Student was Tiger agent?

A University of Waterloo engineering graduate who was arrested in Ontario during a U.S. anti-terror probe used his student status to mask his work for the Tamil Tigers terrorist organization and recruited other students to act as couriers to smuggle equipment to Sri Lanka, U.S. authorities allege.

Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, of Waterloo, Ont., worked in Canada to aid the victims of the 2004 tsunami, is an accomplished athlete and academically gifted, having completed his electrical engineering degree in June on two scholarships.

Mr. Sriskandarajah, who appeared briefly in a Kitchener court yesterday, is also alleged to be an operative for the Tigers codenamed "Waterloo Suresh."

Prosecutors in New York want him to face charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Guns and other weapons

He is accused of researching and acquiring aviation equipment, submarine and warship design software, communications equipment and, from a British Columbia company, night-vision equipment. He also allegedly laundered money for Tiger activities.

He is one of at least four Canadian men of Tamil descent who have been arrested in the probe. Three men were arrested in New York after a meeting to buy anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and other military weapons, the FBI says in court records.

Mr. Sriskandarajah was arrested near Toronto on Monday at the urgent request of the U.S. government.

A formal request for his extradition is expected.

RCMP officers executed two search warrants, one north of Toronto and the other in Kitchener, as part of their probe, codenamed Project O-Needle.

There is also another man, who allegedly worked closely with Mr.Sriskandarajah, wanted by U.S. authorities who is believed to be in Canada. His name has not been released.

He is believed to be a man who was turned away at the Canada-U.S. border because of a prior criminal record when co-conspirators went to New York to allegedly buy the military hardware.

Mr. Sriskandarajah used his position as a university student to legitimize his inquiries about buying military software from a British company, prosecutors allege.

Mr. Sriskandarajah and another man were concerned about being asked why they wanted it. "They are asking me a lot of questions. I don't want to sound suspicious, so want to give them a good answer," said an unnamed man in an e-mail to Mr. Sriskandarajah, the FBI alleges.

Mr. Sriskandarajah "devised an elaborate scheme to make it appear as if the software was merely for a school project," according to FBI Special Agent James Tareco in documents.

The student ruse was also tried on a company in British Columbia, the FBI says. To justify their interest in night-vision equipment, a co-conspirator said it was for "a fourth-year design project we are doing at our university," according to documents.

Mr. Sriskandarajah was also allegedly involved in organizing student couriers to travel to Sri Lanka with equipment hidden in their luggage.

"Here is the info you'll need... read it / print it / delete this email afterwards," Mr. Sriskandarajah allegedly wrote in an email to student couriers.

He allegedly directed the students to cover the smuggled items with teddy bears and chocolates to divert the attention of government border guards.

When opening their suitcases, they were told to give the border agents each a bag of chocolates, cigarettes and a smile.

"[D]on't tell anyone besides your family about your departure; you idiots already told way too much people," the email continues, according to the FBI.

Once through government checkpoints, they would have no problems at the Tigers checkpoints, Mr. Sriskandarajah allegedly wrote in the e-mail.

"Tell them Waterloo Suresh sent you," the e-mail says.

Polite young man

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly called the Tamil Tigers, are fighting for a Tamil homeland separate from Sri Lanka and are notorious for its use of suicide bombings and its assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister. It was declared a terrorist organization in the U.S. in 1997 and in Canada this year.

Hal Mattson, the attorney who represented Mr. Sriskandarajah at his hearing yesterday, said his client graduated from the University of Waterloo in June in engineering and travelled to Sri Lanka for a co-op term.

"He seemed to be a very polite young man," said Mr. Mattson.

Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby confirmed yesterday that he has been retained as Mr. Sriskandarajah's counsel, at the request of his family.

Nick Devlin, a federal prosecutor with Canada's Department of Justice, said the U.S. government has 60 days to make a formal extradition request through diplomatic channels and Mr. Sriskandarajah has the right to seek bail in the interim.

He is to appear in a Kitchener court on Friday.

- Adrian Humphreys, National Post, Canada