Vester Lee Flanagan: shooting 

Virginia TV shooting suspect Vester Lee Flanagan, who appears to have posted a video online showing the shooting of two WDBJ journalists, has died from self-inflicted shooting.

WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2015

Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, were killed in a gun attack during a live TV broadcast at 6.45am Eastern Time. A third person remains in hospital.

Vester Lee Flanagan, who went by the pseudonym Bryce Williams, appears to have posted the material on both his Twitter and Facebook account. Both accounts have since been suspended and the videos are no longer available.

Tweets from the Bryce Williams account, posted just hours after the shooting, included: "I filmed the shooting see Facebook."

A later tweet included an apparent video of the shooting.

The news station WDBJ7, citing state police, has reported that the shooter is in very critical condition, amid conflicting reports that he has shot himself.

How Colombians Are Paying to Save the Venezuelan Regime

BY DANIEL LANSBERG-RODRÍGUEZ-AUGUST 27, 2015

Over the past week, an unprecedented crackdown has been underway in the Venezuelan state of Tachira, where a mass expulsion of unnaturalized Colombians has been undertaken by Venezuelan authorities with uncharacteristic efficiency — if with a tragically characteristic lack of due process. To date, nearly 1,100 individuals — including small children and the elderly — have been summarily deported across the two countries’ shared border: their possessions denied to them, their homes bulldozed to the ground to prevent them from returning. To avoid losing everything, many more Colombians have attempted to salvage what they could of their belongings and cross over on foot, fording the narrow river dividing what, in Simón Bolívar’s day, had been a single, united country.Families have been separated, businesses abandoned, and communities shattered. The sheer number of dispossessed has all but overwhelmed the capacity of local Colombian authorities. In nearby Cúcuta, a Boston-sized city just across the border, refugees are now being housed in tents grouped into makeshift camps – their broken livelihoods mere collateral damage for Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s latest manufactured crisis.

The area where Venezuelan Tachira’s border meets the Colombian state of North Santander is a bit of an oddity for South America. While Spanish and Portuguese colonial boundaries were usually set along major natural obstacles such as the Andes, major tributaries of the Amazon, or impassable jungles, the Tachira River runs only around a meter deep and can be crossed easily at multiple points. For locals in Cúcuta, cut off from the rest of Colombia to the west by the imposing Cordillera Oriental mountain range, this has long rendered Venezuela more accessible than Colombia itself. Tachira, too, has long been a distinct cultural entity from the rest of Venezuela: a no-man’s-land that once birthed most of the country’s military Caudillo strongmen, and now breeds its most adamant anti-government uprisings. Given the porous national border and the many price distortions caused by Venezuela’s arcane multi-tier exchange rate and heavily subsidized staples, a vibrant illicit trade has flourished among the region’s entrepreneurial population, including gasoline smuggling and food arbitrage. Even in faraway Caracas, the street value of black market dollars is referred to as the “Cúcuta price.”

Yet while borderland shenanigans have undoubtedly long undermined the Venezuelan subsidy system, what supposedly triggered the current crackdown was a mysterious non-lethal shootout that took place on August 19, leaving three Venezuelan military personnel wounded. President Maduro immediately blamed the incident on a shadowy Colombian paramilitary force he alleges to be in league with former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe — the perennial nemesis of his late predecessor, Hugo Chávez. This was not, in itself, unusual. The regime has fingered Uribe cabals for a wide panoply of sins, including coup attempts, the murder of Venezuelan pro-government legislator Robert Serra, and ongoing efforts to sabotage the national infrastructure. But the scale of this response soon went far beyond the norm. The next day after the shootout, Maduro unilaterally shut down the border and began the deportations — ostensibly to defend the lives of Venezuelans under threat from Colombian crime — declaring a regional state of emergency that suspended several key constitutional rights (such as the need for a warrant for police to enter private homes).

