PETITION TO CONGRESSMAN BRAD SHERMAN (D-27TH DISTRICT) – August 23, 2008

Dear Congressman Sherman:

We, the undersigned, respectfully demand that you immediately resign from the House Subcommittee on Terrorism.  Your presence on this committee has seriously jeopardized its integrity and makes a mockery of its very purpose. 

Our demand is based on the following:

  1. You have  had a direct, longtime association with the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) a fundraising front of the world’s most ruthless terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam  (LTTE) THAT DELIBERATELY TARGETS CIVILIANS AND CONTINUOUSLY USES SUICIDE BOMBERS AND CHILD SOLDIERS. 
  2. You helped to legitimize and promote the TRO & LTTE by:

·        Attending the inaugural meeting in 1999 of its branch at 18352 Keswick, Reseda, #10, CA 91335

·        Placing this same TRO office at the top of the list he circulated in 2005 of organizations, ahead of established charities such as the Red Cross, to which tsunami donations could be made. 

  1. You have received campaign funds, over a long period of time, from the TRO office address at 18352 Keswick Street
  2. You are trying  to get the LTTE off the US State Department’s list of designated terrorist organizations, despite this organization’s:

·        Suspected links to Al Qaida

·        Continuing use of suicide bombings and other heinous attacks on unarmed civilians in Sri Lanka

  1. In your dangerous liaison with supporters of the LTTE, you have lost any sense of judgment and have gone to the extent of even comparing terrorism to the American War of Independenc.  On March 15, 2006,  giving  testimony before the U.S. House International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific you revealed that you had asked the State Department to design a roadmap to get the LTTE off the terrorist list.  This is an excerpt from your exchange with Donald H. Camp,  principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia,

SHERMAN:

I’ve urged the State Department to design a road map for the Tamil Tigers, so that they would

know what steps they would need to take to get off the terrorist list.

The response has been, well, we don’t do that, which basically means that we’re not acting to

encourage the Tamil Tigers to improve their behaviour.

Perhaps deputy — principal deputy assistant secretary — you could outline here what actions

do we want the Tamil Tigers to take or refrain from.

CAMP:

Actually, I think it’s fairly  What they would need to do would be to basically renounce terrorism, renounce violence in...

SHERMAN:

What is the difference between terrorism on the one hand, and waging a legitimate guerrilla

struggle on the other? What is the difference between Al Qaida and George Washington?

CAMP:

If I could...

SHERMAN:

(inaudible) George Washington did use violence.

CAMP:

Last I checked, though, he did not blow up buildings with civilians. I mean, the LTTE has

been famous for its attacks, its suicide bomb attacks on civilian targets.

Congressman Sherman, you are by no means fit to serve as chairman, or even as a member of a congressional subcommittee that is charged with overseeing the ‘war on terrorism.’

 We urge you to do the right thing by the American people.

PLEASE RESIGN.

 

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