighters in civilian criminal court, implemented new export control laws, pursued aggressive enforcement action against proliferation networks, and tackled reforms relating to police corruption, freedom of assembly, religious and racial harmony, and countering the online narrative of ISIS and other violent extremist groups.
DXer said
Malaysian Al Qaeda scientist who tried to produce WMD to be released from jail next year
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysian-al-qaeda-scientist-who-tried-to-produce-wmd-to-be-10658914
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian scientist who once led Al Qaeda’s quest to produce weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Afghanistan will be released from prison next year, according to Malaysian police, who warn that he remains a security risk.
Yazid Sufaat, 54, an Al Qaeda operative who helped set up a laboratory in Kandahar, Afghanistan where he tried to cultivate anthrax, has been jailed three times by Malaysian authorities for terror-related offences in the past 16 years.
Comment:
Educated at Sacramento State, and an affable articulate fellow, it would be fascinating for Yazid Sufaat to write a book on the subject of his experiences. His love affair with his wife is one for the ages. It is amusing that the media keeps saying he tried to cultivate anthrax when Yazid Sufaat says that the media reports are mistaken — that he DID cultivate anthrax. And the CIA tests confirmed that he did and that the strain was the Ames strain.
If the FBI cannot bother to keep the emails that it misleadingly quoted to and from Bruce Ivins in September and October 2001 — and inexplicably discarded the CIA’s scientific findings — then maybe Yazid Sufaat kept better records.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
How prepared is the US for an anthrax attack?
‘The ability to weaponize anthrax is out there’
By MICHAEL NEDELMAN AND DEBRA GOLDSCHMIDT, CNN
Posted: 4:47 AM, June 20, 2018 Updated: 4:47 AM, June 20, 2018
https://www.clickorlando.com/health/how-prepared-is-the-us-for-an-anthrax-attack
Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, noted that “the ability to weaponize anthrax is out there. It’s a question of time, hopefully a really long time.
“Would I be surprised if we had a release now? I’d be shocked and horrified but not surprised,” he said, adding that if anthrax were released on the subway in New York City, for example, it would spread like wildfire.
As part of an ongoing effort to be prepared, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review on Wednesday its recommendations for mass vaccination in the event of an anthrax attack.
Redlener notes that the United States is better prepared for a biological threat now than it was 20 years ago. “We’ve come a long way since 2001,” Adalja added.
Short memories’
“Those of us who were [in Washington DC] during the fall of 2001 vividly recall the chaos that a few small envelopes of anthrax caused on Capitol Hill,” Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette said Friday at a congressional hearing on the country’s preparedness for pandemics and biological attacks. “Offices were closed, buildings were fumigated, some congressional business was suspended, and thousands of staffers and other personnel lined up for days to get tested for exposure. “Far worse, some of the workers at our postal service were affected and died.”
Adalja, who is also an infectious disease doctor, said the 2001 attacks “really showed how unprepared we were.” But they also led to a surge in funding and initiatives that sought to make the United States more resilient to future attacks: new vaccines, new medications, diagnostic tests and emergency hospital plans.
When things slip from headlines — and anthrax hasn’t been in the headlines for quite a long time — people don’t necessarily give it the same type of importance,” he said. “This threat hasn’t gone away. The threat has actually gotten worse since 2001.”
Critics have lambasted the Trump administration for proposing budget cuts to public health programs, including the CDC.
“People have very short memories, and policymakers do as well,” Adalja said.
Redlener warned that “we’re in the zone of the unimaginable things that have to do with preventing and preparing for the most horrible threats.”
***
“Not even the exposure we had in 2001,” Adalja said. “We’re talking about the Super Bowl or something like that.”
***
But experts agree on one thing: “It’s hard to predict the future,” Walke said, “but we certainly are in a much better place than we were in 2001.”
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The CIA’s Gina Haspel Deserves America’s Gratitude
By Deroy Murdock
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/gina-haspel-cia-tenure-deserves-our-gratitude/
May 9, 2018 6:30 AM
“Enhanced interrogation” programs in general, and waterboarding in particular, generated the dots that CIA officers and other intelligence professionals connected in order to stop the deadly bloodshed of al-Qaeda.
As the U.S. and its allies have hammered this vicious, militant-Islamic terrorist group into apparent oblivion, it’s easy to forget that al-Qaeda kept America and the rest of Civilization wide awake every night, asking, “What happens next?” Could Osama bin Laden and his cave-dwelling savages stage another September 11 massacre? After they murdered 2,996 people and wounded 7,356 others among the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93’s crash site in Shanksville, Pa., Americans fretted that al-Qaeda would return for more carnage — possibly even with chemical, biological, or atomic weapons.
***
According to the CIA, a grand total of three al-Qaeda leaders were waterboarded: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM). And how beautiful that they were. Those three, who most likely wanted you dead, sang like Grammy winners after interrogators held them down and poured water over their rag-covered faces — a procedure that produces neither injury nor permanent physical damage. What it does yield is invaluable information:
Zubaydah was an al-Qaeda operations specialist and aide to Osama bin Laden. He dummied up during questioning, but waterboarding loosened his lips. He then surrendered the names and whereabouts of USS Cole bomber al-Nashiri (17 Americans dead, 40 wounded), 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and KSM — helping snare all three.
***
KSM “didn’t resist,” one CIA veteran explained in the August 13, 2007, issue of The New Yorker. “He sang right away. He cracked real quick.” Another CIA official told ABC News: “KSM lasted the longest under water-boarding, about a minute and a half, but once he broke, it never had to be used again.”
Among others, KSM ratted on Hambali, the organizer of the October 2002 Bali nightclub explosions. *** KSM gave up Yazid Sufaat. Page 151 of The 9/11 Commission Report elaborates: “Sufaat would spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport.”
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
What did the FBI conclude about the 2001 cyanide mailings?
Tiger Woods, the NZ Golf Open and the terrorist cyanide threat
LEITH HUFFADINE, BRAD FLAHIVE AND MEGAN GATTEY
Last updated 11:53, March 30 2018
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102697753/tiger-woods-the-nz-golf-open-and-the-terrorist-cyanide-threat
A former special agent for the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) has shared how he protected US golfer Tiger Woods from a terrorism threat in New Zealand in 2001.
A cyanide-laced letter threatening a series of suicide attacks on the golf star and others at the 2002 New Zealand Golf Open was posted to the US Embassy via the New Zealand postal service on December 18, 2001, leading police to spend an estimated $500,000 beefing up security for the event.
Robert Starnes was a special agent for the DSS and was the first security attache to be permanently posted to New Zealand. As the Regional Security Officer posted in Wellington, he was tasked with security responsibilities for US missions in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Apia. All threat letters routinely passed through his office for assessment.
Starnes, who has written about the experience in his new book, Dictators and Diplomats, A Special Agent’s Memoirs and Musings, told Stuff the author of this particular letter expressed a view that New Zealand’s security for the golf tournament was lax and stated that Woods represented US suppression and the exploitation of the Islamic people of Southeast Asia.
“The letter claimed suicide attacks could be expected against Tiger Woods and New Zealand citizens via fire bombings, train derailments, and poisoning the tournament’s spectators,” he said.
POUR THIS CYANIDE IN YOUR COFFEE
“The author finished the letter by saying, ‘If you don’t believe what I’m saying, go ahead and put the contents of this sugar packet in your coffee’.”
Cyanide was inside the sugar packet, similar to those available at coffee shops and restaurants.
The author 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.”
DXer said
Spy attack: British troops to be vaccinated against anthrax poisoning
https://news.sky.com/story/spy-attack-british-troops-to-be-vaccinated-against-anthrax-poisoning-11290201
By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent
Thousands of British soldiers are to be vaccinated against anthrax poisoning in a direct response to the recent nerve agent attack in Salisbury.
The announcement is part of a range of measures that will be announced by the Defence Secretary on Thursday, including £48m that will be invested to create a “cutting-edge” Chemical Weapons Defence Centre at Porton Down in Wiltshire.
“If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury,” Gavin Williamson will say in a speech later.
“We know the chemical threat doesn’t just come from Russia but from others.
DXer said
Russian nerve agent was planted in suitcase of spy’s daughter
By Tamar Lapin
March 16, 2018 | 8:39am
https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/russian-nerve-agent-was-planted-in-suitcase-of-spys-daughter/
DXer said
Puzzle in Hit on Russian Spy: How Did Attackers Get the Nerve Agent?
U.K. says Novichok, once a secret Soviet project, put Sergei Skripal into a coma
https://www.wsj.com/articles/puzzle-in-hit-on-russian-spy-how-did-attackers-get-the-nerve-agent-1521192600
Details about Novichok were first revealed in the early 1990s by a dissident scientist who said Moscow was secretly speeding up work to create a next-generation nerve agent even as it negotiated to enter the Chemical Weapons Convention, which went into force in 1997 and sought to end the use and storage of chemical weapons.
That publicity led its chemical structure to be leaked, making it readily available for reproduction elsewhere, said Ralf Trapp, a France-based consultant on the control of chemical and biological weapons.
“The chemical formula has been publicized and we know from publications from then-Czechoslovakia that they had worked on similar agents for defense in the 1980s,” he said. “I’m sure other countries with developed programs would have as well.”
DXer said
Former Soviet chemist shares details of the nerve agent Novichok
By Sebastian Shukla, CNN
Updated 9:37 PM ET, Tue March 13, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/world/novichok-former-soviet-chemist/index.html
“One of the many outstanding questions about the Skripal incident is how Novichok could have been administered and what form it came in. “An attacker should be very well educated and a trained person,” Mirzayanov said, adding the nerve agent could be “produced before the attacks, a couple of minutes before. After that it is ready to use” and could come in a spray form.
Finding the components to make Novichok are not hard, he said. “Secondary binary components can be produced everywhere” and less poisonous components can be combined to produce the final product. Those components could have been brought into the UK separately, he said and the poison created just before being used.”
However, Mirzayanov said, to make the poison would have required “the knowledge of people who were working at this factory” in Russia.
The chemist said Novichok, which means newcomer in English, was developed for use on the battlefield, but he said, “I know we worked for more mobile versions of using of this weapon.”
Mirzayanov said the chances of surviving Novichok might be limited. “My good friend was working on this binary version of this Novichok gas. He was exposed to some concentrations and poisoned. They saved him for a while, but ultimately, he died. It is an incurable, incurable disease.”
Mirzayanov was imprisoned in the 1990s for blowing the whistle on Russian and Soviet chemical development activities that he felt were a “criminal enterprise.”
Russia kept the Novichok virus off the Chemical Weapons Convention list to continue developing new strains, he said. “Russia used this chemical weapons convention, destroying already aged, old weapons, keeping intact this new generation.”
Mirzayanov, now 83, living in New Jersey and married to an American, recalled that “slowly over time I came to the conclusion that I was participating in this criminal enterprise. And after that, I decided to go to the public with revelations. From this time I am fighting against Novichok, to put it under international control — but without any success.”
DXer said
Nerve agent Novichock, used in ex-spy’s poisoning, is 5 times stronger than VX or sarin
By Lucia I. Suarez Sang | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/13/nerve-agent-novichock-used-in-ex-spys-poisoning-is-5-times-stronger-than-vx-or-sarin.html
Can be liquid or ultra-fine powder …
One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list,” Stephens said. “It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier.”
Like other nerve agents, Novichok attacks the nervous system, sending blocking messages to muscles. The effects of the poisoning on the human body can be almost immediate, with symptoms reported to appear as quickly as 30 seconds to three minutes following exposure.
DXer said
Nikki Haley warns: Russia could use chemical weapons in New York
by Joel Gehrke
| March 14, 2018
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign/nikki-haley-warns-russia-could-use-chemical-weapons-in-new-york
New York City could be the next site of a chemical assassination attempt if world leaders fails to punish Russia for its alleged role in poising of a former spy in the United Kingdom, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned Wednesday.
