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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION 129Alta rep said he didn't mind giving them a lecture to make it lookas if they weren't being brushed <strong>of</strong>f, "but if we're going to do that,let's have some fun."With that, he went into another <strong>of</strong>fice for a set <strong>of</strong> bigtransparencies <strong>of</strong> a large vacuum-cleaner system that is used toclean harbors after oil spills. He had a series <strong>of</strong> colorful schematicdrawings. Everything was written in Hebrew, but he lectured inEnglish on this "high capability radar equipment." I found itdifficult not to laugh. He laid it on so thick, claiming this radarcould locate a guy swimming in the water and practically tell hisshoe size, his name and address, and his blood type. When he'dfinished, the Sri Lankans thanked him, said they were surprisedat this technological advancement, but that it wouldn't fit theirships. Here they were telling us about their ships. Well, we knewabout their ships. We built them!After dropping me <strong>of</strong>f at the hotel, I told Amy the Sri Lankansweren't buying the radar. "Yes, we knew that," he replied.Amy then told me to go to Kfar Sirkin where the Sri Lankanspecial-forces group was training, get them whatever they needed,then take them into Tel Aviv for the evening. But he cautioned meto make sure it was all coordinated with Yosy, who had just beentransferred to the same department that week.Yosy was also looking after a group being trained by the Israelis.But they weren't supposed to meet my people. They were Tamils,bitter enemies <strong>of</strong> my Sinhalese group. Tamils, who are mostlyHindu, argue that since Sri Lanka won independence from GreatBritain in 1948 (as Ceylon), they have been discriminated againstby the island's predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Of the16 million or so Sri Lankans, about 74 percent are Sinhalese, andjust 20 percent are Tamil, largely centered in the northern section<strong>of</strong> the country. Around 1983, a group <strong>of</strong> Tamil guerrilla factions,collectively known as the Tamil Tigers, began an armed struggle tocreate a Tamil homeland in the north called Eelam — an ongoingbattle that has claimed thousands <strong>of</strong> lives on both sides.

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