The perceived mismatch between the relatively minor, and tragically common, event that triggered the crackdown and the scope of the Venezuelan government’s response has raised concerns among the regime’s many critics. Javier El-Hage of the Human Rights Foundation noted thatreports “evidencing the hasty expulsion of thousands of Colombian citizens (including dozens of children separated from their parents) under threat of incarceration over ‘contraband,’ followed by the bulldozing of the houses they leave behind, [make it] very apparent that the government of Venezuela’s actions violate every human rights standard meant to protect undocumented migrants and their children.”

Maduro’s hard-handed reaction can perhaps best be understood in context of his precarious political position. With money tight due to plummeting oil prices, and recent polls predicting almost certain electoral defeat for his unpopular government in upcoming December legislative elections, Maduro seems to be engineering this crisis in hopes of stirring nationalist passions sufficient to bring around public opinion to his side, galvanize his sagging base, or — at the very least — distract Venezuelans from their country’s economic collapse. (Should the crisis continue long enough, and the “state of emergency” remain in place, there’s talk that the government might even use it to justify postponing the elections.)

This wouldn’t be the first time Maduro has put on a show. Thirty months, twenty-six alleged coup attempts, and thirty-two hundred inflationary percentage points into Maduro’s first term, Venezuelans are finding themselves increasingly short of bread and long on circuses. In April, the regime began a series of stylized military/civilian exercises doubling as anti-invasion parades after alleging to have foiled a plot by Joe Biden to aerially bomb the presidential palace. In June, Maduro’s government spearheaded asudden escalation of Venezuela’s centuries-old territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana. When neither prospective bogeyman gained enough traction, government rhetoric began to shift steadily towards vilifying Colombians – Venezuela’s largest immigrant population. “We will soon cut away these malignant tumors, what Colombian paramilitism has brought us,” Maduro promised on television the day deportations began.

As we say in the Caribbean, “it takes two to salsa.” If Maduro’s response has rightly earned him unflattering comparisons to Donald Trump, then the feeble response from his Colombian counterparts has proven worthy of Trump’s hypothetical Mexico (a land that happily pays for border walls and stands idly by as its citizens are summarily rounded up.) On Wednesday, following a five hour emergency meeting (lunch included) that failed to reopen the border or stem the expulsions, the two countries’ respective foreign ministers gave a press conference. Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez characterized the harrowing images flooding out of the area as mere “media manipulation,” to which her Colombian counterpart María Ángela Holguín, looking visibly uncomfortable, ceded lamely that border criminality and smuggling hurts Venezuela’s economy, but that closing the border was not the answer. Both agreed that closer cooperation would be necessary.

According to Federico Hoyos, an opposition Colombian congressman who traveled to Cúcuta at the outset of the crisis, what he saw there was “an insult to Colombian institutions.” “There was essentially no government presence,” he told me, “the victims were helpless and abused.” According to Hoyos, the cause of the border shutdown had more to do with furthering the interests of the Soles cartel — a narcotrafficking operation alleged to exist within the upper echelons of the Venezuelan military — than it did with protecting the local Venezuelan population.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos demurred several days before visiting the affected area on Wednesday. Despite offering a few qualified criticisms of Venezuela’s actions, he has largely sought to distance himself from the crisis. Saddled with relatively low approval ratings, and an economy struggling to hang on despite anemic commodity-export prices and rising inflation, his political viability is increasingly dependent on whether he can fulfill his promise to broker a lasting peace with Colombia’s violent guerilla forces. As peace talks in Havana have dragged on, Venezuela’s crucial role in keeping the nominally Maoist FARC, its ideological and political ally, at the negotiating table, has made Santos wary of incensing his erratic neighbors lest it undermine this signature goal.

South America has long been prone to both natural and unnatural disasters. The victims of this most recent humanitarian calamity are caught in a political perfect storm, trapped between Venezuela’s populist revolution, attempting in its death throes to buy itself time whatever the cost; and a Colombian government unwilling to place the interests of its most vulnerable citizens above its own.

In the photo, Colombians deported from Venezuela return for their belongings and carry them across the Tachira River on August 25, 2015.

