Pak It Up
Today’s South Asian reader starts with a captured Pak terrorist’s alleged confession that he’s Lashkar-e-Taiba. ISI chief’s Delhi visit off. Pak troops could move to India’s border. Pak pres, after tense meeting with Pak military, promises action on and and all Mumbai plotters. All of which either bodes very ill for India-Pak relations, or means Pakistan will at long last be compelled to get out of the devil’s bed. So far, it’s boding ill for India, Pakistan, the United States and Afghanistan, as extremist Islam’s agenda … war and chaos … takes a step forward. Daily Mail:
The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’.
Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people.
He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages.
The British Raj does India one last little favor:
Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the
105-year-old building’s solid foundations.
As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces.
Yesterday, Kasab chillingly went through details of Wednesday night’s killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police.
He pretended to be dead, which probably saved his life. It was only when he was being transferred to hospital by ambulance that his accompanying officer noticed he was still breathing.
THE Indian authorities yesterday claimed to have proof that the Mumbai terrorists were receiving instructions from Pakistan and discussing tactics with their handlers during the three days of attacks in which they killed at least 195 people.
The claims threaten further to embitter relations between the two nuclear powers. Tensions have been high since confirmation that the only captured gunman was a 21-year-old Pakistani.
It has also emerged that India had been warned that terrorists were planning an attack in Mumbai.
Times of India: Paks may relocated 100,000 soldiers from its Afghan to its Indian border.
KARACHI: Pakistan may relocate around 100,000 military personnel from its restive border area with Afghanistan if there is an escalation in tension with India, which has hinted at the involvement of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai carnage, a media report said on Sunday.A private channel reported that Pakistan’s military and intelligence sources told a select group of journalists on Sunday that NATO and American command had been told that Islamabad would be forced to relocate its military from the borders with Afghanistan if there is escalation in tension with India, where nearly 200 people were killed in the multiple terror attacks on the Indian financial capital.
“These sources have said NATO and the US command have been told that Pakistan would not be able to concentrate on the war on terror and against militants around the Afghanistan border as defending its borders with India was far more important,” Geo News quoted senior Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir as saying.
He also said the sources had briefed the media that the decision not to send the ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha to India was taken after Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee used a very aggressive tone with Pakistani officials on telephone after the Mumbai attacks.
“The decision to not send the ISI DG to India was taken because Mukherjee used strong words with Pakistani officials and warned of consequences,” Mir quoted the military sources as saying.
Times of India editorial: It’s War. No, not with Pakistan. With al-Qaeda, and the in stability that harbors AQ. Pakistan, you listening? TOI wants you stabilized:
This nation is under attack. The scale, intensity and level of orchestration of terror attacks in Mumbai put one thing beyond doubt: India is effectively at war and it has deadly enemies in its midst. Ten places in south Mumbai were struck in quick succession.
As in the case of the demolition of New York’s World Trade Center in 2001, Mumbai’s iconic monuments such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus have come under attack. The number of people killed in multiple attacks is 101 and counting, which includes foreigners and senior policemen. At least 300 have been injured.
The terrorists who carried out the attacks are well supplied, armed to the teeth and extremely well motivated. The question now is whether the nation can show any serious degree of resolve and coordination in confronting terror. This war can be won, but it will require something from the political class, from security forces and from ordinary people. It’s time now to move beyond pointing fingers at one another or resorting to cliches such as ‘resilient Mumbai’. It’s also time to end the habit of basing one’s stand on terrorism on the particular religious affiliation of terrorists, criticising or exonerating them using their religion a point of reference. Terrorists have no religion. Political bickering on this issue is divisive; what India needs now is unity.
…
Besides terrorists coming in from the Arabian Sea, their looking for Americans, Britons and Israelis give the signal that the attack on Mumbai is a spillover from the larger war on terror. Al-Qaeda is, for the first time, feeling the pressure in its Pakistani sanctuaries as it is under Pakistani and American attack. But South Asian borders are notoriously porous. Al-Qaeda affiliated organisations such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) have struck deep roots in Bangladesh.
To tackle terror in India it is urgently necessary to stabilise Pakistan and Bangladesh. And, India should seek international help now to upgrade its own security apparatus, but also to stabilise the entire region stretching from Afghanistan to Bangladesh. There is no time to waste.
