USAID's Rajiv Shah visits & donates to al Qaeda-linked camp

USAID boss Rajiv Shah on his way to visit terrorists

August 25, 2010, ISLAMABAD: As voices are being raised against extremist groups using flood assistance to lure recruits for militancy, the US overseas aid chief, Rajiv Shah, created a storm on Wednesday by visiting a Sukkur relief camp run by the banned terrorist organization al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba (The Army of the Pure).

Shah, a former Gates Foundation employee, is known for using USAID to outsource computer jobs to Sri Lanka and Armenia—for the benefit of his former boss, Bill Gates, and Microsoft—not exactly helpful with the growing unemployment in the U.S.

After Shah’s visit, al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba said in a statement reported by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that it was in charge of the camp and that Shah was endorsing its activities.

Hafiz Saeed, head of al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba

Osama bin Laden encouraged Hafiz Saeed to form Lashkar-e-Taiba in the late 1980s, and helped fund the establishment of the terror outfit.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, like al Qaeda, practices the Wahabi strain of Islam, and receives funding from Saudis and other wealthy individuals throughout the Middle East—and now from USAID’s Rajiv Shah.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is an ally of al Qaeda; the two groups provide support for each other, and their operatives train in each other’s camps. Lashkar-e-Taiba has established training camps in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal areas.

A senior US military intelligence official described the group Shah visited as “al Qaeda junior,” as it has vast resources and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations. “If by some stroke of luck al Qaeda collapsed, Lashkar-e-Taiba could step in and essentially take its place,” the official told The Long War Journal in November 2008.

Lashkar-e-Taiba attack on Mumbai, in 2008

Senior military officials have claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba has expanded to the West since its bloody attack on Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008 and posed a serious threat to world peace.

Attempting to justify USAID’s visit by Mr. Shah to the camp and his donation, US Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said people in the camp needed food and Mr. Shah did what he thought should have been done.

USAID’s Rajiv Shah is not only sleeping with the enemy, but supporting them with American taxpayer dollars.