some details about terrorist arrests in u.s.

here are some details i was able to collect regarding the people and events leading up to the arrests made in united states during last few days.

people involved.
ci-1 - confidential informant 1, of sri lankan tamil origin living in staten island, new york. he had previously agreed to co-operate with the government after a drug trafficking conviction a decade ago and, in return for immigration status in america. he is the same person designated as ci-1 in both complaints.
uc -1 and uc -2 in first compliant - undercover fbi agents pretending to be state department officials.
uc -1 and uc -2 in second complaint - undercover fbi agents pretending to be an arms dealer and an arms expert respectively ( i will refer to the later two as uc -1b and uc- 2b to avoid confusion.

defendants:
sathajhan sarachandran, - “satha”- dob: 10/31/79

sahilal sabaratnam, - “sahil” - dob: 2/8/79
"financial guy"
class of 1998 - east york collegiate institute, ontario, canada
director, communications, canadian tamil congress, toronto, tel: (416) 662-6372, e-mail: ctc.toronto@gmail.com
a statement issued by him on behalf of ctc after the dharmaratnam sivaram (former tamilnet editor) murder was carried by "northeastern herald", now defunct (?) online publication given space in tamil canadian.com. original page there is not available but google cache is .

thiruthanikan thanigasalam, - “thani” - dob: 6/11/68

nadarasa yograrasa, - “yoga” - dob: 10/8/54

murugesu vinayagamoorthy, -“dr. moorthy”- “vinayagamoorthy murugesu” - dob: 4/24/49
a doctor based in london. uk. (not to be confused with another murugesu vinayagamoorthy, an engineer living in sacramento, usa). wife - dr. pushpam vinayagamoorthy.
lrcps 1978 glasg, lrcp 1978 edin, lrcs 1978 edin.
the green practice, forest road health centre, 2a forest road,edmonton, london, N9 8RZ
tel: 020-8805-8180, 020-8443-3937
attorney joseph kilada: "i could quantify him as a political activist"

natchimuttu socrates - dob: 11/20/51
16, heartstone drive harford , connecticut. 06070 USA
engineer of south indian origin.
owner of "ew granites & marbles", www.ewgm.us.
1547 new britain avenue , farmington, connecticut 06032
tel: 860-674-0853/800-966-8460
fax: 860-676-2861/860-678-9543
socrates@ewgm.us
son aristotle socrates : "he's a well-educated community oriented father," "charges are absurd", "they've made a gross miscalculation"
daughter thernal socrates: "we think he’s innocent and that all the charges will be dropped”, “i think this seems to be the new trend these days”, “i don’t know where this is coming from."
attorney gerald del piano: "we plan to fully and vigorously contest the charges". "outstanding member of the community who looks forward to resolving these issues as soon as possible"

vijayshanthar patpanathan, - “chandru” - dob: 4/5/62

thirukumaran sivasubramaniam - dob: 6/20/79
(former?) computer science student of university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada .
sometime president of waterloo tamil students’ association (watsa)

suresh sriskandarajah - age 26
arrested separately in ontario, canada. see below for possible explanation.
personal website www.planetsuresh.com. including photos by him.
founder media-icon.com , web design company
founder vanni innovation group( www.vannigroup.org) - which sends volunteers to vanni to help in 'various projects' in conjunction with tamil rehabilitation organization(tro) and other ngos
(former?) electrical engineering student of university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada .
sometime president (?)of waterloo tamil students’ association (watsa)
former student westview centennial secondary school

timeline

note: throughout the time involved authorities seem to have tracked e-mails, telephone conversations, bank accounts (including those used to launder and fund ltte activities, through ltte fronts like tamil rehabilitation organization (tro) and world tamil coordinating committee, which are mentioned by name). complaints also say these fronts also sent goods and material to ltte in sri lanka.

2004
murugesu vinayagamoorthy and natchimuttu socrates meet uc -1 and uc -2 through ci -1 and offer a bribe with up front payment of us$ 1 million to remove ltte from state department’s foreign terrorist organization list. vinayagamoorthy claims he traveled to states for the express purpose of meeting uc -1 and uc-2 under instructions from "senior ltte leadership in sri lanka". discussions continue.

2005 july
socrates asks whether they "could stop the united states government from sending arms to the sri lankan government" and "provide intelligence about this issue".

2005 september 29
in staten island, vinayagamoorthy when asked about whether ltte will continue to use suicide bombers, says "i feel i have to mention … in the event of war happening, i think it is inevitable that suicide bombing will be used."

sometime during this time an interim payment of $5500 is made to agents by natchimuttu socrates. however the scheme is put on hold ( not clear when) due to prevailing situation in sri lanka.

