Thursday
Dec112008
"Terror" Beyond Pakistan: Expanding Reach of Lashkar-e-Taiba?
Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 8:11
McClatchy News Services has obtained a United Nations document on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group linked by many to the Mumbai attacks, and the implications go far beyond Indo-Pakistani relations. The article asserts, "LeT has sent operatives to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, established a branch in Saudi Arabia and been raising funds in Europe" and "may also have received money from al Qaida".
On Wednesday, a UN Security Council committee --- pressed by India and the US --- put three of LeT's alleged leaders and a Saudi supporter on a terrorist watch list. India also sought the inclusion of Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's intelligence service, but China reportedly blocked his addition to the list.
The misleading read of this report would be that LeT is now a branch of Al Qaeda. If only it were that simple: the indications are that LeT, while formally banned by Pakistan since 2002, is now a group beyond Al Qaeda with its own aims and ideas of how to achieve them.
And that in turn doubles attention back, not to Osama bin Laden, but to internal Pakistani politics. As Juan Cole notes cogently about Pakistan's arrest of one of the four on the UN list, Zaki ur Rahman Lakhvi, and Zarar Shah:
[Zarar Shah] is thought to be a liason to a network of retired officers of the [Pakistani service] Inter-Services Intelligence, who are alleged to have trained the Mumbai attackers.
This is a game of chicken. As the civilian Pakistani government gets closer to rogue cells in the ISI, it risks another coup or black ops aimed at destabilizing it.
On Wednesday, a UN Security Council committee --- pressed by India and the US --- put three of LeT's alleged leaders and a Saudi supporter on a terrorist watch list. India also sought the inclusion of Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's intelligence service, but China reportedly blocked his addition to the list.
The misleading read of this report would be that LeT is now a branch of Al Qaeda. If only it were that simple: the indications are that LeT, while formally banned by Pakistan since 2002, is now a group beyond Al Qaeda with its own aims and ideas of how to achieve them.
And that in turn doubles attention back, not to Osama bin Laden, but to internal Pakistani politics. As Juan Cole notes cogently about Pakistan's arrest of one of the four on the UN list, Zaki ur Rahman Lakhvi, and Zarar Shah:
[Zarar Shah] is thought to be a liason to a network of retired officers of the [Pakistani service] Inter-Services Intelligence, who are alleged to have trained the Mumbai attackers.
This is a game of chicken. As the civilian Pakistani government gets closer to rogue cells in the ISI, it risks another coup or black ops aimed at destabilizing it.