US WAR Against Terror AFRESH Involving India As Well As Pakistan happems to Be the Latest BAILOUT Plan Amidst Global RECESSION! No SAFTEY, NOR SECURITY. No FREEDOM Nor SOVEREIGNITY, We, the PEOPLE Are Only SCAPEGOATS for the Galaxy Ruling Hegemony!

[PalashKL]

US WAR Against Terror AFRESH Involving India As Well As Pakistan
happems to Be the Latest BAILOUT Plan Amidst Global RECESSION! No
SAFTEY, NOR SECURITY. No FREEDOM Nor SOVEREIGNITY, We, the PEOPLE Are
Only SCAPEGOATS for the Galaxy Ruling Hegemony!

Mumbai attack: Indian American body working with Congress on giving
proper response! US sets stage for strikes if Pak does not act!Us says
advancing Indo-Pak ties best way to defeat Islamic terrorism!


Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 117

Palash Biswas

Rice to Pakistan - Get tough on terror
.S. Secretary State Condoleezza Rice speaks during news conference in
New Delhi December 3, 2008.REUTERS Vijay Mathur? of a>

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced trip to
Pakistan on Thursday to urge the Pakistani government to take a "tough
line" on terrorism in the wake of last week's militant attacks on
Mumbai. Full Article | Full Coverage
Slideshow | Video | Blogs | Column | Q+A | Scenarios | Factbox


http://in.reuters.com/

Reuters Insight: The Pakistan factor
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(01:20) Analysis
Dec. 4 - Walking a tight rope, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has urged Pakistan to take a hard line on terror while asking India to
show restraint in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.



Why is Pakistan such a crucial factor for the United States?

Madhu Soman, Reuters Consumer Media Editor gives us an analysis.





Gunmen seen near CST on CCTV
(01:17) Rough Cut
Dec. 3 - Two gunmen are seen here roaming a parking lot near the
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the night of Nov. 26 after a shooting
spree inside the station that left more than 50 dead.



This CCTV footage was obtained by Reuters.


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Rice's plea to Pakistan


(01:59) Report
Dec. 3 - The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Pakistan
to cooperate "fully and transparently" with investigations into the
Mumbai attacks.

India has said most, if not all, of the 10 militants who rampaged
through its financial capital were from Pakistan including the one
survivor.

Rice cut short a visit to Europe and flew to India after last week's
Mumbai attacks that killed at least 171 people.

She is expected to visit Pakistan as well.

Sonia Legg reports.

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Mumbai carnage: India's 9/11?
(02:15) Report
Dec 3 - Attacks in India raise questions about whether India is facing
its own 9/11, as US Secretary Rice offers support.

Exactly a week ago, militants armed with AK-47s and grenades let loose
on two of the best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks across
India's financial capital, during a 60-hour frenzy that ended when
commandos killed 9 gunmen.

Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

Speaker:Robert Hathaway, Wilson Center

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All measures taken to ensure safety at airports: govt
Press Trust of India - 1 hour ago
New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) As all major airports across the country
continued to maintain high alert, Government today said all measures
have been taken to ensure safety and security of passengers at
airports following heightened threat perceptions.
Panel to work on Air India's joint venture proposal Hindu
Major airports on high alert after hijack threats Indian Express
Times of India - NDTV.com - IBNLive.com - BBC News




Times Online
Mumbai calling
Times of India - 34 minutes ago
Though the acceptance for Pakistanis in Mumbai is grim at the moment,
Mikaal Zulfikar, the Pakistani actor, who played a terrorist in
Jagmohan Mundhra’s Shoot On Sight, is determined to shift base to
India.
India has proof ISI trained Mumbai attackers: Sources NDTV.com
Mumbai terror attack: Pakistan gives Condoleezza Rice pledge of ...
Times Online
MSN India - Straits Times - Newspost Online - Hindu
all 1,670 news articles » हिन्दी में »


ITV.com
Did 'D' finger mumbai?
Times of India - 33 minutes ago
The Dawood Ibrahim bogey has raised its ugly head again in the wake of
the terrorist attacks on Mumbai last week. Is the world’s most wanted
terrorist really behind the city’s 26/11?
India seeks Dawood Ibrahim’s extradition Economic Times
Dawood Ibrahim Indian Express
Press Trust of India - NDTV.com - Hindu - IBNLive.com
all 703 news articles » हिन्दी में »


Voice of America
Big 3 ask for $34 billion to keep industry alive
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Chastened
leaders of the US automobile industry returned to Washington on
Thursday to press their case for up to $34 billion in emergency loans
to keep the industry alive.
Automakers try to sell Congress on rescue Thursday The Associated
Press
Ahead of the Bell: Auto executives in Washington Forbes
Buffalo News - WCSH-TV - Reuters - Straits Times
all 416 news articles »



Telegraph.co.uk
Man said he warned Indian cops of activity
United Press International - 4 hours ago
MUMBAI, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A leader of a fishing community along the
Indian coast says he warned Indian officials of suspicious arms
activity months before the Mumbai assault.
Indian airports on high alert after fresh tip-off Sydney Morning
Herald
Pakistan And Terror, Thailand's Crisis, and India's Security Council
on Foreign Relations
New York Times - CBS News - Washington Post - PakTribune.com
all 2,452 news articles »




The Miami Herald
Mumbai terror attack: Pakistan gives Condoleezza Rice pledge of ...
Times Online - 54 minutes ago
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, met Pakistani government
and army leaders today and secured a pledge that they would take
strong action against anyone involved in last week's attack on Mumbai.
Zardari vows 'strong action' on terrorists PRESS TV
Indian airports on high alert after new warning The Associated Press
Times of India - Xinhua - KVEW - Straits Times
all 1,682 news articles »

Arab League to support India in its fight against terrorism
New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) Amid rising tensions in Indo-Pak ties after the
Mumbai attacks, the Arab League today extended support to New Delhi in
its fight against terrorism saying there was a need to "stand firm" in
tackling the menace.
Visiting Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa said every body
should join hands to root out terrorism and piracy.

"This is a responsibility on our shoulders. All of us should stand
firm against terrorism and against piracy," Moussa told PTI here.

His comments assume significance as international pressure on Pakistan
is increasing after India accused that "some elements" in Pakistan
were involved in the audacious attacks in Mumbai that left over 180
people dead.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has held consultation
with a number of world leaders including his counterpart from the UAE,
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to prevent the escalation of the
crisis.

Earlier, India and Arab League signed an Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) for setting up of a joint forum for cooperation to enhance their
ties in various fields including trade and commerce, culture and
communication technology.

Talking about the forum at a joint press conference with Moussa,
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said it will help both
sides to "reinvigorate and diversify relations". PTI

Indo-Pak tension harmful for Kashmiris: Omar

UMAR MAQBOOL

Updated at 1530 hours IST
Sheeri (Varmul), Dec 3: The National Conference president, Omar
Abdullah, on Wednesday said that mounting tension between India and
Pakistan would hit the people of Kashmir directly.
“Hostility between the two countries would harm Kashmiris, who have
been at the receiving end for past 20 years,” Omar said while
addressing a gathering here in north Kashmir.
He urged India and Pakistan to work collectively. “ If both countries
harden their stand it would prove disastrous,” he added.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/latest_Story.asp?Date=3_12_2008&ItemID=5

Us says advancing Indo-Pak ties best way to defeat Islamic terrorism

Washington, Dec.1 (ANI): America is convinced that the best way to
defeat Islamic terrorism is to advance Indian-Pakistani relations and
to persuade Islamabad to fight the common enemy on its doorstep.

To this end, Pakistani troops are spearheading a counter-insurgency
campaign in Pakistan’s tribal territories while US drones are
targeting al-Qaeda leaders.

The counter-attack from the militants has two aims: first, undermine
rapprochement between India and Pakistan by provoking a new conflict;
secondly, divert Pakistani forces away from their tribal territories
to redirect them to the common enemy, India.

If they achieve this second goal, it is likely that the US air
campaign will be blunted. It would give the Taleban and their allies a
freer hand to step up the violence against Afghanistan.

