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Outside View: Close Pakistan`s jihad camps
By Kaushik Kapisthalam Jul 28, 2005, 0:58 GMT
South Asia Features
ATLANTA, GA, United States (UPI) -- What is the common link between the July 7 London attacks, recent
terror related arrests in California, convicted terrorist recruiters and masterminds in the U.S. and France,
indicted jihadists in Australia and the upsurge of violence in Afghanistan and Kashmir? The answer is that
all the above involve people trained in jihadist training camps within Pakistan that are still operating nearly
four years after 9/11.
While it is still early days in the investigation of the London atrocities, reports quote those close to the
investigation as saying that the bombings were likely masterminded in Pakistan. The New York Times
recently reported that one alleged 7/7 bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, spent time at a camp affiliated with the
Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani jihadist group. Other reports link 7/7 suspects to another Pakistani
terrorist group named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is one of the most virulently anti-Western jihadist
groups in the world. LeT is also the favorite group of the Pakistani military establishment, which sees the
outfit as an asset to be used against India in the Kashmir region.
Across the Atlantic, on July 13, a radical Islamic cleric named Ali Al-Timimi was sentenced to life in prison,
in Virginia, for soliciting treason. Timimi is the latest person convicted in what has come to be known as the
"Virginia jihad" case. The case involves a group of Americans of various ethnicities recruited to be sent to
fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But all the men admitted that they received training not in Afghanistan but in
Pakistan, near populated areas of the Punjab province as well as Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The men
were all members of LeT.
Even though the LeT was banned by the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, it
continues to operate under a new name Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). At the time of this writing, the LeT`s main
"campus" in Muridke, a town outside the prominent Pakistani city of Lahore, is still operational. Tanweer is
reported to have spent time at the Muridke campus possibly to meet with the 7/7 bomb plotters.
Even as recently as a few weeks ago, Pakistani media reports say that LeT`s recruiters are still able to
pass out flyers and magazines outside Mosques calling for jihad volunteers. LeT`s publications usually
give the names and phone numbers of LeT`s branch offices and clearly say that "commando training" is
part of the curriculum. They also openly list address of LeT`s regional office as "4 Lake Road, Chaubhurji,
Lahore," a location reportedly not far from the city police headquarters.
Amir Mir, a Pakistani journalist known for his reporting on terrorism issues recently reported that other than
the Muridke campus, LeT operates two big military training facilities at Khairati Bagh in the Leepa Valley
and at Nala Shui in Muzaffarabad, both in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. There is another facility at Maldasi
in the Sindh province, near the city of Hyderabad. All together the camps churn out a few dozen hardened
terrorists every few weeks, to be sent to Kashmir. But Kashmir is not the only destination for LeT`s fighters.
In the recent past, more than a few LeT operatives and jihadist fighters have been arrested inside Iraq
while fighting U.S. troops, even though the U.S. government is unlikely to admit it for the fear of
embarrassing Gen. Musharraf. LeT`s latest publications still call for volunteers to fight in Iraq.
Just weeks ago, a Pakistani man named Ghulam Rana was convicted in France of terrorism related
charges. The trial documents noted that Rana was a LeT activist. Another LeT man was deported from
Germany just days earlier. Far away Australia is witnessing a series of arrests and trials of people caught
before they were able to conduct terrorist attacks. Their alleged list of targets included a nuclear power
plant outside Sydney. Here too, the mastermind was a Pakistani LeT jihadist named Faheem Lodhi. The
Australian, French and Virginia trials were all connected to the same LeT cell. Testimony during the French
trial noted that the LeT suspects admitted to being given military training in facilities guarded by Pakistan
army soldiers.
Back in the U.S., since June, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have been rounding up a group
of terrorist suspects based out of Lodi, California. It now appears that at least six of the men were recently
trained in jihadist camps in Pakistan run by a notorious terrorist leader named Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Khalil. Khalil is the chief of a Pakistani terrorist group named Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
The FBI indictment of one of the Lodi suspects states that the jihadist camp in question was near
Rawalpindi. Those following Pakistani jihadist groups know that Khalil has been operating a big training
facility in a place called Dhamial, which is near Rawalpindi. The interesting fact here is that Khalil`s facility
is right next door to a Pakistan army camp, which is no surprise since Rawalpindi also happens to host the
headquarters of the Pakistan army.
