LET: Al Qaeda's Clone
by B. Raman
In a conversation with the editorial staff of the
"Washington Post" on June 26, 2003, President General Pervez
Musharraf of Pakistan was reported to have claimed that he had effectively
put an end to the terrorist activities of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and
the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), both members of Osama bin Laden's
International Islamic Front (IIF), in Pakistan.
2. He was quoted as having told the newspaper's staff as
follows: "The Lashkar-e-Toiba has been banned. The Jaish-e-Mohammad
has been banned. There are hundreds of offices out there and I mean
hundreds and hundreds of offices around the country, including Kashmir,
have been sealed and closed. Their accounts have been frozen.
Nobody before this could have touched them. They couldn't even have
touched anyone of these organisations or their leaders."
3. The next day, as if to prove him wrong, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged seven men in the Washington area and
an eighth in Philadelphia with stockpiling weapons and conspiring to wage
"jihad" against India in support of a terrorist group in Kashmir.
The FBI's charge-sheet against them described them as members of the LET.
It also said that three others involved in the case were absconding and
were believed to be in Saudi Arabia.
4. Although the FBI officials said that there was no
evidence of a plot against the US, the members of the group had
pledged support for pro-Muslim violence overseas, hoarded high-powered
rifles and received military training in Pakistan. Nine of the 11 accused
are American citizens, and three had served in the US armed forces for
some time in the past. The charge-sheet said that seven members of
the group had travelled to Pakistan in the last several years, and some
received military training in small arms, machine guns, grenade launchers
and other weaponry at a camp in northeast Pakistan connected to the LET.
5. The 41-count charge-sheet, or indictment as it
is called in the USA, charged the 11 accused with conspiracy, firearms
violations and plotting against a friendly nation — namely, India. US
officials connected with the investigation were quoted by the media as
saying that there was no evidence that the accused were considering an
attack within the United States or had ties to Al Qaeda. And
officials were careful not to describe the group as a "sleeper
cell" — a term used to characterize suspected terrorist supporters
in Lackawanna, N.Y., Seattle and elsewhere arrested last year, some of
whom were connected with the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) of Pakistan.
6. However, the officials charged that the men conspired
to help Muslims abroad in violent jihad not only in India, but also in
Chechnya, the Philippines and other countries. The men, the charge-sheet
said, obtained AK-47s and other high-powered weaponry and practised
small-unit military tactics in
Virginia.
7. The indictment charged that the accused pledged their
willingness to die as martyrs in support of the Muslim cause and gathered
in private homes and at an Islamic center in suburban Washington to hear
lectures "on the righteousness of jihad" in Kashmir, Chechnya
and elsewhere. They also watched videotapes showing Muslim fighters
engaged in jihad. They had also organised a function to
celebrate the crashing of the space shuttle Columbia.
One of the astronauts killed in the crash was of Indian origin. A
message read out on the occasion had described the USA "as the
greatest enemy of the Muslims."
8. According to the indictment, one of the accused
Masoud Ahmed Khan, a Maryland resident, had a document titled "The
Terrorist's Handbook," with instructions on how to manufacture and
use explosives and chemicals as weapons, as well as a photograph of F.B.I.
headquarters in Washington. He is since reported to have been
ordered to be released on bail by the court keeping in view his past good
record in his community. The FBI has appealed against it.
9. At least two of the 11 accused have been described as
of Pakistani origin. One of them, Mohammed Aatique, 30, is a
work (H-1) visa holder while Khawja Mahmood Hasan, 27, is a naturalized US
citizen born in Pakistan. But at least one more suspect, Masoud
Ahmad Khan, 31, also has a Pakistani sounding name although his
nationality was not disclosed. The other accused are Randall Todd Royer,
30; Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, a Yemeni national and non-resident alien; Yong
Ki Kwon, 27, a naturalized US citizen born in Korea; Seifullah Chapman,
30; Hammad Abdur-Raheem, 35; Donald Thomas Surratt, 30; Caliph Basha Ibn
Abdur-Raheem, 29,and Sabri Benkhala, 28. Chapman, Hasan and Benkhala are
believed to be living in Saudi Arabia.
10. When an embarrassed Musharraf was asked about it at
Los Angeles the next day, he was reported to have said: " We need to
see who they are, where they were trained and how they were
organised."
