{"id":50891,"date":"2017-01-17T23:18:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T04:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50891"},"modified":"2017-01-17T23:18:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T04:18:15","slug":"heightened-interest-in-sri-lanka-by-us-central-intelligence-agencycia-is-cause-for-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50891","title":{"rendered":"Heightened Interest in Sri Lanka by US Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) is Cause for Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Responding to my column of January 07, 2017 titled \u2018US role in Sri Lanka\u2019s institutional reform process \u2013 Assistance or Espionage?\u2019 the Secretary General of Parliament wrote a Letter to the Editor regarding the agreement signed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in Washington DC in September. It said \u201cThe said agreement does not relate to the SDGAP launched by USAID with DAI as its implementing partner.\u201d (Daily Mirror January 11, 2017, A12).<\/p>\n

While the Parliament Secretary General\u2019s letter clarifies that the House Democracy Partnership Agreement signed by Speaker Jayasuriya in Washington, and USAID\u2019s SDGAP (\u2018Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Project\u2019) are not one and the same, it also acknowledges that the SDGAP is in fact implemented by DAI. The Parliament Secretary General does not address the bone of contention here, which is that USAID\u2019s contractor DAI (Development Alternatives Inc.) is a private US company alleged to be a CIA front. It is on record that Speaker Jayasuriya chaired the launch of the SDGAP in November.<\/p>\n

The governmental response would seem like that of someone who, seeing the \u2018writing on the wall,\u2019 proceeds to criticize the handwriting. It corrects a point of minor importance while disregarding the more important concern that\u2019s been raised. <\/p>\n

Further investigation reveals that this is not the first time DAI and other private US companies have been contracted to carry out USAID \u2018projects\u2019 in Sri Lanka:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–\tIn 2008 a contract to implement the USAID-funded \u2018Supporting Regional Governance Programme (SuRG)\u2019 was awarded to a company called ARD Inc. The 3 -5 year program\u2019s main focus was Local Government institutions in the Eastern Province. <\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tA contract to implement a USAID-funded project called \u2018Reintegration and Stabilisation in the East and North (RISEN) from 2009 to 2013 was awarded to DAI Inc. <\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tA contract to implement a USAID-funded project called \u2018Increased Responsiveness in the Legal System Project (IRLSP)\u2019 was awarded to a company called Development Professionals Inc. (DPI). Running from 2012 to 2015 it claimed to assist the Government, the Judicial Services Commission and the Judiciary to improve the management and the efficacy of the legal system.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tA contract to implement a USAID-funded programme called \u2018Civil Society Initiatives to promote the Rule of Law (CIS.ROL) targeting the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the Legal Aid Commission, was awarded to a US company called Millennium DPI Partners. Running from 2013 to 2016 its objectives included legal and policy reforms and a \u2018strategic plan\u2019 for the BASL. <\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\t USAID\u2019s \u2018assistance\u2019 to Parliament began in 2015 with a series of workshops with parliament staff, with parliament\u2019s financial committees (COPE and COPA), and on the Constitution. The three-year US$ 13.7 million SDGAP, contracted to DAI Inc. – the company alleged to be a CIA front – was a follow-up to the previous shorter programme.<\/p>\n

It may be seen that US government-funded \u2018projects\u2019 over the past several years run the whole gamut of Sri Lanka\u2019s institutions, including Local Government, the Bar Association, the Judiciary, Parliament and the Constitution. While many would agree that there is need for improvement in the country\u2019s democratic institutions, shouldn\u2019t the political leadership be concerned that this task is being \u2018outsourced,\u2019 outright, to foreign agencies \u2013 and that programmes are being contracted to private US companies, selected by the US government and not accountable to the people of Sri Lanka? It\u2019s noteworthy that Sri Lanka is simultaneously under pressure from the US to implement an unpopular UN resolution (of which the US was the main architect) calling for internal changes widely seen as interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. <\/p>\n

The octopus-like manner in which the tentacles of US \u2018assistance\u2019 have reached every department of government was signaled by US Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal in her address to a US Congress subcommittee in May, seeking 2017 budgetary allocations for Sri Lanka. \u201c\u2026Our approach to make Sri Lanka\u2019s economy stronger is truly whole-of- government. \u2026. And the Treasury Department will soon embed an advisor in Sri Lanka\u2019s Ministry of Finance, who will assist the ministry with public financial management reforms for the next two years\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There are other reasons too, for concern that the CIA currently has a heightened interest, if not presence, in Sri Lanka. Some US institutes that hosted government representatives for discussions in the recent past, and others which have disbursed funds, are reported to have links to the spy agency. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tIn February 2016 Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera spoke on \u2018Advancing Reconciliation and Democracy\u2019 at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC. USIP is funded by the US Congress, its board members include the US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence and the director of the CIA may legally assign officers and employees to the Institute.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tThe above event was co-hosted by the right-wing think-tank \u2018Heritage Foundation\u2019 and moderated by Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst, according to her bio. <\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\tIt is alleged that the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its grantees like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which disburse funds to a number of NGOs in Sri Lanka, are \u2018pass-through\u2019 foundations for CIA funds. William Blum quotes Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, saying that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.\u201d <\/p>\n

The controversy regarding USAID contractor DAI\u2019s alleged links to the CIA should draw the attention of Sri Lanka\u2019s political leadership to the new reality in espionage: that what used to be done covertly, is now done openly. At a time when a country is desperately trying to attract foreign investment, how ingenious it would seem to embed spies in private \u2018companies,\u2019 whose employees would probably travel on business visas, avoiding scrutiny by immigration authorities!<\/p>\n

Since the 1980\u2019s when organizations like NED were set up to filter CIA funds to a myriad foundations, think-tanks, institutes and NGOs both in the US and abroad, the style of US intelligence operations has undergone transformation, analysts say. It\u2019s no longer a cloak-and-dagger affair. As Blum, author of \u2018Rogue State \u2013 A guide to the world\u2019s only superpower\u2019 says, \u201cThe NED, like the CIA before it, calls what it does supporting democracy. The governments and movements whom the NED targets call it destabilization.\u201d That statement would be true of the operations of CIA\u2019s other avatars as well.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya Responding to my column of January 07, 2017 titled \u2018US role in Sri Lanka\u2019s institutional reform process \u2013 Assistance or Espionage?\u2019 the Secretary General of Parliament wrote a Letter to the Editor regarding the agreement signed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in Washington DC in September. It said \u201cThe said agreement does not …<\/p>\n

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