Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
You Gov survey results on views about the Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The very high percentage of citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan who see an Islamic Terrorist like Osama Bin Laden as a leadership figure is disturbing and underlines the high level of public support for Islamic Terrorism in that country.
What makes the survey result even more disturbing is that given this was an online survey, this view is not of poor and ignorant madrassah brainwashed types eking out a living but rather of view of the literate and more affluent sections of Pakistani society who have the wherewithal to go online:
Pakistan Poll: 66% say US forces didn't kill bin Laden
The very high percentage of citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan who see an Islamic Terrorist like Osama Bin Laden as a leadership figure is disturbing and underlines the high level of public support for Islamic Terrorism in that country.
What makes the survey result even more disturbing is that given this was an online survey, this view is not of poor and ignorant madrassah brainwashed types eking out a living but rather of view of the literate and more affluent sections of Pakistani society who have the wherewithal to go online:
Pakistan Poll: 66% say US forces didn't kill bin Laden
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Terrorist, based where else but in the Islamic Terrorist fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan designated by the US.
Badruddin Haqqani designated a Terrorist by the US:
US Names Leader of Afghan Group Based in Pakistan As Terrorist
Badruddin Haqqani designated a Terrorist by the US:
US Names Leader of Afghan Group Based in Pakistan As Terrorist
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The US, in Florida, indicts six individuals originating from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for “providing material support” for Islamic Terrorism. Two of the Pakistani origin individuals charged are Mohammadden Clerics and one is a woman:
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Six Individuals Charged for Providing Material Support to the Pakistani Taliban
MIAMI – Six individuals located in South Florida and Pakistan have been indicted in the Southern District of Florida on charges of providing financing and other material support to the Pakistani Taliban, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charges were announced today by Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami Field Office, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).
The four-count indictment charges Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan (hereafter “Khan”), 76, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; his son Irfan Khan, 37, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; and one of his other sons, Izhar Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Lauderdale, Fla. Three other individuals residing in Pakistan, Ali Rehman, aka “Faisal Ali Rehman;” Alam Zeb; and Amina Khan, aka “Amina Bibi,” are also charged in the indictment. Amina Khan is the daughter of Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is Khan’s grandson.
All six defendants are charged with conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban. Defendants Khan, Rehman and Zeb are also charged with providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban.
FBI agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan today in South Florida. They are scheduled to make their initial appearance in federal court in Miami at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 16, 2011. In addition, Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to make his initial appearance there. If convicted, each faces a potential 15 years in prison for each count of the indictment. The remaining defendants are at large in Pakistan.
The defendants are originally from Pakistan. Hafiz Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, in Miami. His son, Izhar Khan, is an Imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla. The indictment does not charge the mosques themselves with any wrongdoing, and the individual defendants are charged based on their provision of material support to terrorism, not on their religious beliefs or teachings.
U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today’s charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns. Dismantling terrorist networks is a top priority for this office and the Department of Justice.”
“Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests. We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists,” said John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Office. “I remind everyone that the Muslim and Arab-American members of our community should never be judged by the illegal activities of a few.”
This investigation was initiated by the FBI in conjunction with the JTTF based upon a review of suspicious financial transactions and other evidence; it was not an undercover sting. According to the allegations in the indictment, from around 2008 through in or around November 2010, the defendants provided money, financial services, and other forms of support to the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik-I-Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek-e-Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants. On Aug. 12, 2010, the U.S. State Department formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
According to the indictment, the Pakistani Taliban’s objectives include resistance against the lawful Pakistani government, enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and opposition to the U.S. and coalition armed forces fighting in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban has committed numerous acts of violence in Pakistan and elsewhere, including suicide bombings that resulted in the death of civilians and Pakistani police, army, and government personnel, and other acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. The Pakistani Taliban has also been involved in, or claimed responsibility for, numerous attacks against U.S. interests, including a December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Khost, Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, which killed seven U.S. citizens; an April 2010 suicide bombing against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed six Pakistani citizens; and the attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Times Square on May 1, 2010. Most recently, on May 13, 2011, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks that killed at least 80 people at a military training facility in northwestern Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban has links to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
As set forth in the indictment, the defendants sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban’s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish strict Islamic law known as Sharia.
To this end, the defendants, assisted by others in the United States and Pakistan, conspired to provide and provided material support to the Pakistani Taliban by soliciting, collecting and transferring money from the United States to supporters of the Pakistani Taliban, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan. According to the indictment, these funds were intended to purchase guns for the Pakistani Taliban, to sustain militants and their families, and generally to promote the Pakistani Taliban’s cause. In addition, the indictment alleges that defendant Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa, or Islamic school, that he founded and controlled in the Swat region of Pakistan. Khan has allegedly used the madrassa to provide shelter and other support for the Pakistani Taliban and has sent children from his madrassa to learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan.
According to the allegations in the indictment, the defendants endorsed the violence perpetrated by the Pakistani Taliban. On one occasion in July 2009, defendants Khan and Irfan Khan participated in a recorded conversation in which Khan called for an attack on the Pakistani Assembly that would resemble the September 2008 suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. On another occasion in September 2010, Hafiz Khan participated in a conversation in which he stated that he would provide that individual with contact information for Pakistani Taliban militants in Karachi, and upon hearing that mujahideen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers, declared his wish that God kill 50,000 more.
In closing, Mr. Ferrer noted, “Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today’s indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pakistani Taliban. Radical extremists know no boundaries; they come in all shapes and sizes and are not limited by religion, age or geography.”
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Police, City of Miami Police, City of Miramar Police, City of Margate Police, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Shipley and Sivashree Sundaram, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Stephen Ponticiello from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
US DOJ
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Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X-POSTED - Rana Trial
X-POSTED - The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co
X-POSTED - India-US Strategic News and Discussion
Canadian’s trial in Mumbai terror case could link Pakistan, terror group
Sophia Tareen, Associated Press
CHICAGO—A Chicago courtroom could become the unlikely venue for revealing alleged connections between the terrorist group blamed for the 2008 rampage that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai and Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, which has come under increased scrutiny following Osama bin Laden’s killing.
Jury selection begins Monday in the case against businessman Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years.
He is accused of helping a former boarding school friend serve as a scout for the militant group that carried out the three-day attack in India’s largest city. Though the accusations against Rana are fairly straightforward, the implications of the trial could be enormous.
<snip>
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... group?bn=1
&
NIA to finalise charges against Rana after US trial
New Delhi, May 16, (IANS):
India's main terror probe wing, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), would soon file charges against David Headley and Tahawwur Rana after the latter's trial concludes in a US court for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, sources said Monday.
Pakistani-born Rana is set to appear in for the trial in Chicago that India is closely monitoring because it may unmask the links between Pakistan's spy agency ISI and terrorists.
The court proceedings, which Indian investigators expect could throw more light on the Mumbai attack conspiracy, could come handy for the NIA in finalising its chargesheet against the Headley and Rana, sources said.
<snip>
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/161 ... -rana.html
&
Tahawwur Rana's trial to begin in Chicago today, could expose ISI role in 26/11
PTI | May 16, 2011, 11.00am IST
CHICAGO: The trial of Pakistan-born Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana, co-accused with David Headley in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, could reveal ISI's links to terrorists and any evidence of spy agency's "malfeasance" would worsen US-Pakistan relations.
<snip>
"What he discloses could deepen suspicions that Pakistani spies are connected to terrorists and could potentially worsen relations between Washington and Islamabad," New York Times reported.
<snip>
"Any new evidence of ISI malfeasance that emerges from the trial will reverberate in Washington," the daily said.
<snip>
A growing chorus on US Capitol Hill argues that the discovery of bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad and the evidence in Headley's case leave no doubt that the ISI and its Pakistani military overseers have played a cynical double game with the United States, the Times said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 354267.cms
&
Terror suspect Tahawwur Rana in Chicago court
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Chuck Goudie
May 11, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A Chicago man accused of committing terrorist crimes 8,000 miles away was in federal court Wednesday in Chicago.
In this Intelligence Report: The government is gearing up for the most significant terrorism trial ever in Chicago.
Wednesday's court appearance by Tahawwur Rana was intended to smooth some legal wrinkles in a contentious and complicated case. This trial has far-reaching implications, not only in the U.S. war on terror, but also in relations between the United States, Pakistan and India-- and between those two nations themselves, a relationship already frayed and on edge.
