Western crackdown on funds and weapons will undermine LTTE combat capabilities

-- Jane’s Intelligence Review
[Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 11.15 GMT]

If Western law enforcement bodies crackdown on the LTTE’s sources of financing and procurement continues, its ability to fight may be weakened in the medium term, degrading its ability to withstand the Sri Lankan government's offensives and further undermining its combat capabilities, states The Jane’s Intelligence Review in a special edition highlighting LTTE terrorist activities.

The report said the LTTE's strategic aim of defeating the Sri Lankan military and securing a political victory in the form of a separate Tamil state depends on the organization’s capacity to source money and arms abroad.

It said the estimated annual income of the LTTE is between USD 200 to 300 million but its costs are only USD 8 million.

“After accounting for its estimated USD8 million per year of costs within LTTE-administered Sri Lanka, the profit margin of its operating budget would likely be the envy of any multinational corporation,” the report said.

The special report of the leading London-based intelligence magazine investigated how the LTTE also known as Tamil Tigers generates money to support their activities and said, given the losses already incurred by the LTTE since 2006 in the east of the island nation, this may lead to increased pressure to sue for peace, although given the stubborn history of the LTTE not even a rigorous deprecation of its armory will encourage a political settlement.

Jane’s Intelligence Review as reported in Asiantribune points out that the LTTE’s strategic need to acquire high-tech weaponry, such as surface-to-air missiles, indicates that its activities will continue.

The Review said that perhaps the most important region for the LTTE to find money to buy arms has been the United States and Canada.

Citing FBI records the Review report said Karunakaran Kandasamy is the Director of the US branch of the LTTE out of at least 12 in the world, and he operates out of Queens New York using a charity named World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), which has denied any involvement in the movement and has not been prosecuted.

However, the report said the Karunakaran Kandasamy has been indicted in the US with six others for providing material support for a foreign terrorist organization.

Five of the seven individuals, not including Karunakaran, were indicted for conspiring to bribe US officials with one million US dollars as an inducement to remove the terrorist designation of the LTTE. The report said since final authority of Prabhakaran was necessary for the bribe to take effect it was not finished, Jane’s Review said.

According to the Review staffing front organizations with financial or procurement cadre has become signature LTTE practice all over the world. It said the Canadian security intelligence investigations into the flow of funds from Canada to Sri Lanka called “Project Osuluku” led to a raid on the Montreal office of World Tamil Movement as an example.

The Jane’s Review said the LTTE is constantly moving to address its strategic imbalance in air superiority with the Sri Lanka Air Force and in need of such weapons as SA-18 Surface to Air Missiles. The report said as the LTTE’s light-wing aircraft are only able to bomb stationary targets anti-aircraft technology would be LTTE’s primary driver of its procurement efforts.

It pointed out that the US officials were able to confiscate USD 700,000 in a LTTE effort operated from Baltimore and Guam to buy three million worth of weapons including surface to air missiles. The diversification of nationalities and arms brokers indicated profit motive in place of the traditional ideological commitment in these activities, the report said.

An earlier joint RCMP-FBI investigation bared a plan, the report said, two LTTE individuals who were tasked -one with financing and the other with weapons procurement the report said. It said the LTTE intention to purchase 50 to 100 Russian-made surface-to-air missiles for use against the Israeli-made Kfir fighter jet the Sri Lankan air force uses was evident in this attempt.

The report said it further makes clear the LTTE wished to obtain military weaponry that could destroy boats.

Illustrating the LTTE's decision-making structure and relative wealth, the operatives - allegedly naming and deferring to Pottu Amman as responsible for 'outside purchasing' of arms - discussed a price of USD900, 000 to USD937, 000 for an initial package of 10 SA-18 surface-to-air missiles, 500 AK-47 assault rifles and the necessary training, which was to take place in Sri Lanka, the Jane‘s Review further said.

The Jane’s Review said, that the document found by the RCMP-FBI details the LTTE operatives' according to the complaint, indicated that payment could be made through accounts in the US , Switzerland , St Croix in the US Virgin Islands or other offshore financial jurisdictions.

The LTTE agents specified the point of delivery should be a ship-to-ship transfer in the Indian Ocean, suggesting a role for KP's Sea Pigeons. The two people were indicted in September 2006 along with three others on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of attempt to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. All individuals deny the charges against them. A trial date of 10 March 2008 has been set, the report said.

The report said Lawrence Thilagar, former head of the LTTE international and Velyummylum Manoharan have been previously based in Paris. Manoharan was also granted French citizenship since May.

The French authorities started the raids, the report said, to coincide with the fundraising activities of the Tamil Tigers, believed to start every Friday evening and last until the following Sunday.

Citing an Indian news report the Jane’s report said in France every Tamil family had to pay Euros 2000 (USD 2728) and every Tamil business had to pay Euros 6000 (USD 8185) every year to the LTTE. The report said aggressively violent treatment was applied to those who failed to pay, like abducting Tamils to a LTTE associate owned farm and torturing and ransoming until their families agreed to pay significant amounts to buy the release.

The report said the LTTE outsourced its fundraising tasks to Tamil gangs on a 20 percent commission basis. This had been done to allow the LTTE some plausible deniability in the event of a raid. It further said reports about employing gangs for extortion and other illicit activities by the LTTE were also prevalent in the United Kingdom.

Reporting LTTE fundraising activities in Norway in May 2007 the report said by a credit card fraud some 16 men acting on behalf of the LTTE had gathered NOK 5.3 million (USD 890,000) and on being convicted of the skimming went to jail for five and half years. The report said international credit card frauds are also outsourced on a commission basis.

In May 2007 a six man Tamil team from UK, according to the report arrive in the port city of Singapore with blank cash machine cards, a cash machine card encoder and a portable computer that contained data about card account holders in the United Kingdom.

The demeanor of one of the six aroused suspicions of a security guard and the arrest of all with USD 354,070 in a hotel they have accumulated after three days activity. All were convicted to seven to 10 year’s jail terms. Similar frauds by the LTTE have been caught in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the report says.

The report also says the biggest income for the LTTE in Asia is its heroine trafficking and the USD 1 Billion drug market in Montreal is controlled by the LTTE. The report says drugs are being transported from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka.

The Report said the estimated annual income of the LTTE is between USD 200 to 300 million but its cost is only 8 million.

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Last Updated Date: August 22, 2007 - 11.15 GMT