Author: The Associated Press
Publication: The New York Times
Date: September 9, 2005
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Jihads-Helping-Hand.html
Al-Qaida leaders in hiding and foot-soldiers
preparing for terrorist attacks are turning to outlawed Pakistani extremist
groups for spiritual and military training, shelter and logistical support,
say U.S. officials who see them as an emerging threat.
One group -- Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of
the Pure -- is an example of how Osama bin Laden's followers take advantage
of scattered Islamic militant allies to maintain momentum, four years after
a U.S.-led military campaign destroyed al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.
Lashkar is among the organizations fighting
for the disputed region of Kashmir. U.S. officials say the group stands out
for a number of reasons, including its missionary work and other involvement
outside the area.
Elements of Pakistan's intelligence services
have supported Lashkar in the past. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
banned Lashkar in 2002 for its alleged links to an attack on India's parliament.
Lashkar leaders insist the group's focus is
freeing Muslims in Indian-controlled Kashmir -- not attacks on the West. Pakistani
officials say the group is local, not international.
Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Jehangir
Karamat, said in an Associated Press interview that he considers Lashkar incapable
of international terrorism and particularly of working with al-Qaida because
the groups have different languages and agendas.
Al-Qaida has ''no linkage with any organization
in Pakistan,'' Karamat said. ''They don't need it and they don't have it --
never had it.''
Still, the United States is closely watching
Lashkar because of its apparent willingness to help those involved in the
global jihad on a grass-roots level.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition
of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity, said they do not believe
Lashkar's leadership is coordinating international attacks with groups including
the remnants of al-Qaida. Instead, they worry about connections among foot-soldiers
-- extremists who may point friends of friends to paramilitary camps.
Last year, the State Department estimated
the group had several thousand members.
The Lashkar organization represents a classic
example of the diffusion of Islamic extremism -- based in Afghanistan until
the U.S. toppled the Taliban in 2001 -- that CIA Director Porter Goss and
other intelligence officials have warned of.
Ken Katzman, a Middle East expert at the Congressional
Research Service, said groups including Lashkar have revived the training
structure once found in Afghanistan, setting up ''Afghanistan East'' in northern
Pakistan. Some in Pakistan deny the camps' existence.
''I think this is emerging as the next theater
to test whether Pakistan is serious about eliminating the al-Qaida presence,''
Katzman said.
Some examples of high-profile moments where
Lashkar's fingerprints are suspected or spotted:
--International authorities are looking into
whether an Islamic school run by Lashkar trained at least one of the bombers
who attacked four London buses on July 7. Officials are also looking closely
at the associations of the three other bombers. Pakistani authorities have
yet to find direct links and say any tie may be a small piece of the investigation.
--In Virginia, a prominent Islamic scholar
was sentenced to life in prison this summer for encouraging his followers
to join the Taliban and fight the United States after Sept. 11, 2001. After
one fiery speech, several attendees went to Pakistan and received military
training from Lashkar. The young men were part of the ''Virginia jihad network''
that sometimes trained for holy war by playing paintball games in the woods.
--U.S. officials say Abu Farraj al-Libbi,
a top al-Qaida operational leader picked up in Pakistan in May, ran from a
site associated with Lashkar before Pakistani forces captured him in a graveyard
shootout. He is in U.S. custody, accused of planning two assassination attempts
on Musharraf. Some Pakistani officials have said al-Libbi was sheltered by
another Muslim militant organization.
--In March 2002, a senior al-Qaida lieutenant
and planner, Abu Zubaydah, was captured at a Lashkar safehouse in Faisalabad,
Pakistan.
-- The Australian Taliban, David Hicks, whom
U.S. forces captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, was trained
by Lashkar in the late 1990s. He is being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Bush administration is cautious about
pushing too hard on Pakistan, an ally in the fight against terrorism.
The United States added Lashkar to its list
of terrorist groups in 2001 and extended the designation in December 2003.
''We hope this list will help to isolate these
terrorist organizations ... and to prevent their members' movement across
international borders,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said then.
U.S. officials acknowledge the differences
between al-Qaida and Lashkar, including their respective roots in the Wahhabi
and Deobandi sects of Islam. Yet they say that their histories have intersected
since the 1990s, creating highly complex and dangerous relationships that
authorities sometimes struggle to monitor.
The officials and counterterrorism experts
note that camps affiliated with Lashkar may be particularly attractive to
extremist recruits because they don't get the scrutiny of those run by al-Qaida,
now largely underground.
''What's crazy is that these groups, because
they are a little bit more low key than al-Qaida, they have been able to operate,
in Pakistan especially without hindrance,'' said Evan Kohlmann, an international
terrorism consultant who has studied Lashkar.
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Associated Press writers Foster Klug in Washington
and Matthew Pennington in Islamabad contributed to this report.