US lawmakers - Tiger lobby links exposed
US: The US Treasury Department's recent clampdown on the Tamil
Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) accusing it of raising funds on behalf
of the designated terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE), has once again thrown the spotlight on the shadowy 'LTTE lobby'
whose access to powerful US lawmakers helped to legitimise this and
other Tiger fronts allowing them to operate without let or hindrance for
almost a decade, according to the US based Sri Lankan Express.
Investigations show that TRO operatives and individuals whose addresses
or phone numbers are linked to the TRO, regularly made contributions to
the campaign funds of the very legislators who have actively promoted
the separatist cause and been harshly critical of Sri Lanka's war on the
Tigers.
"TRO passed off its operations as charitable, when in fact it was
raising money for a designated terrorist group responsible for heinous
acts of terrorism," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), explaining the action taken
November 15 to freeze the US held assets of the TRO.
The Treasury said the TRO has raised funds on behalf of the LTTE through
a network of "individual representatives" and that it was the preferred
conduit of funds from the US to the LTTE.
Since the TRO 'hung its ****ngles' in the US, almost 10 years ago, these
individual representatives, many of them successful Tamil professionals,
have been the LTTE's foot soldiers, active in several states, raising
funds while establi****ng and developing political contacts.
As re****ted by the Associated Press some time ago, the Chicago Tribune
had faxed three pages from a federal indictment involving money
laundering to a US Congressman's office which indicated that the trips
of two unidentified individuals to Sri Lanka in 2005 were paid with
$13,150 laundered through a US bank.
The source of those funds - whether they were raised for 'charity' or
extorted from the Tamil dias****a - is not known.
But the Congressman revealed to the media that over the years, campaign
donations totalling around $5000 had trickled into his campaign fund
from Sri Lankan Tamils in the US, some of it may well have been from the
TRO's individual representatives. While the US Treasury has not named
them, a clue to the identity of some of these 'individual
representatives' has been provided by the TRO itself.
Within hours of the tsunami hitting the shores of Sri Lanka on December
26, 2004, a list of phone numbers was provided by the TRO and published
on TamilNet, the pro-LTTE website, as its contacts for collecting
donations.
With a few exceptions, where unlisted, the numbers were traced to
Tamils, one a prominent attorney practising in California who was also a
mover in the establishment of the TRO office in Reseda. A campaign
contribution of $250 went to another Congressman from one of the
individuals traced and a contribution of $500 went from another to yet
another Congressman.
The depth and extent of the nexus between US politicians and the LTTE
lobby have yet to be unravelled but the evidence points to culpability
way beyond the nod US legislators are reputed for giving the Tigers.
A proper investigation into LTTE fund raising will have to factor in the
complicity of US lawmakers, especially those who themselves have been
recipients of funds made via individual TRO/LTTE operatives.
Courtesy: Daily News
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For genuine Situation Re****t visit:
http://www.nationalsecurity.lk
http://www.defence.lk/
http://www.army.lk/index1.php
http://www.nmatnet.com/
http://www.sinhalaya.info/index-EN.php
Worth to look following to see how brutal Tamil Tiger Terrorists are
Child Soldiers of LTTE Tamil Tiger Terrorists in Sri Lanka
http://www.spur.asn.au/childwar.htm
Ethnic Cleansing in Sri Lanka
http://www.spur.asn.au/ethnic_cleansing_in_sri_lanka.htm
LTTE TAMIL TIGER ATROCITIES
http://www.spur.asn.au/ltteatrp.htm
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