Pakistan's lethal exports By Kaushik Kapisthalam http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GF22Df03.html >From Australia to Europe to North America, a spate of arrests, trials and convictions has brought to the world's attention the growing threat posed by jihadis from Pakistan. On June 5, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a pair of Pakistani-Americans from the sleepy little farming town of Lodi, California. Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, were later charged with lying to the authorities regarding their connection with jihadi training camps. But the formal FBI affidavit contained the bombshell piece of information that the training camps in question were in Pakistan, not in the notorious tribal areas, but right outside the city of Rawalpindi, which also hosts the Pakistan army headquarters. While the FBI later put out an amended affidavit, the original statement released to the media named the person running the Rawalpindi terror camp as "Maulana Fazlur Rehman". This was confusing because two prominent people share that name in Pakistan. The first one is the secretary general of Pakistan's opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance and the head of a pro-Taliban group called Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam. Experts say, however, that the affidavit likely describes another person, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a notorious terrorist leader. Khalil is the chief patron of a group called Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), which was the first Pakistani jihadi group to be banned by the US in 1997, when it was known as Harkat-ul-Ansar. While HuM is supposedly focused on fighting Pakistan's covert war against India in the Kashmir region, it gained prominence in 1998 when Khalil became the first Pakistani leader to sign the fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden calling for attacks on US and Western interests. In 2003, the US government declassified 32 documents relating to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. These included secret memos from the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). One of the DIA documents noted, "[Osama] bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was able to expand under the safe sanctuary extended by Taliban following Pakistan directives. If there is any doubt on that issue, consider the location of bin Laden's camp targeted by US cruise missiles, Zahawa. Positioned on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was built by Pakistani contractors, funded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] directorate ... If this was later to become bin Laden's base, then serious questions are raised by the early relationship between bin Laden and Pakistan's ISI." In 1998, US warships in the Arabian Sea launched cruise missiles on "al-Qaeda" training camps in Afghanistan. However, at least one of the targeted camps was a HuM facility, run in conjunction with Pakistani military and intelligence officials. According to the US 9-11 Commission, many HuM volunteers and a few Pakistani intelligence personnel were killed during the missile attack. Soon after the strike, Khalil called a press conference in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and threatened the US that his men would attack Americans in their homes, just like the Americans attacked them (HuM) in their own backyard. HuM continued to operate training camps in eastern Afghanistan until US air strikes destroyed them during the fall of 2001. In 2003, HuM began using the name Jamiat ul-Ansar. Not the first time The Lodi case is not the first time people suspected of links to al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani jihadi groups have been arrested. Just a couple of weeks before the Lodi arrests, American authorities deported a Pakistani man named Khamal Muhammad. Muhammad, who was arrested in San Francisco for immigration violations, later revealed that he had trained in a HuM camp and learned to use pistols, rifles and grenades. In 2003, American authorities broke up a terrorist cell in the state of Virginia. During the subsequent trial, six men pleaded guilty, while three more were convicted of terrorism-related charges. The men, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, admitted to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the notorious Pakistani Salafist group that is also active in Indian Kashmir. The US government released their indictment, which laid out the dates and periods when they went to Pakistan to train in LeT's camps. The "Virginia Jihad" indictment also pointed out that LeT's own website, which keeps changing its address, said that the group had four facilities for training mujahideen from around the world, including camps named "Taiba", "Aqsa", "Um-al-Qur'a" and "Abdullah bin Masud". The trained LeT fighters, the website claimed, participated in jihad in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines. The website also prominently displayed a banner portraying Lashkar-e-Taiba's dagger penetrating the national flags of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, India and Israel. In April 2005, American authorities secured the conviction of a Salafist cleric named Ali al-Timimi, who was said to be the mastermind behind the Virginia Jihad terror cell. European links Meanwhile, another Pakistani jihadi connection turned up in Europe. On June 16, Pakistan-born British citizen Ghulam Rama, 67, was convicted of the crime of "terrorist conspiracy" in Paris. Rama was tied to Richard Reid, the British Islamic jihadi close to al-Qaeda who tried to blow up a Paris-Miami flight in December 2001 before being arrested. Interestingly, Reid is also tied to another shadowy Pakistani jihadi group called Jamaat-ul-Fuqra. Rama himself admitted to being an activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba. LeT has many other links to Europe, France in particular. A French convert to Islam named Willie Brigitte has been in the custody of anti-terrorism authorities in France since 2003. Brigitte, who also went by the nom-de-guerre "Salahuddin", was caught in Sydney, Australia, when he was allegedly in the midst of planning a terrorist attack. Australian journalist Ben English obtained the transcripts of Brigitte's secret trial in France. During the trial, Brigitte told the French judge in charge that in 2002 he trained along with many Pakistanis, European Muslim converts and American and European nationals of Pakistani origin. Brigitte claimed that the training, which included the use of explosives, small arms and terrorism tactics was conducted in a sophisticated three-tiered mountain complex near Pakistan's border with India. Brigitte also noted that the training was done with the protection of the Pakistani army. The LeT itself was filled with Pakistani army personnel and much of the weaponry and logistical supplies for the training camp were provided by Pakistani soldiers, he noted. Interestingly, Brigitte's statements were independently corroborated by Yong-ki Kwon, a Korean-American convert to Islam who was one of the people convicted in the Virginia Jihad case in the US. Kwon also noted that the foreign LeT volunteers were accommodated at the sprawling 190 acre headquarters in the Pakistani town of Muridke, near Lahore. Interestingly, despite its known terrorist training facilities, Pakistani authorities have not shut down the LeT's Muridke facility. Pakistani jihadis have also been tied to successful terror attacks in Europe. Abu Dahdah, chief of the Spanish-based al-Qaeda cell that helped finance and organize the September 11 attacks, had links with Ali al-Timimi. One of Dahdah's proteges, Jamal Zougam, is now under arrest in Spain in connection with the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid. In September 2004, Spanish authorities cracked what they claimed to have been a cell of Pakistanis who were funding al-Qaeda activities in Spain. The Pakistani cell was tied to al-Qaeda's September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the jihadi group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which also is a Pakistani group active in Kashmir. Terror down under Of all places, anti-terror experts have been surprised and alarmed by the Pakistani jihad connection in Australia. As explained above, French terror suspect Willie Brigitte was arrested in Australia. But before Brigitte, Australians were shocked to find that one of their compatriots named David Hicks was arrested by US authorities when he was fighting alongside the Taliban forces, and was later found to have been trained at an LeT training camp in Pakistan. Hicks also claimed that he was fighting alongside Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir. In April 2004, Australian authorities arrested a Pakistani man named Faheem Khalid Lodhi in conjunction with the Brigitte case. Lodhi, who is now being described by authorities as a LeT kingpin, was allegedly planning an attack along with Brigitte aimed at high-value targets in Australia, including a nuclear power plant outside Sydney. Lodhi had also allegedly recruited another Pakistani man named Izhar ul-Haque as part of his operation. Lodhi is currently undergoing trial and faces a life sentence if convicted. Australia, of course, faced their own version of September 11 when dozens of its citizens were killed in the 2002 bomb blast on the island of Bali, Indonesia - a popular tourist destination for Australians. The Bali attack was reportedly masterminded by a man called Hambali, who belongs to the Indonesian jihadi group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). JI had made it clear that it regards Australia as one of its terror targets. It is interesting to note that the better-trained JI members were instructed not in Indonesia, but in Pakistan, in camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. While Hambali was caught soon after the Bali attacks, his brother, who goes by the name Gunawan, was arrested in Pakistan at the Abu Bakar University in Karachi, which is affiliated with the LeT. Interestingly, Gunawan was on a scholarship provided by the Pakistani government under a fake name "Abdul Hadi". During interrogation, Gunawan revealed that he, along with Brigitte, worked to transport some 200 Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai men to and from LeT terror camps in Pakistan. Despite this, the LeT facilities in Karachi remain open to date. Kashmir 'jihad' backfires For its part, the Pakistani government denies that there are any terrorist camps in its territory. However, even Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri recently admitted during questioning that there were LeT terror camps in Pakistan, but insisted that the government had closed them down. The jihadi groups themselves, which still operate under new names despite being "banned", regularly publish magazines and newsletters that give out the phone numbers and addresses of their recruiters. Many former Pakistani officials have also pointed out that the Pakistan government's denials lack credibility. They note that Pakistan's continued support of Kashmir jihadi elements effectively torpedoes any chances of removing al-Qaeda from Pakistan, since jihadi groups do not tend to distinguish between Kashmir, Afghanistan and the West. "To these tanzeems [outfits], Hindus, Jews and Christians are all the same type of enemy," one Pakistani expert based in the West noted. Western terrorism analysts are still divided on what to make of the spate of Pakistan jihad connections. Some tend to downplay the links between Pakistani jihadis and al-Qaeda, noting that to date Pakistani jihadis have not been successful in carrying out major operations outside Pakistan or India. However, one American security official told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity that similar arguments were made about bin Laden before September 11. The official said further that the sheer number of Pakistani jihadis arrested around the world is a worrying phenomenon that indicates a "potential hole" in America's "war on terror". "We cannot let the Pakistanis build a firewall around these guys, they are still terrorists who hate America," the official insisted. Experts say it is still too early to determine whether the Lodi suspects are hardcore jihadis or just people caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. One Pakistani American noted to Asia Times Online it is quite possible that the Hayats were victims of internecine squabbles within the Pakistani community in Lodi. But it is now becoming rapidly clear to homeland security and law enforcement authorities in the US and elsewhere in the world that there is just a thin line separating Pakistan's Kashmir "freedom fighters" and al-Qaeda jihadis. US homeland security officials are already looking for Pakistanis entering the US with telltale signs of terror training, including rope marks around their wrists or bruises indicative of paramilitary training. American authorities are also cracking down on any monetary or material contribution made by Pakistanis to Kashmir-linked Pakistani jihadi groups. Those who materially support these outfits now will face a risk that they probably did not bargain for - it is hard for authorities to tell a "good" terrorist from a "bad" terrorist. Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and strategic affairs analyst based in the United States. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. FAIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. 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