“If we don’t take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used,” Haley told the United Nations Security Council. “They could be used here in New York, or in cities of any country that sits on this Council. This is a defining moment.”
Comment:
On the question of attribution, let’s hear more about what the Russian fellow told the police when he said that he thought someone was trying to kill him. And let’s hear something about his computer content etc.
For attribution to be made just because the recipe originated in Russia seems a bit rash.
There are sophisticated forensic tests that, in time, might show the geographic origin of one or more of the compounds — although given it could have been made locally, even that would not be definitive if it pointed to the UK.
But if that science did point to origin of one or more of the individual compounds to be Russia, that would be notable.
As for expelling diplomats, if they are known to be intelligence officers, there might be benefit to expelling them anyway. Putin certainly hasn’t done himself any favors by his arrogance.
DXer said
“For months in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the nation was gripped with fear of anthrax attacks, as envelopes that were actually filled with the powderized bacteria infected a number of people — mainly in the media — while hundreds of others were targeted by hoaxes.
At least five people died from anthrax, and more than a dozen others were confirmed as having been exposed to anthrax spores, including five New Yorkers who handled an envelope addressed to NBC News, seven others who came in contact with a letter sent to Florida’s American Media and a New York Post reporter. Another positive test result was confirmed on a letter sent from Malaysia to Microsoft’s Reno, Nev., office. The White House was also targeted, though the suspect mail was detected before it arrived.
At least three Massachusetts post offices — South Station, Waltham and Shrewsbury — reported discovering suspicious white powder in packages or work areas in the weeks after 9/11.
Both the Boston Herald and Boston Globe were targeted with fake anthrax envelopes that briefly sidelined editors and prompted hazmat responses.
While classed as terrorism by the United States government, no link between the mailing campaign and al-Qaeda was ever established. The anthrax strain was traced to an Army lab, where a researcher who had access to it was eventually identified as a suspect. The case was closed when Bruce Ivins committed suicide in 2008.”
Anthrax scares through mail had been common in immediate aftermath of 9/11
Jules Crittenden Tuesday, February 13, 2018
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/2018/02/anthrax_scares_through_mail_had_been_common_in_immediate_aftermath_of_911
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
FBI Director Mueller went to Malaysia in February 2002 with AMX2 Agent Laro Tan after Sufaat had been arrested in December 2001. Mueller was unsuccessful in gaining access to Yazid Sufaat.
In Mueller’s defense, I should note that Yazid Sufaat was an amiable but stubborn fellow — he was mad at Malaysia for arresting him. (He had previously worked for Malaysian military – he says he worked in a secret bioweapons program). I suspect he would have pled the Fifth just as he did with me in our written exchanges.
But at least he perhaps would not have denied that he was working with virulent anthrax, and so bullshit assumptions by commentator Milton L. could have been put to rest. It always amuses me when people make assumptions about scientists from other countries — when often they regularly prove themselves more advanced and harder-working than Americans, and often were trained here. I was posting on Sac State forums looking for Sufaat’s former classmates by Spring 2002. Given what the CIA knew, Mueller must have known that Sufaat was working with virulent anthrax, with only the strain left to identify.
January 15, 2018
Trump-Russia: Not Mueller’s First Botched Investigation
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/01/trumprussia_not_muellers_first_botched_investigation.html
By Daniel Ashman
Controversy surrounds Robert Mueller and his investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion mirage. Some maintain that he is the ultimate professional dedicated to following the truth, but others say he is a political hack.
There is no need to wonder about how Mueller operates. His history has made it quite clear. One needs only to study his actions as FBI director when he managed the FBI’s most important investigation ever.
In September of 2001, an entity began mailing anthrax through the U.S. postal system, hitting such prominent targets as NBC and Senator Tom Daschle’s office. The terrorist attacks killed five and left others hospitalized. The world panicked.
Under Mueller’s management, the FBI launched an investigation lasting ten years. The bureau now brags about spending “hundreds of thousands of investigator hours on this case.” To fully appreciate the Mueller response – whom his people investigated, targeted, and found guilty – it is appropriate to first build context.
The anthrax letters began just a week after the 9/11 attack. Simultaneous to planning the airplane hijackings, al-Qaeda had also been weaponizing anthrax. One of their scientists who ran an anthrax lab in Afghanistan also housed 9/11 hijackers. In fact, one of the hijackers, Ahmed al Haznawi, went to the emergency room in an American hospital with a skin lesion, which a team of bioterrorism experts from Johns Hopkins confirmed was probably due to anthrax. Meanwhile, the 9/11 hijackers were also trying to obtain crop-dusting airplanes.
So how did Mueller’s investigative team handle the case?
Mueller issued a statement in October of 2001, while anthrax victims were still dying: the FBI had found “no direct link to organized terrorism.” The Johns Hopkins team of experts was mistaken, the FBI continued; Haznawi never had an anthrax infection. The crop-dusting airplanes they needed were possibly for a separate and unrelated anthrax attack.
A few weeks later, the FBI released a remarkable profile of the attacker. FBI experts eschewed analysis of the content of the letters, where it was written in bold block letters, “Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great.” Instead, they focused on a “linguistic analysis,” stating that the letter’s author was not “comfortable or practiced in writing in lower[]case lettering.” They therefore concluded that the author was likely an American.
The investigators hypothesized that the attacker was a lonely American who had wanted to kill people with anthrax for some undefined time period but then became “mission-oriented” following 9/11 and immediately prepared and mailed the deadly spores while pretending to be Muslim.
Mueller’s FBI honed in on Steven Hatfill – a “flag-waving” American who had served in the Army, then dedicated himself to protecting America from bioterrorist threats by working in the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases – as the culprit.
There was no direct link from Hatfill to the attacks, by the FBI’s own admission. The FBI never even charged Hatfill.
The bureau only spied on, followed, and harassed him, non-stop, for years. The Department of Justice publicly outed Hatfill as the possible terrorist.
[Editor’s note: Hatfill forged his PhD; Berry forged a signature on a will. Ivins hid semen-stained panties and stole a classmate’s notebook in college. If you don’t want the FBI to suspect you, don’t do crap like that.]
While America’s secret police trampled on Hatfill’s dignity and life, Mueller took a stand – but on a different topic. He made front-page news for threatening President George W. Bush with resignation over NSA policy – all while his own team was destroying the rights of an American in the FBI’s largest ever investigation.
Hatfill successfully sued the government for its unlawful actions. He won almost six million dollars.
After the Hatfill investigation blew up in the FBI’s face, the agents moved on to Bruce Ivins, another Army researcher. Ivins had actually been helping the FBI for years after having gone out of his way to contact the FBI to volunteer his expertise. It wasn’t until five years after the attack that Mueller’s men decided that Ivins was a target.
The FBI case against Ivins was, once again, based on circumstantial evidence.
The prosecution stated that Ivins had purposefully given a misleading sample of anthrax spore. Frontline documented that this was a lie.
Ivins was “familiar” with the area from which the anthrax letters were mailed – even though Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica lays out the accepted facts of the case, showing that it was impossible for Ivins to make the trip to mail the letters.
The spores used in the attacks were a similar type to the laboratory spores where Ivins worked – which ignores the fact that the anthrax letters had a unique additive, so sophisticated and dangerous that a scientist commented, “This is not your mother’s anthrax,” that was likely produced by a nation-state or al-Qaeda.
Ivins was never indicted. He was just given the Hatfill treatment: house raided and threatened with a death sentence, or, as his lawyer put it, put under “relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo.” He committed suicide.
One week later, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor stated that Ivins was guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and law enforcement was “confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks.”
Director Mueller ordered an independent audit of the FBI’s case by the National Academy of Science but then quietly closed the case before the audit was finished. Mueller concluded that Ivins alone committed the terror attack. One year after Mueller closed the case, the NAS released its results and confirmed what many scientists had been repeating for years: the FBI’s science and conclusions were wrong.
The handling of the case was so egregious that a former FBI official involved in the investigation sued the FBI, alleging that the FBI had concealed evidence exculpatory to Ivins.
Mueller made his position known – “I do not apologize for any aspect of this investigation” – and stated that the FBI had made no mistakes.
The investigation was an unmitigated disaster for America. Mueller didn’t go after al-Qaeda for the anthrax letters because he denied seeing a direct link. But then he spent years abusing Americans without showing a direct link.
Mueller enjoyed the second longest tenure of any FBI director and was roundly applauded by nearly everyone (except Louie Gohmert). For his behavior he was also awarded special counsel status to go after Donald Trump, in a process where, still, no one has any idea what specific crimes are even alleged. There is every reason to think he will handle his most important investigation the same way he handled his second most important investigation. We can safely predict that it will be a prolonged, abusive, and politically correct attack. Actually, that isn’t even a prediction of the future. It has already become a mere explanation of the past nigh year.
DXer said
Advice from Rice:
Rice on Mueller probe: ‘Nobody should try to impede the investigation’
CNN-Jan 13, 2018
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she has confidence in special counsel Robert Mueller and believes “nobody should try to impede” his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“He is a terrific person, straight shooter,” Rice said of Mueller in a wide-ranging conversation with David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” which aired at 7 ET Saturday night. “I think he’ll — he will push to a conclusion. I don’t have any idea what it will be. I hope, frankly, it’s over pretty soon, because we need to get on with our business.”
When asked about Trump’s characterization of the Russia probe as a hoax, Rice said: “Well, the President shouldn’t call it a hoax. Let’s just say that. But the fact is we will get to the bottom of what happened. I hope that there are people spending as much time trying to figure out exactly how the Russians did what they did.”
Asked if it would be a mistake for Trump to fire Mueller or to try to impede the investigation, Rice said: “I’m not going to try to give advice, and nobody should try to impede the investigation.”
Compare
If Trump Fires Mueller, Republicans Won’t Object
New York Magazine-8 hours ago
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/if-trump-fires-mueller-republicans-are-ready-to-defend-him.html
When Robert Mueller was hired to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible connections to the Trump campaign, Republicans in Congress supported Mueller, and even warned Trump not to interfere with his work. “Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of …”
Comment: There’s no basis for firing Mueller. His greatest crime is that he looks too much like Gary Cooper in “High Noon” to not star in a remake.
As for whether Steve Hatfill was guilty of the Amerithrax mailings, as Mueller reportedly suspected (according to Decker and his colleagues), I have no idea. But if you want to see a fixation, consider Scott Decker’s approach — and the blinders he was wearing. Maybe the investigation would not have gone to the dogs if reliable science had been used. For example, the lap top in the B3 long known to have had the largest repository of Ames should have been cloned. It was government property. There was no need for a warrant. Instead, it was allowed to go missing. (I suspect that it evidenced Ivins surfing porn but at the very least it would be powerful evidence of how the B3 was used).
Decker’s excessive reliance on EA 101’s reflecting transfers was grossly overblown given that the practice for years among researchers (per Martin) was to share pathogens without formalities. No EA 101 would exist where transfer was made at Ft. Detrick to a fellow researcher in any event. Decker’s analysis was built on quicksand from the start — even before it was revealed that anthrax being shipped thought to be inactivated was actually very likely virulent.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
But, really. We need to take off our political lenses with respect to true crime matters. It’s one thing to say that we don’t think Amerithrax was solved — it’s quite another to fault Mueller for it remaining unsolved. Instead, we should be satisfied to say that he hasn’t convinced a whole lot of people — and that it is long past time that the FBI comply with FOIA and produce Notebook 4010 and Notebook 4037 (by returning them to USAMRIID for uploading). Mueller is not responsible for the withholding of Notebooks 4010 and 4037. That would be people like FOIA head Dave Hardy.