Pak Dawn: Mumbai tests Pak govt-mil ties. India-Pak tensions up.
ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: The country’s top political and military leaders met on Saturday to discuss the tricky situation resulting from the Indian government’s move to blame “elements within Pakistan” for the Mumbai carnage, but some of the actions and statements in response to Delhi’s tirade were indicative of a growing gulf between the government and the security establishment on ways and means to handle the affair.
The Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, had a detailed meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Sources in the government said the discussions came on the heels of the blame game initiated by New Delhi against Islamabad and the latter’s response to the accusations.
Although there was no official word on what actually transpired during the meeting, official and unofficial statements emanating from different quarters of the establishment suggested clear differences in perception, if not on the response to India’s blame game.
Following this meeting of the so-called troika, the prime minister chaired the meeting of his cabinet to formalise the government’s response. And President Asif Zardari took out time to speak to an Indian news channel to assure of Pakistan’s fullest help and support in investigations into the Mumbai carnage.
“As the president of Pakistan let me assure you that if any evidence is found, I will take action against those involved… without hesitation, no matter where it will lead to,” he told Indian journalist Karan Thapar in the interview.
But while sympathising with the people of India, particularly those in Mumbai, President Zardari also appealed to them to go beyond self-interest and work collectively to isolate what he described as “non-state actors” involved in terrorism.
The president also clarified that instead of the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a senior official of the agency would be visiting India to hold talks on sharing of evidence. He said if at a later stage a need was felt for a greater cooperation, DGs of the two countries’ intelligence services could also meet to discuss such matters.
The clarification came hours after the government announced on Friday that it had decided to send the ISI chief to Delhi at the Indian prime minister’s request.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while briefing the media on the cabinet meeting and other related developments, also offered cooperation to investigate the matter. Although he did not sound alarming in his comments, he did call upon the Indian side to take effective measures to lower the level of tension.
However, officials of the country’s security establishment smell a rat in the Indian move and the way pressure is being built on Pakistan over the Mumbai issue. A senior security official minced no words in declaring that because of the rising tension, the next 24 to 48 hours were extremely crucial.
He squarely accused India of indulging in the blame game without even investigating the matter and said that at this stage Pakistan’s security establishment was applying methods to avoid what he called an unwanted war.
Dawn editorial urges restraint. Here’s a thought. How about restraints on ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda in Pakistan. Maybe some hoods over their heads enroute to Guantanamo, as well. But this may be a measured, discreet Pak way of saying that:
Without apportioning blame on each other they should cooperate in the investigations to make them productive and facilitate effective measures for domestic security in the two countries while promoting bilateral understanding between them.
Agreed: facilitate effective measures for domestic security … chained down on mattresses and hooded, in military transport cargo holds, all the way to Guantanamo!
Guardian: Indian fury at Pakistan amid mounting evidence. And a wry observation:
Analysts said that the omens did not look good for the peace process between India and Pakistan. ‘I expect a very difficult time ahead,’ said Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington. ‘Anything short of a real and genuine effort to co-operate by Pakistan would send very, very bad signals - not just to India but to the US and to Europe too.’
Der Spiegel: India’s pointing in the right direction.
The attacks were an attempt to spread religious war from the whole of Afghanistan and regions of Pakistan to their southern neighbor, India. It’s obvious the terrorists follow the ideology of al-Qaida, though it’s unclear whether the head of that organization gave orders for this mission. Perhaps we’ll never know — it wouldn’t be the first time. But we can assume the murderers from Mumbai see themselves as part of an international movement in which Zawahiri and bin Laden hold high ranks.
Now the population of India, shocked to the core by the brutality, is pointing unmistakably in one direction: to the northwest. “Elements with links to Pakistan” are responsible for the massacre, says India’s foreign minister. Several terrorists have Pakistani backgrounds, say Indian officials, though the government has so far presented no firm evidence. But a lack of evidence does not mean Pakistan had nothing to do with the well-planned attacks.
On the contrary: The Indian embassy in Kabul was made the target of a bloody attack earlier this summer. Western intelligence services have traced the attackers in that case back to the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI. Pakistani groups in the past have often been responsible for terror attacks in India. Of course, there are also “homegrown” jihadists in India as well. But in Pakistan, above all in its tribal area near the border with Afghanistan, these fighters have the territory they need to plan the spread of their war beyond its local confines.
NYT: Attacks imperil delicate US role between rivals.
