Friday, March 6, 2009
Bob Rae's tear drops - dried
The following 2 part videos serves to clarify and correct some of the assertions and observations made by Mr. Bob Rae, whose commentary served as a backdrop to a debate labelled " The tear drop civil war" on the TVO program "the Agenda" aired on Tuesday, March 03, 2009.
Mr. Rae's rendition of the history of Sri Lanka and the context of the present situation is mired with inconsistencies and lacks certain dimensions we seek to establish by this rebuttal.
PART 2
Click here to view the group discussion/debate that followed Mr. Rae's interview.
Mr. Rae's rendition of the history of Sri Lanka and the context of the present situation is mired with inconsistencies and lacks certain dimensions we seek to establish by this rebuttal.
PART 2
Click here to view the group discussion/debate that followed Mr. Rae's interview.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Model student-"Waterloo Suresh" 1 step closer to extradition
Mar 05, 2009 12:06 PM - Toronto Star
An Ontario judge has cleared the way for the extradition of two Canadians wanted in the U.S. on charges of providing support to the Tamil Tigers. Superior Court Justice Laurence Pattillo ordered Suresh Sriskandarajah and Piratheepan Nadarajah into custody Thursday morning. Pattillo told the court that he found there was "some evidence" available that "could convict" the men if they were tried in the United States.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
An Ontario judge has cleared the way for the extradition of two Canadians wanted in the U.S. on charges of providing support to the Tamil Tigers. Superior Court Justice Laurence Pattillo ordered Suresh Sriskandarajah and Piratheepan Nadarajah into custody Thursday morning. Pattillo told the court that he found there was "some evidence" available that "could convict" the men if they were tried in the United States.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Truth and the Tigers
For all their squalling, the Tigers don't deserve our sympathy,
and it's shameless of them to demand it.
John Thompson, National Post
Published: Thursday, March 05, 2009
Throughout the countries that shelter the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, the Tigers' activists are desperately trying to win some reprieve for the last LTTE guerrilla force trapped in Sri Lanka. The problem is that the Tamil Tigers began as a terrorist group; and the two main traits of terrorists are deception and atrocity.
Terrorists try to convince both themselves and a wider audience that their cause is righteous. It seldom is. Reformers like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa proved that non-violent protest works.
Terrorists are people who prefer violence; their first targets are often the aspiring King-and Walesa-types who would lead the terrorists' preferred audience along a gentler path. Prabhakaran, the Tiger Supremo, began his career by murdering a federalist Tamil politician who preferred to work within the political system.
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE
John Thompson is president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based research group focused on organized violence and political instability.
John Thompson, National Post
Published: Thursday, March 05, 2009
Throughout the countries that shelter the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, the Tigers' activists are desperately trying to win some reprieve for the last LTTE guerrilla force trapped in Sri Lanka. The problem is that the Tamil Tigers began as a terrorist group; and the two main traits of terrorists are deception and atrocity.
Terrorists try to convince both themselves and a wider audience that their cause is righteous. It seldom is. Reformers like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa proved that non-violent protest works.
Terrorists are people who prefer violence; their first targets are often the aspiring King-and Walesa-types who would lead the terrorists' preferred audience along a gentler path. Prabhakaran, the Tiger Supremo, began his career by murdering a federalist Tamil politician who preferred to work within the political system.
READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE
John Thompson is president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based research group focused on organized violence and political instability.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Feds eye seizure of Tamil property under anti-terror act
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Tuesday, March 03, 2009
The government took the first steps Tuesday toward taking over property in Ontario and Quebec that it says is controlled by a terrorist group involved in South Asia's longest-running civil war.
Federal prosecutors in Toronto and Montreal filed applications in the Federal Court of Canada saying they were seeking the forfeiture of the property of the World Tamil Movement, an outlawed terrorist organization.
It is the first time the government has used the forfeiture provision of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows the Attorney General to seize "property owned or controlled by or on behalf of a terrorist group."
The list of items the government wants to strip from the World Tamil Movement of Ontario and World Tamil Movement of Quebec fills 300 pages and includes everything from bank accounts to golf shirts bearing the Tamil Tigers emblem.
If it is successful, the government would be allowed to keep the items or sell them and use the proceeds either to compensate victims of terrorist activities or fund anti-terrorism initiatives.
Published: Tuesday, March 03, 2009
The government took the first steps Tuesday toward taking over property in Ontario and Quebec that it says is controlled by a terrorist group involved in South Asia's longest-running civil war.
