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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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