DXer said
R. Scott Decker report in his book that Agent Laro Tan, a supervisor on AMX2, accompanied FBI Director Mueller on his trip to Kuala Lumpur when he was unsuccessful in gaining access to Yazid Sufaat.
It was a huge setback to the investigation to not even so much as have agents interview Yazid Sufaat until November 2002. Malaysian authorities sought to gain leverage over Yazid Sufaat by arresting his gracious and intelligent wife, but it did not make him cooperative (though he understandably was offended).
DXer said
R. Scott Decker reasons that the evidence that Bruce Ivins was guilty of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings was that he committed suicide. This is fallacious reasoning — especially in the context of the semen stained panties found for a second time and the FBI unnecessary swabbing him for DNA (when they already had his DNA).
Under that reasoning, Peter Corbin Kohn was guilty of the 1998 murder of Yale coed Suzanne Jovin — when there presently is no public evidence justifying that conclusion (or conclusion as to any perpetrator). The case against any of the suspects in the Jovin matter is correctly understood by the FBI as unwinnable — just as the case against Bruce Ivins was.
We can hope they develop solid evidence in the Jovin matter — just as once we held out hope that the FBI would develop such evidence in the Amerithrax matter.
Instead of promoting his view that the suicide is evidence of Ivins’ guilt, he should have encouraged the FBI to find the contemporaneous notes from Bruce Ivins Notebook 4282 that the FBI Laboratory either lost, misplaced or hid.
Maybe the reason Mueller never congratulated Decker and his colleagues is that you don’t get any extra points for making a person’s life not worth living. Sometimes such pursuit ends up in a $5.8 million verdict as in Hatfill Theory, and sometimes where the target is fragile they fold and you are let off the hook for not pursuing reliable forensic techniques.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
3 July 2017
Ignore Bill Gates: Where bioweapons focus really belongs
Filippa Lentzos
At a stretch, terrorists taking advantage of advances in biology might be able to create a viable pathogen. That does not mean they could create a sophisticated biological weapon, and certainly not a weapon that could kill 30 million people. Terrorists in any event tend to be conservative. They use readily available weapons that have a proven track record—not unconventional weapons that are more difficult to develop and deploy. Available evidence shows that few terrorists have ever even contemplated using biological agents, and the extremely small number of bioterrorism incidents in the historical record shows that biological agents are difficult to use as weapons. The skills required to undertake even the most basic of bioterrorism attacks are more demanding than often assumed. These technical barriers are likely to persist in the near- and medium-term future.
http://thebulletin.org/ignore-bill-gates-where-bioweapons-focus-really-belongs10876
Comment: Now let’s consider Filippa Lentzos commentary in light of the cropduster inquiries and the evidence that Michael Osterholm and the New York Times co-author compiled in their 1999 book about cropdusters. Also, let’s consider about Dr. Garvey’s report that the CIA detected the Ames strain in Afghanistan. Finally, let’s consider whether the powder mailed was “simple” or “sophisticated” — keeping in mind that it cost $6 billion dollars in damage according to widespread estimates.
DXer said
Republican Lindsey Graham believes this is not the time for someone with a political background to take over the agency. With Republican Gowdy saying he is not interested in FBI job — and reportedly only 8 interviewed — it seems that Fran Townsend’s prospects are increasing as several legislators are said to be unsuited due to political background.
Years ago, Fran Townsend was briefed about what came to be known about Al Qaeda’s “Agent X” and Al Qaeda’s “Agent X” program.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFDB103FF932A35757C0A9639C8B63
THE INTELLIGENCE CRITIQUE: BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS; Panel Warns That Defense Against Germ Attack Is Weak
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: April 1, 2005
“In Afghanistan, for example, investigators found evidence after the war there that Al Qaeda operatives had the equipment necessary for limited production of a particularly virulent biological weapon that the report identified only with a code name, Agent X, which unclassified documents suggested was anthrax.
”The program was extensive, well organized and operated for two years before Sept. 11, but intelligence insights into the program were limited,” the report said.
The report recommended closer interaction between scientists and spies to improve the detection of biological weapons, which are hard to find because they can be manufactured anywhere from a brewery to a pharmaceutical plant.”
Photo: Fran Townsend, right, adviser on homeland security, and Stephen J. Hadley, national security adviser, attended a White House news conference yesterday on the presidential commission’s report on intelligence. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)
DXer said
Recent 2 hour interview of former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert, that I’m transcribing and posting as I listen to it.
At 23:04
Question: “The person or persons or group had to be kinda ready…. to get going. They only had a week, from 911 to the mailing…
They had to have been planning this prior to 911 to have this anthrax ready and the letters.. right?”
Lambert: “Yes, that’s exactly right. It has now been declassified and it is out there in the media that what we know is that Al Qaeda had a very robust biological program. that was getting very close to having an anthrax weapon developed. They were moving quickly in that direction. They had a microbiologist that they had hired. They had a laboratory set up outside of Kandahar in Afghanistan and they were actively seeking pathogens.”
“You know in my mind I believe the 911 attacks actually preempted an anthrax by Al Qaeda because clearly they were moving in that direction.” (23:52)
DXer said
Syria chemical ‘attack’: Russia blames rebel weapons
• 16 minutes ago
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39500319
Russia says that a chemical attack that killed and injured dozens of civilians in a rebel-held town in northern Syria came from rebel weapons on the ground.
Its defence ministry acknowledged that Syrian planes had attacked the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.
But it said the aircraft had struck a depot producing mines filled with a poisonous substance, for use in Iraq.
The US and others said Syrian planes had dropped chemical weapons, which Damascus denied.
Local journalists say there are no military positions in the town itself, but an array of broadly aligned rebel groups controlling the area surrounding it.
DXer said
Syria chemical weapons attack toll rises to 70 as Russian narrative dismissed
Weapons expert says Russian claim that airstrike hit ‘terrorist warehouse’ in Idlib province is fanciful
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/syria-chemical-attack-idlib-province
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hamish de Bretton Gordon, director of Doctors Under Fire and former commanding officer of the UK Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Regiment, said this claim was “completely untrue”.
“No I think this [claim] is pretty fanciful, no doubt the Russians trying to protect their allies,” he said. “Axiomatically, if you blow up sarin, you destroy it.”
***
Jerry Smith, the operations chief of the UN-led team that supervised the removal of Syria’s sarin stockpiles following the gas attack on the rebel-held Ghouta area of Damascus four years ago, said: “This absolutely reeks of 2013 all over again.” In that attack, more than 1,300 people were killed. The UN said the perpetrators probably had access to the stockpile of sarin held by the Syrian military at the time, as well as the expertise to use it.
DXer said
Gas Attack Is Said to Kill Dozens in Syria
By ANNE BARNARDAPRIL 4, 2017
“While chlorine attacks have become almost routine in northern Syria, this one was different, medical workers and witnesses said. Chlorine attacks usually kill just a few people, usually those trapped in an enclosed space, and the gas dissipates quickly.
But this time, people collapsed outdoors, in much larger numbers. And the symptoms were different: they included the tiny, pencil-point pupils of victims that characterize nerve agents and other banned toxins. One doctor posted a video of a patient’s eye showing the pupil reduced to a dot. Several people were sickened simply by coming into contact with the victims after the attack.”
DXer said
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/isis-allegedly-used-chemical-weapons-mosul-battle-injuring-civilians-n729536
ISIS Allegedly Used Chemical Weapons In Mosul Battle, Injuring Civilians
NBCNews.com – 19 minutes ago
ISIS militants used chemical weapons during the battle for the city of Mosul last week, injuring a number of civilians, according to a senior Iraqi security official.
The official’s assessment comes after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), issued a statement last week saying that their workers had treated patients from Mosul who were suffering from symptoms consistent with exposure to a toxic chemical agent.
Over a number of days last week, the ICRC said it treated 15 such patients.
“The first cases who arrived were a mother and her five children, aged from 1 month to 11 years,” Iolanda Jaquemet, an ICRC spokeswoman, told NBC News.
A mother reacts as her daughter Ranmea is treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in a hospital west of Erbil in Mosul, Iraq, Mar. 4, 2017. Azad Lashkari / Reuters
“It was certainly [the result of] a toxic chemical agent, because their symptoms were absolutely clear. People had blisters, they vomited. They had irritation in the eyes and coughed,” she added.
Comment:
Under their own belief system, the jihadists harming women and children with chemical weapons will lose their souls.
To the extent they don’t read and understand for themselves, they got some real bum advice.
DXer said
Details Emerge of Chemical Weapons Attacks in Mosul
Mark Leon Goldberg
March 6, 2017
https://www.undispatch.com/details-emerge-chemical-weapons-attacks-mosul/
WHO responds to reported use of chemical weapons agents in East Mosul, Iraq
http://www.emro.who.int/media/news/who-responds-to-reported-use-of-chemical-weapons-agents-in-east-mosul-iraq.html
DXer said
Iraq UN Ambassador says there is no real evidence of chemical weapons having been used.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-chemicalweapons-idUSKBN16H2KL?il=0
DXer said
Kim Jong Un’s half brother was killed by VX nerve agent, Malaysian police say
Washington Post – 1 hour ago
SEOUL – The North Korean leader’s half brother was killed by a nerve agent that can cause death within minutes if absorbed through the skin, Malaysian police said Friday
VX, one of the fastest-acting chemical warfare agents, is much more toxic than sarin, especially when it enters through the skin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Symptoms will appear within a few seconds after exposure to the vapor form of VX, and within a few minutes to up to 18 hours after exposure to the liquid form,” the CDC says on its website. “It is possible that any visible VX liquid contact on the skin, unless washed off immediately, would be lethal.”
Exposure to a large dose of VX can cause convulsions, a loss of consciousness and respiratory failure possibly leading to death, the center says.
VX is not difficult to produce, said Matthew Meselson, a professor of biochemistry at Harvard University and a board member of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “A good organic chemist could synthesize VX relatively easily,” he said. “You could get the ingredients and make it in a couple of days, and if you make it pure, it’s quite stable.”
Comment: If this is true, and it is convincingly attributed to North Korea, it seems that Malaysia should cut ties to North Korea.
DXer said
North Korea leader’s brother killed in chemical attack at Malaysia airport
http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2017/02/kim_jong_un_brother_killed.html#incart_river_home
Posted on February 14, 2017 at 12:44 PM
DXer said
Accessible Synthetic Biology Raises New Concerns for DIY Biological Warfare
Written by
Joseph Neighbor
August 23, 2016 // 11:31 AM EST
Written By Joseph Neighbor
This December, the signatory nations of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will meet, as they do every five years, to discuss the state of bioweapons globally. In at least one way, the world has radically changed since they last met, in 2011. The discovery of several novel gene-editing techniques, most famous being CRISPR-Cas9, might be the scientific breakthrough of this century. It has unleashed a torrent of studies that aim to cure everything from cancer to world hunger.
***
The U.S. biodefense sector has also been accused of breaching the treaty. The turning point was the 2001 anthrax attacks, in which letters filled with the spore-forming bacteria were mailed to several Senators. Anthrax isn’t new—it has been used as a weapon since WWI—but, coming within weeks of 9/11, the attacks created a panic, and newfound urgency to confront the threat of bioweapons. It led to the creation of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasure Center, a unit within the Department of Homeland Security. NBACC in particular has been accused of crossing the line into offensive research, thus violating the principles of the BWC.
DXer said
August 19, 2016
Alleged “Bin Laden of Indonesia” Receives Guantanamo Review Board Hearing
The government also alleges that in 2003 Hambali facilitated al Qaeda’s financing for the bombing of the Jakarta Marriott Hotel, which killed 12 people and injured 150. It also believes Hambali was involved in planning post-9/11 attacks against U.S. interests and that he provided a microbiologist to al Qaeda to assist it in developing an anthrax program.
