India’s enemies are not ours, says defence expert Ivan Eland

dnaindia ^ | Thursday, August 17, 2006 | Uttara Choudhury

[jome]

NEW YORK: A Washington think-tank published a report this week saying that the Bush administration was fuelling Islamic jihadist anger by including anti-India militant groups like the Jamaat ud Dawa which has no direct link with Al Qaeda, but plagues Indian authorities in Kashmir, on the US state department terror list.

The Independent Institute said that in the frenzy surrounding the exposed plot to simultaneously blow up ten planes flying from Britain to the US, “one line of inquiry being pursued by investigators should make the Bush administration very nervous.”

“British and Pakistani law enforcement officials are examining whether the British plotters of Pakistani descent received money from an Islamic charity, Jamaat ud Dawa. The charity has been used as a front for a militant group fighting for the separation of the Muslim province of Kashmir from India,” said the report published by the think-tank.

Ivan Eland, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, who has written the report, told DNA on Thursday that the Jamaat ud Dawa had protested against being labelled a terrorist organisation by the Bush administration in May this year. “The US put the Jamaat on the terrorism list three months ago and investigations now show they could be somehow involved in the bomb plot. You have to ask whether this labelling motivated the plot in the first place,” defence expert Eland, who has written several books including the bestselling The Empire has no Clothes told DNA.

“Most of the groups on the state department terrorism list don’t really attack the US, some of them do. The US should try and discriminate which of these groups hit US targets and which don’t because even though we are a super power the US cannot fight everyone’s battles.”

The defence expert pointed out that other countries were making the mistake of emulating the way the US and Israel fought terror. “What you need to do is quietly in the shadows use intelligence, law enforcement and all the other last resort, limited military secret special force strikes to actually apprehend or kill terrorists,” said Eland. “If you go on a very public war on terror it does not help. Frankly, I think the US is dredging up jihadists in Iraq or because of Iraq. I am not sure India is better off, Israel is better off, I am not sure anybody is better off for us having gone into Iraq or increasing the size of out state department terror list.”

“It is having an opposite effect and blowing back into the US.” Eland said the “very public war on terror” was certainly backfiring on the US. “It is not really doing India any good. Of course, the US is trying to improve relations with India so one of the symbolic things it can do is put regional groups like this on the list; whether it actually helps India in a practical sense is another matter.”

The Washington think-tank’s conclusions will irk Indian authorities who have been pressing the US to add more Pakistan-based Islamic jihad groups active in Kashmir to its list of foreign terrorist groups. The designation means it is illegal for anyone in the US, or under US jurisdiction, to provide material support to the dissident group. It also means US financial institutions must freeze the group's assets and it allows the State Department to deny visas to its members.

[jome]

Mister Ivan Eland...terrorism is a threat to every peace loving Human being in this world..We can't support anti-indian terrorist group and fight anti-US terrorist group....I support putting the name of all terrorist group in US state department terror list. Pussies can hide behind their back women.

[jome]

Mister Ivan Eland...terrorism is a threat to every peace loving Human being in this world..We can't support anti-indian terrorist group and fight anti-US terrorist group....I support putting the name of all terrorist group in US state department terror list. Pussies can hide behind their women.

[nyconse]

They are all our enemies period.

[Minn]

The enemy of my friend is my enemy. The fact that the enemy of my friend is a Muslim homicidal maniac (redundant, I know) seals the deal.

[dennisw]

I support any people, any nation, any religion that fights the Jihadist Muslims. This included Slobodan Miliosovic, Israel, India and more. The only exception is Russia because they arm Iran and Syria and supply nuclear reactors to them

JIHAD BE DAMNED!

[CarrotAndStick]

3 Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge—and more.

[notigar]

I guess you should put China on your list.

[CarrotAndStick]

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

[dennisw]

I guess you should put China on your list.

I would but Russia has Muslims that fight against them while China does not. Russia has Chechnya and other Muslim problems yet helps arm Iran and Syria. Hizb'Allah killed Israeli tanks with advanced Russkie anti tank missiles

[notigar]

Uighur Muslims. Eight million in China. We put them on the list after 9/11.

[B Knotts]

Actually, China has a Muslim problem in her western regions. Although, that conflict is partly ethnic in nature.

[Oztrich Boy]

“The US put the Jamaat on the terrorism list three months ago and investigations now show they could be somehow involved in the bomb plot. You have to ask whether this labelling motivated the plot in the first place,”

Some people get offended so easily.

[jome]

"Most of the groups on the state department terrorism list don’t really attack the US, some of them do. The US should try and discriminate which of these groups hit US targets and which don’t because even though we are a super power the US cannot fight everyone’s battles"

It's not about fighting other's battle. All this organizations are anti-US to core. if we let them flourish now. They will come to get us tomorrow. people(joker?) like Ivan and their crazy ideas are to blame for the creation of thaliban, saddam......many more..

[marron]

There is a bigger game than Eland acknowledges. He's supposed to be a smart guy, so you would imagine he would know that. But he pretends not to.

In any case, India is our anchor in Asia, or at least we hope they will be. Its one thing for us to ask them to be patient of our relations with Musharraf; its another to fail to support them against the terrorists.

[jome]

That is a lie. If they tried to blow up 9 of our airplanes, That is cos they hate us...not cos of a damn list with their name in it...lol..They are in a war with us..all Islamic terrorist organization's have only one aim...destruction of west and its allies..

[Mister Da]

This is basically the same argument the muzzies are making to the west - that if the west would stop doing things that upset muzzies, the muzzies would stop the terrorist crap. Another way of saying, do what we want or we will kill you.

Eland is also legitimizing the terrorist's tactics of murder & kidnapping of innocent people. He ignores the fact that terrorists are mostly indiscriminate in their killing, & get more so as their demands are unmet. He forgets all the airline hijackings where the passengers had nothing to do with the terrorist's grievances.

I can understand looking at at problem from all sides. Perhaps Eland was merely playing Devil's Advocate here & was not fully quoted. Otherwise, that old temptation to "go along to get along" has crept into his head.

I suggest a vacation.

[dennisw]

Come on guys. Whatever problem the Chinese have with restive Muslims is 5% of what the Russians have. Plus there are only 140 million Russians and 1.2 billion Chinese

[GSWarrior]

Eland is a Paul Craig Roberts wanna-be.

[HuckFinn8119]

I dont understand what this particular 'think-tank' is trying to suggest. Islamic terrorists are 'terrorists' only when they strike US and not so when they strike India ? Jeez. So US should look the other way when some US citizens (we all know who they are) fund these terrorist groups ? US should look the other way when these terrorist groups establish a base in the country ? Everything is fine as long as they dont target the US, huh ?

Look at it this way. What if an anti-US jihadi group convinces the Indians that they have nothing against India and their target is only the US. Should India look the other way too ?

I dont know who these folks at this particular 'think-tank' are, but they certainly are no friends of the US.

[jome]

He is no 'Think Tank' for sure.. 'Wanna be' is the right word:)
Coming with some weird Short cuts!