FINE CANADIANS....

Here is an example of how Canadian citizenship is being depreciated: immigrants ( probably coming as "refugees") manage to "get in" and eventually acquire Canadian citizenship, then they use it for nefarious purposes to advance the cause of those "back home". I think that Canada should seriously consider a legal process to revoke citizenship not just to those who obtained it fraudulently, but also to those engaged in promoting international terrorism, or aiding groups which have been deemed terrorist by Canada. Let's not be so naive and allow these characters to use us.

Canadian guilty of aiding Tamil Tigers

Trial In New York; Attempt made to buy missiles for terror group

Stewart Bell And Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009

TORONTO - A Toronto man pleaded guilty in New York yesterday to attempting to purchase Russian heat-seeking missiles and hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles for the Tamil Tigers guerrillas.

Sathajhan Sarachandran, 29, a former national president of the Canadian Tamil Students Association, pleaded guilty to all five counts against him, which included supporting terrorism and conspiracy to acquire missiles. Nadarasa Yogarasa pleaded guilty to two charges.

Both men were about to go on trial in Brooklyn, N. Y., for their role in an international arms-smuggling conspiracy that worked under the direction of the senior leadership of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

The case was the product of a cross-border investigation conducted by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Ontario.

The investigation, called Project O-Needle ("needle" was allegedly the conspirators' code word for missile) began on July 30, 2006, when Yogarasa phoned a contact about a potential arms deal, FBI Special Agent James Tareco wrote in an affidavit.

The contact -- who was actually a confidential police informant -- invited Yogarasa to New York to discuss the deal. The next day, Yogarasa, who went by the nickname "Yoga," met the informant in Queens, N. Y.

He was accompanied by Sarachandran, who had travelled from Canada for the meeting. Sarachandran said he was "taking direction" from Pottu Aman, the intelligence chief of the Tamil Tigers, the FBI said.

At the meeting, Sarachandran, who was referred to by his co-accused as "Satha," said he was seeking weapons to use against Sri Lankan military jets. Later that day, the informant sent an e-mail to Sarachandran saying: "I will contact my guy and see what he has."

The FBI informant sent another e-mail to Sarachandran on Aug. 2. "Here are photos of what my guy has available," it said.

The photos showed Russian SA-18 shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles. "Let me know if you guys are interested," it said.

A few days later, Sarachandran indicated that the elusive leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, had seen the photos of the SA-18 missiles, the FBI agent wrote.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 14, an undercover officer posing as an arms dealer contacted Sarachandran, who said he was "serious" about buying the weapons. They spoke again the next day and Sarachandran said he wanted 50 to 100 "needles."

On Aug. 18, Sarachandran and two others left Toronto and drove to Long Island, N. Y., to meet the undercover informant and police officers to further discuss the deal, said the FBI.

They agreed on an initial shipment of 10 missiles and 500 AK-47s. The cost was US$900,000. The weapons were to be delivered by ship off the southern coast of India.

As the meeting was winding up, one of the undercover officers gave a signal and police moved in to make the arrests. The RCMP later arrested three more men in Ontario.

The Tamil Tigers are separatist rebels fighting for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority. Providing material support to the Tigers is a violation of Canadian and U. S. anti-terrorism laws.

Sarachandran is a Canadian citizen. He faces a sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment. He entered his plea as a jury was being selected for his trial.

The two men who accompanied Sarachandran to New York are still awaiting trial. The three arrested in Canada are fighting U. S. efforts to have them extradited to New York.

Piratheepan Nadarajah, 32, of Brampton, is accused of being an accomplice of the two men who pleaded guilty yesterday.

He and Suresh Sriskandarajah, 28, a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo's engineering program, are free on bail and in the midst of a joint extradition. The hearing will continue next month in Toronto, according to his lawyer, John Norris.

Ramanan Mylvaganam, 33, of Malton, Ont., who was a computer engineering student at the University of Waterloo when he was arrested, was ordered extradited in October but is currently on bail pending an appeal, according to the Department of Justice.

The RCMP has been clamping down on Tamil Tigers activity in Canada since 2006. Last year, the government shut down the Toronto and Montreal offices of the World Tamil Movement, a suspected rebel fund-raising front.

An RCMP forensic accounting report says that between 2002 and 2006, the group had wired more than $3-million to overseas accounts, most of them linked to the Tigers. Many Tamil-Canadian donors told police they were pressured into giving money.