Hambali was captured in 2003 and arrived at Guantanamo Bay in 2005. Despite the serious allegations against him, he has never been charged with a crime. Hambali is featured prominently in the Senate’s torture report, which notes he had been cooperative in response to “standard” interrogation techniques, but when subjected to so-called “enhanced interrogation” methods, Hambali “provided the false information in an attempt to reduce the pressure on himself … and to give an account that was consistent with what [Hambali] assessed the questioners wanted to hear.” The report also states that an interrogator said to Hambali: “We can never let the world know what I have done to you.”
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/alleged-bin-laden-indonesia-receives-guantanamo-review-board-hearing
DXer said
25 July 2016
Can the bioweapons convention survive Crispr?
Daniel M. Gerstein
http://thebulletin.org/can-bioweapons-convention-survive-crispr9679
DXer said
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-02-29/isis-chemical-weapons
Snapshot February 29, 2016 ISISTerrorism & Counterterrorism
ISIS’ Chemical Weapons
Where They Came From, How They are Used, and What Will Come Next
By Arabinda Acharya
“Evidence found in 2001–02 in al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan confirmed that the organization was interested in acquiring chemical and biological weapons as well as a radiological dispersal device, or “dirty bomb.” A 2003 statement from bin Laden and a fatwa the same year from prominent Saudi cleric Sheik Nasir bin Hamid al-Fahd legitimized the use of CBRN weapons. In a similar vein, al Qaeda spokesperson Sulaiman Abu Ghaith wrote that it is “our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons, so as to afflict them with the fatal maladies that have afflicted the Muslims because of the [Americans’] chemical and biological weapons.”
In February 2003, the FBI warned that “al Qaeda and affiliated groups continue to enhance their capabilities to conduct effective mass-casualty chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) attacks” and that al Qaeda possesses “at least a crude capability to use” such weapons. As we now know, al Qaeda never did manage to make much use of any weapons of mass destruction, but even in September 2010, Michael Leiter, then director of the National Counterterrorism Center, stated that despite successes in preventing terrorists from developing WMD capability, the threat of such terrorism remains a grave concern, primarily, according to Leiter, because al Qaeda and other groups continue to seek the capabilities.
Further, a number of al Qaeda affiliates—some of which now adhere to ISIS—did have more luck with CBRN weapons. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, now called al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, successfully developed ricin at underground labs in London. And reports suggest that ISIS, for its part, got hold of its own chemical and biological materials and weapons from stockpiles in Iraq, specifically at the Al Muthanna Chemical Weapons Complex, and in Syria, especially the chemical weapons that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad did not or could not destroy. It has also recruited experts from all over the world, including those who worked with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the Islamic University of Mosul in Iraq.
In all this, there is something of a contradiction between terrorist groups’ risk aversion and their interest in WMD. To be sure, violence and mass casualties are at the heart of terrorist operations, whether the deaths come via guns and improvised explosive devices or WMD. But until ISIS, actual CBRN seemed like a bad—or at least dangerous—bet. In other words, groups might have preferred to threaten to use such weapons and even stockpile them, while relying mostly on conventional tactics.
However, ISIS’ brand of terrorists could be less risk averse owing to the group’s extreme religiosity. Its claim that the great and final battle between infidels and Muslims will take place in Dabiq, Syria, preceding the Day of Judgment has not only attracted recruits in huge numbers but has stirred in them an apocalyptic fervor. And if ISIS successfully uses the weapons, it could teach other terrorist groups to do the same.
Cantlie’s hypothetical weapons purchases posed in Dabiq, and the statements and testimonies of intelligence agencies and political leaders, should be examined in this light.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Arguably, jihadist entrepreneurs are interested in experimenting with virtually anything and everything that could be used against the adversary. But weapons of mass destruction involve a high level of technological and scientific skill, equipment, materials, and organization. Acquiring nuclear weapons is extremely difficult, as is concealing a production facility or even the transportation of an actual weapon. Even though biological, chemical, and even radiological dispersal devices can be produced with relative ease and at a lesser risk of interdiction, there is still some inhibition about using them because of the risk that the attack will spin out of control—affecting not only the enemy but also their own supporters and co-religionists.
Here, for those worried about ISIS, the case of al Qaeda is instructive. Despite creating a dedicated WMD committee to develop, acquire, and weaponize CBRN materials at its sophisticated training camps in Afghanistan, in particular at Tanarak and Darunta (sarin and hydrogen cyanide, respectively) and Kandahar (anthrax), none of the programs were successful. Al Qaeda’s ambitious project for a nuclear or at least a radiological dispersal device was either a nonstarter or was short-circuited. Similarly, the Jemaah Islamiyah—an al Qaeda–associated group in Southeast Asia that is attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region and is responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings—launched a chemical-biological program, but it was very basic, with materials culled from the Internet. The program was ultimately shuttered.
The rarity of catastrophic attacks with mass casualties, or even planned attacks, reflects the difficulties in carrying them out successfully. And, to be sure, as RAND’s John Parachini put it, it can be hard to draw lessons about terrorists and CBRN because of the very “few historical cases of terrorist interest in and acquisition of CBRN weapons.” In other words, ISIS may have greater stockpiles of the materials for weapons of mass destruction, and it may have more willingness to risk using them. There is no reason, however, to think that it will have significantly more success in carrying out the attacks.
Even so, because the consequences of a CBRN attack would be so great, the West should not take ISIS’ forays into the area lightly. The United States and its allies must remain vigilant and try to preempt any attempt by groups such as ISIS or al Qaeda to develop or acquire and use CBRN materials. Ignoring the risk is too dangerous.”
DXer said
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/02/09/bioweapons-case-against-publicist-gets-technical.htm
Bioweapons Case Against Publicist Gets Technical
By KATHERINE PROCTOR
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The chemical composition of lethal poisons took center stage at an evidentiary hearing Monday in a case against a San Francisco political consultant accused of possessing a weaponized biological toxin.
Authorities arrested Ryan Kelly Chamberlain in June 2014 after a three-day FBI manhunt prompted by weeks of surveillance after the discovery of records of poisons purchased on the dark Web and shipped to Chamberlain. Chamberlain had worked as a publicist for California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom when Newsom ran for mayor of San Francisco.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria refused in August to dismiss the charges against Chamberlain, although Chamberlain’s attorney Jodi Linker argued that the FBI’s confiscation of vials containing crushed rosary peas is not sufficient evidence that Chamberlain intended to poison anyone.
Linker argued that the person who sent Chamberlain sent the crushed peas – which can be used to make the highly toxic substance abrin – instead of chemically purified abrin.
At Monday’s hearing, expert witness Christa Mason took the stand, testifying about the possible degree of abrin concentration in the vials. Mason is a forensic examiner at the FBI’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Sciences Unit.
During her testimony – mostly founded on highly specialized studies in chemistry and requiring the frequent use of a calculator – Chhabria stopped her frequently for clarifications.
“From what has been presented so far, I do not yet have any understanding of how it was concluded that the vials contained 2.8 milligrams of abrin, or who drew that conclusion,” Chhabria said.
Other questions included how many rosary peas would have to be ground in order to yield such a concentration – approximately 3.73, Mason said – and to what degree cancer patients can tolerate the substance.
Evidentiary hearings are expected to continue throughout the week.
DXer said
Wednesday, February 3 [2016]: The House Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities will hold a hearing titled “Outside Views on Biodefense for the Department of Defense.”
DXer said
Kenneth L. Wainstein
Partner – Washington
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 700 Sixth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
Kenneth Wainstein is Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group. He focuses his practice on corporate internal investigations and civil and criminal enforcement proceedings. With experience in significant positions in the U.S. government in the areas of criminal enforcement and national security, he brings clients a deep understanding of the substantive and procedural issues involved in white collar defense. …
In 2008, after 19 years at the Justice Department, Ken was named Homeland Security Advisor by President George W. Bush. In this capacity, he coordinated the nation’s counterterrorism, homeland security, infrastructure protection, and disaster response and recovery efforts. He advised the President, convened and chaired meetings of the Cabinet Officers on the Homeland Security Council, and oversaw the inter-agency coordination process for homeland security and counterterrorism programs.
Prior to his White House service, Ken was twice nominated and confirmed for leadership positions in the Justice Department. In 2006, the U.S. Senate confirmed Ken as the first Assistant Attorney General for National Security. In that position, Ken established and led the new National Security Division, which consolidated DOJ’s law enforcement and intelligence activities on counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters, and also oversaw the Department’s role in regulatory mechanisms such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). Ken led several national security initiatives, including the launch of the national, inter-agency Export Control Enforcement Initiative targeting illegal exports of sensitive technology and weapons components.
In 2004, he was appointed, and later confirmed as, the United States Attorney in Washington, DC, where he managed the largest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the country and oversaw a number of high-profile white-collar and public corruption cases. Prior to that, Ken served as General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then as Chief of Staff to Director Robert Mueller. At the FBI, Ken was involved in myriad sensitive national security and criminal enforcement matters, as well as a variety of civil litigation, managerial, and Congressional oversight issues. In 2001, Ken was appointed Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, where he provided oversight and support to the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.
From 1989 to 2001, Ken served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia, where he handled numerous criminal trials and appellate arguments.
Ken’s work has been recognized with the Edmund J. Randolph Award for Outstanding Service to the Department of Justice, the Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance, and the Lawyer of the Year Award from the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, and he was recently named as a top national security lawyer by Washingtonian magazine. Ken has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center since 2009, teaching National Security Investigations and Litigation. He is a Panel Member of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense; a member of the Director’s Advisory Board of the National Counterterrorism Center; a member of the Director’s Advisory Board of the National Counterterrorism Center; a member of the Public Interest Declassification Board; a member of the CIA General Counsel’s External Advisory Board; chairman of the Legal Panel of the National Security Agency Advisory Board; a member of the Webster Commission on the FBI, Counterterrrorism Intelligence, and the Fort Hood Shootings; co-chair of the Committee on National Security Law, Policy & Practice of the District of Columbia Bar Association; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at the George Washington University; and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys. Ken is ranked as a Washington, D.C., Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation.
Ken earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia, with high distinction and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a moot court board member and the Note and Comment Editor of the California Law Review. Following law school, Ken served as law clerk to the Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Gerald W. Parker, Jr., DVM, PhD
Dr. Gerald W. Parker joined the Texas A&M University in November 2013 as associate vice president for Public Health Preparedness and Response, and principal investigator for the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing. Dr. Parker was recently appointed. Interim Director, Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases in AgriLife Research and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine; and he is a guest lecturer in the School of Public Health. Prior to his appointment to Texas A&M University, Dr. Parker served 36 years as a scientist, leader, career officer and senior executive at the federal level in public service for global health and national security.
As a senior executive, Dr. Parker was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Chemical and Biological Defense at the Department of Defense from 2010 to 2013, and the principal deputy assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services from 2005 to 2010. He also served at the Department of Homeland Security from 2004 to 2005. He was a 2009 recipient of the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award, and awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service in 2013.
Before his selection into the Senior Executive Service, Dr. Parker held a variety of assignments during his 26-year military career in the U.S. Army (1977-2004), including: assistant deputy for m e d i c a l research and development; director for the Medical Chemical and Biological Defense Research Program; deputy director for the Combat Casualty Research Program at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command; and commander and deputy commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. …
DXer said
Ex-ISA detainee, canteen helper get seven years jail BY KHAIRAH N. – 27 JANUARY 2016
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/01/124257/ex-isa-detainee-canteen-helper-get-seven-years-jail
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/01/124257/ex-isa-detainee-canteen-helper-get-seven-years-jail
Ex-ISA detainee, canteen helper get seven years jail BY KHAIRAH N. – 27 JANUARY 2016 @ 1:02 PM KUALA LUMPUR:
Ex-Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid Sufaat and cafeteria helper Muhammad Hilmi Hasim have been sentenced to seven years’ jail for intentionally omitting information on terrorist activities in 2012
DXer said
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak should be in jail — at the very least, the many additional tens of millions given by Saudi Arabia as a gift should have been returned.
