BN strategic communications director Abdul Rahman Dahlan has posted an article dating back from 1986 on his Twitter in the wake of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's latest scathing attack against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Rahman posted the article with the caption "Malaysia's Dr Mahathir takes on the Wall Street Journal's lies".

The EIR (Executive Intelligence Review) article noted how Mahathir, who was then prime minister, spewed venom against WSJ.

It said that Mahathir had told a meeting with businessmen in Lower Manhattan that WSJ has been conducting a sustained campaign to sabotage the Malaysian economy.

The former premier accused its then editor of publishing articles "in order to undermine our economy".

He added that the Malaysian government noticed a "special trend” where WSJ published what he termed as "scurrilous” articles whenever international meetings were taking place that might affect investment in Malaysia.

The EIR noted how the Mahathir administration had expelled two correspondents of the Journal's Asian edition on Sept 26 and banned the publication for three months.

Mahathir, when asked then whether the expulsion of the two journalists would have an effect on Malaysia's efforts to stimulate US investment, replied: "It will have a very negative effect, which is what T he Wall Street Journal wants to do."

He had accused the Asian Journal of publishing a negative article on then finance minister Daim Zainuddin and another on the IMF meeting which contained "nothing factual”.

Responding to a report on the tin bought by the Malaysian government between mid-1981 and early 1982 in an effort to support prices, he said: "If Malaysia is suffering now, it is not because of our policies; it is because all commodities have now undergone a radical structural change. We are a small country, but we bow to no one."

"I know that efforts will be made by the press, the editors, to pressure the Malaysian government to do this and that. We will not be bludgeoned into submitting to this kind of pressure even if it means that the development of our country is going to suffer," he added.

Malaysia's Dr Mahathir takes on the Wall Street Journal's lies. #throwback https://t.co/F6zNipxMca

— Abdul Rahman Dahlan (@mpkotabelud) April 4, 2016

On Sept 18, EIR quoted Mahathir as expressing fear that some local journalists and newspapers have been "brainwashed” by the foreign media.

"It is no longer necessary for the foreign press to subvert our life and values and culture. We ourselves have taken over this role," he said.

Mahathir said that while the foreign media condemned racialist, racists and chauvinists in other parts of the world, this was not the case with Malaysia.

He claimed that these newspapers supported the racialist and racist parties like DAP and PAS.

The EIR report also quoted him as claiming that "foreign Zionist-owned media" helped the non-Malay racialist parties disseminate information overseas in an attempt to undermine the Malaysian government.

But now, Mahathir has been giving a series of interviews to the foreign media and often cites their reports, including those by WSJ, in his attacks against Najib.

On the same note, he has also dismissed the allegations by the prime minister and his supporters that the foreign media has an ulterior agenda with regard to its reports on 1MDB and the money in Najib's personal bank accounts.