Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): June 30, 2011

[Theo_Fidel]

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/07/01/pakistan-guilty/2/

Pakistan: Guilty

The LET responded to its banning by simply changing its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Its leader still publicly preaches. The group boasts of running over 202 facilities in Pakistan, including schools, hospitals and charities. The Long War Journal says that LET “essentially runs a state within a state in Pakistan.” This is especially dangerous because of the group’s proven ability to recruit Westerners. European officials say that the LET is the biggest inspirer of homegrown terrorists, and it is known to be expanding operations in the West. The group’s focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan and India does not mean that it doesn’t harbor global ambitions. It has promised to “plant a flag” in Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C.

Another group using its Pakistani backing to promote homegrown terrorism is Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM). “The U.S. and British governments have both acquired overwhelming evidence that ‘homegrown’ terrorist cells seeking instruction at ‘real’ terror training camps frequently end up at either facilities run by LET or JEM. JEM is essentially seen as an equal substitute for LET if the latter is unavailable,” terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann said.

The leader of JEM openly preaches in Pakistan, and like LET, has schools where it can brainwash the youth into becoming jihadists. Reporters were able to locate two of these schools. Apparently, the JEM feels secure enough that it does not put much effort into hiding its presence. Among the many attacks that JEM has carried out is the 2001 attack on India’s parliament that brought the two countries to the brink of war. A member of JEM provided five American jihadists from the Washington D.C. area with safe haven when they were arrested in Pakistan in December 2009 on their way to Taliban and Al-Qaeda training camps. Four members of JEM were arrested for their links to Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.

Pakistan is still raising the next generation of terrorists and Islamic extremists with its religious schools, as well. According to Arnaud de Borchgrave, “Pakistan is still producing an estimated 10,000 potential jihadis a year out of 500,000 graduates from Pakistan’s 11,000 madrasses.”

It is not enough for Pakistan to just crack down on Al-Qaeda. There’s an entire jihadist network within Pakistan and the government knows about it. The war against radical Islam will go for as long as Pakistan continues its treachery.

[James B]

this is my first post even though I have been a member for 4 years . I usually just read.

Not sure if any of you guys can post a video from http://www.colbertnation.com , but there is this excellent bit he did about pakistan in a segment called formidable opponent. It is a very accurate BRF esqe representation of the relationship between Pakistan, USA and the Terrorists.

I dont know how to post the video.

Here is the link to the video. I think he laid threadbare the Pakiness of TSP for the mango Americans. Well done Stephen.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... --pakistan

[Theo_Fidel]

This SSS book appears to be a bomb shell. We should have it on PDF...

Some highlights. Hussein Huqqani as JUI Alumni . Ambassador to Amreeki. Along with F. Shehzad. Why is this not yet a designated terrorist org.

http://www.newsweekpakistan.com/culture/348

Zubayda was to arrange safe passage out of Pakistan for bin Laden’s family with the assistance of Taiba’s Hafiz Saeed, who had been paid for the job. But the job was not done. Zubayda went to Lahore to see Saeed but to no avail. Incensed, he returned to Faisalabad. A few days later, Zubayda’s Taiba safe house was raided and he was arrested.

It was not Taiba which attacked Mumbai in 2008, but Al Qaeda with the help of Taiba about which Inter-Services Intelligence did not know—or at least the ISI leadership did not. The objective was to precipitate a Pakistan-India war that would force Pakistan to move its troops out of the tribal areas and redeploy them on the eastern border. After Mumbai, Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah declared they would fight India together with the Pakistan Army, an offer that, the book says, was welcomed by ISI chief Gen. Shuja Pasha.

Al Qaeda thought kidnapping non-Muslims for ransom was kosher and had first got Ashiq to kidnap a Hindu from Karachi with the help of one Maj. Basit. When the Hindu was discovered to have no cash at home, he was let off on the condition of embracing Islam which he did. Al Qaeda’s policy of kidnapping Ahmadis continues in force.

Shahzad used to receive Ashiq at his home in Karachi, noting that he believed in the Battle of India and thought Imam Mehdi was already born and would fight at the head of the army of Khurasan (Afghanistan-Pakistan). He told Shahzad that he had carried into Pakistan night-vision goggles meant for Al Qaeda on his person and was “facilitated” at Islamabad airport by one Maj. Farooq, then attached to the security detail of President Pervez Musharraf.