<snip> INCLUDES TV VIDEO REPORT
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=8125933
&
Trial Raises Questions On Pakistan's Terrorism Ties
by Dina Temple-Raston
May 13, 2011
A terrorism trial set to begin in Chicago next week could end up further inflaming tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. The case involves Tahawwur Rana, who was arrested two years ago and charged with conspiring with others in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Jury selection in his case begins Monday, but the question of Rana's guilt or innocence has taken a back seat to a bigger issue: Pakistan's role in the deadly attacks.
<snip>
"I can't remember a case in terms of either its substance or timing that has such potential grave political impact," said Juan Zarate, a terrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former member of the Bush administration. "In a very real way, you have the Pakistani intelligence services, and perhaps the military, on trial here for its potential complicity in the 2008 attacks — and that's in the wake of all the questions that have arisen about Pakistan complicity in harboring bin Laden. This is a volatile mix coming at a volatile time."
<snip>
"I think people will be left wondering why the United States not looked closer at the ISI and everything that is going on in Pakistan," said Charles Swift, Rana's defense attorney.
<snip>
"For the first time, America has confirmed what India has been saying all along: That the 10 men that came onto Mumbai shores were not acting alone; they were trained and tutored by the ISI — that the entire operation was monitored from Islamabad," said the anchor of the Indian news channel TimesNow. "We knew it."
Swift, the defense lawyer, says he expects the courtroom will be filled with Indian reporters, and now, in the wake of the bin Laden raid, the U.S. media are going to be there in force, too. All of that attention might explain something prosecutors have just done: NPR has learned that a couple of days ago, they asked for a special hearing — something called a Section 6, SIPA hearing, in which the prosecution and the defense hash out what can be safely said in court without revealing classified information.
Calling a SIPA hearing this late in a case is an unusual maneuver. Those kinds of details are usually settled months in advance. Amid all the sturm und drang of the past two weeks, prosecutors may have had some second thoughts about what they want to reveal in court.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136254210 ... orism-ties
&
Perfidious Pakistan
By Jed Babbin on 5.16.11 @ 6:09AM [Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies.]
Last weekend, Pakistan's parliament... <snip> ... was called to debate "the situation arising from unilateral U.S. action in Abbottabad." The Pakistanis declared that continuation of the U.S. drone attacks was "unacceptable" and resolved that, "Such drone attacks must stop forthwith, failing which the government will be constrained to consider taking necessary steps including withdrawal of [the] transit facility allowed to NATO."
<snip>
What to do about Pakistan? There may be little we can do, and what little there is we must undertake without delay. To understand why Pakistan is so committed to terrorism requires the observation of one key fact: terrorism is, and has been for decades, the weapon of choice Pakistan uses against India in the dispute over Kashmir. The large, rich province of Kashmir has a Muslim majority and was left in India's hands when the British pulled out in August 1947. The two nations have repeatedly fought conventional wars over Kashmir and two years ago came to the brink of nuclear war.
Unable to wrest Kashmir from India, Pakistan chose terrorism as its strategy to undermine India in Kashmir and force its withdrawal. Pakistan-based terrorists have committed assassinations, airline hijackings and many bombing attacks against Indian targets. When India confronts Pakistan, the latter denies its obvious complicity and refuses to take action against the terror networks it harbors.
<snip>
Last March, India gave the Pakistani government a list of fifty terrorists operating from Pakistan believed to have been involved in attacks, some going back twenty years. Among them reportedly were Dawood Ibrahim (wanted in connection with bombings in Mumbai in 1993), LeT chieftain Hafiz Saeed and LeT commander Azam Cheema as well as Illyas Kashmiri, one of the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has not, and certainly will not, surrender the men because they are protected by the Pakistani military and/or the ISI. Their value to Pakistan as weapons against India outweighs, in Pakistani terms, the damage Pakistan may suffer from America and other nations for doing so. That judgment is right, because President Obama isn't likely to hold Pakistan accountable.
<snip>
Just as the Pakistani commitment to terrorism results from the Kashmir dispute, so does the long-term solution to it. And here's what some Republican presidential aspirant should say about it.
We have sacrificed too many American lives at the altar of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has failed in Iraq, and is failing in Afghanistan. We need to withdraw from both nations as quickly as we can and focus on forcing the nations that sponsor terrorism -- Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- to cease doing so.
Pakistan is a natural enemy of the U.S., not a friend. Their cooperation in Afghanistan -- which has been vital to the war in Afghanistan -- comes at too high a price. Pakistan depends on our aid -- now over $3 billion a year -- to keep up the pretense that their government is stable and that they cooperate with us in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. That aid should be stopped forthwith.
India, Pakistan's blood enemy, is a natural American ally. To deal with Pakistan's terror-sponsorship, we should -- quietly and slowly -- re-engage with India.
They need to know that America understands Pakistan's terror war against them and doesn't object to Indian rule in Kashmir so long as Pakistan's aggression continues. We should ask for permission to covertly base our forces in India to operate against Pakistani terrorism, and for them to join our covert actions against that threat.
<snip>
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/1 ... s-pakistan
X-POSTED - The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co
X-POSTED - India-US Strategic News and Discussion
Canadian’s trial in Mumbai terror case could link Pakistan, terror group
Sophia Tareen, Associated Press
CHICAGO—A Chicago courtroom could become the unlikely venue for revealing alleged connections between the terrorist group blamed for the 2008 rampage that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai and Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, which has come under increased scrutiny following Osama bin Laden’s killing.
Jury selection begins Monday in the case against businessman Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years.
He is accused of helping a former boarding school friend serve as a scout for the militant group that carried out the three-day attack in India’s largest city. Though the accusations against Rana are fairly straightforward, the implications of the trial could be enormous.
<snip>
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... group?bn=1
&
NIA to finalise charges against Rana after US trial
New Delhi, May 16, (IANS):
India's main terror probe wing, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), would soon file charges against David Headley and Tahawwur Rana after the latter's trial concludes in a US court for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, sources said Monday.
Pakistani-born Rana is set to appear in for the trial in Chicago that India is closely monitoring because it may unmask the links between Pakistan's spy agency ISI and terrorists.
The court proceedings, which Indian investigators expect could throw more light on the Mumbai attack conspiracy, could come handy for the NIA in finalising its chargesheet against the Headley and Rana, sources said.
<snip>
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/161 ... -rana.html
&
Tahawwur Rana's trial to begin in Chicago today, could expose ISI role in 26/11
PTI | May 16, 2011, 11.00am IST
CHICAGO: The trial of Pakistan-born Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana, co-accused with David Headley in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, could reveal ISI's links to terrorists and any evidence of spy agency's "malfeasance" would worsen US-Pakistan relations.
<snip>
"What he discloses could deepen suspicions that Pakistani spies are connected to terrorists and could potentially worsen relations between Washington and Islamabad," New York Times reported.
<snip>
"Any new evidence of ISI malfeasance that emerges from the trial will reverberate in Washington," the daily said.
<snip>
A growing chorus on US Capitol Hill argues that the discovery of bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad and the evidence in Headley's case leave no doubt that the ISI and its Pakistani military overseers have played a cynical double game with the United States, the Times said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 354267.cms
&
Terror suspect Tahawwur Rana in Chicago court
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Chuck Goudie
May 11, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A Chicago man accused of committing terrorist crimes 8,000 miles away was in federal court Wednesday in Chicago.
In this Intelligence Report: The government is gearing up for the most significant terrorism trial ever in Chicago.
Wednesday's court appearance by Tahawwur Rana was intended to smooth some legal wrinkles in a contentious and complicated case. This trial has far-reaching implications, not only in the U.S. war on terror, but also in relations between the United States, Pakistan and India-- and between those two nations themselves, a relationship already frayed and on edge.
<snip> INCLUDES TV VIDEO REPORT
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=8125933
&
Trial Raises Questions On Pakistan's Terrorism Ties
by Dina Temple-Raston
May 13, 2011
A terrorism trial set to begin in Chicago next week could end up further inflaming tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. The case involves Tahawwur Rana, who was arrested two years ago and charged with conspiring with others in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Jury selection in his case begins Monday, but the question of Rana's guilt or innocence has taken a back seat to a bigger issue: Pakistan's role in the deadly attacks.
