{"id":87610,"date":"2019-04-25T09:19:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T15:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87610"},"modified":"2019-04-24T15:45:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:45:33","slug":"who-carried-out-the-easter-bombings-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/25\/who-carried-out-the-easter-bombings-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO CARRIED OUT THE EASTER BOMBINGS, AND WHY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DHARSHAN WEERASEKERA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

, 22nd <\/sup>April 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A State Minister of Defence has said on the\nfloor on Parliament that the \u2018Easter Bombings\u2019 of 21st<\/sup> April 2019\nwere in response to the Christchurch attacks against Muslims in New Zealand.  Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, it is\nreported in the internet that ISIS has claimed\nresponsibility for the bombings.  For\nnow, as a private citizen, I choose to remain skeptical of the Minister\u2019s\nclaims as well as the reports that ISIS is\nbehind the bombings, for reasons I will explain in a moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is crucial is that, the bombings not\nbe permitted to become a pretext for the Government to join the U.S.\u2019s\n\u2018War on Terror.\u2019  For the past four\nyears, the U.S. and India (the U.S.\u2019s\nnew ally in Asia) have been busy trying to gain maximum indirect control over Sri Lanka\nin order to prevent the Chinese from establishing a presence in this\ncountry.  They would have succeeded had\nit not been for the collapse of the \u2018National Government\u2019 and the subsequent\ncollapse of the drive to enact a new Constitution.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also well-known that an attempt by\nthe U.S. to push through a defence\nagreement with Sri Lanka,\none that would give the U.S.\nprivileged access to strategic parts of this country including its harbours is\non hold, because of the lack of support. \nFinally, most Sri Lankans are counting the days to the next Presidential\nand General elections.  It is expected\nthat a pro-nationalist Government will take over and begin the process of returning\ncontrol of the country back to its population.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this can be reversed if Sri Lanka signs on to the \u2018War on Terror,\u2019 which\nwould give the U.S.\na new lease to continue interfering in the internal affairs of this\ncountry.  Sri Lankan investigators must\nbe given sufficient time to get to the bottom of who is responsible for the\nEaster Bombings.  In my view,\ninvestigators should look into whether the bombings were orchestrated by a\nforeign intelligence agency\/agencies (i.e. the Indian and American intelligence\nservices) using local or international Islamist terrorists.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a)         THE MINISTER\u2019S CLAIM THAT THE EASTER\nBOMBINGS WERE A RESPONSE TO THE CHRISTCHURCH\nATTACK           <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the best of my knowledge the Christchurch attack\nhappened on the 15th<\/sup> of March 2019. \nThe Easter Bombings in Sri\n Lanka happened on the 21st<\/sup> of\nApril 2019.  Many people seem to agree\nthat at least by 4th<\/sup> April 2019 and certainly by around 10th<\/sup>\nApril 2019, one of more foreign intelligence agencies had warned of some sort\nof attack in Sri Lanka.  Most people\nagree that, in terms of scale and sophistication, the Easter Bombings have few\nif any parallels in the annals of terrorism. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the Minister would have us believe\nthat, barely two weeks after the attack in Christchurch New Zealand, an obscure\ngroup of fanatics in Sri Lanka\u2014a group whose only significant act of violence\nprior to 21st<\/sup> April appears to have been to shoot the secretary to\nKabir Hashim, the prominent UNP Parliamentarian![1]<\/a>\u2014managed\nto, a) acquire the specialized knowledge and skill to assemble suicide vests\nand\/or backpacks, and also IED\u2019s, b) acquire the requisite explosives for such\ndevices, c) finalize the tactical plans including logistics and surveillance for\nan operation that would have made Pottu Amman proud, and d) coral together at\nleast seven highly trained suicide bombers. \nAs an American might say, \u2018You gotta be kidding me!\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

b) ISIS HAS PURPORTEDLY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BOMBINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are reports that ISIS\nhas claimed responsibility for the bombings. \nThere are also reports that videos showing the purported bombers\npledging their allegiance to ISIS have been posted on ISIS\nwebsites.  However, I choose to remain\nskeptical until our own security services confirm the links, because of the\nfollowing reasons.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, to the best of my knowledge, when ISIS\nand other international Islamist terrorists have carried out attacks outside\nthe Middle East, it has been against countries that have troops actively fighting\nMuslims either in the Middle East or regions of\nthe world that ISIS and others consider to be \u2018Muslim lands.\u2019  To my knowledge, Sri Lanka does not have troops\nfighting in such regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, certain experts on Islamic\nterrorism\/jihadism\u2014for instance persons such as the British journalist Robert\nFisk, one of the few Western reporters ever to personally interview Osama Bin\nLaden\u2014have said that the jihadists have a tendency to warn their adversaries\nbefore an attack, and also to offer terms.[2]<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, there is an injunction in the\nKoran that an adversary must be warned before being attacked. Whatever else the\nIslamist terrorists may or may not be, there is no question that they take the\nKoran seriously.  In the case of Sri Lanka there\nhas been no warning, at least by the attackers.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, if killing Christians was the\nmotive, then how does none explain the attacks on the hotels?  Three hotels were targeted\u2014Kingsbury,\nCinnamon Grand and Shangri La\u2014which shows that at least one of the motives\nbehind the attacks had to be to strike at Sri Lanka\u2019s tourism industry.