{"id":34905,"date":"2012-03-20T01:12:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T01:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=34905"},"modified":"2012-03-28T03:32:06","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T03:32:06","slug":"wikileaks-blake-wanted-us-to-help-gosls-war-against-ltte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-blake-wanted-us-to-help-gosls-war-against-ltte\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Blake Wanted US To Help GoSL\u2019s War Against LTTE"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph<\/a> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn January 10, Ambassador and Pol Chief met Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa. Ambassador noted that the U.S. and Sri Lanka wanted to work with each other and with India on interdiction of arms shipments to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam\u201d the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Robert Blake<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe said the U.S. was prepared to respond to Sri Lanka’s specific requests by gathering all information available about suspected Tamil Tiger ships, including the various types of intelligence, and would pass on actionable items to the Sri Lankan Navy. Gothabaya expressed appreciation for the U.S. willingness to assist.\u201d the US Embassy further informed Washington.<\/p>\n

The Colombo Telegraph<\/a> found the leaked US diplomatic cable from WikiLeak database. The Cable recounts the details of a meeting the US Ambassador Robert Blake has had with Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa. The cable is classified as \u201cSECRET\u201d \u00a0and written by the ambassador Blake on January 16, 2007.<\/p>\n

Blake wrote \u201cAmbassador observed that the planned acquisition by the Sri Lankans of additional coastal radars under the 1206 program, coupled with airborne radars deployed on Beechcraft planes, would greatly assist interdiction efforts by expanding the GSL radar surveillance horizon hundreds of miles out. The Secretary agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbassador inquired about the status of Sri Lankan efforts to cut off illegal transfers of arms to the LTTE. Gothabaya conceded that there were gaps in the Sri Lankan blockade against the Tigers. Clearly some resupply vessels were getting through, he said, because the Tigers had obviously managed to replenish their stores of artillery and mortar ammunition. In fact, an analysis showed that 80% of Sri Lankan army casualties came from artillery and mortar fire, as well as IEDs. However, this also was an indication that the new LTTE recruits were less motivated than their predecessors, since so few of the casualties came from direct fire in close engagements.\u201d he further wrote.<\/p>\n

Placing a comment Blake wrote \u201cIf the U.S. chose to provide the Whalers to the SLN, it would greatly improve the SLN capability to patrol their maritime boundary and rivers against a variety of threats, including weapons smuggling and piracy by the terrorist organization LTTE, as well as narcotics and human trafficking and other criminal\/terrorist seaborne activities. The Navy Commander also was gratified to learn that the prospective provision of the boats would be in addition to the current 1206 funding priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the cable below for further details;<\/p>\n

