Indian Source: Surgical Cross-Border Strikes Into Pakistan On the Table

Over the past few days, the grumblings from the Indian government have been that the Pakistanis are not doing enough to go after and wrap up the terrorist organizations that call Pakistan home.  A story this evening in the Times of India quotes a source from a meeting of the Indian foreign minister and defense officials:

“The option of cross-border surgical strikes has not been abandoned. The armed forces, on their part, are maintaining a high level of alertness to meet any eventuality, as they have been directed,” said a source.

If you see the envoys from the United States and Great Britain upping their profile in Islamabad and New Delhi in the midst of more words like this from Indian or Pak officials, the West is trying to help the East not go nuclear.

Mumbai Attacks: More Suspects Captured, India-Pak Relations

Two More Suspects in Mumbai Attacks in Custody

• India police arrest two – Washington Post
• Terrorist SIM card trail leads to Calcutta – Times of India
• J&K cop arrested for SIM card used by terrorist – Indian Express

Tensions Still High Between Rivals India – Pakistan

• Op-Ed, Muzamil Jameel: Why Pakistan Won’t Give Up Lashkar – Indian Express
• Mumbai Terror Seige Politicizes an Upper Class – New York Times
• Mumbai Attacks test for Pakistan on curbing militants – New York Times
• Indian media stoking stoking anti-Pak sentiment – Dawn
• Report: Pakistan agrees to 48 hour deadline to act on Lashkar – NDTV 

What the Islamic Terrorists May Really Want: Strike the Match on Pakistan’s Tinderbox

One encouraging sign of potentially avoiding a violent dispute between Pakistan and India in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks was the planned visit to India by the leader of Pakistan’s sometimes rogue intelligence agency.

Known as ISI which stands for Inter Services Intelligence, the agency is ostensibly an arm of the Pakistani Army.  ISI is chiefly known for being the main conduit between the United States and the Afghani mujahadeen groups who fought Soviet occupation.  When the Soviets left Afghanistan, ISI threw in its lot with the Taliban.  The Taliban in turn eventually welcomed Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda back into the country and the roots of the current worldwide war on terror took hold.

So, to have the chief of ISI interacting with the Indian government would be a good sign.  Only the ISI chief essentially told Pakistani President Asif Zardari, “No.”  He didn’t make the trip. Read more

Captured Mumbai Terrorist: A Tale of Slavery and Drugs?

Azam Amir Qasab and Other Evidence from Mumbai

This article from the London Daily Telegraph brings home just what we’re dealing with regarding terrorists from the Third World.  Evil?  Sure.  But, we are also facing a mentality and level of human sophistiphication from the Middle Ages on steroids – literally.

Azam Amir Qasab, the captured Mumbai terrorist has reportedly told his captors he was sold by his father to the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taibat.  Lashkar-e-Taibait is thought to be the group behind the training and planning for the Mumbai attacks. 

Qasab says he was sold to Lashkar to earn money for his family.  Additionally, it’s being reported that Qasab and his nine terror mates used cocaine and other drugs to stay awake during their rampage.  Finally, the muscle-bound crew had reportedly used steroids to help chisel their physiques for their Jihad fantasy.

We’re dealing with people from the Middle Ages with access to modern drugs and weapons.  The more of them we kill and the greater number of their countries we become embroiled in only emboldens the next cohort of warriors.  Isolationism is not the answer in our globalized society, but we do need to get off the black/white short-term solutions to the bigger problem.

What got Western Civilization out of the Dark Ages?

We Didn’t See This After 9/11 …

… Indian Home Minister Resigns In Wake of Mumbai Attacks

I just read this paragraph on the New York Times website:

The security official, Shivraj Patil, the home minister, became the first senior official in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration to leave office over the Mumbai attacks, which have traumatized the nation for their audacity and have laid bare glaring deficiencies in India’s intelligence and enforcement abilities. The pressures on the government are especially acute with elections only six months away.

