"One of the interesting effects of September 11 has been the way in which the sudden media and public interest in terrorism has transformed the careers of otherwise obscure "experts". Many have sought to cash in on September 11, but few have been able to go so far with so little as Dr Rohan Gunaratna.
Gunaratna, a research assistant at St. Andrews' University in Scotland, is, according to the profile on his webpage, an "acknowledged expert on terrorism in South Asia". As a Sri Lankan, his area of expertise is in the Tamil Tigers, a militant Tamil separatist group. Of the publications listed at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), Gunaratna has authored four - all of which relate specifically to Sri Lanka's Tamil insurrection.
Despite that, since September 11, he has been one of the most prolific commentators on global terrorism, being courted by the media and by governments. He recently visited Australia, where he made a number of widely reported, but unchallenged, claims that there were several "child-killing terrorist groups" operating in Australia, hiding behind community and humanitarian fronts, whilst manipulating the Australian government through powerful lobbying of politicians.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
The first media appearance of Gunaratna appears to have been in the August 3, 1997 edition of Scotland on Sunday. Here, the amusing claim is made that the Tamil Tigers had developed a high-tech body suit to wear during their suicide bombings that would ensure the head is not destroyed but rather is transformed into a "lethal projectile - sometimes traveling as far as two hundred yards". Gunaratna declared this body suit "more advanced than the body suits used by any other groups", and warned of "technology transfer" to the Middle East. No evidence was given to support his claims, and the media ran it on the basis of him being an "expert".
On October 7, 2000, Gunaratna appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, warning that ships belonging to the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) had been "sighted" in Australian ports, and that Australian Tamils have somehow been shipping "mini-helicopters" and "micro-light aircraft" for use in attacks on government troops.
Gunaratna's claims naturally attracted widespread criticism. His book, "International & Regional Security Implications of the Sri Lankan Tamil Insurgency" (privately published), was described by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations as, "a book replete with factual errors and devoid of indexes, footnotes, or any evidence to substantiate the claims made".
An SBS Dateline program screened on October 4, 2000, featured Gunaratna making a series of unproven and untested claims such as that "every working Sri Lankan Tamil is taxed 300 British sterling pounds per year" to support the Tamil separatist movement. The program, to which Gunaratna contributed heavily, was challenged by the Tamil community in Australia, resulting in the investigating reporter behind the program eventually resigning.
CASHING IN ON TERROR
After September 11, Gunaratna cashed in on the widespread interest in terrorism and seems to have successfully recast himself as not just an expert on Tamil terrorism but as an expert in terrorism as a whole.
The first newspaper to quote Gunaratna after September 11th, was the Financial Times of London on September 13th. Gunaratna was quoted because of his expertise in the Tamil Tigers who also employed suicide bombings as a weapon.
On September 18, 2001, in the San Francisco Chronicle, Gunaratna presented himself not just as an expert on Sri Lankan terrorism but an expert on "Islamic terrorism". Warning of an "endurance period" that a suicide bomber spends in secular society without succumbing to temptation, Gunaratna said that he becomes a "programmed machine".
"He lives in your country. He wears the clothes that you wear. He has a good time. And though he comes from a poor country and experiences what America is, when he is given the order -- get on the plane and do this -- he still does it.To ensure that he doesn't change his mind, others follow him around. They preach to him selected verses in the Koran. They remind him, 'You'll be a martyr. You'll be remembered for generations.'"
Noone pointed out to Gunaratna that the alleged hijackers were Saudis - not from poor countries. Of course, such oversights might be excused, as Gunaratna is still in the early stages of his transformation from an obscure expert on Tamil affairs to a world expert on "Islamic terrorism".
INCITING FEAR IN AUSTRALIA
On September 27, 2001, the Sydney Morning Herald reports Gunaratna's declaration that he had "evidence" of numerous terrorist groups active in Australia, including Hamas, and that Australia must establish an "anti-terrorist unit" to root them out. The article reports that, as has become characteristic, Gunaratna declines to mention his source or any evidence to support these accusations. Interestingly, Gunaratna warned that liberal laws are to blame - a theme that remains consistent in his Quixotic adventure. Despite Gunaratna's claims of compelling evidence, neither the Australian government, nor its law enforcement apparatus, have admitted any such presence or taken steps to eradicate it.
On the same day, the Financial Times reported that Gunaratna has labeled Germany the base for al-Qaeda in Europe. Again, he blamed the "tight limits on how intelligence and police officials can gather evidence against suspects, a strong civil liberties tradition and easy access to education and welfare provision".
The Australian reported, also on September 27, 2001, that Gunaratna had identified no less than seven terrorist groups operating in Australia, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the "Chechen Mujahideen".
