While it is probably the case that the Najib tapes (see story below) are the work of a dometsic Malaysian player, it is not improbable that a foreign intelliegence agency did the work and provided it to the Malaysians. If so a number of world leaders are likely to be exposed, particularly those who openly supported the Najib regime in its dying days,despite the US Department Of Justice's !MDB related asset seizures being by then well publicized internationally. END SEE ALSO
uesday, January 7, 2020
Former Malaysian PM Najib's work, home telephone conversations intercepted, recorded: Crown Prince UAE caught, other foreign personalties who worked with Najib cannot feel safe
In the latest episode of the 1MDB saga Malaysia's anti-corruption chief Lateefah Koya released this afternnon a series of recordings of telephone converstaion which further implciate former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in the 1MDB theft. Most intriguing to this writer is the fact that the recordings are of telephone calls to the then Prime Minister ,at work and at home, which have obviously been intercepted. The telephone calls include calls to and from the Crown Prince of the UAE and between Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor. It is unclear who ordered the interecpets, but intercpeting calls to and from the Prime Minister, especially calls to and from the Prime Minister's home,are probably unprecendented. There are Malaysian agencies which have these types of capabilties, so it is not necessarily the case that the intercepts are the work of any foreign agencies, like Australia's Defence Signals Directorate which have been said to be active in Kuala Lumpur.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak speaks to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court January 8, 2020. ― Picture by Firdaus Latif
PUTRAJAYA, Jan 8 ― Back in 2016, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had called the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed Zayed Al-Nahyan and pleaded for help with money laundering accusations faced by his Hollywood filmmaker stepson Riza Aziz at the height of the 1MDB financial scandal, according to tapes of the conversation released by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today.
Najib who was then prime minister sounded frantic in the audio recordings as he sought to clear Riza’s name.
The tapes also contained conversations between Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor who sounded angry as she instructed her husband on how to deal with the fallout from the 1MDB accusations by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Other conversations recorded were between Mubadala Development Company (MDC) chief executive Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Najib’s special officer Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin.
MACC chief Latheefa Koya told a press conference after releasing the tapes that the recordings were authentic and showed conspiracy at the highest level of government.
Below are some excerpts from the tapes played that lasted 45 minutes:
Conversation between Najib and the Crown Prince
July 22, 2016, 8.54pm
Crown Prince: Mr prime minister, how are you and how is your family there?
Najib: I’m delighted to speak to you and of course we are experiencing dark cloud, by the announcement of DOJ. That’s why your Highness it is important for us to resolve this to the impasse with the 1MDB soon. It is embarrassing us, Malaysia and the UAE as well as personalities close to you. I wish we can find a solution as soon as possible. Difficult to talk over the phone, possible to meet as soon as possible?
Crown Prince: It’s fine by me but I will be travelling for medical check-up for five days. I can get someone to come to you and talk about it.
*Conversation continues on planning where to meet among suggestions of Najib to fly over to Abu Dhabi*
July 22, 2016, 11.33pm (Conversation between Najib and the Crown Prince)
Crown Prince: Mr prime minister I’m sorry I was late. I’ve consulted with my guys and I really don’t want to push this anymore. This is of mutual interest. I don’t think you should fly over, people will know about it. I will tell my person to come there. He is in California, I will call him now and he can come.
Najib: *sounding stressed and stuttering* Your highness I have a personal request. My son Riza Aziz, related to his movie production in America if there can be an agreement with Sheikh Mansour signed, so that it can show it was legitimate instead money laundering. At the moment he’s under pressure in America. I’m worried if they make him a scapegoat.
I hope the agreement can be signed immediately with Sheikh Mansour so that it can appear as a legitimate loan agreement. When he (Riza) received it, the bank cleared the source of money, I don’t want him to be a victim when he doesn’t know and genuinely think its from Sheikh Mansour. I need that agreement to be sorted out quickly.
Crown Prince: I promise you, I will do it now and I believe he is your son.
Najib: Yes he is innocent. He just wants to make a movie. Now they want to connect with him with 1MDB, but time is essence my honour. We cannot leave it for a day. We don’t want DoJ to figure.
