Malaysian officials are refusing U.S. advances to take on a bigger role in the case of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
According to the New York Times, there are only two F.B.I. agents in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur leading the U.S. investigation of the case. Malaysian officials have shown no interest in expanding the country’s authority in the case, providing little to no updates on the missing jet.
American intelligence and law enforcement agencies renewed their search over the weekend for any evidence that the plane’s diversion was part of a terrorist plot. But they have found nothing so far, senior officials said, and their efforts have been limited by the Malaysian authorities’ refusal to accept large-scale American assistance.
An American official spoke with reporters, admitting they have little to work with, making it difficult for them to find answers fast.
“We just don’t have the right to just take over the investigation,” said a senior American official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. “There’s not a whole lot we can do absent of a request from them for more help or a development that relates to information we may have.”
A total of 237 people, along with two pilots, were on the Boeing MH370 when it went missing on March 8. The pilots have been brought into question after reports surfaced that one had political ties to a Malaysian opposition leader. Officials have also discovered that someone on the plane disconnected tracking devices to responders shortly after the plane went missing.
The U.S. isn’t taking Malaysia’s resistance kindly, as they continue to look at the case from all angles – including a possible terrorist plot. However, intelligence agencies have come up empty-handed and have not detected any conversations about a hijacked plane within possible terrorist groups.
As investigators focus on the pilots and study possible motives for a hijacking, certain tactics that Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah considered years ago may be newly relevant. In 2001, leaders of the two groups discussed recruiting a Malaysian or Indonesian commercial pilot for a terrorist mission, according to a 2006 book by Kenneth J. Conboy, an American author who specializes in militant groups in Southeast Asia.
As we come closer to another week with little answers, we pray officials will start working together so the families of the missing passengers will gain some closure in this mystery.
SOURCE: New York Times | VIDEO CREDIT: News Inc.