Photo credit: LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

FBI demanded Scandinavian countries arrest Edward Snowden should he visit

The whistleblower will not travel to Norway next week to accept award after national broadcaster released letters US sent in 2013 requesting extradition

 The Norway national broadcaster NRK released letters the FBI sent northern European countries requesting extradition of Edward Snowden if he claimed asylum after 2013 leak. Photograph: Uncredited/AP

David Crouch in London-Friday 28 August 2015 

The FBI demanded that Scandinavian countries arrest and extradite Edward Snowden if he flew to any of those countries and claimed asylum, newly released official documents reveal.

In the summer of 2013 the whistleblower had left his hotel in Hong Kong and was holed up in Moscow airport applying to various countries, including Norway, for asylum after leaking to the Guardian a massive cache of documents disclosing the shocking extent of US and British surveillance of digital communications.

Suspecting that Snowden might seek asylum in Scandinavia, the FBI wrote from the US embassy in Copenhagen to the police forces of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland to inform them that the US Department of Justice had charged Snowden with theft and espionage, and issued a provisional warrant for his arrest, according to documents released by Norway’s national broadcaster NRK.

“The US Department of Justice is prepared to immediately draft the necessary paperwork to request the extradition of Snowden to the US from whichever country he travels to from Moscow,” the letter, dated 27 June, states. “The FBI expresses its gratitude … for any assistance that can be provided on this important matter.”

In a separate letter to the Norwegian foreign ministry on the same day, the US embassy in Oslo spelled out its request that the government of Norway should “effectuate the return of Mr Snowden to the United States by way of denial of entry, deportation, expulsion or other legal means”. 

In a subsequent letter dated 4 July the embassy repeated its request that Snowden be arrested and extradited to the US under the 1977 extradition treaty between the two countries.

Snowden’s lawyer Ben Wizner told NRK he suspects that the US sent similar documents to most of Europe and other countries at the time.

Snowden has been invited to Norwaynext week to receive the Bjørnson Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression, but he decided not to travel because he could not receive guarantees from the Norwegian government that he would not be extradited, the academy told NRK.

The Norwegian government said it had not replied to the requests from the FBIand the US embassy in Oslo to extradite Snowden because he had not come to Norway.

Julian Assange, the whistleblowing journalist wanted by the US for leaking thousands of diplomatic and military communications, sought asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London three years ago because of his fears of extradition to the US should he comply with Swedish demands to travel to Stockholm for interrogation over sexual assault allegations. Sweden has declined to issue a guarantee of his safety, arguing that Assange would be adequately protected by human rights legislation.

Informed by the Guardian about the NRK revelations, Thomas Olsson, one of Julian Assange’s legal team in Stockholm, said: “This shows the Americans are very determined to get their hands on people that they think have damaged their security or a threat to security policy, and that includes of course Julian Assange.”

A spokesperson for the Swedish police said the FBI’s request was a matter for the Prosecution Authority, which stated: “Normally the Swedish Prosecution Authority gets involved after a person is apprehended and the police need to contact a prosecutor in order to get the suspected under detention. The decision regarding extradition is taken by the Swedish government.”

RBI more likely to cut rates in September, GDP growth steady - Reuters Poll

Commuters travel past a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building in Kolkata November 11, 2014.-REUTERS/RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI/FILES

BY SIDDHARTH IYER- Fri Aug 28, 2015

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REUTERS - There is a better than even chance that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will cut interest rates at its policy meeting on Sept. 29 thanks to inflation striking a record low, according to a Reuters poll, marking a shift in expectations from earlier.

The median from survey of 21 economists showed a 60 percent chance that the central bank would cut its policy repo rate from 7.25 percent at the next meeting, whereas a previous poll in July had shown a move was more likely in the final three months of the year.

Since then, India has released consumer price data for July that showed retail inflation at a record low of 3.78 percent, giving the RBI more room to ease policy.

Keen to inject more momentum in the economy and encourage investment, the government and business community have urged the central bank to lower interest rates, though RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has stressed that he wants to see low inflation on a sustained basis.

"We have fuel disinflation making a comeback all over again. Crude prices are back down," said Vishnu Varathan, senior economist at Mizuho Bank.

