As the controversy into Bank Negara’s handling of black money laundered through secret banking destinations like Singapore hots up domestically, its failure to report billions of dollars of suspicious transactions that flowed through it has investigators abroad from as far away as Israel and the US taking a closer look into the Bank and its former governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
It is widely known though not necessarily in Malaysia, that Khalid Amdhilar, Nawaf Alhazmi and two others identified as two of the 9/11 plotters stayed with a former major of the Royal Malaysian Armed Force in Cheras on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur prior to 9/11.
What is not as widely known is that 4 US intelligence agencies, amongst these the FBI and the CIA were actively trailing 6 of the Arab hijackers of the 9/11 aircraft in Kuala Lumpur trailing them and monitoring all of their local movements and contacts.
The 9/11 commission report out of sheer embarrassment avoided any direct mention of the intelligence operations in any great length or depth for two specific reasons.
The CIA and FBI both had the opportunity to nab the hijackers in either Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok after they split into 2 groups upon leaving Malaysia. They failed to do so.
The FBI and the CIA in competing to take credit for capturing the Arab hijackers (as wanted men) in the process, failed to share vital information about the Arab extremists, their movements, whereabouts and any intelligence about their activities and networks in Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok between themselves.
It was a fatal and disastrous element of pettiness on the part of the intelligence agencies which also exposed their weaknesses, this being the second reason.
However lawyers acting for the families of victims of 9/11 assisted by former operatives of the CIA and the FBI have begun to work to uncover Bank Negara’s negligence, Zeti’s (and her colleagues)failures and those of the Malaysian government under UMNO Baru in the process.
This is now an inescapable feature of the Zeti Bank Negara axis that demands investigation into Bank Negara and how it operated under Zeti. The unauthorised, unlawful transfer of large amounts of money in suspicious transactions from 2000-2016 at least when Zeti was in charge of the Bank cannot now be ignored.
Zeti can’t simply wash her hands of these transactions now because she has already assisted the government in disclosing DS Najib’s personal banking transactional details and transactions said to be connected to it and 1MDB.
She can’t be selective about what she realeses and what she does not unless of course there are matters of state security involved. And if they are, parliament must be informed of it first to determine whether the Bank and Zeti are justified in refusing to release important documentary evidence evidening large suspicious financial transactions. And there have been many.
The purpose of that meeting in Kuala LUmpur between the 6 Arab extremists and others meeting at that place in Cheras in 2000 was to plan amongst other things, the final stages of the attack on the twin towers and the attack on the USS Cole. That intelligence is not going anywhere in a hurry.
The flow of funds to various “Islamic charities” and “foundations” was channeled through ‘donours’ in Malaysia. Petronas and UMNO are not just believed but known to have been on the FBI’s radar in this regard at the time. But the FBI failed to inform the CIA and the money trail was not properly investigated then.
Malaysia resisted any inquiry at the time into either of the Saudis who came to Malaysia or the financial transactions (quite large) out of Malaysia to Singapore and other foreign banks at the time. There are reasons for it.
Investigators and lawyers in the US on behalf of the families of 9/11 victims and Israeli investigators are known to be still on the trail of a group of Malaysian and Singaporean bankers and at least 2 cabinet ministers of the Malaysian government who at the time arranged for large amounts of money (purportedly diverted from Petronas) paid to Arab extremist groups as ‘donations’ just prior to 9/11. Bank Negara covered up those transactions. And theyn were not acting alone.
Bank Negara knew or ought to have questioned the source and purpose of those funds and transactions at the time because it involved the transfer of large amounts of cash from Malaysian banks to hitherto unknown recipients. However Bank Negara failed to report it or raise any suspicion about the transactions. There was no 9/11 anti terrorism laws in place at the time. But money laundering laws were in place.
Lawyers for the families of the 9/11 victims are believed to be hot on the trail of those transactions and those involved in it in Malaysia. They are being assisted by locals some from inside UMNO because of the large bounty available for such information. Thus far none of the lawyers representing the victims of 9/11 will publicly comment on the Malaysian connection inquiry except to say “inquiries are on going”.
Jack Abramoff the disgraced Washington based lobbyist for Malaysia was paid millions of dollars to keep any inquiry into the Malaysian connection into the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 away from the media and US investigators. Jack Abrahmoff was convicted and jailed in the US in 2006 for 6 years.
Abramoff collected money from Mahathir’s government to fund Jewish charities one of which included a sniper’s school in the west bank. He later went on to purchasing a $200,000,000 floating casino (partly funded by and UMNO subsidiary it is said).
The families of the victims of 9/11 are not going to let UMNO Baru or Mahathir or those who may have funded the 9/11 and USS Cole operations walk. Whether their involvement was intentionally or not -it is known that much of the money including funds to Abramoff was Petronas funds channeled illegally via members of UMNO Baru and bankers connected to them at the time.
It won’t be long before lawyers for the families of the victims of 9/11 come knocking at UMNO’s and Bank Negara’s door in search of details the Bank with held from investigators. Zeti Akhtar will have difficulty denying them an answer.
UMNO Baru and Zeti Akhtar Aziz have a lot to answer for their roles in money laundering for support of the 9/11 hijackers. She was once the darling of many in the US but not anymore. It is now becoming clearer why.
Gopal Raj Kumar 