Shenali D Waduge

US & Western Governments needs to wake up to the fact that terrorists are not only Islamic & Jihadists. LTTE remains banned by the US, UK, Canada & EU. If the US State Department declares LTTE international network is alive even 5 years after LTTE military defeat the Bill introduced to US Congress by Senator Tulsi Gabbard requires immediate action to be taken against LTTE Tamil Diaspora living in the US and the West. In the minimum a joint investigation by US and Western Governments should be launched against LTTE Tamil Diaspora immediately.

That the Bill includes ‘Other terrorist groups’ certainly gives provision for the inclusion of LTTE Tamil Diaspora.

http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/dr-rand-paul-introduces-tulsi-gabbards-stop-arming-terrorists-act-senate.html

As per the Bill, if the Act is meant to prevent American tax payers money from being used to directly/indirectly support armed militants, then it means that all the Tamil US residents who have been providing legal aid to LTTE even functioning as the LTTE’s legal counsel like V Rudrakumaran needs to be investigated. That US needs to immediately launch an investigation into TGTE of which Rudrakumaran is head is primarily because even being a US citizen and knowing that the LTTE is banned by the US he has the audacity to display the banned Eelam flag next to the US national flag. That he has been regularly standing next to the Eelam & US flag giving speeches goes to show to the world that he and his TGTE are cock-sure that the US Government will not take action against them. This is really shocking how a banned LTTE front has the audacity to display its Eelam flag against the flag of the most politically powerful country in the world

This is Rudrakumaran speaking in December 2015 in New York!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgzGW1tn8k&t=29s

The Bill introduced by Dr. Paul Rand claims that it aspires to ‘strengthen our foreign policy, enhance our national security and safeguard our resources”.

Raj Rajaratnam the single most contributor to the LTTE is in prison for insider-trading. The money he swindled from US tax payers has gone into the LTTE coffers. TRO Tamil Rehabilitation Organization which the US banned in 2007 and froze its assets has also ben swindling the US tax payers. LTTE media is famed for false propaganda showcasing weeping stories of discrimination just to fool the US citizens into donating money all of which had gone to buy arms and ammunition to the LTTE before 2009 and all of which are now being spent on influencing and buying over foreign MPs, foreign officials and even influencing US security authorities trying to bribe them to remove LTTE from the list of banned terrorist organizations. Hope people have not forgotten the incident

https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nye/pr/2006/2006Aug21.html (please read this document)

Surely the words of United States Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf. “We refuse to allow the LTTE and its supporters to use the United States as a source of supply for weapons, technology, and financial resources.” should be still valid!

Moreover, what the US authorities should be concerned is that these LTTE Tamil Diaspora have made cosy homes in the West, they have fooled the Western governments, bought over Western players to be party to their ‘cause’ and then devised various illegal mechanisms to cheat the citizens of the very countries of which they are now citizens having come crying pleading for asylum and refugee status.

From credit card scams, to abusing the welfare systems, the LTTE Tamil Diaspora have masterminded a plethora of illegal money generating channels into which the LTTE kitty has been expanding. They camouflage these illegal acts by opening legal entities all of which provide perfect cover. The magnitude of the operation that they are conducting inside the very Western nations that have been empathetic can be found out if and only if an impartial investigation is launched.

Does the US want to make the LTTE Tamil Diaspora rich or is the US Government concerned that the LTTE Tamil Diaspora is swindling the American public and the gullible citizens of other Western countries as well!

https://terroristfronts.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/western-govts-watch-while-ltte-front-organizations-swindle-their-citizens/

Surely, the American Government officials must think for themselves. You have a bunch of Tamils living overseas most of whom have not been to Sri Lanka but have been living in the West and happily making money through various legal and illegal means.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/03/14/funding-final-war/ltte-intimidation-and-extortion-tamil-diaspora

If the LTTE Tamil Diaspora can intimidate their own people as the Human Rights Watch report clearly showcases, will LTTE Tamil Diaspora have second thoughts about fooling and swindling the citizens of US, UK, Canada & EU?

They buy arms and ammunition and send to the LTTE so that the LTTE can carry out a guerrilla war which will keep that cash cow till forever flowing and when the LTTE looks to be weakening, they get their media to come up with all types of stories which get relayed widely using LTTE’s media networks (they own tv stations, satellite stations, websites, social media sites etc) they write the script, they produce the show, they are the witnesses and they give a nicely packaged ‘documentary’ dramatic enough to bring tears to all onlookers, but search deep and you will find the loop holes. Remember Vany Kumar the star witness of the C4 Killing Field videos – she was a LTTE cadre!

http://www.sinhalanet.net/ltte-member-vany-kumar-how-many-ltte-terrorists-have-become-witnesses

As per the Bill presented it requests to instruct the Director of National Intelligence to determine the individuals and groups that should be considered terrorists – LTTE remains considered a terrorist group. It also means that anyone aiding and abetting banned terrorists should also be included. TGTE and its head as well as other Tamil Groups operating in the US should also be investigated.