<snip>
"I can't remember a case in terms of either its substance or timing that has such potential grave political impact," said Juan Zarate, a terrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former member of the Bush administration. "In a very real way, you have the Pakistani intelligence services, and perhaps the military, on trial here for its potential complicity in the 2008 attacks — and that's in the wake of all the questions that have arisen about Pakistan complicity in harboring bin Laden. This is a volatile mix coming at a volatile time."
<snip>
"I think people will be left wondering why the United States not looked closer at the ISI and everything that is going on in Pakistan," said Charles Swift, Rana's defense attorney.
<snip>
"For the first time, America has confirmed what India has been saying all along: That the 10 men that came onto Mumbai shores were not acting alone; they were trained and tutored by the ISI — that the entire operation was monitored from Islamabad," said the anchor of the Indian news channel TimesNow. "We knew it."
Swift, the defense lawyer, says he expects the courtroom will be filled with Indian reporters, and now, in the wake of the bin Laden raid, the U.S. media are going to be there in force, too. All of that attention might explain something prosecutors have just done: NPR has learned that a couple of days ago, they asked for a special hearing — something called a Section 6, SIPA hearing, in which the prosecution and the defense hash out what can be safely said in court without revealing classified information.
Calling a SIPA hearing this late in a case is an unusual maneuver. Those kinds of details are usually settled months in advance. Amid all the sturm und drang of the past two weeks, prosecutors may have had some second thoughts about what they want to reveal in court.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136254210 ... orism-ties
&
Perfidious Pakistan
By Jed Babbin on 5.16.11 @ 6:09AM [Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies.]
Last weekend, Pakistan's parliament... <snip> ... was called to debate "the situation arising from unilateral U.S. action in Abbottabad." The Pakistanis declared that continuation of the U.S. drone attacks was "unacceptable" and resolved that, "Such drone attacks must stop forthwith, failing which the government will be constrained to consider taking necessary steps including withdrawal of [the] transit facility allowed to NATO."
<snip>
What to do about Pakistan? There may be little we can do, and what little there is we must undertake without delay. To understand why Pakistan is so committed to terrorism requires the observation of one key fact: terrorism is, and has been for decades, the weapon of choice Pakistan uses against India in the dispute over Kashmir. The large, rich province of Kashmir has a Muslim majority and was left in India's hands when the British pulled out in August 1947. The two nations have repeatedly fought conventional wars over Kashmir and two years ago came to the brink of nuclear war.
Unable to wrest Kashmir from India, Pakistan chose terrorism as its strategy to undermine India in Kashmir and force its withdrawal. Pakistan-based terrorists have committed assassinations, airline hijackings and many bombing attacks against Indian targets. When India confronts Pakistan, the latter denies its obvious complicity and refuses to take action against the terror networks it harbors.
<snip>
Last March, India gave the Pakistani government a list of fifty terrorists operating from Pakistan believed to have been involved in attacks, some going back twenty years. Among them reportedly were Dawood Ibrahim (wanted in connection with bombings in Mumbai in 1993), LeT chieftain Hafiz Saeed and LeT commander Azam Cheema as well as Illyas Kashmiri, one of the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has not, and certainly will not, surrender the men because they are protected by the Pakistani military and/or the ISI. Their value to Pakistan as weapons against India outweighs, in Pakistani terms, the damage Pakistan may suffer from America and other nations for doing so. That judgment is right, because President Obama isn't likely to hold Pakistan accountable.
<snip>
Just as the Pakistani commitment to terrorism results from the Kashmir dispute, so does the long-term solution to it. And here's what some Republican presidential aspirant should say about it.
We have sacrificed too many American lives at the altar of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has failed in Iraq, and is failing in Afghanistan. We need to withdraw from both nations as quickly as we can and focus on forcing the nations that sponsor terrorism -- Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia -- to cease doing so.
Pakistan is a natural enemy of the U.S., not a friend. Their cooperation in Afghanistan -- which has been vital to the war in Afghanistan -- comes at too high a price. Pakistan depends on our aid -- now over $3 billion a year -- to keep up the pretense that their government is stable and that they cooperate with us in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. That aid should be stopped forthwith.
India, Pakistan's blood enemy, is a natural American ally. To deal with Pakistan's terror-sponsorship, we should -- quietly and slowly -- re-engage with India.
They need to know that America understands Pakistan's terror war against them and doesn't object to Indian rule in Kashmir so long as Pakistan's aggression continues. We should ask for permission to covertly base our forces in India to operate against Pakistani terrorism, and for them to join our covert actions against that threat.
<snip>
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/1 ... s-pakistan
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The Hindu on US Diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks regards Islamic Terrorism in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s heartland, Punjab. Note that links to the leaked cables are embedded in the article:
Pakistan's Punjab turning into hotbed of extremism, U.S. had warned
Pakistan's Punjab turning into hotbed of extremism, U.S. had warned
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted from the ISI History and Discussion thread.
Links of the Intelligence arm of the Armed Forces of the Military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the ISI / ISID, to the Islamic Terrorist attack of Mumbai disclosed in Court.
The Telegraph, UK:
Pakistan intelligence service coordinated with Mumbai attackers : Clicky
The Wall Street Journal:
Witness Ties Pakistan to Mumbai Massacre : Clicky
Links of the Intelligence arm of the Armed Forces of the Military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the ISI / ISID, to the Islamic Terrorist attack of Mumbai disclosed in Court.
The Telegraph, UK:
Pakistan intelligence service coordinated with Mumbai attackers : Clicky
The Wall Street Journal:
Witness Ties Pakistan to Mumbai Massacre : Clicky
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted.
Click for the paper:
Clicky
The paper itself authored by Graeme Blair, C. Christine Fair, Neil A, Malhotra and Jacob N. Shapiro is dated May 2, 2011 and is titled “Poverty and Support for Militant Politics: Evidence from Pakistan”.
Click for the paper:
Clicky
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story ... 39443.html
Worst fears on Pak may come true
Worst fears on Pak may come true
The terrorist attack on the Pakistan Naval Base Mehran in Karachi on May 22 is the fourth this month following the US Navy Seals operation to get Osama Bin Laden.
The first two suicide-bomber attacks were in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa province and the third on NATO trucks in Landikotal, Khyber Agency, FATA. In all four attacks, 113 security personnel, 15 civilians and six terrorists were killed. Responsibility for all was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan which had earlier publicly vowed to exact revenge for OBL's killing.
The attack on PNS Mehran is being propagandised by the state and opposition as a "conspiracy by foreign enemies" because two " India- specific" P3C Orion surveillance aircraft (also known as submarine killers) were targeted and destroyed. The Navy Chief has also dramatised the attack as one by " highly trained terrorists using sophisticated weapons". This is self- serving nonsense designed to cover up for one of the most outrageous security lapses in Pakistan's history. The Navy filed an FIR on May 24 alleging an attack by 10 terrorists, despite the Navy Chief's assertion on May 23 that only four terrorists were involved and all were killed. The terrorists were armed with AK- 47s, hand grenades and a shoulder- fired rocket launcher with one rocket each, all items in the everyday use of Taliban tribals in Waziristan. The conspiracy theory is true only to the extent that the operation could not have been conducted without detailed assistance from insider Pakistan Navy personnel ( not foreign spies) sympathetic to the TTP. Indeed, the attack has the planning hallmark of similar high-optic operations ( including the one against the GHQ in Rawalpindi in October 2009) planned by Saif al Adal, OBL's Al Qaeda successor and the Al Qaeda mastermind behind the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam in August 1998 and the compound attack May 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in which Al Qaeda terrorists killed 35 foreigners, mainly Americans.
Similarly, the operation itself was probably the handiwork of Ilyas Kashmiri, a Punjabi, who heads the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami allied to Al Qaeda and based in South Waziristan. Mr Kashmiri was once a stalwart of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, trained by the ISI for conducting operations in Indian- held Kashmir. He broke away from the LeT and ISI and tried with " insider" help to assassinate Pervez Musharraf after the latter closed the jihad tap in 2003.
