Accurate, But Overbroad
Arrest of Americans shows growing internationalism of Pakistani militant groups – washingtonpost.com
The arrest in Pakistan of five Americans who authorities say may have been on their way to terrorist training camps highlights the growing internationalism of Pakistani militant groups — both in their aims and their appeal.
….
The men, who had not been charged as of Thursday night but were being questioned by the FBI, have been connected by Pakistani police to at least two armed Pakistani groups, Jaish-i-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Both groups have traditionally had local aims but in recent years have increasingly been linked to al-Qaeda, an organization with global reach and aspirations.
I think the claim that Pakistani militant groups, in general, are becoming more internationally focused is probably an overstatement, although there does seem to be some evidence that Jaish-i-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are getting closer to AQ and adopting its “far enemy” orientation. That said, all of this is pretty unclear for several reasons.
(1) JeM was rumored to be involved in the 2005 London subway attacks, so it is isn’t clear how new this orientation is.
(2) We sometimes speak about different groups as if there were sharp lines between them. In reality, many of the organization that we discussion seem to have either fluid or overlapping membership.
(3) JeM seems to have primarily focused on India at first, and has now shifted to attacks in Pakistan and also in Afghanistan. But while attacks in Afghanistan against coalition forces suggest an anti-Western focus, I think coding them as “internationalist” rather than “region” is problematic. If we choose to occupy foreign countries, I am not sure that local resistance activities need to imply that we’d have been attacked at home otherwise. There is a self-fulfilling prophesy issue here. We suspect they might want to attack us, so we occupy their countries, and then when they attack us there we say, “aha, terrorists!”
Regardless, we need to also note that there is also evidence of an increased local focus for many Islamist groups worldwide. Libyan Islamic Fighting Group renounced AQ this year, for instance. The Quetta Shura Taliban is increasingly making noises about being a national liberation movement rather than a global jihadist organization. So, it cuts both ways.
