Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Tamil Tigers Website
After discussing and reading so much about the media and its influence on terrorism and the different terrorist groups throughout the world I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what is considered to be, according to Hoffman, one of the most media savvy terrorist groups, the Tamil Tigers. They have several different websites, including this one. The book discusses the fact that there is little if any attention focused on the terrorist acts that they commit, but rather the websites are dedicated to discussing matters of freedom and the origins, etc. of the group. Looking at the homepage alone of this website I find it to be very interesting. This is the opening statement given on the homepage, just a glimpse of what the entire site is about, "Our organisation, as well as our people do not want war. We want peace and we want to resolve our problems through peaceful means. We are deeply committed to the peace process. It is because of our sincere commitment to peace that we are firmly and rigidly observing ceasefire. It is our organisation that took the initiative of declaring the cessation of hostilities unilaterally and observing peace for the last two years tolerating the provocative actions of the state's armed forces. . "This is something that I thought might be interesting to have posted on the blog.
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3 comments:
I actually used this site for my paper on suicide terrorism. After reading through some of the information I also found the focus of the LTTE on their grievances and their "struggles" for freedom and independence intriguing because it diverts attention away from the violent tactics they adopt. However, the Tamil Tigers are quick to point out any violence which targets them. They reported on a recent bombing of a childrens' home compound by Sri Lanka. The Liberation Tigers labeled this a "horrible act of terror."
Yeah, while the terrorist sites are informative as to what the organization feels is a just and noble cause and why they are doing it. They are definitely biased, you only get one side of the story. Does anybody have a good site to get both sides of the story?
After reading Hoffman, my questions is: If the internet/websites are so important in spreading a terrorist organization's propaganda and message, and we know those websites exist, why don't governments shut them down? Maybe I'm just unschooled in the ways of web-site making, but it seems silly to know where these websites are, recognize their importance, and not do anything about it. Just a thought...
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