I am writing in response to the letter 'Introducing Amy Ridenour' by Mr Mohd Fauzi. I think the writer should check his own 'facts' before dismissing Mr John R Malott as "talking nonsense".

First of all, when Malott asked the question regarding the American Defense Council, he was referring to the Bernama wire news, which was picked up by Malaysia's mainstream media on Sept 8. In that article, Bernama quoted an organisation called the 'American Defense Council', which described Malaysia as "the most politically and democratically stable nation in Asia".

That article was totally different than the article written by Ms Amy Ridenour, the President of the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which was written in July. That article was picked up by the Washington Times and later by the Malaysian mainstream media way back in July or August.

I searched the Internet looking for the 'American Defense Council' and found nothing. I did find the NCPPR website, but could not find any other articles relating to Malaysia other than Ridenour's July 2001's piece. So, the NCPPR has not written anything about Malaysia since the July article by Ridenour.

Secondly, the writer's phrase: "non-partisan conservative foundation" is an oxymoron. The NCPPR is an openly conservative organisation, receiving multitude of praise from right-wing radio talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Reagan and right-wing Republicans such as Dick Armey and Tom DeLay. I could not find any existence of Democrats or liberals on their website. All the awards received by Ridenour were also from conservative/right-wing organisations. So it can be safely concluded that there is nothing non-partisan about NCPPR or its activities.

So, Malott got his facts right. Bernama also got the name right, but since the organisation 'American Defense Council' is still a mystery, Bernama's credibility is on the line.

Instead of calling Malott's letter 'nonsense', the writer should go back and revise his own.