Malaysia Closes Investigation Into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Funds
By THOMAS FULLERJAN. 26, 2016
How can the justice system in Malaysia expect to be taken seriously? It’s a joke even to the most causal observer (such as myself).
Is it any wonder that the (same, I believe) Malaysia Attorney General apparently seeks to hide Yazid Sufaat’s role in the Al Qaeda anthrax program? There appears to be rule of law in the country.
DXer said
I believe Yazid Sufaat’s trial resumed Jan. 20 in Kuala Lumpur. Perhaps there will be a news item today.
Hopefully, he will embrace solving the world’s problems through nonviolence, peace and advocacy so that he might improve his prospects of being freed.
I think a book by him about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program would be fascinating. He could then serve as a human rights advocate for prisoners like Al Barq. I am especially interested in his disclosure of the strain he was using.
Until he takes to heart the immorality of killing innocents, he represents evil — in anyone’s old book.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kompleks+Mahkamah+Kuala+Lumpur/@3.17695,101.6710999,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x8081b09e113eb82d
DXer said
It doesn’t seem that anything momentous happened at yesterday’s court hearing. A government official testified. Defense is going to write a letter. A January 26 court date is set. But I’ll wait for an English translation to know better.
Yazid Sufaat, Muhamad Hilmi hantar representasi
SUWARNI MOKHTAR | 21 Januari 2016 8:23 PM
http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/mahkamah/yazid-sufaat-muhamad-hilmi-hantar-representasi-1.181925#sthash.jW702wVJ.dpuf
DXer said
His gracious daughter uploads a photo of the defense team in court this past day.
She is appreciative of the hard work of defendants’ counsel.
The earlier success in the case (then undone on appeal) is testament enough of their effectiveness.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAzf-8erA6GgShyALo9vvie7V2jMKMkbttvFL40/
sorayaanurIt’s a good day at court today alhamdulillah. I couldn’t say much but we all need your prayers. For whatever happened after this, it is the best for Bapak and my family.
That’s our team of lawyers btw who are working hard to help Bapak and to fight this through and through. My deepest gratitude are to them so pray for them too!
kaisyahkAlhamdulillah, my prayers are with you and your family Yaya, InsyaAllah you will be reunited as a family again
DXer said
An Ethical Code of Conduct for the Non-proliferation of Biological Agents Among Malaysian Businesses
Click to access 55e2a50408ae2fac471f9879.pdf
The article states:
An anthrax germ from an Indonesian supplier of seed stock was acquired by Al-Qaeda in 2001 which was subsequently supplied to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for US$3,685, shipping costs included [17: 2].
• N. Lathem, “Osama bought a batch for 10g,” The New York Post, New York, para. 7, Oct. 24, 2001 [Online], Available: http://nypost.com/2001/10/24/osama-bought-a-batch-for-10g/ [ Accessed: May 18, 2012]
Comment: The article has inaptly characterizes the story. The story reported on testimony given in 1999. Thus, the testimony related to acquisition prior to that.
But I do find this paragraph interesting:
“In 1998, a few undercover reporters from the United Kingdom’s (UK) Sunday Times Insight team approached Bio Farma, an Indonesian research institute based in Bandung, that offered to sell anthrax, plague, brucella and Escherichia coli (e- coli) even though the undercover reporters indicated they were from a laboratory in Africa [23: 2]. Without double checking to ensure these reporters were not disguised terrorists, the Indonesian research institute was perfectly willing to supply the necessary [23]. This shows that biological agents can be supplied by commercial culture collection businesses besides government-regulated laboratories.”
citing
J.Leppard,C.HastiingsandJ.Berry,“Needabiologicalwar?Labssell anthrax germs by mail order,” The London Sunday Times, London, para. 4, Nov. 23, 1998. [Online], Available: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/557698/posts [Accessed: May 2, 2015].
The article continues:
“Even in Malaysia’s case, its own citizen, Yazid Sufaat, was once given the task of cultivating anthrax as a biological weapon by al-Qaeda in a laboratory near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001 [26: 1]. Since Sufaat’s release from imprisonment in 2008, it is not known whether he did try to spread his biological weapons’ knowledge to other radical Islamic terrorists in Malaysia. Sufaat is now under the custody of the Malaysian police once again while his court trial is on- going for promoting terrorism in Syria [27].”
DXer said
Court orders journalist to testify in terror case
BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Published: 27 November 2015 6:06 PM | Updated: 27 November 2015 7:32 PM
The Star journalist Tashny Sukumaran today failed in her bid to be exempted from testifying in the case of former Internal Security Act detainee Yazid Sufaat and canteen helper Muhammad Hilmi Hassan for allegedly promoting terrorism acts in Syria.
A three-man Court of Appeal bench chaired by Datuk Mohtaruddin Baki said national security took precedence over a journalist’s confidentiality code to protect her sources.
“We dismiss the appeal as we find national security overrules confidentiality,” he said of the unanimous ruling.
Her lawyer Syahredzan Johan told The Malaysian Insider he was awaiting instruction whether to appeal the case in the Federal Court.
“Her right to appeal is automatic and she needs not to get leave from the apex court,” he said.
Should there be no appeal, Tashny will have to continue to give evidence in the trial of the two, who are said to be members of the extremist group Tanzim al-Qaeda.
Both men are alleged to have recruited members in Malaysian for the organisation.
The prosecution is using procedures in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) since the two men are said to a threat to national security and public order.
The decision is unprecedented as journalists have the privilege of not disclosing the identity of their sources.
Tashny had taken the stand in the High Court and had answered several questions including to reveal her source of her front-page report.
She and the daily then made the application to set aside a court subpoena and expunge all evidence.
Judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin in dismissing the application said it was made too late and the name of the source had been revealed.
Tashny’s lawyers said her evidence could be deleted as she only named the source whom she had spoken for the first time but never met him in person.
The journalist, who was represented by former Malaysian Bar president Christoher Leong, took the stand saying the evidence had no relevance to the charges faced by the two men.
Both men, facing charges under the Penal Code, risk a 30-year prison term. – November 27, 2015.
– See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/court-dismisses-journalists-appeal-to-not-testify-in-terror-trial#sthash.Zow9d4ze.dpuf
DXer said
REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS November 26, 2015, 6:00 AM
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-check-did-donald-trump-predict-the-911-attacks/
Fact check: Did Donald Trump predict the 9/11 attacks?
In Chapter 1, he wrote, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen.”
And in Chapter 5, there was this: “In our age of miniaturization, weapons have shrunk–and the threat against us is suddenly very large. When a nuclear device can fit in a suitcase, and a canister of anthrax can devastate New York, Boston, Los Angeles, or any other American city, the equation has changed radically.”
He also wrote, “Yet it’s time to get down to the hard business of preparing for what I believe is the real possibility that somewhere, sometime, a weapon of mass destruction will be carried into a major American city and detonated.”
Trump was, in fact, right that there was a terror attack far greater in scale than the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000. The Sept. 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000.
He was off-base about other aspects, though. Trump predicted the terror plot would be the result of the miniaturization of weapons like nuclear bombs or a canister of anthrax.
At least group was struggling to use anthrax as a weapon before Trump published his book: Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese religious cult, experimented with anthrax as a biological weapon but ultimately chose sarin gas for their 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway system.
The Federation of American Scientists wrote, “While cultivating anthrax from naturally occurring sources is relatively simple, producing an effective weaponized form is technically difficult. The anthrax spores must be specially processed to prevent clumping and allow for greater inhalation leading to a fatal infection.”
He may not have been right about the weapons used in 9/11, but this chapter also had Trump’s assessment of intelligence.
Trump on intelligence, chapter 5: “The inadequate use of intelligence is pervasive.”
The record:The 9/11 attacks also didn’t come without warning. As early as December 4, 1998, former President Clinton was warned that bin Laden was preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. But Trump’s assessment that “the inadequate use of intelligence is pervasive” rings the most true given the intelligence failures that occurred prior to the attacks.
“Information was not shared, sometimes inadvertently or because of legal misunderstandings. Analysis was not pooled. Effective operations were not launched. Often the handoffs of information were lost across the divide separating the foreign and domestic agencies of the government,” the commission’s report said.
DXer said
So both President Obama and Yazid Sufaat were encouraging young men to go to fight in Syria against the brutality of Assad. But Yazid Sufaat has already spent years in prison. Something seems wacky. Even if he did what the testimony so far establishes he did, it seems the time he has served is adequate. Let him out, if you would, so he could write a book describing the details of Al Qaeda’s anthrax program. If the FBI insists he was not responsible for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings, then it seems he has served enough time in jail. Hopefully, upon release, he’ll return to his family and leave preaching to others.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v8/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1193240
Yazid Told Witness To Start A Network In Syria
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 (Bernama) — A witness told the High Court here Tuesday that the former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid Sufaat had once asked him to start a network in Syria to ease the movement of Malaysians into the country.
Muhamad Razin Sharhan Mustafa Kamal, 24, who was once detained in Beirut, Lebanon, on suspicion of involvement in Al-Qaeda, said Yazid told him that if he managed to enter Syria, he shouldn’t go quickly into war, but should start a network for fellow Malaysians.
“Razif Mohd Arif and I had once attended an usrah at Yazid’s house and during breakfast one morning, Razif spoke about our intention to go to Syria.
“That was when Yazid said that if we managed to get there, we shouldn’t go straight to war, but instead should start a network for fellow Malaysians to go to Syria,” he said in the trial of Yazid, 51, and a cafeteria assistant Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, 35, who were charged with promoting acts of terrorism in Syria.
Muhamad Razin said his intention of going to Syria was to commit jihad by fighting against the brutality of Bashar Al-Assad’s army and helping the oppressed and innocent people of Syria.
He said he was more determined to go to Syria after attending five sessions of usrah at Yazid’s house on July 7, 14, 21 and 28, as well as on Aug 4, 2012.
“The content of Yazid’s talks during the usrah had really motivated me to go and commit jihad in Syria, simply because I don’t want to become a ‘munafik’ (hypocrite). Yazid said among the criteria of a munafik was that he wouldn’t want to go to war and hated those who wanted to do so,” he said.
When asked by the deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusoff whether he had undergone a military training before, Muhamad Razin said never, but agreed that his trip to Syria was also to enable him to undergo a military training.
On his flight to Turkey, the 25th prosecution witness said he and Razif left for Turkey at 12.30 am on Oct 3, 2012 and arrived in Istanbul at 7 am the following day.
Once arrived, he said Razif contacted a Syrian man known as Abu Hassan who came to see them at a bread shop before taking them to a budget hotel.
“That night, Abu Hassan came to see us again and talked to us about firearms. He said if we wanted to purchase firearms, he could arrange it and the weapons will be at our disposal in Syria,” said Muhamad Razin who brought cash of RM2,000 to Syria.
However, he said on Oct 5, 2012, the were detained by the Turkish authority before being ordered to leave the country, after which they headed for Lebanon on Oct 10, 2012.
He said when in Lebanon, they were detained by the authority and charged in the country’s Military Court with four charges, two of which they were found guilty and sent to jail for four years from Oct 18, 2012.
Now that he was released, Muhamad Razin said he only remembered three of the charges, namely being a member of terrorist group Jabhah Al-Nusra, attempting to possess an unlicenced firearm, and trying to smuggle firearms.
Yazid was facing two counts of promoting acts of terrorism in Syria and being a member of Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia, while Muhammad Hilmi was charged with abetting him.
They were alleged to have committed the offence at a house in Taman Bukit Ampang, Lorong Mutiara 2, Lembah Jaya, Ampang near here, between Aug 1, 2012 and Feb 7, 2013.