Indeed, one of the reasons why the US and India are still training their sights on the LeT is because they suspect Mr Kashmiri retains operational links with his old LeT jihadi network and is using them to undermine US and India's security interests in the region, including the 2008 attack in Mumbai. The astonishing thing is that this is the fourth terrorist attack on the Pakistan Navy in Karachi and no security lessons appear to have been learnt from the earlier ones, nor from the interrogation of three or four Navy personnel with links to Waziristan who have been detained for several months. Small wonder then that angry Pakistanis want to know how the Armed Forces are spending the nation's scarce resources and whence their lavish expenditures on BMW cars, Land Cruisers, Golf Courses, Defense Housing Societies, Bahrai townships, Marriage Halls, School Systems, Petrol and CNG stations, various preferential industries and farms and assorted business ventures for their own "welfare". Not since the 1971 debacle have the Armed Forces been scrutinised so critically.
Unfortunately, however, this is just the beginning of another damning story that is running parallel to the narrative on terrorism in Pakistan - the plummeting graph of US- Pak relations whose carefully contrived and mutually agreed ambiguity has now run aground without any new agreement on the rules of engagement.
The Pakistanis are insisting that drone strikes in FATA must end and no unilateral US action along the lines of Operation Geronimo may be taken inside Pakistan.
But the US has flatly rejected both demands and is determined to carry on regardless. Worse, the " nuclear- scare scenario" - a terrorist attack on, or seizure of, Pakistan's nuclear assets by Al Qaeda - has resurfaced internationally after the Mehran incident, provoking calls for preemptive operational planning by the US to protect, or take- out, Pakistan's nuclear assets, depending on the situation.
Inside Pakistan, this has only served to fuel the conspiracy theory that " foreign elements, especially the US, are destabilising Pakistan with a view to knocking out its nuclear program.
In other words, the more Al Qaeda- Taliban terrorists succeed in exposing and attacking the fatal weaknesses in Pakistan's security apparatus, the more the populace is inclined to succumb to anti- Americanism.
Certainly, the demands of the opposition to spurn US aid and hold America responsible for Pakistan's Taliban travails feeds into and is sustained by this rising anti- American sentiment.
The worst is yet to come. Two high profile trials of LeT agents or sympathisers in the US are bound to put more strain on the crumbling US- Pakistan relationship.
The first is the trial in Chicago of a Pakistani businessman, Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of abetting the terrorist attack in Mumbai by a state- approverwitness, David Headley, a self- confessed LeT/ ISI agent. The second is in Florida where Pakistani- origin, father- and- son, Imams of two mosques are accused of funneling $ 50,000.00 to terrorist organisations in Pakistan. The first will confirm the international community's demonisation of the ISI as a double- dealing anti- American organisation and the second will fan anti- Pakistan sentiment in a scared but gullible American public. At home, a running series of Wikileaks exposing the hollow, lying, corrupt civilmilitary leadership is going to add to the country's woes and fears. In this developing scenario, any new American unilateralism in Pakistan or Al Qaeda- Taliban attack in India will lead to an explosive situation that may not be manageable by any of the local or regional stakeholders.
If next week's visit to Pakistan by Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, is unsuccessful in finally defining and implementing the " rules of domestic and regional engagement", all our fears will likely come true sooner than later.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
A hard-hitting column from Australia:
Dangerous 'ally' Pakistan's killing us
Alan Howe
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/pakistan-is-killing-us/story-fn56avn8-1226065137731Herald Sun
Dangerous 'ally' Pakistan's killing us
Alan Howe
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/pakistan-is-killing-us/story-fn56avn8-1226065137731Herald Sun
SERGEANT Brett Wood died last week nobly trying to secure the future and safety of Afghanistan. He was almost certainly killed by Pakistan, our "Commonwealth brothers" to whom the concept of noble is foreign.
'Are we friends?" asked Pakistan cricket legend and opposition politician Imran Khan on Friday.
He was talking about the US raid that despatched Osama bin Laden to the afterlife.
Well, are we friends? Are the members of the Coalition of The Willing, who are defending the West at the grassroots level against terrorism, friends of Pakistan?
It's a very good question. And it is about time someone so publicly asked it and sought an answer.
Pakistan is a wretched, ungrateful and perhaps ungovernable country sitting geographically and strategically at the centre of the War on Terror.
While Pakistan proclaims that it, too, fights this war, broad elements of its defence forces - some trained here by us - assist those who fight and kill us. Pakistan is a dangerous "ally"; a confused nation ruled mostly by manipulative opportunists of whom we must be wary.
The arrogant Imran Khan wishes to be Prime Minister, but he is hardly an inspiring leader. He may yet prove also to be quite dangerous.
He sees modern Pakistan - its only obvious concession to modernity might be a nuclear capability - through the aged and cracked lens of colonial politics.
Those days live on only through the Queen's valueless and embarrassing glee club, the Commonwealth, and the handful of countries, including Australia, that humiliate themselves by insisting that only Her Majesty is qualified to head their state.
Even Pakistan is a republic.
Imran Khan is as hard to pin down as the nation he plans to lead.
When the reassuring news that the world's most wanted - Osama bin Laden - had been killed in a surgical strike in Khan's backyard, he was ropeable.
The US had breached Pakistan's sovereignty. It should have informed the Pakistan government of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and left it to complete the mission, he claimed.
He must be joking.
Pakistan's defence forces are among the most treacherous on the planet. Like all strata of government in that land, they are corrupted at the highest levels, which the would-be leader Khan readily acknowledges.
When the news of bin Laden's execution broke on May 2, a theatrically distressed Khan was on television condemning the US, while admitting that Pakistan should be embarrassed that bin Laden lived anonymously among his countrymen.
"Why did they not just capture Osama bin Laden and put in him on trial?" asked the man who intends to control his country from 2013.
He was talking on local television at the time.
Okay, he's only a cricketer, but how dumb is this bloke?
Listen here, Imran: You can't fight the brain-squirming worst of your religion in the courts.
Islam's most sneeringly evil adherents - you'd know a few - fight on other fronts.
In any case, days later, he had changed his tune. "Yes, Osama bin Laden should have been killed." Now he was talking to the BBC; a different audience that Khan clearly felt needed a different message. If nothing else, he has politics down pat.
K han said he'd reject western aid to his country. "We don't want your aid, we don't want your army of 7000 Rambos that are roaming around - CIA operators - shooting people in Pakistan," is how he insultingly dismisses those, including Australians, who are committed to helping raise Pakistan from the sixth century.
Pulling out of Afghanistan are the Canadians, Poles, Germans, Dutch and soon the US and Britain. Let's join them.
Sergeant Brett Wood was the 24th Australian to die in Afghanistan and we need to make sure he's the last, because much of that death toll can be laid at the foot of Pakistan.
Our enemies in that region are embedded in Islam, not Afghanistan. The country is merely a subset of the forces with which we are at war.
Matt Waldman, a Harvard University security analyst, has been writing about the criminally close ties that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has with the Taliban. Last year he claimed that Benazir Bhutto's widower and now Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari met Taliban leaders in jail to assure them of his support. It is also claimed that Pakistan security services are supplying the sophisticated and difficult-to-detect mostly plastic detonators setting off those roadside bombs, like the one that killed Sgt Wood.
Pashtuns are the problem. There may be up to 50 million of these Sunni Muslims living across the porous border regions in Pakistan's north and spreading up towards Afghanistan.
The Taliban we oppose in Afghanistan come from them.
In turn they are trained, armed and fed by their allies, the Pakistani armed forces.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, it was recognised by just three countries. Pakistan was one.
In October, Perth hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference.
This most pointlessly shameful gathering of world leaders will be headed by the Queen of Australia. Many of the poorest, most violent and most unstable nations on earth, where humans have the shortest and most brutal lives are, or have been, members.
Nothing will be done for them. Their problems won't trouble the agenda.
It's not clear yet whether Pakistan will be represented by President Zardari, or Prime Minister Syed Gilliani.
Neither will the Queen or any Commonwealth nation raise the issue of Pakistan's involvement in the deaths of so many coalition servicemen in Afghanistan.
We arrived there after 2752 innocents died on September 11, 2001. So far 2452 allied soldiers have been killed as we seek to root out Islamic extremists from the region. Among those sacrificed have been 365 Britons, 155 Canadians, 24 Australians and two New Zealanders. Commonwealth citizens all.
The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian, wants a more inclusive CHOGM in Australia and he asks that you email him with ideas for the meeting's agenda.
