Say Anything Blog

This week's featured US-Supported terrorists are especially disconcerting. Jundullah, or ‘the Army of God’, a Pakistani group of ‘Sunni activists’, have been receiving support from US proxies so that they might carry out attacks against targets within Iran. ABC reported this in 2007.

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.

U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or “finding” as well as congressional oversight.

Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

For a nice clip of Regi beheading his own brother, see here (8:00-8:30). Another interesting tidbit is the connection between Jundullah and the ‘liquid explosives’ bunch in London.

Pakistani police believe that several of the 24 men held in Birmingham and London travelled to Pakistan after the October 2005 earthquake as volunteers for the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s parent political organisation. The men are thought to have worked near Balakot in the North-West Frontier Province, a region where the Lashkar has a strong presence.

Under circumstances which are still unclear, the men were then taken to camps run by Jundullah, a jihadi organisation close to the Al-Qaeda, in the Waziristan area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

(continued below the fold...)

It turns out that, in arresting the liquid bombers, we jumped the gun.

A team of suspected terrorists involved in an alleged UK plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners escaped capture because of interference by the United States, The Independent has been told by counter-terrorism sources.

An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot.

....

American intelligence chiefs are understood to have persuaded the Pakistani authorities to arrest a British citizen, called Rashid Rauf, on Wednesday 9 August this year.

Mr Rauf was suspected of being closely linked to group of men and women in Britain who were allegedly involved in the airliner terror plot, and the arrest prompted emergency meetings involving ministers, police and intelligence chiefs - who were still investigating the case.

....

Fearful that the arrest might tip off the alleged plotters, Scotland Yard, in consultation with MI5, decided to act and sanctioned a series of raids in the early hours of Thursday. The police arrested 24 men and women and later charged 13 in connection with the alleged terror plan. Britain has requested the extradition of Mr Rauf.

Mr. Rauf, unfortunately, did not remain in custody for long.

The alleged British terrorist mastermind behind a plot to simultaneously blow up at least 10 transatlantic airliners in an atrocity that had the potential to dwarf 11 September was on the run last night.

One of Britain’s most wanted men slipped his handcuffs and fled after appearing at a court in Islamabad, Pakistan, where his lawyers were protesting against requests for his extradition. Last night two policemen were being questioned about the incident.

While in custody, he did admit to an involvement with al Qaeda.

The suspected ringleader of the alleged plot to blow up flights out of Heathrow has provided details that directly link the conspiracy to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said yesterday. The interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, said Rashid Rauf had given investigators “many, many clues which link this plan with Afghanistan, especially the al-Qaida of Osama bin Laden”.

In conclusion, I will leave you with some poignant words from President Bush.

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, America received a stark reminder that terrorists are still plotting attacks to kill our people. Beginning on Wednesday night, authorities in Great Britain arrested more than 20 individuals who we believe were plotting to detonate liquid explosives aboard flights from the United Kingdom to the United States. If these terrorists had succeeded, they could have caused death on a massive scale. The plot appears to have been carefully planned and well-advanced.

Now all I ask from the President is that we stop aiding these Jundullah types through proxies. While they may have it out for Iran, all we are doing is pouring gasoline on the Shia/Sunni frictions. As we have seen, this group we support escorted and trained some of the ‘liquid bombers’. Which brings me to the biggest effing bit of hypocrisy I have seen in a while.

A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled secretly to Islamabad this month to confront Pakistan’s most senior officials with new information about ties between the country’s powerful spy service and militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to American military and intelligence officials.

One can only wonder if the CIA outlined their own ties to these areas and our proxy support of Jundullah, ‘the Army of God’, close friends of al Qaeda and the London ‘liquid bombers’?