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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Saturday, April 1, 2017
geetha kumarasinghe citizanship issue
Mar 31, 2017
At
present Mrs. Kumarathunge's Parliamentary position has been challenged
due to her dual citizenship in Switzerland. Lanka News Web talks with MP
Geetha Kumarasinghe regarding that issue.
Let us start the discussion from the dual citizen issue. What is the truth behind this story?
I
completely refute these allegation. Every media institution has been
showcasing this as a grave issue. There was nothing else for them to
criticize me. I was elected by the popular votes of the people. If
anyone challenges my appointment that means it is a challenge made to
the people's sovereignty of this country.
Does that mean you have no dual citizenship with Switzerland? Are you a sole citizen of Sri Lanka?
Yes. I
would like to emphasize once again that I am only a citizen of Sri
Lanka. This is a court case that has been filed against me in a baseless
manner. Some people have been accusing me by referring to something
that was mentioned by the Attorney General's department during the
trail. Still the case is not even over.
What is the present status of this court case?
Now it
is in the Court of Appeal. I respect the court. And I have a big trust
about our legal system. So I am waiting moderately until the court
executes justice. Since this is an ongoing trial I would not comment
further on the matter. I do not have any intention to insult the
judiciary.
If the
Court suphold the fact that you had possessed Swiss citizenship then
your MP post would be abolished. What would you then?
It
cannot happen. And even if id does, there is a Supreme Court to appeal
next. I became an MP from the votes of the people. If anyone had a
problem about me then they could have forwarded a petition during the
nominations. At that time there was a lot of time available for election
petitions. But no such thing happened. If these sort of things are
allowed, it would set up a bad precedence. The MP posts of all the 225
members of the parliament could be taken away just by filing a case at a
lower court. There are laws to prevent these things. Even now there are
several MPs in the parliament who have dual citizenship in other
countries. But none of them are being chased by the media.
Who are attacking you like this?
There
is a group of politicians who have been rejected by the people. But they
have been able to creep back into the government and even secure
ministerial positions. This is not democracy. After that these defeated
politicians have filed cases against the victors. But in public they are
shouting about increasing the female representation in the parliament
into 25%. Instead of increasing, what they are doing at present is
decreasing that number even further. The people can judge the fairness
of these matters. As a woman, my determination was my main strength. It
was far more than physical strength. Even after being defeated for 6
years, I worked for the betterment of the people. That is why the people
decided to elect me into the parliament. I have made my contribution to
the society. At present, the tradition of our politics is to inherit
political power from husband to wife and children. May be there are
other ways as well. But I did not come from any such way. I was born and
raised in a village. I went to a village school. After coming into
cinema, I did my best to make it greater. I have taken the name of the
country even into international cinema.
But what about the Geetha Kumarasinghe the politician?
Yes.
Even in politics I have faced many challenges and have overcome them. I
was addressed with every derogatory insult that could be said to a woman
at political stages. I was mentally tortured. I even faced underworld
threats to silence me. I will like to reveal such an incident for the
first time to media. Recently there were elections for the Co-operative
societies. When the time came for the election of Director Board there
was a big competition. There were about 20 candidates from the UNP. But
the SLFP was divided into Mahinda and Maithri Factions. However, when we
were discussing the matters, suddenly, three thugs crashed into the
place and scolded us in gutter language. I would like to request all
political parties not to give nominations to rapists and thieves. If
not, they are only going to protect their fellow criminals.
Why are you being accused like this?
I gave
up a luxurious life, a citizenship of a foreign country and a vast
wealth in the name of politics, it was the reason for the breakup of my
marriage. It was an emotionally difficult incident for me. All this
happened to me because of politics, if I had just kept quiet without
demanding anything, no such thing would happen to me. But I like to face
challenges than accepting ministerial invitations.
Does this mean that they are you are being subjected to political revenge taking?
Definitely. There are members in the TNA who have dual citizenship. There are other MPs and ministers who have dual citizenship.
