Pakistan - News and Discussion -7

[Guest]

Thanks, Jayshastri,
Here it is - link
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CARLSON:  Mass murder on an unimaginable scale.   Sounds like al Qaeda.   Is Osama bin Laden the mastermind behind it?   And if not, who else has the resources to put together a plan of this kind?  

Here to answer those questions, NBC‘s terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann.  

Evan, welcome.  You saw today, FBI Director Mueller said this plot had all the earmarks of al Qaeda.   Why would he say that? 

<b>EVAN KOHLMANN, NBC TERROR ANALYST:</b>  Well, there are a number of factors about this that we already know that seem to smack of al Qaeda.  

First of all, obviously, multiple simultaneous targets, something that al Qaeda, among other groups, particularly enjoys doing.   The targeting of airliners, something that al Qaeda has repeatedly gone back to even after 9/11.   The use of multiple operatives divided into two different cells.  One part of the cell for facilitation, one part of the cell for execution.

That is a degree of specialization within the actual terrorist cell that you very rarely see outside of organized terror groups.

And of course, look, the liquid bombs being used here.   Liquid bombs is not something you can teach yourself to build over the Internet.   It is not something you can read out of a manual.  

You need to be taught this by an instructor.  And it is something that requires training camps. 

And I think that draws attention back to something that is interesting, which is that al Qaeda apparently has reopened training camps inside of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  

We had hints at to that with regards to the 7-7 bombers in London, who apparently did train at those camps and met Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy head of al Qaeda at those camps.

And now, it would appear that others are going to Pakistan to train at those camps to learn how to build advanced explosives, to meet with leaders and perhaps to receive orders to carry out terrorist plots.  

CARLSON:  Well, prior to 9/1, there were, of course, a lot of terror training camps in Afghanistan, some in Pakistan.  And Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, was fully aware of their existence, and may even have helped support those camps.

Do we think the Pakistani government now is wholly on our side, or are parts of it still on the side of al Qaeda?   I mean, where is the Pakistani government on all this now? 

KOHLMANN:  <b>There are a lot of questions about that right now, especially on the other side of the border in Afghanistan.  

Afghan officials and U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have been putting a tremendous amount of public pressure on Pakistan.  Because in  their estimation—and I believe they are correct—much of the problem with the Taliban, the  resurgence of the Taliban right now in Afghanistan, can be directly traced back to what‘s going on inside  of Pakistan, with radical religious parties</b>.

There‘s a major election coming up in Pakistan.  The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, is trying to curry favor with those conservative religious parties. 

And in doing so, he may be taking a bit of a soft hand toward some of the Jihadists movements, <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>like Loshgoritiba (ph), for instance, that has been tied to the blast that took place in Mumbai just a few weeks ago, and which continues to operate in the open inside of Pakistan under the name Jumatudowa (ph).   </span>

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Everyone knows that‘s Loshgoritiba (ph), including the government of Pakistan.  But because of political sensitivities, they are unwilling to take action. </span> You know. 
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Loshgoritiba (ph), = Lakshar-e-toiba
Jumatudowa = JUI