Here's a few: Why shouldn't Pakistan be expelled from the Commonwealth given its role in the deaths of so many young Commonwealth soldiers? What is President Zardari doing to prevent his defence forces from supplying and training the Taliban? What measures is Pakistan taking to control the Pashtun-supported Taliban in his country? Why did elements of the Pakistan defence forces hide Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad? Why did Pakistani security agencies help plan the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed 166?
You can contact Mr Sharma directly with your own suggestions for CHOGM. Send your messages to [email protected] with "ask sharma" in the subject line.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Flashback on the BBBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/102201.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/102201.stm
Today, roughly one third of the western part of Kashmir is administered by Pakistan. Most of the remainder is under Indian control.
The insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir began around 1989.
Since then India has constantly maintained that Pakistan has been training and supplying weapons to militant separatists.
Pakistan insists it only offers them moral support.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The british seem to have a poor sense of history.shiv wrote:Flashback on the BBBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/102201.stm
Today, roughly one third of the western part of Kashmir is administered by Pakistan. Most of the remainder is under Indian control.
The insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir began around 1989.
Since then India has constantly maintained that Pakistan has been training and supplying weapons to militant separatists.
Pakistan insists it only offers them moral support.
the same article mentions kargil ended when the pakis withdrew. What balderdash>
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Afghan Security Adviser, Rangin Dafdar Spanta, on the role of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in fomenting Islamic Terrorist violence in Afghanistan:
Der Spiegel
Rangin Dafdar Spanta is clear that Osama Bin Laden was provided with top level Institutional State Support during his sojourn in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:06/07/2011
Interview with Top Afghan Security Adviser
'The Stream of New Insurgents Is Almost Endless'
As the security situation worsens in Afghanistan, German soldiers are coming under increasing attack. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, senior Afghan security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta discusses the roots of terror, Pakistan's role in the violence and whether Germany should keep its forces in the country. ………………………………
SPIEGEL ONLINE: There have recently been three deadly attacks on German soldiers and on General Daud Daud, the police chief of northern Afghanistan. Why has the situation there gotten worse?
Spanta: A network of the Taliban, al-Qaida and their Pakistani supporters are behind this. They are pursuing a new tactic after having been forced to give up a number of areas last winter. They're trying to hit senior figures.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: American special forces have taken out a number of Taliban leaders in the north. Who are the new attackers?
Spanta: Even if European countries refuse to acknowledge it, the resistance is now being orchestrated by terrorist centers in Pakistan, the Quetta Shura (editor's note: the innermost circle of Taliban leaders), the Haqqani network, the group of (Gulbaddin) Hekmatyar and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 in the al-Qaida leadership. There are 40,000 madrassas -- or religious schools -- in Pakistan, and even if only a small fraction of them support the terrorists, the stream of new fighters is almost endless. There will only be peace in this region when this source has been dried up.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Can negotiations with the Taliban solve the problem?
Spanta: They could be helpful if Pakistan were willing to support the peace process. But that's not the case. Pakistan has a different strategy: The West is obviously weary and will soon withdraw. Then, in one or two years, Pakistan can finally move into Afghanistan and use it as a strategic area. That's what this is all about.
Read it all:SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did Pakistani leaders know that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in Abbottabad?
Spanta: I am convinced that top-level officials had been informed. Without institutional, state support, Osama bin Laden wouldn't have been able to hide in Pakistan for so long. A few years back, our intelligence chief gave General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president at the time, exact coordinates on where Osama bin Laden was staying. But Musharraf only ridiculed him. But now it has emerged that the information was only a few miles off from the place where bin Laden was actually found.
Der Spiegel
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
http://www.punjabkesari.in/Punjab/news/ ... 34_116682-
Check here three news regarding pakistan.
1st stating that US, Pakistan have different opinions over Ilyas Kashmiri's death
2nd ISI gives them weapons When they cross over, to India
3rd Pak court issues notice to Dr AQ Khan
So we can guess that in which way pakistan is going some time favors terrorism and some time against it
Check here three news regarding pakistan.
1st stating that US, Pakistan have different opinions over Ilyas Kashmiri's death
2nd ISI gives them weapons When they cross over, to India
3rd Pak court issues notice to Dr AQ Khan
So we can guess that in which way pakistan is going some time favors terrorism and some time against it
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
More hunting with the hounds and running with the hare by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
“Security Officials” of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan tipped off Islamic Terrorists that raids would be conducted on "IED factories" located in North and South Waziristan which had been identified by the US who passed on the locations of the "IED factories" to the Islamic Republic with a request to act. The tip off provided time to the Islamic Terrorists to make good their escape.
Evidence of this newest piece of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s duplicity regards Islamic Terrorism was reportedly given by US official Leon Panetta during his current (ongoing?) visit to the Islamic Republic :
Pakistan Officials Colluding With Militants? US Presents Evidence
“Security Officials” of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan tipped off Islamic Terrorists that raids would be conducted on "IED factories" located in North and South Waziristan which had been identified by the US who passed on the locations of the "IED factories" to the Islamic Republic with a request to act. The tip off provided time to the Islamic Terrorists to make good their escape.
Evidence of this newest piece of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s duplicity regards Islamic Terrorism was reportedly given by US official Leon Panetta during his current (ongoing?) visit to the Islamic Republic :
Pakistan Officials Colluding With Militants? US Presents Evidence
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
More on the story of “Security Officials” of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan tipping off Islamic Terrorists that raids would be conducted on "IED factories" located in North and South Waziristan which had been identified by the US who passed on the locations of the "IED factories" to the Islamic Republic with a request to act.
From Time Magazine:
Sources: Panetta Confronts Pakistan Over Collusion With Militants
From the New York Times:
C.I.A. Director Warns Pakistan on Collusion With Militants
From Time Magazine:
Sources: Panetta Confronts Pakistan Over Collusion With Militants
From the New York Times:
C.I.A. Director Warns Pakistan on Collusion With Militants
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
AP report.
Detainee who provided key information about bin Laden courier rejoins al-Qaida
Detainee who provided key information about bin Laden courier rejoins al-Qaida
WASHINGTON — The terrorist described as the linchpin in the hunt for Osama bin Laden has rejoined al-Qaida after the Bush administration released him from a secret CIA secret prison under pressure from Pakistan, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials.
Shortly after the CIA decided to close the secret prisons, the U.S. intelligence agency returned al-Qaida operative Hassan Ghul in 2006 to his native Pakistan, which had been demanding his release since his capture about two years earlier.
Pakistan held Ghul for at least a year before he was released, eventually making his way back to al-Qaida to help with operations against the U.S., the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because details about Ghul’s case remain classified.
Pakistan’s decision to free Ghul, a midlevel al-Qaida operative, is yet another troubling revelation in a time when the U.S. is rethinking its relationship with the Pakistan and whether it can be a trusted ally in the war on terror.
Former CIA officials say Ghul was part of Zubaydah’s clandestine network of moneymen and couriers. The CIA had been pressing Pakistan to arrest Ghul for years and later learned after 9/11 he had been hiding at safe houses in the Lahore area belonging to the terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
But Pakistan’s spy service, the ISI, refused pick up Ghul.
When the CIA figured out that Ghul was traveling to meet with al-Qaida operatives who had gone to Iraq after the 2003 invasion to fight the U.S., the agency decided to act. In a joint operation with the Kurds, Ghul was nabbed in northern Iraq in January 2004, former CIA officials said. Pakistan was furious when it learned the CIA had Ghul and pressed the U.S. to return him.
It’s not clear why Pakistan wanted Ghul back so badly, but former CIA officers who targeted Ghul said he had ties to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, which had the backing of ISI.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Yup! Then perhaps someone should remind the brits that WWII ended when the Germans allowed the Allies to enter Berlin.rajanb wrote:The british seem to have a poor sense of history. The same article mentions kargil ended when the pakis withdrew. What balderdash>
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan continues to indulge its penchant for sheltering Islamic Terrorist groups.
Associated Press reports that Islamic Terrorist Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil, head of the Islamic Terrorist group Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen (HuM) which is affliated to Al Qaeda, is openly living is an suburb of Islamabad:
Associated Press reports that Islamic Terrorist Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil, head of the Islamic Terrorist group Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen (HuM) which is affliated to Al Qaeda, is openly living is an suburb of Islamabad:
Terror leader lives freely near Pakistani capital
By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press – 8 hours ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — On the outskirts of the Pakistani capital lives a militant considered so powerful that Osama bin Laden consulted with him before issuing a fatwa to attack American interests.
Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil heads Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, a terrorist group closely aligned with al-Qaida and a signatory to bin Laden's anti-U.S. fatwa in 1998. Khalil has also dispatched fighters to India, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya and Bosnia, was a confidante of bin Laden and hung out with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Pakistani authorities are clearly aware of Khalil's whereabouts. But they leave him alone, just as they tolerate other Kashmiri militant groups nurtured by the military and its intelligence agency to use against India.
Khalil is also useful to the authorities because of his unusually wide contacts among Pakistan's many militant groups, said a senior government official who is familiar with the security agencies and who spoke on condition he not be identified fearing repercussions.
Khalil's presence in an Islamabad suburb, confirmed to The Associated Press by Western officials in the region, underscores accusations that Pakistan is still playing a double game — fighting some militant groups while tolerating or supporting others — even after the solo U.S. raid that killed bin Laden on May 2. …………………………………
AP via Google
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Posted with a hat-tip to Pranay and Airavat.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan seeks to avenge the killing of Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan. Arrests CIA informants who had assisted in the operation:
Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid
Response of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the reported arrest of CIA informants who assisted in the take down of Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in the Islamic republic of Pakistan:
Gates: Arrest of informants "real world" reality
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan seeks to avenge the killing of Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan. Arrests CIA informants who had assisted in the operation:
Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid
Response of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the reported arrest of CIA informants who assisted in the take down of Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in the Islamic republic of Pakistan:
Gates: Arrest of informants "real world" reality
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
FWIW the White House reaction to the arrest of CIA informants assisting in OBL's takedown besides reaction to the rating of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's co-operation in counter Islamic Terrorism operations as a 3 on 10 by the CIA Deputy Director Michael J. Morell :
Press Briefing
Read it all:Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 6/15/2011
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:05 P.M. EDT
MR. CARNEY: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t have any announcements, so I will go straight to questions.
Jim.
Q Hi, Jay. Thank you. I wonder if you could tell us when the White House became aware that Pakistanis had arrested people who had assisted in the operation to raid bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad?
MR. CARNEY: I don’t have any specific information for you about that report. I can say that our relationship with Pakistan is extremely important. It is also complicated. And we have made that clear and been quite candid about that for a long time.
And it is important to remember that the relationship is important because it helps our national security interest to maintain it. Pakistan has worked with us to go after terrorism and terrorists. More terrorists have been killed on Pakistani soil than in any other country.
So we continue to work with the Pakistanis. Sometimes we have difficult issues to work through with them, but it remains an important relationship.
Q Well, there appears to be a pattern. These arrests aside, you had an event -- episode a couple weeks ago where U.S. intelligence shared information with the Pakistanis regarding two bomb-making compounds, and then the militants apparently fled. Does the President have -- is he frustrated with this kind of pattern?
And let me ask you what the Senate Intelligence Committee asked last week of the deputy CIA director, which is, on a scale of one to 10, where would you rank Pakistani cooperation on matters of counterterrorism?
MR. CARNEY: Well, without addressing that specific ranking, I would say that we acknowledge that it is a complicated relationship, and I think that’s pretty candid. And I think we have also made clear that the cooperation we do get is vital and essential to our war against terrorism and terrorists.
And we will continue that relationship for precisely that reason. And when we have issues, we deal with them. And obviously there was, in the wake of the successful mission against Osama bin Laden, we have reached out and engaged with the Pakistani government and our counterparts in Pakistan at many levels, precisely because this relationship is so important.
Q But it seems that the administration is merely accepting the fact that it’s a complicated relationship. Are you doing anything to improve the relationship?
MR. CARNEY: Well, what I just said. We work constantly to improve the relationship, to improve the cooperation. And whatever number you pick on the scale of cooperation, that number represents significant success in combating terrorism and eliminating terrorists -- terrorists who threaten Pakistan, terrorists who threaten the United States and threaten our allies.
So, again, we don’t do this except with those priorities in mind. So it’s not always an easy relationship, but it is a vital one......................
Press Briefing
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Imagine a country we BRFites think is falling apart, and rightly so, is literally flagellating the "mighty" US. Taking money from them and using it against them.
One thing the Pakis have done is perfected the art of duplicity.
One thing the Pakis have done is perfected the art of duplicity.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The staggering global reach of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in incidents involving Islamic Terrorism.
A German National of Turkish descent arrested in Austria for Islamic Terrorism was given “training in a terror camp” located where else but in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's “lawless border region”:
Terror suspect detained in Austria
A German National of Turkish descent arrested in Austria for Islamic Terrorism was given “training in a terror camp” located where else but in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's “lawless border region”:
Terror suspect detained in Austria
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Absolutely pathetic.arun wrote: Response of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the reported arrest of CIA informants who assisted in the take down of Islamic Terrorist Osama Bin Laden in the Islamic republic of Pakistan:
Gates: Arrest of informants "real world" reality
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The New York Times reports that “For the second time this month, bomb-making factories in Pakistan were evacuated shortly after American intelligence officials notified Pakistani security forces of their existence, fueling suspicions that such intelligence is being shared with insurgents ……………………………”:
Suspicions Rise as Pakistan Bomb Labs Empty Before Raids
Suspicions Rise as Pakistan Bomb Labs Empty Before Raids
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
^ahh. . . that answers my question in the TSP thread whether this was a second instance.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted.
Meanwhile this story says so much about the Islamic Republic of Pakistan besides the penchant of its populace in indulging in religious inspired Islamic Terrorism. First that despite being under a stray phase of democracy, where the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is involved, the Pakistani press is fearful about breaking stories and leaves it to the foreign media, the BBC in this case, to break the story. Second despite being under a stray phase of democracy it seems appears to be entirely natural for the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to be able to incarcerate an individual for over a month without having anyone of the civil society being the wiser.
When an organisation has a motto of “Iman Taqwa Jihad fi Sabilillah” or translated as “Faith, Piety and Jihad in the Path of Allah”, as the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan happens to have, it is but natural that the organisations personnel will sooner rather than later indulge in a spot of Jihad for Allah as in this case.Rajiv Lather wrote:A serving brigadier posted at GHQ, Pindi arrested !
Meanwhile this story says so much about the Islamic Republic of Pakistan besides the penchant of its populace in indulging in religious inspired Islamic Terrorism. First that despite being under a stray phase of democracy, where the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is involved, the Pakistani press is fearful about breaking stories and leaves it to the foreign media, the BBC in this case, to break the story. Second despite being under a stray phase of democracy it seems appears to be entirely natural for the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to be able to incarcerate an individual for over a month without having anyone of the civil society being the wiser.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted from the TSP thread.
Pew Survey results on the the Islamic Republic of Pakistan released on June 21, 2011.
In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan support for Islamic Terrorist Groups is unsurprisingly very high.On the low side the favourability rating for Islamic Terrorist groups is 12% for the Al Qaeda and (Afghan?) Taliban. That favourability rating jumps to 27% for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan based Islamic Terrorist organistaion that targets India, the Lashkar-e-Taiba
In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, India continues to be seen as a bigger threat than Islamic Terrorist groups like the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Read it all:
Pew Global
Pew Survey results on the the Islamic Republic of Pakistan released on June 21, 2011.
In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan support for Islamic Terrorist Groups is unsurprisingly very high.On the low side the favourability rating for Islamic Terrorist groups is 12% for the Al Qaeda and (Afghan?) Taliban. That favourability rating jumps to 27% for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan based Islamic Terrorist organistaion that targets India, the Lashkar-e-Taiba
In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, India continues to be seen as a bigger threat than Islamic Terrorist groups like the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Read it all:
Pew Global
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
The Islamic Terrorist supporting ways of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan acknowledged in hearings before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee.
US Vice Adm.William McRaven says Mullah Omar is being sheltered in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan knows about this:
US Vice Adm.William McRaven says Mullah Omar is being sheltered in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan knows about this:
Senators level new criticism at Pakistan for sheltering terrorists
By Charley Keyes, CNN Senior National Security Producer
June 28, 2011 -- Updated 2307 GMT (0707 HKT)
Washington (CNN) -- U.S. senators didn't miss a chance Tuesday to voice frustration with Pakistan over how it takes billions of dollars of American aid while providing safe havens to terrorists to build bombs and launch cross-border attacks on U.S.troops in Afghanistan.
