FBI Chief Faces Pakistani Pandora’s Box
Without cooperation from Islamabad, America will have trouble identifying terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S.
In a recent speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Mueller confirmed that the FBI is now putting more focus on LeT-type terrorist groups, particularly because of their easy access into the United States. Specifically, Mueller cited the growing threat from terrorists coming into the United States from “visa waiver countries — [people who are] merely an e-ticket away from the United States.” While Pakistan is not a visa waiver country, the United Kingdom is. The UK has the second largest Pakistani population overseas (after Saudi Arabia) and every terrorist attack in the UK in this century has been linked to British citizens of Pakistani descent. Visa waiver programs are potential gateways for terrorists to get into the United States, because individuals traveling without a visa are not subjected to face-to-face interviews or added layers of scrutiny.
In January, federal officials told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that low-tech assaults are the more likely terrorist attacks of the future. Their deadly effects cannot be underestimated. “The [LeT] attackers were able to fend off responding forces, just using automatic rifles, grenades, and some IEDs [improvised explosive devices], basically the weapons of a basic infantryman,” Charles Allen, the chief intelligence officer of the DHS, told Congress. “They also used satellite and cell phones to maximize effectiveness, and they monitored press coverage of the attack through wireless communication devices they had taken from hostages.”
So why won’t Pakistan cooperate with the FBI? For starters, it is well known that the Pakistani government’s relationship to LeT is based on longstanding ties. LeT was set up by Pakistan decades ago, in order to fight proxy wars against India in Kashmir on behalf of the Pakistan army. Pakistan is now dealing with its own form of blowback from its LeT operations there. Giving FBI Director Mueller access to LeT terrorists would be opening Pakistan’s “Pandora’s box.”
Further complicating the scenario is the suggestion of complicity on the part of Pakistan. Referee Chris Broad was traveling in a van in the convoy with the Sri Lankan team when the terrorists opened fired last week, killing Broad’s driver and critically wounding his colleague. “There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere,” Broad told reporters. “They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks.”
Pakistani cricket authorities say Broad’s comments were “totally fabricated” and filed a complaint against him. As for FBI Director Mueller, it seems he left Islamabad empty-handed of interviews with LeT terrorists being held there.
<- Prev Page 2 of 2
Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
7 Comments
1. Chido:The author is simply wrong when she says ‘every terrorist incident in the UK has been linked to British residents of Pakistani descent’ and is exposing her ignorance. There have been Irish terrorist attacks on Britain this century i.e. the Ealing bombing of 2001 as well as bombing conducted by ‘white supremacists’ against gays/coloureds e.g. try googling the names of David Copeland and David Tovey in this regard. Astonishing to see that someone who describes themselves as an expert on these mattters can get the facts so wrong unless they have a particular agenda?
Mar 12, 2009 - 3:09 am 2. canuck:The solution is the same here or for the Brits…shut down immigration and deport all non-citizens of Pakistan and any other “moslem” country. Any cooperation we get from the ISI is going to be superficial and more for show than any serious effort to help us out.
Interestingly enough, the principal reason we have a federal government is to protect us at home. The want to do everything else but do that…our Southern border is porous and our immigration policies suck all in the name of diversity. I don’t remember diversity in the Constitution and I didn’t get to vote on it.
Mar 12, 2009 - 4:04 am 3. Broadsword:This,” …carnage can be wrought by a low-tech attack in a major urban city”,of course, will never happen because there are 22,000 commonsense gun laws in this country which will prevent it.
Mar 12, 2009 - 5:13 am 4. Broadsword:Chido, the Irish were not terrorists but ‘gunmen’. Or were they ‘militants’?
Mar 12, 2009 - 5:16 am 5. tinfoilhatter:“3. Broadsword:
This,” …carnage can be wrought by a low-tech attack in a major urban city”,of course, will never happen because there are 22,000 commonsense gun laws in this country which will prevent it.”
The real first responders should be an armed citizentry. While many, undoubtably, would still be killed in such an attack (even by responding forces blue-on-blue,) they would
1) be highly tactically disruptive to the attackers. Disrupted attack timelines and the potential splitting of supporting pairs, for example, would give the responding police a huge tactical advantage.
2) have at least a fighting chance to survive, especially if they could create defensive “hedgehogs” that the attackers would bypass seeking softer targets.
3) be in a position to immediately augment security forces with trained (and more importantly) vetted personnel, in some kind of “Home Guard” organization, such is found in Denmark.
Instead, our “first responders” to Mumbai-style attack will be stuck in the resulting traffic made indescribably worse by panic, setting up checkpoints and roadblocks, all while attempting to cobble together an on the fly some response. The police, especially in major Eastern cities are miserably trained and underequipped for a Mumbai-type attack (specifically hampered by a lack of rifles and good fire team training, mostly for political “scary guns are icky!” and financial reasons.
Setting up a real “Home Guard” tips too many rice bowls to politically viable, and most Americans are too passive to take more than “glance at the DHS Threat level” approach to security.
Also, don’t think the next Mumbai is going to be guys with SATphones, AKs, and the occasional IED. There are off-the-shelf things they could bring in a rucksack that would cripple the response to their attack. I’m sure their thinking of it now. They learn, we learn. Or at least we should learn.
Mar 12, 2009 - 5:51 am 6. Leatherneck:Just check the Mosques, their phones, and computers. Any terror related information found, and the Mosque should be destroyed with the American flag flying high over the rubble for the world to see. For starters.
How many Islamic examples do you need? Read Robert Spenser’s latest book as a field guide.
ROPMA!
Mar 12, 2009 - 8:34 am 7. Meryl:Can’t obama just ask the terrorists to sign their names to some list or something and turn it in to him?
He just loves to talk with our enemies and he promised last fall that once he was elected he would talk to them and everything would be alllllllllllll better.
He can give them his Blackberry contact info, so they don’t have to be embarrassed by going through a third party or anything. I know he doesn’t like all that diplomatic crap and how it complicates things.
Mar 12, 2009 - 5:32 pm