- AshWaru Colombo
What a world! We want the right to destroy our planet
2017-03-31
On Monday, the big powers spurned yet another move to rid the world of nuclear weapons. They apparently prefer to be called the destroyers of our planet.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” J. Robert Oppenheimer said quoting from the Bhagawad Gita. He was one of the fathers of the first atomic bomb – the illegitimate child conceived and delivered by the top secret Manhattan Project.
The first atomic bomb was detonated by the Manhattan Project’s nuclear physicists on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. On August 6 and 9 the same year, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world’s first atomic bomb attacks killed more than 200,000 people in the two cities instantly. Tens of thousands of people exposed to high radiation died in the months and years to follow. The ill-effects are still being felt.
Oppenheimer,
despite his liberal and socialist worldview, supported the dropping of
the atomic bombs on Japan. But he later became an advocate of nuclear
non-proliferation and opponent of the global nuclear arms race.
However noble the nuclear non-proliferation initiative is, it smacks of hypocrisy and allows a few nuclear-armed nations to become global bullies and intimidate the rest of the world. Given the destructive power of modern-day nuclear weapons which are a thousand times more lethal than ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nothing short of total nuclear disarmament will ensure the safety of our planet, which we call our home. Every nuclear test is a stab on the back of Mother Earth. Every nuclear accident is a blow on her head. A nuclear war will be the ultimate death blow. If we love this planet and the humanity, we must not rest until the last of the world’s nuclear weapons is dismantled. But the humans are the Earth’s only species hell-bent on the destruction of the planet. According to 2016 estimates, the nine nuclear-armed nations – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea -- possess some 15,000-23,000 nuclear warheads which could destroy this world more than 100 times over.
Man can be good and evil. Leaders can be brutish and if driven by their animalistic id, they could become destroyers. With the United States and North Korea – both nuclear armed – being run by maverick leaders, the world’s first nuclear war is no longer just a subject for dystopian novelists to describe the aftermath in vivid detail. The dangerous reality or MAD (mutually assured destruction) is close and staring at us.
The US has warned North Korea that its policy of strategic patience has ended, while reports say Pyongyang is preparing not only for yet another nuclear test but also for a nuclear war with the US. Months before Donald Trump became the US President, Nato and Russia had deployed nuclear missiles in Europe, stoking fears of a nuclear war. The tense situation has somewhat eased now because of Trump’s special relationship with Russia. In the volatile Middle East, Israel has some 300 nuclear warheads and Iran is accused of harbouring nuclear weapon ambitions. In South Asia, too, a nuclear war cannot be ruled out, given the hostility between India and Pakistan.
Evil triumphed on Monday when a golden opportunity to bring about a nuclear-weapons-free world was squandered. The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France together with 36 other nations staged a walkout when the United Nations General Assembly began discussions on a global ban on nuclear weapons. Monday’s session came in sequel to a General Assembly resolution adopted in December to convene a conference “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.”
Kim Won-soo, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, addressing the UN conference said, “Let us all work harder and more creatively, so that we can achieve our common goal of a world, safer and more secure, without nuclear weapons, and better for all.”
He said the possession of nuclear weapons was fundamentally incompatible with humanity’s common aspirations for peace and security.
Pope Francis sent a message of support to the conference. “I wish to encourage you to work with determination in order to create the conditions necessary for a world without nuclear weapons,” he said. The Pope said international peace and stability “cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power.”
While the widely respected pontiff called for concerted efforts to save our planet, President Trump, in a reckless act that underscored his contempt for warnings about climate change, revoked environment laws his predecessor, Barack Obama, had introduced, and his UN envoy Nikki Haley scuttled UN efforts aimed at total nuclear disarmament.
Addressing journalists at UN headquarters in New York, ambassador Haley, South Carolina’s former rightwing governor, defended her country’s need to possess nuclear weapons, saying, “in this day and time, we can’t honestly say that we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them and those of us that are good trying to keep peace and safety not to have them.” She was referring to the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea.
“There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?” she asked.
Haley only confirms our worst fears that a nuclear war between the US and North Korea could be a reality. Imagine how many innocent people will die in both these countries. Some studies claim that North Korean missiles can wipe out 80 percent of the US population, while US strikes can reduce North Korea to mere nuclear ash.
