John R. Malott Responds: This is why I can sue the NST, Utusan Malaysia for Libel – and some other people, too...

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz will be proposing that the Cabinet bans former US Ambassador to Malaysia John R. Malott from entering the Malaysia.This follows Malott’s scathing criticism of the Najib Administration’s handling of race relations in an article published by the Wall Street Journal last week.

According to a report published by Sin Chew Daily today, Nazri had described Malott’s article as “lies and defamation”.

“Mallot defamed our government through foreign newspaper. How would he know the real situation if he did not reside in Malaysia? We know he is a staunch supported of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim,” said Nazri

John Mallot responds.......

I don’t really know who Rachel Motte is, or why she suddenly has become an expert on Malaysia in the past year. But I do know that she wrote an article about me recently, saying that I am “a pet” of Anwar Ibrahim, who – according to her – has “direct connections to terrorist organizations” and a long history of being an anti-Semite.

I also know that – to her credit – when I contacted Rachel on February 12 and told her that I believed that her article was inaccurate and potentially libelous, she immediately took it down for review. It no longer is on her website, and I thank her for that.

But I also know that Utusan Malaysia has reported her article verbatim – and even went to the trouble of translating it into Malay. And thanks to Dato Din Merican, now I know that the NST has chosen to print it as well.

Motte’s Article: Why Libelous

Here are the problems with the article, and why I believe that I would be well within my rights to sue the NST, Utusan Malaysia, and others for libel. As someone who has been in public life for over 40 years, I know very well that anything I do, say, or write is open to examination. So that is why I am always very careful to have documentation for everything I say. We can disagree on the analysis, but not on the facts.

Motte’s Article: Anwar’s “Pet”? I am Nobody’s Pet

When I took a look at Rachel’s article, I had two major areas of concern. First, Rachel characterized my relationship with Anwar as being his “pet.” This is offensive to me, as I served my nation for over 30 years as an Ambassador, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and Consul General under seven Presidents. It would be like me calling Dato Johan Jaffar the lapdog of UMNO. I am Nobody’s pet.

Second, there were many statements that to my mind are libelous:

(a) that I am defending “a man with direct ties to terrorist organizations, and a man whose anti-Semitic comments and conspiracy theories are too long to discuss;”

(b) that “rational thinking men and women are able to discern the difference between good and bad individuals, people you should support, versus those you should distance yourself from,” implying that I am not a rational thinking person; and

(c) that I am “blinded by [my] support of an anti-Semite with clear and undeniable ties to an organization that supports terrorism.”

As a former Ambassador to Malaysia, I had access to intelligence reports, and I can say categorically that Anwar does not have ties to any terrorist organizations. Furthermore, Anwar continues to be a friend of former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of Defense William “Bill” Cohen, and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

None of these gentlemen would continue their relationship with Anwar if he had ties to terrorists. Furthermore, Anwar would not be admitted to the US if he had such a connection (and he was here last week). Furthermore, Paul Wolfowitz (who is Jewish) would not be Anwar’s friend if Anwar were anti-Semitic.

In a libel case, the burden of proof will be on NST and the others to prove that Anwar has terrorist ties and that he has a long history of anti-Semitic comments. By publishing Rachel’s article, after she removed it from her website, the NST has asserted something that it cannot prove. It has claimed that I am defending a terrorist and an anti-Semite.

These former senior USG officials would support and defend me, based on their knowledge and access to official USG records. The only “evidence” that Rachel and the NST will have will be blog postings that have circulated over the past few years, as part of a campaign to smear Anwar and discredit his reputation and standing in the United States.

For example, the efforts of Jack Abramoff and others to smear Anwar – a multi-million campaign funded by the Malaysian Government — were well-documented in US Senate hearings conducted by Senator John McCain. We also know, according to The Washington Post newspaper, that APCO was engaged in a similar effort last year, paid for by the Malaysian Government, according to APCO’s official filings.

Rachel says that Anwar’s connections to terrorist organizations are because he was a founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which is based in Virginia. Like many other Islamic/Muslim groups, the IIIT was raided by the FBI after 9/11 and was investigated thoroughly. The US Government never filed any charges against IIIT. The US Government has never listed it as a terrorist organization, and the US Government has never closed it down. Yet the charges of an IIIT connection to the Muslim Brotherhood continue to circulate, without evidence, on various right-wing blogs. What do these bloggers know that the US Government does not? Does the NST take the word of unknown bloggers over the US Government? What evidence can the NST present in court in a libel case?

Anwar’s so-called long record of anti-Semitism!

