POREG VIEW: Two leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) continued to run the Pakistan-based terrorist group’s operations while locked up in a Pakistani prison, says a 2009 diplomatic message by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a by-lined despatch in the Washington Times.

In her Aug. 10, 2009, cable, part of a document dump by the website WikiLeaks, Mrs. Clinton wrote that LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, the group’s operations commander, "continue to run the organization, despite being detained for their role in the November Mumbai attacks."

This cable predates the David Hadely disclosures. It virtually echoes what Delhi had been saying right from the day LeT founder and ops commander had engineered the Mumbai mayhem in November 2008.  The Pakistani government has banned LeT under American pressure and held its leaders in house arrest but the group continues to operate under different names, including the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, has also been saying for a while that Pakistani support for LeT could lead to an attack similar to that in Mumbai.  He is convinced that two years after 26/11 the Pakistani army and other parts of the power elite continue to protect LeT from any real crackdown despite intense U.S. pressure.

Mrs. Clinton’s cable interesting for the insight it provides about the wealth of information the US has on LeT. Firstly she said Saeed continues to lead JuD and LeT, despite his public resignation from leadership of the latter group after it was banned by Pakistan.

Secondly she noted Lakhvi is responsible for LeT’s military operations budget, which is around $5.2. million a year. He reportedly uses the money to purchase "all materials required for [LeT] operations other than weapons and ammunition, according to a source claiming direct and ongoing access to [LeT] leaders. Thirdly and most importantly, she noted that the intelligence community continues to see reporting indicating that JuD is "still operating in multiple locations in Pakistan and that the group continues to openly raise funds."

From the foregoing it is unclear what if any steps the government of Pakistan has taken to freeze JUD’s assets or otherwise implement U.N. 1267 sanctions and what if any steps the government of the United States of America has taken to force Islamabad to act against the terror machine that has been breathing and thriving at the behest of Pakistani government.

Expressing frustration as the US officials do regularly over Pakistan’s unwillingness to sever ties to LeT, J-e-M and the Haqqani Network is one thing and using whatever leverage Washington has on Islamabad to protect its interests is another thing. Blaming China for blocking U.S. efforts in the U.N. Security Council to keep sanctions against Saeed and JuD before the Mumbai attacks will not offer any brownie points. China has been the all-weather friend of Pakistan and it is natural for Beijing to act to protect its friend’s interests in the hope that the rub off effect would ensure peace in its own Islam militancy infested backyard.

Unless the White House, Pentagon and the State Department, though not necessarily in that order, learn to play for long term interests and stop to pay for their short term goals, the US  of A will have to live with forked tongues, blotched plots and drones on ‘no driver’ missions.