It was after the assault on Lal Masjid by Musharraf that Al Qaeda launched its most virulent verbal attack on Pakistan. It created the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and got its minion Fazlullah, son-in-law of an already converted Sufi Muhammad, to raise the flag of revolt in Swat. ISI failed to control its assets. It got Fazlur Rehman Khalil of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen—an Al Qaeda affiliate—to talk to Aziz, but to no avail. Shahzad doesn’t mention it but there were other, less savory assets who also failed: Javed Ibrahim Paracha, who had blown up Islamabad’s Shia shrine, Barri Imam, also could not dissuade Aziz. In the end, Lal Masjid had to be attacked as a partial result of which Musharraf himself had to end his most ambivalent decade in power.

Some sections of the book are more shocking. Shahzad reveals that the Haqqani network is a part of the Al Qaeda empire in Pakistan while posing as an “asset” of the Pakistan Army. If the Pakistani Taliban are a pain in the neck of their former patron, they are also firmly ensconced inside the Haqqani network. What the book ends up presenting is a statement of blurred boundaries between terror and governance in Pakistan.

Enough to kill a journalist? Perhaps. Shahzad had once belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami, the religious-jihadist party first to come in contact with Al Qaeda. (Shahzad, however, faithfully records Jamaat leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s objection to the doctrine of takfeer favored by Ayman al-Zawahiri). He tells us about youths who emerged from the “student wing” of the Jamaat to become leaders of other parties: Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani; Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leaders Javed Hashmi and Ahsan Iqbal; and the ruling party’s Sen. Babar Awan, to say nothing of “almost 80 percent of Urdu-language newspaper and electronic media opinion writers and television talk-show anchors in Pakistan who were once members of the student wing.”

[MurthyB]

Great stuff from Colbert. He actually acted out that cartoon of Uncle sam giving dollas to whoristan only to have a bomb come back under his arse via the good taliban.

this is my first post even though I have been a member for 4 years . I usually just read.

Not sure if any of you guys can post a video from http://www.colbertnation.com , but there is this excellent bit he did about pakistan in a segment called formidable opponent. It is a very accurate BRF esqe representation of the relationship between Pakistan, USA and the Terrorists.

I dont know how to post the video.

[A_Gupta]

C.Unfair's article on LeT, June 14, 2011, is (at least in the abstract) actually good (haven't read the article yet). Highlighting the points

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=1864304

Abstract:
Pakistan has long raised and supported an array of Islamist militant groups to act on the state’s behalf in India and Afghanistan. Scholars generally argue that Pakistan has done so due to its long-standing security competition with India over the disputed territorial disposition of Kashmir. Pakistan, which lacks military, political or diplomatic means to wrest Kashmir from India, has relied upon these Islamist militant groups in hopes of coercing India to make some territorial concession in Pakistan’s favor. By extension, Pakistan’s pre-occupations in Afghanistan stem principally from its concerns about India. Pakistan has sought to use Islamist militants there to deny India access to Afghanistan from which it could support insurgencies in Pakistan. This understanding of Pakistan’s principle reasons for supporting these militants leads to a policy prescription that focuses upon resolving the Indo-Pakistan security competition as a necessary if insufficient condition that would permit Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon Islamist militant groups throughout South Asia. However, in this article, I argue that this understanding is incomplete because it disregards the domestic politics of these groups. Focusing upon Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in particular, I marshal a new body of evidence to demonstrate that LeT also services Pakistan’s domestic security goals. This suggests that even if Pakistan and India could normalize relations, Pakistan would not likely turn against LeT.

Fair or unfair?

[Shankas]

[quote="James B"Here is the link to the video. I think he laid threadbare the Pakiness of TSP for the mango Americans. Well done Stephen.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... --pakistan[/quote]

Can not access it in Canada. We like to pretend we are different from US and Canadians do not watch or enjoy anything American. Can a techie poing a way around this?

[Prasad]

[quote="James B"Here is the link to the video. I think he laid threadbare the Pakiness of TSP for the mango Americans. Well done Stephen.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... --pakistan

Can not access it in Canada. We like to pretend we are different from US and Canadians do not watch or enjoy anything American. Can a techie poing a way around this?[/quote]

Try a proxy? Or just search for the episode on google. You might hit up a youtube link

[A_Gupta]

Prof Unfair - on twitter probably about Lieven. Posted here for the characterization of LeT.

