TORONTO - Rohan Gunaratna hits the headlines again. The Globe and Mail reports “Tamil migrant held over possible ties to terror group”, citing Rohan Gunaratna, the migrant's vessel may have been used for gun running by the Tigers. CBC went one step further and reports “Tamil Tigers look to regroup in Canada: expert”. "I cannot think of any other country that is more important for the Tamil Tigers as Canada, to regroup and continue their campaign against Sri Lanka," it reported according to Prof. Rohan Gunaratna.
Who is Rohan Gunaratna? Is he reliable? The investigation reveals he is controversial and bias to Tamils. Rohan Gunaratna born in Sri Lanka, a Sinhalese by birth, worked for the Government of Sri Lanka between 1984 and 1994 and developed very close links with Sri Lanka’s intelligence service.
His recent comment also has his own contradictions. He said Tamil Tigers look to regroup in Canada. But in a interview to the “The Nation” English weekly in Sri Lanka on May 24th Issue, to a question, Do you foresee any possibility for the LTTE to regroup?, he clearly said, “No, absolutely not, if the government of Sri Lanka does things: one is to extradite Kumaran Pathmananthan, his real name is Dharmalingam Shanmugam Kumaran who is now in Thailand, and is travelling back and forth to Malaysia. If he is arrested and brought back to Sri Lanka, the LTTE cannot regroup”. Kumaran Pathmananthan already arrested and under the custody of the Sri Lanka authorities.
One former Australian intelligence officer says a problem with Gunaratna’s approach is that he tends to look at international terrorism from the perspective of how it relates to the Tamil Tigers.
Toronto Lawyer, Mr. Waldman said he disagrees with the Canadian government's use of Prof. Gunaratna as an expert witness. He plans to introduce a motion to cross examine the professor at a detention hearing scheduled later this week for one of his clients. “He’s very controversial,” Mr. Waldman said. “He often relies on unverifiable sources as the basis for the assertions that he makes. In the context of the Tamil Tigers, he’s basically biased. He’s clearly been associated with the Sri Lankan government and independent observers are convinced that he’s not objective, especially in relation to the Tamil issue.”
Members of Australia’s intelligence community, and in particular ASIO, are known to be dismissive of many of Gunaratna’s more sensational statements, such as claims that alleged military chief of the Jemaah Islamiyah network and senior al-Qaeda member Hambali had regularly visited Australia.
In Britain, The Observer newspaper’s home affairs editor and long-time writer on Islamic terrorist groups, Martin Bright, describes Gunaratna as “the least reliable of the experts on bin Laden”. He says Gunaratna is often used by the British authorities as an expert witness in the prosecution of Islamist terror suspects because they can rely on him to be apocalyptic.
In Australia, journalist and commentator on intelligence issues Brian Toohey is one of the few to have openly questioned Gunaratna’s credentials, describing him as a “self-proclaimed expert” and dismissing some of his claims as "plain silly". He uses as an example a warning by Gunaratna published in November 2001 that terrorist groups might try to influence Australian politicians by rallying “10,000 or 20,000 votes” in their electorates.
There are also allegations of misleading credentials. In his book Inside Al Qaeda, Gunaratna described himself as having been, “principal investigator of the United Nations’ Terrorism Prevention Branch”. But when later questioned, Mr. Gunaratna admitted that there was no such position as principal investigator at the UN’s Terrorism Prevention Branch and that he had worked there in 2001-02 as a research consultant. Gunaratna also retracted his claim that he “was called to address the United Nations, the US Congress and the Australian Parliament in the wake of September 11, 2001”, confirming that in fact he had spoken at a seminar organised by the parliamentary library and given evidence to a US congressional hearing.
Some concerned Tamils in Toronto also point out his recent interview with SBS dateline of Australia as evidence that he is act as a government authority of Sri Lanka. To a question, “Can you see the Sri Lankan Government mounting similar operations against other enemies in the Diaspora?”, Mr. Gunaratna, replied, “Yes. I can share with you that the Sri Lankan Government is already planning to bring a number of other people home”.
But when questioned on the issue, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for Australia, Senaka Walgampaya said, “No, no, I'm not informed. These are all being done in Colombo and I've not been kept informed of that”.
The Tamils, the reporter talked in Toronto, don’t questioned the due process the government following on the recent boat people, but they seriously questioned the validity of having Rohan Gunaratna as an expert on this issue, victimising the people who already victimise by the same people and exposing their own citizens to an external intelligence services, namely the notorious Sri Lankan Intelligence services.
SOME OF HIS CONTRAVERSAL COMMENTS AND THE REALITY CHECK
The claim: In his book Inside al-Qaeda and in several interviews, Rohan Gunaratna gives graphic details of how terrorists planned to hijack a British Airways jet at London’s Heathrow Airport on September 11, 2001, and fly it into the British Houses of Parliament. The plot was foiled when aircraft in Britain were grounded immediately after the attack on New York’s twin towers. The source for the information was Indian intelligence interrogations of Mohammed Afroz, a 25-year-old Muslim and suspected member of al-Qaeda, arrested in Mumbai on October 3, 2001. Afroz told interrogators he had been to flying schools in Victoria and Britain and also planned to fly a plane into Melbourne’s Rialto Towers.
The reality: Afroz was released by an Indian court on indefinite bail in April, 2001 after Indian police failed to bring charges. As part of the investigation, Indian intelligence agents flew to Australia in February 2001 to check out his claims. It was reported after his release that New Delhi police believed Mumbai police made up the sensational claims allegedly made by Afroz. ASIO said in its 2002 annual report that none of the allegations made by Afroz that related to Australia could be corroborated and they were assessed "to be lacking in credibility".
The claim: Hambali, the operation commander of the terrorist group behind the Bali bombings, Jemaah Islamiah, and other leaders had visited Australia a dozen times, according to the Australia edition of Rohan Gunaratna’s Inside al-Qaeda.
The reality: Attorney-General Daryl Williams said checks within Australia and overseas had failed to find any record of Hambali having travelled to Australia "under his own name or any known aliases".
Published: Nov 04, 2009 21:08:35 GMT