Michael Roberts
My thoughts are organised in point-form in order to assist succincttness.
A = I recall seeing a news item a day or so back which indicated that Sri Lanka was in the process of acquiring sophisticated cyber-technology from China in order to pursue its intelligence work the better. Quite logical that — though late in the day.
Mecca at Hajj 
Pilgrims at St Peter’s Basilica
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Asiri Fernando, in Sunday Times, 12 May 2019, “Easter Sunday bombers used high-tech communication: Army Chief”
The terrorists who carried out the Easter Sunday bombings used a Swiss developed, highly encrypted mobile communication App named “Threema”, Army Chief Lt. General Mahesh Senanaayake told the Sunday Times. The mobile phone App boasts ‘best in the class’ end-to-end encryption and allows a user to generate a random Threema ID, thereby giving anonymity to the user, the product website claimed. The level of encryption used by the said App makes intercepting or decrypting such communications very difficult for Sri Lankan authorities with available technologies.
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Merril Gunaratne, in Island, 11 May 2009, where the title runs “Carnage and complacency:An intelligence standpoint”
A way of identifying failures of the national security network to prevent the carnage would be to examine what actually took place as the intelligence received from India moved forward or upward, from the point where it was received. The State Intelligence Service (SIS) was the initial recipient of the information. The SIS is actually the pivot or axis rotating the cogs of the defence machinery, which in a collective sense, is identified as the National Security Council (NSC).
Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC news, 11 May 2019 — with this title “Sri Lanka attacks: The family networks behind the bombings”
For many Sri Lankans, it was a horrific shock to learn that local Muslims could have been behind the suicide attacks that killed more than 250 people last month. How could a smalL group have planned such a devastating wave of bombings undetected? The clues were there in mid-January, when Sri Lankan police stumbled upon 100kg (220lb) of explosives and 100 detonators, hidden in a coconut grove near the Wilpattu national park, which is a remote wilderness in Puttalam district on the west coast of the country.
Zahran Hashim has been identified as the ringleader of the bombers
FACEBOOK – Inshaf Ibrahim (R) and his father (C) accepted an award in 2016 from a Sri Lankan minister
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Nigel Kerner to Nigel Farage and the BREXIT & UKIP PARTY = A Letter entitled “To a Land of Dope & Gory. The Farage Balloon”
What hypocrites so many white Brits are. So many of us positively stink of racism and that brand of cowardice that hides behind contrived mental devices that are designed to try to fool the world that we are decent fair objective people. Just look at the faces on any football terrace any weekend if you want to see what many Brits are really like. Animals snarling in an open terraced Zoo. Shouting racist slurs and chants at black athletes and football players whose skill often surpasses those of white players. So much for the once vaunted ‘British gentleman’ that once justifiably announced our better senses.
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Jean-Pierre Page …. see bio-note at end, Editor Thuppahi
Here attached is my article in French! Very widely published in France, Italy and Canada. In her book “Hard Choices” Hillary Clinton has clearly said “we have created Daesh (ISIS), we have to negotiate with “the Muslim brothers in Cairo to create a territory, a state in the Sinaï for ISIS.”
That was part of the plan to re organise, rebuild and share a new Middle East. This was not very different to what Washington has done against the Soviet Union with the Talibans in Afghanistan. Have you forgotten what Zbigniew Brzezinski said once:” we have created the Talibans and we succeeded!”
Today in Island there is the first article which raises the real issues. The one by Lasanda Kurukulasuriya in the Island of 6th May [see……………………………. http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=203773 Continue reading
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One: Note this segment in Ameer Ali’s important essay: ” The Islamist creep was manifested in several ways. For example, the cry Allahu Akbar announced the opening and close of every public gathering organised under the banner of SLMC. Quotations from the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s Hadiths added a tone of religiosity to political speeches. Even hand clapping in some instances was substituted by shouting Allahu Akbar to appreciate a speaker’s oratory.” One can speculate that Ameer Ali is writing as a Sri Lankan Australian first and a Muslim second ….. But the point is the inside information conveyed by that observation — data which our Muslim MPs and others have not conveyed to their non-Muslim colleagues — perhaps not having grasped the implications of Wahhabism for inter-communal life in Sri Lanka.
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A Letter from Rohan De Soysa in Colombo to Michael Roberts in Adelaide, 9th May 2019
I’d like to suggest a different angle. We have a Minister for Buddhist religious affairs, another for Hindu religious affairs, yet another for Muslim religious affairs and still another for Christian religious affairs. Then there are Governors for the various provinces: Eastern Province, Western Province, Northern Province, Southern Province etc. They have been provided deputy ministers, offices, staff, bodyguards, cell phones and vehicles, etc.
Should they not monitor and observe any untoward teachings and undesirable tendencies in what comes under their purview, namely places of worship and education, catering to their specialized religions? Why did they not do so? Isn’t it about time they did?
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Jericoacoara National Park …. in Brazil, located in the municipality of Jijoca de Jericoacoara, state of Ceará. On its seashore is located the famous Jericoacoara Beach….. https://www.bing.com/search?q=Jericoacoara+national+park+Brazil
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thuppahi