This weekend those responsible for the attack on Mumbai have cause to
celebrate. Indian leaders, the media and the public are calling for
revenge. The weakened Indian Government of Manmohan Singh, which faces
reelection next year, is under growing pressure to act.

While Pakistani leaders have insisted they are not responsible, this
will not convince many in the Indian security establishment. Through
bitter experience, they are used to the authorities in Islamabad
saying one thing and doing another. India expects Pakistan’s
leadership to be responsible for the actions of all branches of its
Government.

The only glimmer of hope in the depressing aftermath of last week’s
carnage is that the West may be in a strong position to respond.

Obama had already identified the importance of improving Indian-
Pakistani relations and resolving the dispute over Kashmir before last
week’s attacks. He is committed to sending more forces to Afghanistan
as American troops begin their withdrawal from Iraq. The incoming
Obama administration has rightly been focused on the economic crisis.
Foreign affairs must also now take priority. Mr Obama and his team
will have to hit the ground running. (ANI)

Mkts cheer, Sensex regains 9,000 mark

The BSE Sensex provisionally rose 5.41 per cent on Thursday as slower-
than-expected rise in inflation heightened expectations for an
interest rate cut. Banking stocks led the gains.
The 30-share main BSE index provisionally closed 482.32 points higher
at 9,229.75 with all its components rising.

The 50-share NSE index provisionally rose 131.55 points to 2,788.00.

US WAR Against Terror AFRESH Involving India As Well As Pakistan
happems to Be the Latest BAILOUT Plan Amidst Global RECESSION! No
SAFTEY, NOR SECURITY. No FREEDOM Nor SOVEREIGNITY, We, the PEOPLE Are
Only SCAPEGOATS for the Galaxy Ruling Hegemony!In a blunt message to
Pakistan, the USon Thursday asked it to investigate the
"circumstances" under which Mumbai terror attacks were carried out and
take the responsibility of dealing with non-state actors operating
from its territory.

While the Indians will hear out the Americans and discuss various
avenues of cooperation, including U.S. assistance in training and
equipping Indian security forces, New Delhi is highly unlikely to
accede to Washington’s request for calm and restraint. India just
experienced its own 9/11. After an attack of such magnitude, the
government has no choice but to respond, and that response inevitably
will be felt in Pakistan. This is not only politically driven: Though
the Indian government needs to demonstrate that it is taking action
against this threat, it also has a core national security interest in
ensuring that an attack like that in Mumbai cannot be
repeated.Washington’s desire for restraint is understandable. The
United States is shifting its military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan.
For counterterrorism efforts to succeed in that theater, the United
States needs to ensure, at the very least, that the Pakistani state is
intact. But with a weak and fractured government, a military and
intelligence establishment that has lost control, a spreading jihadist
insurgency and an economy on the brink of bankruptcy, Pakistan is not
in good shape. A military confrontation on its eastern border easily
could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in Islamabad, thereby
frustrating U.S. military operations in the region and creating an
even more fertile environment for jihadist activities in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, India and the wider world.

The fact that the U.S. economy is in the middle of a severe recession
exacerbates some of the challenges. Therefore, before starting our
note, it is worth commenting shortly on the first anniversary of the
current U.S. recession. Now it is official, the U.S. economy fell in
recession in December of 2007, as we expected. The definition of
recession is not limited to two quarters of negative growth, it is
more sophisticated than that. There are several indicators of economic
activity that the National Bureau of Economic Activity (NBER) takes
into consideration when analyzing business cycles – employment,
income, real manufacturing and wholesale-retail trade sales, and
industrial production.


After receiving inputs from intelligence agencies about possible
aerial strikes by terrorists, airports in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai
were put on high alert on Wednesday night as the reports suggested
that terrorists could have sneaked into India to carry out strikes on
the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. This seems to
be a classical example of the ruling hegemony to alienate the
Minorities from the Mainstream. Element of Blind nationalism opens the
Super Highway of Imperialism. The market Forces, FREEsenSEx,
Corporates, MNCs, India Incs, Builders and Policy Makers as well as
media and Politicians do evrything to ensure a WAR against Pakistan
with US Green Signal overlooking the complex Implications for Future,
Security and saftey of We, the Common People!


Is not this REPORT in itself classifying the Demography of Terror in
this subcontinent. We have seen the protests by We, The People in
Mumbai! We are reading and seing all types of outbirsts. Every Reprt,
Every Follow up, Every Mass Mobilisation , without any failure targets
the complex multi Ethnic Demography in this Subcontinent.

SIM cards used in Mumbai attack bought from Kolkata

Ten SIM cards were bought a month back from three different locations
in Kolkata and sent to Pakistan via Bangladesh out of which three were
used by Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists in the audacious Mumbai attack,
investigations have revealed.

The SIM cards were purchased from Park Street and 24 Parganas (South)
including Maheshtala in the name of Hossain-ur-Rahman and smuggled out
of the country through Indo-Bangladesh border and then to Pakistan,
official sources said.

The buyer of the pre-paid SIM cards had submitted forged election
identity card as proof of residence bearing address as Bashirhat, near
the Indo-Bangla border, they said, adding the agencies were trying to
locate remaining seven SIM cards.

The Mumbai police and security agencies had recovered five SIM cards
from the 10 terrorists involved in the November 26 attack at various
places in Mumbai that left over 180 people dead and over 300 injured.

The pre-paid SIM cards -- two from Delhi and three from West Bengal --
were purchased only a month back and credited with Rs 5,000 each, the
sources said.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman, the lone arrested terrorist, has told
interrogators that right through the strikes, the LeT headquarters in
Pakistan, remained very much in touch with them, frequently calling
their mobile phones via a Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), the
codes of which were being deciphered by the FBI and Scotland Yard
teams, camping in Mumbai.

Bangladesh militant group linked to Mumbai attack?

CNN-IBN
New Delhi: Security officials investigating last week’s terror attack
on Mumbai have found leads in West Bengal.


Preliminary investigation suggests that at least three SIM cards
recovered from the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai were bought from
Mirza Ghalib Street in Kolkata.


Seven other SIM cards were bought in Maheshtala in 24 Parganas
district. All the SIM cards were bought in the name of same person,
Hossain-ur Rahman, a resident of Basirhat, a town in West Bengal right
on the Indo-Bangla border.


Security officials tell CNN-IBN the possible involvement of Bangladesh-
based militant group Harkat-ul-Jihadi or Huji is being probed
extensively after the discovery of the SIM cards.


Huji has been cooperating with the Laskhar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan based
terrorist group which is suspected of sending the terrorists who
attacked Mumbai.


Interestingly, some time before the Mumbai blasts, the West Bengal
police received information from the Tripura police that a gang of
Huji militants had entered Bengal.


Another lead the investigators have got is a cell phone conversation
intercept in end-November showed that a group of terrorists, possibly
Huji, were discussing possible targets in Kolkata.


These included Nicco Park and Sector 5 IT hub in Kolkata and also the
Victoria Memorial. Kolkata police sources say there's no reason to
panic but they are taking the warning information seriously.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bangladesh-militant-group-linked-to-mumbai-attack/79726-3.html

International Relations | 04.12.2008
US Talks Tough With Pakistan on Mumbai Terror Attacks

Pressure is rising on Pakistan to take action against those
responsible for terror attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. India
remained on high alert following hijacking warnings.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to
mount a "robust response" to the serial terror attacks in the Indian
financial capital of Mumbai last week.



India has claimed evidence of a Pakistani involvement in the attacks,
which killed at least 188 people and wounded over 300. Islamabad has
denied these claims.



Rice is in Pakistan after rounding up a one-day visit to India on
Wednesday. She met with Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani in
Rawalpindi. Talks were also scheduled with President Asif Ali Zardari
and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.



Rice has said she is satisfied with Pakistan’s readiness to help India
with the probe into the attacks. "I have found the Pakistani
leadership focused and committed to act," she told reporters.