Varathan noted the price of onions, a staple ingredient in Indian cooking, was beginning to rise, putting upward pressure on food inflation.

But, he said the RBI would find it harder to cut interest rates later in the year, if the U.S. Federal Reserve delays raising interest rates, which it is expected to do.

The RBI left interest rates unchanged at its last policy review on Aug.4, having already cut them by 75 basis points this year as a slump in global commodity prices brought inflation under control. By holding rates steady, Rajan went against the majority on an advisory panel, who had recommended a reduction.

India is due to release economic growth data for the April-June quarter on Monday.

The median forecast given by 27 economists put year-on-year growth at 7.4 percent for the quarter, slowing from 7.5 percent in the January-March period.

Whereas the headline figure looks healthy, many economists have treated the data series with caution since the statistics department revised its methodology for measuring gross domestic product earlier this year.

Other indicators and on-the-ground evidence suggest the economy is struggling, and there is growing impatience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to implement more policies that can galvanise growth.

The government is trying to introduce a nationwide goods and services tax to create a more unified market in a country where levies can differ from state to state.

Twelve of the 21 economists polled doubted whether the government could roll out the tax before the next fiscal year begins in April.

(Polling by Khushboo Mittal and Shaloo Shrivastava; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

WARNING TO PARENTS: These are not gummy candies, it’s a new lethal drugs!

There is new drug on the black market. It is called strawberry met. It smells like strawberry and looks like rubber or jelly candy or Pop Rocks. Warn your children!

BY ADMIN · AUGUST 17, 2015

This drug is crystal meth with strawberry flavor and can kill people.

This is a new form of crystal target, which is called “strawberry meth”. This drug is a subspecies of methamphetamine, which is used for many years in the West.

The drug is also available in other flavors like chocolate. Warn your children, because this drug is crystal meth with strawberry flavor and can kill them. This is definitely one of the ugliest and shortest paths to death.

Otherwise, crystal meth (Crystal Meth) is one of the synthetic drugs and is becoming increasingly popular in the EU countries and the USA. Number of users and addicts of this drug increases every year, and the authorities have shown themselves to be powerless to stop the penetration of evil, especially among young people.

If it is taken for a long time, there is a large organic and psychological disorder. This powder, like tiny crystals (which is also called “ice” – ice), may be taken orally, sniffing, smoking or even intravenously – a syringe. The production process is simple, and when you take, strongly activates certain brain cells. The people who take it develop a strong physical and psychological dependence.

The drug is produced in home laboratories; a gram costs about 70 euros. It can be taken as a pill that sniffed as a powder or an injection. It is much more dangerous than cocaine and heroin because it acts detrimental to the brain and central nervous system. The user begins to deteriorate physically, gets gruesome eczema and blisters all over the body, and many of them eventually are diagnosed with HIV.

Bodies of victims murdered at Girithale army camp deposited in tombs of others and covered !

(Lanka-e-News 27.Aug.2015, 11.00PM) During the Mahinda Rajapakse brutal reign, following  the white Van  abductions,the victims were taken to the Girithale army camp where a torture chamber and a murder chamber were operated, and were killed there after inflicting torture. Thereafter the remains of these victims were taken to remote places of burial and hidden by depositing them in the tombs of others and covered. The slabs on the  existing tombs are opened and the bodies of the victims are deposited  within, the CID has uncovered during investigation.

An  ex minister Mervyn Silva a bosom pal of the Rajapakses, revealed during the period of the regime  these white van operations were carried out by none other than ex defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. Mervyn Silva who was extremely close to the Rajapkses at one time surely must be knowing the Rajapakse secrets , cruelties, brutalities  and murder instincts better than all else.

During the Rajapakse reign when the white Van fear psychosis was raging among the people, various murder squads associated with the white van  abducted wealthy multi million businessmen, landed proprietors , planters, journalists,   trade union activists, political opponents of Rajapakses , NGO officials, and took them to the Girithale camp after first blindfolding them.

