Malaysia's former prime minister believes the CIA is hiding something.
In a recent blog post titled "What Goes Up Must Come Down," Dr. Mahathir Mohamad accused America's Central Intelligence Agency of not releasing information concerning the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which has been missing for over two months.
"It is a waste of time and money to look for debris or oil slick or to listen for 'pings' from the black box," the 88 year old wrote. "This is most likely not an ordinary crash after fuel was exhausted. The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS (Malaysia Airlines) markings."
Dr. Mahathir, who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, said the plane could have been switched onto autopilot remotely by the CIA if it had been hijacked.
"Remotely by radio or satellite links by government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency, if terrorists attempt to gain control of the flight deck," he wrote, noting that "planes do not just disappear."
"It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame. ... They can land safely or they may crash, but airplanes do not just disappear. Certainly not these days with all the powerful communication systems which operate almost indefinitely and possess huge storage capacities."
Mahathir, known his outspoken, anti-Western rhetoric, also questions Boeing, concerning the satellite tracking date on the plane.
"MH370 is a Boeing 777 aircraft. It was built and equipped by Boeing, hence all the communications and GPS equipment must have been installed by Boeing," the PM stated. "If they failed or have been disabled, Boeing must know how it can be done and surely Boeing would ensure that they cannot be easily disabled as they are vital to the safety and operation of the plane."
"For some reason, the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA," he noted, questioning, "Can it not be that the pilots of MH370 lost control of their aircraft after someone directly or remotely activated the equipment for seizure of control of the aircraft?"
Dr. Mahathir's statements follow the current Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's assertion that he is skeptical about critical satellite data on which the current search in the Indian Ocean is based on, the Daily Mail reports.
'To be honest, I found it hard to believe,' said the Prime Minister.
'It's a bizarre scenario which none of us could have contemplated so that's why when I met the team...of foremost experts in aviation industry I asked them again and again "are you sure?"'
'And their answer to me was we are as sure as we can possibly be.'
Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities met last weekend to discuss the latest stages of the MH370 by ships staged in the Southern Ocean. Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center reports that Chinese navy survey ship Zhu Kezhen will start mapping the seabed off the west Australian coast this week as part of the latest phase in the search.
