Another Mumbai? Qaeda-Taliban-Lashkar Ready to Strike Again

Recall former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement last week:

The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan ... that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists.

It's that simple ... if you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan.

Keep that in mind when noting this morning's frontpage report at the New York Times, "Militant Group Is Intact After Mumbai Siege" (via Mememorandum):

Ten months after the devastating attacks in Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants, the group behind the assault remains largely intact and determined to strike India again, according to current and former members of the group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and intelligence officials.

Despite pledges from Pakistan to dismantle militant groups operating on its soil, and the arrest of a handful of operatives, Lashkar has persisted, even flourished, since 10 recruits killed 163 people in a rampage through Mumbai, India’s financial capital, last November.

Indian and Pakistani dossiers on the Mumbai investigations, copies of which were obtained by The New York Times, offer a detailed picture of the operations of a Lashkar network that spans Pakistan. It included four houses and two training camps here in this sprawling southern port city that were used to prepare the attacks.

Among the organizers, the Pakistani document says, was Hammad Amin Sadiq, a homeopathic pharmacist, who arranged bank accounts and secured supplies. He and six others begin their formal trial on Saturday in Pakistan, though Indian authorities say the prosecution stops well short of top Lashkar leaders.

Indeed, Lashkar’s broader network endures, and can be mobilized quickly for elaborate attacks with relatively few resources, according to a dozen current and former Lashkar militants and intelligence officials from the United States, Europe, India and Pakistan.

There's not much of a thread on this at Memeorandum. Nor is there much of a thread at Andrew Malcolm's piece on the Obama administration's Afghan withdrawal agenda, which I discussed here: "What Obama Won't Say ... America Will Cut and Run From Afghanistan."

But folks should not be complacent about the catastrophic threats ahead, nor should folks be reassured by Democratic foreign policy grandstanding. Secretary Rice nailed it: If you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan.

See also, American Digest, "The Road to a Democrat Led Defeat of America Goes Through Afghanistan."