{"id":83061,"date":"2013-04-19T16:13:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T10:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=83061"},"modified":"2013-04-23T02:34:35","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T21:04:35","slug":"lone-wolf-assaults-from-boston-to-westmead-home-invasion-to-the-unabomber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lone-wolf-assaults-from-boston-to-westmead-home-invasion-to-the-unabomber\/","title":{"rendered":"Lone Wolf Assaults: From Boston To Westmead Home Invasion To The Unabomber"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Michael Roberts<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

The recent bomb outrage in Boston has sent tidal ripples along the media networks around the world.\u00a0 It appears that the bombs were hidden in pressure cookers packed with nails\/ball bearings and put in backpacks<\/a> which were placed on the pavement among onlookers. \u201cSimilar easy-to-make roadside bombs are used in Iraq and Afghanistan\u201d (Stewart 2013). But such bomb-making techniques are also clarified on internet sites. Among the first readings one headline in The Australian<\/em> said: \u201cStamp of lone wolf<\/strong> more than al-Qa’ida\u201d (Maley 2013). The contention here was that \u201cin recent years, so-called “lone wolf” attackers — people who acquire radical ideology and weapons skills online — have become the greatest concern for counter-terrorism officials, who have virtually no way of detecting the activities of these people\u201d (Stewart 2013).The absence of \u201cchatter\u201d on internet among jihadi circles after the event is one reason for this suspicion.<\/p>\n

Well, now! Just one week back I raised the possibility \u2013 explicitly a slim possibility \u2013 that \u201clone ranger\u201d[1]<\/a> Tamil extremists <\/strong>may strike at one of the Sri Lankan cricketers playing in the ongoing high-profile IPL league. Rather than an organized political entity such as the TGTE<\/a><\/span>, I indicated that, within this minute scale of potential, \u201cthe greater likelihood is the emergence of a few independent extremists who have decided to strike a retributive blow for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils by targeting a Sri Lankan symbol.\u201d[2]<\/a> The Sri Lankan cricketers are prime symbols and several cricket matches have seen virulent demonstrations or on-field pitch intrusions from those espousing Tamil nationalism.[3]<\/a> In the recent 2012-13 season, too, Australians (mostly White and with Trevor Grant as spokesperson) advocating Tamil rights mounted protests outside cricket grounds.[4]<\/a> These, I stress, were peaceful.<\/p>\n

However, the waves of student protest against Sri Lanka mounted in Tamilnadu<\/a> in March-April 2013 were quite virulent in language (Ani 2013; Sanyal 2013). They were inspired by the widespread belief that there had been a programme of \u201cgenocide\u201d in Sri Lanka in 2008\/09.<\/strong>[5]<\/a> Pan-Tamil nationalism was the deep foundation for this activism, while the human rights agitation and the US sponsored resolution directed against Sri Lanka at the UNHCR<\/a><\/span> sessions in Geneva seem to have been the immediate inspirations for this outbreak. The resentments were deep enough for some activists in southern India to harass Sri Lankan tourists and Buddhist monks.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 So, what we saw in Tamilnadu was a volatile situation and lots of heat — heat that even extended to a few acts<\/a> of self-immolation.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

A similar situation, but several degrees more intense, prevailed in many Western cities among Sri Lankan Tamil migrants in the first half of 2009 as the LTTE<\/a><\/span> slid towards a wholesale military defeat. Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist sentiment coursed and peaked through the migrant networks in a mix of anxiety, sorrow and anger. A number of second generation and third generation youth from both sexes joined others who were already active in LTTE and\/or Tamil community circles. Demonstrations were mobilized in several Western cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, on several occasions in the first few months of the year. Speaking on behalf of the Tamil lobby groups on 27th<\/sup> April 2009 Dr. Sam Pari observed that the \u201cprotests have been an almost daily occurrence across Sydney in the past fortnight\u201d \u2013 speaking at a protest outside the Prime Minister\u2019s residence at Kirribilli House (AAP 2013). These demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but on a priori <\/em>grounds I surmise that the emotions would have been at fever-pitch and the vocabulary would have been virulent and even vicious at times.[8]<\/a> Moreover, we know now that Pari is in fact Dr. Parimala Nathan Sampavi, who participated in a LTTE propaganda training camp in Sri Lanka associated with the intelligence wing and thereafter served as the chief fund collector of the Australian based LTTE rump group Tamil Youth Organization (TYO).[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

As the LTTE defeat loomed and its talaivar <\/em>(leader) Pirap\u0101haran<\/a><\/span> was imperilled, another SL Tamil protest demonstration took place in Sydney on the weekend of 16\/17th<\/sup> May 2009. It would seem that it was after this that there had been an altercation<\/a> between groups of Sinhalese and Tamils near Westmead railway station.[10]<\/a> This in turn seems to have primed a handful of Tamils to essay a home invasion: at midnight they targeted a Westmead house where Jayasri Watawala, 22, and Chathurika Weerasinghe, 27, resided. News reports during the subsequent court case describe the occupants as \u201cstudents\u201d and indicate that both were \u201csplashed with acid, suffering severe burns;\u201d while \u201cone of the victims [Weerasinghe] was also stabbed in the stomach and broke his ankle\u201d (Drummond 2009; Ramachandran 2009).<\/p>\n

Since sodium hydroxide was used in this attack, it was not the immediate outcome of some street scuffle \u2013 some planning was called for. Amalathepan Srikantharajah of Girraween, aged 25, was identified as one of the “principal offenders” and was charged and found guilty. He did not disclose the names of his zealots-in-arms. He is said to be the son of a restaurant owner in that locality who was an activist in the Tamil Tiger lobby group.[11]<\/a> The details surrounding the incident are scanty and it is uncertain if Watawala and Weerasinghe had been involved in the altercation referred to above; and whether Srikantharajah and accomplices were directed by one of the LTTE organisations in Sydney. My surmise is that neither of these thoughts can be entertained. In brief, it was probably a lone cell operation conceived during the course of that day.<\/p>\n

In sum, therefore one has the following sequence;<\/p>\n