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism is one of the few means by which\nthis country is still able to earn an income. \nWhoever is behind these attacks wanted to deprive the country of that\nincome also.  So, the attack is not\npurely against the Christians, it is against the country as a whole.  It is difficult to imagine what Sri Lanka\ncould have done to ISIS or any other international Islamist terrorist group to\nmake them hate this country to such an extent. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c)         A FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY\/AGENCIES\nCARRIED OUT THE ATTACKS USING LOCAL ISLAMIST TERRORISTS\/FANATICS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not in dispute that, the Siri-Wiki\nregime that came to power in January 2015 was a boon to the Americans and the\nIndians, especially the former.  In\nretrospect, the Siri-Wiki regime can be seen as a predictable offshoot of the\n\u2018Pivot to Asia\u2019 policy of the Americans begun\nunder the Obama Administration and continued under President Trump.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of the \u2018Pivot\u2019 is to\nconsolidate American military as well as economic dominance over Asia.  It is\naccompanied by a military\/naval strategy whose primary focus is to counter\nChinese influence in the region and ultimately encircle China itself.[3]<\/a>  Sri Lanka\nwhich sits at a strategically vital spot in the Indian\n Ocean is crucial for both the Americans as well as the Chinese,\nthe former in order to further entrench their control over this region, the\nlatter to break out of the \u2018encirclement.\u2019 \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Siri-Wiki regime has now collapsed in Sri Lanka, and\nmost people expect that any new Government that will take over will be heavily\npro-nationalist as well as pro-Chinese. \nIn short, all the hopes that the Americans\/Indians had in January 2015\nare now in ruins, and the \u2018gains\u2019 they made in the last 4 years are very much in\ndanger of being reversed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we consider the Easter Bombings from the\nabove perspective, it is impossible not to see that the bombings offer a wonderful\nopportunity for the Americans to continue to pursue in this country their goals\nin respect of the \u2018Pivot.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To digress a moment, if I am not mistaken,\nin Somalia, under the pretext of helping the Government there fight Al Shahab,\nthe Americans have managed to gain various concessions that have allowed them\nto make Somalia a key station in AFRICOM, the new American military command for\nAfrica.  AFRICOM began under the Bush\nAdministration but was vastly expanded under the Obama Administration.  It is being further extended and consolidated\nunder Trump.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Len Wengraf, a respected American academic,\ndiscusses AFRICOM in its early years in the following terms, and they are highly\nrelevant to Sri Lanka under the present circumstances.  He says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Obama Administration is also a strong\nproponent of AFRICOM, a new U.S. military command for Africa officially\nlaunched on October 1, 2008, with the frightening potential to subject Somalia\nand other countries and regions to U.S. terror on a new scale.  In fact, AFRICOM would mean the Somali\nexperience writ large for the entire continent, with local proxies and enhanced\nmilitary reinforcements.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nunu Kadane put it in an article titled,\n\u2018AFRICOM, Militarization and Resource Control\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re thinking traditional bases with\nthousands of military personnel, think again. \nGeneral Kip Ward has said it is not about bases\u201d and garrisons\u201d but\nrather a network of sophisticated military operations strategically placed\nthroughout the continent, which can be moved around and utilized for any\npurpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Gates called AFRICOM a different\nkind of command with a different kind of orientation, one that we hope and\nexpect will institutionalize a lasting security relationship with Africa.\u201d  It is a civilian-military partnership\u201d where\ndiplomatic and humanitarian relief by the U.S. Agency for International\nDevelopment (USAID) will get directives from the Department of Defence.\u2019[4]<\/a>   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is this.  If under the pretext of helping to fight ISIS\nand other Islamist terrorists in Sri Lanka,\nthe U.S.\nextends something like AFIRCOM to this country, we are finished.  So this is something that Sri Lankans will have\nto watch out for.  Also, to recall Somalia, if I am not mistaken, around 2006, the\nAmericans, claiming that the Somalia\nhad become a breeding ground for terrorists, got Ethiopia\nto invade and occupy Somalia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Sri Lanka is portrayed as a breeding ground\nfor Islamist terrorists who are not just a menace to this country but to others\nas well, particularly our big neighbor to the North, it is possible to envision\na scenario where the Indians might be enticed into invading and occupying this\ncountry or at any rate setting up a puppet regime here, a regime directly\nanswerable to New Delhi.  Such a thing\nwould solve both the Indians\u2019 as well as Americans\u2019 problems in respect of the\nChinese presence in Sri\n Lanka.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To repeat, these are all opportunities that\nthe Easter Bombings have created.  Under\nthe circumstances, I hope our investigators look into the possibility that the\nIndian or American intelligence services had something to do with these\nattacks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDATIONS:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Sri Lanka\nneeds either a Presidential election or General Elections as soon as\npossible.  We must have a chance to\nchoose the leaders who we think are capable of meeting this new threat.  Under no circumstances should the bombings or\nthe security situation in the country be made an excuse for postponing elections.\n<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n