This would’ve been like both the FBI director and the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement resigning after 9/11.  As I recall, we handed out more Presidential Medals of Freedom to senior officials after 9/11 than pink slips. 

Anyhow.

So, I know nothing about Mr. Patil or how good or bad he was at the job he just gave up.  What I do wonder is whether or not it’s really accountable to resign before the smoke has even cleared from the bowels of the Taj Palace Hotel?  Change at the top of an organization brings uncertainty on many different levels.  Is hours after a cataclysmic event the time for uncertainty and for shuffling the Indian Home Ministry’s management team?

There does seem to be a heightened sense of personal honour among our fellows in the near and far east.  I can’t help but think that this sense of honour may lead to a perverted sense of duty.

Finally, I’ve heard the old phrase over and again this weekend, “India, the world’s largest democracy.”  This is undoubtedly true.  What’s also true is that in democracies as this world knows them, the franchise is also accompanied by freedoms.  Societies with freedom of movement, speech, association, religion, press, etc. are soft targets because they are free.  I hope that if Mr. Patil bent to public pressure and resigned, this will not embolden an emotional and enraged public to begin turning its back on the freedoms that make it the world’s largest democracy.

Video: Obama’s National Security Team, Face the Nation, Woodward, Zakaria, Mayer, Dyson | November 30

The following 16 minute video is well worth watching – insightful talk with Bob Woodward, Fareed Zakaria, Jane Mayer and Michael Eric Dyson regarding President-elect Barack Obama’s announcement tomorrow unveiling his national security team.  One interesting comment from Woodward:

SCHIEFFER: …the president, if all goes as expected, at 10:50 Eastern time tomorrow will
announce his new national security team, to be headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of
state.

Mr. WOODWARD: She never goes away, she and her husband. It’s an amazing national security team that Obama appears to have selected. It’s kind of like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

You’ve got too cool, which might be–or at least appropriately cool, General Jones as the national security adviser; Gates is kind of just right, in the middle; and Hillary Clinton, hot. This is going to be a whole new center of gravity for the news media, for the whole world. My assessment without having any knowledge, really, is that the economists and the economic team around Obama convinced him that the economic crisis is so deep and going to require to much time, go ahead and give Hillary and Bill the world.

Yikes.  I’m not sure that’s what I voted for, Bob.

Sunday Papers – November 30 – National – Economy, India, Pakistan, IL Cuts, Ted Stevens, Bill Clinton, Illegal Immigration, Opinion, Obama, Etc.

National

• Bill Clinton to name donors in deal with Obama – New York Times
• India faces reckoning as toll nears 200 – New York Times
• Attacks imperil U.S. role among two rivals – New York Times
• Mumbai Siege Tales – Washington Post
• Defiant Pakistan rejects Indian charges – Washington Post
• Auto dealerships in trouble – New York Times
• The General as Lobbyist – New York Times
• Healthcare: U.S. ‘Not getting what it pays for’ – Washington Post
• Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion – Los Angeles Times
• Illegal immigrants going home, labor market at risk – Miami Herald
• Opinion: What Would Keynes Do? – New York Times
• Op-Ed, Joseph Stiglitz: What Obama Needs to Do – New York Times
• Magazine: Google’s Gatekeepers – New York Times
• The Joint Chiefs and Obama – Washington Post
• Op-Ed, David Ignatius: Bush’s Iran Policy Has Failed – Washington Post
• Op-Ed, David Broder: Governors look to Obama on economy – Washington Post
• Illinois’ budget doomsday – St. Louis Post Dispatch
• Will Alaska pay price for ousting Stevens? – Anchorage Daily News

Pakistan Newspaper: Pakistanis Could Pull Troops from Afghan Border, Tribal Areas

Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper reports Sunday that Pak officials deem the next 48 hours crucial in determining the near future of Indian-Pakistani relations.

