{"id":204264,"date":"2019-08-21T01:36:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=204264"},"modified":"2019-08-25T17:39:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T12:09:01","slug":"why-is-us-ambassador-undermining-her-governments-own-document","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-is-us-ambassador-undermining-her-governments-own-document\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is US Ambassador Undermining Her Government\u2019s Own Document?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><b>By\u00a0<\/b><b><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Amrit+Muttukumaru\">Amrit Muttukumaru<\/a> &#8211;<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_142887\" style=\"width: 154px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-142887\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-142887\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru-144x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"144\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-142887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amrit Muttukumaru<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There is a great deal of controversy on the eligibility of former Defence Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaksa\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/strong><\/a> (GR) to be a candidate at the presidential elections due shortly \u2013 most probably in December 2019. This hinges on whether or not he has lawfully renounced his US citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding the absence in the public domain of irrefutable documentary evidence of renunciation, Gotabaya was anointed with much fanfare as the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) by his elder brother and leader of the party former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at its convention held on 11 August. Although from the looks of it based on realpolitik, GR appears to be the frontrunner, it is by no means a done deal due to inter alia strong opposition to him from the 30% minorities and part of the 70% Sinhala-Buddhist vote going the way of the UNP and JVP candidates. Nevertheless due to GR\u2019s perceived image as a no-nonsense national security \u2018champion\u2019, he is most likely the strongest \u2018beneficiary\u2019 from the Easter Sunday carnage. Even some portion of the traditional UNP catholic vote could go to GR.<\/p>\n<p><b>Astounding Assertion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Into this conundrum steps in US Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz who at a press conference held a few days ago made an astounding assertion that hugely compromises the integrity of the US Federal Register which lists persons who have lost their US citizenship. This in particular applies to the Federal Register of the Internal Revenue Service which as recently as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/gotas-name-missing-from-us-federal-list-renouncing-us-citizenship-bar-to-contest-elections\/\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">15 August 2019 listed persons<\/span><\/strong><\/a> <i>\u201closing United States citizenship \u2026\u2026 during the quarter ending June 30, 2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p>This is in the context of Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s name not being listed among those losing their US citizenship. Has the US ambassador given a lifeline to GR\u2019s candidacy by stating:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>\u201cFederal Register could often be months behind the recording of one\u2019s renunciation of citizenship\u201d <\/i><\/b>(Ref. \u2018Daily Mirror\u2019 20 August 2019)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><b>SOFA &amp; MCC<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Although in stray cases there could possibly be a delay in the transmission of renunciation data applicable to remote locations in the world where communication is slow and inefficient, it could hardly be argued that Sri Lanka is one such place. For example, in the aftermath of the recent Easter Sunday carnage, were not video clips uploaded and shown on CNN within a matter of minutes?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Is it not reasonable to surmise that the US Embassy in Colombo which is working enthusiastically to have in place in Sri Lanka controversial agreements such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation\u00a0(MCC) and Status of Forces Agreement\u00a0(SOFA) would have in place state-of-the-art communication equipment? Hence is it not reasonable to assume that information relating to Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s renunciation of citizenship which purportedly took place in May 2019 would have been transmitted to the relevant US state agencies promptly? Are we to assume that the names published in the US Federal Register on 15 August 2019 do not include persons whose expatriation of citizenship took place in May and June 2019? In the event that such names do appear, what is the rationale for discriminating against Gotabaya Rajapaksa by deferring the publication of his name?<\/p>\n<p>Does not the question also arise as to why the US takes the trouble to publish data on a quarterly basis if it is neither authentic nor complete?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is telling that the notification published in the Federal Register by the Internal Revenue Service does not contain a disclaimer relating to its accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Teplitz as per the media report contradicted herself at the press conference when after commenting on Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s name not being in the Federal Register she later <i>\u201cdeclined to comment on specific cases of renunciation\u201d<\/i>! (\u2018Daily Mirror\u2019 20 August 2019)<\/p>\n<p>The upshot of the ambassador\u2019s astounding assertion is that in the future it will be difficult for countries and people to place confidence in the integrity of US official data.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The\u00a0million dollar question<i>\u00a0<\/i>is<\/b> &#8211; why is the US Ambassador seemingly bending over backwards to give an IMPROBABLE reason for Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s name not being included in the Federal Register? Is she being disingenuous?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":171848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Is US Ambassador Undermining Her Government\u2019s Own Document? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-is-us-ambassador-undermining-her-governments-own-document\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Is US Ambassador Undermining Her Government\u2019s Own Document? 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