Pressure on Pakistan to respond to Mumbai attacks



US pressure has been mounting on Pakistan to take concrete steps
towards rooting out terror groups known to have a safe haven in the
Islamic nation. A day before Rice’s visit, chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen also visited Islamabad and urged
Pakistan to "investigate aggressively" any links Pakistani groups may
have to the Mumbai attacks.




Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Tensions are rising along the border.

Indian defense minister Pranab Mukherjee has warned that India is
considering all options to deal with Pakistan if it does not act
decisively. New Delhi has demanded the release of 20 terror suspects
wanted by India, but Islamabad has refused to do so, demanding
"tangible evidence."



Ties between the two long-time foes India and Pakistan have become
further strained since the shootings, especially with India facing
rising domestic pressure to take strong action against those
responsible for the attacks. Already, there are military tensions
along the Indo-Pakistan border.



The US fears the escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad
could be detrimental to their efforts to combat terrorism in
Pakistan’s northwest.



India on high security alert



Meanwhile, security has been stepped up in India following the
attacks. Airports in key cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and
Bangalore are on high alert following warnings from the Defense
Ministry of the possibility of attacks using hijacked aircraft. "This
is based on a warning which has been received by the government and we
are prepared as usual," Air Chief Marshall Fali Major told reports.
Fighter jets of the Indian Air Force are also on standby.


Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Pakistan Indien Neue Eiszeit Symbolfoto Flaggen Eiszapfen Grafik: DW /
Olof Pock 01.12.2008


Government sources said the alert was issued after intelligence inputs
that militants may have sneaked into India to hijack airplanes. The
country’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security said that said additional
paramilitary troops had also been deployed to guard the country’s
busiest international airports. Security has also been reinforced in
smaller city airports like Chandigarh and Guwahati.



International travelers have been advised to arrive three hours before
departures, and additional checks have been ordered for baggage and
security.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3848205,00.html

IBNLive reprts:
India unites, anti-terror marches across country!

Tens of thousands of people across the country poured into the
streets and held candle-light vigils and peace marches on Wednesday
evening in a spontaneous show of solidarity with residents of terror-
ravaged Mumbai which saw an unprecedented turnout at Gateway of India
voicing their anger against the politicians.


Shouting slogans, people gathered in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, near
Cubbon park in Bangalore, War Memorial in Secunderabad and at the
Maidan and College street in Kolkata, Lucknow and Chennai as Mumbai
emerged from the pall of shock and grief that hung over the city since
the 26/11 attacks that claimed more than 200 lives.


Posters and placards vividly captured the anger and concern as young
and old, women and children thronged the iconic red sandstone Gateway
to India opposite the Taj Mahal Hotel which along with Trident-Oberoi
Hotel, Nariman House, cafe Leopold and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Station bore the brunt of last Wednesday's terror attacks.


"Enough of terrorism", "Let us kill terrorism Halla Boll!",
"Politicians get out" and "We want acations not words" were some of
the messages conveyed in banners and placards.


"We have never seen such a show of solidarity for a single cause at
the Gateway of India," said Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar, as white candles
were lit around a wreath of red roses laid on the cobbled plaza of the
harbourfront structure.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-unites-antiterror-marches-across-country/79654-3-1.html

How India may be UNITED dividing the Indigenous DEMOGRAPHY Vertically
and Invoking HINDUTVA Dominant Blind Nationalism?

India has proof that the Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI was behind
the deadly Mumbai attacks. Sources have told NDTV that ISI trained the
attackers.

Not only United States of Ameriaca, Russia is also very KEEN to HELP
India! Why?The signing of a civil nuclear accord is set to dominate
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's maiden visit to India starting
Thursday. But in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, the
spotlight has now turned on counter-terrorism cooperation. Medvedev
will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday on a wide
spectrum of bilateral, regional and global issues, including civil
nuclear cooperation, counter-terrorism and the intensification of
economic, energy and defence ties between the two strategic partners
who have enjoyed strain-free ties for decades.

A pact on civil nuclear cooperation, that envisages Russia building
four additional reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in
Tamil Nadu, will be inked Friday in the presence of the two leaders.

A wide-ranging protocol on cooperation in trade, economic, scientific,
technological and cultural sectors is also expected to be signed.
Manmohan Singh will thank Russia for its unflinching support in ending
India's nuclear isolation at the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), official sources said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday offered "full-fledged
cooperation" to India in combating terrorism and investigating the
deadly Mumbai strikes.

"We are ready for a full-fledged cooperation on all counter-terrorism
issues with India," Medvedev, who is arriving in India tonight for a
three-day official visit, said in an interview to Doordarshan.

Describing India as a "special country", the Russian President said:
"We do have very good and friendly partnership, it is strategic
relationship".

Medvedev termed terrorism as a "common threat", saying Russia has
repeatedly faced this problem.

"We are ready to help our Indian friends in countering terrorism, it
is a common threat," he said.

"We all sympathise with the Indian people, with all those in the
plight, and we believe that such terrorist raids are extremely
dangerous: they destroy peace and order, and, unfortunately, take a
lot of lives. This is what happened in Mumbai," he said.

The Russian President suggested to set up a global system of
protection against terrorism.

"We stand ready for cooperation in all areas with a view to preventing
such acts of terrorism, investigating the recent attack, and
establishing a global system of protection against terrorism," he
said.

At least 183 people, including foreigners and security personnel were
killed in the Mumbai terror attacks targeting various locations in the
city including two luxury hotels and a Jewish residential complex.

ZEENEWS reports:



Lashkar, ISI involved in Mumbai terror: US

Zeenews Bureau

Islamabad, Dec 04: US told Pakistan it has evidence of LeT’s
involvement in last week’s Mumbai terror attacks and that it should
arrest its chief Hafeez Sayeed.

Sources close to the talks between Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and Pakistan leadership have revealed that US has shared evidence
of LeT’s involvement in the attacks that killed 200 and injured over
300.

Pakistan has also been told that it was hard to believe the country’s
armed forces, including the ISI, were not in the know of the ghastly
terror operation.

A veteran CIA analyst also claimed earlier in the day that Mumbai
attackers had ISI links.

"If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it
is finding out the "extent of its(LeT) current ties to the Pakistani
intelligence service(Inter Services Intelligence)," said Bruce Riedel
in Washington.

Meanwhile Indian authorities have claimed that they have
‘incontrovertible’ proof about ISI involvement in the attacks. Sleuths
are aware of who trained the 10 terrorists and where the training took
place in Pakistan. This and other pieces of evidence have been shared
with the US, sources reveal.

Evidence collected in probes so far has pointed to two members of
outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba as masterminds in the
attacks, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

The men, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil, are believed to be
in Pakistan, the officials said. Lakhvi was identified as the group's
operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and
other parts of India.

The lone surviving gunman in the assault, Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told
police Lakhvi recruited him for the operation, and the assailants
called Muzammil on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel
en route to Mumbai. During the attacks, the gunmen used mobile phones
taken from hotel guests to place calls to Lahore.

But it has come to light that the US knows more about the attacks that
earlier thought. Its troops being stationed in Pakistan, the US has
reportedly got more evidence about Pakistan’s role. It is aware of the
exact route that the terrorists took from Karachi to Mumbai and the
same has been shared with Pakistani authorities.
http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-12-04/488366news.html


Now , we have to belive CIA!

Picking holes in President Asif Ali Zardari's claim that Mumbai
terror strike was executed by "non-state actors", a veteran CIA
analyst says Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba(LeT)
blamed for the unprecedented attack has links with Pakistan's ISI.
"If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it
is finding out the "extent of its(LeT) current ties to the Pakistani
intelligence service(Inter Services Intelligence)," said Bruce Riedel
at a discussion hosted by Brookings Institution on "Mumbai Terrorist
Attacks: A Challenge for India and the World."

Contesting the Pakistani government's denials that its intelligence
agency has no links to LeT, Riedel said it is difficult to believe the
Pakistani government's assertions "given the size of its(LeT)
activities in Pakistan."

