PING!
Posted on 07/20/2006 8:51:38 AM PDT by GMMAC
Mounties call Tamil group 'arm of Tigers'
Court document first glimpse into four-year probe
Stewart Bell
National Post
Thursday, July 20, 2006
TORONTO - The Tamil Tigers terrorist organization is "entrenched" in Canada and uses a Toronto-based "front organization" called the World Tamil Movement to raise money for arms, says a summary of an ongoing RCMP probe released yesterday.
The 58-page document released by the Ontario court provides the first glimpse of a four-year RCMP investigation, called Project OSALUKI, into the Canadian fundraising efforts of the Sri Lankan terror group the Tamil Tigers.
According to the heavily edited outline of the investigation provided to the court to justify search warrants, the probe is focused on the World Tamil Movement (WTM), a registered non-profit organization, which has had offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
The police summary refers to the WTM as "the Canadian arm" of the Tamil Tigers.
It adds the WTM is "predominantly utilized to collect funds for the purposes of purchasing arms in furtherance of their cause."
The investigation, which began in July, 2002, has found "significant evidence" of terrorist financing, RCMP national security investigator Corporal Satish Tarachandra writes in a sworn "information" document used to obtain a warrant to search the WTM offices.
The Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, have long been accused of various financial schemes in Canada that generate money to underwrite their attacks. Canada has the largest ethnic Tamil population outside South Asia. "I believe that this organization is collecting funds in Canada that are used to finance terrorist activities in Sri Lanka. The LTTE operates in Canada through a front organization known as the World Tamil Movement," Cpl. Tarachandra writes.
No charges have been laid.
While many Canadian Tamils support the Tigers, the insurgent group has been widely condemned for its tactics, which include suicide bombings, assassinations, the recruitment of children and the ethnic cleansing of Muslims.
"I believe that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organization listed as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government, is entrenched within our country and is actively exploiting our financial infrastructure to finance their vision of an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka," Cpl. Tarachandra writes.
The Liberals repeatedly refused recommendations from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to designate the Tigers as a terrorist group under the Anti-terrorism Act. But weeks after coming to office, the Conservatives finally banned the group on April 8. Within days, WTM members in Montreal tried to "conceal and relocate" documents from their office, the RCMP statement says, prompting police to raid the building on April 13.
"Significant evidence of terrorist financing was found," writes Cpl. Tarachandra, "including pre-authorized loan forms, well-organized ledger and receipt books formatted by postal code, indicating names of contributors and collectors, and large quantities of LTTE propaganda materials, and merchandise."
Days later, RCMP officers conducting surveillance of the WTM headquarters in Toronto's east-end watched as materials were removed through a side entrance, loaded into a Jeep and taken to another building at 240 Wellesley Street, where they were loaded through a door. "Due to the isolated location of the door, coupled with the covert nature in which the articles were removed from the WTM office, I believe that the articles were placed inside this location by the occupants of the Jeep in order to conceal them from the police," the corporal wrote. The RCMP subsequently raided the Toronto office on April 22. A U-Haul truck was needed to cart away the papers, computers and other materials. The seized materials are still being analyzed by police.
Police would not comment at the time of the search. But the RCMP warrant application says there are reasonable grounds to believe the WTM has violated three of Canada's terror-financing laws by collecting money knowing it would be used by a terrorist group and terrorist activity.
However, there have been no charges laid in the investigation.
The WTM acknowledges it supports the LTTE's goal of establishing an independent Tamil state but denies any involvement in fundraising for the Tigers, whom it considers freedom fighters.
Following the Toronto raid, the Canadian Tamil Congress said Tamils were being "slandered and portrayed in a negative light in the media. Tamils are increasingly being subjected to suspicion and scrutiny."
But other Canadian Tamils quietly applauded the government's efforts to tame the Tigers, saying they were long overdue. Many Tamils complain about the aggressive money-collection efforts of the Tigers.
A Human Rights Watch report released in February said the LTTE and its supporters were using threats, intimidation, extortion and vandalism to secure donations to finance warfare.
sbell@nationalpost.com
© National Post 2006
... Of Related Interest ...
Plane rerouted after bomb scare, false passport arrests
Ottawa Sun
Thursday, July 20, 2006
By ALAN CAIRNS
TORONTO -- Two Sri Lankans carrying bogus Canadian passports were arrested in New York yesterday amid American fears that a bomb had been put on a Toronto-bound puddle-jumper plane.
An Air Georgian-owned Raytheon Beech 1900 twin-engine turboprop which left Rochester for Toronto at about 10:15 a.m. was turned around in mid-flight amid the bomb fear.
The mid-air scare came about 45 minutes after the Sri Lankan couple had been detained by American authorities and kept from boarding the flight. At the time, the aircraft and its passengers -- Canadian officials said there 10, while U.S. authorities said 11 -- and two crew were over Lake Ontario.
"At one point the female became upset and began complaining of chest pains," said Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington. "She indicated she needed her bag and it was on the flight.
"There was a significant language barrier ... the male is believed to have made a confusing remark about a possible bomb," Agen said. "Out of an abundance of caution, the plain was re-routed and returned to Rochester airport."
Police did not find a bomb and all the passengers were safe.
Agen said there is "no information" to indicate the Sri Lankan pair are linked to terrorism and the investigation is focusing instead on their immigration status in the United States.
URL for above article
PING!
Ping
Since the Tamil Tigers invented the suicide bomber, Canada is lucky to have a conservative leading it...one hopes.
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Indeed yes! But the "one hopes" in your remark is redundant.
After years of Liberal governments looking the other way the new Conservative government banned the Tamil Tigers. See this article:
Tamil Tigers outlawed -- Group added to Canada's terror list
Also see the article shortly thereafter respecting the Horsemen raiding the Tamil's Toronto office:
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