Yazid Sufaat

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The Malaysian Yazid Sufaat (or Yazud bin Sufaat or Yazid Shufaat) was a member of the Islamist terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah from shortly after its foundation in 1993 until his arrest by Malaysian authorities on 9 December 2001.^[1]

Sufaat was born in Johor, Malaysia on 20 January 1964. His expired Malaysian passport was number A10472263. As of April 2007 he is being held in the Kamuting prison under Malaysia's Internal Security Act.^[1]

In 1987 Sufaat graduated from the California State University, Sacramento with a degree in biochemistry.^[2] He then served in the Malaysian army as a medical technician, reaching the rank of Captain.^[1] Sufaat is now believed to be one of al-Qaeda's main anthrax researchers.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] In 1993 Sufaat set up a pathology laboratory called Green Laboratory Medicine, at which he subsequently tried to weaponize anthrax on behalf of al-Qaeda.^[1] From the 5th to the 8th of January 2000, a major meeting of al-Qaeda and JI personnel was held in Kuala Lumpur^[6] (see 2000 Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit); four of those who attended stayed with Sufaat at his home.^[7] He is also suspected of providing employment documents to Zacarias Moussaoui, and providing lodging for two of the September 11 hijackers, namely Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.^[7]

From the 911 Commission report:^[7]

The al Qaeda-JI partnership yielded a number of proposals that would marry al Qaeda's financial and technical strengths with JI's access to materials and local operatives. Here, Hambali played the critical role of coordinator, as he distributed al Qaeda funds earmarked for joint operations. In one especially notable example, Atef turned to Hambali when al Qaeda needed a scientist to take over its biological weapons program. Hambali obliged by introducing a U.S.-educated JI member, Yazid Sufaat, to Ayman al Zawahiri in Kandahar. In 2001, Sufaat would spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport.

Sufaat, through his company Green Laboratory Medicine, acquired four tonnes of ammonium nitrate for JI/MILF bomb-maker Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi.^[8] The intended bombing spree in Singapore (see Singapore embassies attack plot) was averted by the arrests in Singapore in December 2001 and the capture of al-Ghozi the following month in the Philippines.

Sufaat was still in Afghanistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks, whence he fled via Pakistan to Malaysia,^[5] where he was soon picked up. He is wanted in the United States in connection with 9/11.^[5]

Under the name Yazud bin Sufaat, his assets were frozen on 5 September 2003 by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.^[9] Four days later, under the name Yazid Sufaat, he was embargoed by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 as an affiliate of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.^[10]