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s debate rages in New Delhi over the revelations of a Lashkar-e-Taiba plot to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a US House of Representatives' Committee on Homeland Security released a report on "Protecting the Homeland against Mumbai Style Attacks and the Threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba," in which it recognises the LeT as a "proxy of the Pakistani ISI".
Chaired by Peter King, chairman of the Subcommittee on Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence, it said that the LeT's reach as a branded terrorist organisation was "broad" and its capabilities to "go abroad" were also significant.
India has been asking Washington to recognise the threats posed to the international community by the LeT for years.
King highlighted that the LeT backed terror plots in "2009 in Denmark, 2002 in Australia via means of a trainer sent from France, the groups increased influence in Europe, specifically in Britain and the groups' general ability to recruit Westerners" as proof of the LeT's fast growing global footprint.
The Mumbai attacks of 26/11 brought LeT in a global view as an international terrorist organisation.
"The LeT has never attacked any targets within the state of Pakistan and has consistently been an ideological weapon," writes C. Christine Faire, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University in a witness statement to the sub-committee hearing.
"It is important to understand that whereas in some countries terrorist organizations arise for a myriad of largely exogenous reasons, in Pakistan militant organizations have long been organized with the active assistance of the state. In fact, this phenomenon began in the earliest days of Pakistan's independence when various parts of the provincial and federal governments supported tribal militias in their invasion of India in order to seize Kashmir with support from the Pakistan army. Pakistan continues to rely upon Islamist terrorism under the security of expanding nuclear umbrella to prosecute its foreign policies with increasing impunity. Equally disconcerting for U.S. interests, Pakistan is busily expanding its nuclear arsenal with a renewed focused upon tactical — battlefield — nuclear weapons."
Peter King
In another witness statement, Jonah Blank, senior political analyst with the Rand Corporation brings into picture the close relationship between the then Osama Bin Laden-led Al Qaeda and the LeT, even when the group was supposedly concentrating its operations in Kashmir. Blank also includes the Taliban and the Haqqani Network as terrorist groups that the LeT closely works with.
"Lashkar-e Taiba has always been, and is likely to remain, a factory churning out violent extremists. Even if the group itself continues to limit its attacks to South Asia, its alumni network and splinter cells show no such restraint. Several terrorist plots in Europe — fortunately, most foiled well before completion — have had LeT linkages. One such plot was a proposed attack on a Danish newspaper and other sites in Copenhagen, in which American LeT operative David Headley conspired in 2009 with the high-level Al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri," writes Blank.
This changing attitude over the LeT by the US has been labelled as positive by analysts. With New Delhi and Washington facing common threats in the region and internationally, it is now expected that both countries will work closer than ever before on the issue of global terrorism.
"The 26/11 attacks that deliberately targeted US citizens and Western interests and the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2010, have effectively ended any appetite in Congress for Pakistan's duplicity on terrorism. There is now a significant convergence of threat perceptions between India and the US on Pakistan-sponsored groups like the LeT. This ultimately bodes well for further Indo-US cooperation on counter-terrorism," explains Rohan Joshi, fellow at the Takshashila Institution.
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/us-congress-report-recognises-let-as-a-proxy-of-pak-isi
Chaired by Peter King, chairman of the Subcommittee on Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence, it said that the LeT's reach as a branded terrorist organisation was "broad" and its capabilities to "go abroad" were also significant.
India has been asking Washington to recognise the threats posed to the international community by the LeT for years.
King highlighted that the LeT backed terror plots in "2009 in Denmark, 2002 in Australia via means of a trainer sent from France, the groups increased influence in Europe, specifically in Britain and the groups' general ability to recruit Westerners" as proof of the LeT's fast growing global footprint.
The Mumbai attacks of 26/11 brought LeT in a global view as an international terrorist organisation.
"The LeT has never attacked any targets within the state of Pakistan and has consistently been an ideological weapon," writes C. Christine Faire, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University in a witness statement to the sub-committee hearing.
"It is important to understand that whereas in some countries terrorist organizations arise for a myriad of largely exogenous reasons, in Pakistan militant organizations have long been organized with the active assistance of the state. In fact, this phenomenon began in the earliest days of Pakistan's independence when various parts of the provincial and federal governments supported tribal militias in their invasion of India in order to seize Kashmir with support from the Pakistan army. Pakistan continues to rely upon Islamist terrorism under the security of expanding nuclear umbrella to prosecute its foreign policies with increasing impunity. Equally disconcerting for U.S. interests, Pakistan is busily expanding its nuclear arsenal with a renewed focused upon tactical — battlefield — nuclear weapons."
Peter King
In another witness statement, Jonah Blank, senior political analyst with the Rand Corporation brings into picture the close relationship between the then Osama Bin Laden-led Al Qaeda and the LeT, even when the group was supposedly concentrating its operations in Kashmir. Blank also includes the Taliban and the Haqqani Network as terrorist groups that the LeT closely works with.
"Lashkar-e Taiba has always been, and is likely to remain, a factory churning out violent extremists. Even if the group itself continues to limit its attacks to South Asia, its alumni network and splinter cells show no such restraint. Several terrorist plots in Europe — fortunately, most foiled well before completion — have had LeT linkages. One such plot was a proposed attack on a Danish newspaper and other sites in Copenhagen, in which American LeT operative David Headley conspired in 2009 with the high-level Al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri," writes Blank.
This changing attitude over the LeT by the US has been labelled as positive by analysts. With New Delhi and Washington facing common threats in the region and internationally, it is now expected that both countries will work closer than ever before on the issue of global terrorism.
"The 26/11 attacks that deliberately targeted US citizens and Western interests and the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2010, have effectively ended any appetite in Congress for Pakistan's duplicity on terrorism. There is now a significant convergence of threat perceptions between India and the US on Pakistan-sponsored groups like the LeT. This ultimately bodes well for further Indo-US cooperation on counter-terrorism," explains Rohan Joshi, fellow at the Takshashila Institution.
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/us-congress-report-recognises-let-as-a-proxy-of-pak-isi