Rank-and-file outsmart the system & their seniors?!

Jet engine theft: AG clears top brass
Timothy Leonard

PUTRAJAYA (Jan 4, 2010): The Attorney-General’s Chambers has ruled out the involvement of senior armed forces officers in the theft of two F-5E jet engines from an airforce base in Sungai Besi in 2007.

Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (right) and Staff Management Chief Assisitant Brigida General Datuk Mohd Noh Mohd Said after the press conference at JPN office, Putrajaya.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail told a press conference today that initial investigations revealed only "rank-and-file" RMAF personnel were behind the disappearance of the two jet engines worth a total of RM100 million -- a case that has embarrassed the air force.

He however did not disclose the number of personnel responsible for the theft of the engines that reportedly went missing when it was sent for maintenance and were taken to Uruguay via Argentina.

"No senior officers are involved…only by those who can be described as ‘rank and file. We will be taking the next course of action (against them) in the very near future," said Abdul Gani. He declined to say when prosecution will take place.

He said the priority now is to recover the engines and the Government is working with their foreign counterparts for that purpose.

"All efforts are being taken to recover the engines as soon as possible," he said.

He explained that the engines were shipped to Argentina and from there they were offloaded to another vessel which made its way to Uruguay.

Abdul Gani also declined to whether it was an individual or a country that purchased the engines, and whether the engines are currently in Uruguay.

He also declined to reveal if the two engines were from a single aircraft or from two separate aircraft or whether the engines were for scrap or for fitting on to another aircraft.

Although the theft took place in 2007, it was only reported in local newspapers last month that turbojet engines which power the single-seater F-5E Tiger 11 and RF-5E Tigereye fighter jets were discovered missing from the Sungai Besi RMAF airbase during a routine maintenance service.

Also missing were its maintenance and service records.

Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had revealed that apart from the two engines, other related equipment had also gone missing.

Following the reports, the police initiated a full-scale probe into the incident.

(Source: Sun2Surf)

These "rank-and-file" RMAF personnel should really be promoted and not prosecuted. Why? Reason being they can catch would-be offenders in the future! It takes a thief to catch a thief! ;-).