2nd grouse: comparisons to Mumbai ill placed. LeT does NOT do suicide attacks; rather high risk missions.

It has been pointed out to me, "Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection", Mariam Abou Zaham and Olivier Roy:

Page 44: {Hafiz Saeed, 2002} He stresses that jihad is essential for the survival of Pakistan and says in interviews that suicide attacks are 'the best form of jihad'.

Page 40: These groups of fidayin, as they are designated within Lashkar-i-Taiba, differ from the suicide squads of the Tamil Tigers or Palestinian Hamas. Islam forbits suicide. Therefore, even if such martyrs are not regarded as having committed suicide, since the Quran declares they are not dead but live at God's right hand, they nevertheless do not go on missions where death is certain, choosing rather operations where there is a chance, even if it is infinitesimal, of returning alive.

The objective of the fidayein is not to martyr themselves in their first operation. On the contrary, they aim to do as much damage as possible to the enemy to inspire fear in both present and future generations. This is why Lashkar-i-Taiba operations against the Hindus are so savage. Women and babies are killed, and victims are beheaded and eviscerated. The ultimate intention is always martyrdom, and families know that mujahidin leave their homes with the intention of dying. They return to combat repeatedly until they achieve martyrdom, the most sought-after death. Only a martyr speaks directly to God, and can intercede on behalf of his family and enable its members to directly enter into paradise.

As Shiv said, not rape, but vigorous unconsensual sex. Point of posting is that to counter academics it is always good to have citations.

[UBanerjee]

Column written a few weeks ago in Yawn

Little Soldiers: Saleem Shahzad and the Pakistani military

Most of the officers were brought up by being vigorously indoctrinated in radical anti-India mantras and the idea of Pakistan military being the defender of Islam’s last great bastion, i.e. Pakistan. Many of such officers may have lost their identity, in a manner of speaking, when they were finally told the truth: that the main enemy, after all, is not India anymore, but the jihadis and a militant Islamist mindset that was rolled out from the jihad factories in the 1980s and 1990s.

Perhaps it is this loss of identity among many young officers that is making them see ‘strategic’ and ideological camaraderie with the Islamic extremists as well as those small right-wing parties they want to prop up. The superiors of these suspect officers knew the tide was turning. They had to know that the enemy had changed as well. Yet, suffering from their own delusions, they botched up the process of convincing their officers that the real enemy now was the one abusing the name of God and the faith.

[UBanerjee]

this is my first post even though I have been a member for 4 years . I usually just read.

Not sure if any of you guys can post a video from http://www.colbertnation.com , but there is this excellent bit he did about pakistan in a segment called formidable opponent. It is a very accurate BRF esqe representation of the relationship between Pakistan, USA and the Terrorists.

I dont know how to post the video.

Hilarious video

[jrjrao]

C.Unfair's article on LeT, June 14, 2011, is (at least in the abstract) actually good (haven't read the article yet). Highlighting the points

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=1864304

Focusing upon Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in particular, I marshal a new body of evidence to demonstrate that LeT also services Pakistan’s domestic security goals. This suggests that even if Pakistan and India could normalize relations, Pakistan would not likely turn against LeT.

Fair or unfair?

Very Unfair, and very much crap. This is very similar to the testimony that this "academic" presented to a congressional committee hearing last month.

This "new" evidence and theory by C.Fair actually is a barely disguised attempt to exculpate Paki behavior w.r.t. L-e-T.

The argument she makes is that by its very presence all over TSP, and by its active recruitment drive to add to its cadre, L-e-T is offering a useful and beneficial service to the state of Pakistan.

How so? Well, this phony academic argues that every recruit who is added to the L-e-T rolls is one who is not added to the rolls of the other baddies in Pakistan (e.g., sectarian shit like L-e-J, Sipahi-e-S etc). In other words, by existing and by thriving, L-e-T drains the swamp in Pakistan, and that it depletes the ranks of other groups, groups who don't mind harming Pakistan whereas L-e-T never ever harms Pakistan.

In other words, she says that the presence of L-e-T is Pakistan is like the presence of quinine in your medicine cabinet. A little bitter perhaps, but something very useful and very good.

In other words, her new thesis is a bizarre new apologia for Pakistan when Pakistan is accused in not going after L-e-T.

