Thanks for the great research on this group. That shows pretty conclusively this is an al-Qaeda sponsored group. Bookmarked
2003 months before the invasion of Iraq : (IRAQ & LeT : LeT INTERESTED IN IRAQ CONFLICT EVEN BEFORE THE COALITION INVASION) ...Yet it is LET’s involvement in the Iraqi conflict that perhaps raises the most troubling questions as to when the group arrived in Iraq and whether or not their motives were limited only to anti-American sentiments. This is especially important given that their rhetoric prior to the invasion was not only anti-U.S., but pro-Saddam Hussein. In the months preceding the Iraq war, LET statements included condoning jihad in Iraq. The group’s former chief, Mohammad Hafiz Said, even went so far as to suggest that Pakistani troops and nuclear weapons be used against Western forces in Iraq.
... Much of LET’s rhetoric about fighting the infidels in Iraq could easily be dismissed as empty threats. Post-war revelations, however, suggest that the group was serious—deadly serious. New evidence shows that LET funded sleeper cells and sent jihadist fighters to Iraq, specifically suicide bombers. LET fighters, including Danish Ahme, were reported to be captured in Basra by British forces.
The exact time period when LET operatives entered Iraq is unknown. But recently released internal Iraqi memos indicate that some LET members may have been among the foreign jihadist volunteers who came into Iraq before the war to fight alongside Saddam’s regime.
One internal Iraqi document of particular concern, ISGQ-2003-00054866, discusses the traits and skills desired by Saddam’s regime of its pre-war volunteers. Among the desired traits mentioned were loyalty to the regime, an assortment of military skills and fluency in Urdu. Urdu is the main language spoken within LET's base of operations.
It is possible that Saddam’s henchmen sought fluent Urdish speakers to communicate with other Urdu speaking groups involved in the planned resistance. However, the more likely reason is that LET’s outspoken desire to assist in defending Iraq and the subsequent capture of some of the group’s fighters by Western coalition forces, made them one of the key Urdu speaking “volunteers” Saddam’s regime sought to collaborate with.
The Iraqi dictator probably not only had strong ties to LET, but additional released Iraqi documents and the capture of Iraqi agents show that Saddam’s regime had extensive contacts with other jihadist, Islamic militants based in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and in disputed Kashmir—contacts that went back to the 1990s.
For example, one of the documents quotes Iraq’s former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan as saying Saddam’s regime had numerous allies in Pakistan. Ramadan also says that he had been communicating with Pakistan-based cleric Maulana Fazlur Rahman, someone known to be closely affiliated with al Qaeda and a good friend of Mullah Omar [of Afghanistan's Taliban]
As more Iraqi documents (those that survived the last minute deliberate destruction) are released, the public may better understand when and how groups such as LET entered Iraq. Hopefully, the public will also better understand the exact nature of the pre-war collusion between Saddam’s secular fascist regime and Islamist fascist groups, who continue to play such a destructive role in today’s post-war Iraq.
------- "Eichenlaub: Indian Islamist terror group had ties to Saddam," Commentary by Mark Eichenlaub , Insight, www.insightmag.com - Issue Date: July 25-31, 2006, Posted On: 7/25/2006