Former CIA station chief on Sri Lanka deadly attacks: ‘This is by all accounts an intelligence failure’
Posted on April 22nd, 2019
By Talia Kaplan | Fox News
Former CIA station chief Daniel Hoffman called the deadly Easter Sunday explosions at multiple churches and hotels in Sri Lanka an intelligence failure.”
This is by all accounts an intelligence failure. Security services are responsible for penetrating local extremist groups, understanding their nexus to other overseas transnational groups and then collecting intelligence so they can pre-empt attacks and that didn’t happen in this case and as a result we have almost 300 dead and 500 wounded,” said Hoffman, a Fox News contributor, on America’s Newsroom” on Monday.
A pair holding dual U.S. and British nationalities was among the 11 foreigners killed after a series of explosions struck three churches and three luxury hotels in and just outside Sri Lanka’s capital Easter Sunday, leaving at least 290 people dead and more than 500 others injured, officials said.
EASTER SUNDAY EXPLOSIONS AT MULTIPLE CHURCHES AND HOTELS ROCK SRI LANKA, DEATH TOLL RISES PAST 200
The U.S. State Department confirmed in a statement that several U.S. citizens were among those killed” in the explosions, although no more information was immediately available.
One of the things I think we’ll be looking at is the number of Sri Lankans who traveled to the so-called Islamic caliphate, some of whom apparently have returned. Were they part of this group? Did they make contacts with Al Qaeda or with the Islamic state? Those are open questions,” said Hoffman.
He added, I just don’t believe this was a locally-conducted attack. There’s too many people. Already 24 arrested. It’s a massive undertaking with a support network I think that would demand international collaboration but we don’t have a lot of facts.”
The six nearly simultaneous blasts—followed hours later by two more explosions—marked the bloodshed as among the worst since the South Asian country’s 26-year civil war ended a decade ago, a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka police said.
POPE CELEBRATES EASTER SUNDAY AMID BLOODSHED IN SRI LANKA
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said all of the suicide bombers were Sri Lankan citizens from a domestic Muslim militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, but that authorities suspect foreign links.
Police said more than a dozen suspects have been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
This terrorist attack really bears all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack, where you had three churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners all attacked over a short amount of time and over distance, that’s a traditional way that Al Qaeda likes to mount attacks. Multiple spectacular attacks to drive first responders to multiple areas and achieve maximum effect in the press afterwards,” said Hoffman. What’s surprising about this attack is that no one thus far has claimed responsibility.”
April 22nd, 2019 at 5:20 pm
This is actually a betrayal by intelligence plus politicos, including MR, for whatever reasons. Hope we have not made sacrifices for Indian politics as well. Politicos will always side with them one way or the other as long as this parliamentary system continues.
April 22nd, 2019 at 5:49 pm
This may also be the result of following instructions from the ’emperor’. A digital forensic will reveal all.
April 22nd, 2019 at 10:09 pm
A good discussion on development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMY1wzBYPo
April 22nd, 2019 at 11:27 pm
I am very sad about this terrible loss of life in Sri Lanka.
Even though this wanton crime is tragic, there is ONE THING to be happy about: it did not arise from a communal religious conflict that originated within Sri Lanka. It is VERY UNLIKELY to INCITE religious conflict among the communities in Sri Lanka because they are rallying around in support of the Christian community.
Even now, it is well understood by most Sri Lankans that this was perpetrated by a small local Muslim jihadist group allied to the Islamic State which has now been completely ousted from their “Caliphate of Northern Iraq and Southern Syria”. The local terrorists have clearly received the organizational expertise, technology and the brain washing to field suicide bombers, from the Islamic State, and some of the suicide bombers may even be foreign.
This terrorist strike may also be in RETALIATION for the recent massacre of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand by a Christian terrorist.
The global security community has been expecting such a strike … somewhere, some time and Sri Lanka, vulnerable and woefully unprepared under an incompetent government, was an easy target for the Islamic State to exact their revenge against their perceived “enemies”: the Christians and the citizens of Western powers who defeated them.
However, one other thing is also abundantly clear: the PRESENT Government of Sri Lanka failed monumentally to protect the people, despite having received REPEATED WARNINGS of an impending strike.
Already INEXPLICABLE aspects of their negligence have raised suspicions and allegations of their connection to this strike and possible motives; stay tuned to the local news channels regarding this.
Caught in their own rhetoric of “human rights” and pandering to the demands of the defeated Tamil terrorists still striving to achieve the “Eelam” they could not win by war, over the last 3 years the present government undermined the intelligence and the security forces, dismantled armed forces institutions and police forces that had defeated and defended Sri Lanka against local and foreign inspired terrorism, and hunted down our heroes for alleged “war crimes” against the Tamil Terrorists, leaving the country wide open to the influx of terrorists both Muslim and Tamil, international drug dealers, and assorted criminals of every kind who had been defeated, imprisoned or chased out by the previous government.
After 10 years of post-war peace without one single violent incident, we are now seeing ONE MORE EXAMPLE of the many adverse impacts of this unpatriotic, negligent and grossly incompetent government on the innocent ordinary people of Sri Lanka.
In my view, this incompetent government should RESIGN IMMEDIATELY and hand over power NOW to those who have amply demonstrated in the past that they have the will and the experience to protect and defend ALL of its people.
In my view, whether this government resigns now or not, they will without a doubt be VOTED OUT in the national elections to be held early next year.
Also without a doubt, this incident will have a SEVERE ADVERSE IMPACT on Sri Lanka’s economy.
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:33 am
Ban the religion of violence aka fastest breeding religion in non-believers countries to have peace. Wherever this
menace goes, they breed, breed and breed to wrestle control. Once the numbers are high enough, the menace
starts to kill the natives. It worked in the olden days since natives didn’t know until the menace came to their
doorstep. But today’s tv, phone, internet age the dirty, disgusting, sub human trick doesn’t work since natives
fight back to save their countries.
iGoogle
iran
afganisthan
pakesthan
bangladesh
maldives
malaysia
indonesia etc etc see old Buddhist heritages before these fastest breeding religion arrived.
We all seen the menace tried it in Buddhist Myanmar and failed recently thanks to their patriotic leader. But in Sri
Lanka we have a bunch of traitors who lick mussies backsides for their votes, this was not entirely unexpected.
April 23rd, 2019 at 4:37 am
& Aloy,
I agree, ‘’emperor without cloths’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcx6iPjUE_Y