US expert calls Mumbai terrorist attacks ‘a domestic issue’

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60664&Itemid=2


NEW YORK, Nov 28 (APP): A senior American political scientist and a South Asia expert has cautioned against rushing to blame any one for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying India’s domestic problems and long tensions between local communities were at the root of the rise of terrorism in the South Asian country.
“This is a domestic issue,” Christine Fair of the Rand Corporation, a conservative think‑tank, was quoted as saying in the course of a New York Times dispatch on Friday in which security officials and experts pointed out that that the assaults represented a marked departure in scope and ambition from other recent terrorist attacks in India, which targeted local people rather than foreigners and hit single rather than multiple targets.

Ms. Fair said: “The economic disparities are startling and India has been very slow to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem”.

“This is a major domestic political challenge for India,” she said.

“Indians will have a strong incentive to link this to Al Qaeda,” she said. “But this is a domestic issue. This is not India’s 9/11.”

But Ms. Fair said insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be local persons and not linked to Al Qaeda or abroad.

The Mumbai assault, by contrast, was ‘uniquely disturbing’, said Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London, because it seemed directed

at foreigners, involved hostage‑taking and was aimed at multiple “soft, symbolic targets.” The attacks aimed to create maximum terror

and human carnage and damage the economy,” he told The Times in a telephone interview.

[seemslikeadream]

1. No terrorist possesses weapons like AK-47s and MP-6 guns, unless aided by more powerful organization

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=awu7hpT_qSVM&refer=canada

India Attacks Indicate Al-Qaeda Link, Experts Say (Update1)

By Gregory Viscusi

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The terrorist attacks that killed at least 101 people in Mumbai late yesterday displayed a level of coordination and choice of targets that indicate international involvement, security experts say.

The attacks were “certainly carried out by groups linked to al-Qaeda,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Sky TG24 television today.

While experts weren’t so categorical, they said the signs pointed, at a minimum, to groups inspired by al-Qaeda and bombings in London and Madrid that followed the 2001 attacks on the U.S.

Teams of militants armed with grenades and rifles stormed the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel and the Oberoi Trident complex at about 10 p.m. yesterday, saying they were targeting Americans and Britons. They also attacked police stations, a Jewish community center, and a train station. Indian commandos later freed some of the hostages being held by the militants.

“Highly symbolic but soft targets such as fancy hotels and the train station, and the use of synchronized coordinated teams, does show some of the same modus operandi as al-Qaeda- linked attacks in London and Madrid,” said Andrea Plebani, a researcher at Centro Volta, a research institute based in Como, Italy. “But it’s obviously too early to draw any conclusions.”

The attacks were claimed by the Deccan Mujahedeen, a previously little-known group, the Press Trust of India said. Such assertions are meaningless, because groups make up one-time names for attacks or make bogus claims, said Anne Stenersen, a researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment.

[FarCenter]

6. They appear to have used the widely available AK-47 and AK-56

The LeT of Pakistan has been engaged in irregular warfare against India for decades.

They don't need help from Al Qaeda.

[Cleita]

2. Christine Fair of the Rand Corporation. That's enough for me.

One of my roommates worked there as a programmer until she couldn't take their ignoring of research to make it fit the outcome and other things that today we would call spin. Of course, it's a Muslim problem. :sarcasm: Isn't everything in the right wing world a Muslim problem?

[stillcool]

3. Maybe...

From Asia Times..

South Asia
Nov 22, 2008
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JK22Df03.html
Faith in India's army shaken by blasts
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE
- Investigations into recent bomb blasts in India have led to the arrest of several Hindus and for the first time ever, a serving officer of the Indian army.

The arrests have triggered heated debate on whether the arrests indicate the existence of "Hindu terrorism". More worryingly, the probes point to the possibility of the hitherto secular and apolitical Indian army being infected by the communal virus.

Six people were killed and over 80 injured in blasts on September 29 in the Muslim-dominated town of Malegaon, about 260 kilometers from Mumbai. A few hours later, a bomb went off near a mosque in Modasa town in Gujarat, where Muslims were offering special Ramadan prayers, killing two people.