Ideally the US and Western Governments should launch a joint-investigation into all of the 16 Organizations proscribed by the GOSL in April 2014 using UNSC Resolution 1373. These organizations are all located overseas and their heads living overseas possessing foreign passports. They should not be carrying out any type of material assistance to a terrorist organization that has been banned in the US since 1997 and by other western nations since 2001.

The new Sri Lankan Government surprisingly deproscribed 8 LTTE fronts without valid reasons however TGTE and its head remains banned. TGTE head Rudrakumaran has been LTTE’s legal counsel and political advocate even when the US banned LTTE. He has participated as LTTE’s legal counsel flying from US to attend these negotiations on behalf of the LTTE.

LTTE was declared a FTO in 1997 but the following year he organized the LTTE Heroes Day in New Jersey in November 1998, not stopping there he even arranged an agreement in 2002 between LTTE & South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. In his role as LTTE advisor for constitutional affairs, he convened a meeting in Paris in 2003. In 2006 he participated on behalf of LTTE in Oslo and later in Geneva the same year. In November 2009 after the demise of the LTTE leader, he issued a Heroes Day message in Germany.

Can we know why the US Government is silent on TGTE and this US citizen openly making a mockery of US laws and ridiculing the status quo of US bans! What if all other US banned terrorist outfits act in a similar fashion not caring for any of the laws that the US Govt issues? In September 2009 President Rajapakse himself had queried from US envoy Butenis why US was not taking action against Rudrakumaran a US citizen supporting LTTE – quite openly too.

The US laws applicable to V. Rudrakumaran

1. USSC 2339B (a) (1): Unlawful Conduct.—

Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. To violate this paragraph, a person must have knowledge that the organization is a designated terrorist organization . . ., that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorist activity.”

1. USSC 2339B : ‘Free Speech’ under 1^st Amendment of the US Constitution:

Plaintiffs claim Congress has banned their ‘pure political speech’. However, plaintiffs can speak and write freely about PKK / LTTE… ‘the statute does not prohibit independent advocacy or expression of any kind’, plaintiffs can even become members of the PKK /LTTE BUT Congress prohibits ‘material support’ which does not constitute any form of speech.

1. USSC 2339B: contacts with FTOs criminal even to promote peace

Material Support ‘meant to promote peaceable, lawful conduct’ helps terrorism in multiple ways. It gives legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups – making it easier for them to recruit members, raise funds and facilitate more terrorist acts. Even benign support benefits terrorist organizations.

1. USSC 2339B : Does not require any proof the defendant intended to further any act of terrorism or violence by the FTO. The example of Suresh Sriskandarajah’s convinction
2. (h).It clarifies that section 2339B(a) criminalizes providing personnel” to a foreign terrorist organization only where a person, alone or with others, works under that terrorist organization’s direction or control or . . . organizes, manages, supervises, or otherwise directs the operation of that organization.”

Shenali D Waduge

• U.S. charges 8 over ‘Tiger plot’ – http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/08/21/srilanka.terror/index.html?iref=newssearch
• FBI – Taming the Tamil Tigers From Here in the U.S. https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/january/tamil_tigers011008
• Rajaratnam and the Tamil Tigers Connection –https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/rajaratnams-donations-and-the-tamil-tigers-connection/
• Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and its U.S. Branch Shut Down http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/3540
• http://www.sinhalanet.net/president-donald-trump-what-is-your-stand-on-ltte-terrorists-ltte-terrorist-diaspora-fronts
• Example of Rudrakumaran publicly speaking on behalf of the LTTE: http://tamilnation.co/conflictresolution/tamileelam/cnfZU06/05rudrakumaran.html
• http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/02/05/if-president-trump-says-america-first-how-come-us-citizen-rudrakumaran-is-prime-minister-of-a-government-called-tgte-and-aspiring-to-create-tamil-eelam/
• http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/06/26/what-is-the-us-stand-on-rudrakumaran-a-us-citizen-flouting-us-supreme-court-ruling-usc-2339b-and-declared-banned-under-unscr-1373/
• Conciliation Resources publication 2005: http://www.c-r.org/sites/default/files/16_Choosing%20to%20engage_2005_ENG_F.pdf which carries a paper by Rudrakumaran on LTTE describes him as Legal advisor to LTTE and an Attorney at Law in the USA”