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| India-Pakistan |
| Mumbai Terror Group Trained American Jihadists |
| 2008-12-10 |
| A growing chorus of intelligence officials in the U.S. and in south Asia have pinned the Mumbai attacks on the Kashmir-based militants Lashkar-e-Taiba. But there's been hardly any mention of the extremist group's deep ties to American-based jihadists. Since 2003, at least five U.S. citizens have been convicted in federal court of conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. At least nine more men, considered to be in the same larger circle, have been convicted of firearms violations and other felonies. (A partial list is here.) Several other cases are still making their way through the legal process. Islamic extremists in America have used Lashkar-e-Taiba ("LeT") as a "stepping stone" into the broader world of global terror, says Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator at the NEFA Foundation. With easy-to-access training facilities, English-speaking recruiters, and connections to militants around the world, a Lashkar camp is "the best way for emerging jihadist to get trained." In April, 2000, for instance, Virginia native Randall Todd Royer (pictured) went to a LeT camp in Kashmir. The place wasn't hard to find, according to an opinion from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. Online newsletters gave out the group's phone number and e-mail address, with the assurance that "requests for information about the jihad in Kashmir are welcome." A recruiting center operated openly in Lahore, one of Pakistan's largest cities. Royer spent a month at the LeT camp, firing AK-47s and other weapons, and going through endurance training. In August, Seifullah Chapman made a similar trip, arranged by Royer, who called it a "straight path" to global jihad. There, Chapman spent thirty days in "weapons training" and "performing military drills." Then, on September 16, 2001, Royer and several of his would-be militant friends gathered to decide what to do in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. When the meeting broke, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, Yong Ki Kwon, Muhammed Aatique, and Khwaja Mahmood Hasan had all "agreed to go to LeT for training," according to Judge Brinkema. "Each of them had the intent to receive training that would allow him to proceed to Afghanistan and fight on behalf of the Taliban and Mullah Omar against United States troops." Days later, all four were in the LeT office in Lahore, where they saw posters of a boot trampling the American flag, and the U.S. Capitol in flames. They traveled on to a Lashkar camp, where they fired AK-47s, anti-aircraft guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. None of them made it to the Afghan fight. But in December 2001, two of the men, Khan and Kwon, were asked "to return to the United States, gather information, and spread propaganda." A year later, Khan was purchasing drone aircraft parts, and gave them to a LeT operative. Nobody in this Virginia-based circle was about to be confused with Osama Bin Laden. These were newbies with violent intentions, not master terrorists. But Lashkar served as a kind of filter for the broader jihad movement -- sorting out who should stay wannabe, and who should go to the next level. One of the people who was moved up was Australian David Hicks. The group trained him, and then provided him "with a letter of introduction to Al Qaeda in 2000," the L.A. Times notes. Hicks went on to fight for the Taliban regime. "He was released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year after pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism." American investigators continue to find domestic links to the Kashmir-based group. In 2007, Mahmud Faruq Brent was convicted of providing material support to LeT, after he admitted to attending one of their training camps. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are still trying Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee for aiding LeT. They trained the Kashmiri group's camps, and then tried to get other Americans to do the same -- two more strands in Lashkar's network of ties to the United States. "If you're hard-core about global jihad, you eventually outgrow what Lashkar has to offer -- unless you want to fight India, of course," Kohlmann says. But the group is "still being used by individuals around the world to start their jihad training." |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #1 ION MUMBAI, WAFF.com > CHINA ACCUSES HINDU EXTREMIST GROUP IN MUMBAI ATTACK. Chin PEOPLE'S DAILY Journalist believes MUMBAI attackers were mostly ANGRY + ORHANIZED HINDU YOUTHS??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-10 22:01 |