Taliban in Pakistan

By F. Michael Maloof

In 1998, the International Islamic Front declared a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, of war against the U.S, and now the weekend attempt to detonate a car bomb in the heart of Times Square in New York has been linked to a group that claims membership in the IIF.

Revelations that the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP, may be linked to the car bombing attempt suggest strongly that Pakistani terror groups have decided to launch physical attacks in the United States, even as they increase attacks in Pakistan.

Authorities report that Faisal Shahzad was arrested as he tried to leave the U.S. on a flight to Dubai, and was facing a court hearing in the attempted bombing. Also, authorities said another man has been arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, in connection with the attack attempt.

The IIF includes the TTP, which also is called the Taliban in Pakistan, as well as Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, or HuJI, and the 313 Brigade, both of which are tied to the Lashkar-i-Taiba, or LeT, all of which are part of an al-Qaida umbrella group called the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.

The TTP is regarded as the umbrella group for the Taliban in Pakistan. It had announced that the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square was in reprisal for the killing of one of its leaders, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in August 2009 in a U.S. missile attack.

Baitullah Mehsud had vowed to carry out acts of reprisal terrorism in the U.S. homeland.

He then was succeeded by Hakimullah Mehsud, who was thought to have been killed by a similar missile strike earlier this year but survived.

As Taliban attacks in Pakistan have increased against the government there for its support of U.S. action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are indications that there will be a spike of attacks in the West, especially against the U.S. and Great Britain.

In all, there are some four million Pakistanis in communities in various parts of the world. Among their concentration, some 800,000 live in Great Britain, 600,000 in the U.S. and 250,000 in Canada. The largest concentration of Pakistanis outside the country is Saudi Arabia with 1.1 million Pakistanis. In Britain, more than 10,000 visas are issued each year to Pakistani students alone.

Great Britain especially has seen a rise in terrorist activities by even middle-class, second generation Pakistanis between the ages of 18 and 30.

It was British-born Pakistanis who helped conduct the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, in November 2008, hitting hard at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the Oberoi Trident and the Cama Hospital, among other locations within the city. In all, some 173 people were killed and at least 308 were wounded.

In April 2009, British law enforcement and intelligence officials rounded up 10 Pakistanis who were planning a major attack. The roundup of the would-be terrorists had to be moved up due to the exposure of the plan in a briefing paper.

A number of those rounded up were students, said to have received instructions from al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan. One of those leaders was Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the TTP who later was killed by a U.S. missile attack. A number of the students were from Mehsud's area of operation in Pakistan, South Waziristan.

According to the Washington think-tank Heritage Foundation, homegrown Islamism has become a major threat in Great Britain, where 27 of 87 convicted individuals had been trained or sought training in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Last year, Jonathan Evans, director general of MI-5, the British domestic intelligence service, stated that some 2,000 individuals in Britain were directly connected to Islamist terrorist plots.

The concern among counter-terrorism specialists is that there is, in effect, a terrorist pipeline that exists between Pakistan and Britain.

"The majority of extremists are British nationals of South Asian, mainly Pakistani, origin but there are also extremists from north and east Africa, Iraq and the Middle East, and a number of converts," said a 2008 report drawn from the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defense, MI5 and Special Branch. The report added that these predominantly UK-born citizens were believed to have been trained in overseas terrorist camps, presumably in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"UK-based extremists, either under the direction of al-Qaida, or inspired by al-Qaida's ideology of global jihad, have also engaged in attack planning in the U.K.," the report added. "Improvised explosive devices, or IED attacks against crowded places, intended to cause mass casualties, are the most likely form of attack in the U.K.."

In turn, many of these Islamists find their way into the U.S. due to a waiver in the U.S. visa program for people from Britain flying to the U.S.

Until now, the HuJI and 313 Brigade largely have concentrated their terrorists activities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But they now are branching out with the avowed purpose of hitting the West, particularly the U.S. and Great Britain.

There already have been arrests. In Chicago a member of one possible HuJI cell which was planning to attack a "big stadium" in the U.S, was captured.

Their intent is to get the U.S. and coalition forces under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, out of Afghanistan and to halt their launches of deadly drone unmanned aerial vehicles into Pakistan to hunt and kill Taliban insurgents.

If, in fact, elements of the TTP, HuJI, LeT and 313 Brigade have joined forces against the U.S., then the impact on law enforcement and the ability to acquire timely intelligence will place an increased strain on an already overburdened homeland security system.

F. Michael Maloof, a frequent contributor, is a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.