Crown Prince: I want to finish this, I will help.
Najib: This is very catastrophic. Can lead to catastrophic in my government and your side. This is not impossible. It’s within our means to resolve it.
July 23, 2016, 2.49am (Conversation between Najib and Khaldoon)
Khaldoon: I’ve spoken to Rizal, we meet tomorrow. I think better we meet alone. I need a sit down for me understand directly what to be done. I don’t want him to bring a lawyer.
Conversation between Najib and Rosmah
July 27, 2016, 12.46am
Rosmah: Maybe Khaldoon should come here with Amhari. Invite him and sort it out once for all..he’s eaten with us...call them to sit down. We can sort out Riza. A lot of things can be resolved.
Najib: I will suggest to Amhari.
At press time, Latheefa said the MACC will be handing over the full 50-minutes recording to the police for further investigations.
“Yes, we will hand over to the police now,” she said.
A fuming Rosmah, heard shouting at her husband Najib over his handling of the 1MDB saga following revelations from DOJ. The proposed arbitration with IPIC will be damaging if it were to go ahead .
“ Many will get hurt “ Najib agreed.
In total, 8 clips were played by MACC
In the latest episode of the 1MDB saga Malaysia's anti-corruption chief Lateefah Koya released this afternnon a series of recordings of telephone converstaion which further implciate former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in the 1MDB theft. Most intriguing to this writer is the fact that the recordings are of telephone calls to the then Prime Minister ,at work and at home, which have obviously been intercepted. The telephone calls include calls to and from the Crown Prince of the UAE and between Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor. It is unclear who ordered the interecpets, but intercpeting calls to and from the Prime Minister, especially calls to and from the Prime Minister's home,are probably unprecendented. There are Malaysian agencies which have these types of capabilties, so it is not necessarily the case that the intercepts are the work of any foreign agencies, like Australia's Defence Signals Directorate which have been said to be active in Kuala Lumpur.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak speaks to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court January 8, 2020. ― Picture by Firdaus Latif
PUTRAJAYA, Jan 8 ― Back in 2016, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had called the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed Zayed Al-Nahyan and pleaded for help with money laundering accusations faced by his Hollywood filmmaker stepson Riza Aziz at the height of the 1MDB financial scandal, according to tapes of the conversation released by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today.
Najib who was then prime minister sounded frantic in the audio recordings as he sought to clear Riza’s name.
The tapes also contained conversations between Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor who sounded angry as she instructed her husband on how to deal with the fallout from the 1MDB accusations by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Other conversations recorded were between Mubadala Development Company (MDC) chief executive Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Najib’s special officer Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin.
MACC chief Latheefa Koya told a press conference after releasing the tapes that the recordings were authentic and showed conspiracy at the highest level of government.
Below are some excerpts from the tapes played that lasted 45 minutes:
Conversation between Najib and the Crown Prince
July 22, 2016, 8.54pm
Crown Prince: Mr prime minister, how are you and how is your family there?
Najib: I’m delighted to speak to you and of course we are experiencing dark cloud, by the announcement of DOJ. That’s why your Highness it is important for us to resolve this to the impasse with the 1MDB soon. It is embarrassing us, Malaysia and the UAE as well as personalities close to you. I wish we can find a solution as soon as possible. Difficult to talk over the phone, possible to meet as soon as possible?
Crown Prince: It’s fine by me but I will be travelling for medical check-up for five days. I can get someone to come to you and talk about it.
*Conversation continues on planning where to meet among suggestions of Najib to fly over to Abu Dhabi*
July 22, 2016, 11.33pm (Conversation between Najib and the Crown Prince)
Crown Prince: Mr prime minister I’m sorry I was late. I’ve consulted with my guys and I really don’t want to push this anymore. This is of mutual interest. I don’t think you should fly over, people will know about it. I will tell my person to come there. He is in California, I will call him now and he can come.
Najib: *sounding stressed and stuttering* Your highness I have a personal request. My son Riza Aziz, related to his movie production in America if there can be an agreement with Sheikh Mansour signed, so that it can show it was legitimate instead money laundering. At the moment he’s under pressure in America. I’m worried if they make him a scapegoat.