Who wants to give up nuclear weapons, the very possession of which will deter even a thought of an attack in the mind of the enemy? Nuclear weapons mean power and they are here to stay until there emerges a weapon system that can deactivate nuclear weapons of an enemy state through hacking. Reports say the US, Russia and China are moving in that direction. But before such cyber weapons become a reality, a nuclear war could break out.
2017-03-31On Monday, the big powers spurned yet another move to rid the world of nuclear weapons. They apparently prefer to be called the destroyers of our planet.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” J. Robert Oppenheimer said quoting from the Bhagawad Gita. He was one of the fathers of the first atomic bomb – the illegitimate child conceived and delivered by the top secret Manhattan Project.
The first atomic bomb was detonated by the Manhattan Project’s nuclear physicists on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. On August 6 and 9 the same year, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world’s first atomic bomb attacks killed more than 200,000 people in the two cities instantly. Tens of thousands of people exposed to high radiation died in the months and years to follow. The ill-effects are still being felt.
Oppenheimer,
despite his liberal and socialist worldview, supported the dropping of
the atomic bombs on Japan. But he later became an advocate of nuclear
non-proliferation and opponent of the global nuclear arms race. However noble the nuclear non-proliferation initiative is, it smacks of hypocrisy and allows a few nuclear-armed nations to become global bullies and intimidate the rest of the world. Given the destructive power of modern-day nuclear weapons which are a thousand times more lethal than ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nothing short of total nuclear disarmament will ensure the safety of our planet, which we call our home. Every nuclear test is a stab on the back of Mother Earth. Every nuclear accident is a blow on her head. A nuclear war will be the ultimate death blow. If we love this planet and the humanity, we must not rest until the last of the world’s nuclear weapons is dismantled. But the humans are the Earth’s only species hell-bent on the destruction of the planet. According to 2016 estimates, the nine nuclear-armed nations – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea -- possess some 15,000-23,000 nuclear warheads which could destroy this world more than 100 times over.
Man can be good and evil. Leaders can be brutish and if driven by their animalistic id, they could become destroyers. With the United States and North Korea – both nuclear armed – being run by maverick leaders, the world’s first nuclear war is no longer just a subject for dystopian novelists to describe the aftermath in vivid detail. The dangerous reality or MAD (mutually assured destruction) is close and staring at us.
The US has warned North Korea that its policy of strategic patience has ended, while reports say Pyongyang is preparing not only for yet another nuclear test but also for a nuclear war with the US. Months before Donald Trump became the US President, Nato and Russia had deployed nuclear missiles in Europe, stoking fears of a nuclear war. The tense situation has somewhat eased now because of Trump’s special relationship with Russia. In the volatile Middle East, Israel has some 300 nuclear warheads and Iran is accused of harbouring nuclear weapon ambitions. In South Asia, too, a nuclear war cannot be ruled out, given the hostility between India and Pakistan.
Evil triumphed on Monday when a golden opportunity to bring about a nuclear-weapons-free world was squandered. The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France together with 36 other nations staged a walkout when the United Nations General Assembly began discussions on a global ban on nuclear weapons. Monday’s session came in sequel to a General Assembly resolution adopted in December to convene a conference “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.”
Kim Won-soo, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, addressing the UN conference said, “Let us all work harder and more creatively, so that we can achieve our common goal of a world, safer and more secure, without nuclear weapons, and better for all.”
He said the possession of nuclear weapons was fundamentally incompatible with humanity’s common aspirations for peace and security.
Pope Francis sent a message of support to the conference. “I wish to encourage you to work with determination in order to create the conditions necessary for a world without nuclear weapons,” he said. The Pope said international peace and stability “cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power.”
While the widely respected pontiff called for concerted efforts to save our planet, President Trump, in a reckless act that underscored his contempt for warnings about climate change, revoked environment laws his predecessor, Barack Obama, had introduced, and his UN envoy Nikki Haley scuttled UN efforts aimed at total nuclear disarmament.
