Are the engines in Latin America or Iran? (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)

First it was Argentina. Now it is Uruguay. What if they were not really stolen as alleged? What if they were actually sold with the full knowledge of the then Minister of Defense? And what if they are now in Iran as what was originally planned? Would this not make the US very unhappy? And would Malaysia then not have to pretend that they were stolen and not sold with the government’s knowledge and blessing?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Only rank-and-file personnel and not senior military officers were involved in the theft of the two engines of F-5E jet fighters of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said today (4 January 2010).

He said the decision on whether to charge those involved in the incident would be made “in the very near future”.

He also said that all efforts would be made by the government to recover as soon as possible the two missing engines, last traced to Uruguay.

“We are now engaging into mutual legal assistance procedures with certain countries in trying to get those engines back,” he told reporters.

Abdul Gani said the police had completed their investigation into the missing engines, which revealed that they were sent to an address in Subang Jaya, Selangor, on Dec 30, 2007 and Jan 1 last year.

“The military realised the loss only on May 22, 2008 and, when they found out, they proceeded with the investigation and then on Aug 4, 2008, a police report was made.

“On May 4, 2008, a container carrying the engines was shipped abroad and we traced it to Argentina, and from Argentina, the engines were offloaded onto another ship to Uruguay,” he said.

Abdul Gani said Interpol was aware of the case, and added that he believed that the United States was also aware, based on the published reports.

Asked about the buyer of the engines, Abdul Gani said he could not say anything about that because the investigation for their recovery was still going on.

Asked how much the actual cost of an engine was, he said one should be realistic about it as the jets were bought in 1975. – Bernama

Translated into Chinese at: http://xtremeapril.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post_07.html