FBI Busts A Covert LTTE
Operation In The United States!
© Sunil Kumara -
Frontiers Against Universal LTTE Terrorism (FAULT)For LankaWeb
August 22nd 2006
Perhaps a drop in the ocean of scum who on behalf of theTamil Tigers
rebel group the LTTE have been apprehended recently by the FBI while
conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles from a black-market source
in the United States amidst an escalating conflict with military forces
in Sri Lanka, authorities in the US have disclosed Monday.
Investigative sources have also revealed through recently unsealed
criminal complaints that the defendants allegedly sought to have the
LTTE group removed from a list of terrorist organizations that are
internationally proscribed while also attempting to obtain classified
intelligence by bribing U.S. officials.The shocking revelations also
indicate in detail that those apprehended had been attempting to illegally
procure military equipment, communications devices and related material
to continue a campaign of terror for which purpose the fundraising
means included money laundering through charitable organizations,
extortion, drug peddling and various types of other criminal activity
commonly participated in by underworld criminals where the blatant
attempt to bribe public officials was part of a well planned conspiracy
and has been indicated in court documents.
Six defendants, all foreign nationals, were to appear in federal court
in Brooklyn, NY to face charges of conspiring to provide material support
to a terrorist organization thought to be the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam. If convicted, each face up to 15 years in prison.One of the named
suspects Nachimuthu Socrates,was described in court documents as a Tamil
Tigers supporter based in North America who had been arrested in Connecticut.
As expected the usual blunt denials have been set in place through
the defense attorneys representing the accused as they have indicated
they would plead not guilty but the incriminating evidence against them
appears to be much too strong for any contestation where the FBI usually
does it homework and are reputed to be relentless in their pursuit of
criminals such as these in an America almost paranoid about National
Security and it is more than likely the veritable noose will be tightened
round their necks as the expected incictments are sure to follow regardless
of how they contest the charges which in all probabilities will consist
of blatant lies and innuendo as is the hallmark of any LTTE operative
caught in the act of terrorism or planning to foster it but this time
unlike a somewhat conciliatory Sri Lankan status quo they are up against
Uncle Sam and all the firepower of the US justice system!
According to one of the defence lawyers Gerald Del Piano appointed
to represent Nachimuthu Socrates one of the accused described as a North
American Tamil Tiger supportive. He was arrested around 6 a.m. at his
Simsbury home in Conneticut in a swiftly and efficiently executed raid
where his family has denied allegations of the man's involvement in
terrorism and claimed that he is a respectable member of the community
and an Engineer with a master's degree whereas the US Authorities described
Socrates as a supporter of the Tamil Tigers who made interim bribery
payments connected to the terror groups operations back in Sri Lanka.
The report on the operatiion has also revealed that Socrates met with
certain named State Department officials to buy a purported classified
intelligence document which referred to a U.S. investigation into the
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization a charitable organization suspected
for sometime now of being a front for a Tigers fundraising organization
with links also to Canada.
Another defendant under interrogation by the FBI has revealed that
he had traveled to the United States on the instructions of the reclusive
Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on an attempt to have the
LTTE removed from the USA's banned terrorist list where the defendant
had been informed by undercover agents that to be pulled off the terror
list the group would have to renounce suicide bombings and the use of
children as soldiers and also documented in the court papers.
Previously in a separate sting operation last month in Queens, the
LTTE operatives were apprehended and recorded as having negotiating
the purchase of 10 Russian-made missiles and 500 AK-47 rifles as a counter
offensive had been planned against Government Kaffiri Jets'' as admitted
to by another defendent, according to court papers, referring to the
type of fighter jets used by the Sri Lankan air force to strike rebel
strongholds and this admission also confirms the deadly intent of these
operatives whose primary objective is to inflict pain and suffering
while causing mayhem and chaos through terrorism within Sovereign Sri
Lanka where capital punishment might be a better alternative to 15 years
imprisonment should they be found guilty.
The investigative undercover FBI team which carried out the sting operation,
posing as 'co-operative' State Department officials on the take have,
as documented in the corroborating evidence indicated they were offered
millions of dollars during a series of secret meetings in an apartment
on Staten Island, NY. At a meeting in July 2005, Socrates had asked
undercover agents whether they could stop the United States Government
from sending arms to the Sri Lankan Government'' and provide intelligence
about this issue,'' the papers said which is an alarming revelation
about how terrorists and their terror cells blatantly carry out their
campaigns within the most powerful nation in the world and whose credibilities
have to be offset against those of the LTTE, the infamous terrorist
organization to which undividuals such as Socrates belongs and measured
in the lowest esteem in like manner and brought to justice unconditionally.
Having added the Tamil Tigers to its list of foreign terrorist organizations
in 1997 The US Government has barred the group from fundraising, obtaining
weaponry or lobbying for support in the United States according to the
statutes set in place applicable to all terror groups suspected of having
covert operations in that country and this recent operation should set
in place all the reprisal and punishments deserving of these criminals
who have the affront to breach the requisites of the law and be an object
lesson to any aspiring LTTE supporters anywhere in the world!
This a typical example of what the Tamil diaspora supportives of the
LTTE are upto in various parts of the world today and for the few operations
that that busted wide open through FBI expertise dragnetting perpetrators
such as these who are apprehended there are thousands of other similar
operations by terrorists conducting their nefarious business this very
minute and world awareness towards this wretched aberration and misuse
of Western freedoms indulged in by so called Sri Lankan and other expatriates
need to intensify in order to maintain the war against terrorism and
a feather in the caps of the efficient staff of the FBI who have pulled
off this sting operation very effectively.
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