Since I’ve been traveling all day today I was remiss in not posting about the horrible terrorist attacks in India. Something which intelligence agencies were expecting according to the Times of London:
Western intelligence services have been expecting an al-Qaeda spectacular terrorist attack in this crucial period between the end of President George Bush’s administration and the succession of Barack Obama.
Signals intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation might be plotting an attack “to grab the headlines” before Mr Obama takes over in the White House on January 20.
British security and intelligence sources said there had been increasing concern, particularly in the United States, that a “terrorist spectacular” was on the cards.
And it was indeed something which would grab the headlines.
Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a Jewish center, killing at least 101 people and holding Westerners hostage in coordinated attacks on India’s commercial center that were blamed on Muslim militants. Dozens of people were still trapped or held captive Thursday.
Police and gunmen were exchanging occasional gunfire at two luxury hotels and dozens of people were believed held hostage or trapped inside the besieged buildings. Pradeep Indulkar, a senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry said 101 people were killed and 314 injured.
Among the dead were at least one Australian, Japanese and British national he said. Officials said eight militants had also been killed in the coordinated attacks on at least 10 sites that began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Gunmen also seized the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch. Indian commandos surrounded the building Thursday morning and witnesses said gunfire was heard from the building.
~~~Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen who was dining at the Oberoi, told Sky News television that a gunman ushered 30 to 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and, speaking in Hindi or Urdu, ordered everyone to put up their hands.
Recent Attacks on Americans and Interests in India
“They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said: ‘Where are you from?” and he said he’s from Italy and they said ‘fine’ and they left him alone. And I thought: ‘Fine, they’re going to shoot me if they ask me anything — and thank God they didn’t,” he said.
Bill Roggio on who is behind the attack:
A group called the Deccan Mujahideen, or Indian Mujahideen, has taken credit for today’s strike, the Times of India just reported.
While it is certainly possible that the group is taking credit for another’s handiwork, the Indian Mujahideen has been implicated as being behind several recent attacks in India.
The group claimed credit for the July 25 and 26 bombings in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. At least 36 Indians were killed and more than 120 were wounded in the attacks. The Indian Mujahideen took credit for the Sept. 13 attacks in New Delhi that resulted in 18 killed and more than 90 wounded. The group also claimed credit for the bombings in Jaipur last May (60 killed, more than 200 wounded), and bombings in Uttar Pradesh in November 2007 (14 killed, 50 wounded).
Indian intelligence believes the Indian Mujahideen is a front group created by Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami to confuse investigators and cover the tracks of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, or SIMI, a radical Islamist movement. The groups receive support from Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence and are al Qaeda affiliates.
Although a commenter at Hot Air who is supposedly in Mumbai said its a red herring:
Latest reports here say Intel claiming “Deccan Mujahadeen” is a red herring and “foreign elements” at play i.e. Pakistani terrorist.
Our friends were supposed to do dinner at the Oberoi last night. Thank goodness for a migrane headache.
Another report says 2 US intel officers have been killed at the Taj.
This is not over yet.
However, this new report is stating that the attack most definitely originated from Pakistan:
According to highly reliable intelligence sources, two boatfuls of weapons and some 18-20 terrorists most likely came from Karachi in Pakistan.
Intelligence agencies are zeroing in on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba as the agency behind the terror attacks.
The initial interrogation of terrorists captured in Mumbai has yielded some basic information. According to sources, for some time the directions kept coming “live” to the terrorists in Mumbai via satellite phones.
The intelligence sources said information is coming out quite rapidly because some six terrorists, who are in the custody of the Mumbai police, are under interrogation right now. He said the entire operation was led by Pakistani operators of the LeT but he doesn’t rule out the involvement of some local youngsters in it.
You can see how spread out these coordinated attacks were at this Google Map address.
And even more shocking is the supposed number of attackers (via Hot Air)
MSNBC was streaming IBN just now and a correspondent speculated that we’re looking at maybe 100 suspects here, maybe more. How was a group that large trained and equipped well enough to carry out coordinated attacks without anyone leaking or Indian counterterror knowing about it? See now why Roggio thinks ISI might be at work here?
And Pam at Atlas Shrugs has more on the anti-semitic angle of the attack.
And the world awaits the newly elected, completely inexperienced and way over his head President-elect Obama’s call to India to stop their aggression against the terrorists.
Oh wait, that would never happen right?
Meanwhile there is some slight buyers remorse: (h/t American Power)
Watching these scenes from Mumbai, I am a little more sympathetic to arguments that Obama needs experience and stability at Defense as he takes charge. But just a little. It would be wrong to let an ugly terror attack, wherever it occurs, shake our values and our commitment to a sane foreign and defense policy. We tried that seven years ago and look where it got us.
Where did it get us? How many attacks on US soil have been committed since 9/11 again?
That’s what it got us dummy.
Print This Post
Trackbacks
46 comments so far
Leave a reply
Identity Verification: If you wish to verify your commenter identity, so no one can steal it, click the below button: