Islamic extremists invade U.S., join sleeper cells

Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to “sleeper cells” in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials.

The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.

A high-ranking foreign intelligence chief told The Washington Times in an interview last week that this clandestine but aggressive network of training camps “represents a serious threat to the United States, one that cannot be ignored.” The official said as many as 400 terrorists have been and are being trained at camps in Pakistan and Kashmir.

U.S. intelligence officials said the camps, located in the remote regions of western Pakistan and in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, are financed in part by various terrorist networks, including al Qaeda, and by sources in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistani Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi denied in an interview that terrorist camps are operating in his country, including the remote regions of western Pakistan or in Kashmir.

“We have never accepted the allegation that there were training camps here, not now, not ever,” Mr. Qazi told The Times. “These allegations have persisted despite our repeated denials. I assure you there is absolutely no reason to believe that any terrorist camps exist in Pakistan or Kashmir.”

Al Qaeda sleeper cells are believed to be operating in 40 states, according to the FBI and other federal authorities, awaiting orders and funding for new attacks in the United States. Financed in part by millions of dollars solicited by an extensive network of bogus charities and foundations, the cells use Muslim communities as cover and places to raise cash and recruit sympathizers.

Last month, Pakistan and India announced a new round of peace talks on Kashmir, in which Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the target of two recent assassination attempts, said Pakistan had agreed “not to allow the use of Pakistan’s territory anywhere in the world” for terrorism.

In announcing the talks, Gen. Musharraf said his military-led government would act to “eradicate” religious extremists in Pakistan. “We will get to them, I am sure,” he said.

But U.S. and foreign intelligence authorities said terrorist training camps have been documented in some of western Pakistan’s remote areas and in the disputed regions of Kashmir, and that military officials and others in the Musharraf government have not fully disassociated themselves from al Qaeda or the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Some U.S. officials have privately expressed concern that members of Pakistan’s intelligence community have assisted in the concealment of al Qaeda members and associates.

In December, the government of India said terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Kashmir that had been closed after the September 11 attacks on the United States had been reactivated, mostly along the disputed border area near the so-called Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian government said its army had photographs and other evidence of ongoing terrorist training, much of which was turned over to U.S. officials. That information included satellite photos and communication intercepts, U.S. law- enforcement authorities said, that documented 60 to 70 camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well as in Pakistan.

Officials at the Indian Embassy in Washington declined comment.

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