Dont blame others, terror expert tells US

comments     Yap Mun Ching     Published     Updated

The United States must not blame others, including Malaysia, for not arresting suspected al-Qaeda terrorists prior to the Sept 11 attacks since US authorities too had failed to realise the gravity of their activities.

Terrorism expert Dr Rohan Gunaratna said aside from the hijackers involved in the attacks, which destroyed New York's World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in Washington, there were other al-Qaeda members operating in the US for a long period..

"For years, al-Qaeda had been raising money in the US. Osama bin Laden purchased his satellite telephone in New York. He also purchased his plane from the US," he said during an interview with malaysiakini last Friday.

Meanwhile, Rohan said Malaysian authorities took action when they learned of the international terror network.

"Malaysia has a zero-tolerance policy. The only thing is that these groups were active in this country below the intelligence radar screen," added the author of the book Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror

His book courted controversy when information contained in it was used by United Nations Security Council to link Barisan Nasional and PAS to the al-Qaeda via their support for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist movement in the Philippines.

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