The Jaish-e-Mohammed group was linked to the  kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi (GlobalSecurity.org). According to  GSO "the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), the Army of Mohammed, is an Islamic extremist group based in Pakistan that was formed by Masood Azhar upon his release from prison in India in early 2000. The group's aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. It is politically aligned with the radical political party, Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam Fazlur Rehman faction (JUI-F). The United States announced the addition of JEM to the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control's (OFAC) list-which includes organizations that are believed to support terrorist groups and have assets in US jurisdiction that can be frozen or controlled-in October and the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in December 2001." Knight Ridder reported on Nov 21 that Moayed Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed, was the suspected leader of "Mohammed's Army", described by KR as a group of former intelligence agents, army, security officials and high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime. It also mentions that Yasseen had been arrested by the Iraqi government - according to a Nov. 14 announcement.

So from multiple MSM sources we know that Moayed Ahmed Yasseen probably the leader of (at the very least a member of) Jaish-e-Mohammed, that the group was formed in India and based in Pakistan, it's supposed aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan, that the group killed Danial Pearle, that the group's supporters are mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris and also include Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war, that they trained originally in Afghanistan, and that they like to use light and heavy machineguns, assault rifles, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and rocket grenades (GlobalSecurity.org). Now their guy is captured in Iraq with photographs of himself standing beside Syrian officials. That's not in Pakistan and it's not in Kashmir, and we can bet that a lot of his friends are still fighting in Iraq having at least passed through Syria.

One conclusion that a reasonable person might draw is that the Jaish-e-Mohammed group has more far-reaching interests and involvement than India and Pakistan if their leader is captured in Iraq and has photographs of him standing beside Syrian officials. More importantly, it ties Syria in very tightly as being involved with at least one international terrorist group, and we can only speculate as to how many more. It also shows that former high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime including his former intelligence agents, army, and security officials are mentioned in the same breath and sentence as the Jaish-e-Mohammed group, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kashmir.

It seems that our friends the Syrians have been outed, and they can no longer deny involvement in international terrorist groups operating beyond Syria's soil and having free reign inside Syria. By deduction, one can assume that Syria continues to be a magnet for terrorists and a rallying point for their entrance into Iraq. Further, Sadaam Hussein's loyalists have no quams about joining the ranks of terrorists, make full use of that association and expertise, and will continue to create chaos in Iraq as long as Washington tolerates the Syrian connection to terrorists and Sadaam loyalists.