Allies of Counter-Terrorism

Deradicalize; detect; devote resources

I was the first person to successfully link Osama bin Laden (the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in the US) with Mas Selamat Kastari (the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah in Singapore). The clandestine relationship between Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf with Al-Qaeda warrants a brand new perspective when tracing the scent trail of Osama bin Laden to Abbottabad. I first provided a scent trail of the hideout of Osama at Abbottabad in November 2000 when I was at San Francisco.

Undeniably, Mas Selamat Kastari was inspired by Osama bin Laden and his plotting of the 9/11 attacks in the US. He had planned similar attacks in Singapore and monitored the movement of US nationals in Singapore to carry out mass assassinations. His escape, from a detention center in Singapore, sparked off the biggest manhunt in Singapore history. Unknown to the Singapore government, he had fled to Malaysia and remained a fugitive for more than a year until his hideout in Skudai (Malaysia) was discovered by me in January of 2009.

The future of Counter-Terrorism is in 3D : De-radicalize; Detect; Devote Resources!

In this day and age, we are being bombarded with news from all sorts of media. On one end of the spectrum, there is fake news being deliberately circulated; while on the other end, there also might have been suppression of the free-flow of genuine news which ostensibly resulted when governments endeavored to mitigate its mistakes for something that it had bungled due to a reason such as, but not limited to, gridlock among the different government agencies. Examples of governments attempts, to whitewash and thus ostensibly preclude complete transparency of all available facts, include the circumstances leading to the 9/11 attacks in the US and the re-capture of Mas Selamat Kastari (leader of Jemaah Islamiyah in Singapore) in Skudai after his initial escape from detention in Singapore.

As the founder of “Allies of Counter-Terrorism” which had been pro-actively promoting the “3 Ds” of counter-terrorism, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the "3 Ds” of counter-terrorism which are 1) Deradicalization of religious extremism, 2) early Detection of imminent terrorist attacks (for example, through undercover operations), and 3) Devoting of resources (for example, by funding of bomb-detection devices and provision of police officers) to avert or repel terrorist attacks.

Upon early detection, any imminent attack can be averted by the devotion of adequate resources on locations (for example airports) which have been targeted.

You can't rationalize with radicalized terrorists but it is certainly possible to deradicalize (religious extremism, detect (imminent terrorist attacks in advance; AKA early detection) and forestall (imminent terrorist attacks by devoting adequate human and material resources).

The clandestine relationship between Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf with Al-Qaeda warrants a closer scrutiny when tracing the scent trail of Osama bin Laden to Abbottabad. I first provided a scent trail of the hideout of Osama at Abbottabad in November 2000 when I was at San Francisco.

My discovery of the incipient plot of 9/11, which was then being jointly hatched by Al-Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist networks; could be backdated to late 1999 when I first got wind of a subterfuge to plan a "jihadist style" multiple attacks on the Twin Towers of New York, the Pentagon, and the Capitol on precisely September 11 2001. Such precise date was ascertainable upon gleaning sufficient counter-intelligence through undercover operations and covert disguise.

5 months later in May 2001 after my departure from San Francisco Airport in December 2000, Martin and Gracia Burnham who were both American church missionaries were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization in the Philippines.

The eventual materialization of the 9/11 attacks was partially attributable to the nonchalant attitude of the US government under the then Clinton Administration; and when the Bush Administration was sworn in on January 2001, my theretofore provided scent trail was lost inadvertently. Nevertheless, my counter-intelligence had laid the groundwork for the ultimate success of Operation Neptune Spear in May 2011 when Osama bin Laden was eventually killed.

By retracing history and falling back on my revelations to a lady officer of the then Immigration and Naturalization Service in November 2000, the inscrutable mystery of why 9/11 still occurred despite my forewarnings to the US government back in 2000, could ostensibly be unraveled. This could be achieved through the interpolation of critical failures in counter-terrorism measures which ultimately led to the 9/11 attacks. In other words, if there had had been sufficient stress-testing of counter-terrorism measures, among the various federal and state agencies in the months before 9/11; then the 9/11 attacks would, in all probability, have had been prevented in the first place.

