Malaysia helped CIA illegally detain Libyans, says report



KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Malaysia assisted the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) illegal detainee transfer programme by detaining two Libyans in 2004, a US-based NGO said in a report last Tuesday.

The Libyan couple was detained by Malaysian authorities for 13 days under “harsh conditions”, according to a report, titled “Globalising Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition”, released by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI).


File photo of a guard watching over Guantanamo detainees inside the exercise yard at Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. — Reuters pic
“Malaysia detained and assisted in the extraordinary rendition of Libyan nationals Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq (Abdul Hakim Belhadj) and his wife Fatima Bouchar in 2004 in Kuala Lumpur airport,” said OSJI.
“Bouchar, who was four months’ pregnant at the time, was unable to get medical care,” it added.

OSJI defines “extraordinary rendition” as the illegal transfer of a detainee to a foreign government’s custody for the purposes of detention and interrogation.

The report quoted the CIA’s memorandum, dated March 4, 2004, to Libya as saying “[w]e are working energetically with the Malaysian government to effect the extradition of Abdullah al-Sadiq from Malaysia. The Malaysians have promised to co-operate and arrange for Sadiq’s transfer to our custody.”

OSJI said that torture was a hallmark of the CIA’s secret detention and extraordinary rendition programmes that were conducted outside the US.

“Secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations, designed to be conducted outside the United States under cover of secrecy, could not have been implemented without the active participation of foreign governments. These governments too must be held accountable,” said the report.

OSJI added that Sadiq and Bouchar were told that they could travel to the UK through Bangkok, Thailand, but were detained by Thai authorities upon arrival in Bangkok and subsequently abused by the CIA, after which they were extraordinarily rendered to Libya.

“Bouchar reported she was chained to a wall and not fed for five days, at a time when she was 4½ months; pregnant,” said the report.

The report also noted that two Malaysians — Mohamad Farik Amin and Mohammed Nazir Lep — were detained in Thailand in 2003.

“The US government confirmed in September 2006 that Farik was among 14 ‘high value detainees’ transferred from secret CIA detention to Guantánamo Bay,” said the report.

Nazir was apprehended on suspicion of being involved in the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta and other plots against targets in Southeast Asia.

“According to an ICRC report on ‘high value’ detainees held in secret CIA detention, bin Lep alleged that he was held naked for three to four days in Thailand and nine days in Afghanistan, that he was denied any solid food for the first 11 days after his arrest, that he underwent seven days of prolonged stress standing in Afghanistan, and that he had to defecate and urinate on himself while standing,” said the report.

Both men remain imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, according to the report.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysi...ans-says-report

bolehland mah

an intelligence officer once told me that "Never to question how the intelligence world works as it is beyond your imagination"

Hope they done it right these time.

heard the armed forces only get about RM 2.6 bil for 2013 budget for buying new assets..thats not enuff for the MRCA programme is it..

All procurement is based on 5 years budget. in short Rancangan Malaysia Ke X.
also procurement takes few years to be completed not a overnight purchase.

Eglin F-35 pilots fly tactical intercepts

Pilots at Eglin AFB, Florida, are starting to do a little bit of tactical training in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"I was fortunate to be part of the first USAF F-35A four-ship formation this morning," Col Andy Toth, commander of the 33rd FW told me on Jan 31 (it's been a very busy week). "We conducted a tactical intercept mission versus F-16s and it went well."



Toth adds, "One of our newest instructors, Maj Scout Johnston did a great job of leading the WG/CC, Sq/CC and deputy operations group commander on the four-ship mission."

Four-ships are actually part of how a normal fighter wing operates, but given the relative immaturity of the F-35 as a weapons system, it was a morale booster for the airmen at the 58th Aircraft Maintenance Unit to be able to do that. They're starting to learn how to take care of the jet themselves without help from Lockheed Martin.

"We are learning the ins and outs of the aircraft and showing we can handle the maintenance on our own," says Senior Master Sgt. Eric Wheeler, a production superintendent at the maintenance unit.



Right now, most of the information on the F-35 comes from the contractor, the program office, the occasional interview with a military test pilot attached to the JSF program, or reports put out by the Pentagon.

