The Chicago Suspect: Are Pakistani Jihadis Going Global?, TIME, 8 December 2009
EXCERPT: "Among all the sensational details emerging from the terrorism charges against David Coleman Headley, the American national charged with involvement in last year's terrorist attack in Mumbai, it's easy to miss this one: Headley is alleged to have been working for the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). For intelligence experts in Washington, however, the LeT connection may be the most sensational allegation of them all — if the charges against Headley hold up, it will mean that the 'Army of the Righteous,' originally dedicated to neighborhood jihad, is now ready to take on the world. . . While the Mumbai connection is dominating the headlines, intelligence experts are more alarmed by the Danish plot, believing that it indicates that LeT is no longer confining its targets to India. 'There are strong indications that [LeT] is looking to expand its reach beyond its traditional areas of interest,' says a U.S. counter-terrorism official. Juan Carlos Zarate, who served as Deputy National Security Adviser on combating terrorism in the Bush Administration, agrees: '[The Headley case] is the manifestation of the concerns Western intelligence agencies have had for some time, of LeT having a global platform.' Unlike al-Qaeda, which was created as a global movement, LeT started out focused on localized nationalist goals."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
Homegrown terrorists test US as cases reach high, Bloomberg, 11 December 2009
Five Americans arrested in Pakistan don't fit the typical profile, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 December 2009
Americans held in Pakistan "planned to attack US", TIME, 10 December 2009
US implicates Pakistan-born Canadian in Mumbai killings, The Globe and Mail, 8 December 2009
Related posts:
Lashkar-e-Taiba poised to strike again, 2 December 2009
Lashkar-e-Taiba: The new global threat?, 24 November 2009
The Pakistan-Britain terror connection: Lessons and warnings for the United States, 13 November 2009