2005 december
natchimuttu socrates meets uc -1 and ci -1 in order to purchase a classified intelligence document with details of the investigation by u.s. and another foreign government into the tamil rehabilitation organization (tro). he pays uc -1 us$ 1000 to review it (fbi use a specially created fake document for the purpose), and then passes on the information to vinayagamoorthy.

2006 april
canada names ltte as a terrorist organization.
canadian authorities raid the toronto and montreal offices of the world tamil movement(wtm)

2006 july
nadarasa yograrasa(yoga) calls ci -1 to request that ci -1 put him in contact with a black market arms dealer. call recorded.

2006 july 31
ci-1 , yoga, and sathajhan sarachandran(satha), meet in queens, new york and discuss the required weapons with specific reference to surface-to-air missiles to bring down sri lankan government's kfir fighter aircraft. satha says he is under directions from pottu amman (ltte's intelligence chief). he says there is a 'big guy ' in canada who is the pottu amman's direct contact (name of this person is still classified, not known whether he was one of those arrested ). conversation recoded.

later emails are exchanged between satha and ci -1 (under fbi direction). some extracts below.
same day from ci- 1 to satha : "met you today, thanks for meeting. i will contact my guy to see what he has, if it is ok. do you want me to send you pictures of the merchandise?"

2006 august 1
from satha to ci-1: " i am waiting for your merchandise pictures."
from ci -1 to satha: "here are photos of what my guy has available. sa-18 russian made shoulder fired. let me know if your guys are interested. give me a list of what they want and i will ask him what he can get" . two photographs of an sa-18 surface-to-air missile were attached to this email
satha forwards these emails to sri lanka quoting prices: "sa18 $75,000 us 1 reusable and 1 needle and 1 needle $50,000 us". according to fbi "needle" is code for a missile.

2006 august 7
ci -1 and yoga meet again to discuss weapons including AK-47s and truck-mounted missile systems.

2006 august 14
uc -1b calls satha posing as the arms dealer known to ci-1.
satha: "the deal is urgent. unfortunately, we need to meet fast, uh, asap"

2006 august 18
sahilal sabaratnam (sahil) , thiruthanikan thanigasalam (thani), and satha, all three of them canadians, travel to u.s by car from canada telling u.s customs they are going to a bachelor party in buffalo. another person traveling with them (suresh sriskandarajah?) was not allowed to enter u.s by customs agents because of past criminal record and travels back by taxi.

2006 august 19
sahil, thani, and satha, meet ci-1 in queens and travel to long island to meet uc-1b and uc-2b. a sa -18 surface-to-air missile along with firing tube and trigger mechanism (in a wooden crate), and two ak-47 s were brought to the room.
conversation recorded . some extracts.

thani: "we need something for kfir"
uc-1b: "You want to shoot this airplane down?"
thani: "yes"

one of the three defendants: "sometimes getting five or 10 needles is not worth it. it has to be obtained in bulk. at our rate, if we fire 10 at least two will hit."

uc - 1b: (observing the crate )" it looks like a casket".
uc- 2b : "it would put quite a few people in caskets"
defendants say "yes" and laugh.
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they also discuss weapons to destroy 'boats', unmanned aerial vehicles for jamming radio transmissions and radar, submarine design software, flight lessons, cell towers, radio controller equipment, global positioning system equipment, short wavelength radio equipment, radio and satellite equipment, air traffic equipment, cameras, computers, and a host of other items
after discussions they agree to pay $900,000-937,500 for 10 missiles (with possibility of buying 50 to 100 later)and 500 ak-47s. uc-2b is to provide training on the use of missiles in sri lanka. cargo to be delivered ship to ship in indian ocean. payment to be made using bank accounts in switzerland, st. croix, or other offshore locations

2006 august 21
of the defendants mentioned above, six are arrested in new york, two outside new york (natchimuttu socrates in his simsbury, conn., home), one in canada (suresh sriskandarajah by royal canadian mounted police in an undisclosed location in southern ontario). altogether at least 13 were arrested and eight named and seven unnamed people are charged. eight named are the first eight defendants here. no details about others.

some sources
us doj press release, usnewswire, reuters, new york times (registration free link), washington post, washington times, new york sun, associated press, upi, ny daily news, national post, canada.com, courant, cnn, sri lanka peace secteraiat, mod sri lanka, media center for national security, asain tribune, tamilnet, spur on other tro and ltte connections

feel free to point out errors or ask for clarifications.
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ps
i wrote most of this yesterday. was so busy with work that i did not have time to finish and publish it. i have the same excuse for my inability to reply to comments here or visit other blogs. hopefully i will get less busy during next day or two.