Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak has dismissed Dr Mahathir Mohamad's claim that the recently declassified Central Investigation Agency (CIA) report implicating him in the 1983 multi-billion BMF scandal was meant to demonise him.

“If that is true why did the CIA wait 34 years to do this?

“They would have done it when he was still prime minister and not now when he is no longer important to the US,” he said in a blog post today.