Malaysia's Mahathir blasts new U.S. immigration rules<\/p>\n
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Declaring \"I am not a thief, I am not a terrorist\", Malaysian
\nPrime Minister Mahathir Mohamad chided the United States on
\nTuesday for targeting Muslims under new immigration rules to
\ncatch would-be terrorists.<\/p>\n
From Tuesday, U.S. immigration officers will register,
\nfingerprint and photograph anyone they feel fits a terrorist
\nprofile, including Malaysians. Men from some Islamic countries
\nare most likely to be picked out.<\/p>\n
\"There is already a general anti-Muslim hysteria. Because of
\nthe acts of a few people the whole Muslim world seems to have
\nbeen labeled,\" Mahathir told reporters on the sidelines of a bio-
\ntechnology conference.<\/p>\n
\"It's their country, so I don't know what we can do about it.
\nOf course I'm upset. I am not a thief, I am not a terrorist,\"
\nsaid Mahathir, who was thanked by the White House earlier this
\nyear for his help in the U.S.-led war on terror.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar branded the new U.S. policy
\nas \"discriminatory profiling\". He objected to the inclusion of
\nMalaysia on any U.S. immigration watch list.<\/p>\n
\"We will be expressing our unhappiness and dissatisfaction,\"
\nSyed Hamid told The Star newspaper, adding: \"The U.S. is not only
\nbehaving like a superpower, it is acting like a hyperpower.\"<\/p>\n
The U.S. embassy said on Monday that along with citizens of
\nmany other countries, some Malaysian citizens were likely to
\nencounter the new procedures upon arrival in the United States.<\/p>\n
\"The decision of which individuals will be asked to register
\nwill be based on information about the current threat of
\nterrorism,\" the embassy said.<\/p>\n
Last month Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
\nBadawi was asked to remove his shoes as part of a routine
\nsecurity check before boarding a flight from Los Angeles to New
\nYork, where he was due to address the United Nations.<\/p>\n
Abdullah, who will succeed Mahathir when he retires at the end
\nof next year, said he complied.<\/p>\n
\"All of us had to undergo the same security checks, even the
\npilot. I was not exempted,\" Abdullah told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n
Syed Hamid had a similar experience last year, but said he
\nunderstood the need for greater security.<\/p>\n
Though Abdullah tried to downplay the incident, the opposition
\nDemocratic Action Party called the demands made of him
\n\"disrespectful\" and said that Washington owed him an apology.<\/p>\n
\"It is unimaginable to think that the Malaysian authority
\nwould ask Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States,
\nor any other top government leaders ... to take off their shoes\"
\nat an airport, party spokesman Ronnie Liu said.<\/p>\n
Badawi said the new rule maligned Malaysia's reputation, and
\ncreated a negative impression among people unaware of the
\ngovernment's stand against terrorist and militant activities.<\/p>\n
Malaysia has been at the forefront of anti-terror efforts in
\nSoutheast Asia in the past year, arresting 63 people suspected of
\nbelonging to an al-Qaeda-linked network plotting attacks against
\nthe U.S. Embassy and other targets in neighboring Singapore.<\/p>\n
Malaysian police kept at least two of the al-Qaeda hijackers
\nunder surveillance when they passed through Kuala Lumpur almost a
\nyear before the Sept. 11 attacks, and shared information with
\nU.S. intelligence officials.<\/p>\n
They are also detaining the hijackers' alleged contact in
\nKuala Lumpur, a U.S.-educated Malaysian called Yazid Sufaat, and
\nhave agreed to let Federal Bureau of Investigation officers
\nquestion him.<\/p>\n
The others are accused of supporting Jemaah Islamiah, a group
\nthat aims to carve out a pure Islamic state from Indonesia,
\nMalaysia and the Muslim dominated southern Philippines and
\nsouthern Thailand.<\/p>\n
Malaysian and Singaporean police have arrested scores of
\nsuspects and detained them without trial, but acknowledged that
\nmany remain at large.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Malaysia's defense minister says that terrorism is
\nnot Asia's biggest threat and the terror groups that do exist are
\nsmall, isolated and under control.<\/p>\n
\"There is no necessity to panic and overreact, as this threat
\nis very much under control,\" Malaysian Defense Minister Najib
\nRazak said in a speech on Monday at the Foreign Correspondents
\nClub of Tokyo. \"The groups are small and are isolated.\"<\/p>\n
Najib, whose comments were carried by the Malaysian news
\nagency Bernama, said that the real challenges for Asia lay in
\ntransnational crimes, such as piracy and drug-trafficking.
\nImbalanced economic growth and environmental degradation are also
\nthreats, he said.<\/p>",
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