The Mumbai terror plot was carried out by "professionals, who were
trained by professionals who were given a professional plan", Riedel
said, adding there was clearly considerable planning involved over a
protracted period of time and that the attacks "were not a plot by
amateurs or by a pick-up group."

Riedel's assessment on "professionals" being involved reinforced the
assertion by Mumbai police that ex-Army professionals had trained the
terrorists involved in last week's terror attack that claimed nearly
200 lives.

The New York Times in a report quoting unnamed Pentagon officials that
retired and/or former Pakistani military officials were behind the
training of the LeT cadres who carried out the Mumbai attack.

"This was an extraordinarily sophisticated and complex plot that had
numerous moving parts and which was executed with -- one has to admit
-- a tremendous amount of skill by very well trained terrorists,"
Riedel said.

As India re-stated its right to use ‘all the means at our disposal’ to
protect itself, the US on Wednesday warned Delhi of ‘unintended
consequences’ of a military strike against Pakistan-based terror
camps. “Any response need to be judged by its effectiveness in
prevention (against attacks in the future) and also by not creating
other, unintended consequences,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice told reporters after a meeting with External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee.


Mukherjee said the Indian response would depend on the reply it gets
on the protest note it delivered to the Pakistan envoy in Delhi
demanding that fugitives in an Indian list of about 20 — including
Dawood Ibrahim — be handed over. In a television interview, Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari has virtually turned down the Indian
demand.

Mukherjee said that after Delhi hears — officially — from Islamabad,
‘whatever the Government will consider necessary to protect its
territorial integrity, safety and security of its citizens, the
Government will do that.’ Clearly, the US doesn’t want India to
exercise the ‘military option’ but it has made it clear that it would
lean on Pakistan to deliver on its ‘commitment’ to cooperate in
bringing those who struck in Mumbai to justice.

Rice talked tough on Pakistan’s responsibility to cooperate with India
in tracking down the terrorists making it clear that Islamabad could
not be absolved of its responsibility even if ‘nonstate actors’ were
involved. Even they had to be tackled in a ‘very direct and tough’
manner, she said. This was in reference to Pakistan President
Zardari’s remark in a recent interview that the attacks could be the
work of non-state actors based on Pakistani territory.

Rice is likely to travel to Pakistan in a few days. “I informed Rice
that there is no doubt that terrorist attacks in Mumbai were
perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose
controllers are in Pakistan,” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee also briefed Rice about discussions with Pakistan ‘and our
expectations of cooperation from them to ensure that terrorists and
organisations who perpetrated these attacks are arrested and brought
to justice.’ “We expect all friendly governments and the international
community to ensure that this happens,” he said. “India is determined
to act decisively to protect India’s territorial integrity and the
right of our citizens to a peaceful life with all the means at our
disposal,” Mukherjee said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced trip to
Pakistan on Thursday to urge the Pakistani government to take a "tough
line" on terrorism in the wake of last week's militant attacks on
Mumbai.

"The global threat of extremism and terrorism has to be met by all
states, taking a very tough and hard line, and so that is what I am
going to discuss," Rice told reporters travelling with her from New
Delhi to Islamabad.

"Pakistan has to determine its own response here. It just needs to be
a robust response and it needs to be effective," she said.

Rice was going to meet army chief General Ashfaq Kayani first at army
headquarters in Rawalpindi, before holding talks with President Asif
Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the leaders of an
eight-month-old civilian government.

She said she was not acting as a go-between with New Delhi, and said
the onus was on the Pakistani leadership "as a whole" to tackle the
threat of terrorism.

"I am going there to talk about a Pakistani response, not to carry
messages," she said. "This is not a matter of the international
community somehow in juxtaposition, or against, the Pakistani
government."

Rice's visit to Islamabad followed one by the chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, on Wednesday.

America's top military officer urged Pakistan to investigate all
possible links between the Mumbai attacks.

In a thinly veiled reference to the Kashmir-focussed militants
suspected of carrying out the attack on Mumbai, Mullen also encouraged
Pakistan to act against jihadi groups everywhere, not just in regions
bordering Afghanistan, where Pakistani security forces have been
fighting tribal militants, the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Rice met Mullen for breakfast in New Delhi, to hear his impressions
from meetings with Pakistani officials.

"He really, I think, got a sense of the commitment of the Pakistani
government to the public messages that they have been issuing," Rice
said.

Pakistan has condemned the assault, denied any involvement by state
agencies and vowed to work with India in the investigation.

A confrontation between the South Asian rivals would undermine U.S.-
led efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan and defeat al Qaeda.

Pakistani security officials have said they could feel forced to
abandon the campaign against militancy and take forces away from the
Afghan border, where they are fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban, and
move them to the Indian border if tension increases.

India remained vulnerable to global financial and economic
developments and a period of painful adjustment was inevitable,
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Duvvuri Subbarao said on Thursday
in his first comments since last week's deadly attacks on Mumbai.
Speaking at the southern city of Hyderabad, Subbarao said the economic
fundamentals were strong but the outlook for India was mixed and there
was evidence of activity slowing down.

US President-elect Barack Obama said India had every right to go after
terrorists to protect itself like any sovereign nation, as the Bush
Administration implored Pakistan to realise the ‘seriousness’ of the
unprecedented Mumbai terror attacks.
With Obama and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushing Pakistan
hard to fully cooperate with India in the ongoing probe into the
attacks, the President-elect said his administration will remain
steadfast in support of India's efforts to catch the perpetrators of
the strikes and bring them to justice.

"And I expect that the world community will feel the same way," he
said while announcing at a news conference in Chicago that Hillary
Clinton will be his Secretary of State. Obama said he expected
Islamabad to fully cooperate with New Delhi in the investigations.

Oil fell below $46 a barrel to near four-year lows on Thursday,
extending four consecutive days of falls as continued demand worries
minimised bullish draws in US oil stocks.Oil prices have lost more
than $100 a barrel since an all-time high of $147.27 hit in July, and
some 16 per cent from last week, as demand is seen weakening worldwide
and analysts expect it to contract this year and next.

Maharashtra was minus a Chief Minister on Wednesday night after the
Congress leadership accepted the resignation of Vilasrao Deshmukh but
delayed a decision on his replacement.

indian Foreign Minister PRANAB Mukherjee, first BRAHMIN at heart and
mind could not hide his Pleasure with this development just before the
RICE VISIT, an unprecedented Interference in Biliteral Realtions
inthis Subcontinent!

Ahead of her visit to New Delhi on Wednesday ,Rice at a Round Table in
London refused to speculate on how the government of India will
respond but said it is ‘incumbent’ on Pakistan to realise the
seriousness of what has happened. Rice also wanted Islamabad to fully
cooperate with the probe. India has proof that ISI was involved in
planning the Mumbai terror attacks and training the terrorists who
killed 183 people during a 60-hour siege of the country's financial
capital, sources said. The names of trainers and the places where
meticulous training took place are also known to the government, the
sources said. The United States is believed to have even more evidence
some of which it has shared with India, they said.

Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who was in
Pakistan on Wednesday, is believed to have told his Pakistani
interlocutors that Washington had enough evidence to show a Pakistani
hand in the attack, the sources said. Sources also refuse to believe
that the Pakistani army did not have knowledge of the Mumbai operation
given that ISI is controlled by it.At the same time, sources do not
believe that the civilian government in Pakistan is involved in the
attack. In fact, one view is that the civilian government itself may
be a target of the strike which may be used by the army to heighten
tensions with India to return to power.

Washington has asked Pakistan to crackdown on Lashkar-e-Toiba, which
now goes under the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and to arrest its chief
Hafeez Mohd Saeed because it has evidence of their involvement in the
attack, the sources said.

The attack was planned, equipped and organised in Pakistan where the
terrorists were trained and provided logistical support.

Contrary to the version that the terrorists used a hijacked Indian
fishing boat to reach Mumbai after sailing from Karachi, the view is
that much more sophisticated means were used.

