Ex-U.S. diplomat tells how he quashed rumors Anwar was spy

Ex-U.S. diplomat tells how he quashed rumors Anwar was spy

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): A former U.S. ambassador has told how he personally intervened with the Malaysian government to quash rumors that former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim was a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

John R. Malott says he warned a "very senior" official that if the government made any such claim it would be exposed as a lie. The official, he says "squirmed in his chair."

Malott, who left the Kuala Lumpur post in 1999, relates the incident in an article in the online newspaper Malaysiakini. On Monday he confirmed his comments to AFP.

The former ambassador, who left the foreign service last year, also indirectly criticizes Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Malott says that before Anwar was arrested on Sept. 20, 1998, "we heard rumors that the police were trying to claim that a tennis partner of Anwar's was a CIA agent, which we knew was not true.

"At that point, I went to a very senior official in the Malaysian government and told him officially, on behalf of my government, that Anwar was not a CIA agent.

"And I bluntly told that individual, who is still in a very high position in the Malaysian government today, that they would be embarrassed because they never would be able to offer any proof to the contrary - because it does not exist.

Lim Kit Siang, national chairman of the Democratic Action Party, urged Mahathir to reveal the outcome of three years of police and Anti-Corruption Agency investigations into whether Anwar was an agent for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

"If after three years of intensive investigations, the authorities still come out with a blank, all those who had alleged in one form or another that Anwar was a CIA agent should have the humility and decency to publicly apologize for their calumny," Lim said.