[Prem]

If Pakistan Denies U.S. Its Drone Bases, There’s a Backup Plan
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07 ... next-door/

( Uncle Singing, Yesss,
i can live with or without you,
Even if you aaavoid GUBO tooooday,
I aint going away
You better give yourself away
And enjoy my smooth foray)

Pakistan may be kicking the CIA out of its premiere base for the drone war. Or it may not — who can tell with the Pakistanis anymore? What’s for certain is that all their griping strengthens the U.S. resolve to keep bases in neighboring Afghanistan to launch drones into Pakistan unilaterally.In the spirit of their pique with the United States after the SEALs’ unilateral Osama bin Laden kill, the Pakistanis are loudly declaring the United States is cut off from its most prominent drone launching pad. “No U.S. flights are taking place from Shamsi any longer,” says Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar.The harsh truth is that the Pakistanis can’t stop the drone war on their soil. But they can shift its launching points over the Afghan border. And the United States is already working on a backup plan for a long-term drone war, all without the Pakistanis’ help.The Obama team’s new counterterrorism strategy should remove all doubt about the centrality of drones to a long-term fight against al-Qaida. That’s one of the main reasons it’s quietly negotiating with the Afghan government to keep a few residual bases jointly with Afghan troops after most U.S. forces leave. A senior Obama aide explicitly told Danger Room last week that the intent is to host a “counterterrorism capability … a strike capability” on the bases “to ensure that there’s not that reemergence of a safe haven threat to us.”
In other words: If the Pakistanis want to let the United States use their bases, great. If not, no big deal.

[Anantha]

Unfair and Uneven usually talk from both orifices at a given time. In fact Unfair's unofficial Guru is Uneven. I have been following Uneven for a while. While being in the payroll of shady figures of wonderland, they try to prop up LeT, KqS etc and are apologists for TSP. Simultaneously they will also say a few good things on India the next day. What ever be the outcome on a South Asia situation, these South Asia types will pull an earlier statement out of their musharrafs to suit the occasion. This way they enjoy the slush fund and pretend to be an expert, as usual beating up India.

[Theo_Fidel]

How so? Well, this phony academic argues that every recruit who is added to the L-e-T rolls is one who is not added to the rolls of the other baddies in Pakistan (e.g., sectarian shit like L-e-J, Sipahi-e-S etc). In other words, by existing and by thriving, L-e-T drains the swamp in Pakistan, and that it depletes the ranks of other groups, groups who don't mind harming Pakistan whereas L-e-T never ever harms Pakistan.

I'm not sure that is exactly what she claims.

Reading it one gets the feeling she doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. Her knowledge is skin deep and she doesn't understand the cultural landscape she is in. It is almost like some one in India trying to analyze the extremist Mormon movement in Nevada.

For instance she mistakes munafiqat for the Deobandi desire to eliminate all others which as has been noted here is to create a Dar-ul-Islam for which purpose all non-muslims must be eliminated. She translates Munifiq as dishonest which to me is very problematic in itself, it is a lot more subtle and is actually not the main accusation against Ahmediyas or others labeled non-muslim. She claims their anger is at the disunity this causes in the muslim world which is quite laughable. As if the Jihad option is because they dislike our lack of truthfulness. What tripe.

While she gets it right that Pakistan's problem with India is not territorial she gets all the logic in between wrong and then proceeds to state the silly Pakistan existential enemy India argument. Its like Cuba saying the US is an existential threat. Very pointless. She ends by saying the biggest threat to the US is the immigrant population, which should be purged and watched like a hawk and then every thing will be OK.

It baffles me that she is a supposed expert on the Sub-Continent and has a university position to prove it. I read SSS and read her prattle it is simply astounding how she can get so much wrong. Empty headed dung beetle more like it.

[RajeshA]

If Pakistan Denies U.S. Its Drone Bases, There’s a Backup Plan
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07 ... next-door/

If American relations with Pakistan really go very bad, and they need some space in Afghanistan, then should Pakistan also deny USA overflight rights, India should do USA this favor and provide USA with an air-bridge into Afghanistan from the Indian Ocean.

New Routes for USA into Afghanistan

[r_subramanian]

Eight killed, 20 wounded in Karachi sectarian clashes
First a clash between Sunni Tehreek (ST) and Jamaatud Dawa (JD) over the control of a mosque. One person died in that clash.
Next a clash between ST and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) over the control of a hospital. Seven persons died in that clash.
link
ST is a Barelvi organisation. SSP is a Deobandi organisation. Which sect does JD represent? Wiki says that JD is the political arm of LeT.

