|
| The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues, serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide realtime information about terrorism cases and policy developments. |
|
Search CTB
Navigation
Home
About Contact Us CT Blog Experts in the Media CT Library Counterterrorism Foundation Websites & Centers RSS & PDA Feeds Archives Special Hyland-Roul Series on India Special Gruen-Hyland Series on Homegrown U.S. Terrorism Counterterrorism Blog Panels: Future of Turkey-U.S. Strategic Partnership, May 19 Iran & U.S.: Outlook for Next Decade? April 15 Compañeros de Armas ("Friends in Arms"): Chavez, FARC & South America, March 19 Meta-Terror: Terrorism & the Virtual World, Feb. 29 Evolution of US Counterterrorism Policy, Feb. 12 Terrorism Litigation After Boim Decision, Jan. 28 Holy Land Foundation & Muslim Brotherhood, Dec. 11 ------------ Contributing Experts
Steven Emerson & The Investigative Project on Terrorism
Dennis Lormel Douglas Farah, Site Editor Bill West Evan Kohlmann Michael Cutler Victor Comras Michael Kraft Dr. Zachary Abuza Dr. Walid Phares Daveed Gartenstein-Ross Olivier Guitta Kenneth Conboy Aaron Mannes David Schenker Jeffrey Imm Animesh Roul Matthew Levitt Jonathan Winer Michael Jacobson Frank Hyland Roderick Jones Paul Cruickshank Farhana Ali Lorenzo Vidino Madeleine Gruen James Gordon Meek, Guest Expert Andrew Cochran, VP of GAGE Founder & Site Editor Phillip Smyth & Brett Wallace, Asst. Newslinks Editors EXPERTS' ARCHIVES & BIOS Recent Posts
Examining Legal Regimes to Combat Terrorism in Near East & South Asia
Transnational Jihad, Supremacism, and Cold War Tactics New Al Qaeda Message Confirms Head of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan Still Alive The Price of the Criminal-Terror Nexus in Afghanistan Hezbollah Signs Pact with Salafis Ideological Blinders and Missed Opportunities in Counter-Radicalization Quilliam Foundation and Misdirection on Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa Al Qaeda in Lebanon Al Qaeda At 20: Some Thoughts Hezbollah’s telecommunications expansion Experts' Books
Walid Phares: The Confrontation and "The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy" and “Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America”
Michael Kraft & Yonah Alexander (Editors): "Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy" Douglas Farah & Zachary Abuza in Countering the Financing of Terrorism Douglas Farah: "Merchant of Death" and "Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror" Michael Jacobson: "The West at War: U.S. and European Counterterrorism Efforts, Post–September 11" Daveed Gartenstein-Ross: "My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir" Steven Emerson: "Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US" and "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us" Victor Comras & Matthew Levitt (contributors): "Terrorism Financing and State Responses," Stanford University Press Matthew Levitt: "Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks" and "Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad" and "Targeting Terror: U.S. Policy toward Middle Eastern State Sponsors and Terrorist Organizations, Post-September 11" Zachary Abuza: "Political Islam and Violence in Indonesia" and "Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror" Lorenzo Vidino "Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of Global Jihad" Kenneth Conboy: "The Second Front: Inside Asia’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Network" Evan Kohlmann: "Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network" Credits
Powered by Movable Type 4.01
Site design by Sekimori Thanks to Leo Giacometto, CEO of GAGE International, and Marvin Hutchens of ThreatsWatch.Org Site Meter
Creative Common License
 |
Bhutto Murder Fits Pattern of Lashkar I Jhangvi Terrorism, With Nasty ImplicationsBy Jonathan Winer
We don't yet know whether Al- Qaeda Commander and spokesman Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told the truth in his phone call to Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) when he stated that the decision to kill Bhutto was made by Al- Qaeda No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October, 2007, and carried out by a cell involving a "Punjabi volunteer" of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi ("LIJ"). But the involvement of LIJ fits the past pattern of its terrorist activities, which link up with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and which are profoundly committed to destroying secular rule in Pakistan. As summarized by the US Department of State, LIJ is a Sunni-Deobandi Muslim extremist group, based mostly in the Punjab region of Pakistan and Karachi. It has assisted in several high-profile attacks on Westerners in Pakistan, including the January 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. In 2002, LIJ banded with two other Sunni extremist groups to form the Pakistani wing of al Qaeda. Their goal? Ending secular rule and replacing it with a Sunni Muslim state. LIJ has implemented this goal through a series of lethal attacks on sectarian rivals, including the types of people who have the greatest symbolic value as victims of terrorism. They thus have murdered priests, diplomats, religious leaders, and people while they are actually engaged in worship. Notably, LIJ claimed responsibility for attempting to assassinate Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. LIJ is reportedly a very small organization, with perhaps as few as 100 members. Even if it were not responsible for Bhutto's assassination, it had already exercised a disproportionately destructive impact on Pakistan, the region, and the world. And all in the name of destroying secularism, and replacing it with a Taliban-like theocracy. With LIJ's involvement, this assassination has symbolic importance in addition to its huge practical political consequences. Taking them at their word, LIJ and Al Qaeda are saying that they intend to take Pakistan and make it their kind of state, rather than the western-oriented, secular democracy promised by Benazir Bhutto. In the near term, it will be up to a weakened, compromised, and unpopular Pervez Musharraf to extirpate this fundamental (as well as fundamentalist) threat to Pakistan's future, after having failed to do so to date. Optimism may not be warranted.
TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry: |