Yet according the Pakistan government these camps don`t exist and the whole world is lying about them --
the FBI affidavits and other U.S. government documents are false, the Australian and French documentary
evidence is incorrect, investigative reports by Pakistani journalists is wrong and the Afghan and Indian
claims are bogus. Musharraf himself has no qualms in claiming that al-Qaida "does not exist" within
Pakistan. This type of brazen denial in the face of facts is strangely met with stony silence from the U.S.
One clichéd argument used by those in favor of the current U.S glossing over of continuing Pakistani
terror links is that any pressure on this matter might topple the fragile Musharraf regime. That argument
begs the question -- if the Musharraf regime is so weak that it cannot even shut down terror camps in his
backyard four years after 9/11, then is it not time to revise America`s policy towards Pakistan -- a policy that
was expressly based on fighting terrorism?
In addition, if Musharraf is teetering on the edge, what is the logic behind the recent U.S. decision to spend
billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry to a government that it believes may possibly fall to the
Islamists in the near term? In fact, one of the arguments used by State Department officials to justify a
massive weapons sales package to Pakistan was that the U.S. has determined that Pakistan has moved
far from the brink it was perched on when 9/11 happened. There seems to be an element of circular
reasoning when it comes to justifying the current U.S. policy towards Pakistan.
The argument here is not that the Musharraf regime wants to see attacks happen in the West or is
facilitating such operations. There is no evidence of that and in fact Pakistan has helped thwart more than a
few terror plots. But however stellar Pakistan`s help against al-Qaida may be it does not minimize the very
real danger posed by the continued Pakistani state support of domestic terror factories. Because as long
as Pakistani jihadist camps are allowed to churn out trained jihadists, there is always a risk that a few
might end up in the U.S. or other countries, as has been evidenced of late. The jihadists are brainwashed
with hatred towards Jews, Hindus, Christians and other Muslim sects alike and it does not take much to
convince a person willing to kill himself in Kashmir or Kandahar to perform his "martyrdom" act in New York
or London instead.
Reports quoting recently leaked documents from the U.S. Homeland Security department show that U.S.
border agents have been recently instructed to look for Pakistani and Pakistani-origin men with indications
of training in terror camps, such as rope burns on the wrist and other telltale marks. This indicates that the
U.S., at one level, does take seriously the threat posed by Pakistani jihadist camps. But homeland security
is a defensive effort.
The Bush administration prides itself in conducting a war on terror based on offense -- attacking terrorists
in their homeland. Isn`t it a logical extension of this policy to stop the jihadists before they train in Pakistani
camps? Better yet, how about eliminating the camps in the first place? It is to be noted that most of these
camps are not in mountain caves or in the notorious "tribal areas." They are located near well-populated
areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and their location and their existence is an open secret.
The U.S. has enormous leverage in Pakistan based on the billions of dollars in aid and big weapons sales
that Islamabad is currently receiving. If this leverage is not used to safeguard the U.S., then of what use is
it?
Until recently, many terrorist experts were downplaying the threat to the West posed by Pakistani jihadists.
The London attacks have exposed the hollowness of that idea given that terrorists trained by Pakistani jihad
groups wreaked havoc thousands of miles away in London. It is not hard to see that if the LeT, Harkat and
similar groups were really disbanded in 2002, the London attacks could have been prevented. Can any
U.S. or Western government official now argue that there is even a sliver of justification for not pressing
Gen. Musharraf to end his tolerance of LeT and like groups?
