John MacKinnon 

Shashank Bengali wrote a propaganda article on LA Times titled ‘Sri Lanka road trip finds north and south still divided after civil war’. It turns out to be nothing but an anti-Sri Lanka Sinhalese Buddhists and anti- Mahinda Rajapaksa story that is common in the LTTE controlled western media.

This person Shashank Bengali seems to pit the majority Sinhalese against the Tamils in Sri Lanka and concentrates on the suspicions of a few while ignoring the glaring fact that most Tamils in Sri Lanka live among the Sinhalese Buddhists, outside of the North and East of the island. It’s possible that Bengali is ignorant of the facts or just a racist writing to further racist agenda of the Los Angeles Times.

So let’s look at Shashank Bengali story in the Los Angeles Times and study those false and ignorant statements:

The photo shows a water tank destroyed in the Sri Lankan civil war. It does not say that the Tamil terrorists destroyed this tank that provided water to the Tamil civilians! No questions are asked about why the wealthy Tamil diaspora living in the west have not contributed to fix this.

Then he calls globally banned Tamil Tiger terrorists as ‘rebels from the mainly Tamil north’. How did these vicious terrorists become rebels? Is al Qaeda who flew planes into the twin towers on 9/11 also rebels? Is the FBI wrong in calling them ‘among the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world’?

FBI’s Research: TAMING THE TAMIL TIGERS, From Here in the U.S.

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html.

Is the U.S. government wrong in designating the Tigers a foreign terrorist organization? Or did Bengali try to make these terrorists look like poodles in order gather support for their terror cause?

An obscure Tamil author Samanth Subramanian is quoted but not a single Sinhalese author who has written about the Tamil Tiger terrorists are mentioned. Got bias?

Then Bengali says ‘since 2009, when the rebels finally succumbed to a ruthless army offensive’ which is outright false since it were the Tamil Tiger terrorists who were clearly ruthless: mass murder of civilians by suicide bombings, using innocent civilians as human shields at hospitals, ethnic cleansing of non-Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka, recruiting children as soldiers, assassination of political leaders, systematic murder of moderate Tamils, sea piracy, extortion, etc, etc. Absolutely none of these are mentioned by Bengali in his story! So you have to question his motives.

Then he mentions that the ‘highway has been refurbished by a government’ and fails to ask critical questions:

How much of that reconstruction funds come from the wealthy Tamil diaspora in the west? Answer: almost none! Why? Because these Tamils in the west believe that it is better to pay western politicians and journalists to attack a developing nation, than to help their own in Sri Lanka. This clueless Bengali dared not to ask these questions.

Then he tries to discriminate against the Sinhala Buddhists by saying ‘Tamils observe the outsiders warily’. How did the citizens of Sri Lanka become outsiders in their own country? Is Bengali saying that one race should prevent another race from travelling to a part of a country? He clearly caters to the racist agenda of the LTTE terrorists who wanted to create a Nazi-like mono-ethnic state in the North and East of the island.

Then he quotes this Christie Shanthni: “We don’t mind if they come here, but I often wonder how they would feel if we went around in busloads celebrating the exploits of Tamil fighters.” This shows how wrong Christie Shanthni and Shashank Bengali are. A democratically elected government should celebrate the military elimination of a very powerful terrorist group that is backed by powerful western nations. How can that be equivalent to celebrating the exploits of the mass murdering Tamil Tiger terrorists? In his mind, are terrorist equal to a nation or its democratic government?

Should the United States allow the celebration of al Qaeda and Taliban exploits in America? Will Bengali say yes, we should? How stupid is that?

The he talks about the ‘bunker of the Tigers’ slain leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran’ and ignores the massive amount of atrocities committed by this Tamil Hitler. He dare not call VP as a terror leader, in order not to hurt the feelings of the Tamil Tiger terrorists who thrive in the west.

Shashank Bengali conveniently forgets to mention that the Sri Lankan government fears a cult-hero status for Prabhakaran not much in Sri Lanka, but in the west. This is due to the open support of Tamils who live in UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, etc, for their terrorist leader.

Then he cunningly turns the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s economic development into racially-biased opinion by saying ‘every little town along A9 had multiple banks with ATMs, part of the economic development that Rajapaksa boasted’ and ‘Tamils saw that too in a darker light. The banks and lending companies offered easy financing for motorcycles, appliances and other consumer goods that were suddenly available in this long-shuttered economy. Many families plunged into debt’. So if you do you’ll be dammed and if you don’t you’ll be damned! No matter what economic lifeline gets extended to these Tamils, Bengali will view it as a conspiracy! This looks like garbage journalism, with a racially suspicious tone

Then he mentions ‘Jaffna was nice, he said, except he was surprised that almost no one spoke Sinhalese’. He forgets to give due credit to the former President and his brilliant brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse who ran the Ministry of Defence, to bring peace to the Tamils and the entire nation. Almost no one spoke Sinhalese in Jaffna because the Tamil LTTE terrorists kept the Tamil population from integrating with the rest of the country for over 30 years of their terror war. During this time, it was the majority Sinhalese Buddhists who paid taxes that funded schools in these Tamil areas. Bengali does not mention any of this. Got prejudice?

