The distinction between Islamic & LTTE terrorism is no longer valid. Western security agencies should disrupt the sitting target that is the LTTE, thus damaging Islamist terror operations that are using LTTE structures and facilities to operate.

The LTTE terrorist entity was banned in the UK on February 28th 2001.  

The annual publication of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) London "Military Balance 2005/2006" referred to emerging links between the LTTE and the Al-Qaeda movement. It was later revealed confidentially by the editors to diplomatic sources that these links were in terms of training cooperation and commercial  transactions including trafficking for financial gain and acquisition of technology rather than any ideological linkage. Experts are studying with interest links between the LTTE and Al-Qaeda in its financial, commercial and arms dealings. It is also believed that such links also exist in maritime transactions (VIGIL's future report on LTTE-Al Qaeda links is due in April 2007).

The distinction between Islamic & LTTE terrorism is no longer valid. Western security agencies should disrupt the sitting target that is the LTTE, thus damaging Islamist terror operations that are using LTTE structures and facilities to operate.

This month, significant developments have taken place in citizen journalism. There’s no longer any doubt that audience participation is maturing; citizen reporting is on its way to become part and parcel of the established media. Handsome amounts of cash are being paid for platforms gathering reports by mere mortals who relay first hand experiences of events to the world. Associated Content landed $10 million in financing earlier this month from Canaan Partners. At the same time, NowPublic raked in $10.6 million Rho Ventures. So what are winning strategies for newsroom editors in dealing with the citizen platforms?

It’s time to map the landscape. Who is out there and what’s on offer for newsroom editors? And how do editors tackle problems here?

Some 45% of editors in the US use citizen journalism tools and techniques, according to a recent study on behalf of the Pew Center and the Associated Press Managing Editors. Editors considering using citizen journalism amount to 66% of the survey’s respondents.

There are two problem that people encounter; the sheer number of participants is way larger than they have the resources for and the efforts often are focused on special projects rather than a consistent feature in reporting. 

Stepping off the subway at Finsbury Park, the change in scenery could not have been more acute. Just an hour earlier, I had been awed by the grandeur of Big Ben, towering over the British Houses of Parliament. It is the symbol of the England in our history books: a beacon of liberty, tolerance, and stability.

Finsbury Park is different. Small shops and ragged apartments line the streets of this working class area of North London. More pronounced than the socioeconomic inequality is the cultural discrepancy. Grocery stores feature Middle Eastern foods and advertisements for cheap phone calls to the East while women clad in veils and burkas stroll with their young children wearing kufis. As Christopher Hitchens remarks of Finsbury Park in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, “Returning to the old place after a long absence, I found that it was the scent of Algeria that now predominated.”1