The charge under Section 130KA of the Penal Code carries life imprisonment and fine if convicted.
The trial before Judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin continues on Jan 20 next year.
— BERNAMA
DXer said
The same goes for Ali Al-Timimi.
DXer said
http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=40221
INLAND EMPIRE – (INT) – A week-long hazardous-material response drill is underway.
Teams wearing full protective gear in public are participating in activities where mock medications are being dispensed.
Haz-Mat teams are making simulated responses to multiple locations where anthrax had been reported.
The drill continues through Friday and includes includes the California Department of Public Health, the California Emergency Services Medical Authority, the Riverside County Department of Public Health, the Riverside County Sheriff and CalFire.
Story Date: November 16, 2015
DXer said
Witness tells court Yazid Sufaat member of JI Malaysia
Wednesday October 7, 2015
07:45 PM GMT+8
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/witness-tells-court-yazid-sufaat-member-of-ji-malaysia#sthash.FR6KR3FK.dpuf
Today told that former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid Sufaat is a member of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) Malaysia.
Prof Dr Rohan Gunaratna, Head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said Yazid’s involvement with the JI group was obtained through testimony of a prisoner and suspected terrorist known as “Hambali”, who is now under arrest in the United States (US).
Rohan, 54, said Hambali through his evidence in the 9/11 Commission Report, had said that he recruited Yazid to work with Al-Qaeda in South East Asia.
“The 9/11 report was based on investigations leading to the 9/11 attack. The report clearly mentioned how Hambali recruited Yazid Sufaat to work for Al-Qaeda in South East Asia.
“I testified before the 9/11 Commission on the structure of Al-Qaeda as some of the 9/11 attackers came to South East Asia, specifically to Malaysia and stayed in an apartment offered by Yazid Sufaat,” he said during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Nurdeenie Abdul Rashid.
He was testifying in the trial of Yazid, 51, and cafeteria assistant, Muhammad Hilmi Hashim, 35, who are charged with being involved in activities promoting terrorism.
Yazid faces two counts of promoting aggression with intent to incite the people of Syria and becoming a member of the ‘Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia’ group, while Muhammad Hilmi was charged with abetting him.
They were charged with committing the offence at DL 11, Taman Bukit Ampang, Lorong Mutiara 2, Lembah Jaya, Ampang, between Aug 1, 2012 and Feb 7, 2013.
They are facing charges under Section 130KA of the Penal Code (Act 574), which carries a life sentence and liable to be fined, if convicted.
However, lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad who represented the two accused, objected to the questions raised by the prosecution because it was an opinion by the witness.
Judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin said the court took note on the objection.
Questioned by Nurdeenie on the Al-Qaeda group, Rohan said Al-Qaeda had made the country a centre for organising meetings and planning terrorist attacks.
“Malaysia Militant Group (KMM) and Jemaah Islamiah (JI) send their members to get training with a group of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
“Individuals who have received training in Afghanistan, will return to his country and launch terrorist attacks,” he said.
He explained that Al-Qaeda was a political organisation which took out of context selected text in the Quran for its objectives.
The hearing continues tomorrow. — Bernama
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/witness-tells-court-yazid-sufaat-member-of-ji-malaysia#sthash.FR6KR3FK.dpuf
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat, if you beat this current rap, how about we co-author a book on the Al Qaeda anthrax program? Show Dr. Ayman some props as a diabolical spymaster?
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/bm/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1176919
Yazid Sufaat Distribute Religious Science One, Says Witness
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) – The High Court was told yesterday that former Internal Security Act (ISA), Yazid Sufaat, spread the knowledge to manipulate religion for one of the purposes of jihad and al-Quran in his usrah in his house.
Officials Islamic Affairs Ministry (KDN) Zamihan Mat Zin Al-Ghari, 39, said he made the analysis of transcripts usrah at home Yazid on 21 July 2012 found it to inculcate usrah Salafi Jihadi ideology and sparked an armed jihad could jeopardize national security.
“If one is to accept and practice the beliefs and ideologies rated speaker (Yazid), they are able to commit acts of violence that could threaten security and public order.
“Radical and extremist doctrine they profess is able to tarnish the image of Islam and provoke Islamophobia among non-Muslims and tarnish the country’s image in the eyes of the world when on an expedition in foreign countries such as the Philippines, Chechnya and Afghanistan,” he said when questioned by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Izhar Nadia ,
21st prosecution witness said at the trial of Yazid, 51, and assistant cafeteria, Hashim Muhammad Hilmi, 35, who allegedly participated in activities promoting terrorism.
Yazid faces two counts of assault with intent to promote incite the people of Syria and became a member of the Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia while Muhammad Hilmi was charged with abetting him.
They were charged with committing the offense at a house in Taman Bukit Cheras, Lorong Mutiara 2, Lembah Jaya, Ampang here between August 1, 2012 and February 7, 2013, under Section 130KA Penal Code (Act 574) which carries a sentence of life imprisonment and a fine if convicted.
Yazid and Muhammad Hilmi represented by a lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad.
Zamihan, who served in the Security and Public Order Ministry of Home Affairs, said the same series usrah, Yazid also manipulate the verses of the Qur’an from Surah Al’An’am paragraph 116 which states the democratic system is corrupt to the people.
“The speaker uses this sentence declaring the democratic system is corrupt to the people, while in the chapter does not mention about democracy in Malaysia. …
DXer said
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/three-arrested-over/2150384.html
Three arrested over terror threat alert in Kuala Lumpur
Three men – an Indonesian, a Malaysian and a Syrian – were arrested following a terror threat alert issued by the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police confirmed they arrested three people on Thursday (Sep 24) for possible terror links after a warning was issued linked to Kuala Lumpur’s popular Jalan Alor food street.
An Indonesian and a Syrian were among those arrested, along with a local. One of the three arrested made frequent trips to Yemen and entered Malaysia only days ago, police said.
The arrests came in the wake of terror alerts issued by the US and Australian embassies urging people to avoid Jalan Alor in the Bukit Bintang shopping belt and the immediate surrounding areas.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said security in Kuala Lumpur is under control and said there was no increased threat level at Jalan Alor or anywhere else in the city.
They said they view the warnings very seriously and will meet the respective embassies as part of an investigation.
“We are on top of things. We will never let any attack occur in Malaysia,” he said.
The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had said: “Based on credible threat information regarding a potential terrorist act, the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur advises US citizens to avoid Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Alor (Alor Street) and the immediate surrounding areas, on Thursday, September 24, 2015.”
DXer said
Malaysia Detains Three Amid Terror Alerts
Arrests follow warning from the U.S. Embassy
http://www.wsj.com/articles/malaysia-detains-three-amid-terror-alerts-1443188269
By SARA SCHONHARDT And CELINE FERNANDEZ
Sept. 25, 2015 9:37 a.m. ET
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Counterterrorism police in Malaysia said Friday that three people have been arrested based on information obtained from previously detained suspects.
The arrests on Thursday follow notices from the U.S. and Australian embassies advising their citizens in the Southeast Asian country to avoid Jalan Alor, a popular food street in Kuala Lumpur, based on what the U.S. message called “credible threat information regarding a potential terrorist act.”
The three men were aged 30 to 51 years old, according to a statement from Police Deputy Inspector-General Noor Rashid Ibrahim. One of the foreigners had made frequent trips to Yemen and entered Malaysia a few days ago, he said.
Police didn’t release the names of the suspects and they couldn’t be contacted. Director of Counterterrorism Division Director Ayob Khan said the men are an Indonesian, a Syrian and a Malaysian.
Police said they were still investigating whether the men were involved in plans to launch attacks in Malaysia.
The three men were being detained under a security law that allows for detention without charge for no more than 28 days to facilitate investigation. It replaced a controversial Internal Security Act that permitted long-term detention without trial.
Police in this Muslim-majority country have arrested more than 100 people suspected of links to the Islamic State terror group since last year, including members of the security forces.
In April, authorities arrested more than two dozen suspects allegedly plotting attacks on government targets, army camps as well as kidnappings of high officials.
In June, two of the suspects received prison sentences of 18 years and 12 years for planning terrorism activities in Malaysia. Some of the other suspects have been charged but haven’t yet been sentenced.
DXer said
Note that the irradiated Ames samples seized from Bruce Ivins by FBI in 2007 apparently were not tested as part of DOD review (of USAMRIID, Edgewood and Dugway).
I believe the irradiated Ames seized from Ivins would have been taken to NMRC where the FBI Amerithrax Repository would have been stored.
By only testing irradiated samples shipped post-2001, the DOD is avoiding the central flaw of the FBI’s analysis in Amerithrax — which asssumed irradiation was 100% effective. The DOD review has been guided by former FBI honchos Christian Hassell and Vahid Majidi.
In written correspondence, Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat (now on trial) does not deny responsibility for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings.
The science didn’t suddenly become uncertain. Ivins himself repeatedly had irradiation problems.
Contemporary Documentary Sources:
The irradiated Ames that Bruce Ivins distributed to numerous other researchers was not available for the recent DOD review conducted at USAMRIID because it had been removed from USAMRIID by the FBI in November 2007
Posted by Lew Weinstein on August 4, 2015
Dugway anthrax – Will it take Congressional subpoena power to fill in the blanks in the email asking about weaponized anthrax that came to Detrick via FedEx and then was shipped out and some was missing?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on July 29, 2015
Bruce Ivins experienced repeated irradiation failures with virulent Ames anthrax
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 13, 2015
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US BIodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Former ISA Detainee Yazid Held Discussions In His House, Court Heard
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) — The High Court here was told that former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid Sufaat conducted several discussion sessions in the living room of his house with the door locked.
Inspector Shafez Adil, from the Bukit Aman Special Branch, said he obtained the information from his informer, who attended the discussion on July 21, 2012.
…
He said he had instructed the informer to make a recording of the discussions, following which he would transfer it into his computer before storing it in a hard disc.
“Whenever I met the informer, I will give him an audio recording gadget for him to make recording of the discussion.
“The informer said it was safe because Yazid did not carry out inspection on those who attended the discussion,” he added.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v8/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1164850
Comment:
In America, doors of houses are routinely locked. And when people are together inside houses, they regularly converse. Relgious study groups are often held in small groups, to include at homes.
And the fact that Yazid Sufaat did not frisk people for recording equipment is not evidence of guilt — to the contrary. For example, Al-Timimi made sure that the phone was unplugged. Did Yazid Sufaat?
And so, absent meaningful evidence of guilt in this testimony to date, perhaps this testimony is simply laying the groundwork for the recorded content of conversations.
So far, the description is little different than the usual Muslim Brotherhood meeting held in living rooms across the country over time.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Yazid Sufaat’s daughter tweets from court:
• Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur 6h6 hours agoKuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Instill great fear upon their hearts that will crush them down ya Allah, bcs whatever they are doing now is going against You&your Religion
• Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur 7h7 hours agoKuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
I’m at Kompleks Mahkamah Kuala Lumpur (Courts Complex) in Kuala Lumpur, WP Kuala Lumpur w/ @zufararif https://www.swarmapp.com/c/9oyjcyBnesh
Yazid Sufaat’s wife Chomel or Yazid Sufaat’s defense counsel should ask that Soraya delete the post lest it be misconstrued and interpreted in this context as solicitation of acts of terror.
The advice should be: books, cats and chocolate, yes. Channeling Aafia, no.
In the Malaysia courtroom today, the testimony may have related to what Yazid Sufaat was captured on tape saying in the small group meeting.
Whatever it was that Yazid Sufaat said in November 2012, he had every reason to think that he was being taped.
DXer said
February 25, 2013 at 6:41 am
“Hilmi and his mom, however, may need to hope that Hilmi didn’t say the wrong thing into the salt and pepper shaker at the drinks stall — or on occasion at the house with Yazid and Chomel’s religious instructor.”