11. Earlier, on June 20, 2003 before the arrival of
Musharraf in the US for his Camp David meeting with President George Bush,
FBI officials had disclosed that they had arrested in April Iyman Faris,
also known as Mohammad Rauf, originally a resident of Pakistan-Occupied
Kashmir (POK), who had migrated to the US in 1994 and was working as a
truck driver in Ohio and charged him with having links with Al Qaeda and
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, said to be Osama bin Laden's operations chief, who
is believed to have co-ordinated the terrorist strikes of September 11,
2001, in the US. Khalid was arrested in the house of a women's wing
leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) of Pakistan at Rawalpindi in March by
the Pakistani authorities and handed over to the FBI.
12. According to FBI officials, as quoted in the US
media, Faris had visited Afghanistan and Pakistan a number of times
between 2000 and 2002, met Osama bin Laden and worked with Khalid
Sheikh Mohammad, in organising and financing jihad causes. After
returning to the US from Pakistan in late 2002, officials said, he began
examining the Brooklyn Bridge and discussing via coded messages with Al
Qaeda leaders in Pakistan ways of using blow torches to sever the
suspension cables.
13. "The plotting continued through March, as Faris
sent coded messages to operatives in Pakistan. One such message said that
the "weather is too hot. " FBI officials have been quoted as
saying that meant that Faris feared the plot was unlikely to
succeed---apparently because of security and the bridge's structure-- and
should be postponed. He was arrested soon thereafter.
According to media reports, the interrogation of Khalid led the FBI to
Faris.
14. It is reported that while there is no evidence so
far to connect Faris with the other 11 accused belonging to the LET, the
FBI is looking into this possibility. Sources in Pakistan describe Faris,aged
34, as a Punjabi ex-serviceman settled in POK, before he migrated to the
US. It is said that he was associated in the past with the
Jamaat-ul-Fuqra (JUF), an anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu terrorist
organisation of Pakistan, which is reported to have a large network in the
US, Canada and the Caribbean. It was involved in a number of violent
incidents against Jewish and Hindu interests in the US in the early 1990s
and its activities were cited in the annual reports of the US State
Department titled "Patterns of Global Terrorism". Last year,
Pakistani Police officers had alleged that Daniel Pearl, the US
journalist, had gone to Pakistan from Mumbai in India to enquire into the
possible links of the JUF with the shoe bomber who had unsuccessfully
tried to cause an explosion in a US aircraft flying from France to the
USA. Pearl was trapped by a joint group of terrorists from different
Pakistani organisations belonging to bin Laden's International Islamic
Front (IIF), kidnapped and murdered.
15. The belated discovery by the FBI of secret cells of
these Pakistani organisations in the USA should not be a matter for
surprise. Since 1995, reports had been coming from Pakistan about the
planned infiltration of trained cadres of Pakistani organisations such as
the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM)and the TJ to the USA in order to
carry their jihad to the US territory. The HUM not only infiltrated its
cadres into the US, but also brought some Afro-American Muslims to
Pakistan for being trained in its camps there.
16. Amongst the organisations in the USA with which the
TJ was believed to be closely associated were the Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA) and the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA). The
President of the ISNA used to be one Sheikh Abdullah Idris Ali, an
American immigrant of Sudanese origin, who was also the Pesh Imam and
Khatib of a mosque in New York.
17. The annual convention of the ISNA held at Columbus,
Ohio, in September 1995, was addressed, amongst others, by Mr. Hamza Yusuf,
an American citizen of Greek origin, who, after embracing Islam, had lived
for six years in Mauritania to study Islam and then work as a TJ preacher,
Mr. Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, the famous pop singer, who
embraced Islam after coming into contact with the TJ in Pakistan, Dr.
Saghir of Algeria, and Dr.Israr Ahmed, the Amir of the Tanzeem Islami of
Pakistan and a worker of the TJ.( Please see my paper of 2000 at http://www.saag.org/papers2/paper154.html
)
18.Addressing the convention, Dr. Israr Ahmed said:
"The process of the revival of Islam in different parts of the world
is real. A final show-down between the Muslim world and the
non-Muslim world, which has been captured by the Jews, would soon take
place. The Gulf war was just a rehearsal for the coming
conflict. " He appealed to the Muslims of the world, including
those in the USA, to prepare themselves for the coming conflict.
19. The convention was told that the ISNA had a US $ 100
million budget for spreading Islamic education in the US through the
publication of text-books, setting-up of week-end Islamic schools and a
weekly cable TV programme called "Onsight" which would be
available in all the States of the US.