To adopt and rephrase an immortal quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- Jihadist camps operating
anywhere are a threat to free societies everywhere.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1037308.php/Outside_View_Close_Pakistan%60s_jihad_camps
(Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance security affairs analyst. He can be reached at )
By Kaushik Kapisthalam Jul 28, 2005, 0:58 GMT
South Asia Features
ATLANTA, GA, United States (UPI) -- What is the common link between the July 7 London attacks, recent
terror related arrests in California, convicted terrorist recruiters and masterminds in the U.S. and France,
indicted jihadists in Australia and the upsurge of violence in Afghanistan and Kashmir? The answer is that
all the above involve people trained in jihadist training camps within Pakistan that are still operating nearly
four years after 9/11.
While it is still early days in the investigation of the London atrocities, reports quote those close to the
investigation as saying that the bombings were likely masterminded in Pakistan. The New York Times
recently reported that one alleged 7/7 bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, spent time at a camp affiliated with the
Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani jihadist group. Other reports link 7/7 suspects to another Pakistani
terrorist group named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is one of the most virulently anti-Western jihadist
groups in the world. LeT is also the favorite group of the Pakistani military establishment, which sees the
outfit as an asset to be used against India in the Kashmir region.
Across the Atlantic, on July 13, a radical Islamic cleric named Ali Al-Timimi was sentenced to life in prison,
in Virginia, for soliciting treason. Timimi is the latest person convicted in what has come to be known as the
"Virginia jihad" case. The case involves a group of Americans of various ethnicities recruited to be sent to
fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But all the men admitted that they received training not in Afghanistan but in
Pakistan, near populated areas of the Punjab province as well as Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The men
were all members of LeT.
Even though the LeT was banned by the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, it
continues to operate under a new name Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). At the time of this writing, the LeT`s main
"campus" in Muridke, a town outside the prominent Pakistani city of Lahore, is still operational. Tanweer is
reported to have spent time at the Muridke campus possibly to meet with the 7/7 bomb plotters.
Even as recently as a few weeks ago, Pakistani media reports say that LeT`s recruiters are still able to
pass out flyers and magazines outside Mosques calling for jihad volunteers. LeT`s publications usually
give the names and phone numbers of LeT`s branch offices and clearly say that "commando training" is
part of the curriculum. They also openly list address of LeT`s regional office as "4 Lake Road, Chaubhurji,
Lahore," a location reportedly not far from the city police headquarters.
Amir Mir, a Pakistani journalist known for his reporting on terrorism issues recently reported that other than
the Muridke campus, LeT operates two big military training facilities at Khairati Bagh in the Leepa Valley
and at Nala Shui in Muzaffarabad, both in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. There is another facility at Maldasi
in the Sindh province, near the city of Hyderabad. All together the camps churn out a few dozen hardened
terrorists every few weeks, to be sent to Kashmir. But Kashmir is not the only destination for LeT`s fighters.
In the recent past, more than a few LeT operatives and jihadist fighters have been arrested inside Iraq
while fighting U.S. troops, even though the U.S. government is unlikely to admit it for the fear of
embarrassing Gen. Musharraf. LeT`s latest publications still call for volunteers to fight in Iraq.
Just weeks ago, a Pakistani man named Ghulam Rana was convicted in France of terrorism related
charges. The trial documents noted that Rana was a LeT activist. Another LeT man was deported from
Germany just days earlier. Far away Australia is witnessing a series of arrests and trials of people caught
before they were able to conduct terrorist attacks. Their alleged list of targets included a nuclear power
plant outside Sydney. Here too, the mastermind was a Pakistani LeT jihadist named Faheem Lodhi. The
Australian, French and Virginia trials were all connected to the same LeT cell. Testimony during the French
trial noted that the LeT suspects admitted to being given military training in facilities guarded by Pakistan
army soldiers.
Back in the U.S., since June, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have been rounding up a group
of terrorist suspects based out of Lodi, California. It now appears that at least six of the men were recently
trained in jihadist camps in Pakistan run by a notorious terrorist leader named Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Khalil. Khalil is the chief of a Pakistani terrorist group named Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
The FBI indictment of one of the Lodi suspects states that the jihadist camp in question was near
Rawalpindi. Those following Pakistani jihadist groups know that Khalil has been operating a big training
facility in a place called Dhamial, which is near Rawalpindi. The interesting fact here is that Khalil`s facility
is right next door to a Pakistan army camp, which is no surprise since Rawalpindi also happens to host the
headquarters of the Pakistan army.
