While stating that Sri Lanka could learn from the mistakes the US have done before and after the 9/11 attacks, former US Ambassador Robert O Blake Jr yesterday said the incumbent government should establish a high-level group of technocrats similar to the one existed when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the defence secretary, to prevent terror attacks in the country.

The former ambassador, who is now Senior Director (India and South Asia) of McLarty Associates, expressed this while delivering a presentation titled US Foreign Policy towards China and South Asia and what it means for Sri Lanka, at the BMICH in Colombo.

The event was organised by the Pathfinder Foundation in partnership with the Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL).

Mr. Blake said having a high-level group of technocrats in Sri Lanka could definitely benefit the country and that Sri Lanka could learn from the mistakes the US have done before and after the 9/11 attacks.

He said one of the biggest mistakes that led to 9/11 was the US’s failure to properly communicate between its intelligence and law enforcement agencies particularly the FBI and the CIA and various law enforcement agencies.

“So to improve inter agency communication and coordination, then President Bush ordered a new committee to be established. The committee had senior people of all the relevant intelligence and law enforcement authorities. They met on a weekly basis to evaluate all the intelligence of the US and to determine what was credible and then most importantly to take action against those credible things. Individual people were assigned specific responsibility for each one of the lead which were considered credible. As a result of that, we haven't had a successful terrorist attack by a foreign terrorist group since then. We had plenty of domestic terrorist problems but the ISIS and Al-Qa'ida had not been able to attack like they did in Paris or any other places. In fact, Sri Lanka did have such a group during the war when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the defence secretary and he personally shared that and made sure that all the different branches of the intelligence of which there are many in this country, shared information and then shared that information up to the senior level people and then they themselves were making sure that somebody was looking into those and making sure that the attacks didn't take place. So I think that's a very important thing that the current government should think about and re-establish some kind of a group like that,” he said.

He said the Easter Sunday attacks were not just personal tragedies for the families of those who were killed and injured as the attacks also opened up old wounds that were still fresh from Sri Lanka's 26 year civil conflict.

Mr.Blake said one priority during investigations must be for the government and the security services to conduct investigations in a professional and impartial manner that respects rights of all Sri Lankans and does not inadvertently add to the problem.

“The government should make every effort to limit the scope and duration of any emergency regulations. Since I have been here for the last few days, I witnessed quite encouraging reports of how the security services in general have conducted themselves. Sri Lanka must be careful not to allow IS or other extremist groups to take root in Sri Lanka,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)

Pix by Kushan Pathiraja