Category Archives: fundamentalism

USA’s “Global War on Terror” Following 9/11

Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd]: “A global counter-terrorism military campaign initiated by the U.S. in 2001”  ……….. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror, https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/on-the-front-lines-cia-in-afghanistan/, ChatGPT, and Google Images … [with only some photographs 

Introduction:  ……  The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism”” (GWOT), is a global counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is also the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign were militant Islamist and Salafi jihadist armed organisations such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their international affiliates, which were waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim-majority countries. Other major targets included the Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed during an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency

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Serious Shortcomings in Channel Four’s Reading of the 2019 Easter Sunday Bombings in Sri Lanka

Ranga Jayasuriya, in The Daily Mirror, 13 September 2023, where the title reads  Real victims and real danger of Channel 4’s fact-less documentary” …. with highlighting imposed by Th Editor, Thuppahi

Channel 4’s latest documentary on the Easter Sunday attack is way too depressing for any Sri Lankan, more so for the survivors and relatives who live with the memories of the slaughter of innocents.  But, after a 47-minute-long documentary, all that emerges is a ghastly piece of clickbait journalism that tries to repackage a hackneyed conspiracy theory, relying on the testimony of a single dubious asylum seeker, and generously mixing the harrowing tales of survivors, who live with the pain, as if the emotive appeal would provide credibility to the unfounded claims.

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The 9/11 Aftermath in Pictures: The WTC and Its Surrounds

Captain Kumar Kirinde, SLAF Retd, whose facored title runs as THE DESTROYED TOWERS OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTRE OF NEW YORK: THE AFTEMATH OF 9/11 REMEMBERED IN PICTURES” .….     Sources: http://www.quora.com (posts by Ann Longmore-Etheridge),  ……………………………………………………………………………….. https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/world-trade-center-slurry- wall.htm and Google Images

Constructing the World Trade Center (1970)

Pic: https://www.ba-bamail.com/baba-recommends/history-in-pictures-25-      amazing-images-of-the-past/ ….

 

 

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The Agony and Ecstasy of A Pogrom: Southern Lanka, July 1983

Michael Roberts … reproducing an article that appeared initially in a collection of my essays in 1994 under the title above in EXPLORING CONFRONTATION, Readng, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994,  pp. 317-27. It was subsequently reproduced in Nethra, vol. 6, 199-213.  …. and then placed on web  in Groundviews (without its footnotes) .https://ground views.org/2019/03/28/the-case-for-foreign-judges-in-a-judicial-mechanism-in-sri-lanka-countering-falsehoods/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bystanders after the burning and assaulting: also at Borella Junction area, 24-25th July 1983, picture by Chandragupta Amarasinghe. There is a suggestion here that popular participation in attacks were also initiated and/or facilitated by state functionaries. It is also likely that some of those described as ‘bystanders’ were perpetrators of some of the destruction, burning and killing. I had not discovered whom the photographer was when Exploring Confrontation went to press in 1994. Let me use this occasion to record my greatest respect for the bravery and ingenuity revealed by Chandragupta Amarasinghe in extremely dangerous and trying circumstances. 

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Islamic Women’s Veils: Some Desultory Thoughts

 Michael Roberts

 On re-reading an entry in Thuppahi on the Burqa with two striking illustrations that contrasted

X …..a photograph of a Western woman in a see-through net dress walking stark naked in a busy street ….. WITH …

Y …. Illustrations of the various types of veiled Islamic women, ……

 

 

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Western Media in Blind Alley on Russian Scenario

An Observer in a Black Sea Town

Very pleasing to see no blue haired, transexual, transgendered non-binary people in this group of young attractive Russian girls filmed in February 2023 at the Shaman’s concert in Yekaterinburg singing the song Я Русский [I’m Russian]. The girls sing: “I am Russian, and I am lucky”. **

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British Flag ‘Transvestized’ !@#$!

NOTE the Comments this event has attracted  … AND the insertIon today, 14 June 2023, by VINOD MOONESINGHE, a Sri Lankan Marxist: “It is not the “British flag”. It is the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, an oppressive state which enslaved a third of the world. The sexual minorities have a right to be heard.”

 

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Guns Blazing! Obama on the American Warpath

X

Obama has been in Sydney and Melbourne this week wearing his dark cool shades, dazzling his many female followers, and giving speeches which earned him a couple of million dollars just enough to pay for breakfast at Tiffany’s. He was in Melbourne yesterday, picking up another million, while dazzling his audience with his analysis of the world. Yep, you got it. It was one of those “China is the bad boy – the US is the good boy” speeches.
 A NOTE from Thuppahi:
The highlightonh emphasis is my ntervntion …nad let me note that “X” resides in the ANZAC world of Australia-New Zealand and therefore has to secure (hopefully) his security.

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The “Truth Tigers” Documentary of May 2002

Truth Tigers – Sri Lanka  ….. Journeyman Pictures

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27 May 2002 Blood drips off the deck; a torrent of rapid gunfire sores through the air. We are in the midst of a savage sea battle, fought by the Sea Tigers — the maritime arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Produced by ABC Australia Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

 

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Remembering the Unseen Hands Supporting One of My Books

Michael Roberts in the DEDICATION presented on the first page of the book Tamil Person and State: Essays,  Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2014, … ISBN 978-955- 665-230-7 

The essays that make up this anthology would not have been possible without the assistance of numerous individuals who provided me with information during face-to-face conversations, Skype and telephone chats or through responses by email. This will be only too evident if readers take note of my citations and footnotes. For this reason, it is entirely appropriate that I dedicate this work to all those who have assisted me in my researches over the last few years. Not all of them will agree with my thrusts. Indeed, there are a few of them in Colombo, such as Ananda Chittambalam, who have disputed some of my arguments, while yet encouraging me in my researches and publication programmes.

Ana Chittambalam: ex-Royal College, raconteur, promoter of causes and a staunch ally and dangerous foe

 

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