Next “independent” media to be attacked and other questions

Attack on the Sirasa TV studios triggered familiar speculation as to which courtier of the ruling family was behind it. It also triggered the usual ritual condemnations, which naturally avoided certain unspoken questions: Which "independent" media is next? Do non government media outlets have the necessary backup facilities to recover from a similar attack? Is …

Terrorist boat trailer

Boat trailer in the image below is used by the LTTE's "Sea Tigers" to transport their boats from jungle hideouts to the sea. The image was taken by Isak Berntsen who was part of the SLMM. He has generously made the image freely available via wikimedia commons site. For some background info, the Janes defence …

Nagar Kovil Forward Defence Line (FDL) areas Jaffna, Sri Lanka – Google Earth images

Images below show the approximate areas of the Nagar Kovil Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) - as they were in the 2003-2005 period. This area is seeing another bout of fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE as of late January/Early February 2008. This Defencenet post has maps and background info (as of 09 …

Politics as organised crime (over heard dinner conversations)

Six months ago I had the privilege of eavesdropping on conversations among well connected people. People who swam with the big fish in the inner circle of political power. It chills me to have watched fragments of those conversations played out in the months that followed. The most interesting is the rare window I had …

Armoured Vehicles of Elephant Pass

Flying over the Wanni you pass a lot of tragic history. Below is the the site of the old Elephant Pass Sri Lankan Army base which was overrun by the LTTE in the late bad bad days of the 20th century. At least one personality in the Sri lankan Blogosphere (who now has a blog …