[Hari Seldon]

The best 'new' route for unkil into Afgn is to prop up an independent (and emocratic-secular) Balochistan. Stir up a color revolution there, rinse and repeat.

The only proble I see is that the road via Baluchistan connects into the afgn wild west - the untamed south. The only way to tame it would be to stir more (green) color revolutions east of the Durand, perhaps...

[RajeshA]

Which sect does JD represent?

Ahl-e-Hadith

[r_subramanian]

^ Thanks RajeshA

[RajeshA]

The best 'new' route for unkil into Afgn is to prop up an independent (and emocratic-secular) Balochistan. Stir up a color revolution there, rinse and repeat.

That would need time, and USA is more likely to support Baluchi Independence if they are still sitting in Afghanistan, but are independent of Pakistan.

[shiv]

The best 'new' route for unkil into Afgn is to prop up an independent (and emocratic-secular) Balochistan. Stir up a color revolution there, rinse and repeat.

The only proble I see is that the road via Baluchistan connects into the afgn wild west - the untamed south. The only way to tame it would be to stir more (green) color revolutions east of the Durand, perhaps...

One promising looking thing would be to "keep Pakistan busy" by talking to he Taliban and allowing them to have their own state on both sides of the Durand line. Afghanistan and Pakistan will both be split.

[Vivek_A]

Rangudu..I know you're lurking.

Guess who was a member of the IJT? hussain Haqqani, that's who.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 011_pg7_17

Pakistan college contest: Praise for bin Laden

LAHORE: Two months after the covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, posters emblazoned with images of the burning World Trade Center towers appeared at the country’s largest university advertising a literary contest to glorify the slain al Qaeda chief.

The poem and essay competition at the prestigious Punjab University shows the footholds of hard-line radicals on college campuses and growing efforts to raise their profile and influence even in the relatively cosmopolitan atmosphere of Pakistan’s culture capital, Lahore.

The contest’s organisers have kept their identities hidden. But many students and teachers suspect it is being held by a powerful radical student group that has increasingly enforced its conservative religious views on the rest of the campus — sometimes violently.

The Islami Jamiat Taliba (IJT), which is connected to Pakistan’s largest radical party, has denied involvement, saying it does not participate in secret activities. But its leaders have publicly acknowledged that many members support bin Laden and have a profound hatred for the US.

[shravan]

‘Huge ransom paid in Pakistan’ for Western hostages

KABUL: New details have emerged of how two Western hostages in Afghanistan were freed in exchange for a hefty ransom paid in Pakistan and the release of two brothers from a mafia-style, Taliban-linked group....

[shiv]

C.Unfair's article on LeT, June 14, 2011, is (at least in the abstract) actually good (haven't read the article yet). Highlighting the points

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=1864304

Abstract:
Pakistan has long raised and supported an array of Islamist militant groups to act on the state’s behalf in India and Afghanistan. Scholars generally argue that Pakistan has done so due to its long-standing security competition with India over the disputed territorial disposition of Kashmir. Pakistan, which lacks military, political or diplomatic means to wrest Kashmir from India, has relied upon these Islamist militant groups in hopes of coercing India to make some territorial concession in Pakistan’s favor. By extension, Pakistan’s pre-occupations in Afghanistan stem principally from its concerns about India. Pakistan has sought to use Islamist militants there to deny India access to Afghanistan from which it could support insurgencies in Pakistan. This understanding of Pakistan’s principle reasons for supporting these militants leads to a policy prescription that focuses upon resolving the Indo-Pakistan security competition as a necessary if insufficient condition that would permit Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon Islamist militant groups throughout South Asia. However, in this article, I argue that this understanding is incomplete because it disregards the domestic politics of these groups. Focusing upon Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in particular, I marshal a new body of evidence to demonstrate that LeT also services Pakistan’s domestic security goals. This suggests that even if Pakistan and India could normalize relations, Pakistan would not likely turn against LeT.

Fair or unfair?

Fair.

Folks this is an excellent work! Worthy of going on the first post of the Paki thread. Archive it lest it should vanish. I also checked if the woman had consulted Indian authors. She has - in convincing amounts.

