Picking holes in President Asif Ali Zardari's claim that Mumbai terror strike was executed by "non-state actors"
WASHINGTON: Picking holes in President Asif Ali Zardari's claim that Mumbai terror strike was executed by "non-state actors", a veteran CIA analyst says Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba(LeT) blamed for the unprecedented attack has links with Pakistan's ISI.
"If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it is finding out the "extent of its(LeT) current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service(Inter Services Intelligence)," said Bruce Riedel at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on "Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: A Challenge for India and the World."
Contesting the Pakistani government's denials that its intelligence agency has no links to LeT, Riedel said it is difficult to believe the Pakistani government's assertions "given the size of its(LeT) activities in Pakistan."
The Mumbai terror plot was carried out by "professionals, who were trained by professionals who were given a professional plan", Riedel said, adding there was clearly considerable planning involved over a protracted period of time and that the attacks "were not a plot by amateurs or by a pick-up group."
Riedel's assessment on "professionals" being involved reinforced the assertion by Mumbai police that ex-Army professionals had trained the terrorists involved in last week's terror attack that claimed nearly 200 lives.
The New York Times in a report quoting unnamed Pentagon officials that retired and/or former Pakistani military officials were behind the training of the LeT cadres who carried out the Mumbai attack.
"This was an extraordinarily sophisticated and complex plot that had numerous moving parts and which was executed with -- one has to admit -- a tremendous amount of skill by very well trained terrorists," Riedel said.
Riedel said Mumbai attack is the most significant terrorist incident since 9/11," and that in many ways, was akin to 9/11 "in the training and the execution."
Riedel, who was an adviser on foreign policy to the campaign of US President-elect Barrack Obama, said though much is yet to be known about the origins of the Mumbai terror plot and the materminds it is for certain they were heavily influenced by the ideology and narrative of Al Qaeda.
The Mumbai attacks demonstrates that the ideology and narrative of Al Qaeda and the overall global jihad movement remains potent and continues to inspire deadly terrorism and remains a formidable threat today, he said.
The Mumbai carnage will indeed be remembered as a seminal event in the history of international terrorism and particularly in the history of global 'jihad', he added.
Riedel said the Mumbai massacre succeeded brilliantly in terrorism's first goal -- to get global attention and to inspire fear throughout the globe, literally millions of people, hundreds of millions of people were fixed to their televisions watching what went on.
Riedel said it was imperative that as the investigation proceeds into the attacks, "We also should consider the possibility that the terrorists deliberately brought with them misleading disinformation to throw investigators off the real scent."
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