"Well, something's got to give, something's got to change," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing. "Because it just can't continue this way, for them to expect that we're going to have a normal relationship with them -- which we all hope for."
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, also was critical of Pakistan; specifically, whether the top Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Mullah Omar was hiding there.
"Is Mullah Omar in Pakistan?" Graham asked Vice Adm.William McRaven, who supervised the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound In Pakistan that ended with the death of al Qaeda leader.
"Sir, we believe he is," McRaven replied.
The hearing was the next step toward Senate approval of President Barack Obama's decision to promote McRaven to become commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command.
Graham nudged McRaven along. "Do we believe he is there is with the knowledge of the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate) and the upper echelon of the (Pakistani) army?" asked Graham.
"Sir, I believe the Pakistanis know he is in Pakistan," McRaven said.
"Let me ask you this -- If they tried for about a week do you think they could then find him?" said Graham.
"I can't answer that because i don't know whether they could or not because i don't know exactly where Mullah Omar is," answered McRaven, who said he believed the United States. has asked Pakistan to find the Taliban leader.
"Well, I'm asking," said Graham. "I think Sen. Levin and I will both ask together today." …………………..
CNN
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted ....................
Only natural that an organisation such as the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that sports the very steeped in Islam motto of “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah” or translated from Urdu, “Faith, Piety and Jihad in the Way of Allah”, will take its motto seriously and succumb to the charms of Jihadi Islamic Terrorism:ranjbe wrote:Interview with a Paki terrorist in todays NYT, where he admits TSP army support for terrorist groups. This article is interesting not because it reveals anything that BRF did not know decades ago, but by its timing. You would not have seen such an article prior to the OBL killing. Looks like Unkil now has the knives out, and TSP H&D is no longer an issue.The Pakistani military continues to nurture a broad range of militant groups as part of a three-decade strategy of using proxies against its neighbors and American forces in Afghanistan, but now some of the fighters it trained are questioning that strategy, a prominent former militant commander saysMilitant groups, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen and Hizbul Mujahedeen, are run by religious leaders, with the Pakistani military providing training, strategic planning and protection. That system was still functioning, he said.
The former commander’s account belies years of assurances by Pakistan to American officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that it has ceased supporting militant groups in its territory. The United States has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid over the past decade for its help with counterterrorism operations. Still, the former commander said, Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment has not abandoned its policy of supporting the militant groups as tools in Pakistan’s dispute with India over the border territory of Kashmir and in Afghanistan to drive out American and NATO forces.
“There are two bodies running these affairs: mullahs and retired generals,” he said. He named a number of former military officials involved in the program, including former chiefs of the intelligence service and other former generals. “These people have a very big role still,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam Abbasi, a former intelligence officer who was convicted of attempting a coup against the government of Benazir Bhutto in 1995 and who is now dead, was one of the most active supporters of the militant groups in the years after Sept. 11, the former commander said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/world ... ml?_r=1&hpPakistan has 12,000 to 14,000 fully trained Kashmiri fighters, scattered throughout various camps in Pakistan, and is holding them in reserve to use if needed in a war against India, he said.
Yet Pakistan has been losing the fight for Kashmir, and most Kashmiris now want independence and not to be part of Pakistan or India, he said. Since Sept. 11, Pakistan has redirected much of its attention away from Kashmir to Afghanistan, and many Kashmiri fighters are not interested in that fight and have taken up India’s offer of an amnesty to go home.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted from the ISI History and Discussions thread.
In Canada protests against the fomenting of Islamic Terrorism in Afghanistan by the Intelligence Agency of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the ISI / ISID:
Protesters oppose Pakistan spy agency's 'meddling' in Afghanistan
In Canada protests against the fomenting of Islamic Terrorism in Afghanistan by the Intelligence Agency of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the ISI / ISID:
Protesters oppose Pakistan spy agency's 'meddling' in Afghanistan
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta discloses that Islamic terrorist Ayaman Zawahiri is taking refuge where else but in the Islamic Terrorist fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Zawahiri hiding in Fata: Panetta
Zawahiri hiding in Fata: Panetta
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X Posted.
Only natural that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which has a solid record of fomenting Islamic Terrorism that the main-stream media and Islamic Terrorists share the same dais.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of a UN designated Islamic terrorist organisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawaa, is an honoured guest at an event hosted by Majid Nizami, the owner of one of Pakistan’s largest media organisations:
Only natural that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which has a solid record of fomenting Islamic Terrorism that the main-stream media and Islamic Terrorists share the same dais.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of a UN designated Islamic terrorist organisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawaa, is an honoured guest at an event hosted by Majid Nizami, the owner of one of Pakistan’s largest media organisations:
Forecast for Muhammadi World Order
Published: July 26, 2011
OUR STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE - “The evil troika - America, India and Israel – is working on deadly anti-Pakistan plans. However, despite all the conspiracies [that we see today], Islam is emerging as a big force, which will soon establish a ‘Muhammadi World Order’,” said Prof Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawaa.
He was addressing the lecture series titled ‘Challenges to National Security and its Solutions’, held under the auspices of TheNation, Nawa-i-Waqt and Waqt News at Hameed Nizami Hall on Monday. The Nation Editor-in-Chief Majid Nizami was also present on this occasion. ..............................
The Nation
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) discloses that Islamic Terrorists who attacked the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on June 28, 2011 where directed from where else but the global epicentre of Islamic Terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Afghan security forces say foiled Kabul airport plot
By Mirwais Harooni
KABUL | Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:22am EDT
(Reuters) ………………….
Mashal said an Afghan investigation had found the insurgents who carried out the Intercontinental hotel attack received instructions from the Miranshah area in Pakistan's North Wazirstan on the border with Afghanistan.
"All the ... insurgents who entered the Intercontinental were controlled from Miranshah during the attack," Mashal said.
"We will share all the documents, the voice (recordings), the numbers and every piece of evidence with you after it all becomes clear," he added.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement Friday that the Haqqani network, considered one of the most dangerous militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, was responsible for several recent high-profile attacks, including the raid on the Intercontinental hotel. .............................
Reuters
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Pakistan national Bilal Zaheer Ahmad sentenced to a 12 year jail term for indulging in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s hobby of Islamic Terrorism:
Radical Muslim jailed for calling for jihad against MPs
Judge describes Bilal Zaheer Ahmad as a viper in our midst before jailing him for 12 years for threats on websites
Caroline Davies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 July 2011 20.08 BST
An IT graduate who wrote messages on an Islamic extremist website calling on Muslims to "raise the knife of jihad" and attack and kill British MPs who voted in favour of the war in Iraq has been jailed for 12 years.
Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, 24, posted the threats on the US-based RevolutionMuslim.com website with a full list of all MPs who had voted in the House of Commons in favour of the war and links providing personal contact details.
He called on them to emulate Roshonara Choudhry, who had attempted to murder the Labour MP Stephen Timms with a knife at his East Ham constituency surgery six months previously, Bristol crown court heard.
Ahmad, who worked for an insurance company in Telford, Shropshire, also posted a link to the Tesco website listing cheap knives, urging would-be fanatics to use them to carry out attacks.
Jailing him for 12 years, with an additional five years' extended period on licence, Mr Justice Royce said: "You became a viper in our midst willing to go as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system."
Ahmad, who holds British and Pakistani passports, had purported to be a British citizen, said Royce. "But what you stand for is totally alien to what we stand for in our country." He added that his views were "corrosively dangerous"………………………….
Guardian
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
P.R. China places the blame for troubles in Xinjiang brought on by its Uighur Muslim citizens where else but at the doorstep of its “taller than mountains, deeper than oceans” friend with an established track record of fomenting Islamic Terrorism worldwide, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Is providing a haven for Islamic Terrorists that attack ones own “Kaafir” “friends” a part of the cherished aim of “Jihad in the Path of Allah” called for by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?
Wall Street Journal:
Beijing Points to Pakistan After Ethnic Violence
Associated Press via Toronto Sun:
China blames Muslim extremists trained in Pakistan for recent violence
AFP :
China blames unrest on Pakistan-trained 'terrorists'
Is providing a haven for Islamic Terrorists that attack ones own “Kaafir” “friends” a part of the cherished aim of “Jihad in the Path of Allah” called for by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?
