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CNN Live At Daybreak
In Malaysia, Authorities Investigating Extremist Religious Groups for Links to Terrorism
Aired January 30, 2002 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Overseas now to Malaysia, where authorities are investigating extremist religious groups for links to terrorism. The government is rounding up suspects with connections to Afghanistan and possibly to al Qaeda.
We get details from CNN's Mike Chinoy in Hong Kong -- Mike.
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Well, I have just finished a swing through Southeast Asia looking at the issue of Islamic extremism, and what became clear is that there is growing evidence that al Qaeda was using Malaysia as a key base of operations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHINEY (voice-over): In recent weeks, the Malaysian authorities have arrested nearly 50 men accused of membership in the Islamic extremist organization, the KMM.
NOORDIN SOPIEE, INST. OF STRATEGIC STUDIES: The KMM wants to establish an Islamic state through constitutional means by overthrowing the government through violent means.
CHINOY: Among those detained is Malaysian businessman, Yazid Sufat (ph), who appears to have links to al Qaeda. According to well placed sources, two years ago Yazid met in Kuala Lampur with two of the men who crashed a plane into the Pentagon. He also met here with Zacarias Moussaoui, who is now on trial in the U.S. on September 11 related charges, and signed an introduction letter from a Malaysian firm that helped Moussaoui obtain a U.S. visa.
In addition, Yazid reportedly ordered four tons of ammonium nitrate from another Malaysian company. The chemicals, which have not found, apparently intended for use in bomb attacks on Western targets in Singapore.
And there is the Afghan connection found especially in religious schools like this one, where graduates often go on for further study in other Islamic nations.
(on camera): By some estimates at any given time, as many as 2,000 Malaysians are studying at madrasas, or religious schools, in Pakistan. Before September 11, at least some of those students were also traveling to Afghanistan, where, under the Taliban, the line between Islamic instruction and military training for a jihad or holy war, was often a blurry one.
(voice-over): At this particular school, known as Dharyl Onwar (ph), one of the leading teachers, who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, was among those detained as a suspected terrorist. But he is also the son of Malaysian opposition leader Nik Aziz, whose PAS party wants to turn the country into an Islamic state.
NIK AZIZ, OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): "I can think of no other reason why the government arrested my son," Nik Aziz told me, "but to undermine the PAS party."
CHINOY (voice-over): As the evidence accumulates, however, public support for pas and for radical Islam is shrinking, but that bomb-making ammonium nitrate is still missing. As one senior diplomat here said, "thinking about that keeps me awake at night."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHINOY: For some months now, the focus of the war on terror has been very much on Afghanistan, but it is becoming clear that it appears for several years, there has been a well organized terror network with links to al Qaeda operating in Southeast Asia -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Did the United States have a clue about this before September 11? Because these extremists seem to be everywhere.
CHINOY: Well, obviously investigators have been looking at Islamic extremists for some time, but it has only been in the past couple of months that the web of links between the extremists in Malaysia, between an al Qaeda cell that was plotting bomb attacks in Singapore, supporters in Indonesia, a bomb maker in the Philippines, only in the past couple of months and even the past week or two have the extent of those links and the danger that they pose become really clear.
COSTELLO: And, Mike, as you know, President Bush named three nations suspected of being linked to terrorism: Iran, Iraq and North Korea. What can you tell us about those alleged links in regards to like North Korea?
CHINOY: Well, I have been to North Korea a dozen times, and I think my sense from what the president said is he is now drawing a very clear line in the sand that the United States is going to take a very, very tough policy towards North Korea. This is likely to cause some serious unhappiness in South Korea. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has been pursuing what's known as the Sunshine Policy in an attempt to engage North Korea.
The Clinton administration embraced that policy and indeed sent former Secretary of State Madeline Albright to meet with North Korea's leader. Those policies and engagement now appear to be out the window. The U.S. girding for a confrontation, the debate is going to be over whether or not North Korea's weapons of mass destruction are designed to be actually used in a war, or whether they are designed as negotiating tools to try and extract the best possible deal from the United States and its allies to secure the survival of the North Korean regime.
The North Koreans likely to respond very angrily to the president's comments. The question over the coming months is whether this will lead to a new crisis on the Korean peninsula, or whether in the wake of the display of awesome American military might seen in Afghanistan, the North Koreans will back down and offer some compromise. But we're likely I think in the short term anyway to see some increase in tension on that divided and volatile peninsula -- Carol.
COSTELLO: No doubt about that. Thank you, Mike Chinoy reporting live for us from Hong Kong this morning -- thank you.
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