Undeniably, Mas Selamat Kastari was inspired by Osama bin Laden and his plotting of the 9/11 attacks in the US. He had planned similar attacks in Singapore and monitored the movement of US nationals in Singapore in order to carry out mass assassinations. His escape, from a detention centre in Singapore, sparked off the biggest manhunt in Singapore history. Unknown to the Singapore government, he had fled to Malaysia and remained a fugitive for more than a year until his hideout in Skudai (Malaysia) was discovered by me in January of 2009.

Not surprisingly, both Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf had been the two most active terrorist organizations in South East Asia and each has been linked to Al-Qaeda at separate times.

By working undercover, I managed to discover the hideout of Mas Selamat Kastari in Skudai after his escape from detention in Singapore. His planned violent jihadist attacks in Singapore à la the 9/11 attacks were effectively forestalled when he was re-captured in time before it could develop into catastrophes like the 9/11 and Paris attacks.

To achieve the aim of deradicalization, I have always advocated non-violent methods of countering religions radicalism. This is in tandem with my belief that there is enough room for every religion in this world. Consequently, I believe the root-cause for the radicalization of religious beliefs is the lingering fear of marginalization by other religions.

However, I am challenging paradigms such as “mitigating the aftermath impact of a terrorists' attack” and “it's a matter of when not if” with counterarguments such as “Why not try nipping terrorism in the bud with deradicalization of extremist religious beliefs?” and “Do we really want a religiously-diverse society whereby each individual is judged by his actions and not by what he professes to be his religion? Let us face the stark reality: There are black sheep in every religion. Therefore, let us stop stereotyping each other by religion. Everyone should be judged by his or her actions and not by their individual religion.

We will continue with our outreach initiative to promote religious diversity in Singapore and beyond. It would be a great pity if everyone speaks the same language, wears the same costume and practices the same religion, don't you agree? Indeed, “Variety is the spice of life!”; and what better way of breaking a monotonous lifestyle than letting diversity permeates through every stratum of society?

I issued a security alert at about 3 PM Singapore Time (13 Nov 2015) regarding an imminent terrorist attack in Paris which eventually materialized within 12 hours. I had even advised urgent cancellation of flights to Paris from Singapore. This is to minimize the number of casualties, for travelers from Singapore, in the ensuing terrorist attacks in Paris. Why did I do this?

Because the word “counter-terrorism” itself inherently implies that preventing terrorism is intrinsically better than mitigating the aftermath impact of a terrorist attack. Therefore, undoubtedly, one of the best ways to prevent any terrorist attack is to gather counter-intelligence in order to detect planned terrorist attacks in advance; and then to forestall any imminent attack by devoting adequate resources (such as law enforcement officials and bomb-detection devices) on locations (such as airports and train stations) which have been targeted.

This is yet another testament to my proven strategy of 3 “Ds” which are to 1) de-radicalize religious extremism throughout the world, 2) detect planned terrorist attacks in advance and 3) devote resources to forestalling imminent terrorist attacks.

In order to nip any form of religious extremism in the bud, all religious groups must be willing to practice and NOT just preach religious tolerance. This is the pre-requisite for religious inclusiveness in any society! Terrorist attacks can only be successfully prevented when radicalized extremists are willing to put down their weapons in exchange for living responsibly in a religiously-inclusive world through continuous deradicalization endeavors.

Suffice to say, we cannot take for granted that transparency will always inevitably auto-surface by itself through the sole effort of either any government or commercial news organization. Full transparency will be best achieved, through the combined efforts of concerned citizens and netizens, who are all willing to do their fair share in lobbying for legislative and enforcement reforms which will render governments more responsive and accountable to the public concerning counter-terrorism measures, tackling online falsehoods and any other policy which affects the public at large.

Sincerely yours,
David Y. Tan
Founder and former Chief Intelligence Officer

Allies of Counter-Terrorism.