Dec 03 2008 - Town Hall
by Austin Bay
The Islamist terrorist attack on Mumbai sets the stage for another major war between India and Pakistan. To avoid it, statesmen will have to control inflamed public passion and manipulative politicians as well as confront the terrorists responsible for the heinous crime.
Diplomats know the act of mass murder spurs legitimate anger and rage. Mumbai's death toll reached 180 earlier this week, with some 240 people wounded. Most of the dead were Indians, but the list of victims included foreigners from at least 12 other countries, including the United States, Germany, China, Great Britain and Israel.
Jan 05 2009 - Washington Times
NEW DELHI | The sophistication of the Mumbai attacks points to the involvement of "state actors" in Pakistan, India's home minister said Sunday, ahead of a visit to the United States with a dossier of evidence.
Dec 31 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ––India's president signed an anti–terror bill into law Wednesday to boost police powers in the wake of a bloody attack on the country's financial capital, officials said.
Dec 31 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) ––A militant arrested in Pakistan has confessed involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and is giving investigators details of the plot, a senior Pakistani government official said Wednesday.
Dec 28 2008 - Stratfor
by Fred Burton
The Trident–Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels in Mumbai reopened Dec. 21, less than one month after the Nov. 26 Mumbai attack that left more than 170 people dead. During that crisis, hotel guests and visitors became trapped after coming under attack from militants using guns, grenades and other weapons to kill indiscriminately. As the investigation into the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack continues, New Delhi has demanded that Islamabad take action to control its militant proxies and militants operating from Pakistan. Because Islamabad has not yet met New Delhi’s demands, Pakistan and India stand on the brink of military confrontation.
Dec 23 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ––India's prime minister insisted Tuesday that "nobody wants war" as he tried to calm fears a day after Pakistan sent fighter jets into the skies amid heightened tensions between the two nations.
Dec 22 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ––The lone captured gunman from last month's deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai stated in a letter handed over to Pakistani officials Monday that he is a Pakistani citizen, authorities said.
Dec 21 2008 - Washington Times
MUMBAI | Doormen in white suits and black turbans greeted visitors to the Oberoi with a bow on the eve of the hotel's reopening three weeks after it was targeted in a militant rampage. Security was noticeably tighter Saturday as guards scanned luggage and sniffer dogs patrolled the lobby.
Dec 21 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
Mumbai, India –– Emerging from decades of government control and regulations, India's media is quickly evolving into a boisterous, zealous Fourth Estate, most observers agree. But coverage of the 67–hour Mumbai terrorist attacks has caused unprecedented condemnation of the media, especially 24–hour television news channels. Critics describe it as "TV terror" for showing gory scenes, and for being too aggressive and often incorrect.
Dec 20 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
MUMBAI, India (AP) ––The two luxury hotels targeted in the Mumbai terror attacks prepared Saturday to reopen with tightened security, welcoming guests again for the first time since the rampages that killed 164 people and left the Oberoi and Taj Mahal in tatters last month.
Dec 15 2008 - Wall Street Journal
by SHIKHA DALMIA |
For three bloody days, just 10 determined killers held a city of 18 million hostage. The sheer ignominy of this fact has jolted Mumbaikars –– and Indians –– out of their fabled chalta hai (anything goes) attitude, and into a burst of citizen activism. Even Mumbai's business community has shed its habitual political timidity and filed an extraordinary public–interest lawsuit demanding that the government fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect its citizens.
But Indians shouldn't just stop there. They should also demand reform of the country's draconian gun laws –– a holdover from British times –– that prevent them from defending themselves. That would surely deliver far quicker results than waiting for India's slow–moving political classes to plug the vast lacunae in the country's security apparatus.
Dec 13 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
MUMBAI, India (AP) ––The gunman captured in last month's Mumbai attacks told police he had originally intended to seize hostages and call the media to make demands, according to his confession statement obtained Saturday by The Associated Press.
Dec 10 2008 - Seattle PI
MUMBAI, India –– Police released names and photographs of Islamic militants who staged the bloody three–day siege of Mumbai and said they uncovered new details about the gunmen –– including hometowns in Pakistan.