20. The TJ operates in the US and the Caribbean directly
through its own preachers deputed from Pakistan and also recruited from
the Pakistani immigrant community in the US as well as through front
organisations such as the Jamaat-ul-Fuqra. In its preachings to the
Pakistani immigrants in the US, the TJ has been stressing the importance
of cultivating the Afro-American Muslims in order to counter the lobbying
power of the Hindus and the Jewish people.
21.Writing in the "Dawn" of January 12,1996,
Ghani Eirabie, believed close to the TJ, said: " The Ummah must
remember that winning over the black Muslims is not only a religious
obligation, but also a selfish necessity. The votes of the black
Muslims can give the immigrant Muslims the political clout they need at
every stage to protect their vital interests. Likewise, outside Muslim
states like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Pakistan need to mobilise their
effort, money and missionary skills to expand and consolidate the black
Muslim community in the USA, not only for religious reasons, but also as a
far-sighted investment in the black Muslims' immense potential as a
credible lobby for Muslim causes, such as Palestine, Bosnia or
Kashmir--offsetting, at least partially, the venal influence of the
powerful India-Israel lobby."
22. Eirabie wanted the US Muslim community to prepare
itself for the day in the second decade of the new millennium when,
according to him, the Muslims would emerge as the second largest religious
group in the US after the Christians.
23. The "Friday Times", the prestigious weekly
of Lahore, reported in its issue for February 1 to 7, 2002, as follows::
"Sources say that when Dawatul Irshad (Markaz Dawa Al Irshad since
re-named as Jamaat ud-Dawa), parent organisation of the now banned
Lashkar Tayyaba (Lashkar-e-Toiba), shifted its activities to Azad Kashmir
(POK), it took with it many non-Pakistanis suspected of links to Al Qaeda.
All these organisations were loosely affiliated and their activists moved
across organisations and cells with a great degree of ease, an
intelligence source said."
24. The "Friday Times" added: " Just
before the Musharraf Government took action against the organisation,
there were quite a few foreigners residing at Dawa's headquarters in
Muridke. Most of these people had infiltrated into Pakistan in the
initial stages of the war, says an insider. Some of these people
shifted along with other Lashkar cadres to Azad Kashmir (POK) after Hafiz
Mohammed Saeed (its Amir)resigned under pressure from the Government.
After his resignation, he also constituted another jehadi group called
Jamaat ud-Dawa while the supreme council nominated Abdul Wahid Kashmiri,
another senior member of the Dawatul Irshad, as its new Amir.
Insiders say some of these foreigners are also said to be linked to Hezbul
Tehreer and work under the supervision of Abdul Qadeem Zaloom, a
Saudi-based person with links to the Al Qaeda."
25. In a paper on the LET and Al Qaeda (http://www.saag.org/papers7/paper678.html
), I had mentioned as follows:"In the past, the LET had kept its
activities confined to its jihad in India and its assistance to the Jemmah
Islamiyah and other pro-bin Laden elements in Indonesia. It did not utter
any threats against the USA or target American nationals or
interests. As a result, American intelligence officials based in
Pakistan did not pay the same attention to monitoring its activities as
they did to the activities of Al Qaeda and other Pakistani organisations ,
despite the fact that Abu Zubaidah, then No. 3 in Al Qaeda, was arrested
in March last year from the house of an LET leader at Faislabad in
Pakistani Punjab.
26."It has thus managed to retain its
infrastructure and source of funding intact. Though it has changed
its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa to escape the consequences of the order banning
it issued by Gen.Pervez Musharraf on January 15,2002, it continues to be
referred to by many Afghans, Pakistanis and Arabs as the LET. Since
the beginning of this year (2003), it has been trying to perform the role
previously played by Al Qaeda as the co-ordinator of pro-bin Laden
networks all over the world, as the supplier of funds to the networks in
different countries and particularly in South-East Asia and of suicide volunteers, arms
and ammunition and explosives to the surviving Al Qaeda operatives
in Pakistan etc.
27."It has reportedly re-organised its structure on
the pattern of Al Qaeda and has vastly expanded its activities to the
business field in order to augment its sources of income. The "Friday
Times" (January 17-23), the prestigious weekly of Lahore, reported as
follows: "The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD), formerly known as Lashkar-e-Toiba,
is snapping up properties across Pakistan. Sources told the weekly
that recent real estate purchases by the JD amount to about Rs.300
million. It has reportedly bought four plots of land in Hyderabad division
(of Sindh) and six others in various Sindh districts. The total price tag
is about Rs.200 million. Recent purchases in Lahore have cost it
Rs.100 million."