The sources spoke of a clear disconnect between the Pakistani civilian
government and the all-powerful military establishment, which is
causing difficulties for India in dealing with the situation.

Islamabad's about-turn on sending the Director General of ISI to India
is cited as an instance of this disconnect.

During a telephone conversation Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after
the Mumbai attack, President Asif Zardari had referred to an earlier
Pakistani proposal for a meeting between the ISI chief and the head of
India's external intelligence agency, RAW.

Singh told Zardari that this was acceptable to India, after which
Pakistan government had announced that the ISI head would travel to
India.

After a post-midnight call on Zardari by Army chief Gen Ashfaque
Kayani this decision was reversed with the President taking cover
under a ‘miscommunication’ with the Indian Prime Minister.

Instead it was decided to depute a Director-level officer to India.

When the terror attack took place Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah
Mehmood Qureshi was in India and had consciously decided not to cut
short his visit. However, the Indian government was told at 2.30 am
that a special aircraft was being sent less than 4 hours later to take
him back to Pakistan.

In what observers see as a clear message to the civilian government,
the Pakistan army chief's plane was sent to Delhi to pick up Qureshi,
who boarded the flight around 7 am.

The US's insistence that Pakistan take strong action against those
responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks has ‘aligned’ Washington
more closely with the Indian position, but it is unlikely to coax
Islamabad to oblige, a media report said on Thursday.

"The US is calling on Pakistan to arrest and turn over to India at
least some of the suspects in the Mumbai terrorist bombing, aligning
the US more closely with a key Indian position," the ‘Wall Street
Journal’ said in an analytical piece.

"But Pakistan is unlikely to oblige amid escalating tensions between
the nuclear armed South Asian adversaries," it added.

The Indian government is under a lot of pressure from the public for
not doing more to prevent this attack, the paper said quoting an
unnamed diplomat.

"And they need for their political purposes to point to something
demonstratively that's been done," the diplomat said, adding, ‘an
arrest by Pakistan is a big statement. Ideally there'd be some sort of
extradition to India.’

US officials were also quoted as saying that many of the 20 people
sought by India from Pakistan aren't linked to the Mumbai attacks and
New Delhi shouldn't force Islamabad into a position where it can't
make concessions.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's ambassador to the US, Said T Jawad, told the
‘Journal’ that intelligence gathered after the attacks has linked the
ISI to the Mumbai bombings.

Calls were placed from a satellite phone left behind by the attackers
to ‘people who were known ISI members or had very strong ties with the
ISI,’ said the ambassador.

He also said there is evidence linking Yusuf Muzammil, the man
identified by India as the attacks' chief organiser, to the ISI, but
did not provide details.

Bombay HC notices Maharashtra, Centre on terror PILs

The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notices to Maharashtra and
Central governments asking them to file affidavits explaining the
steps taken or to be taken to prevent terrorist attacks in future.

`Intelligence agencies fell for terrorists` deception`The directive
came in response to two PILs filed in wake of the November 26 attacks
in the metropolis that killed 170 persons and injured over 300.

"Please examine whether constitutional rights to life also cover right
to live with safety and a sense of security," a bench headed by Chief
Justice Swatanter Kumar said.

In an apparent reference to media coverage of the terror strikes, the
Chief Justice said exposition of security plan by "media" had gone too
far. It would be an issue to be examined in one of the PILs, he said.

The PIL filed by advocate V P Patil alleges that there was a systemic
failure which allowed the terror attacks to happen. Another PIL, filed
by Society of India's Law Firms, sought setting up of a citizens
committee to tackle the menace of terrorism.

The court has given the state and union governments two weeks time to
file their replies.


Muslims condemn Mumbai terror attacks, call for Black Eid

Strongly condemning the terror attacks in Mumbai, a group of eminent
Muslims from all walks of life on Thursday appealed to the community
members in the country to observe Black Eid on Tuesday.

Signatories to the appeal include actors Amir Khan, Sanjay Khan and
Javed Jaffery, cricketers Azharuddin and Sayed Kirmani, filmmakers
Aziz Mirza, Abbas Mastan, Sayeed Mirza, poet and writer Javed Akhtar,
script writer Salim Khan and senior editor M J Akbar along with a
large number of other personalities from theatre, journalism, police
and sports.

The appeal has been endorsed by a number of Muslim clerics including
those from All India Organisation of Imams of Mosques, Dar-ul-uloom
Wariseya, Lucknow and Ameen-i-Shariat Education Trust, Gujarat.

"As a mark of protest, we the Muslims of India call our community to
come together to mark a symbolic protest on Eid-uz-Zuha on Tuesday
(December 08). This is a day that celebrates sacrifice. This year, let
us turn this celebration into a commemoration," a joint press release
issued by them said.

"Let all Indian Muslims wear a small black arm band while going to
pray in the morning, let this be a silent protest against the
mercenaries, who spread terror in our Janm Bhoomi," the appeal said.

"We the Muslims of India condemn terror in every land. We condemn
terror in every divisive form. We condemn terror in every appalling
manifestation. We condemn it, we denounce it, we damn it. Each act of
terror on the Indian soil does not just injure our motherland, it also
besmirches the name of Islam," the signatories said.

One of the signatories, Maulana Kalbe Rosahir Rizvi, said, "We implore
Muslim clerics and Imams of mosques all over India to request their
congregation during the Friday prayers to wear black bands of Eid."

US sets stage for strikes if Pak does not act
4 Dec 2008, 1442 hrs IST, TNN
WASHINGTON: The United States has set the stage for punitive
internationally-backed strikes by India against terrorist camps in
Pakistan, if
Islamabad does not act first to dismantle them, by rejecting President
Zardari’s alibi that non-state actors were responsible for the last
week’s carnage in Mumbai.

The game-changer, outlined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
among others, robs Islamabad of the fig leaf that Zardari used in his
interview on Larry King Live that ''stateless actors'' are holding the
whole world hostage and Pakistan was not to blame. Rice said in effect
that the excuse does not absolve Pakistan responsibility for terrorist
acts that originate from its territory.

Although US officials have not outright approved immediate punitive
Indian strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan, it is clear Rice
has bought time for Islamabad to prove its bonafides and promise of
cooperation. Pakistan has a ''special responsibility'' and needs to
act ''urgently'' she said, even as India has indicated it will wait
for a Pakistani response to its demands before any punitive action.

In Washington, experts pressed the administration to expand the scope
of punitive strikes to an international level to avoid making it an
India-Pakistan issue, particularly since the death toll included
citizens of 10 countries.

''Rather than simply begging the Indians to show restraint, a better
option could be to internationalise the response. Have the
international community declare that parts of Pakistan have become
ungovernable and a menace to international security,'' Robert Kagan,
an influential analyst with the Carnegie Endowment, said.

''Would such an action (strikes) violate Pakistan's sovereignty?''
Kagan asked in an op-ed, and answered, ''Yes, but nations should not
be able to claim sovereign rights when they cannot control territory
from which terrorist attacks are launched.'' Rice echoed this outlook
more discreetly and cautiously.

Pakistan's civilian government has sought to portray its helplessness
in governing its own territory. In fact, in a startling slip noted by
the Economist, Zardari said in a television interview last week that
''if any evidence points towards any individual or group in MY PART OF
THE COUNTRY,'' he would take action. The implication, it said, was
Pakistan was already severed if with parts of the country out of
federal control.

While US position towards Pakistan has hardened perceptibly after the
Mumbai attack, Indian officials are still leery about Washington’s
approach. The hard part to swallow for New Delhi is that the Bush
administration, while pushing for a strategic relationship with India,
has bankrolled what some are already dubbing a terrorist state to the
tune of $ 10 billion since 2002. Most of the money, according to the
US government’s own audit, has gone towards building Pakistan's
military muscle against India.

On Tuesday, even as Rice counselled patience and restraint in New
Delhi, India’s Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon made the rounds in
Washington, explaining India’s position and the growing anger across
the country after Pakistan’s latest provocation.