WASHINGTON— As evidence mounts that last week’s attacks in Mumbai may have originated on Pakistani soil, American officials’ aggressive campaign to strike at militants in Pakistan may complicate efforts to prevent an Indian military response, which could lead to a conflict between the bitter enemies.
In December 2001, when Pakistani militants attacked India’s Parliament, and again this summer, when militants aided by Pakistani spies bombed the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan, the Bush administration used aggressive diplomacy to dampen anger in New Delhi.
This time, however, the Indian government might not be so receptive to the American message — and that could derail the coming Obama administration’s hopes of creating a broader, regional response to the threat posed by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already faced months of criticism from political rivals in India about his government’s decision not to respond forcefully to past acts of terrorism, and domestic anger over the carnage in Mumbai has increased the pressure on his government to strike back.
Officials in New Delhi might also feel less compelled to follow calls for a controlled response from the Bush administration, which has steadily escalated a campaign of airstrikes on Pakistani soil using remotely piloted aircraft. The Pentagon has even sent Special Operations forces into Pakistan to attack suspected militant targets, partly in an attempt to stop the militants from crossing the border into Afghanistan, where they are helping fuel an increasingly robust Taliban insurgency.
The White House has adopted a clear position to justify those attacks: if a country cannot deal with a terrorism problem on its own, the United States reserves the right to act unilaterally.
Should it become clear that the men who rampaged through Mumbai trained in Pakistan, even if the Pakistani government had no hand in the operation, what will stop the Indians from adopting the same position?
There would appear to be a few paths ahead.
Everything breaks down, India and Pakistan go to war. ISI and al Qaeda get what they want. War and chaos. Afghanistan goes to hell. Nuke threat high. High likelihood that an elected Pak government topples for military one, maybe an ISI-backed Islamic extremist one.
India and Pakistan ignore the provocation, and after a period of tensions everything continues on. ISI and al Qaeda continue to operate with (more) impunity, provocations continue. Waziristan remains a base of operations for jihad in Afghanistan.
India and Pakistan effectively ignore the provocation, and join forces to make war on ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and AQ in Waziristan instead, with US assistance. Pakistan stops playing both sides of the fence. Risky path threatens civil war in Pakistan, and a lot more blood before it’s over.
Bloomberg: Bush pledges full support to India.
“The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word,” Bush said yesterday as returned to the White House after spending Thanksgiving at Camp David in Maryland. India “can count on the world’s oldest democracy to stand by their side.”
The president conferred on the attacks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his national security advisers in a secure video conference at Camp David, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford in New Delhi also participated in the 7:30 a.m. Washington time call.
At least 195 people died in the attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish center, a railway station and a restaurant, said S Jadhav, an official at the Mumbai’s disaster management unit. More than 295 people were injured in attacks that ended early yesterday, Mumbai time.
Six Americans died in the carnage, and an unknown number are missing, Mulford said. India, with 1 billion people, is the world’s largest democracy.
“We pledge the full support of the United States as India investigates these attacks, brings the guilty to justice and sustains its democratic way of life,” Bush said in a statement on the South Lawn of the White House.
Mumbai Mirror photog: I wish I had a gun, not a camera. Armed Cops would not fire back.
Israel News Network: Rabbi covered wife’s body with a talit before his was killed.
via Gateway: Mumbai terrorists had drinks, dinner then shot the place up.
Barcepundit’s Day Five roundup.
Stop the ACLU on Koran-thumping nutbags.
Neoneocon re the unwillingness to shoot.
Topics: Afghanistan, GWOT, Pakistan, india
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:02 am on Sunday, November 30, 2008
2 Responses to “Pak It Up”
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November 30th, 2008 at 11:37 am
World pressure appears to be building on Pakistan. Good. They either clean up their house or the rest of the world is going to do it for them.
And I hope the Indians wring that cowardly little scumbag Azam dry and then send him to Gitmo to rot for the rest of his worthless life.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Leave it to the New York Times to suggest that American “escalation” has not just been setting a bad example, it has compromised our ability to prevent a war between India & Pakistan. The author unabashedly makes the reason for leading with this bizarre construction crystal clear: If war breaks out after Obama assumes office, it’s because Bush derailed any possible preventatives before he left town.
Goodbye to “Yes, we can.” Hello to “Well, we could have if it weren’t for Bush.”