28."During the recent Eid festival in Pakistan, it
was reported to have received charity contributions worth Rs. 710 million,
mostly in the form of the hides of the sacrificed animals. It has also
been in receipt of large funds from overseas Pakistanis," the
"Friday Times" said..
29. As stated in my above-mentioned article, Al Qaeda
has been trying to use the organisational infrastructure of the LET in
Pakistan, its network in the Islamic world and its large funds for
stepping up acts of terrorism against the USA and Israel. The LET's close
access to senior officers of the Pakistani military and intelligence
establishment could be exploited by Al Qaeda to prevent any action against
its surviving cadres in Pakistan. Many members of Pakistan's scientific
community in the nuclear and missile fields regularly attend the
conventions of the LET. By making use of this, Al Qaeda should be able to
seek the assistance of LET sympathisers in the scientific community for
acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
30. Waleed bin Atash, the Al Qaeda suspect in the case
relating to the attack on the the US ship USS Cole at Aden in October,
2000, who was arrested by the Pakistani authorities on April 29 last and
handed over to the FBI, is reported to have told the Pakistani authorities
during the interrogation that last year about 75 Arab operatives of Al
Qaeda had fled from Afghanistan and the bordering areas of Pakistan and
taken shelter at different places in Karachi. According to him, of
these, about 50 were still in hiding in Karachi. However, he denied
any knowledge of the whereabouts of bin Laden. He is also reported to have
stated that he and his associates were recruiting Pakistani volunteers for
undertaking suicide missions against American targets and that they had
already recruited 12 from the LET.
31. In another article of May 14 titled "RIYADH
BLASTS: THE TERRORISM TRIANGLE" I had stated as follows:" The
international community is yet to take serious notice of the emergence of
the LET as a co-ordinator of the activities of the various constituents of
the IIF to make up for the present organisational disabilities of Al Qaeda.
Next to Pakistan, where the headquarters of the LET are located (in
Muridke, near Lahore), the second most important infrastructure of the LET
is in Saudi Arabia. Despite being a Wahabi organisation, it has been
critical of the Saudi ruling regime and shares bin Laden's anathema for
the Saudi ruling family. In the past, it was not very
articulate in its criticism of the US, but has in recent months been
increasingly virulent in its attacks on the US. It has been
collecting funds in Pakistan for its "martyrs" who, it claims,
died in the jihad against the Americans in Iraq.
32."While the LET's headquarters in Pakistan
co-ordinate its activities in North India, including J&K, the Central
Asian Republics (CARs) and Russia (Chechnya and Dagestan), its
headquarters in Saudi Arabia co-ordinate its activities in Mumbai and
South India, the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and in the countries of S.
E.Asia. Since 2001, there have been a number of arrests of LET cadres in
Mumbai and South
India, who reportedly claimed to have been trained, funded and directed by
the LET set-up in Saudi Arabia and not directly by the LET headquarters in
Pakistan.
33. "Thus, Al Qaeda as well as the LET have a
separate organisational presence in Saudi Arabia, which has evaded
detection and neutralisation by the Saudi authorities."
34. In my latest article of June 17 titled "India
& the Desert Scorpions", I had stated as follows: "A stream
of jihadi volunteers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Egypt,
Lebanon and other countries have started moving into Iraq to join what is
promised as the mother of all jihads against the USA. Before
the occupation, there was no evidence of any links between the Saddam
Hussein regime and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and International Islamic
Front (IIF), despite apparently fabricated US evidence to the
contrary. After the occupation, there are increasing reports of
attempts to bring the dregs of Al Qaeda and the IIF from Afghanistan and
Pakistan and of Saddam Hussein's Army and Baath Party together for what is
described as a new jihad, the like of which the world has not seen before.
Initial meetings in this regard have already been held in Al Qaeda and IIF
hide-outs in Pakistan. There are claims, as yet unsubstantiated, of
Saddam being alive and of he and bin Laden soon issuing a joint
fatwa against the US and the UK."
35. The LET has been collecting funds and recruiting and
training volunteers in different parts of Pakistan for assisting the Iraqi
fedayeen in their jihad against the US troops in Iraq. Some former members
of the Baathist party are already reported to have returned to Iraq after
undergoing a crash training course in the LET's camps in Pakistan.
36. Unless the US itself acts to neutralise the LET
leadership, cadres, training camps and bases in Pakistan, instead of
depending on Musharraf to do this which he never will, its troops will
continue to die in Iraq and the war against international terrorism will
not be won. The LET has become as great a threat to regional and
international peace and security as Al Qaeda.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai, and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF),
Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com )
