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.