Addressing journalists at UN headquarters in New York, ambassador Haley, South Carolina’s former rightwing governor, defended her country’s need to possess nuclear weapons, saying, “in this day and time, we can’t honestly say that we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them and those of us that are good trying to keep peace and safety not to have them.” She was referring to the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea.
“There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?” she asked.
Haley only confirms our worst fears that a nuclear war between the US and North Korea could be a reality. Imagine how many innocent people will die in both these countries. Some studies claim that North Korean missiles can wipe out 80 percent of the US population, while US strikes can reduce North Korea to mere nuclear ash.
Who wants to give up nuclear weapons, the very possession of which will deter even a thought of an attack in the mind of the enemy? Nuclear weapons mean power and they are here to stay until there emerges a weapon system that can deactivate nuclear weapons of an enemy state through hacking. Reports say the US, Russia and China are moving in that direction. But before such cyber weapons become a reality, a nuclear war could break out.
Rapping amid Palestine’s ruins
Nora Barrows-Friedman-31 March 2017
Kareem, the protagonist of a new feature film about a Palestinian
hip-hop artist, embodies “the sequel to what happened in the Nakba,”
said Tamer Nafar, who co-wrote and stars in Junction 48.
The character Kareem, Nafar told The Electronic Intifada, was inspired by his own life. Nafar is an emcee in the hip-hop trio DAM.
Lydd was the site of one of the worst episodes in the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of
Palestine. In July of that year, some 50,000 Palestinians were driven
out of the town by Zionist militias and expelled to the West Bank.
Nearly 70 years later, residents continue to resist discriminatory Israeli policies targeting Palestinians and their homes in Lydd.
The ongoing oppression and displacement of Palestinians inside Israel – what Palestinians call ‘48 – inspires the storyline of Junction 48.
“Universal message”
The film takes up many of the issues that Nafar and DAM have been
rapping about for years: poverty, crime, police brutality, racism,
sexism and expanding settler-colonialism against Palestinians inside
Israel.
At the beginning of the film, Kareem is reluctant to define his songs as
political and is happy just to be performing on stage. But as a series
of events both tied to him personally and to his circle of friends
brings pain and loss, Kareem takes risks for his art and his community
and the broader Palestinian liberation struggle.
The inspiration for the story “was the neighborhood itself,” Nafar told
The Electronic Intifada. “[But] we felt something was missing.”
Nafar and director Udi Aloni understood
that to properly depict life in Lydd, and the characters’ conflicts,
the continuing trauma of the Nakba would have to be prominently
featured.
“In order for us to deliver a true universal message, we have to be
extremely particular in the details of what Lydd is,” Aloni told The
Electronic Intifada. “What it [means] to be a Palestinian within Israel,
who we call 48ers, what is this place that you live [in], the apartheid
that is not so obvious to the people outside of Israel.”
“Living with the threat”
In one scene, the house belonging to a friend of Kareem is demolished by
Israeli police while family and neighbors watch helplessly. The Israeli
municipality intends to build a “museum of coexistence” on the
property.
Aloni said that set designers built the house from scratch. The set was
so realistic, he added, that in an act of terrible irony, city
authorities gave the filmmakers a notice to destroy the house.
During the filming of the demolition scene, actors and crew members started to cry because the destruction was so familiar.
“Many [of the residents have] tried to stop many house demolitions in
Lydd,” Aloni explained. “Many are living with this threat that their
house could be destroyed every day.”
In the film, after the house is crushed, a protest concert for the neighborhood is held on top of the rubble.
Aloni said that this is part of the Palestinian “spirit of resistance.”
He remarked that the Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the southern Naqab desert, for example, has been destroyed and rebuilt by its residents more than 100 times since 2012.
“We can sing on the ruins, and then we rebuild,” he said.
Junction 48 has won awards at film festivals in New York and Berlin. The film is currently touring the US.
It is also available for streaming and download on iTunes.
The film was recently featured as “critics’ pick” by the The New York Times.