Yet according the Pakistan government these camps don`t exist and the whole world is lying about them --
the FBI affidavits and other U.S. government documents are false, the Australian and French documentary
evidence is incorrect, investigative reports by Pakistani journalists is wrong and the Afghan and Indian
claims are bogus. Musharraf himself has no qualms in claiming that al-Qaida "does not exist" within
Pakistan. This type of brazen denial in the face of facts is strangely met with stony silence from the U.S.
One clichéd argument used by those in favor of the current U.S glossing over of continuing Pakistani
terror links is that any pressure on this matter might topple the fragile Musharraf regime. That argument
begs the question -- if the Musharraf regime is so weak that it cannot even shut down terror camps in his
backyard four years after 9/11, then is it not time to revise America`s policy towards Pakistan -- a policy that
was expressly based on fighting terrorism?
In addition, if Musharraf is teetering on the edge, what is the logic behind the recent U.S. decision to spend
billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry to a government that it believes may possibly fall to the
Islamists in the near term? In fact, one of the arguments used by State Department officials to justify a
massive weapons sales package to Pakistan was that the U.S. has determined that Pakistan has moved
far from the brink it was perched on when 9/11 happened. There seems to be an element of circular
reasoning when it comes to justifying the current U.S. policy towards Pakistan.
The argument here is not that the Musharraf regime wants to see attacks happen in the West or is
facilitating such operations. There is no evidence of that and in fact Pakistan has helped thwart more than a
few terror plots. But however stellar Pakistan`s help against al-Qaida may be it does not minimize the very
real danger posed by the continued Pakistani state support of domestic terror factories. Because as long
as Pakistani jihadist camps are allowed to churn out trained jihadists, there is always a risk that a few
might end up in the U.S. or other countries, as has been evidenced of late. The jihadists are brainwashed
with hatred towards Jews, Hindus, Christians and other Muslim sects alike and it does not take much to
convince a person willing to kill himself in Kashmir or Kandahar to perform his "martyrdom" act in New York
or London instead.
Reports quoting recently leaked documents from the U.S. Homeland Security department show that U.S.
border agents have been recently instructed to look for Pakistani and Pakistani-origin men with indications
of training in terror camps, such as rope burns on the wrist and other telltale marks. This indicates that the
U.S., at one level, does take seriously the threat posed by Pakistani jihadist camps. But homeland security
is a defensive effort.
The Bush administration prides itself in conducting a war on terror based on offense -- attacking terrorists
in their homeland. Isn`t it a logical extension of this policy to stop the jihadists before they train in Pakistani
camps? Better yet, how about eliminating the camps in the first place? It is to be noted that most of these
camps are not in mountain caves or in the notorious "tribal areas." They are located near well-populated
areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and their location and their existence is an open secret.
The U.S. has enormous leverage in Pakistan based on the billions of dollars in aid and big weapons sales
that Islamabad is currently receiving. If this leverage is not used to safeguard the U.S., then of what use is
it?
Until recently, many terrorist experts were downplaying the threat to the West posed by Pakistani jihadists.
The London attacks have exposed the hollowness of that idea given that terrorists trained by Pakistani jihad
groups wreaked havoc thousands of miles away in London. It is not hard to see that if the LeT, Harkat and
similar groups were really disbanded in 2002, the London attacks could have been prevented. Can any
U.S. or Western government official now argue that there is even a sliver of justification for not pressing
Gen. Musharraf to end his tolerance of LeT and like groups?
To adopt and rephrase an immortal quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- Jihadist camps operating
anywhere are a threat to free societies everywhere.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1037308.php/Outside_View_Close_Pakistan%60s_jihad_camps
(Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance security affairs analyst. He can be reached at )
