Hasanah Abdul Hamid, who headed the Malaysian External Intelligence Organization (MEIO) under the Prime Minister’s Department, said she had been advised by her lawyer to make the report, but stopped short of further comments surrounding claims that she had sought support from Washington.
“I will issue a press statement explaining the real situation,” she said in a statement issued through her lawyer Shaharudin Ali.
In the alleged letter dated May 4 and addressed to CIA director Gina Haspel, then prime minister Najib Razak was described as a friend of the US, as opposed to the “anti-West, anti-Semite” Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The letter also promoted Najib’s “progressive foreign policies”, saying Malaysia was a crucial ally and the only viable one in the Southeast Asian region as the others were either too small, too pro-China or “too immersed in their own domestic political problems”.
Najib has distanced himself from the alleged letter, saying he was not aware that such a letter had been sent.
The former leader yesterday again denied instructing his office to issue the letter, saying he had only read its contents in the media.
“The alleged leaked letter seem to indicate that it was a congratulatory letter to the new acting head of CIA and was to update her on the geo-politics situation of Malaysia. Nowhere in the letter was it asking CIA to interfere in the campaigning of our general election,” he wrote on his Facebook.
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