On 15/4/2013 there are two bombs
exploded during the Boston marathon. The authority said that at least three
people are killed including an 8 years old boy and more than 200 people were
injured. The investigation had concluded that two ethnic Chechens are
implicated to this terror attack. The name of one of the Boston Marathon
bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev who was killed by the Police, had been
instrumental for this attack whereas his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, who was
captured on last Friday, was collaborator for the said attack. At the press meeting the Boston mayor had
indicated there are no prior threats on terrorist attack had received by the
authority to stop the marathon event.
This terror attack is an
astounding attack. No one had predicted that this can happened in this event.
The authority had said that the place of marathon has been secured for 72 hours
before the marathon is started. There is no imminent threat. It is evidenced
that the bombs are detonated by the brothers near to finishing line of marathon.
They had chosen strategic places to detonate bombs where the bombs were packed
in an unsuspected way and were exploded in between 12 seconds. This is an important
commercial area of Boston and the impact of the attack is enormous.
The suspected terrorist siblings
are who come from Dagestan had been living in the United States for more than a
decade but had been radicalized and motivated to launch as attacks on American
soil thorough the handler ‘Misha’ and various jihadi internet portals.
According to the younger brother the involvement of USA on Afghanistan and Iraq
further infuriated his elder brother to do such an act.
The attack is premeditated, well
planned and executed. These attacks had evaded without detected by enforcement
and intelligence agencies. Even though Tamerlan Tsarnaev's details were entered
into Terrorist Identities Data-mart
Environment (TIDE), a database maintained by the National Counterterrorism
Center but it failed to raise the alarm to stop these attacks. Further the FBI
spoke to him in 2011 while investigating a Russian tip-off that he had become a
follower of radical Islamists. The FBI found nothing to suggest he was an
active threat. Whether this information has been passed to other relevant
intelligence agencies is unclear. The TIDE holds more than half a million names
and functioned as a repository of information on suspected or potential people
from around the world who are the threat to U.S. Unfortunately because of the
gigantic scope of the data, Tamerlan name was missed by the investigators who
downgraded his potential.
Further there is another list
which is known as the Terrorist
Screening Database, is a declassified version of TIDE with fewer details
about terrorist suspects. His name was on this list as well. In addition his
name was entered in another database, which is maintained by the Homeland
Security Department's Customs and Border Protection bureau. This database is
used to screen people crossing U.S. land borders and entering at airports or by
sea. Tamerlan was signposted on that database when he left the United States
for Russia in January 2012 but no distress was raised because he was lowered.
When he returned from Russia i.e.
presumably visited Dagestan and Chechnya six months later, he did not get extra
attention because he was downgraded from the said lists. It’s was believed he
was had visited in these two regions from the North Caucasus and met radical
groups. According to his aunty the behavior of Tamerlan changed drastically
where he seemed to be more religious. At this point of time, according to his
brother Dzhokar, Tamerlan turn himself has self-radicalized jihadist.
As an independent analyst in my
view these attacks and further attacks in USA or other parts of the world will
be done by the sleeper cells that the members are self-radicalized jihadists. Sleeper
cell means a terrorist cell whose members work under cover in an area until
sent into action. A sleeper can be anyone who is an ordinary man and doing
normal jobs with family until he received an instruction from a handler at
terrorist command center which is located domestically or internationally to
launch a terrorist attack at said place. As what was demonstrated in the Boston
attacks, to execute such attacks one need only very little funds and with fewer
people. This will be future trend of terrorism. Further Dzhokar had visited the
Times Square of New York which was their next target.
Before and after the September 11th,
the emergence of the sleeper cells in USA is very much in evidence. The
findings of 9/11 Commission had highlighted this issue. Further it stated that
the lack of cooperation between the enforcement and intelligence agencies to exchange
the vital information on security for such an attacked happened in USA territory.
Again this was proven in Boston attacks. The participation of USA on global
conflicts encouraged the aggrieved parties or groups launched their attacks on
USA soil is well documented. With the Boston terror attack, once again it had
been established that with the high level security, enforcement and
intelligence, the threats are very looming. The serious lax of intelligence is
an evidence on this attack.
But, the big transformation
between Boston attack and September 11th was the speed of the
enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify and capture the terrorist. A
huge appreciation need to be given to these agencies using surveillance cameras
as the instrument which become so vital on capturing and killing of these
terrorist.
This is very much similar to
Malaysian position now. The terrorists’ attacks in Lahad Datu recently and the
ongoing threats in Sabah by these Sulu terrorists will have parallel
consequences that had happened in Boston. In their recent statement they had
said that they already placed sleeper cells in Sabah and the imminent terror
attacks are very much possible. By having Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSOM)
and Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) as the tools to
prevent these threats, the authority should enhance the intelligence
cooperation between relevant enforcement and intelligence agencies domestically
and regionally to circumvent such attacks occurred in our soil.
The one lesson
that we can learn from Boston attack is the use of the surveillance cameras at
the strategic places not only in Sabah but various high secure places in our
country. At the meantime, we can use military satellites to detect various
vessels which are coming in and out of our border. Even though we have the
current databases which are decentralized, it is time for our enforcement and
intelligence agencies through Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) i.e. National
Security Council to create a centralized database on potential and suspected
terrorist in and out of Malaysia to avert unfortunate incidents occurred. The
sharing and cooperation of information among the relevant agencies is so
significant to thwart such an attack ensued here.
On 5 May 2013 is the polling day.
The next few days will be very crucial and challenging for the Police and other
relevant agencies. All the attention and
focus of the enforcement and intelligence agencies will be on these events
which are related to election. On last Tuesday [23/4/13], an explosion which
was triggered by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Nibong Tebal Barisan
Nasional (BN) operations centre in Jawi and on Thursday [25/4/13] two Molotov
cocktails resulting in fire at a Barisan Nasional (BN) opertions room in
Buntong, Ipoh cannot be treated lightly.
As Penang State Police chief,
Datuk Abdul Rahman and Perak State Police chief Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan in
their statements had indicated that these is serious atrocities against the
national security. Fortunately in Penang the police had detained three suspects
and in Perak the police is tracking down the suspects.
Meanwhile in Selangor on
25/4/2013, a car belonging to PKR’s Seri Andalas state seat candidate Dr Xavier
Jayakumar’s daughter was torched by a group of four thugs on the said night. According
to Jayakumar’s
aide Jestin Raj, a group of me in a car stopped in front of the house and then
jumped over into the house with wielding a parang against a neighbor who was
shouted not to interfere. On the same day, in Sekinchan, two petrol
bombs were hurled at the BN election operations room which triggered a fire in
a building.
Even though these incidents can
be viewed as politically motivated but one do not ignored there is threat on
our national security. This is because all the attentiveness and energy
currently focus on election. This can be used by the terrorists to launch an
attack in any parts of our country to have a maximum impact to destabilize our
country. There are no reasons on lax of our national security to give these
terrorists an advantage to launch the attack.
Therefore we as the Malaysians
need to cooperate with relevant authorities to provide necessary information
even though that information can be regarded as minor information to help our
agencies to prevent such an attack is happened in our territory. In addition
the relevant agencies can use existing surveillance cameras and other security
tools to detect the threats and prevent untoward incident happened in our
country during the election period.
We, as Malaysians need to depart
from traditional and conservative thinking the issues on national security and
sovereignty of our country by putting on the shoulders of leaders, enforcement
and intelligence agencies. It’s time for us to take these responsibilities
together with them to ensure the safety of our border and nation is protected
always.
Kuala Lumpur.
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