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Malaysian Election and Boston Attack: An Overview



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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