Menon packed more than a dozen meetings, including with former
intelligence czar and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, Under
Secretary of State William Burns, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and
several top lawmakers as Washington struggled to contain Indian
outrage. New Delhi’s message was uniform: India’s patience is wearing
thin.
The Indian Embassy said later that ''unequivocal condemnation of the
(Mumbai) incident and the need for the perpetrators to be held
accountable was reiterated,'' at the meetings. It was also indicated
that there would be full cooperation and support at various levels,
including government, from the US to India as it dealt with the
consequences of the incident, it added.

From all accounts, India too appears to be preparing ground for
punitive action if Pakistan fails to respond and act adequately.

Rice will proceed to Islamabad on Thursday to read the riot act while
U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen is expected to arrive in New
Delhi as part of US playbook to keep a stream of visitors in the
region in order to prevent outbreak of immediate hostilities.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/US_sets_stage_for_strikes_if_Pak_does_not_act/articleshow/3792440.cms

Mumbai attack: Indian American body working with Congress on giving
proper response
4 Dec 2008, 1857 hrs IST, AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC)
continues to lead the Indian American community's response to
terrorist attacks in
Mumbai.

The USINPAC, the political voice of 2.5 million Indian-Americans which
provides bipartisan support to candidates for federal, state and local
office, is working with several key Members of Congress to ensure the
US responds properly to the attacks.

USINPAC has spoken with Rep. Steve Israel, a member of the influential
House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and
Related Programs,about US-India counter-terrorism legislation.

He has said that he is currently drafting it and an upcoming
Congressional Resolution that will condemn the attacks.

The USINPAC is also planning a highly anticipated Congressional
briefing next week.

"USINPACwill be working with Congress every step of the way,including
gaining support for next week's Congressional Resolution condemning
the attacks, and providing updated information and analysis to key
decision makers in the US and India," said Sanjay Puri, Chairman of
USINPAC.

"Congress is relying heavily on USINPAC because we have a proven
expertise on US-India relations and terrorism against India,"
continued Puri.

"We are constantly monitoring what is happening in India,Pakistan, and
the US so we can brief Congress with the most reliable and relevant
information on the attacks," he said.

USINPAC is circulating a petition calling for changes in US aid to
Pakistan to be signed by Indian Americans across the country and will
then present the petition to Congress.

Many members of Congress have issued statements condemning the
attacks, offering condolences to the victims and their families,and
promising to continue to work with USINPAC to advance US-India
relations and combat terrorism.

Avoid re-runs of Mumbai terror attack on TV: I & B ministry
New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) The government today directed TV channels not
to broadcast scenes of the Mumbai terror attack as it may evoke strong
sentiments among those affected by it.
"Gory scenes should not be shown, tragedy should not be replayed,"
said the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in its advisory adding,
"media has a great role to play to ensure return of normalcy."
Following a meeting late last night, Information and Broadcasting
Ministry officials decided to send an advisory to all television
channels which included certain guidelines regarding coverage of the
Mumbai terror attacks.

The advisory sought an assurance that channels would avoid running
stories pertaining to the recent attacks, which might make the
terrorists feel that their operation was successful.

The live coverage of terror attacks in Mumbai last week saw the
viewership of 24-hour news channels jump 180 per cent, according to
Television Audience Measurement (TAM) data for the week ended November
29, 2008.

Explaining the kind of coverage sought by the ministry, the advisory
stated: "News coverage pertaining to the event should project that
India is not demoralised and has risen despite all terrorist attacks
as normalcy has been restored. News coverage should project that India
is a global power which has full support of the international
community." The advisory also mentioned that media is a harbinger of
peace and normalcy and should not promote "insecurity". The official
note from the ministry carries a strong message for the media to
adhere to self-regulation. PTI

LeT, Qaida's implementing arm?
4 Dec 2008, 1317 hrs IST, Times Now
NEW DELHI: Though the Mumbai attacks trail has so far not proceeded
beyond Lashkar-e-Taiba , the possibility of the involvement of al-
Qaida in the
terror outrage is not being ruled out given targeting of westerners
and the lack of any effort to cover up the Pakistani origins of the
terrorists.

Al- Qaida was suspected the very day the attacks unfolded given the
audacious planning and the terror extravaganza the planners clearly
envisaged. The jihadist vision behind the ‘‘ shock and awe’ ’ scheme
to terrorise Mumbai seemed to bear the hallmark of an al-Qaida
operation. Subsequently, the interrogation of captured terrorist Ajmal
has established the role of LeT’s senior commanders and while no
evidence of any other group has emerged so far, intelligence sources
are not discounting the hand of al-Qaida as the intention of the
terrorists was to make a global impact.

While LeT has the strong backing of ISI, it is not clear whether the
covert agency would play an active part in an attack that targets US
citizens. With its deep links with LeT, the agency might have had more
than a whiff of what was being planned, but might have chosen to keep
in the background . The plot, it is felt, might well have seen the
involvement of al-Qaida .

Intercepts picked up by Research and Analysis Wing before the attacks
pointed to a Lashkar strike, even though they were also not as
specific as some quarters have claimed. RAW did not make the
connection between the September 18 warning of Mumbai hotels being
likely targets and the November 19 advisory of a Lashkar ship headed
to India. It is not clear whether the September warning was repeated
or upgraded at any point.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/LeT_Qaidas_implementing_arm/articleshow/3791991.cms

India to add 1500 MW of nuclear power in 2009: Kakodkar
New Delhi, Dec 04: India is expected to add another 1,500 MW of
nuclear power to the national grid in 2009, Atomic Energy Commission
Chairman Anil Kakodkar said here on Thursday.

"Two-three nuclear power units will be connected to the national grid
next year which would add about 1,500 MW power," he told reporters on
the sidelines of India Power Forum here.

Currently, the country has capacity to generate 4,120 MW of nuclear
power but due to shortage of nuclear fuel most of the units are
running a little over half their capacity.

Kakodkar said the situation will improve with India entering into
civil nuclear cooperation agreements with several countries including
the US, France and Russia.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which has the
mandate to run atomic power plants in the country, is also exploring
joint ventures with domestic industries to set up nuclear plants.

He said the country aims to generate 20,000 MW of nuclear power by
2020, of which half of it would come from indigenously developed
Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).

"We aim to produce 10,000 MW through PHWRs, about 5,000 MW through
imported reactors and about 2,500 MW through Fast Breeder Reactors,"
Kakodkar said.

On expansion of the nuclear industry in the country, Power Secretary
Anil Razdan said state-run companies like the National Thermal Power
Corporation can enter into a joint venture with NPCIL to set up one or
two nuclear power plants to gain experience in the sector before
making an independent foray.
http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-12-04/488375news.html

Home ministry working on modalities for federal agency

New Delhi, Dec 04: The Union home ministry is working out modalities
for setting up a federal investigation agency as mooted by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, a senior Cabinet Minister has said.

"Security is a great national concern. Home Minister (P Chidambaram)
is seized of the matter," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal
told reporters today.

He was replying to a question on how far the government has moved on
in setting up the federal agency as announced by Singh in his national
broadcast in the wake of Mumbai terror strikes.

"I can assure you that each of those policy statements that the Prime
Minister committed to the nation shall be implemented as soon as
possible. Time is of essence," he said.

Sibal said the exact modalities of the implementation of these
commitments were being worked out by the Home Ministry.

"It will be done. It is our commitment. Government wants to convey to
the people that we will do all that we can to ensure that future
safety is not jeopardised," he said.

Besides setting up of a federal agency, the Prime Minister had
announced strengthening of air and maritime security, creation of four
NSG hubs and a legal framework to take on terrorism.
http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-12-04/488371news.html

Obama faces uphill battle to combat job loss

US President-elect Barack Obama is rounding up experts as quickly as
possible to confront America's economic crisis but people caught up in
the nation's employment downturn don't see an improvement any time
soon.
Just days after Obama was elected on a message of hope and change,
government data showed US employers cut 240,000 jobs in October,
taking the national unemployment rate to a 14-year high 6.5 per cent.
So far this year, 1.2 million jobs have been lost -- 651,000 of them
in the past three months.

