Malaysia dismisses U.S. warning over terror attacks

Malaysia dismisses U.S. warning over terror attacks

Patrick Chalmers, Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia bristled on Thursday at Washington's warnings of Bali- style attacks on its territory, prompting talk of U.S. paranoia as the government said those issuing such advice had security issues of their own.

Even before the latest warning, Malaysian leaders and their Southeast Asian counterparts had accused Western capitals of going overboard with travel advice issued since October's bombs in Bali killed nearly 200 people, most of them foreign tourists.

A U.S. State Department statement repeated official concerns about the "possible heightened risks to American citizens and American interests" in Malaysia, and particularly in the state of Sabah, on Borneo island.

It also reiterated concern about the possibility of attacks by the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf militant Moro group in Sabah and urged U.S. citizens visiting the islands or coastal regions of eastern Sabah to exercise "extreme caution".

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a statement, "The warning issued by the United States is not new as several Western governments have been issuing similar travel advisory since the Sept. 11 attacks last year."

Many countries issuing warnings were themselves unsafe to visit, he added in the statement, carried by national news agency Bernama. "We note that there have been racist attacks and violence against non-whites in many of these countries," he said.

A senior security official also dismissed the concern.

"This seems to be paranoia," a senior Malaysian security source told Reuters, adding authorities had already stepped up patrols around all embassies, with particular attention paid to the U.S., British and Australian compounds.

"The increased surveillance also includes all other areas where foreigners concentrate -- including the city's night spots and places of worship -- not that many foreigners go to worship here," said the source, who declined to be identified.

He discounted the danger of any attack on schools attended by expatriate children saying that however fanatical militants might be, this would go against their religion.

Immediately after the Bali bombs, diplomats in Kuala Lumpur said privately they feared embassies faced the greatest danger of any place in Malaysia, as attacks elsewhere in the multi-racial country would risk killing Muslims.

In contrast to neighboring Indonesia and Philippines there have been no bomb attacks in Malaysia.

Brig. Gen. Muhamad Yasin Yahya, head of security operations in Sabah, said reports that the Bali bombers might move to Borneo were unfounded.

"The security situation in Sabah is well under control now. We are very sensitive to any incident," he said.

Singapore police broke a militant cell last December they allegedly planned to attack U.S. targets there, but there have been no such instances in Malaysia so far, and Washington has proposed that Kuala Lumpur should host an anti-terrorism center.

Malaysian police have locked up about 70 militant suspects in a campaign begun before last year's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, using laws allowing detention without trial.

Just this week, U.S. investigators quizzed a Malaysian detainee said to have links with a man charged with helping to plan the suicide airliner hijackings.

Authorities say they have chased the most dangerous militants out of Malaysia and captured others, with any left being low- level sympathizers lacking means to pose a threat.

In terms of tourism, seen as a key source of earnings to counter the drop in Malaysia's electronics manufacturing, the greatest concentration of Westerners is in Kuala Lumpur itself.

Malaysian tourism is dominated by Singapore day trippers, who made up 5.7 million of 10 million arrivals logged by the government for the nine months to September.