We must not let our irritation with her other comments coming in teh way of recognizing this as a good piece of literature with a lot of useful cross references. There is plenty to quote but I will just make one quote from the conclusion

First, even if international intervention could
succeed in helping India and Pakistan to resolve their outstanding dispute, normalization of their
relations is likely an insufficient condition for Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon LeT/JuD.
While India should find some way of addressing the grievances of its own Kashmiri populace as
well as that of the Muslims in India elsewhere for its own domestic security (among other
domestic reasons),80 arguments for changing the territorial status quo to appease Pakistan are
likely misguided as a means to assist Pakistan in putting down LeT. While India would almost
certainly never accept any such adjustments, such a policy would likely have significant negative
externalities were it to go forward, principally because it would reinforce Pakistan‘s belief that
militancy is an effective tool of foreign policy.

I have certain other views on the implications of what she has written, but will only point out two shoddy proof reading errors ("principle" instead of "principal", and "waved" instead of "waived"). Also reference no 53 which she has quoted is garbage - at least the quote is garbage because the author seems to have misinterpreted cold start as a territory grabbing tactic.

[Shrinivasan]

C.Unfair's article on LeT, June 14, 2011, is (at least in the abstract) actually good (haven't read the article yet). Highlighting the points... Fair or unfair?

One thing I have noticed about Ms Faire, her On Camera interviews are very supportive of Pakees, not so her briefings??? her writings are 50-50... mostly against Pakees or Pakee poodles. Wonder if she is playing all sides or that, she is fullfilling her brief of the day!!! what do you guys think?

[jrjrao]

How so? Well, this phony academic argues that every recruit who is added to the L-e-T rolls is one who is not added to the rolls of the other baddies in Pakistan (e.g., sectarian shit like L-e-J, Sipahi-e-S etc). In other words, by existing and by thriving, L-e-T drains the swamp in Pakistan, and that it depletes the ranks of other groups, groups who don't mind harming Pakistan whereas L-e-T never ever harms Pakistan.

I'm not sure that is exactly what she claims.

Theo, take a look at this also from end of May (which is what I had read earlier), testified under oath to Congress. Pretty long, but worth reading. Some excerpts:

Lashkar-e-Taiba beyond Bin Laden: Enduring Challenges for the Region and the
International Community

Testimony prepared for the U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee
May 24, 2011
C. Christine Fair
Assistant Professor
Georgetown University
Security Studies Program
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

...Thus the LeT differs from the other militant groups in several important ways. First, the LeT has never targeted the Pakistani state or any target (international or otherwise) within Pakistan. It exclusively operates outside of Pakistan. This is further evidence of the tight linkages between LeT and the Pakistani security establishment.
...
...
...

DOMESTIC POLITICS OF LASHKAR-E-TAIB: AN ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION

As noted above, the groups that have reorganized and begun targeting the state are all Deobandi. LeT is not Deobandi. This theological distinction is exceedingly important if underappreciated. First, these Deobandi groups are intimately sectarian.

Understanding this anti-Munafiqin violence perpetrated by these Deobandi groups is critical to understanding the domestic utility of LeT. In stark contrast, LeT does not fight in Pakistan and does not target Pakistanis. In its manifesto ―"Hum Kyon Jihad Kar Rahen Hain?" (Why Are We Waging Jihad), the author details why it is that LeT ―Does not wage jihad in Pakistan instead of Kashmir‖ and other venues in the Muslim world where Muslims are oppressed.

In this manifesto lie the domestic politics of LeT and its state support. It is the only organization that actively challenges the Deobandi orthodoxy that has imperiled the domestic security of the state. Thus, LeT‘s doctrine works to secure the integrity of the Pakistani state domestically...

This orientation is more important than it may seem at first blush....In fact, LeT overwhelmingly recruits Deobandis and Barelvis. In Daur-e-Aam (the basic training) recruits are undergo rigorous religious indoctrination. This is an important opportunity to attract those who have a taste for violence to a pro-state militant organization rather than a Deobandi group which may target the state. It also provides LeT the opportunity to dissuade Deobandis (or others) who believe in attacking Pakistanis be they civilian leaders, security forces or citizens.


...when one appreciates the domestic importance of LeT in dampening internal insecurity, the state has an enormous incentive to encourage and facilitate this expansion of JuD throughout Pakistan. By bolstering the organization‘s domestic legitimacy, JuD becomes an ever-more effective organization in countering the competitive dangerous beliefs of the Deobandi groups.