It was the favorite occupation of the abductors to detain them at the camp , and demand ransom in millions from the relatives of the victims with the full knowledge and permission of Gotabaya Rajapakse.

All these criminal  operators were provided with separate SIM cards for their  phones. It has come to light one exclusive SIM card only is used pertaiining to each abduction. 

Victims who succeeded in granting the ransom demanded were released after taking them to remote places and  removing the blindfolds. In other instances where the victims were unable to oblige them with cash ransoms , signatures were obtained on papers which are proof that ownership of their lands and properties have been transferred outright to the army criminal officers. Thereafter they are released, the investigations have revealed.

Those victims who could not  provide what are mentioned in the foregoing paragraph , are subjected to  first degree torture and killed. The bodies are then taken to the cemeteries , deposited and hidden inside  existing graves of others after removing the tomb slabs, and covering again.

Based on unofficial secret reports , when Prageeth was being interrogated at Girithale camp , the self proclaimed web gode father scoundrel who says he is of  portuguese origin had secretly passed a copy of the book written by Prageeth about Rajapakse family to Gotabaya , and had helped  those bestial  army officers who were questioning , and exchanged ideas with them.

It is this same web gode father having  portuguese sername in him who is indulging in all the sordid activities to cleanse and  portray the Rajapakses as pure while blaming the murder of Prageeth on  Karuna Amman and Champika Ranawake , and also making a din, falsely accusing that Prageeth is a LTTE cadre.

By -T. Jayakumar
Translated by Jeff

---------------------------
by     (2015-08-27 19:52:02)

TNA consolidates with strong Diaspora backing 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-August 26, 2015, 10:05 pm

In the wake of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) winning the lion’s share of seats in the Northern and Eastern electoral districts at the recently concluded parliamentary polls, influential South African Tamil Federation (SATF) has reiterated its support to the four-party political grouping.

The TNA comprises Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF.

In a brief statement issued on Aug. 24, Nadas Pillay, on behalf of SATF said: "TNA’s victory sends a very clear message that the people in Sri Lanka want change and that change should take place immediately."

The TNA also received the backing of the UK headquartered Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), TNA UK and TNA Canada.

The hard-line Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) failed to secure a single seat in five Northern and Eastern electoral districts. Diaspora sources told The Island that International Council of Eelam Tamils (ICET) threw its weight behind the TNPF. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam’s TNPF also received the backing of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).Jaffna based sources told The Islandthat Gajendrakumar Ponnanbalam’s outfit had the backing of Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran who went to the extent of publicly defying the TNA’s polls strategy on its behalf and issuing veiled backing for hardliners.

Moderate TULF, too, suffered a humiliating defeat at the Aug. 17 polls.

Rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres failed to attract the Jaffna electorate in spite of fielding an independent group after the TNA declined to accommodate them. Ex-Tigers turned down a TULF offer to contest under its symbol.

Former EPRLF MP Suresh Premachandran, who had been taking an extremely hard-line stance vis-a-vis the state policy failed to retain his Jaffna seat. Premachandran was the main TNA casualty in Jaffna.

TNA heavyweight M.A. Sumanthiran yesterday told The Island that the grouping had received the overwhelming mandate of the Tamil speaking people living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Attorney-at-law Sumanthiran said that the Aug. 17 election gave the TNA an opportunity to further consolidate its position.

At the last parliamentary polls in April, 2010, the TNA secured 14 seats, including one National List slot. At the recently concluded polls, the TNA obtained 16 seats, including two NL slots.

Jaffna District MP elect Sumanthiran said that the ITAK, the main constituent of the TNA, secured 10 seats, including two NL slots, whereas TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF shared two seats each.

The remaining Northern and Eastern seats were shared by the UNP (1 in Jaffna, 1 in Vanni, 1 in Batticaloa, 1 in Digamadulla and 2 in Trincomalee), EPDP (1 in Jaffna), UPFA (1 in Vanni, 2 in Digamadulla and 1 in Trincomalee), SLMC (3 in Digamadulla and 1 in Batticaloa) and ACMC (1 each in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Vavuniya).

