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USS Cole was attacked in Yemen using LTTE tactics
says, Sea Tiger leader Soosai
TAMIL TIGER LEADER SAYS OSAMA BIN LADEN LED
AL QAEDA HAD COPIED TERRORIST TACTICS FROM LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL
EELAM
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los
Angeles
Soosai, the Commander of the Sea Tigers, the marine armed wing of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam told BBC's Frances Harrison that the
terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda had copied terrorist
tactics from them.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Francis Harrison Soosai said,
he believed that the other terrorist groups should learn from the Tamil
Tigers and the Al Qaeda of the September 11 notoriety had already copied
them.
The interview by Harrison with Soosai recorded during the LTTE celebrations
of Heroes' Day last month and broadcast over the BBC Television could
now be seen in the BBC Website's South Asia section, under the heading,
"Tamil Tigers Reveal Suicide Secrets" as a video clip. The
news feature introduced the Black Tigers as "the Original Suicide
Bombers of the World."
A proud LTTE leader, now openly supported by a US ally Norway, told
BBC, "They are using our tactics. I think in Yemen they used our
strategy of suicide attack to blow up an American ship. That is exactly
what we used to do."
Soosai was referring to the October 2000 attack by Al Qaeda on the destroyer
USS Cole that killed 17 US soldiers.
In the news program that featured masked suicide bombers in black uniforms
Frances Harrison reported that "The Tamil Tigers have sent more
young men and women to their deaths than any other group in the world"(as
suicide bombers).
"They are arguably, the most disciplined force and the most ruthless,"
she said.
Some suicide bombers, known as Black Tigers who were shown for the first
time to the public on the last "Heroes Day" of the LTTE interviewed
in the program said they were ever ready to go back to fighting.
Confirming that terrorism paid, Frances Harrison reported that the suicide
bombers believed that their actions were justified because those very
actions brought them to the negotiating table. Though the United States
and the United Kingdom refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda both countries
openly encouraged Sri Lanka to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam, a terrorist group proscribed both in the US and UK.
The BBC report said the methods of the LTTE involved striking Presidents
and Prime Ministers and scores of politicians. The report also added,
"The suicide attacks of the Tamil Tigers have killed hundreds of
civilians."
The report also said, "Banned as terrorists the Tigers are now
desperate for international recognition."
Indicating the prevailing cease-fire could be temporary, the BBC report
concluded,
by drawing attention to the covered faces of the suicide bombers, "It's
not until they showed their faces the war will be truly over."
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