VZCZCXRO8724\r\nOO RUEHBI\r\nDE RUEHLM #0088 0161345\r\nZNY SSSSS ZZH\r\nO 161345Z JAN 07\r\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\r\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5160\r\nINFO RUEHLO\/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3447\r\nRUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0495\r\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 3539\r\nRUEHCG\/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 7308\r\nRUEHBI\/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 5045\r\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\r\nRUEKDIA\/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY\r\nRHEHNSC\/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY\r\nRUEAIIA\/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\r\nRUEKJCS\/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY\r\nRUEKJCS\/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY<\/pre>\n
S E C R E T COLOMBO 000088 \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INS, SCA\/RA AND PM\r\nPACOM FOR J005 FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR\r\nSECDEF FOR OSD SOUTH ASIA ASST. COUNTRY DIRECTOR C CLARY \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 01\/12\/2017\r\nTAGS: MARR<\/a> MOPS<\/a> PTER<\/a> PREL<\/a> PGOV<\/a> CE<\/a>\r\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: DEFENSE SECRETARY AND AMBASSADOR REVIEW\r\nMILITARY COOPERATION \r\n\r\nREF: A) COLOMBO 0057 B) AMB BLAKE\/PACOM E-MAILS \r\n\r\n     (NOTAL) C) COLOMBO DAO\/OSD E-MAILS (NOTAL) \r\n\r\nClassified By: AMBASSADOR ROBERT O. BLAKE, JR.  REASONS: 1.4 (B, D) \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>1.  (S) On January 10, Ambassador and Pol Chief met Defense\r\nSecretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa (ref a).  Ambassador noted that \r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\nthe U.S. and Sri Lanka wanted to work with each other and\r\nwith India on interdiction of arms shipments to the\r\nLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ref b).  He said the U.S.\r\nwas prepared to respond to Sri Lanka's specific requests by\r\ngathering all information available about suspected Tamil\r\nTiger ships, including the various types of intelligence, and\r\nwould pass on actionable items to the Sri Lankan Navy.\r\nGothabaya expressed appreciation for the U.S. willingness to\r\nassist. \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>2.  (C) Gothabaya brought up the U.S. offer to provide six\r\n26-foot Boston Whaler \"Justice\" class patrol boats (ref c) to\r\nthe Sri Lankan Navy (SLN).  He confirmed that the Sri Lankans\r\nare extremely interested in acquiring the boats to fill a\r\ncritical gap in the SLN near-shore patrolling capability.  He\r\nnoted that the boats would be of great use in the shallow\r\nwaters of the Palk Strait between Sri Lanka and India.\r\nAmbassador responded that the had spoken on January 8 to Navy\r\nCommander Wasantha Karannagoda, who had also assured him of\r\nthe Sri Lankan interest and confirmed that it was well within\r\nthe ability of the SLN to operate and maintain the craft.\r\nAmbassador told Gothabaya that he had conveyed the GSL\r\ninterest to U.S. authorities, but there had been no final\r\ndecision on the recipient of the boats.  Gothabaya thanked\r\nhim and said that the donation of the patrol craft would be\r\ngreatly appreciated. \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>3.  (C) Ambassador observed that the planned acquisition by\r\nthe Sri Lankans of additional coastal radars under the 1206\r\nprogram, coupled with airborne radars deployed on Beechcraft\r\nplanes, would greatly assist interdiction efforts by\r\nexpanding the GSL radar surveillance horizon hundreds of\r\nmiles out.  The Secretary agreed. \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>4.  (C) Ambassador inquired about the status of Sri Lankan\r\nefforts to cut off illegal transfers of arms to the LTTE.\r\nGothabaya conceded that there were gaps in the Sri Lankan\r\nblockade against the Tigers.  Clearly some resupply vessels\r\nwere getting through, he said, because the Tigers had\r\nobviously managed to replenish their stores of artillery and\r\nmortar ammunition.  In fact, an analysis showed that 80% of\r\nSri Lankan army casualties came from artillery and mortar\r\nfire, as well as IEDs.  However, this also was an indication\r\nthat the new LTTE recruits were less motivated than their\r\npredecessors, since so few of the casualties came from direct\r\nfire in close engagements. \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>5.  (C) COMMENT: If the U.S. chose to provide the Whalers to\r\nthe SLN, it would greatly improve the SLN capability to\r\npatrol their maritime boundary and rivers against a variety\r\nof threats, including weapons smuggling and piracy by the\r\nterrorist organization LTTE, as well as narcotics and human\r\ntrafficking and other criminal\/terrorist seaborne activities.\r\nThe Navy Commander also was gratified to learn that the\r\nprospective provision of the boats would be in addition to\r\nthe current 1206 funding priorities.\r\nBLAKE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":34908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,27],"tags":[2219,1298,1263,2218,1402],"class_list":["post-34905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wikileaks","tag-blake-and-gotabhaya","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-us-embassy-cables-on-sri-lanka","tag-us-support-sri-lankas-war","tag-war-crimes-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"\nWikiLeaks: Blake Wanted US To Help GoSL\u2019s War Against LTTE - 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\/wikileaks-blake-wanted-us-to-help-gosls-war-against-ltte\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: Blake Wanted US To Help GoSL\u2019s War Against LTTE - 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