Pilots at Eglin can't really say since they are allowed to operate only in a very restrictive envelope, but Andy Toth was able to say this: "I will say in afterburner during takeoff, the acceleration is impressive and if you do not pull the nose up significantly higher than I'm used to in an Eagle or a [F-16] Viper, you could over-speed the gear very quickly and the retract 'in the well' speed is 300 knots versus 250 in the Eagle."



During the interview with Lockheed, I noticed something curious:

If one were to overlay the energy-maneuverability (E-M) diagrams for the F/A-18, F-16 or Typhoon over the F-35's, "It is better. Comparable or better than every Western fourth-generation fighter out there," Flynn says. That applies even to the F-35 B and C models with their respective 7g and 7.5g limits. "You're not going to see any measurable difference between the aircraft," Flynn says. In terms of instantaneous and sustained turn rates and just about every other performance metric, the F-35 variants match or considerably exceed the capabilities of every fourth-generation fighter, he says.

However, about a year and half ago, I spoke to Lt Col Matt Kelly, a US Marine Corps test pilot at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, when I was still at Defense News. Read the old DN story here.

Operational pilots should be thrilled with the F-35's performance, Kelly said. The F-35 Energy-[Maneuverability] diagrams, which display an aircraft's energy and maneuvering performance within its airspeed range and for different load factors, are similar to the F/A-18 but the F-35 offers better acceleration at certain points of the flight envelope.

"The E-M diagrams are very similar between the F-35B, F-35C and the F/A-18. There are some subtle differences in maximum turn rates and some slight differences in where corner airspeeds are exactly," Kelly said.

The two accounts don't seem to quite mesh, unless there has been some sort of substantial new discovery during that timespan that accounts for it. I believe Kelly was talking about a relatively clean classic F/A-18 Hornet--if memory serves--so that could account for part of it. Later that same year, Kelly again told me the F-35B and C both fly similarly to the Hornet when I was onboard the USS Wasp. And, I heard Kelly tell another senior Marine aviator stationed at the Pentagon that the F-35B flew like a Hornet during that same visit to the ship. 

I suppose it could be possible a loaded up Typhoon offers performance comparable to a relatively clean Hornet, but I don't know that for a fact. I think we're missing some important information in this case and hard numbers are something no one is willing (with good reason) to provide.

We'll find out soon enough once the fleet aviators get their hands on the full envelope jets.

Photos by Capt Edward Schmitt, flight doctor, 58 Fighter Squadron.

Sosej

This post has been edited by yinchet: Feb 10 2013, 04:02 PM

why we didn't look for chinese jets? those j-10, j-17 looks cool though..

because their quality is still on doubt.
It is better for us to look at proven technology and with good quality assurance.

but did RMAF officially sent any test pilots to evaluate them? pakistan using those chinese jets..surely they can be on par with rafale..

hard to compare J17/J10 with Rafale, J17/10 both just single engine and different class, our country Airforce more like in twin engine like Rafale due to our country geographic, also twin engine more safe protection. also our country defance system not compatible to chinese system, if buy J17/J10, need more complex integration to our system.
but for future went chinese J-31/J-20 stealth fighter ready around 2017 it maybe better than Rafale.

This post has been edited by waja2000: Feb 10 2013, 07:07 PM

It will never be on par with Rafale in term of technology.

beside JF-17 have trouble passing the valuation team by the PLA airforce.
Currently JF-17 is solely used by the PAF.

Twin engine allow the fighter to carry more Armament.

Macam konpem je TUDM will buy Rafale..

either F-18 or rafale i guess..EF is unlikely be their choice..too expensive..btw, does all those jets comes with the source code too?

the only jet fighter come with open source. would be mig29.
other would require you to paid certain amount of $$.
besides we don't have the industry that can make use of the source code.
rafale, ef and gripen does offer us the source code. is just marketing gimmick IMO.

US is unlikely giving the source code.

This post has been edited by yinchet: Feb 11 2013, 02:42 AM

still waiting for the time when our local industries could manufacture our own bombs, our own rifles, our own missiles..sigh..

if you could spare about RM50billion annually for R&D then we will see the result fast enough!

cut off the paycheck by 10% for all goverment workers..or increase tax..use the money..maybe we can get something..but the ruling gomen would be kicked..coz nobody wants their money taken away..haha

our local company already local make rifles (under license), very short range missiles, also military transport vehicle, future will be 8x8 or 8x6 military vehicle

This post has been edited by waja2000: Feb 11 2013, 04:22 PM