In The Age, September 27th, again, Gunaratna rallied against the usual enemy of civil liberties, claiming, "Your laws, the legal system is very weak in responding to this type of terrorist support network".
On October 5, 2001, The Mercury (Hobart) reports Gunaratna as again making the unsupported claim that seven terrorist groups operate here. Continuing to tilt at windmills, this modern day Don Quixote calls on the Federal Government to pass laws to "restrict the operations of these groups and prevent them spreading 'propaganda'". What kind of operations is not mentioned, nor what kind of "propaganda".
He said that here were several hundred members in total in Australia, who recruited and indoctrinated new members in the aims of the terrorist groups. "These are terrorists who have killed many women and children and these groups are functioning here." It is difficult to find anyone in the Australian media who has come close to Gunaratna in making such an outrageous statement without being debunked and condemned as alarmist. Nonetheless, his fear-mongering was widely reported and accepted.
ALLEGATIONS OF POLITICAL MANIPULATION
The [Melbourne] Herald-Sun on October 5, 2001 quotes Gunaratna as making an even more ridiculous and outlandish claim. After blasting our "weak laws", he explained the reason why: "The reason your politicians are not passing this legislation is because some of these groups are lobbying your MPs and telling them we will give you so many hundred votes from this migrant community and you must help us and raise our concerns in Parliament." He hoped the current climate of outrage against terrorists would compel politicians to act, because Australia was vulnerable and presented "a target-rich environment".
So now he is claiming that terrorist groups that have killed women and children are approaching Australian politicians and paying them off with promises of "hundreds" of votes? A claim that anti-terrorism laws are being held back because the terrorists are manipulating the politicians is scandalous and Gunaratna should have been throroughly interrogated by the media over such a claim.
Associated Press reported on November 20, 2001, that Gunaratna claimed that Islamic terrorists would soon attack cruise ships because they are "considered prestigious because there is a perception that they are filled with wealthy Americans." To suggest that al-Qaeda's apparent hatred of the West is driven by a hate of "wealthy Americans" is nonsensical, given that Gunaratna has himself been traveling the world instilling fear of the amazingly affluent Bin Laden network.
INCONSISTENCIES IN GUNARATNA'S STORIES
On December 10th, 2001, in an Opinion piece published in the Australian, Gunaratna ran the now familiar script about our weak laws and the need to curtail civil liberties. He made the same unsupported and baseless claim of terrorist groups operating in this country, but this time he appears to have either forgotten the number he quoted to the same paper on September 27th or has discovered a new group since then. He claimed that there were now eight terrorist groups operating here, as opposed to seven! It is hard to take seriously someone who despite his apparent academic credentials, has failed to provide references or evidence for any of his broad claims. It is even harder to take someone seriously who seems to have forgotten what he told the Australian press just three weeks earlier.
Gunaratna then made the inciteful and, as as become his modus operandi, unsupported accusation that these terrorist groups are "operating through front, cover and sympathetic organisations may take the face of human rights and humanitarian groups as well as community organizations". Naturally, he doesn't name them, or point to any evidence - as this would expose his claims to scrutiny and, maybe even, ridicule.
On January 9, 2002, Gunaratna began peddling his standard wares in Singapore. The Straits Times reports that he accused Parti Islami seMalaysia (PAS), a Malaysian political party, had links to al-Qaeda. PAS described Gunaratna's accusation as libel, and pointed out that all political achievements of PAS had been throught he ballot box.
* * * *
The November 2001 edition of The Review, the magazine of the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council, described Gunaratna as the "sort of figure in short supply in Australia". Thankfully.
In an interview with The Review, Gunaratna warned that here in Australia, "the terrorist support networks that are often operating as charities as front cover and sympathetic organisations. These organisations take the face of human rights and human caring organisations and they have got grants of several respectable grant-making foundations in Australia, in the West, and this must stop. And the only way this can stop is, if the public are vigilant and if the public maintain pressure."
His concluding message to the Australian political establishment was happily conveyed by the Review. He said: "I also have a special message for the politicians especially of Australia, some of these terrorist organisations exercise constituent or electoral pressure and you must not succumb to this pressure. A terrorist group can come and tell you, look we will give you 10,000 or 20,000 votes in the next election. You should include this in your manifesto or you should air this in your parliament. It will be highly counterproductive for political leaders to succumb to this kind of pressure because this will damage the security, not only of your country, but international security in general."
The idea that someone would address the Israeli lobby, raising the alarm on the ability of powerful lobby groups to influence political opinion is laughable.
* * * *
http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/pfvs/2002IV/msg00107.html