NYPD Busts Tamil Tiger Terrorists

The New York Daily News has scooped the other papers in town big time. Barbara Ross, a staff reporter, ran an exclusive article yesterday detailing how the New York Police Department broke up a credit card fraud ring that was helping to fund the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist/liberation organization in Sri Lanka. It turns out the alleged ringleader Sivapalasri Velayuthampillai, until his arrest in July, worked at Newark Airport as a security agent and baggage handler with complete security clearance. It’s proof once again that fighting terrorism is a job for cops, not soldiers and that local officials have a greater role to play.

According to Ms. Ross, “Manhattan prosecutors told the Daily News the eight men had ties to the terror group and were part of a scheme to use stolen credit card numbers to steal $250,000 in New York - and tens of millions from ATMs worldwide. Six were nabbed in January in a raid at the Chelsea Inn, a reputed lair for the ultraviolent Sri Lankan separatist group.” Mr. Velayuthampillai and one other were taken into custody in July. “Prosecutors said Velayuthampillai entered the US with a fake passport and dubious tale of persecution. He was given political asylum in December 2001 under circumstances still under investigation by District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,” Ms. Ross also wrote.

Where the Department of Homeland Security (or rather Das Heimatschutzministerium in the original) was in all of this is anybody’s guess. Those clowns are still trying to find New Orleans when they aren’t making US citizens remove their shoes before flying from Omaha to St. Louis, both places hot beds of social rest.

Now, the Tamil Tigers have no real complaints against the US; their whole mission is to split Sri Lanka (Ceylon for those still using 1960s maps) leaving a Sinhalese state and a Tamil state. For them, the US is a place to raise funds. However, having such a man with full security clearance to Newark’s airport raises extremely important concerns. There are international flights to southern Asia from Newark. Who knows what harm Mr. Velayuthampillai could have done had he been so inclined?

As it is, the allegations against these alleged terrorist fundraisers are significant. Ms. Ross also reported, “This summer, Jane’s Intelligence Review said the Tamil Tigers raise up to $300 million a year through international credit card fraud, extortion and donations.” If these men were part of that, they have done more than enough to warrant long prison sentences. And it’s the cop on the beat who found it out.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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