Responding to allegations as regards appointment of two defeated ITAK candidates namely former MP K. Thurairatnasingam from Trincomalee and Shanthi Sriskantharajah from Vanni to parliament via the NL, Sumanthiran said that they were named after having closely considered the requirements of the districts of Mullaitivu and Trincomalee. Sumanthiran emphasized that Shanthi Sriskantharajah fell short of 302 votes to secure a place from the Vanni. The former NL MP pointed out that she was the only TNA woman representative named to the new parliament. Thurairatnasingam would have to play an important role in Trincomalee due to political veteran R. Sampanthan being deeply involved in critically important party matters, Sumanthiran said.

Sampanthan will continue to function as the leader of the TNA parliamentary group.

Authoritative government sources said that the TNA’s performance clearly reflected the electorate’s support for ongoing post-war national reconciliation efforts.

Sumanthiran said the TNA would pursue its strategies meant to guarantee the rights of the Tamil people.

Longer wait for new Cabinet

By Dharisha Bastians-Friday, 28 August 2015

The National Unity Government continued to show teething problems with a further delay expected in the appointment of the new cabinet of ministers as the tussle for portfolios between the SLFP and the UNP continues and the Government navigates a legislative blockade on the number of Ministers allowed by the Constitution.
UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema said on Wednesday that the Cabinet would be sworn in on 2 September, but sources say the swearing-in could be delayed by a few more days.
A more likely date for the oath-taking could be 4 September, the sources said.
 The SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake claimed at a press briefing yesterday that the delay was due to the SLFP annual convention being held on 2 September. However, sources say the parties are yet to reach final consensus on the allocation of portfolios as the two main parties with a history of bitter rivalry try to share power in the new setup.
The 19th Amendment enacted in April limits the number of ministers to 30, but makes provision for Parliament to set an appropriate number in the event a National Government is formed.
The UNP, which won the largest number of seats in elections last week, must announce the formation of a unity government to Parliament, before ministerial appointments accommodating the SLFP can be made.
The JVP is demanding a debate on the number of National List MPs before approving the bigger numbers, sources said.
Ministers drawn from the 106 UNP MPs could take oaths ahead of the first session of the new Parliament on 1 September, but the entire Cabinet is more likely to be sworn in together, Daily FT learns.

The National Unity Cabinet could number up to 45 ministers with 30 drawn from the UNP and 15 from the SLFP. Daily FT learns that at least three key ministries were being offered to the SLFP, including Samurdhi and Agriculture. The Ministry of Highways was also in play for the SLFP, with a senior member of the party who held a position in the previous Parliament staking a claim for the portfolio.  A tussle over the Health portfolio also erupted during the negotiations, with the same senior SLFP member demanding the ministry, informed sources told Daily FT.  
His efforts were stymied, the sources said, because President Maithripala Sirisena loyalist Rajitha Senaratne is likely to be reinstated as minister of health. Former cricket skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, who contested in the Gampaha District on the UNP ticket, is also likely to retain the Ports Ministry, Daily FT learns. JHU strongman Champika Ranawaka is tipped to be given a key portfolio relating to the Government’s major development plans for the Western Province, but it is not yet clear if he will be willing to give up his favoured power and energy portfolio, the sources said.

Prageeth’s Matale Mistress And Douglas Devananda’s Secretary To Be Questioned; First Abduction Was Exactly Six Years Ago Today

August 27, 2015

The reason for suppressing details regarding the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda prior to the August 2015 Parliamentary elections is that the Criminal Investigation Department had already questioned Ekneligoda’s mistress and the Maithripala Sirisena – Ranil Wickremesinghe led government felt that it may have been counter productive to their election drive, an officer investigating the disappearance of Ekneligoda told Colombo Telegraph.

Also during that period prior to the elections Ekneligoda’s wife Sandya Ekneligoda held a press conference and claimed that information pertaining to the disappearance of her husband had not been released to the public.

