A University of Waterloo engineering graduate who was arrested in Ontario during a U.S. anti-terror probe used his student status to mask his work for the Tamil Tigers terrorist organization and recruited other students to act as couriers to smuggle equipment to Sri Lanka, U.S. authorities allege.
TORONTO - A University of Waterloo engineering graduate who was arrested in Ontario during a U.S. anti-terror probe used his student status to mask his work for the Tamil Tigers terrorist organization and recruited other students to act as couriers to smuggle equipment to Sri Lanka, U.S. authorities allege.
Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, of Waterloo, Ont., worked in Canada to aid the victims of the 2004 tsunami, is an accomplished athlete and academically gifted, having completed his electrical engineering degree in June on two scholarships.
Sriskandarajah, who appeared briefly in a Kitchener, Ont., court Tuesday, is also alleged to be an operative for the Tigers code named ''Waterloo Suresh.''
He is wanted in New York to face charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He is accused of researching and acquiring aviation equipment, submarine and warship design software, communications equipment and, from a British Columbia company, night-vision equipment.
He also allegedly laundered money for Tiger activities.
He is one of at least four Canadian men of Tamil descent who have been arrested in the probe. Three men were arrested in New York after a meeting to buy anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and other military weapons, the FBI says in court records.
Sriskandarajah was arrested near Toronto Monday at the urgent request of the U.S. government. A formal request for his extradition is expected.
RCMP officers executed two search warrants, one north of Toronto and the other in Kitchener, as part of their probe, code named Project O-Needle.
There is also another man, who allegedly worked closely with Sriskandarajah, wanted by U.S. authorities who is believed to be in Canada. His name has not been officially released. He is believed to be a man who was turned away at the Canada-U.S. border because of a prior criminal record when co-conspirators went to New York to allegedly buy the military hardware.
Sriskandarajah used his status as a university student to legitimize his inquiries about buying military software from a British company, prosecutors allege.
Sriskandarajah and another man were concerned about being asked why they wanted it.
''They are asking me a lot of questions. I don't want to sound suspicious, so want to give them a good answer,'' said an unnamed man in an e-mail to Sriskandarajah, the FBI alleges.
Sriskandarajah ''devised an elaborate scheme to make it appear as if the software was merely for a school project,'' according to FBI Special Agent James Tareco in documents.
The student ruse was also tried on a company in British Columbia, the FBI says. To justify their interest in night-vision equipment, a co-conspirator said it was for ''a fourth-year design project we are doing at our university,'' according to documents.
Sriskandarajah was also allegedly involved in organizing student couriers to travel to Sri Lanka with equipment hidden in their luggage.
''Here is the info you'll need... read it / print it / delete this e-mail afterwards,'' Sriskandarajah allegedly wrote in an e-mail to student couriers.
He allegedly directed the students to cover the smuggled items with teddy bears and chocolates to divert the attention of government border guards.
When opening their suitcases, they were told to give the border agents each a bag of chocolates, cigarettes and a smile.
''(D)on't tell anyone besides your family about your departure; you idiots already told way too much people,'' the e-mail continues, according to the FBI.
Once through government checkpoints, they would have no problems at the Tigers checkpoints, Sriskandarajah allegedly wrote in the e-mail.
''Tell them Waterloo Suresh sent you,'' the e-mail says.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly called the Tamil Tigers, are fighting for a Tamil homeland separate from Sri Lanka and are notorious for its use of suicide bombings and its assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister. It was declared a terrorist organization in the U.S. in 1997 and in Canada this year.
Hal Mattson, the attorney who represented Sriskandarajah at his hearing Tuesday, said his client graduated from the University of Waterloo in June in engineering and travelled to Sri Lanka for a co-op term.
''He seemed to be a very polite young man,'' Mattson.
Sriskandarajah wrote often in university publications and on Tamil sites about his experiences and his life.
Professing a passion for landscape photography, he writes on his own site that he grew up in a town called ''VVT, the northern tip of Tamil Eelam (north of Sri Lanka).''
In a February, 2005, edition of the Imprint, the student newspaper, Sriskandarajah tells of travelling to northeastern Sri Lanka with a group of 11 University of Waterloo students on a foreign aid mission, only to find themselves providing emergency relief when the Boxing Day tsunami struck.
He complained in the article about a shortage of aid flowing into the northeast, a region controlled by the Tamil Tigers.
''During my time there, I saw very little help being provided to those in need,'' he said. ''The only organization present was the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, which was looking after the displaced people in the refugee camps.''
He adds: ''I also saw many members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam assisting with clearing bodies in Mullitivu area.''
Sriskandarajah also remarked on an initial lack of media attention in the area and recounted acting as a guide for foreign media that eventually trickled in to the northeast.
Working abroad, Sriskandarajah said, was a ''life-changing experience.''
Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby confirmed Tuesday that he has been retained as Sriskandarajah's council, at the request of his family.
Nick Devlin, a federal prosecutor with Canada's Department of Justice, said the U.S. government has 60 days to make a formal extradition request through diplomatic channels and Sriskandarajah has the right to seek bail in the interim.
National Post
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