Ganesh Lal is a member of the International Socialist Organization, a Leninist party. He posits that the United States habitually concocts hoaxes to legitimize war. In the July-August 2002 issue of the International Socialist Review, he writes that reports of al Qaeda forces in Kashmir “have likely been planted in the media by the Indian and U.S. governments..” “India seeks to undermine Musharraf’s credibility,” adds Lal, “and the U.S. seeks legitimacy for extending its war on terror. Al Qaeda’s alleged presence in Pakistani Kashmir allowed [U.S. Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld to float the idea of deploying U.S. troops in previously unthinkable South Asian locations — as the ‘war on terror’ has already licensed the U.S. to do in Central Asia.”