A Plot Against American Jews Stopped, A Pattern Exposed: The Real Threat from Pakistan’s Global Jihad Network

This week, we learned the United States stopped what could have been a devastating terrorist attack, one intended to rival the horror of 9/11. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani national, was extradited from Canada and now stands charged in a chilling plot to target a Jewish center in New York City. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Khan was preparing a mass casualty assault timed for the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

This was not a lone-wolf act. According to the Department of Justice, Khan began sharing ISIS propaganda in 2023, then covertly communicated with undercover FBI agents and a U.S.-based ISIS supporter about targeting Jewish centers. He requested AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, hunting knives, and even arranged human smuggling to cross into the U.S. He identified a prominent Brooklyn Jewish center, sent a photograph of the specific location, and stated that if successful, “this would be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.” His intent was clear: not just mass murder, but symbolic terror aimed at maximizing fear and echoing the trauma of 9/11.

Thanks to outstanding work by U.S. law enforcement, a major attack was prevented. This is a testament to inter-agency coordination, intelligence work, and the ability to take threats seriously before the bombs go off. But this should not be viewed as a one-off success. What we’re seeing here is not an isolated plot. It is part of a pattern, a dangerous one, of individuals radicalized and supported by ecosystems that thrive in Pakistan.

For decades, Pakistan has played a double game. It publicly denies support for terror while privately harboring and enabling it. It is the same country where Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, lived undisturbed for years in a compound just down the street from Pakistan’s premier military academy. That was not a coincidence. That was a signal.

The 9/11 attackers themselves benefited from financial, ideological, and logistical support tied to Pakistani-based actors. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed, and other UN-designated terrorist groups continue to operate openly in Pakistan today. Their leaders give public speeches. Their clerics issue fatwas. Their fighters cross borders into India, into Afghanistan, and now, into American cities through networks that remain disturbingly active.

We have seen this movie before. Mumbai 2008 came out of this same ecosystem. So did the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, and multiple other foiled plots across Europe and Asia. While not every attack was directed from Pakistan, the ideological ecosystem that inspired them has long found safe haven in Pakistan's jihadist infrastructure. Unless we confront the root cause, state tolerance and sponsorship of terrorism, we will see it again.

Just weeks ago, on April 22, 2025, a Pakistan-backed terror group massacred 26 Indian civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. That attack was not isolated, and it was certainly not spontaneous. It was a deliberate, cross-border act of terrorism designed to destabilize India, provoke a response, and test its red lines. India did not convene summits or request UN condemnations. It launched warplanes.

On May 7, the Indian Air Force struck nine terrorist infrastructure targets inside Pakistan in a swift and calibrated military operation. These were not symbolic targets. They included the operational hubs of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, organizations long nurtured by Pakistan’s security establishment. Operation Sindoor was not just retaliation. It was doctrine in action, a declaration that the old rules no longer apply.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made that doctrine crystal clear. In a nationally televised address, he declared: “India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail. India will strike precisely and decisively at the terrorist hideouts developing under the cover of nuclear blackmail.”

He granted the Indian Armed Forces full freedom to destroy the terrorist infrastructure flourishing under nuclear cover and framed the strikes as a “pledge for justice.” But the most consequential line may have been this: “Terror and talks can’t go together. Water and blood can’t flow together.”

These words marked a shift away from India’s decades-long reliance on diplomatic restraint and international appeals, an approach that had repeatedly failed to deter Pakistan’s proxy terrorism. This was not about public outrage. It was about policy. And it was led from the top with clarity, conviction, and strategic discipline. Modi's leadership did not just reflect a new India. It defined it.

India’s response to the April 22 terrorist attack was followed by Pakistani retaliation in the form of drone swarms targeting civilian and military sites. India’s layered air defense system intercepted nearly all of them with remarkable effectiveness. In turn, India escalated deliberately, striking Pakistani air defense systems, radar installations, and drone launch hubs. Over four days of controlled escalation, India maintained the initiative, imposed significant costs, and enforced its newly declared red line without tipping into a broader conflict.

This was not unlimited war. It was limited war for strategic ends. It was deterrence in action.

And while India was doing this with resolve, the United States was simultaneously working to prevent the next major attack on its own soil. President Trump recently commented on the extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, another Pakistani national and a co-conspirator in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “We are giving a very violent man back to India immediately,” Trump said. “And more such extraditions could follow.” Rana is only one case. And now, Khan is behind bars for planning an attack in Brooklyn that, had it succeeded, would have been the worst since 9/11.

This is no longer just India’s burden or Israel’s concern. It is a global problem.

The world cannot afford to remain silent while Pakistan continues to be the launchpad for global jihad.

We must remember: 9/11 came out of this ecosystem. Mumbai 2008 came out of it. And now, we have a foiled plot for another mass casualty attack, this time targeting American Jews in New York.

Silence is not strategy. Appeasement is not deterrence. And diplomacy without accountability is surrender.

Prime Minister Modi has shown the world what strategic clarity and leadership look like. The question now is whether the rest of the world will follow his example or wait for the next mass grave.

John Spencer is executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute . He is the coauthor of Understanding Urban Warfare

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The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.