In America's industrial heartland, the numbers translate to thousands
of people desperate for retraining, new careers, fresh advice and just
a little hope -- the kind of people who line up to see Carlos Cisneros
every Tuesday and Wednesday.

"They're desperate," said Cisneros, describing some 3,000 unemployed
people who have flocked to his program at Mott Community College in
Flint, Michigan, since August 2007.

Twice a week, 22 anxious people are admitted to orientation sessions
that Cisneros oversees and then spend two hours trying to find a job
retraining program that fits.

While residents of long-suffering Michigan -- home to America's
failing auto industry -- used to at least have the option of moving
away to find work, America's deep economic gloom has left job-seekers
bleak everywhere.

"A couple years ago they could go south and have a good chance at
finding work," Cisneros said. "Now where can they go? They used to be
frustrated but now they're scared."

Does the election of Democrat Obama, who pledged to help the middle
class weather job loss and the high cost of health care and tuition,
give Cisneros more hope for the future?

"We wish him nothing but the best," Cisneros said. "But I don't expect
us to be out of this for a while -- longer than a year. I only hope by
2010 we'll start seeing some changes."

Economists, too, see higher unemployment ahead.

"I don't see any improvement in job market for the entire year of
2009," said Michael Walden, an economics professor at North Carolina
State University. "We're looking at unemployment rate at 8 to 8.5 per
cent and a million or a million and half more people out of work in
2009."

LOWER EXPECTATIONS?

Walden said Obama has no choice but to quickly start ramping down
expectations so supporters are not disappointed.

"He will need to communicate to people that we have severe economic
problems that will take time, that there will not be an easy switch to
throw to make everything fine," Walden said.

But those who helped Obama to victory, including labor unions, argue
there is much Obama and the Democratic Congress can do to at least
limit job losses in the year to come.

"Our expectations are very high," said Ron Blackwell, chief economist
of the AFL-CIO umbrella group for labor unions. "That's why we
supported Barack Obama."

The group wants Congress to pass another economic stimulus package
before Obama takes office in January that would extend unemployment
insurance benefits, increase food subsidies to the poor, help state
and local governments that cannot afford to continue programs for the
needy, and invest in an infrastructure rebuilding program to create
jobs.

Blackwell said the scope of future job losses will depend on how
timely and aggressive Obama and the US Congress are.

"I'm confident Barack Obama will meet those goals but it does depend
on a program that is much more ambitious than what has been
contemplated to this point," Blackwell said.

Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy
Institute, said the measures Obama takes could mean the difference
between an unemployment rate of 8 per cent or higher a year from now,
or one closer to 7 per cent.

"It's not like he's a helpless victim of a weak economy -- there are
things he can do," Bernstein said as he headed to Chicago to attend
Obama's meeting with economic advisers on Friday. He noted that
extending the duration of unemployment insurance benefits has a direct
impact on economic growth.

Jobless workers can get up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance.
Benefits have already been extended once.

The US economy shrank at a 0.3 per cent annual rate in the third
quarter, its sharpest contraction in seven years. Economists polled by
Reuters think that was just the first of what will be three straight
quarters of contraction -- which would be the longest slide in 34
years.

Bernstein said that means even though Obama can limit job losses with
aggressive policy, he can't erase the problem.

"Once he does everything, that doesn't mean we're out of the woods,"
Bernstein said. "He's inherited a recession, potentially a deep and
long one -- something I wouldn't wish on any new president."

Nine years later, Kandahar victims to get compensation
Justice has finally been delivered to the 174 passengers who had
boarded the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi that
was
hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan nine years ago. A consumer court
here on Thursday asked the Indian airlines to pay compensation to all
on board.

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission headed by Justice
J.D. Kapoor awarded a Rs 10 million compensation for the agony and
trauma suffered by those who survived and Rs 500,000 to the legal
heirs of the passenger who was killed by the terrorists.

The Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was hijacked Dec 24, 1999 and taken
to Kandahar, where the passengers were held hostage till Dec 31, when
then foreign minister Jaswant Singh reached Kandahar and handed over
the three prisoners the terrorist had demanded to be released in
exchange.

One of the passengers, Rupin Katyal, was killed by the hijackers
during the captivity.

Justice Kapoor said every passenger on board the ill-fated aircraft
was entitled to compensation in terms of Section 14(1)(h)(b) of the
Consumer Protection Act, 1986, as they all had suffered the same
degree of injury and agony.

The court passed this order on an appeal filed by Ashok Gupta and his
wife who were among the passengers.

The Indian Airlines had denied compensation to these passengers by
invoking Rule 17 of the Carriage By Air Act, 1972 providing that the
carrier is liable for damage sustained in the event of death or
wounding of a passenger or any other bodily injury suffered by a
passenger if the accident that caused the damage took place on board
the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or
disembarking.

The aircraft was hijacked while it was near Lucknow and was taken to
Amritsar where it was allowed to refuel and then it landed at Kandahar
where Gupta and his wife along with other passengers and crew remained
captive for eight days.


Just Read an editorial in Dalit Voice:
Hindu hate-mongers in mourning over Obama victory : Will they tolerate
Mayawati as Dalit PM ?
White racists and Jews in America might have made history by electing
a Black President, Barack Obama, but will Hindu India’s Brahminical
racists ever allow a Black Untouchable to be India’s Prime Minister?
Never, ever. Just as they elevated a hen-pecked Muslim, Abdul Kalam,
to the powerless Presidentship, they may promote Mayawati as a nam ke
waste- Prime Minister with her hands and legs tied and all the wings
clipped.

India being the world’s original home of racism, the biggest hurdle
here is the caste. A Dalit PM candidate would not get even a fraction
of support that Obama got.

Jagjivan Ram case: Long ago we had tested Hindu India’s double-
distilled racism when Babu Jagjivan Ram was snubbed for aspiring to be
the PM.

The Chamar from Bihar was then Hindu India’s ablest administrator,
parliamentarian and yet a big chamcha of the Congress, the original
Brahminical party of India. But when he died, the “holy” Brahmins of
Delhi asked his body to be removed to his native Bihar village —saying
that if it was cremated along with the “national heroes” the capital
city would get polluted. That is the depth of hate created in Hindu
India by our toxic Brahmins.

Mourning in Delhi: This hate-filled, caste-divided Hindu India is so
much against Black color that you can imagine the horror that Obama
produces among the holy Hindus because he is not only Black but on the
top of that a Muslim. That is why Hindus hoped and prayed for the
victory of the war-monger McCain, the candidate of the Jews and the
“Jews of India”. So much was the disappointment that India’s Prime
Minister did not even care to make a customary phone call to Obama.
Finally poor Obama himself made the call.

The entire class of ruling Hindus are in mourning over the Obama
victory. They are worried over the “Brahmin bomb” which their blue-
eyed boy Bush had promised. They are worried that Obama may kick out
the Jews controlling the White House. They are worried that he would
undo all the great and good work that George Bush did for their jati
people.

Sonal Shah to rescue: Brahminical rulers had forged a firm friendship
with the American Jews assuring they indeed are the “Jews of India”
and their cousins. They also voted and financed Obama’s rival McCain
who got defeated. Delhi is in a doldrums and all sorts of plans are
being hatched to jump into Obama bandwagon sitting on the shoulders of
the Gujarati Bania, Sonal Shah.

http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/dec2008/editorial.htm


Asked if India has the right to ‘take out’ high-value targets inside
Pakistan, Obama said, "I think that sovereign nations, obviously, have
a right to protect themselves’.

Obama had drawn criticism during the campaign including from Hillary
Clinton when he said the US would be justified in pursuing al-Qaida
terrorists in Pakistan if it had ‘actionable intelligence’.

"Beyond that, I don't want to comment on the specific situation that's
taking place in South Asia right now. I think it is important for us
to let the investigators do their jobs and make a determination in
terms of who was responsible for carrying out these heinous acts," the
President-elect said.






