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Pakistan's lethal
exports
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
From Australia to Europe to North America,
a spate of arrests, trials and convictions has
brought to the world's attention the growing
threat posed by jihadis from Pakistan.
On
June 5, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) arrested a pair of Pakistani-Americans from
the sleepy little farming town of Lodi,
California. Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer
Hayat, 47, were later charged with lying to the
authorities regarding their connection with jihadi
training camps. But the formal FBI affidavit
contained the bombshell piece of information that
the training camps in question were in Pakistan,
not in the notorious tribal areas, but right
outside the city of Rawalpindi, which also hosts
the Pakistan army headquarters.
While the
FBI later put out an amended affidavit, the
original statement released to the media named the
person running the Rawalpindi terror camp as
"Maulana Fazlur Rehman". This was confusing
because two prominent people share that name in
Pakistan. The first one is the secretary general
of Pakistan's opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Islamic alliance and the head of a pro-Taliban
group called Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam. Experts say,
however, that the affidavit likely describes
another person, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a
notorious terrorist leader.
Khalil is the
chief patron of a group called
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), which was the first
Pakistani jihadi group to be banned by the US in
1997, when it was known as Harkat-ul-Ansar. While
HuM is supposedly focused on fighting Pakistan's
covert war against India in the Kashmir region, it
gained prominence in 1998 when Khalil became the
first Pakistani leader to sign the fatwa
issued by Osama bin Laden calling for attacks on
US and Western interests.
In 2003, the US
government declassified 32 documents relating to
the Taliban and al-Qaeda. These included secret
memos from the State Department and the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA). One of the DIA
documents noted, "[Osama] bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network was able to expand under the safe
sanctuary extended by Taliban following Pakistan
directives. If there is any doubt on that issue,
consider the location of bin Laden's camp targeted
by US cruise missiles, Zahawa. Positioned on the
border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was
built by Pakistani contractors, funded by
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI]
directorate ... If this was later to become bin
Laden's base, then serious questions are raised by
the early relationship between bin Laden and
Pakistan's ISI."
In 1998, US warships in
the Arabian Sea launched cruise missiles on
"al-Qaeda" training camps in Afghanistan. However,
at least one of the targeted camps was a HuM
facility, run in conjunction with Pakistani
military and intelligence officials. According to
the US 9-11 Commission, many HuM volunteers and a
few Pakistani intelligence personnel were killed
during the missile attack. Soon after the strike,
Khalil called a press conference in the Pakistani
capital of Islamabad and threatened the US that
his men would attack Americans in their homes,
just like the Americans attacked them (HuM) in
their own backyard. HuM continued to operate
training camps in eastern Afghanistan until US air
strikes destroyed them during the fall of 2001. In
2003, HuM began using the name Jamiat ul-Ansar.
Not the first time
The Lodi
case is not the first time people suspected of
links to al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani jihadi groups
have been arrested. Just a couple of weeks before
the Lodi arrests, American authorities deported a
Pakistani man named Khamal Muhammad. Muhammad, who
was arrested in San Francisco for immigration
violations, later revealed that he had trained in
a HuM camp and learned to use pistols, rifles and
grenades.
In 2003, American authorities
broke up a terrorist cell in the state of
Virginia. During the subsequent trial, six men
pleaded guilty, while three more were convicted of
terrorism-related charges. The men, belonging to
various ethnic backgrounds, admitted to being
members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the notorious
Pakistani Salafist group that is also active in
Indian Kashmir. The US government released their
indictment, which laid out the dates and periods
when they went to Pakistan to train in LeT's
camps.
The "Virginia Jihad" indictment
also pointed out that LeT's own website, which
keeps changing its address, said that the group
had four facilities for training mujahideen from
around the world, including camps named "Taiba",
"Aqsa", "Um-al-Qur'a" and "Abdullah bin Masud".
The trained LeT fighters, the website claimed,
participated in jihad in Afghanistan, Kashmir,
Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines. The
website also prominently displayed a banner
portraying Lashkar-e-Taiba's dagger penetrating
the national flags of the United States, Russia,
the United Kingdom, India and Israel. In April
2005, American authorities secured the conviction
of a Salafist cleric named Ali al-Timimi, who was
said to be the mastermind behind the Virginia
Jihad terror cell.
European links
Meanwhile, another Pakistani jihadi connection
turned up in Europe. On June 16, Pakistan-born
British citizen Ghulam Rama, 67, was convicted of
the crime of "terrorist conspiracy" in Paris. Rama
was tied to Richard Reid, the British Islamic
jihadi close to al-Qaeda who tried to blow up a
Paris-Miami flight in December 2001 before being
arrested. Interestingly, Reid is also tied to
another shadowy Pakistani jihadi group called
Jamaat-ul-Fuqra. Rama himself admitted to being an
activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
LeT has many
other links to Europe, France in particular. A
French convert to Islam named Willie Brigitte has
been in the custody of anti-terrorism authorities
in France since 2003. Brigitte, who also went by
the nom-de-guerre "Salahuddin", was caught
in Sydney, Australia, when he was allegedly in the
midst of planning a terrorist attack. Australian
journalist Ben English obtained the transcripts of
Brigitte's secret trial in France.
During
the trial, Brigitte told the French judge in
charge that in 2002 he trained along with many
Pakistanis, European Muslim converts and American
and European nationals of Pakistani origin.
Brigitte claimed that the training, which included
the use of explosives, small arms and terrorism
tactics was conducted in a sophisticated
three-tiered mountain complex near Pakistan's
border with India. Brigitte also noted that the
training was done with the protection of the
Pakistani army. The LeT itself was filled with
Pakistani army personnel and much of the weaponry
and logistical supplies for the training camp were
provided by Pakistani soldiers, he noted.