*Photo courtesy Lionel Bopage – Prageeth (sitting at the centre) at a discussion before the day he was made to disappear

In response to Sandya’s claims the police spokesman making a counter statement said that the CID cannot reveal all the information in their possession as the investigation was still in progress.

In the run up to the August general elections the anti-Rajapaksa camp used Sandya Ekneligoda the wife of Prageeth as an icon in their campaign of disappeared persons.

However in a dramatic change in the CID’s investigation into the disappearance of Prageeth Ekenligoda, it is reported that Ekneligoda’s mistress and the former Minister Douglas Devananda‘s media secretary Nelson Edirisinghe are to be brought in soon to be questioned formally. Previously the duo had been questioned by the CID and information was gathered in informally.              Read More    

Shame..! Mahinda urges Maithri to halt Prageeth murder investigation ; Gota intimidates IGP ; Basnayake even goes beyond..!!

(Lanka-e-News 27.Aug.2015, 6.00 AM)  The deposed discarded ex president Mahinda Rajapakse universally known for his brutal and lawless traits has most unashamedly and unlawfully requested the incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena to stop the on going investigations into the abduction and ruthless cold blooded murder of Lanka e news journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda , based on reports reaching Lanka e news. President Maithripala has brushed aside the request with the contempt it deserved, it is reported.

Following the elections , Mahinda has met president Maithripala and made one request – that is to halt  the Ekneliyagoda murder investigation . It is now very clear that Mahinda (who was behind these crimes) is in mortal fear that he,  and Gotabaya who gave orders  would be exposed, following  the recent arrest and detention of the army officers in this connection. Hence Mahinda   had sought to instigate Maithripala  to make this most despicable deplorable step  and halt the investigation. 

Even after president Maithripala has duly rejected this request , it is reported that the present defense secretary B.M.U.D. Basnayake another  shameless lickspittle and lackey of the criminal  Rajapakses is making sly and illegal moves to rescue and safeguard the ruthless brutal Rajapakses , it is learnt.

Basnayake reluctant to sign D.O.

Believe it or not , the defense secretary Basnayake even at this moment has not signed the order to grant permission to the CID to continue with the detention of the four army officers (suspects) namely ,Lieutenant Colonels Shammi Kumararatne and Siriwardena, staff sergeant Rajapakse and Corporal in charge Jayalath  of the Giritale camp at that time  , who abducted and murdered Ekneliyagoda. Mind you ,while it is the defense secretary of the country who should take the initiative in these investigations , it is a cruel irony  Basnayake our own defense secretary is acting like an accomplice in the crimes trying to save the culprits .

It is to be noted with concern that if the detention order is not extended in respect of the four suspects who were arrested on the 24 th , it will eventuate in   the release of the culprits without completing the questioning.  

Ordinarily under the laws, a suspect can be detained only for 72 hours .Thereafter he must be produced before a court. But as these suspects are army officers involved in conspiracy , abduction , torture and murder of citizens of the country , and those offences   fall into the category of heinous crimes , and as giving authority to  acts of terrorism , these suspects can be held in custody for 90 days , and investigated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act  (PTA). This in other words is to enable the investigators to track down the masterminds at the bottom and behind these conspiracies and crimes.

Basnayake profusely lies

Basnayake instead of performing his duties duly as a defense secretary , has acted like an accomplice in these crimes by going out of the way to justify the criminal actions while  uttering all the sinister lies .To a prominent journalist who questioned him yesterday (26) evening on this , Basnayake uttered a blatant  lie brazenly that he is being pressurized . When he was asked who that was , he said, a patriotic party leader linked to the UNF and a former powerful minister gave three calls to him and urged him to get the army suspects released . But when Lanka e news delved into this , it was discovered it is  another stinking  lie turned out from Basnayake’s  lie factory .

Not only president Maithripala , even the army commander revealed openly at a media briefing yesterday (their secret moves to the contrary notwithstanding ) that the army ought not hamper the Ekneliyagoda murder investigation, and  because the investigations are  under way , nothing further can be disclosed.

According to reports reaching Lanka e news, the attorney general (AG) too  in his recommendations to Basnayake has said , the suspects can be detained under the PTA.