Indian Air Force on Thursday said it is prepared to counter a 9/11
type aerial terror attack on targets in India.
"This (report about terrorists carrying out a possible aerial attack)
is based on a warning, which has been received (by the government) and
we are prepared as usual," Air Chief Fali Homi Major said after laying
a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate on the occasion of Navy
Day.

He said the issue was discussed during the meeting of three service
chiefs with Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday at South Block.

"The issue was discussed in yesterday's meeting," he said.

Defence Minister A K Antony had also on Wednesday warned the armed
forces about the possibility of terror attacks from airborne platforms
similar to the 9/11 attacks in the US.

In the meeting, Antony called for greater coordination among security
and intelligence agencies so as to make the intelligence inputs
actionable.

Antony wanted tightening of vigil along India's coastal, land and
aerial frontiers to prevent terror attacks in future.

Threat of terror attack creates panic at Tees Hazari
New Delhi Tees Hazari district court premises were vacated on Thursday
following an anonymous call to the police about threat of a terror
attack, triggering panic among lawyers, litigants and court staff as
well as security personnel.
According to the police, a call was received at around 8.50 am that
six terrorists could come under the garb of lawyers and carry out a
shooting spree at the Tees Hazari complex.

Police has cordoned off the entire area while staff, litigants and
lawyers have been asked to call it a day in view of the threat.

A police official said the anonymous caller had said that the
terrorists in the attire of advocates will carry out indiscriminate
firing between 10 am and 2 pm at the court complex.

Police teams, which included bomb disposal experts and sniffer dogs,
are sanitising each and every room to ensure that no terrorists is
holed up there, the official said, adding that a search for explosives
is also been carried out.

"We are trying to trace the caller," the official said, maintaining
that it could be a hoax call "though we are not leaving anything to
chance and sanitising the entire area."



DV hails honest Brahmins removing their secular mask
COM. AYYANKALI

Everyday Lt. Colonels, Vice-Chiefs of Air Staff etc. not only openly
flaunt their Brahmin pride in official uniform at Brahmin caste
conferences and yet they are fully protected and actually helped to
get away with it. Now it has been consclusively proved that they even
provide terrorist training and supply RDX explosives made in defence
factories financed with our Dalit-Bahujan taxpayers to help
Brahminical terrorists to murder Muslims and Dalits.Even the
Brahminical Army and the Defence Minister himself have admitted these
facts. We can imagine the number of serving officers in the defence
forces who are hard-core terrorists at heart.

We welcome all this because these honest Brahmins are voluntarily
removing their secular mask and coming into the open, unlike Brahmin
fake Maoists like the Varavara Raos and Dipankar Bhattacharyas.

Caste apartheid in the Defence: Blatant caste apartheid exists within
the defence forces and this is the time to demand caste-based
reservations in the Defence. We must organise Dalit Bahujan ex-
servicemen like Gujjar Col. Bhainsla to remind our grasseating Brahmin
cowards. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians must join such marches along
with ex-servicemen from their communities so that grasseating
terrorists get the message.

While the vaidik terrorists in the Defence are actively helping
civilian Brahmin terrorists, Dalit-Bahujans, who are the majority in
this country, are not merely sleeping and snoring but are in a deep
coma. Braindead?

Burning the Deccan Queen was a splendid job. Hindu god Rama murdered
Shambuka in cold blood for daring to acquire knowledge. If we are
silent now all of us will be butchered without any mercy.

Gaddar snoring: Brahminical fake Maoists send starving Dalit-Bahujans
to get killed by the Brahminical police, but the braindead Brother
Gaddar is snoring blissfully — sleeping on the lap of the Brahmin fake
Maoists who have injected morphine into him. He is least bothered
about defending the innocent lives of his people. Why not he form a
genuinely revolutionary Dalit Bahujan-led Maoist Party to launch a
caste war with caste identity?

Our Editor understands the power of “caste identity” which can ensure
that the Brahminical Army gets divided on caste lines. That is why the
Indian Army did not dare to shoot anybody when Gujjars held the
national capital Delhi to ransom. But our Dalit Bahujans have not
learnt anything.

Dalit-Bahujans are not only determined to enjoy their slavery, but
they may even physically beat up our Editor for trying to wake them up
from such a dangerous bliss.

Everyday, Dalit-Bahujans seem to be telling the Editor:
“Why are you simply disturbing us? We enjoy sleeping and we are used
to this. We are already getting angry with you. Get away and allow us
to sleep. We have a right to be stupid and we will attack anybody who
disturbs our sleep”.
But our Editor refuses to run away. He is fighting all alone — even
without a toothpick — against the powerful Aryan Brahminical attacks.
So powerful is the Brahminical opium, known as “Hinduism”, that Dalit-
Bahujans actually joined hands with the enemy to kill their own blood
brothers like Gujarati Muslims.
Kadgadhari Budha: At this rate, even if the Khadgadhari Budha armed
with the sword comes and orders Dalits to defend themselves, Dalit-
Bahujans may even thrash him.That is why shakabuku (Budhist martial
arts) have no takers among Dalit Bahujans. That is why even the most
ferocious Dalit Bahujans get attracted only to cowardly gandhian fake
ahimsa, Vipassana and such other narcotics which numb their minds,
chills their anger and disarms them.
Beef eating: This is what happens when they give up their cheap and
traditional diet like beef which is eaten even by Nobel Prize winning
scientists and Olympics winning athletes. No wonder they become weak
mentally and physically. The only food they get is the poisonous Hindu
cultural morphine injection. How will such confirmed drug addicts wake
up?
Naturally, either the Brahminical police will kill them or Brahminical
fake Maoist Party will get them killed, or they will go to fight the
enemies of Brahmins and get killed in the process.
The Editor may have to close down Dalit Voice since there are more
Brahmins reading it on the Internet and indulging in heated
discussions on on-line chat forums and email forums. Why run DV to
enlighten our oppressors and make them even more intelligent as well
as caste conscious. Better to close it down.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMUNICATION:
Brahmins are a race, not a caste : Nor do they belong to any religion
NAME & ADDRESS WITHHELD
I want to thank you for sending me some books and I had great pleasure
in reading those books. I feel that your book, Brahminism: Weapons to
Fight Counter Revolution (DSA, 2001) is one of the best books I have
ever read.
In it you mentioned various ways to fight Brahminism but I feel the
best way to fight Brahminism is to create a political movement against
Brahmins. The aim of such a movement must be to unite the people of
India against their genuine enemy, and bring about a revolution to
destroy the Saraswat Brahmin Democracy.
Race hatred: Such a party must not be a Dalit party or a Hindu party
or Muslim party but it must be a “Hindustani party” and it must appeal
to all the people of India, bring about revolution and destroy the
existing Brahminical democracy. The revolution must be a revolution of
the working classes against the Brahmin race. There is a huge
difference between a political party and a political movement. A party
exists to get votes but a movement seeks to destroy the existing order
and create a new order.
Origin of common qualities: It must destroy this fake democracy and
replace it with a true “Hindustani state” created by the blood of
Hindustani people. The principles of the movement must be to eradicate
the Brahminists because they are a race controlling India and
exploiting us for thousands of years. The Brahminists are a race, not
a caste and hatred for such a race must be based on principles of only
race and not caste.
Brahminists are a race, and this is a fact. I am not saying that one
race is superior or inferior but I do think that the characteristic
qualities are given to a person by his blood. People with common blood
are a race. It is the common blood of the Aryan Brahminists which
gives them common qualities of cruelty, lying, exploitation,
treachery, racial pride etc.
Why Hitler hated Jews: The tiger will remain a tiger, the snake a
snake and our Aryan Vaidik Brahmin will remain a Brahmin because his
blood and genes don’t change, they get transferred during mating.
The Brahminists are not Aryans because they don’t have the qualities
of Aryans and those qualities have origin in racial blood.
Brahminists are Jews as they have Jewish qualities and all their
physical characteristics.
The Kshatriyas of India may have been Aryans but not the Brahminists.
And Brahminists are Jews. