Rebel group funded congressman's trip to Sri Lanka, sources say

[quaoar]

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/15344904.htm

By Andrew Zajac and Mike Dorning
Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON - Illinois congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law enforcement sources said.

Davis' seven-day trip came under new scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the organization on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to support the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials.

The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that the Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form he reported that the trip was paid for by a Hickory Hills, Ill.-based Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America.

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The Tamil Tigers is a separatist group that has been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for 3.2 million ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka, a tear-shaped island nation of 20 million off the southern tip of India. In addition to conventional guerrilla tactics, the group has used terrorist methods, including 200 suicide bombings, in a bloody conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Though the violence between the government and the separatist group abated during the past several years, it recently surged again, threatening a renewed civil war.

[quaoar]

1. Davis is from Chicago

A former city councilman and Cook County commissioner. here's his House website:

http://www.house.gov/davis/

[Monkeyman]

2. Strange no one in Chicago is talking about it not even the news here

[quaoar]

3. Chicago Tribune

just moved the story tonight. It'll probably be all over the place tomorrow.

[Missy M]

4. They just arrested a man in a Buffalo, NY suburb for aiding.....

the Tamil Tigers. They claim he was raising money and trying to obtain weapons for the Tamil Tigers. The US considers the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group therefore the arrest.

[quaoar]

5. The Tamil Tigers

actually the ones who invented the suicide vest that was later adopted by Palestinian terror groups.

[Missy M]

6. Nasty invention, do the Tamil Tigers still use the vests?

We don't hear too much about them in the US.

[ButterflyBlood]

7. yes, they're still the group responsible for the most suicide bombings

n/t