Pakistan: Dozens of Europeans in terror training

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By KATHY GANNON – 2 hrs 23 mins ago

ISLAMABAD – Dozens of Muslim militants with European citizenship are believed to be hiding out in the lawless tribal area of northwestern Pakistan, Pakistani and Western intelligence officials say, training for missions that could include terror attacks in European capitals.

Officials have used phone intercepts and voice tracking software to track militants with ties to Britain and other European countries to areas along the Afghan border. Al-Qaida would likely turn to such extremists for a European plot because they can move freely in and out of Western cities.

=snip=

A senior official of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, told The Associated Press that there are believed to be "several dozen" people with European citizenship - many of Pakistani origin - among the Islamic extremists operating in the lawless border area.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to talk about classified information to the media, said foreigners in the area also include Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs and Turks, one of whom was a former F-16 pilot in the Turkish air force. "That shows you that some of the people who are coming are very well educated," he said. "It was very surprising for us but they come thinking this is the pure (Islamic) ideology that they are seeking."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101003/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_europe_terror

---

The rest of the article has some interesting insight into how they've been gathering information.

[xchrom]

1. Why? Why are these motherfuckers surprised?

Like dis-affection and alienation are new?

[EFerrari]

4. They shouldn't be surprised. This was reported years ago.

Ahmed Rashid was talking about it in 2008 at the latest.

/oops

[Turborama]

5. The article goes on to mention some discoveries made last year...

...but there's no mention of anything dating back to 2008. Have you got a link to what Rasheed about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Sidique_Khan#Intelligence_assessments">Mohammad Sidique Khan, the British born leader of the London 2005 suicide bombers, is alleged to have gone to Pakistan for training as far back as 2001. What is new and worrying is that, according to the article, there are 20 British-born militants (from the same area of England) active in that area of Pakistan now.

Not sure what to make of this claim towards the end of the AP article, I wanted to add it to the OP but ran out of paragraphs...

Although the Pakistani military has mounted ground operations elsewhere in the border region, it has been reluctant to do so in North Waziristan, saying its forces are stretched too thin. Some within Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment privately say an escalation in drone attacks in North Waziristan and recent cross-border incursions by NATO helicopter gunships are aimed at forcing the army into an operation.

ETA LOL I noticed you changed his name on edit, thanks. I myself have added a bit more info above on edit. I remembered the Khan thing after posting and went off to verify my vague memory and came back to add the link and details on edit.

[EFerrari]

6. Rashid said that the training facilities were set up

to train foreigners in their own languages, including Europeans. I first heard him say it in this program. This booktv segment (June 2008) has a searchable transcript.


... THEY ARE FIGHTING. THEY'RE FIGHTING IN PAKISTAN. AND THEY HAVE BEEN TRAINING A WHOLE RANGE OF FOREIGNERS, INCLUDING GERMANS AND FRENCH, MIGRANTS...

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/206063-1

[ixion]

2. And thousands of US citizens are in "terror training," too, a.k.a. the US military

and "intelligence" agencies.

But no one is concerned about that, apparently. Rather, we're all up-in-arms about a rag-tag group that may or may not be hiding out in the desert playing war games.

[Turborama]

3. Actually, a lot of people are concerned about that.

It is possible to be concerned about both.

And by the way, the area that they're both training and fighting in is very remote mountains, not desert.

[ixion]

8. 'desert' is an arid region, which this falls under

And my point is that we ought to be concerned about what is going on right here at home, first and foremost.

[cosmicone]

7. Pakistan is a nexus of terrorism and this won't end until

Pakistan is balkanized into tiny countries with weak militaries and very few resources.

[Nihil]

9. Yeah, yeah, yeah ...

IF
any thread mentions "Pakistan"
THEN
post standard anti-Pakistani crap.

:eyes:

[cosmicone]

12. It was relevant.

Can you refute any of the statements in my post?

[Nihil]

13. It was habit.

Nothing but a knee-jerk to give the opportunity to post your favourite stuff (again).

[cosmicone]

16. Don't we all post our favorite stuff when we find an opportunity? n/t

[JackRiddler]

10. Yours is a perfect plan for generating several generations of terror.

It's not like any conflicts were ever generated out of the Balkans!

[cosmicone]

11. Actually what I stated has a historical veracity to it

Pakistan was created out of India on the basis of what is called a "Two nation doctrine"; Two nations were created, one predominantly hindu and another predominantly muslim.

The Pakistan side always asserted itself as the descendants of muslim warriors in history who had conquered India and a lot of indoctrination in Pakistani military and some civilian institutions is about reconquering India à la moguls and convert it to an Islamic Republic. The origin of the conflict is thus in a stupid idea of dividing populations based upon religion which sowed the seeds of a permanent conflict.

Pakistan started several wars with India with a goal of dismembering India one state at a time. Pakistan lost those wars quite miserably, especially the 1971 war which balkanized Pakistan into current Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Pakistan would not be a problem if it gave up on that dream to reconquer India. However, in the superpower pawn game, Pakistan keeps getting military aid from US and now from US and China to keep their dream alive.

The only way the conflict comes to an end is if Pakistan becomes several smaller countries based upon ethnicities within. The Baluchis and Sindhis who make up about 50% of Pakistan don't have a beef with India and actually want peaceful relations. Unfortunately, the Punjabi muslims control the military and the government and they are itching for a war with India.

Freedom to the Baluchi people with an independent Balochistan is thus critical because Balochistan has 74% of Pakistan's natural resources. The second part is to give the so called "tribal areas" the the West of the Durand line to Afghanistan. Afghanistan has always claimed this territory and it comprises of 95% Pushtun (Pakhtun) population. The tribal areas rightfully belong to Afghanistan and if they are assimilated with Afghanistan, NATO forces would be able to go there legally and fight the extremist elements. A smaller Pakistan will not be able to sustain the arming, training and funding of Taliban and this US will be victorious in Afghanistan.

Thus, my statements would lead to decreased violence by removing several bones of contention from the equation.

[Kringle]

14. you are ignoring the bigger problem

Pakistan is an cobbled together
mixture of tribes that are enemies.

splitting into smaller countries
along tribal lines,
fixes that

[LeftishBrit]

15. And who is supposed to do the 'Balkanizing'?

And it's not as though the Balkanizing of the Balkan states always resulted in perfect peace!

[cosmicone]

17. The people of the provinces can do the balkanizing.

Baluchi people want a free Balochistan and we can facilitate their aspirations.

Sindhi people want a free Sindhudesh and we can do the same.

Bengalis wanted a separate Bangladesh and Indira Gandhi facilitated it despite threats from tricky Dick and Kissinger -- so there is a historical precedence.

[JDPriestly]

18. Unbelievable. Why would intelligent people fall for that nonsense?

Are they so desperately unhappy? Why? I wonder what the psychological profiles of these people are. Have they no families? No futures? Why would they make such a stupid choice in their lives? This makes no sense.

[cosmicone]

19. We keep forgetting that Pakistani ISI is fully complicit in this

despite what their public statements say.

Flush with American cash, Pakistani ISI is free to recruit people from anywhere and use them in terror.

[JDPriestly]

21. True. And some of that money comes from the American taxpayers.

[varun]

20. India had been screaming this since 1990s

Pakistan had been training terrorists to fight in Kashmir since late 80s. No one paid attention.

Now that they (terrorists) are turning to the West, suddenly this is news.