Or so I claim. Shoot me down, here's my semantic argument:
CNN's "Late Edition"
BLITZER: A lot of intelligence, counter terrorism experts are pointing a finger at this group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. And I'm going to read to you from "The New York Times" today because I want you to respond. "Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has a track record of attacks against India has received training and support from Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, according to widespread intelligence reports." That was in today's "New York Times."
Read: LeT has received training and support from ISI
HAQQANI: Lashkar-e-Taiba is a group that has been banned in Pakistan. Of course, all such groups, al Qaeda is a banned group but that doesn't stop al Qaeda from operating. The important thing is that the government of Pakistan will make sure that any group or individual that is found to be involved in this or any other act of terrorism is subjected to the same process that these groups have to be subjected to under international law. Let me just say one thing.
Read: Haqqani implicitly admits the accusation is correct (by not denying it outright). He has to, he has himself written in the past that ISI supports LeT. All he says is that LeT is banned, which is not the question he was asked.
BLITZER: Was this group, though, created by Pakistani intelligence?
HAQQANI: Well, there's no way for me to know who created it. But we do know that it existed in Pakistan and operated in Pakistan until it was banned.
Read: Haqqani seems to suggest LeT stopped operating in Pakistan after it was "banned". This is incorrect. LeT was banned in Pakistan in 2002. Writing in 2005, Haqqani himself said "Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to move against either Lashkar, which continues to operate in Kashmir, or Jamaat-ul-Dawa, which operates freely in Pakistan." He also says that "Saeed (LeT's founder) remains free and continues to expand membership of his organization..."
***
The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups
The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion is Lashkar-e-
Taiba (The Army of the Pure) founded in 1989 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
Backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services,
Lashkar-e-Taiba became the military wing of Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad
(Center for the Call to Righteousness).
After
the U.S. froze Lashkar-e-Taiba's assets and called for it to be banned, Saeed
changed his organization's name in Pakistan to Jamaat-ul-Dawa (the Society
for Preaching). Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to move against
either Lashkar, which continues to operate in Kashmir, or Jamaat-ul-Dawa,
which operates freely in Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ul-Dawa
scaled down their military operations against India to help Pakistan honor its
commitments to the U.S. and India. But Saeed remains free and continues to
expand membership of his organization despite divisions in its leadership.
Under U.S. pressure, General Musharraf placed Jamaat-ul-Dawa on a
watch list in November 2003.