Interestingly, Brigitte's statements were
independently corroborated by Yong-ki Kwon, a
Korean-American convert to Islam who was one of
the people convicted in the Virginia Jihad case in
the US. Kwon also noted that the foreign LeT
volunteers were accommodated at the sprawling 190
acre headquarters in the Pakistani town of
Muridke, near Lahore. Interestingly, despite its
known terrorist training facilities, Pakistani
authorities have not shut down the LeT's Muridke
facility.
Pakistani jihadis have also been
tied to successful terror attacks in Europe. Abu
Dahdah, chief of the Spanish-based al-Qaeda cell
that helped finance and organize the September 11
attacks, had links with Ali al-Timimi. One of
Dahdah's proteges, Jamal Zougam, is now under
arrest in Spain in connection with the March 11,
2004, train bombings in Madrid. In September 2004,
Spanish authorities cracked what they claimed to
have been a cell of Pakistanis who were funding
al-Qaeda activities in Spain. The Pakistani cell
was tied to al-Qaeda's September 11 mastermind
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the jihadi
group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which also is a Pakistani
group active in Kashmir.
Terror down
under
Of all places, anti-terror experts
have been surprised and alarmed by the Pakistani
jihad connection in Australia. As explained above,
French terror suspect Willie Brigitte was arrested
in Australia. But before Brigitte, Australians
were shocked to find that one of their compatriots
named David Hicks was arrested by US authorities
when he was fighting alongside the Taliban forces,
and was later found to have been trained at an LeT
training camp in Pakistan. Hicks also claimed that
he was fighting alongside Pakistani soldiers in
Kashmir.
In April 2004, Australian
authorities arrested a Pakistani man named Faheem
Khalid Lodhi in conjunction with the Brigitte
case. Lodhi, who is now being described by
authorities as a LeT kingpin, was allegedly
planning an attack along with Brigitte aimed at
high-value targets in Australia, including a
nuclear power plant outside Sydney. Lodhi had also
allegedly recruited another Pakistani man named
Izhar ul-Haque as part of his operation. Lodhi is
currently undergoing trial and faces a life
sentence if convicted.
Australia, of
course, faced their own version of September 11
when dozens of its citizens were killed in the
2002 bomb blast on the island of Bali, Indonesia -
a popular tourist destination for Australians. The
Bali attack was reportedly masterminded by a man
called Hambali, who belongs to the Indonesian
jihadi group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). JI had made it
clear that it regards Australia as one of its
terror targets.
It is interesting to note
that the better-trained JI members were instructed
not in Indonesia, but in Pakistan, in camps run by
the Lashkar-e-Taiba. While Hambali was caught soon
after the Bali attacks, his brother, who goes by
the name Gunawan, was arrested in Pakistan at the
Abu Bakar University in Karachi, which is
affiliated with the LeT. Interestingly, Gunawan
was on a scholarship provided by the Pakistani
government under a fake name "Abdul Hadi". During
interrogation, Gunawan revealed that he, along
with Brigitte, worked to transport some 200
Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai men to and from LeT
terror camps in Pakistan. Despite this, the LeT
facilities in Karachi remain open to date.
Kashmir 'jihad' backfires
For
its part, the Pakistani government denies that
there are any terrorist camps in its territory.
However, even Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid
Kasuri recently admitted during questioning that
there were LeT terror camps in Pakistan, but
insisted that the government had closed them down.
The jihadi groups themselves, which still operate
under new names despite being "banned", regularly
publish magazines and newsletters that give out
the phone numbers and addresses of their
recruiters. Many former Pakistani officials have
also pointed out that the Pakistan government's
denials lack credibility. They note that
Pakistan's continued support of Kashmir jihadi
elements effectively torpedoes any chances of
removing al-Qaeda from Pakistan, since jihadi
groups do not tend to distinguish between Kashmir,
Afghanistan and the West. "To these
tanzeems [outfits], Hindus, Jews and
Christians are all the same type of enemy," one
Pakistani expert based in the West noted.
Western terrorism analysts are still
divided on what to make of the spate of Pakistan
jihad connections. Some tend to downplay the links
between Pakistani jihadis and al-Qaeda, noting
that to date Pakistani jihadis have not been
successful in carrying out major operations
outside Pakistan or India. However, one American
security official told Asia Times Online on the
condition of anonymity that similar arguments were
made about bin Laden before September 11. The
official said further that the sheer number of
Pakistani jihadis arrested around the world is a
worrying phenomenon that indicates a "potential
hole" in America's "war on terror". "We cannot let
the Pakistanis build a firewall around these guys,
they are still terrorists who hate America," the
official insisted.
Experts say it is still
too early to determine whether the Lodi suspects
are hardcore jihadis or just people caught at the
wrong place at the wrong time. One Pakistani
American noted to Asia Times Online it is quite
possible that the Hayats were victims of
internecine squabbles within the Pakistani
community in Lodi. But it is now becoming rapidly
clear to homeland security and law enforcement
authorities in the US and elsewhere in the world
that there is just a thin line separating
Pakistan's Kashmir "freedom fighters" and al-Qaeda
jihadis.
US homeland security officials
are already looking for Pakistanis entering the US
with telltale signs of terror training, including
rope marks around their wrists or bruises
indicative of paramilitary training. American
authorities are also cracking down on any monetary
or material contribution made by Pakistanis to
Kashmir-linked Pakistani jihadi groups. Those who
materially support these outfits now will face a
risk that they probably did not bargain for - it
is hard for authorities to tell a "good" terrorist
from a "bad" terrorist.
Kaushik
Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and
strategic affairs analyst based in the United
States. He can be reached at
contact@kapisthalam.com
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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