A leaked secret document, which is said to belong to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on assessing “high-value targeting” (HVT) programs world-wide for their impact on counterinsurgency, has reviewed the killing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The document has been produced to review a chart for US officials to use in strategically assessing future operations and methods in HVT assassinations. The document has defined HTV as focused operations against specific individuals or networks whose removal or marginalization should disproportionately degrade an insurgent group’s effectiveness.
According to the secret document, life style stage of the LTTE has been described as a severely degraded one and noted that its (LTTE) future is uncertain after the conventional military defeat.
“Sri Lanka—LTTE, 1983-May 2009 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sought autonomy for the Tamils of northern and eastern Sri Lanka since the group’s inception in 1972. Velupillai Prabhakaran, a radical student, founded the group in response to the adoption of a new constitution institutionalizing Sinhalese domination, according to an academic study. The Sri Lankan Air Force, in November 2007 and January 2008, used antibunker bombs to target Prabhakaran and other top LTTE leaders, according to a clandestine source claiming firsthand access. Geocoordinate information provided by a former bodyguard of Prabhakaran’s contributed to an accurate Sri Lankan military bombing raid that killed LTTE political spokesman S.P. Tamilchelvan and other LTTE leaders on 2 November 2007, according to a clandestine source with whom a relationship was just beginning. The Sri Lankan Government claimed to have killed Prabhakaran and most of the LTTE’s senior leadership in conventional military operations in April and May 2009, according to a US military report and a Western press report.
This is a secret CIA document assessing high-value targeting (HVT) programs world-wide for their impact on insurgencies. The document is classified SECRET//NOFORN (no foreign nationals) and is for internal use to review the positive and negative implications of targeted assassinations on these groups for the strength of the group post the attack. The document assesses attacks on insurgent groups by the United States and other countries within Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Iraq, Israel, Peru, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand. The document, which is “pro-assassination”, was completed in July 2009 and coincides with the first year of the Obama administration and Leon Panetta’s directorship of the CIA during which the United States very significantly increased its CIA assassination program at the expense of capture operations. It produces a chart for US officials to use in strategically assessing future operations and methods in HVT assassinations.
The death or capture of key insurgents may lead to reduced domestic or foreign support for the group, as supporters recalculate the insurgent group’s chances of winning the conflict and consider the potential costs of backing the losing side. Such a phenomenon is enhanced when leadership strikes coincide with other counterinsurgency successes.” the document says.