To hear the full interviews with Tamer Nafar and Udi Aloni, listen to the podcast via the media player above.
Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.
Ukrainian State Security Officer Killed in Car Explosion in Mariupol
BY MARCH 31, 2017
AUkrainian intelligence officer was killed in a car explosion in Mariupol on Friday.
Here’s what we know so far about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests
Congress
and U.S. intelligence agencies are scrutinizing connections between
Russia and the Trump campaign as they investigate evidence that Russia
interfered in the 2016 election. Here are members of Team Trump who are
known to have Russian connections and the story lines that have made
those ties relevant.
March 31, 2017
Team Trump
President of the United States and real estate developer. His business contacts in Russia date to the late 1980s.
Journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem files lawsuit over alleged US 'kill list'
Lawyers
for Syria-based reporter and former Al Jazeera bureau chief Ahmad
Zaidan say pair have been 'targeted for death' by US government
Bilal Abdul Kareem has been reporting from rebel-held northern Syria since 2012 (Twitter)
Simon Hooper-Friday 31 March 2017Lawyers acting for a US journalist based in rebel-held northern Syria and a former Al Jazeera bureau chief have filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump and other senior officials who they say have placed them on an alleged "kill list".
Human rights group Reprieve and law firm Lewis Baach filed the case on
behalf of Bilal Abdul Kareem and Ahmad Zaidan, a former Islamabad bureau
chief for Al Jazeera Arabic, in the US District Court in Washington on
Thursday.
The lawsuit states that the defendants placed the pair on a "kill list" which has "resulted in their being targeted for death".
1/2 My lawyers just filed suit against Trump Admin for placing me & @AJArabic journalist Ahmad Zaidan on a kill listpolitico.com/blogs/under-th…
Abdul Kareem, an occasional Middle East Eye contributor, told MEE on
Friday that "well-placed sources have informed me that I have been
included on the drone list for flights that take off from the Incirlik
airbase in southern Turkey".
Incirlik is used by US forces carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group and other Syria-based armed groups.
Abdul Kareem and Zaidan contend that they were erroneously placed on the
list by the previous administration of former president Barack Obama.
But their lawyers said they believed Trump's administration not only
planned to pursue existing names on the list but had also “removed
certain restrictions and criteria previously employed in the designation
of persons to be included on the Kill List".
The lawsuit states: "Neither Zaidan nor [Abdul] Kareem pose a
continuing, imminent threat to US persons or national security. Neither
Zaidan nor [Abdul] Kareem is a member or supporter of any terrorist
group. Inclusion of Zaidan and [Abdul] Kareem on the kill list under
these circumstance was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of
discretion."
Abdul Kareem last year described to MEE how he had walked away from a
suspected drone strike which destroyed the vehicle in which he was
travelling.
He said he and his crew had been filming outdoors shortly before and
were waiting to interview a fighter with the then-al-Qaeda-aligned Nusra
Front when the attack occurred in June 2016.
"As we are sitting there in the car, all of a sudden everything goes
black," Abdul Kareem told MEE in an interview conducted via Skype.
"I thought they had hit the earth and the earth had split and the car
was falling into the earth. But what was happening is that when the car
was hit, it went airborne, flipped over and it pointed us in the
opposite direction on its side."
According to the lawsuit filed on Thursday, Abdul Kareem has "narrowly
avoided being killed by five separate air strikes, at least one of which
was carried out by a drone" in the past year.
Ahmed Zaidan, who is Syrian and based in Qatar, is one of Al Jazeera
Arabic's most prominent journalists. His reporting has focused on the
Taliban and al-Qaeda and he has conducted a number of high-profile
interviews including with Osama Bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader
who was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
Zaidan was included in a top-secret National Security Agency
presentation about a programme called "SKYNET", details of which were
leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 and reported on
by The Intercept website in 2015. It lists Zaidan as a member of both al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, allegations that Zaidan denies.