Rachel’s other claim was what she called Anwar’s long record of anti-Semitism. She said that I am supporting an anti-Semite. The reality is, there is no long list of anti-Semitic comments by Anwar Ibrahim. Indeed, throughout his political career, Anwar often has been accused of being close to Jews. For example, Ian Buruma recounts two stories in his New Yorker article on Anwar. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_buruma

The first is that when Anwar was kicked out of the Cabinet in 1998, Mahathir – who had accused George Soros and the Jews of causing the 1997 Asian financial crisis – briefed the Cabinet on Anwar’s Jewish connections, pointing out that his friends were people like Robert (Bob) Rubin, Bill Cohen, James (Jim) Wolfensohn, Paul Wolfowitz, and so on. All American Jews. The second Buruma story is Mahathir’s famous comment that Anwar would make a “good Prime Minister of Israel.”

Rachel wrote an article, “The Reversal of Anwar Ibrahim,” claiming that Anwar had become an anti-Semite, in the New Ledger blog on April 29, 2010. But two months later Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin undercut her thesis and his own Government’s efforts to portray Anwar as anti-Semitic when he said on July 1, “We know for a fact his ties with pro-Zionist groups.” - http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=510092

According to The Washington Post, the Malaysian Embassy and APCO worked hard last year to publicize Anwar’s comments on “Zionist aggression,” after the May 31 Israeli action against the relief ship Mavi Marmara. But for reasons that are very understandable, the Malaysian Government did not want to call attention to Najib’s own remarks, which were even stronger, accusing the Israelis of terrorism. Najib called the Israeli actions a “blatant act of aggression and terrorism” committed by the “Zionist regime.” He also referred to “Zionist atrocities.” His remarks are on the official website of the Prime Minister’s office, at - http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/home/-/journal_content/56/10136/691222?refererPlid=10139

Najib also said that, “The Israeli commandos shot the activists point blank and even from the back, and this is an act of a coward which cannot be forgiven. These blatant acts occurred because the world gangsters, Israel, feel they are protected by a world power.” The latter reference, of course, is to the United States.- http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_536698.html

Anwar’s comments last year caused a lot of problems, but to say that he has a long history of anti-Semitism, and that I therefore am linked to an anti-Semite, is wrong. I know that the NST has been running op-eds attacking me everyday. But they need to be careful about crossing the line into libel.–John R. Malott

source:dinmerican wordpress.com

Aku tak mau komen apa cukuplah sekadar aku petik sebahagian pandangan Dato' Mohd.Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz aka Sakmongkol AK47....

"Kepada saya itu petanda bahawa apa yang Malott katakan bukanlah definitive. Maka kalau ianya bukan definitive, apa pasal kita hilang akal sebentar dan mahu kenakan travel ban?

Sepatutnya, kita jemput Malott datang untuk memberi pandangan nya. Dan jika Nazri terror, dia boleh berdebat dengan Malott. Kita akan sokong kalau dia menunjukkan kejantanan nya dalam gelanggang.

Kalau menteri UMNO bersikap tongong macam ini, susah lah kita hendak mempertahankan kredibiliti kepimpinan UMNO. Ada orang kata, kita tak perlu layan Malott sebab dia bukan taraf itu dan ini. Adakah ini bermaksud, hanya bila kita ada taraf dan kedudukan, maka kita ada hak untuk beri komen? Kalau macam saya ADUN pencen, di kira takde taraf, tak boleh beri pandangan keatas buah fikiran bangang pak menteri , ADUN atau MP?

Ada menteri kata pandangan Malott ketinggalan zaman. Kalau ketinggalan zaman, ekau tunjukkan di mano jang. Jika main beri kenyataan yang umum, tidak lah ekau terer eh jang. Kalau kita nak ban orang sebab dia beri pandangan yang tidak menyenangkan kita, ini nama nya macam ke budak budakan.

Yang paling saya meluat ialah kita memperkecilkan pandangan Malott sebab dia di katakan berkawan dengan Anwar Ibrahim. Siapa dia nak berkawan sepatutnya tidak mendatangkan masaalah kepada kita. Anwar Ibrahim ini dahulu kan Timbalan Perdana Menteri kita dan TImbalan presiden UMNO. Suatu ketika , semua mereka yang sekarang ini dok hentam Anwar cium tangan Pak Sheikh. Kita harus membezakan antara penyakit peribadi dan ingatan tulus ikhlas."

Wallahu'alam bissawab.

Baca komen sepenuhnya,'Camno nak handel Malott?'

'OK Nazri, go ahead and ban Malott'

cheers.