Word: colombo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...probably the closest Pistone came to being unmasked and "whacked" (killed) during the five years that he posed as Jewel Thief Donnie Brasco with the Bonanno and Colombo crime families. When he emerged from under cover in 1981, he was closer than any previous outsider to the inner sanctum of the Mafia...
Several times Pistone came within a telephone call of being exposed. In 1977, shortly after he had infiltrated a small gang of crooks attached to the Colombo family, two mobsters became suspicious that Pistone was a stoolie and demanded that he provide a criminal reference. Months before, Pistone had asked another FBI agent to instruct a Mob informant in Florida always to be ready to vouch for Donnie Brasco. But had the agent passed on the message? And if he had, would the informant remember? For several tense hours Pistone played cards with the rest of the gang, while...
...their weapons and used them to deadly effect. Within six weeks of the pact's signing, Prabakaran's forces had murdered more than 150 members of rival Tamil groups. Last month, using his arms as a bargaining chip, Prabakaran won a major concession from the Sri Lankan government in Colombo: the Tigers were given control of a majority of seats on the interim council. But after promising "full" support of the agreement, Prabakaran suddenly insisted on naming the head of the governing unit...
...agreement forged by New Delhi and Colombo in July to end Sri Lanka's four- year civil war was badly mauled last week as the separatist guerrillas known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam went on a rampage. The Tigers butchered at least 170 civilians and 27 Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen after 13 of their members in Colombo's hands committed suicide with cyanide pills. The deceased rebels were among 17 guerrillas captured by the Sri Lankan navy last week for allegedly smuggling arms and ammunition into the country by trawler from India...
...fighting stops and the rebels are disarmed, Jayewardene could regain some support. But as India's 3,000 troops arrived in the Jaffna area last week, J.N. Dixit, the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, heightened Sinhalese fears that India might be aiming at more than a temporary stay. When the troop deployment was announced, Colombo promised that the units would be under Sri Lankan command. Sounding a bit like a proconsul, Dixit told a Colombo news conference that the troops would answer to him. The next day Dixit retreated, saying the Indian troops were ultimately under Jayewardene's authority...