Dec 09 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
MUMBAI, India (AP) ––India police released the names Tuesday of nine suspected Islamic militants killed during their attack on Mumbai, bolstering India's charges that all of them came from Pakistan.
Dec 08 2008 - Heritage Foundation
by Lisa Curtis
Wednesday's terrorist strikes in Mumbai are the latest in a string of attacks across India over the last year, most of which appear to have been perpetrated by local Islamists with external links. These most recent attacks should lead to greater counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and New Delhi, two nations whose interests in countering regional and global terrorism continue to converge.At the same time, these strikes could heighten tensions between India and Pakistan, especially if investigations reveal that the attackers received training, finances, or logistical support from Pakistan–based terror groups. Indeed, Indian authorities have already begun to accuse Pakistan–based groups of having links to Wednesday's attacks.
Dec 08 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
by Boaz Ganor
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which have been dubbed India's 9/11, illustrate the severity of the jihad terrorist threat, the cruelty of terrorists who believe they are fulfilling a divine commandment, and the determination of the jihadists to fight to the bitter end against those they consider infidels – whether Buddhists, Christians, Jews or even Muslims who oppose their extreme, violent version of Islam.
Dec 07 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ––India's foreign minister denied Sunday that he had phoned Pakistan's president at the height of the Mumbai terrorist siege, prompting its air force to go on high alert, but Pakistani officials insisted he — or someone else in his ministry — had placed the call.
Dec 05 2008 - Seattle PI
by NABANITA DUTT
India is no stranger to terrorism. Eight years before 9/11, serial bomb blasts had ripped through Mumbai, killing hundreds and wounding many more. Since then, the attacks have kept coming with depressing and terrifying regularity.
Never before, however, has a terrorist attack had such a dramatic and traumatic effect on the Indian psyche. There have been calls for a retaliatory military strike against Pakistan, which many Indians believe is the source of this terrorism. There has been widespread anger against India's politicians who are being seen as incompetent, effete and unable to protect civilians. The Indian police keep arresting suspects whom they describe as "terror masterminds," but those arrests do little to prevent further episodes.
Much of the trauma also has to do with the audacity of the attack. Indian investigators say there were just 10 terrorists, armed with assault rifles and carrying backpacks filled with spare ammunition and hand grenades. The terrorists arrived by boat on the Mumbai seafront, took taxis to four destinations and opened fire at random.
Dec 05 2008 - Times Union, Albany NY
by JAY BOOKMAN
Every time terrorists strike, the civilized world vows not to let them win. Yet time after time, we give them exactly the victory they seek.
In the Middle East, Palestinian terrorists have attacked repeatedly in hopes of disrupting peace efforts; time after time, they've gotten their way.
In the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden made it clear that he was trying to provoke the United States into an overreaction; by invading Iraq, an oil–rich Islamic country that had nothing to do with 9/11, we gave him just what he wanted. Iraq became a great recruiting tool and rallying point for al–Qaida.
So it's pretty simple: If you want to deny victory to terrorists, you figure out what they're trying to get you to do. Then you don't do it.
Dec 04 2008 - Forbes.com
by Tunku Varadarajan
Taking stock, after the mayhem.
The terrorist assault on Mumbai has only just ended, and India has entered a period of urgent self–examination, bitter soul–searching––and increasingly acrid recrimination. Here are five lessons that present themselves––to the naked eye––in the aftermath.
1. India is an incredibly soft target for terrorists. Mumbai, India's financial hub, lacked its own SWAT teams and commandos. They had to be flown in from the capital, New Delhi (with the interior minister announcing, on TV, that 200 of them were on their way ... talk about a free gift of information to the terrorists!). One cannot imagine that the small number of terrorists who assaulted Mumbai were the only ones trained at the Pakistani camps whence they came. So: What will happen if terrorists attack, next, the information technology hubs in Bangalore and Hyderabad, the high–tech heart of India's economy? Or the Taj Mahal in Agra, arguably the most famous building in the world?
Dec 03 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ––Police on Wednesday discovered leftover explosives hidden in a bag in Mumbai's main train station — a stunning new example of botched security after the deadly rampage that left the government open to accusations it missed warnings and bungled its response.
