Now that the consensus is that the responsibility for the terror attacks in Mumbai lies with Lashkar e-Taiba, expect the major media outlets to write a confusing narrative for the public. The truth is:
The Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami receive support from Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence to destabilize India and wage war in Kashmir. Both of these terror groups are local al Qaeda affiliates in Pakistan and conduct attacks in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
My prediction is that Big Media will try to write AQ out of the story in an effort to corroborate their story that
- this event is part of an Indian/Pakistani problem only,
- it has no larger implications in the “War on Terror,” and
- the violence was driven by mostly secular grievances and not by militant Islamic jihad.
Time will tell.
UPDATE:
New York Times article, US Intelligence Focuses on Pakistani Group, gives a lot of detail about Lashkar e-Taiba, yet fails to make a single mention of al Qaeda connections or the fact that the group is Muslim. Remarkable.
