#MalaysiaAirlines, #MH370, #PrayForMH370
FBI, Malaysia to probe missing Malaysia plane
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| Military personnel scanning the sea aboard a Vietnamese Air Force aircraft in a search mission for a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, somewhere between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam in a picture taken March 8. Photo by Trung Hieu, Thanh Nien News |
The FBI is sending agents
and technical experts to assist a team probing the disappearances of a
Malaysia Airlines jet that had several Americans aboard, US media
reported Saturday.
Malaysia
is also looking at a possible terror link in the disappearance of the
airliner believed to have gone down in the sea with 239 people aboard,
the country's transport minister said Sunday.
Hishammuddin
Hussein said Malaysian security agencies were investigating after it
was discovered that two passengers may have boarded missing Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 using stolen passports, raising fears of potential
terrorism.
"At
the same time our own intelligence have been activated, and of course,
the counter terrorism units... from all the relevant countries have been
informed."
US
officials told The Los Angeles Times that they are trying to determine
whether there was any terror link to what caused Flight 370 to go
missing.
The
fact that at least three of the passengers are believed to be Americans
"gives us entree" to the case," a top federal law enforcement official
told the newspaper.
"But so far, what happened is a mystery."
A
US official told CNN that FBI agents stationed at the American Embassy
in Kuala Lumpur, including an FBI legal attache, were monitoring the
situation closely.
Asked to confirm the reports, an FBI spokesman only replied: "We are ready to assist if needed."
Although two passengers appeared to have been using stolen EU
passports, "there is no indication this is a terrorist attack; stolen
passports are certainly not indicative of a terrorist attack," a senior
counter-terrorism official told the Times.
The official stressed there was "no evidence" of terrorism thus far.
According to the federal law enforcement official, FBI
personnel will help review video of the Kuala Lumpur airport for images
of passengers at the ticket counter, security sections and the boarding
area. The agents would then use counter-terrorism technology to find any
possible matches with known members of Al-Qaeda or other terror groups.
And the US National Transportation Safety Board may also join
the investigation "because the jet was built by Boeing in this country,"
the law enforcement official said.
The stolen passports used by two passengers on the plane are believed to have come from an Italian and a an Austrian.
"Just because they were stolen doesn't mean the travelers were
terrorists," a Department of Homeland Security official said. "They
could have been nothing more than thieves. Or they could have simply
bought the passports on the black market. - AFT
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