If his daughter wants the best for her father, she should let her lawyers make their arguments without prejudicing their efforts.
The worst I said on tape to a sexy suspected undercover this past week was:
“We are very protective of Jason, who is a magician, because the FBI suspects him of being involved in a big art heist. Did you see “Now You See Me”?
My hapless and unsuspecting (and wholly innocent) friend Jason was due to return shortly from a religious meeting. The femme fatale suddenly focused on his imminent return as I snuck out the back door.
DXer said
Jun 28, 2015
A lawyer hooked by ‘the perfect murder’
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/303332
New then joined Bon Advocates, where he achieved his happiest moment as a lawyer when clients Yazid Sufaat, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, and Halimah Hussein, were acquitted at the High Court in 2013 on charges of promoting terrorism in Syria.
When the judge was reading out his decision, New and two other colleagues were a bit distracted but some words that the judge used had their ears perked.
“Suddenly the judge said something that was highly unusual. He was like, ‘I agree with the applicants’, and we were like ‘What is going on? I have not heard that word before’,” he said amid bouts of laughter.
He said the trio quickly realised the significance of what was happening, as High Court judge Kamardin Hashim ruled that the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) could not be used against their clients.
“The public gallery was dramatic. Seriously it was like Hollywood. […] The prosecution, (if) you look at them, they were baffled. I suppose (losing) doesn’t happen often to them as well.
“Then you start to hear at the back of the dock, Yazid, Hilmi and Halimah starting to pray. The family members started crying, then finally the judge said “I order them to be discharged and released.’
“They were celebrating but we (the lawyers) didn’t celebrate. Instead we were “Eh, we won?” he said, laughing at how amused they were by their victory.
‘Criminal law is so romantic’
But while this public litigation victory may be his happiest, New’s passion still lies in the romance of criminal law.
DXer said
A lawyer hooked by ‘the perfect murder’
Malaysiakini (subscription)- 6 hours ago
New then joined Bon Advocates, where he achieved his happiest moment as a lawyer when clients Yazid Sufaat, Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, and …
MALAYSIANS KINI How to commit the perfect murder was something New Sin Yew learned in his first ever law lecture, and it has had him hooked ever since. To law that is.
Speaking to Malaysiakini during an interview in April, the 27-year-old lawyer said it all began after he decided not to further his studies as an engineer, after which a family friend, the law dean of Help University, asked him to attend law lectures for two weeks.
“My first class was criminal law, and I was taught by this senior lawyer Kitson Foong.
“I still remember the first class; he was teaching how to commit the perfect murder.
“It was quite interesting and I have been hooked since,” he said.
Comment:
I have corresponded with Yazid Sufaat and he does not deny responsibility for the murder of Ottilie Lundgren and others. The Sacramento grad pled the “Fifth Amendment.”
He is back on trial for terrorism on the same charges, a point curiously overlooked by the article. In fact, one of his clients went on a lam when the charges were rebrought and is at large.
But the periodical deserves major kudos for its previous reporting and this article can be viewed in that context.
Good reporting often surprises with its point of view and new perspective on things.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
H.R.1300 – First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act
114th Congress (2015-2016) |
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1300
Official Title as Introduced:
To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to make anthrax vaccines and antimicrobials available to emergency response providers, and for other purposes.
DXer said
The trial is set to continue on June 1, with other witnesses taking the stand ahead of journalist who does not want to testify.
Fighting to keep sources confidential, Saturday May 23, 2015
BY QISHIN TARIQ
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/05/23/Fighting-to-keep-sources-confidential-Journalist-does-not-want-to-reveal-identity-of-informant-in-te/
DXer said
Randall Murch, who headed the FBI’s Amerithrax scientific evidence in the first months, has written a May 2015 article on Bioattribution in which he notes:
“Getting caught and being held accountable, or the credible threat thereof, “raises the bar” for those who engage illicit activities related to biowarfare, bioterrorism or bioproliferation. The greater the belief of and risk to adversaries that they will be identified, apprehended and prosecuted either through legal or policy decisions, the more likely this will be factored in the decisions and choices they make.”
Indeed, if perpetrators are not caught — if correct bioattribution is not made — you may find them prematurely released and then recruiting terrorists in interviews conducted in the mainstream media.
DXer said
Dr. Murch explains:
“There is no one program that can provide an impervious biodefense or biosecurity. However, a well-crafted “kit of tools” which effectively enhances anticipation, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and attribution can provide a defense system which “raises the bar” for adversaries and those who assist them. Investigation and attribution are sometimes forgotten as important tools in the kit. This paper focuses on the latter, specifically investigation toward attribution and argues that substantial expansion of attribution-informing programs would significantly improve biosecurity at a global scale.”
DXer said
High Court says journalist has to testify in duo’s terrorism trial
The Star Online-11 hours ago
… has dismissed an application by The Star journalist S. Tarshini to be released from testifying in the terrorism trial of Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim.
Justice Mohd Azman Husin agreed with lead Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria that the journalist should have made the application before she revealed the source during her testimony in April last year.
The judge also ruled that her testimony was relevant to the case and that it should be maintained.
DXer said
The propaganda wars since 9/11.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the U.S. State Department has made a series of attempts to counter the spread of Islamist militant ideology. At the same time, propaganda efforts by al-Qaeda and its offspring have become increasingly sophisticated. A look at the evolution in messaging from the State Department, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/propaganda/
Comment:
Who is winning the propaganda wars insofar as it relates to the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings?
Check out Mike Morell’s new book. There is a long interview on Charlie Rose as general background.
See also
Head Of CIA’s Interrogation Program Jose Rodriguez Points To Al Qaeda Anthrax Program and Fall 2001 Mailings In Disputing Senate Torture Report
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 12, 2014
RODRIGUEZ: You know, I want to take you back to May of 2002. We were getting intelligence of an impending second wave of attacks. We didn’t have details as to when, where, how, but we knew it was coming. We knew that Al Qaeda had a biological program, an anthrax program that they wanted to use against us. And the anthrax attacks of a month before had heightened concerns for a biological weapons attack on our country. We knew they were talking to Pakistani scientists about developing a nuclear weapon of some sort. We felt we were in a ticking time bomb and we needed to do something about it.
DXer said
Home-grown M’sian terror group ‘aimed to start Islamic state, war’
Al Qaeda-linked body sought to indoctrinate, send recruits to overseas jihadists for training
http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/home-grown-msian-terror-group-aimed-start-islamic-state-war
“The trial was broadcast live on the court website.”
***
“A cell in Ampang, Selangor, was allegedly headed by Yazid’s wife, Chomel Mohamad. Mohd Razif and Muhamad Razin headed two separate cells in Selangor’s Sungai Buloh and Perak’s Trolak. The other cell was headed by another SOSMA detainee, Halimah Hussein, with the fugitive currently in hiding after finding five recruits through Facebook.”
Comment:
Chomel Mohamad is not charged with a crime. Will either she or her husband, Yazid Sufaat, testify? Both Sacramento State grads likely would be equally appealing and gracious witnesses.
DXer said
Chomel Mohamad was sitting in the audience — with her daughter — as the testimony was given. That’s got to be awkward.
Before 911 and the Al Qaeda anthrax program, Yazid Sufaat, according to the UN, allegedly was involved in blowing up churches in December 2000.
Yazid Sufaat – The Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee
http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/NSQDi124E.shtml
United Nations
… Sufaat was involved in the December 2000 church bombings in Indonesia, …
I can’t imagine how one thinks they have the moral high road when they target civilians — especially religious institutions. The violent ideology perpetuates itself by socializing children when they are young — before they reach the age of reason.
But what was Yazid Sufaat’s excuse? It wasn’t until after his return from Sacramento State that his mother-in-law’s influence led to his zealotry.
Absent expression of remorse and an earnest change of heart — relating to the death of civilians — I don’t see legal issues being resolved in the defendant’s favor. OTOH, with remorse — then the lawyerly defenses possibly could gain traction as happened in an earlier ruling on The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, (SOSMA Act 2012) .
Cop denies Yazid’s Sosma charge an afterthought
May 8, 2015
By Hafiz Yatim
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/297634
All he needs to do, IMO, is confirm that the anthrax strain he was using was the Ames strain— as indicated by the CIA tests swept under the rug by the FBI. (Or rather, identify the strain he was using and provide some sort of corroboration.) People’s minds might then open to the notion that, above all, he is a truth-teller rather than a sneaky murderous psychopath who has misinterpreted the Quran and hadiths.
DXer said
His daughter tweets her reaction:
Soraya Yazid retweeted
Shahida @ShahidaWs · 4h4 hours ago
– Those who know, don’t speak. Those who speak, don’t know.
Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur · 9h9 hours ago
Hearing all these false accusations on my father can be very overwhelming and exasperating
DXer said
“Soraya Yazid retweeted
Shahida @ShahidaWs · 4h4 hours ago
– Those who know, don’t speak. Those who speak, don’t know.”
The ever enigmatic and graceful Soraya Yazid now tweets:
Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur · 1 hour ago
but clearly you don’t
DXer said
No al-Qaeda reference in ex-ISA detainee’s religious classes, court told
Published: 8 May 2015
– See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/no-al-qaeda-reference-in-ex-isa-detainees-religious-classes-court-told#sthash.8iVRv46n.dpuf
A police officer told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that there was no mention of the words “Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia” in former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid Sufaat’s religious classes.
ASP Mohd Raby Abu Bakar, 55, attached to the Counter Terrorism Division (E8) of the Police Special Branch, said he knew about this from the information he received.
But he said he had never attended the “usrah” sessions held at Yazid’s house in Ampang, Selangor.
“I cannot attend the ‘usrah’ sessions because the accused knows me (as a police officer),” he said during cross-examination by lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad at the trial of Yazid and cafeteria assistant Muhammad Hilmi Hasim before judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin.
DXer said
Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur · 9 hours ag
Court stand down
Soraya Yazid @sorayaanur · 11h11 hours ago
There will be a lot of waiting and delays in court, may Lord give my family and I enough strength to endure this yet another tribulation
In his trial this week, athough it may not seem it, I’m hopelessly biased in favor of Yazid Sufaat. Aside from the fact that he’s very affable — I really like his daughter. Like her parents, she is very romantic.
The only way I can think of out of the mess is for Yazid Sufaat is to show remorse and come clean about the strain of anthrax he was using and other details of Dr. Ayman’s anthrax program.
The CIA already found it to be Ames in its lab tests. And Shukrijumah is dead. And so whose secret does he think he is keeping? Who does he think he is protecting? Dr. Ayman? I don’t think Dr. Ayman needs any help.
Yazid Sufaat has already been filmed discussing the subject at length — so it would be making lemonade out of the lemons.
Remorse and an expressed and earnest change of heart makes more sympathetic the First Amendment /religious argument — and the argument that there was no evidence of terrorism directed at Malaysia rather than abroad.
A decision-maker otherwise is going to be inclined against a guy keeping secrets and still trying to get away with something.
Noted First Amendment scholar Jonathan Turley is making the same argument in a brief as long as 200 pages, to be filed in June 2015.
Yazid Sufaat’s counsel should get a copy when it is available — for their appeal.
DXer said
It turns out Yazid Sufaat reportedly used to recruit terrorists through Facebook — including one famously killed in a shoot-out before Yazid Sufaat’s arrest. Who knew? I used to be on Facebook with Yazid and remember his page well. I recall it consisting mainly of quotes from the Quran and/or hadiths. When I started posting highly detailed questions about anthrax, the posts were allowed and his gracious wife Chomel introduced me to his friends. I enjoyed meeting Yazid Sufaat because he was so openly adoring and respectful of his wife. I think that shows a strength of character.
