[Assam] Another Opinion Piece -- from CNN

[Chan Mahanta]

Note the second and third to last paragraphs.

Again we ought to raise our voices to add the Assam conflicts to the agenda!

cm





http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/01/bergen.mumbai/index.html



By Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst



Editor's note: Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst and a 
fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington and at New York 
University's Center on Law and Security. His most recent book is "The 
Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader."

Peter Bergen says a terror group suspected in Mumbai attacks has 
broader support than most.

(CNN) -- A captured suspect in the Mumbai attacks has told police 
that he is Pakistani, Indian officials say. CNN's sister station, 
CNN-IBN, reports that the alleged terrorist said he was trained by 
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group that opposes India 
over the disputed Kashmir region.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, known by its initials LeT in the counter-terrorism 
community, should be the leading suspect in the attacks, according to 
a U.S. counterterrorism official who closely follows South Asia.
"My money is on LeT. They've been getting lots of operational 
experience in Afghanistan and the younger LeT guys are trigger-happy. 
The countries they aim to destroy: India, U.S. and Israel. Looks like 
they hit all three in Mumbai," the official says.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba has conducted high-profile attacks in India, 
including an attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, which 
brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war the following year.
The Indian Parliament attack displayed a modus operandi similar to 
the recent Mumbai attacks. It involved several attackers armed with 
automatic weapons, willing to die in an operation that, while it was 
not a conventional suicide attack, was suicidal in intent. Only one 
of the 11 gunmen identified so far in the Mumbai attacks has survived.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba derives strength from the fact that, like the 
Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, it draws on a much wider base of 
support than many terrorist organizations.
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Until January of 2002, when it was officially banned following the 
attack on the Indian Parliament, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba maintained 2,200 
offices around the country and attracted hundreds of thousands of 
followers to its annual gatherings. Its charitable arm also runs 
schools and medical clinics and played an important role in 
earthquake relief efforts in Kashmir in 2005.
Technically Lashkar no longer exists, but it has continued to operate 
under different names and its leader, Hafiz Saeed, has continued to 
address rallies in Pakistan. A spokesman for the group has denied any 
role in the Mumbai attacks.
Besides conducting numerous terrorist operations in India, 
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba has international reach. Two American Muslims who 
traveled to Lashkar training camps in Pakistan have been convicted of 
terrorism-related charges in the past several years. According to the 
U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Lashkar members have been 
arrested in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
And the terror group has ties to al Qaeda. Al Qaeda operative Abu 
Zubaydah, for instance, was arrested at the home of a 
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leader in Pakistan in 2002.
According to the U.S. counterterrorism official, the total Mumbai 
attack force likely involved at least 40 "operatives" and 
"facilitators" and showed an "impressive" level of internal security 
given "robust" Indian counterterrorism efforts.
The official also said one of the aims of the attacks was to "sour" 
the foreign commercial presence and investment atmosphere for 
fast-growing India.
Another U.S. counterterrorism official pointed out that there are 
similarities between the recent attacks in Mumbai and those 
masterminded by Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian gangster, in March 1993, 
when 13 bombs went off in Mumbai targeting the Mumbai Stock Exchange, 
hotels and shopping districts -- attacks that killed some 250 people.
In 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Dawood Ibrahim as a 
"specially designated global terrorist." When Ibrahim was designated, 
Treasury described him as an Indian crime lord linked to al Qaeda and 
known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

The U.S. government has already designated LeT as a terrorist group, 
but the larger aim of the incoming Barack Obama administration should 
be to put additional effort into bringing a peaceful resolution to 
the Kashmir dispute that underlies the tensions between India and 
Pakistan.

That is something that South Asia specialist Bruce Riedel has been 
forcefully advocating in recent months. Riedel, a former CIA officer 
and National Security Council official and now senior fellow at the 
Brookings Institution, has been advising Obama. And Hillary Clinton, 
nominated Monday by Obama for secretary of state, has long been 
thinking about the idea of sending a special envoy to the region who 
would be responsible for helping to settle all the various disputes 
between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

My candidate for the job: Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who brought 
peace to the Balkans in the mid-1990s with the masterful Dayton 
accords that he oversaw and managed.