Federal prosecutors in Toronto and Montreal filed applications in the Federal Court of Canada saying they were seeking the forfeiture of the property of the World Tamil Movement, an outlawed terrorist organization.
It is the first time the government has used the forfeiture provision of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows the Attorney General to seize "property owned or controlled by or on behalf of a terrorist group."
The list of items the government wants to strip from the World Tamil Movement of Ontario and World Tamil Movement of Quebec fills 300 pages and includes everything from bank accounts to golf shirts bearing the Tamil Tigers emblem.
If it is successful, the government would be allowed to keep the items or sell them and use the proceeds either to compensate victims of terrorist activities or fund anti-terrorism initiatives.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tamil Tigers suicide pilots celebrated in Toronto
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Monday, March 02, 2009
TORONTO -- A Toronto banquet hall was the scene of a "martyrs' prayer event" held on Monday night in honour of two Tamil Tigers rebels killed during a recent suicide attack in the Sri Lankan capital.
RCMP and Toronto police officer showed up with video cameras and filmed as the Tamil Tigers flag was raised and several hundred people laid flowers at a makeshift shrine to the dead guerrillas.
Police have been trying to clamp down on pro-Tamil Tigers functions around the city since the group was added to Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations, but the officers did not interrupt the event and left after an hour.
A spokesman for Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, called the event "deeply disturbing. Without reservation, without hesitation we condemn the glorification of terrorists like the Tamil Tigers," Alykhan Velshi said.
READ THE REST
Published: Monday, March 02, 2009
TORONTO -- A Toronto banquet hall was the scene of a "martyrs' prayer event" held on Monday night in honour of two Tamil Tigers rebels killed during a recent suicide attack in the Sri Lankan capital.
RCMP and Toronto police officer showed up with video cameras and filmed as the Tamil Tigers flag was raised and several hundred people laid flowers at a makeshift shrine to the dead guerrillas.
Police have been trying to clamp down on pro-Tamil Tigers functions around the city since the group was added to Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations, but the officers did not interrupt the event and left after an hour.
A spokesman for Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, called the event "deeply disturbing. Without reservation, without hesitation we condemn the glorification of terrorists like the Tamil Tigers," Alykhan Velshi said.
READ THE REST
Monday, March 2, 2009
Photos of Tamil Nadu politicians found in LTTE camps
Mon, Mar 2 06:25 PM
Colombo/New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Sri Lankan troops inching into Tamil Tiger territory have found photographs and videos showing politicians from Tamil Nadu in the company of guerrilla leaders, it was announced Monday.
The defence ministry said soldiers combing abandoned bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made the startling discovery, some of them showing at least one leading Indian Tamil politician in a cheerful mood with LTTE boss Velupillai Prabhakaran.
These included MDMK leader Vaiko, a long-time MP and a vocal supporter of the LTTE, as well as P. Nedumaran, who has known Prabhakaran since the early 1980s when the LTTE chief was a largely unknown figure.
Read the rest of the article
Link to an additional report
Colombo/New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Sri Lankan troops inching into Tamil Tiger territory have found photographs and videos showing politicians from Tamil Nadu in the company of guerrilla leaders, it was announced Monday.
The defence ministry said soldiers combing abandoned bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made the startling discovery, some of them showing at least one leading Indian Tamil politician in a cheerful mood with LTTE boss Velupillai Prabhakaran.
These included MDMK leader Vaiko, a long-time MP and a vocal supporter of the LTTE, as well as P. Nedumaran, who has known Prabhakaran since the early 1980s when the LTTE chief was a largely unknown figure.
Read the rest of the article
Link to an additional report
Sunday, March 1, 2009
How to Kill Civilians in the Name of "Human Rights": Lessons from Sri Lanka
(By: Michael Radu, February 2009)
Michael Radu, Ph.D., is Co-Chair of FPRI's Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security. His most recent book is The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives (ed., with Stephen Gale and Harvey Sicherman, Transaction, 2008); his Europe's Ghost: Tolerance, Jihadism and Their Consequences is forthcoming from Encounter Press.
Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean country the size of West Virginia, has a diverse population-81 percent is Sinhalese, most of them Buddhist; some 11 percent are Tamils, who are generally Hindu, either immigrants from India or native. Eight percent of the population are Muslims. As is so often the case in the former British Empire, the native group most adept to Western education and adaptable to British interests-in this case the Tamils-were disproportionately represented among the educated at the time of independence (1948), and thus resented by the majority. Free elections repeatedly brought to power Sinhalese populists/socialists. Tamils were pushed aside and the majority language declared the only official one. The result was, and to some extent remains, Tamil resentment and demands for autonomy, at least in the northern (Jaffna) and Eastern (Trincomalee) areas where they predominate.
Key to understanding why the LTTE lasted for so long and why India was involved in Sri Lanka on and off at various times is the fact that some 60 million Tamils live in three southern Indian states, primarily Tamil Nadu, and many of those support the LTTE out of ethnic solidarity. Equally, if not more, important, there is a large (ca. 800,000) Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, mostly in Canada, the UK, Australia, the U.S., and Southeast Asia. This diaspora is radicalized and, like most diasporas living in safety, more radical than co-nationals in the country of origin. It still provides the funds, propaganda support, and public relations vital to the LTTE's survival.
Read the complete Story
Michael Radu, Ph.D., is Co-Chair of FPRI's Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security. His most recent book is The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives (ed., with Stephen Gale and Harvey Sicherman, Transaction, 2008); his Europe's Ghost: Tolerance, Jihadism and Their Consequences is forthcoming from Encounter Press.
Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean country the size of West Virginia, has a diverse population-81 percent is Sinhalese, most of them Buddhist; some 11 percent are Tamils, who are generally Hindu, either immigrants from India or native. Eight percent of the population are Muslims. As is so often the case in the former British Empire, the native group most adept to Western education and adaptable to British interests-in this case the Tamils-were disproportionately represented among the educated at the time of independence (1948), and thus resented by the majority. Free elections repeatedly brought to power Sinhalese populists/socialists. Tamils were pushed aside and the majority language declared the only official one. The result was, and to some extent remains, Tamil resentment and demands for autonomy, at least in the northern (Jaffna) and Eastern (Trincomalee) areas where they predominate.
Key to understanding why the LTTE lasted for so long and why India was involved in Sri Lanka on and off at various times is the fact that some 60 million Tamils live in three southern Indian states, primarily Tamil Nadu, and many of those support the LTTE out of ethnic solidarity. Equally, if not more, important, there is a large (ca. 800,000) Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, mostly in Canada, the UK, Australia, the U.S., and Southeast Asia. This diaspora is radicalized and, like most diasporas living in safety, more radical than co-nationals in the country of origin. It still provides the funds, propaganda support, and public relations vital to the LTTE's survival.
Read the complete Story
Hypocrisy of the West
US, Britain Dancing Naked
By Nacholibre (February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)
(February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) When Bin Laden blew down the Twin Towers in New York in one single attack, and when the US intelligence erroneously reported that Sadam Hussein has WMDs, the US lost no time in harnessing support of Britain and other world leaders to destroy the whole of Iraq, and Afghanistan. Did the US heed the UN call not to attack Iraq in the first place? No it didn’t . In that instance, the UN was reduced to the mere state of a neutered dog, which could produce nothing than a feeble whine against the US and its allies.
Cut to the Sri Lankan conflict, the US and Britain think there is a choice. They are of the opinion that the Sri Lankan State should stop the war and cut some slack for the cornered terrorist leaders of the LTTE including Prabakaran. Why? Their argument is most humane and simple. They say the war causes civilian casualties, and therefore, the State should stop hunting down the terrorist remainder and talk to them! By God, what a wisdom the US and Britain have!
Read the full story
By Nacholibre (February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)
(February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) When Bin Laden blew down the Twin Towers in New York in one single attack, and when the US intelligence erroneously reported that Sadam Hussein has WMDs, the US lost no time in harnessing support of Britain and other world leaders to destroy the whole of Iraq, and Afghanistan. Did the US heed the UN call not to attack Iraq in the first place? No it didn’t . In that instance, the UN was reduced to the mere state of a neutered dog, which could produce nothing than a feeble whine against the US and its allies.
Cut to the Sri Lankan conflict, the US and Britain think there is a choice. They are of the opinion that the Sri Lankan State should stop the war and cut some slack for the cornered terrorist leaders of the LTTE including Prabakaran. Why? Their argument is most humane and simple. They say the war causes civilian casualties, and therefore, the State should stop hunting down the terrorist remainder and talk to them! By God, what a wisdom the US and Britain have!
Read the full story
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