Wall Street Journal:
Beijing Points to Pakistan After Ethnic Violence
Associated Press via Toronto Sun:
China blames Muslim extremists trained in Pakistan for recent violence
AFP :
China blames unrest on Pakistan-trained 'terrorists'
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Sundeep Waslekar of the Strategic Foresight Group says that Islamic Terrorism far from imposing a financial cost on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan actually contributes INR 264 Billion and boosts the Islamic Republic’s GDP by 6.6%:
Gift of terror: Expert says terrorism adds 6.6% to Pak GDP ………………………..
Q: You say terror is worth Rs 264 billion in Pakistan some time ago and this is 6.6% of the GDP; I suppose that’s the more important number. Is this hell of an accusation because you are saying that the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) is directly involved in terror in India, at a state they sponsor terrorism in India? How do you arrive at this figure?
Waslekar: We have made some calculations about how much money is going into the operations of the various terrorist groups in Pakistan. We made some very detailed calculations about how much is spent on armament and their upkeep. That came to about Rs 80 billion some years ago. About Rs 24 billion were spent on ISI’s own upkeep for managing these terrorist outfits.
Accounting was also done for their share in the poppy cultivation business in Afghanistan and this is a visible part. There is a invisible part of ISI’s involvement in Pakistan’s black economy.
All this comes to about 6.6% of GDP, we call this gross terror economy product (GTP) of Pakistan. I don’t think it has changed much. The absolute numbers would have changed in the last few years, but overall share in the GDP continues to be more or less the same.
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
Couple charged for terrorism offences in the UK.
The names of the couple Mohammed Sajid Khan and Shasta Khan suggest Mohammaddens with roots from where else but that Mecca of Islamic Terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Further confirmation of the Mohammadden Pakistani roots of those charged can be inferred from BBC being coy about their religion or ancestral origins, of the terrorists
:
Terror charge court appearance for Oldham couple
The names of the couple Mohammed Sajid Khan and Shasta Khan suggest Mohammaddens with roots from where else but that Mecca of Islamic Terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Further confirmation of the Mohammadden Pakistani roots of those charged can be inferred from BBC being coy about their religion or ancestral origins, of the terrorists

Terror charge court appearance for Oldham couple
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
pakis are in advanced stages of delivering IeDs from space
http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 333631.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 333631.ece
Re: Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism
X-posted from Book Review thread. Original post by Abhishek_sharma
Book Review: How Terrorism Ends
By Audrey Kurth Cronin
Princeton University Press, 2009
330 pp. $29.95
ISBN: 978–06911–394–87
I think in case of TSPA a minimum of three of the steps are needed.
- decapitation(Some leadership has to pay the price. Right now its no cost ot them to indulge in terrorism abroad)
- failure ((Terrorist activivty doesnt pay> Once US stops support to TSPA then they will realize this)
- re-orientation ( Need for them to be inward focussed at the primary threat to the kabila from internal outrage)
Leading to eventual disbandment.
Book Review: How Terrorism Ends
By Audrey Kurth Cronin
Princeton University Press, 2009
330 pp. $29.95
ISBN: 978–06911–394–87
Time has come for a mix of the six steps for ensuring terrorism demise.Audrey Kurth Cronin has produced a work that is both insightful and frustrating—but it is frustrating for all the right reasons. Readers searching for definitive answers for the end of terrorism will be disappointed. So, too, will critics expecting a presentation of how "simple" it is to end terrorism. What readers will find is a book written conditionally and with much argument by counterfact, but active readers will find a rich source for debate. More critically, it is the right debate to have regarding terrorism and its threat today: namely, how will it end? One of the most effective themes throughout the book is that despite all of the contemporary hyperbole, historical experience shows that terrorist movements generally do not last long, and at some point in time, practically all of them come to an end. How that end is achieved—whether it is done by or at the expense of the state—and what lessons states today can take from past experiences are the major themes of this book.
The introduction serves as an effective executive summary of the argument and insights of the entire book. Successive chapters detail the six potential avenues for the demise of a terrorist movement: decapitation (leader/leaders are killed or captured), negotiation, success (movement's aims are achieved), failure, repression, and reorientation (group/movement shifts from terrorist violence to something else). These avenues are developed from an analysis of over 400 terrorist groups (a description of the dataset and more detail from the statistical analysis are given in an appendix). Each chapter then presents a few cases as illustration of how the particular avenue ends (or does not end) the terrorist movement in question. The cases are selected for variance in terms of leadership, goals, and other factors. A seventh chapter applies the various frameworks to al Qaeda, putting forward an initial analysis on that group's possible end, and a short conclusion closes out the text.
While some may view the conclusions from the data as basic, Cronin's analysis brings them into stark relief, especially considering shortcomings in U.S. counterterrorism policy to apply such "conventional wisdom." Some of the findings include the point that the arrest and discrediting of a terrorist leader are generally more effective than assassination as a decapitation technique. Negotiation may not be possible with core members of an organization, but may have value in creating factions within the group. More importantly, the historical record shows that negotiations are not linear, that setbacks will inevitably occur, and that the most successful negotiations occur with terrorist organizations with clearly articulated goals. The findings are important, but a deeper insight may be the underlying point that terrorism is most effective when governments overreact. In other words, the question may not be how terrorism succeeds, but how governments fail.
The chapter devoted to the end of a terrorist movement due to its success is perhaps the weakest of those presented (the cases are Irgun in Israel and Umkhonto in South Africa). Much of Cronin's own analysis suggests these causes are won despite the use of terrorist violence (and indeed, such violence may have been counterproductive to achieving the goal). Regarding the "success" of establishing the state of Israel, Cronin notes that Irgun chooses to lay down its arms rather than engage in a civil war in Israel (p. 247, note 43, which also points out that this decision coincided with the sinking of a ship carrying arms for Irgun). The goal of an independent Israel was certainly achieved, but Irgun's contribution to that goal could be contested. Its role could be considered akin to that of a spectator at a sporting event trying to distract the opposition. Can those actions really be connected to "victory"? More importantly, Cronin's argument regarding the role of terrorist violence in achieving a particular goal does not mention the possibility of the terrorist organization's value as the "greater evil." Terrorist violence may be counterproductive politically, but it may also move a government to negotiate with a more moderate entity sharing the goals of the terrorist group. Terrorist violence may not "win" in and of itself, but it may make some compromise more palatable to a government.
Another point for debate lies in the application of the various approaches to al Qaeda. Cronin suggests the various ways al Qaeda may be unique (considering most of them as matters of degree rather than type), and a reader can take issue with some of the conclusions drawn. For example, Cronin points out al Qaeda's "resilient structure" but later suggests that its methods of recruitment and forms of communication move it further away from being an organization and closer to a larger social movement with various like-minded affiliates. If the latter is the case, then is it even valuable to discuss a structure to al Qaeda? Cronin herself seems to note this, suggesting "the debate over the size, structure, and membership of al Qaeda is a quaint relic of the twentieth century" (p. 176).
Cronin's argument illuminates more than it obscures but still touches on only part of the problem. Ultimately, the reasons for the end of terrorism, despite the categorizations offered here, are almost as varied as the reasons given for the causes of terrorism. While Cronin correctly recognizes that focusing on single groups or only the current phenomenon is ahistorical and misses valuable potential lessons, the reasons and factors for the end of terrorism are too broad to be valuable in and of themselves. The preoccupation with an ongoing terrorist organization misses valuable precedents, while simply noting "factors" of terrorism's demise is too vague. The value is in the synthesis of these approaches: "The lessons of the past must be considered, comprehended, and then carefully calibrated for the particular circumstances and the particular strategy of a particular group, directing its energies at the vulnerabilities of a particular kind of state" (p. 206). Alliteration and repetition notwithstanding, the combination of deep knowledge of a specific group with a broader conceptual framework of the overall phenomenon is the way to greater understanding. JFQ
I think in case of TSPA a minimum of three of the steps are needed.
- decapitation(Some leadership has to pay the price. Right now its no cost ot them to indulge in terrorism abroad)
- failure ((Terrorist activivty doesnt pay> Once US stops support to TSPA then they will realize this)
- re-orientation ( Need for them to be inward focussed at the primary threat to the kabila from internal outrage)
Leading to eventual disbandment.