I privately urged his wife, after he was arrested, that perhaps if he came clean about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program — and disclosed the anthrax strain he was using (whatever it was) — authorities might cut him slack in this pending prosecution. (CIA tests indicated it was the Ames strain).
Defense lawyers always make a defendant seem so weak — like they are ashamed of what they did.
Ex-ISA detainee recruited militants for Malaysia’s al-Qaeda through religious classes, court told
BY IDA LIM
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ex-isa-detainee-recruited-militants-for-malaysias-al-qaeda-through-religiou#sthash.G0n2e8HV.dpuf
Another alleged recruit, Mohd Noor Fikrie Abd Kahar, was sent to Sabah together with former ISA detainee Mohd Nazri Dollah to slip into the southern Philippines, but the former was shot dead by the Philippine police on December 14, 2012, Raby said.
***
Some of the cell members’ names were concealed as they fell under the “protected witnesses” category, Raby said, also testifying that they were selected through Facebook and phone communications that were followed by the usrah sessions where indoctrination took place.
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
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 on April 28, 2015
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
DXer said
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
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-ammoMoussaoui testimony:
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 6, 2015nium-nitrate-to-blow-up-the-us-embassy-in-kl-aq-2-atef-formally-tasked-mou/
NYT MH370: “Yazid Sufaat, a Malaysian who studied biochemistry at California State University and experimented with biological weapons for Al Qaeda before Sept. 11, proposed crashing a commercial airliner into a passing American warship, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, according to a local intelligence report cited in Mr. Conboy’s book on Jemaah Islamiyah,” The Second Front.”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 17, 2014
DXer said
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
2014 Straits Times report : Into what weapons did Yazid Sufaat attempt to load anthrax?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 23, 2014
Amerithrax: In February 2002, the FBI Failed To Take Custody of Al Qaeda Anthrax Scientists Rauf Ahmad and Yazid Sufaat
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 14, 2013
DXer said
Hank Crumpton Says Yazid Sufaat’s “mission was bio-attacks against American targets”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 14, 2012
On The Question Whether Yazid Sufaat Was Using Virulent Ames (see NAS Report), We Need One Of These Top-Flight Journalists To Succeed In Getting Substantive, On-The-Record Responses From Yazid
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 3, 2012
The CIA’s detection of the Ames strain of b. anthracis in Afghanistan was discarded by the FBI due to different testing results, sampling procedures, and methodology used by the FBI and IC (“Intelligence Community”)
Posted on April 30, 2015
Source:
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, ENEMY WITHIN (2013), P. 216.
DXer said
In his messages to me, Yazid Sufaat once write that someday he would tell everything. His opportunity may be quickly fleeting. This was his opportunity to set the record straight — to stand up and be counted.
Yazid Sufaat is standing behind his lawyer’s objections like a kid accused of stealing candy might hide behind his mother’s skirt when accused by a shopkeeper — like he is ashamed of what he did. KSM at least stood up and acted manly in embracing the allegations. Defense lawyers make these religious ideologues seem like lying pussies — bullied by their mother-in-law into their beliefs rather truth tellers embracing their destiny.
Chomel, if your husband wants to mess with the US FBI and CIA and Malaysian government, all he needs to do is speak the truth about Al Qaeda’s anthrax program.
Militant group was plotting war in Malaysia for Islamic state, court told
BY IDA LIM
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/militant-group-was-plotting-war-in-malaysia-for-islamic-state-court-told
KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — A home-grown militant group linked to terrorist group al-Qaeda intended to form an Islamic state in Malaysia by carrying out a war and launching attacks here, a counter-terrorism officer told the High Court here today.
When testifying about Yazid’s alleged terrorist group Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia, Raby said militant groups in Southeast Asia believed that their political objective of forming an Islamic state cannot be achieved through elections and is best achieved through warfare.
***
“And when they return to Malaysia and they already have sufficient knowledge to plot a war in Malaysia, whether through small-scale or large-scale or lone wolf attacks,” the officer with 18 years of service in the police’s counter-terrorism unit E8 testified today.
“The E8 unit also believed the Tanzim al-Qaeda is moving to that direction. It’s good that we take steps to disrupt that process from early on before it becomes serious,” he added.
***
Citing Arabic language experts, Raby said the word “Tanzim” meant that Tanzim al-Qaeda would be defined as a “branch” or a cell with direct links to the Arab-based al-Qaeda that was led by the now-deceased terrorist Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahiri.
***
Raby, who had served in the police force for 35 years, said it was believed that Yazid had links to al-Qaeda when he fought in Afghanistan with other militants in the past.
He also claimed that Yazid had previously provided logistics support to four attackers tied to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US involving hijacked planes, but defence lawyers raised objections as the old allegations were never proven and related to events that occurred years before the current charges against Yazid.
***
The trial before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin resumes tomorrow morning. – See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/militant-group-was-plotting-war-in-malaysia-for-islamic-state-court-told#sthash.qVzuUkhS.dpuf
_______________
Chomel, was it ever Allah’s plan that Yazid Sufaat would act like a wuss at trial?
DXer said
Jurisdiction to hear bid to remove journalist as witness an issue, says prosecution
BY QISHIN TARIQ
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/05/07/Courts-journo-terror-case-jurisdiction/
KUALA LUMPUR: The criminal court has no jurisdiction to hear a journalist’s bid to remove herself as a witness, says prosecution.
They raised a preliminary objection against an application by The Star’s journalist S. Tarshini to be released from testifying in the terrorism trial of Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim.
Head of prosecution Yusof Ishak submitted that the application did not use proper entitlement (phrasing) and was inaccurate in how it argued the matter.
He added that due to the error, the criminal high court conducting the trial had no jurisdiction to hear the application to set aside the subpoena on Tarshini.
Her lawyer Syahredzan Johan replied that the court had inherent jurisdiction as it was a criminal application, and that the prosecution’s objection was merely on technical grounds.
The application also sought to expunge the reporter’s testimony, where she was asked to reveal her source in a news report titled “Ex-militant: We send new recruits straight to the frontlines”, that she had written on Oct 29, 2012.
However, prosecutor Yusof said that point was academic as the witness had already started to testify, and such applications should be made before testifying.
High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin fixed next Monday to hear the defence’s further submissions against the preliminary objection.
Judge Mohd Azman ordered the trial to continue with the prosecution’s other witnesses first.
Comment: Give me a break. Without knowing the legal system, I think the court is going to feel it is within its power to address the issue. Why would the prosecution want to embed potential legal error in the proceeding?
The government should not use journalists (or bloggers) to make their case just because they failed to develop evidence of a crime separately. Are you telling me that they were not intercepting and recording the call?
DXer said
12:47PM May 5, 2015
By Hafiz Yatim
Secret witnesses to testify in Yazid’s Sosma trial
Five “secret witnesses” have been scheduled to testify in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 case against Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim, the prosecution told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today.
DPP Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria, told the court that these witnesses do not want their names, ages or addresses known to the public.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/297272
DXer said
Court mulls allowing witnesses to testify anonymously against terrorism suspects
BY IDA LIM
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/court-mulls-allowing-witnesses-to-testify-anonymously-against-terrorism-sus#sthash.KH2UePjp.dpuf
KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — The High Court here will decide if five prosecution witnesses testifying against two local terrorism suspects can keep their identities secret and provide evidence anonymously.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria applied today for the court to determine if a list of five witnesses could fall under the “protected witnesses” category.
He cited Section 14 of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) — the law under which the two suspects Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim are detained under.
High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin decided today to allow the bid for him to evaluate if the witnesses qualify as protected witnesses.
“Objections by the defendants’ lawyer is taken into account. But the court allows the deputy public prosecutor’s application,” he said.
The judge will conduct an inquiry “in camera”, meaning he will meet each of the five witnesses privately within these two days in the absence of the defendants and their lawyers.
If the prosecution witnesses are allowed to testify as protected witnesses with the two terrorism suspects not allowed to see or hear them, this will be the first time Sosma is used in such a manner since the contentious law was passed in 2012.
When met later, the defendants’ lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad said he will file a formal application to object to the use of protected witnesses, arguing that Sosma does not apply to his clients’ case.
“Because our position has always been that Sosma does not apply to Yazid Sufaat’s case because the charges and the evidence that we had so far does not disclose any offence which can be considered as a threat to the federation,” he said, arguing that the Federal Constitution’s Article 149 that allows for certain constitutional rights to be disregarded in the making of laws like Sosma does not apply to his clients’ case.
Critics have claimed that Sosma violates the constitutional rights of those detained under the law.
Beyond allowing prosecution witnesses to be only visible to the judge and not to be heard by defendants and their lawyers, Section 14 of Sosma also allows the judge to block any questions that may lead to the protected witnesses’ identification – including their name, age, occupation, race and address.
Former army captain Yazid is 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 Muhammad Hilmi was charged with abetting him in doing so.
They were charged under Section 130G(a) of the Penal Code, which covers the offence of inciting and promoting the commission of a terrorist act and carries a maximum 30-year jail term and fine.
Yazid and Hilmi were also charged under Section 130KA of the Penal Code with being members of a terrorist group — Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia, with those convicted of this offence liable to a maximum life imprisonment and a fine.
The first offence was allegedly carried out between August 1 and October 20, 2012, while the second offence was allegedly committed between August 1 and February 7, 2013.
Anthrax, Ayman and Al Qaeda: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
In Sosma detainees’ trial, court to decide if journalist can keep source identity secret
BY IDA LIM
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-sosma-detainees-trial-court-to-decide-if-journalist-can-keep-source-iden#sthash.qC47fSdw.dpuf
KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — The High Court here will decide on whether to release a reporter from being legally compelled to testify and provide evidence that may reveal the identity of her anonymous sources in a news report.
Tarshini Sukumaran, a reporter from local daily The Star, is the sixth prosecution witness in the terrorism trial of two detainees under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) — Yazid Sufaat and Muhammad Hilmi Hasim.
“The application that we file is to set aside the subpoena on Tarshini and we also apply for any evidence that has been given to be expunged from the court’s records if the court allows,” her lawyer Syahredzan Johan told the court today.
Speaking to reporters later, Syahredzan said his client’s application that was filed on April 29 is based on two grounds, namely that Tarshini’s evidence is “not relevant” to the case and journalism ethics.
Syahredzan said Tarshini had quoted anonymous sources in her news report that was cited in the trial.
“We are saying she as a journalist is protected by the journalism code of ethics not to reveal her source, so to force her to come and give evidence which will definitely or most likely lead to revealing of that evidence is something which the prosecution should not do,” he said.
Last month, Tarshini told the court she had written a news report in The Star titled “Ex-militant: We send new recruits straight to the frontlines” on October 29, 2012.
She also previously confirmed conducting a phone interview with former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Yazid after receiving instructions from her editor, but stopped testifying midway under heavy objections from the defendants’ lawyer.
The hearing for the application before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Azman Husin has been fixed for this Thursday morning.
The objections by the two defendants’ lead counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad is based on the grounds that the prosecution is allegedly attempting to use Tarshini’s evidence to paint his clients in a bad light will also be heard together this Thursday.
Former army captain Yazid is 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 Muhammad Hilmi was charged with abetting him in doing so.
They were charged under Section 130G(a) of the Penal Code, which covers the offence of inciting and promoting the commission of a terrorist act and carries a maximum 30-year jail term and fine.
Yazid and Hilmi were also charged under Section 130KA of the Penal Code with being members of a terrorist group — Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia, with those convicted of this offence liable to a maximum life imprisonment and a fine.
The first offence was allegedly carried out between August 1 and October 20, 2012, while the second offence was allegedly committed between August 1 and February 7, 2013.
Anthrax, Ayman and Al Qaeda: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.wordpress.com
DXer said
Michael P. Garvey, the former FBI and CIA and forensic scientist, 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.”
Excerpts:
–“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.”
— “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