Terror websites from Malaysia
2004-05-13 20:28
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia was urged on Thursday to investigate allegations that it was hosting a network of terrorist websites, including one that showed the beheading of a US citizen in Iraq.
Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement that a web video of the decapitation of American Nick Berg by Islamic extremists was allegedly traced to a company based in Cyberjaya, a purpose-built centre for IT companies.
The company belonged to MYLOCA Cyberjaya Network Infrastructure, owned by Telekom Malaysia, Lim said, citing a well-known Malaysian weblogger Jeff Ooi, whose output is carried by the online newspaper Malaysiakini.
Other websites linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network have also allegedly been traced to Malaysia, said Lim, who heads the Democratic Action Party.
"It is imperative that the government act promptly and decisively to get to the bottom of the serious allegation that Malaysia is hosting a master network of international terrorist websites" he said.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said he would investigate the allegations, but added: "There are so many terrorist organisations in Europe and the US, but that does not make the US or Europe a terrorist country".
Asked if any action would be taken if the allegations were proved correct, he said: "I don't want to speculate. But we do not support any terrorist activities".
A spokesperson for Telekom Malaysia had no immediate comment on the allegations, but said the company would investigate.
Malaysia is a mainly-Muslim country which has been sharply critical of the US-led invasion of Iraq, but is at the same time a strong opponent of terrorism, having detained more than 80 alleged Islamic militants suspected of links to terror groups.
It is seen as one of the most highly-developed countries in the Islamic world, and its sophisticated infrastructure has in the past been blamed for attracting unwelcome visits by terrorism planners.
One of the suspects in detention, former army officer Yazid Sufaat, is alleged to have allowed his apartment to be used in early 2000 for a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives, including two hijackers who were aboard the plane which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
The latest allegations will be a blow to Malaysia, which was also recently embroiled in a scandal over the nuclear black market earlier this year.
A company owned by the son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Scomi Precision Engineering, allegedly manufactured centrifuge parts seized on a ship headed for Libya's nuclear weapons programme last year.
The company was cleared in a police probe after saying it had been misled about the purpose and destination of the parts, which were ordered by an alleged middleman for Pakistan's disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has admitted selling nuclear secrets.