Rohan Gunaratna


Rohan Gunaratna is a political analyst specializing in international terrorism. He is the former Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Education

Gunaratna received his Masters from the University of Notre Dame, where he was Hesburgh Scholar and his doctorate from the University of St Andrews, where he was British Chevening Scholar.

Career

Gunaratna is the lead author of Jane's Counter Terrorism.

Criticism and controversy

Hambali claims

In 2003, Gunaratna claimed that Al-Qaeda commander Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali regularly visited Australia plot fly planes into the British Houses of Parliament were dismissed by Australian authorities including the ASIO as lacking in evidence. 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 bogus claims to be a "principal investigator" at the UN's Terrorism Prevention Branch. IN reality, he had spoken at a seminar organized by the parliamentary library, given evidence to 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 claim to the New Zealand Herald that "sympathisers and supporters of various terrorist groups were in New Zealand” and claimed to have seen their fundraising leaflets were also dismissed by New Zealand's Financial Intelligence Unit.

Others

In 2013, Sri Lankan member of parliament Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe wrote in op-ed in which said that "he insisted the importance of combating terrorism, he did not address on the cause for the emergence of terrorism." In 2017, Inspector General of Bangladesh Police dismissed his claims of ISIS presence in Bangladesh by saying that he had no experience in "real issues."

Ontario Superior Court of Justice's verdict against Gunaratna

In a February 2011 article in Lakbima News, Gunaratna claimed that the Canadian Tamil Congress was a front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The CTC sued Gunaratna, and on 21 January 2014, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled against Gunaratna, ordering home to pay the CTC damages 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".