Pakistan

'Lashkar-e-Taiba threat to US'

LeT is a potent terrorist organization, says Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Afp June 03, 2011

WASHINGTON: The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for the assault on Mumbai, could also pose a threat to the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday.

Napolitano, who visited India last week for talks on anti-terrorism, renewed her assertion that LeT was in the same league as al Qaeda in US eyes.

"LeT is a potent terrorist organization. It could be construed as a threat to the United States. It certainly is to India," Napolitano said.

"It is al Qaeda-like in its strength and organization," she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

India believes the LeT and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) staged the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, which left 166 people dead and severely strained relations between the two neighbours.

David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani American who admitted scouting sites for the Mumbai attacks, has testified in a trial in Chicago that the ISI has supported LeT despite an official ban on the group.

Napolitano stayed tight-lipped about her talks with India on Lashkar-e-Taiba but said that her counterparts did not ask her specifically to ask Pakistan to turn over suspects in the Mumbai assault.

"The United States believes that it is in everyone's interest for India and Pakistan to be able to work together," she said.

Relations between India and the United States, the world's two largest democracies, have improved rapidly in the past decade. But many Indian policymakers are uneasy about the close US cooperation with Pakistan.

COMMENTS (14)

Umar | 13 years ago | Reply How can USA counter attacks, when everybody i willing to die? Americans will lose their money, become hopeless, sooner or later, this is true END Story. US arogants should be realistic, study history of Afghan people. You can capture a small land with conspicracy, but can not conquer nations. Killing Afghanis is helping them? No way.

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply I think more and more Pakistanis are blaming USA for anything and everything just because they reckon US is their enemy no One. That blinds them from seeing truth values in any of the statements by US.

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Suraj | 13 years ago | Reply @ Hamid Javaid: ghaznavis?seriously,what age are u still living in.it's the 21st century my man,get out of 10th century "glorious muslim conquests" mentality.

let there be peace | 13 years ago | Reply @Hamid Javaid: The buffer zone could have sounded like a good idea in past, but the problem is people of the buffer zone now think they themselves are Ghaznavi’s, that too with nuclear weapons. So either way it is problem for India. Sad but we cant do much now except wait and watch what happens next.

blithe | 13 years ago | Reply The solution to Afganistan lies through Kashmir. The 700k Indain terrorist soliders need to be kicked out of kashmir. Then only will South Asia have peace.

Cautious | 13 years ago | Reply The core issue is that everyone of these militant groups is a ticking time bomb for Pakistan -- whether you currently consider them "strategic assets" or not.

mahmood | 13 years ago | Reply Pakistan is the only country that has so many groups of armed militants (aka non state actors) one needs a playbook just to keep track. Some are considered good and some are considered bad (probably based on their willingness to make deals +/or take bribe). No wonder the rest of the World is worried about Pakistan being a failed state.

Social Eye | 13 years ago | Reply It is very interesting statement from the American diplomat. She tried to get India in the same lines as the USA, the arrogant state of the whole known human history. USA on one hand claims that Al-Qaeda has just few hundred members and on other hand claims that it is the sole super power, how can few hundred people a threat to US. The equation is not matchable but just a lame excuse to kill millions of the people. India the biggest democracy must look back that English traders just purchased small land for trade and they took whole India. American are much more sharp and closer relatives of cunning fox they can capture whole India with dialogue. If one look at the post terrorism scenario American will invent something to attack the countries like India because they were cronies of communism, a threat to US.

Karthic | 13 years ago | Reply @Hamid Javed :-

Think again, ultimately destroying your buffer zone (Pakistan) which is your safety line from the Ghaznavi’s. You know what they did with India before.

Well the "great" Gazni did plunder some of our Temples,demolished them and in between raped some women...but that was when we (Hindus) were not united and were fighting amongst ourselves...But now, even if Gazni's father comes he will not be able to pluck a hair out of us...FACT. BTW the descendnts of Gazni (Afghans) are now much more friendlier to India than to Pak.link text..Another FACT.

Roflcopter | 13 years ago | Reply What isn't a threat to U.S.?

sam | 13 years ago | Reply "David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani American who admitted scouting sites for the Mumbai attacks, has testified in a trial in Chicago that the ISI has supported LeT despite an official ban on the group" Torture a man enough and hel admit to anything

Hamid Javaid | 13 years ago | Reply Oh come on India grow up. Trying to capitalize the situation from which Pakistan is passing through is perhaps a good chance to settle the score. You are inviting beneficries on the dining table to assist you and will end up starving yourself. Think again, ultimately destroying your buffer zone (Pakistan) which is your safety line from the Ghaznavi's. You know what they did with India before. My heart felt recommendation is not to befriend with your own enemies as we ourself are suffering from these friendships. Think again, grow up, come out of your rage. Its Pakistan's as well as India's problem. Don't get confused and blackmail by different political parties and friends who have their own destructive doctrines to run their machines. Rage invites rage and both nations will suffer at the end. How would be the beneficries " Wepon Producing Economies marketing threat and hatred pretext".

S.R.H. Hashmi | 13 years ago | Reply Secretary US Homeland Seurity, Janet Napolitano has declared Lashkar-e-Taiba to be a threat to the US. Also, even after the death of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda is still considered to be a threat to the US. Hamas is a threat to the US. Iraq was falsely declared to be a threat to the US and destroyed on that pretext. Iran has been declared to be a threat to the US and 1,000 kg bunker-buster bombs have been prepared to invade it. By the look of it, just about every single Muslim and every Muslim state is considered to a threat to the US so the US has embarked on an ambitious programme to destroy, one by one, all Muslim states and Pakistan being the strongest of the Muslim states militarily, and the only nuclear power in the Muslim world, is of special interest to them. I hope our rulers can see all this and take appropriate action instead of offering Americans and their accomplices warm handshakes and cheek-to-cheek smiles all the time, in complete disregard of the situation on the ground.

king | 13 years ago | Reply I don't think US will act against "LET". These are all empty words.

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