Rohan Gunaratna
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Rohan Gunaratna (born 1961) is a Sri Lankan born political analyst specializing in international terrorism. He is the Director General of th
Institute of National Security Studies
Professor Gunaratna has over 30 years of academic, policy, and operational experience in national and international security. He is Honorary Professor at the
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) ( Sinhala: ජෙනරාල් ශ්‍රිමත් ජෝන් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය ''General Sir John Kotelawala'' ''Ar ...
(KDU) and is a Senior Advisor to its Faculty of Defence and Strategic Studies. He supervised KDU’s first Ph.D. title holder, Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage, the current Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka. In the 1980s and 1990s, Gunaratna served as Special Assistant to the Science Advisor to the President Prof. Cyril Ponnamperuma, Research Assistant to President J.R. Jayewardene, and consultant to the HQ of the Joint Operations Command and the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
. In 2009, he co-designed the 6+1 model for rehabilitating 11,500
LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
members. In 2015, the Ministry of Defence invited him to write the blue print for a think tank that he named the Institute of National Security Studies.


Education

Educated at
Ananda College ''Appamādo Amathapadan'' (Buddhist quote from the Apramada Vagga in the Dhammapada) , motto_translation = Heedfulness, Punctuality leads to Nirvana , location = P De S Kularatne Mawatha , city = Colom ...
, he received his Masters from the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
where he was Hesburgh Scholar and doctorate from the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
where he was British Chevening Scholar.


Career

Gunaratna is the lead author of ''Jane's Counter Terrorism''. In 2013, Sri Lankan
member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, MP, PC (born 16 March 1959) is a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician. He is the current Minister of Justice and previously served in the same ministry from 2015 to 2017. He was the Prime Minister's nominee for the Constituti ...
wrote in op-ed in which said that "he (Gunaratna) insisted the importance of combating terrorism, he did not address on the cause for the emergence of terrorism." In 2017,
Inspector General An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...
of
Bangladesh Police The Bangladesh Police ( bn, বাংলাদেশ পুলিশ) of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a law enforcement agency, operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It plays a crucial role in maintaining peace, and enforcement ...
dismissed his claims of
ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
presence in Bangladesh by saying that he had no experience in "real issues."


Hambali claims

In 2003, Gunaratna claimed that
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
commander
Riduan Isamuddin Riduan Isamuddin also transliteration, transliterated as Riduan Isamudin, Riduan Isomuddin, and Riduan Isomudin, better known by the ''nom de guerre'' Hambali, born as Encep Nurjaman (April 4, 1964) is the former military leader of the Indonesi ...
(alias Hambali) regularly visited Australia and plotted to fly planes into the
British Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
; these claims were dismissed as baseless by the
ASIO ''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and S ...
. Commenting on one of his books, the '' Pacific Journalism Review'' said in its review that "his writing here on Indonesia reveals a remarkably narrow selection of sources, a profound lack of knowledge, and a flawed understanding of the history of the Indonesian armed forces and of their intelligence operates"''.'' Australian journalist and commentator on intelligence issues Brian Toohey has called him a "self-proclaimed expert". He has also made false claims to be a "principal investigator" at the UN's Terrorism Prevention Branch. In reality, he has only spoken at a seminar organized by the Australian Parliamentary Library, testified at a Congressional hearing on terrorism and delivered a research paper at a conference organized by the UN's Department for Disarmament Affairs. In 2004, New Zealand journalist Martin Bright described Gunaratna as “the least reliable of the experts on bin Laden”. His claims to the
New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...
that "sympathisers and supporters of various terrorist groups were in New Zealand” and to have seen their fundraising leaflets were also dismissed by New Zealand's
Financial Intelligence Unit Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...
.


Ontario Superior Court of Justice's verdict against Gunaratna

In a February 2011 article in ''
Lakbima News ''Lakbima News'' was a weekly English-language newspaper in Sri Lanka. It is published on every Sunday, by Sumathi Newspapers (Pvt) Ltd. A sister newspaper of '' Lakbima'' , ''Lakbima News'' was established in 2007. See also *List of newspapers ...
'', Gunaratna claimed that the
Canadian Tamil Congress The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC; french: Congrès Tamoul Canadien) is a Canadian non-profit organization that serves Tamil Canadians since October 2000 and has 11 chapters. The objectives of the Canadian Tamil Congress are: to promote the partic ...
(CTC) was a
front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * ''The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
for the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
. The CTC sued Gunaratna, and on 21 January 2014, the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice The Superior Court of Justice (French: ''Cour supérieure de justice'') is a superior court in Ontario. The Court sits in 52 locations across the province, including 17 Family Court locations, and consists of over 300 federally appointed judges. ...
ruled against Gunaratna, ordering home to pay the CTC
damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
of $37,000, and costs of $16,000. In his ruling judge Stephen E. Firestone stated that Gunaratna's claims were unequivocally and incontrovertibly "false and untrue".


References


External links


Staff Profile of Rohan Gunaratna, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, A Graduate School of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
*Bradley Hope
How Commissioner Kelly Reads His Way To Vigilance on Crime
New York Sun October 2006. *Daniel Hoare

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunaratna, Rohan Living people Alumni of the University of St Andrews Terrorism in Singapore Experts on terrorism Singaporean Buddhists Singaporean people of Sri Lankan descent 1961 births