In the circumstances , Basnayake must without playing the role of an anti  national villain and culprit must reveal to the people why he is holding back without signing the detention order. If Basnayake who secured his appointment from a government that won by marching proudly  over the dead bodies of Ekneliyagoda and countless many law abiding citizens is still trying his sordid pranks to camouflage the Ekneliyagoda murder ,it is doubtless he is provoking the entire nation and uniting the people  against him . The people no longer want  a Basnayake who commits  the same evils what Gota indulged in.

It is an indisputable fact that the present defense secretary was from the beginning acting overtly and covertly  for and on behalf of  the murderous and criminal Rajapakses who using brutal powers kept the people trampled under their oppressive and repressive barbaric reign. 

When this present defense secretary made a statement to exonerate  ex defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse of charges against him of holding back many millions of rupees of the treasury that are due to the treasury , even  a former president of the country Chandrika Bandaranaike  said in  public , Basnayake is not suitable for the post , and is a one sided pro Rajapakse regime shameless  bootlicking official .

CaFFE and ‘Web Gode father’ concoct misleading theories.

Gotabaya Rajapkse who earned colossal sums of money through illegal channels , is now spending recklessly and prodigally to repel  any accusations that could mount on him.  He has parted with large sums of money to portray a wrong picture in regard to the Ekneliyagoda murder and misdirect  the investigations . Here is one example.

The solitary Director of the so called CaFFE election monitoring organization issued a media communiqué which was not at all relevant to the elections monitoring. He pointed out the draconian laws under the PTA  should be invalidated. This sudden announcement  absolutely unrelated to election monitoring which is out of point and out of place was made to give  unethical publicity and a base  to prevent the suspects from being questioned after obtaining a detention order. Obviously this publicity and its intensity are commensurate with the massive kickbacks collected . 

The unscrupulous web Gode father that is run on the funds provided by Gotabaya , is also deeply in his toils to enlist 4 -5 more websites and prove that the  brutal cold blooded murder of Ekneliyagoda is justifiable , and that he was associated with the LTTE.

Meanwhile Gotabaya who telephoned the IGP this noon had spoken for more than half an hour to accomplish his  fell foul designs . Gotabaya has forced the IGP to stop the Ekneliyagoda murder inquiry by the CID forthwith .

Black coated shark 

Lieutenant Colonel Shammi Kumararatne involved in the Ekneliyagoda murder has sought the legal  assistance of a popular lawyer who is a UNP provincial council member .The other Lieutenant Colonel Siriwardena  has sought legal  assistance of another popular  lawyer of the national list of the JVP.

We wish to request these two lawyers , no matter the millions offered as fees , pleased do not sacrifice your self respect and dignity at the altar of filthy lucre by appearing on behalf of these cold blooded ruthless murderers who profusely lied , abducted and brutally murdered journalist and  intellectual Prageeth Ekneliyagoda , a father of two innocent children . After all , as a human being , among other traits  what makes you different from an animal and a black coated shark (nickname for lawyers) is your ability to place yourself in the  shoes of the victim and show sympathy towards the family and children  who are rendered destitute owing to these heartless criminals. Otherwise , Lanka  e news is in the ready to highlight the difference between your soothing words and your wrongful  deeds.  

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by     (2015-08-27 19:59:50)

Sri Lanka’s Tangled Democracy; Primed for Progress in Colombo?

By Taylor Dibbert.-27/08/2015

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election is over, and the results are in. By capturing 45.7 percent of the votes and 106 seats in a vote held on August 17, the United National Party (UNP) has narrowly won.

Sri Lanka’s newly elected president Mithripala Sirisena waves at media as he leaves the election commission in Colombo, January 9, 2015.

Dinuka Liyanawatte / Reuters

Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of Sri Lanka’s United National Party (UNP), waves next to his wife Maitree Wickremesinghe at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Colombo, August 19, 2015.
Dinuka Liyanawatte / Reuters

Sri Lanka’s Tangled Democracy Primed for Progress in Colombo by Thavam Ratna