In an opinion piece
for Al Jazeera in 2015, Zaidan said he believed that the allegation
that he was a member of al-Qaeda originated with the Syrian government,
which had levelled the same accusation on state television when he
reported on rebel groups in Idlib
"This was an attempt to assassinate my professionalism, as a precursor
to a political assassination. It seems to be driven by Syrian
intelligence deception. I must ask, therefore, is the national security
of the Assad regime more important than the national security of the
United States and the American people?" he wrote.
"I reserve the right to take legal action based on the NSA document. It
is a document that is unfair to America, journalism, Al Jazeera, and me
personally."
'I don’t see a lot of other journalists around'
SKYNET uses a complex computer algorithm to calculate the threat of
certain individuals by looking out for visits to places of interest and
regular swapping of phone simcards.
But the lawsuit alleges that its reliance on metadata and mobile phone
tracking to identify patterns of suspect activity meant that SKYNET "may
target persons solely because they frequently interact with so-called
'militants,' even if for innocent reasons like journalists interviewing
sources."
But the lawsuit alleges that its reliance on metadata and mobile phone tracking to identify patterns of sus... by Thavam Ratna on Scribd
Abdul Kareem has reported from Syria since 2012 and gained widespread
recognition for his reporting in December from rebel-held eastern Aleppo
as it came under assault from pro-Syrian government forces.
His work has been featured by media networks including CNN, the UK's
Channel 4 News, and the BBC, as well as by his own On The Ground News
online news channel. Last month he was the subject of a profile in the New York Times newspaper.
His critics accuse him of being too close to Islamist rebel groups that
control the areas of Idlib and Aleppo provinces where he regularly
interviews fighters and military commanders.
Abdul Kareem has said: "I don’t care if you like Nusra, Assad or Obama. I
only bring you the news so you can make an informed decision. I don’t
see a lot of other journalists around. I plan to continue doing the work
we are doing. I’m not going to roll over and play dead for anybody.”
Kate Higham, head of the Assassinations Project at Reprieve, said: “It
is an affront to US values that journalists are living in fear of being
killed by US drones, simply for doing their jobs. The inclusion of
reporters on a US ‘kill list’ on the basis of their metadata makes a
mockery of due process, and will do nothing to make Americans safer.
President Trump must urgently review the entire targeting program,
before any reporters are killed on his watch.”
'It is a basic principle of the rule of law that innocent people should not be targeted and killed'
- Jeffrey Robinson, attorney
Jeffrey Robinson, attorney at Lewis Baach, said: "It is a basic
principle of the rule of law that innocent people should not be targeted
and killed. This is especially the case with courageous journalists
performing an essential function of keeping the public informed."
Moazzam Begg, a director at human rights group Cage and a former
Guantanamo detainee, said that Abdul Kareem had provided valuable
insight into the war in Syria.
“The killing of an American journalist in the course of his work by its
own government would be an unprecedented act in the War on Terror. It
would send a deplorable message about the state of independent reporting
in the US, which would resonate across nations,” said Begg.
“In a week when the US has accepted responsibility for hundreds of
deaths [in Mosul] caused by air strikes on civilians, it comes,
unfortunately, as no surprise that it would be prepared to target one of
its own nationals.
“Cage calls for Abdul Kareem’s name to be removed from all ‘kill lists’
with immediate effect. In keeping with the rule of law, countries which
provide launch-pads for extra-judicial killings risk being complicit in
illegal assassinations.”
Little is known in the public domain about the US government's alleged
secret kill list, although media reports suggest it is known in
counter-terrorism circles as the "Disposition Matrix".
A Washington Post article in 2012 reported that the list had first been
drawn up in 2010 and consisted of a database of information for
tracking, capturing, rendering or killing suspected enemies of the US.
The database is meant to provide a variety of options for ensnaring suspects wherever they are in the world.
“If he’s in Saudi Arabia, pick up with the Saudis,” a former
counter-terrorism official told the Washington Post. “If traveling
overseas to al-Shabab [in Somalia] we can pick him up by ship. If in
Yemen, kill or have the Yemenis pick him up.”
Names for the list are reported to be nominated at a weekly meeting
known as "Terror Tuesday” with the president himself agreeing the final
schedule of names.
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