I hope the agreement can be signed immediately with Sheikh Mansour so that it can appear as a legitimate loan agreement. When he (Riza) received it, the bank cleared the source of money, I don’t want him to be a victim when he doesn’t know and genuinely think its from Sheikh Mansour. I need that agreement to be sorted out quickly.
Crown Prince: I promise you, I will do it now and I believe he is your son.
Najib: Yes he is innocent. He just wants to make a movie. Now they want to connect with him with 1MDB, but time is essence my honour. We cannot leave it for a day. We don’t want DoJ to figure.
Crown Prince: I want to finish this, I will help.
Najib: This is very catastrophic. Can lead to catastrophic in my government and your side. This is not impossible. It’s within our means to resolve it.
July 23, 2016, 2.49am (Conversation between Najib and Khaldoon)
Khaldoon: I’ve spoken to Rizal, we meet tomorrow. I think better we meet alone. I need a sit down for me understand directly what to be done. I don’t want him to bring a lawyer.
Conversation between Najib and Rosmah
July 27, 2016, 12.46am
Rosmah: Maybe Khaldoon should come here with Amhari. Invite him and sort it out once for all..he’s eaten with us...call them to sit down. We can sort out Riza. A lot of things can be resolved.
Najib: I will suggest to Amhari.
At press time, Latheefa said the MACC will be handing over the full 50-minutes recording to the police for further investigations.
“Yes, we will hand over to the police now,” she said.
A fuming Rosmah, heard shouting at her husband Najib over his handling of the 1MDB saga following revelations from DOJ. The proposed arbitration with IPIC will be damaging if it were to go ahead .
“ Many will get hurt “ Najib agreed.
In total, 8 clips were played by MACC
The Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Andrew Goledzinowski tweeted this from the official Australian High Commission to Malaysia Twitter account:
President Dato’ Abdul Fareed.
• Cooperation on legal reform and professional issues has long been a strength of the
relationship.
Why these types of discussions are being conducted with the President of The Bar Council and not the Law Minister or Attroney General are unclear. Meanwhile the High Commssion and the relevant arms of the Australian Government continue to maintain their silence on these issues:
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has accepted Equinor's environmental plan, the second of four approvals required before drilling activity can begin.
Drilling in the Bight has been fiercely opposed by environmental and community groups which are concerned about the threat of a catastrophic oil spill.
Under Commonwealth law, energy companies must have a petroleum title, accepted environmental plan, well operations management plan and facility safety case before they can undertake offshore oil and gas activity.
The environment approval process took eight months, with NOPSEMA reviewing more than 30,000 submissions and twice requiring Equinor to modify and resubmit its plans.
The company, which is majority owned by the Norwegian Government, plans to drill its Stromlo-1 exploration well about 372 kilometres south of the Nullarbor coastline.
The Norwegian Government is a leader in climate change initiatives but it does rely on oil and gas exploration in Norway to finance itself.
The twin and contradictory positions means that the dirty but necessary business of oil and gas exploration must be increasingly conducted outside Norway. However, the pursuit of the Australian Bight lease is intriguing for given the environmental concerns even local players like BHP seem to have steered clear of the region for fear of "green" protests.
The Norwegian's Australian Bight play can therefore be seen as a long-term bet on the prospect that at some point in the future Australian governments will, forced by growing deficits, have no choice but to relax environmental rules so as to generate relatively steady and certain cashflows from taxes on coal, oil, gas and resource companies. The taxes are likely to be high but Equinor is government owned and can readily seek cheap debt and equity finance from its shareholders.
The reason why future Australian governments might be desperate enough to abandon what are even today, by world standards, relatively strict environmental and cultural restrictions on the exploration and mining industry are obvious: unless the country's two party system collapses, it does seem likely that future governments will restrict mining activities (due to lobbying pressures from inner-city electorates) despite being reliant on the revenues from mining to finance government expenditure, which includes an ever growing social security bill.
At some point, rules will have to be relaxed, and anyone still left standing in the industry can make substantial profits. These are more likely than not to be government owned players like Equinor, and of course the Chinese state-owned players.
