The Altantuya Mystery

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Mar 30, 2013

Altantuya had been passing on classified information to third parties long before she broke off with Abdul Razak Baginda. Anwar Ibrahim is known to have personally ordered his information gatherers to keep tabs on her.

Gopal Raj Kumar

OMINOUS WARNINGS FROM A MISSING FRENCH AGENT

A fortnight before she disappeared (presumed murdered) Altantuya received a call from French born Miami based arms trafficker Jean Bernard Lasnaud warning her to keep her head low.

Altantuya is understood to have communicated information about that call to her ‘sister’ and possibly to the late self proclaimed Private Investigator Balasubramaniam. Balasubramaniam corroborated that information about the Lasnaud Altantuya telephone conversation in a telephone discussion between himself and a Malaysian journalist in September of 2012.

Jean Bernard Lasnaud was furious. He was in fact livid. Lasnaud who is widely believed to have been on the payroll of the French foreign intelligence service had a number of other irons in the fire and did not want Altantuya in her new life in Malaysia jeopardising his many opportunities in the trade with her loose talk about the French Malaysian deal.

VANISHING AGENTS- A FRENCH SPECIALITY

Now herein lies the mystery of Altantuya and Jean Bernard Lasnaud. Like Altantuya Jean Bernard Lasnaud had ‘disappeared’ according to the US government in 2002. No one has been able to locate Lasnaud since his disappearance from his Miami apartment office nor has anyone bothered to search for him.

The FBI and Interpol both of whom had a vested interest in the safety and whereabouts of Lasnaud albeit for different reasons failed to follow up on his disappearance or to comment on it. Yet his name along with that of other arms dealers who have long ‘disappeared’ continue to surface whenever a good arms deal opportunity is to be had.

Two of Jean Bernard Lasnaud’s field agents (in a similar the role played by Altantuya) were mysteriously murdered for opening their mouths like Altantuya did. One of them an agent very much like Altantuya who went by the name of Estrada who had engineered a controversial deal with Bolivia was found murdered in mysterious circumstances with a bullet to the head in a flat in Buenos Aires.

His death was ruled a suicide. It was not his gun. No suicide note nor any evidence of a failed deal. But such is the end for people involved in the world of arms traffickers.

Altantuya had been in contact with two pro Pakatan journalists in Malaysia to whom she made several claims and disclosures about alleged government corruption in the arms deals in which Razak Baginda was supposedly the intermediary. An employee of the online portal Malaysia Kini is known to be one of them.

Her relationship with the Malaysian Bar a key driver of the allegation that Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered the murder of Altantuya went right up to the organizer of Bersih Ambiga Sreenivasan. Sreenivasan who has carefully kept a distance from any commentary on the story was betrayed by her former allies.

At least according to Bersih and Pakatan insiders and the blogging prince Raja Petra Kamaruddin Sreenivasan was always in the thick of it. She is believed to have fuelled and fanned the flames of the theory that Najib and his wife were behind the killing of Altantuya.

The mystery of the doctored photograph of Najib Razak with Altantuya was a scam engineered by a Malaysian Chinese blogger and member of parliament. Regardless the rumour mill is rife about its existence and authenticity. Malaysian bloggers belonging to the opposition continue to advance that theory fed by tall tales from the Malaysian Bar and the opposition.

PUBLIC OFFICIAL DISCLOSURE REGISTER

In Malaysia there are no requirements for parliamentarians, that includes the Prime Minister and all cabinet ministers and any public official to make disclosures about their private commercial interests or involvement in corporate and commercial affairs. Quite unlike many other countries especially in the west where such disclosures are mandatory to contain conflict of interest situations arising, Malaysia to this day does not have such a public official disclosure register. If it has one, disclosures are clearly not mandatory.

Most of the information Altantuya disclosed to her journalist contacts were paid for by two parties. One of these, the proprietor of a leading daily in Malaysia. The other, a businessman closely connected to the Malaysian opposition.

There was also a third party. She is the relative of a high profile well known politician. It is widely believed that it was this third person who encouraged French NGO involvement in investigating the Altantuya affair, the name by which this sordid affair has come to be known by.