In the context of the recent foiled plot to blow up planes from UK to the USA, I had earlier blogged on Pakistan's role in worldwide terrorism and made the point that by ignoring Pakistan's role in its conflict with India and treating it as some localized issue (and always portraying it as something related to a "freedom struggle" in Kashmir) the American media had, for a very long time now, missed a larger theme that emerges about Pakistan's influence (directly or indirectly) on a spate of worldwide terrorist activity. I gave a specific example of the Indian Airlines hijacking that resulted in India releasing prisoners who were then known to be freely roaming Pakistani cities with no action from the US to pressure the Pakistani government to rearrest these people: these matters were hardly covered in the American press.
Now, as if to complete the circle, this article from Time magazine's online site actually links Maulana Masood Azhar, perhaps the most important of the prisoners released from Indian prisons in exchange for the Indian Airlines passengers, to the recent trans-Atlantic bombing plot. I had linked to an earlier article from NY Times that reported that one of the key players in the bombing plot, a Mr. Rashid Rauf, belonged to the Jaish-e-mohammed terrorist outfit that is well known in India. This Time article goes a step further and actually links him to Maulana Masood Azhar. Of course, this hardly comes as too much of a surprise. However, I did find it noteworthy that there is now some journalistic record that helps "complete the circle".
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