Investigations have led to the arrest of about 10 people, including Ajay Rahirkar, Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dhawade (all members of the Hindu extremist organization, the Abhinav Bharat), Dayanand Pandey (a self-styled Hindu "guru") Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur (an "ascetic" who is a member of the Durga Vahini - the women's wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad - and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad - the students' wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party - BJP).

These were not members of fringe, underground outfits but people with links to the BJP and its fraternal organizations. Thakur, for instance, is known to be close to BJP president Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. There are photographs of her with these BJP bigwigs. Investigations are revealing that their activities might have been funded by business houses as well.
--
But even as Indians are heatedly debating whether "Hindu terrorism" exists, another worrying issue has been thrown up by the investigations. Three men arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts are from the armed forces. They include one serving officer, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, and two retired officers, Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Colonel Shailesh Raikar.

Thirty-eight-year-old Purohit has the dubious distinction of being the first serving officer of the Indian army to be arrested in connection with a terrorist attack. He has been described as the "mastermind" of the Malegaon blasts. He allegedly procured the explosives (he is said to have provided RDX from the army depot) and funding for the blasts, provided training and co-ordinated the blasts. He is said to have arranged for fake military ID cards providing access for Abhinav Bharat activists to army bases. Purohit is said to have worked several stints in military intelligence. His role in several other terrorist attacks over the past few years, including the February 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express or Friendship Train linking Delhi with Lahore in Pakistan, is now under the scanner.

...and from the latest ...

A group identifying itself as the Deccan Mujahideen said it was responsible, per emails sent to news organizations. Virtually nothing is known of this group. "Deccan" is an area of India and "Mujahideen" is the plural form of a Muslim participating in jihad. Security officials believe it unlikely an unknown group could carry out such a precise and heavily-armed attack.

It is more likely to be the work of the Indian Mujahideen, an Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for other attacks in India. On Thursday morning, speaking from inside the Oberoi where foreigners are being held hostage, a man identified as Sahadullah told India TV he belonged to an Indian Islamist group seeking to end the persecution of Indian Muslims: "We want all mujahideens held in India released and only after that we will release the people."

No one knows how the terrorists arrived in the city. One theory is that they came from the sea in an explosives-laden boat. But there is no doubt about their agenda.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JK28Df01.html

[hlthe2b]

4. I'm really tired of that "Expert" label being thrown around so freely

Our press damn well needs to take a step back before promoting every damned opinion from their "so-called experts."

There are international consequences, as serious as they come, that can follow some of these premature or totally unfounded "expert" comments.

If we actually had a competent Secretary of State, one would think she would have staff that would help our MSM screen or at least find a "counter" some of these "experts" who are all too anxious to voice their opiniona, worthless as they might be.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Qaida in partnership with Lashkar in India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Qaida_in_partnership_with_Lashkar_in_India/articleshow/3771746.cms

NEW DELHI: Terror does leave a calling card. As the enormity of the attack on Mumbai sank in, it seemed like the arrival of al-Qaida in India, a
version of 9/11 designed to attract a global audience given the scale of violence and the planned targeting of westerners.

With the capture of a terrorist, the actual authors were revealed. It wasn't the al-Qaida. But the jihadi credentials were not much less impressive with Lashkar-e-Taiba named as the suspect. Given the operation's obvious planning, few doubted it was the deadly firm of LeT-ISI in action yet again.

Yet the difference between LeT and al-Qaida is not so significant as might have once been the case. In recent years, Lashkar has emerged as not only the single largest pan-Indian terror threat, but also a partner with al-Qaida in jihadi battlegrounds like Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan. It has shared training camps and cadre and used al-Qaida-Taliban facilities for a "jihad" against India.

It has been proscribed by US and UK who have recognised LeT to be a global terrorist organisation. In UK, it has been allied to the Kashmiri underground, for long recognised as one of the easiest way to get into the jihadi circuit which leads to Pakistan. It poses as a charity and openly seeks donations in Pakistani cities for the "Kashmir cause" and its leader, Prof Hafiz Saeed, is allowed free movement apart from occasional cosmetic spells of house arrest.



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Battle_ends_in_Mumbai_death_toll_rises_to_195/articleshow/3771119.cms

Battle for Mumbai ends, death toll rises to 195

[mmonk]

7. Now there's an objective source. The Rand "corporation".