When we appreciate the important domestic role that LeT/JuD plays in helping to counter the Deobandi violence that has ravaged Pakistan, it logically follows that this organization will become more important as Pakistan‘s domestic security situation degrades. This suggests that no matter what happens vis-à-vis India, Pakistan is unlikely to put down this organization as long as it serves this important domestic political role.

link

The underlined stuff above is pure Christine Crap, and coming in a testimony given under oath to the US Congress, it has the enormous leverage of trying to exculpate and whitewash Paki crimes regd. L-e-T.

[ranjbe]

Another fascinating review of an Urdu book written recently by Mobarak Haider called
Tehzeebi Nargasiyyat (civilisational narcissism) by Pashtun nationalist female scholar Farhat Taj in todays Daily Times. Excerpts:

Muslims, according to the book, think Islam is a complete, definitive and final code of life and there is no need for the Muslims to excel in knowledge through hard work, reason and logic. They believe they have the God-given right to rule the world and can use brute force, if necessary, to subjugate non-Muslims. They scream over perceived injustices to Muslims caused by non-Muslims, but simply deny widespread atrocities committed by Muslims against fellow Muslims. They simply lack a positive consideration of others no matter how reasonable and logical it might seem.

She hints that this is very applicable for mainstream (Pakjabi) Pakis, but her FATA Pashtuns are an exception.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

[shiv]

The underlined stuff above is pure Christine Crap, and coming in a testimony given under oath to the US Congress, it has the enormous leverage of trying to exculpate and whitewash Paki crimes regd. L-e-T.

I think that she is not using the word "appreciate" in admiration. She is trying to show that the Paki state feels that its survival is linked to the LeTs survival. What she does in the pdf linked by Arun Gupta is to say that the LeT alone, among all other groups is favored by the Pakistani state (establishment/military) because the LeT represents Pakistaniyat (my words) unlike Deobandi groups who have their own agenda.

I think she is correct. But what it means is that Pakistan is heading towards Islamist rule (or it is already there) but that Islamist rule is the LeT Ahl-e-hadith flavor. By keeping the LeT as a separate organization that the Pakistani state does not oppose - the Pakistani state is able to get funds from the US even though it is basically Islamists. Fair recognizes that the LeT will fight all non Muslims outside Pakistan.

Here is one more conclusion from her pdf

Given that Pakistan is unlikely to be induced to abandon its reliance upon militancy under
its nuclear umbrella for both external and internal reasons, the international community —
including the United States—should abandon its Panglossian optimism that additional foreign
assistance or security assistance will shift Pakistan‘s strategic calculus away from using LeT or
other militants to service its internal and external goals. For Pakistan, LeT is an existential asset
in the same way that it is an existential enemy for countries like India and even the United States.

I believe that the US too may misinterpret Christine Fair's words as I think we might have done. Fair argues that the Paki state will not give up on the LeT. The impiication is that no matter how much aid the US gives to Pakistan expecting that they will fight Islamists - they will never fight the LeT. A different strategy is needed. But how US lawmakers interpret this is another matter

[Airavat]

Punjab University organizes essay competition in praise of bin Laden

One of three topics for the essay section was: "Osama, a thorn piercing the hearts of infidels." Concern is rising in Pakistan about the participation of well-educated Pakistanis in militant groups, rather than just poor students streaming out of radical Islamist schools in remote parts of the country.

[shiv]

Punjab University organizes essay competition in praise of bin Laden

One of three topics for the essay section was: "Osama, a thorn piercing the hearts of infidels." Concern is rising in Pakistan about the participation of well-educated Pakistanis in militant groups, rather than just poor students streaming out of radical Islamist schools in remote parts of the country.

In fact the Christine Fair article explains this. I am not sure if "concern is rising" in Pakistan though. Concern should rise in the US. Fair says that the LeT represents Pakistani unity. The LeT will not kill Shias and Ahmedis but insists on fighting (with terror and all possible means) enemies outside Pakistan. The LeT counters anti-Pakistani state extremists by saying that the Pakistani state is misguided, but does not deserve to be fought because they are Muslims.

She also says that the LeT is training more educated people and the vast majority of them are not used for terror but are sent back to their villages to proselytize and spread the LeT message. To me, LeT represents the ideology of Pakistan - the baton as it were, of the Pakistan army having been handed over to a quasi civilian group.

[ManuT]

How is peace possible with straight faced liars


1. 5 July is anniversary of Zia's coup.

"Fair trial" "Totally committed to Free Elections"
Look into Zia face and the see the "professional soldier's honesty" he speaks with. Since hindsight is 20/20 we know how things turned out, soon after.


