Pakistani jihad group has sleeper cells in U.S.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database has long documented LeT’s global footprint to note:

LeT has an extensive network that run across Pakistan and India with established branches in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Bangladesh and South East Asia.

LeT has a network of sleeper cells in the US and Australia, has trained terrorists from other countries, and has entered new theatres of 'jihad', such as Iraq.

LeT maintains ties with various religious/military groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya, primarily through the al Qaeda fraternal network.

LeT is part of the 'al Qaeda compact' and is a member of the "International Islamic Front for the struggle against the Jews and the Crusaders" established by Osama bin Laden on February 23, 1998.

LeT was part of the Bosnian campaign against the Serbs.

LeT has links with several international Islamist terrorist groups, including the Ikhwan-ul-Musalmeen [Muslim Brotherhood] of Egypt and other Arab groups....

Pakistan’s Jihadists Form A Complex Web of Collaborating Groups

(CNSNews.com) – Pakistan-based terrorist organizations frequently cooperate with each other, and it should come as no surprise that the would-be Times Square bomber may have had dealings there with jihadists from various groups.

What has also become evident is that while Kashmir may have been the founding cause for such groups, they are also part of a broader jihad that views the United States as an enemy and target. For example:

-- A HUJI leader, Fazlur Rahman, was one of the five signatories to Osama bin Laden’s infamous February 1998 fatwa declaring war against America and Israel. Subsequent HUJI operations included an attack on the American Center in Kolkata in 2002, in which six Indian policemen were killed.

-- Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber” who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001, was reportedly trained by LeT in Pakistan.

-- When the high-value al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaidah was arrested in 2002, he was hiding out at the home of an LeT leader in Faisalabad.

-- A leading JeM member was convicted in 2002 for his role in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

-- David Headley, a Pakistan-born U.S. national who admitted playing a key role in planning LeT’s deadly 2008 assault in Mumbai and is now under arrest in the U.S., reportedly revealed a joint LeT-HUJI plan to attack the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh in 2009.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a project of the India-based Institute for Conflict Management (ICM), JeM, HUJI and LeT all have links to al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. Those ties expanded when al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into north-west Pakistan after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime following 9/11.

Investigation Spotlights Pakistan's Continuing Role in Protecting Jihadists

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) exercises "control over the most important operatives" of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) terrorist group and government officials have rebuffed American pressure to arrest a key terrorist operative out of fear his prosecution would implicate Pakistan military leaders.

Those are among the findings in a recent investigation into Pakistan's complicity with terrorists by ProPublica, an independent news outlet.

It's the latest in a series of stories from reporter Sebastian Rotella into the "double game" many suspect Pakistani intelligence plays. It remains a key ally in the U.S. war on al-Qaida and the Taliban, but finds its officers implicated in terrorist actions by LeT and others.