Dr. Rajan Sriskandarajah
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601
Dear Dr. Sriskandarajah,
I am writing in response to your letter of May 5
to Secretary Powell regarding the Department
of State’s annual report on 'Patterns of Global Terrorism'. I regret
that there were certain misperceptions in the report with which you have taken
issue.
Specifically, to address your concern regarding the statement that
"Tamils historically have served as drug couriers” and the issue of
Tamil involvement in “narcotics smuggling,” I note that the sentence in
question comes at the end of a description of the LTTE terrorist group and its
sources of income. In drafting this section, we had intended that it would be
clear from the context that the sentence referred to some expatriate Tamil
communities in Europe as the sentence immediately before it says exactly that:
“some Tamil communities in Europe.” As our goal is to avoid any
misperceptions stemming from the report, we will closely review any such
statements in the future to ensure that the intent is clear.
In addition, I would like to draw your attention to the introduction of the
terrorism report, where we state:
“Adverse mention in this report of individual members of any political,
social, ethnic, religious, or national group is not meant to imply that all
members of that group are terrorists. Indeed terrorists represent a
small minority of dedicated, often fanatical individuals in most such groups.
It is those small groups - and their actions - that are the subject of this
report.”
In closing, I regret your dissatisfaction with the 2000 "Patterns of
Global Terrorism" Report and assure you that we will work in future reports
to correct any possible misperceptions.
Sincerely,
Edmund J.Hull
Acting Coordinator for Counter Terrorism.