There is another series on his CT regarding Zia's death which I am not posting here as it is from another forum, but somewhat worth watching as it covers origins to Soviet Afghan war.

2. AQ Khan and nuclear plan "Even CIA's pop didn't know"

[SSridhar]

C.Unfair's article on LeT, June 14, 2011, is (at least in the abstract) actually good (haven't read the article yet). Highlighting the points

Abstract:
. . . Pakistan has sought to use Islamist militants there to deny India access to Afghanistan from which it could support insurgencies in Pakistan.[/b]

Fair or unfair?

Unfair, I would say. I haven't yet read the article. But, the above caught my eye. This is how cleverly she creates opinion. She is not saying that the above is the paranoia of Pakistan. She puts it in a way as though it is the accepted truth, not a Pakistani position. She was the one who said that she visited the Indian consulates in Afghanistan and they were helping the Balochistan separatists, a position from which she then beat a hasty retreat later. I suspect her to be used by the US State Department.. If one looks at the timeline of her statement on Balochistan, that was towards end of April 2009 just before the Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting. She was perhaps used by GoTUS to create pressure on India and also din some music into Pakistani ears.

[UBanerjee]

Why spend so much energy on one woman? I bet no other lay community cares this much about what Ms. Fair has to say.

[A_Gupta]

http://t.co/uwLEQET
Apologies if already posted.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Two months after the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, posters emblazoned with images of the burning World Trade Center towers appeared at the country's largest university advertising a literary contest to glorify the slain al-Qaida chief.

The poem and essay competition at the prestigious Punjab University shows the footholds of hard-line Islamists on college campuses and growing efforts to raise their profile and influence even in the relatively cosmopolitan atmosphere of Pakistan's culture capital, Lahore.

The contest's organizers have kept their identities hidden. But many students and teachers suspect it is being held by a powerful Islamist student group that has increasingly enforced its conservative religious views on the rest of the campus — sometimes violently.

[arun]

History dating back to August 2009.

Dr C. Christine Fair, then with Rand, clarifies her Balochistan comment in this interview with Outlook Magazine:

'Pakistanis Have Blown My Comments Out Of Proportion'

[A_Gupta]

Why spend so much energy on one woman? I bet no other lay community cares this much about what Ms. Fair has to say.

This is a tiny bit of energy and neural resources - approx. that in my middle finger. If boring, do skip.

[shiv]

Question for S Sridhar:

What are the affiliations/loyalties of the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) as opposed to those of the Jammat ud Dawa?

[SSridhar]

Question for S Sridhar:

What are the affiliations/loyalties of the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) as opposed to those of the Jammat ud Dawa?

Shiv, IJT is the militant student wing Jama'at-e-Islami, modelled after Hitler's Youth Brigade. IJT is very active in the Punjab & Karachi universities. The Punjab University has been completely hijacked by the IJT. Again, that was a strategy devised by ZAB who wanted to defeat the Leftists and therefore let loose the IJT on the PU. As it is always true in Pakistan, it was the IJT which played a significant role in the ouster of ZAB as well. IJT took active participation in East Pakistan and then in Kashmir under Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Within PU, IJT is able to enforce strict Islamic codes with impunity because of the support received from faculty members as well as administration staff many of whom are themselves radical. In Karachi, the IJT faces significant opposition from the MQM-affiliated APMSO (All Party Mohajir Students' Organization). They clash violently on the Karachi streets every now and then. Zia-ul-Haq banned all student movements except IJT and that was lifted only in c. 2008 by Gilani. Like the IJT which operates in mainstream Pakistani Universities, the JI also has a student wing that operates among the Taliban-producing madrassah. It is known as Jamia’at Talaba Arabia (JTA) most of whose members are Pathans as well. Many members of Jandullah (which was created by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) are ex-IJT. That includes the Amir of Jandullah, Ata-ur-Rehman.

[sanjaykumar]

Why spend so much energy on one woman? I bet no other lay community cares this much about what Ms. Fair has to say.


Yes, laissez faire.

[Hari Seldon]

Ms Fare has reduced her 'credibility' such as it is from airfare to bus fare levels. Soon it will be pedastrian fare only. I say light lo, gach raho. Barking dogs (or beaches, for that matter) seldom stop caravans (or the desi juggernaut, such as it is). They sure do give pause though, no and then, admittedly.