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This from 9/17 Seattle PI....

Malaysia to Let FBI Probe Suspect

By JASBANT SINGH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia will let the FBI question a suspected Islamic militant who allegedly arranged a key meeting of Sept. 11 plotters, officials said.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told The Associated Press this week that the Malaysian government has agreed to a U.S. request to question Yazid Sufaat, who has been in Malaysian custody since December.

Yazid, a former Malaysian army captain, allegedly allowed al-Qaida operatives, including two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, meet in an apartment he owned near Kuala Lumpur in January 2000. Yazid also allegedly gave Zacarias Moussaoui, who is charged in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, a letter of employment that officials believe may have helped him get a U.S. visa.

Malaysian officials said FBI agents would question Yazid with Malaysian security officials present. No date was set. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had dropped plans to seek Yazid's extradition.

Rais Yatim, a senior official in the administration of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, told AP the government had no intention of allowing Yazid's extradition.

Another senior Malaysian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said FBI officials told Malaysian police they believe Yazid has information useful to prosecutors in Moussaoui's trial.

Moussaoui is charged with conspiring to kill thousands of people in the Sept. 11 attacks and faces the death penalty. He has denied the charges. The indictment says Moussaoui had a letter of employment from Infocus Tech., a Malaysian computer company of which had Yazid was a director.

In January 2000, two eventual Sept. 11 hijackers - Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaz al-Hazmi - were among al-Qaida figures at a meeting at Yazid's apartment, officials said. Ramzi Binalshibh, a suspect in the Sept. 11 plot who was captured in Pakistan last week, also attended, officials said.

Yazid was not at the meeting, but let the apartment be used on a request from EC: Hambali a leader of Jemmaah Islamiyah , an Islamic militant organization.

Yazid and other alleged members of the group were arrested in December. About the same time, Singapore arrested 13 Jemmaah Islamiyah suspects and exposed a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other targets there.

Yazid Sufaat has been reported on extensively above on this thread....with summary here...

Re: SE Asia 9/11 al Qaeda connection

and the report on his arrest in Dec 2001 during the Malaysian round up of Islamic militants is reported here...

Re: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia Connection

The pic of the Malaysian 13 arrested...

enlarged pic here...

http://www.suite101.com/files/mysites/je...

....Jen