Neither does he mention any new development projects undertaken by the new regime that’s backed by the LTTE-controlled west. This may be due to the fact that there is nothing really there to report?

In order to counter his ignorance, we have attached a few links for further reference below. We hope that Bengali and the chief editor at the Los Angeles Times will read these and stop their bigotry.

Did the Tamil transnational criminal empire have something to do with this story?

The above clearly show that Shashank Bengali is completely ignorant about the situation in Sri Lanka and openly biased in favor of the radical Tamils and their terrorist group. Such individuals should never be allowed to report twisted garbage like this.

 

CC:

Chair, Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University, Editor of LankaWeb

 

Washington Times: Tigers at Bay: helping terrorists with our tax dollars http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/26/tigers-at-bay/

Secessionist War and Terrorism in Sri Lanka: Transnational Impulses http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/books/global/peiris.htm

Google ‘Lara Stemple regurgitates Tamil Terror Propaganda’

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2011/03/04/lara-stemple-regurgitates-tamil-terror-propaganda-open-letter-to-the-ucla-chancellor/

Lanka accuses US, UK of LTTE links

http://colombogazette.com/2014/07/14/lanka-accuses-us-uk-of-ltte-links/

Google ‘OBAMA ACCEPTS DONATIONS FROM AL QAEDA LINKED TERRORISTS’

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/10/obama-accepts-d.html

Chronology of Suicide Bomb Attacks by LTTE Tamil Tiger Terrorists in Sri Lanka

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sri-lanka-terror/message/1?source=1&var=1&l=1

Suicide Killings – An Overview

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/database/suicide_killings.htm

Google ‘Canada’s Support for Suicide Terrorism’

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/06/07/canadas-support-for-suicide-terrorism

Europe keeps LTTE (terrorists) alive

http://www.terrorismwatch.org/2011/11/europe-keeps-ltte-alive.html

LTTE “Tamil Tigers” and its UK-wide network: UK banning legislation is an appalling failure VIGIL Intelligence Report Overview (London Unit) http://cryptome.org/ltte-vigil.htm

AN INSIGHT INTO LTTE-ADMINISTERED SCHOOLS IN EUROPE – THE RADICALIZATION OF CHILDREN

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20111205_03

We shall continue our attempts to educate the world about LTTE Terrorists/Tamil Tiger Terrorists and their supporters worldwide.

* Mass murder of civilians by suicide bombings Atrocities of LTTE Tamil Tiger Terrorists http://www.slnewsonline.net/LTTE_Tamil_Tiger_Atrocities_Photos_01.htm

* Using innocent civilians as human shields at hospitals

* Ethnic cleansing of non-Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka

* Recruiting children as soldiers

* Fund-raising in the West for terror activities Singhalese majority gave Tamils more concessions never seen anywhere in the world. But their greed for power is insatiable, so the war continues … Google ‘Amnesty International Misleads Washington Post about Tamil Refugees’ plus the comments below. And the LTTE still exists as a powerful transnational criminal empire (Jane’s Defense Intelligence Review, 2007 & 2008).

* Attempting to bribe U.S. State Department officials

* Setting up bogus (including Tsunami) charities to evade taxes to fund terror

* Human trafficking and bogus refugee scams

* Arms purchase and arms trafficking

* Export and trade of terror technology

* Credit card fraud

* Money laundering

* Identification fraud

* Counterfeit trade

* Passport fraud

* Assassination of political leaders

* Systematic murder of moderate Tamils

* Sea piracy

* Extortion

* Misleading the global media with false information (NY Times, BBC, The Economist, Reporters Without Borders)

* Misusing radio broadcasting services to fund terror under the guise of journalism (UK, Australia and Canada)

* Using UNICEF/UN aid to fortify terror infrastructure in LTTE-controlled areas

* Purchasing the support of officials in the governments of Canada, UK (British House of Commons) and Norway to ‘legitimize’ their criminal activities; Google ‘Killer in Paradise While Norway has a history of supporting suicide terrorists’

* Purchasing the support of elected officials in the US to ‘legitimize’ their criminal activities: Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA-28), Brad Sherman (D-CA-27), Rush Holt (D-NJ-12), Danny Davis (D-IL-7), David Price (D-NC-4), Senators Patrick Leahy and Robert Casey, Obama presidential campaign 2008, Google “Obama presidential campaign LTTE” and Hillary Clinton presidential campaign 2008. Google ‘US Lawmakers with ties to LTTE terrorist money’

* Purchasing the support of officials in the United Nations (Navi Pillay, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Alan Rock, Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon) to work as proxies

* Recruiting organizations such as Human Rights Watch in NY, Amnesty International and ACT NOW (an LTTE-linked British NGO) in London to cover up ethnic cleansing, spread false propaganda and divert attention from terrorist activities