In the story, officials are reported as saying that the Indian government is turning up the heat on Pakistan without evidence of Pak involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.  The officials are also reportedly saying that Pakistan would pull its troops from the war on terror on the Afghan border to ostensibly maintain a better defensive posture in the east on the Indian border. The text of the story is below:

By Mubashir Zaidi, Dawn Correspondent
ISLAMABAD, Nov, 29: Pakistan’s security apparatus on Saturday warned of mounting tensions with India in days to come following Mumbai terror attacks.

Quoting the recent statements emanating from New Delhi, security officials termed the next 48 hours crucial to determine how the situation was going to unfold.

The security officials said Pakistan would wind up its “war on terror” on the western borders if the situation in the east spiralled out of control.

In a background briefing for journalists, the top security officials categorised the current state of Pakistan-India relations as tense.

“They (Indians) are taking the escalation level up at a very brisk pace,” a top security official said.

The officials went on to dub the situation as crisis-like and said Pakistan would pull out ‘all the troops’ currently deployed in the country’s northwest in case India deployed troops on the border with Pakistan.

They said that there were about 90,000 troops fighting militant groups in the tribal belt.

They said no clue had been found so far about involvement of any Pakistani entity in the Mumbai attacks.

“If Indians have any evidence they should share with us,” said a top security official.

The security officials said officially India had only conveyed that Mumbai attack conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan.

Unbelievable: Captured Mumbai Terrorist Tells Docs “I don’t want to die.”

I couldn’t believe this roughly 1 1/2 minute video I found on the Times of India website.  Apparently the single caputured terrorist, Azam Amir Qasab, told hospital staff where he was taken after his caputure that he didn’t want to die.  According to the report he told officials at the hospital, “We had been instructed to kill to the last death.”

There are several other reported quotes from Qasab in the video which can be found here.

Mumbai Terrorist Siege Over – Now the Aftermath

• Battle for Mumbai ends – Times of India
• Pakistani foreign minister cuts trip to India short – Times of India
• Fears of rising British death toll – Times of London
• Mumbai seige over – New York Times
• Armed teams sowed chaos with precision – New York Times
• The aftermath – New York Times
• U.S. intelligence focuses on Pakistani group – New York Times
• Op-Ed, Suketu Mehta: What they hate about Mumbai – New York Times
• Pakistani militants at center of probe – Washington Post
• Pakistan: “We have nothing to hide.” – Daily Mail (U.K.)

Text: President-elect Barack Obama Statement on Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

(Source: Office of the President-Elect)

“President-elect Obama strongly condemns today’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the people of India. These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism. The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks. We stand with the people of India, whose democracy will prove far more resilient than the hateful ideology that led to these attacks,” said Brooke Anderson, Chief National Security Spokesperson.

Mumbai Terror Attacks: Update 10 a.m. EST – November 28

• Nariman House op still on; 5 hostages dead - Times of India
• Explosions continue at Taj Hotel – Times of India
• Paks will send ISI chief to India – NDTV
• Death toll hits 143 as fighting continues – New York Times
• Two Americans confirmed dead – Washington Post

Mumbai Terror Attacks: Evening Update – November 27

• In a first, India refuses to negotiate with terrorists – Times of India
• One terrorist left in Taj – Times of India
• Pak role under scrutiny – Times of India
• FBI team on way to India – Times of India
• Commandos fight to clear last gunmen – BBC
• Death toll expected to rise as end of siege nears – New York Times
• Al-Qaeda hallmarks? – Associated Press
• Who are Mumbai terrorists? – Sky News

Map of Mumbai Terror Attack Sites

From NDTV:

Update 9:30 a.m.: Mumbai Terror Attacks

Railway Station in Wake of Attack

• India sees ‘external links’ in attacks - Reuters
• Two MPs in Taj Hotel are safe - Sindh Today (Pakistan)
• 6 killed 200 trapped in Oberoi Trident - Times of India
• Army is preparing for final assault - Times of India
• Canadians among hostages - CBC
• Witnesses describe attackers arrival by sea - The Guardian
• Sophisticated attacks but Al-Qaeda link disputed – New York Times
• Indian troops work to free hostages – Washington Post

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