Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Gammanpila charges national security compromised

The Director of the US Intelligence Agency CIA William Burns arrived in Sri Lanka on February 14, as a part of a top secret visit to the island, MP Udaya Gammanpila charged.

For over three weeks we have been questioning as to who visited the island, but the government and the US have maintained their silence,” he said. 

Four proposals compromising the national security of Sri Lanka during this meeting, Gammanpila said. 

The first proposal discussed during the meeting is the setting up of an Intelligence Analysis Centre for the purpose of intelligence sharing with the US, he said. 

This proposal first came in 2002 when the current President was Prime Minister. The then government attempted to implement this project amidst strongest objections from the local intelligence community,” he said. 

The second proposal is the gifting of a biometric immigration control system to Sri Lanka, for which US will retain access to, Gammanpila alleged, warning that such a move will discourage Chinese and Indian investors from doing business in Sri Lanka. 

The third proposal includes access to submarine telecommunications cables and data, for which the US is willing to provide prior intel on terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. This is the biggest joke of the year,” he said.

The final proposal was the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two countries, Gammanpila said. Except for the final proposal, it appears that the President has not agreed to the other proposals. If our national security is compromised in this manner, Sri Lanka will soon follow the fate of Panama,” he said. (Kalani Kumarasinghe)