US fingerprint database used to identify suspected LTTE cadres

The United States has told Canadian authorities that two Sri Lankan migrants who arrived off the B.C. coast in 2009 aboard a smuggling ship are suspected LTTE cadres, according to a senior American counter-terrorism official.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified the suspected rebels during fingerprint checks of 76 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who sailed to Canada from Southeast Asia two years ago aboard the cargo ship Ocean Lady. The database searches "identified two subjects as known or suspected terrorists and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," John Cohen, Principal Deputy Co-ordinator for Counterterrorism, told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.

He said the Canada Border Services Agency had worked with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attache at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa to identify the men using their fingerprints, which were fed into a DHS database called NPPD/US-VISIT. The two migrants flagged as suspected rebels were in the system because they had applied for U.S. visas in 2008, he said. The information was shared pursuant to an existing agreement between CBSA and DHS. "Both subjects were denied asylum in Canada."

Cohen cited the case as an example of successful international information sharing during his testimony to U.S. lawmakers on Sept. 13. His comments had gone unreported in Canada until now.

National Post