February 16, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
“There is no such thing as Malaysia’s involvement,” said Mr Abdullah. “We are not involved in any way. I don’t know where Bush is getting his evidence from.”
The case has caused political embarrassment for the new Malaysian leader since the company named as supplying centrifuge parts to the nuclear trafficking network is owned by his son.
The issue threatens to overshadow relations with the US in spite of their close co-operation in fighting terrorism. Kuala Lumpur was chosen last year as the site for a US-sponsored regional anti-terrorism centre.
The state-controlled New Straits Times newspaper yesterday accused Mr Bush of “double standards and hypocrisy” and compared his campaign against nuclear proliferation to “the sham of his weapons of mass destruction theory behind the invasion of Iraq”, which Malaysia opposed.
Mr Abdullah said Malaysia was not prepared yet to arrest B.S.A. Tahir, the Sri Lankan businessman now in Malaysia, who Mr Bush described as the “chief financial officer and money launderer” for the smuggling network created by Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s leading nuclear scientist, which sold nuclear equipment to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
Mr Tahir, married to the daughter of a former Malaysian diplomat, allegedly arranged the order for the centrifuge parts made by the Scomi Group, which is controlled by Mr Abdullah’s son. [Financial Times] See Jeff Ooi’s coverage of Malaysia’s response.
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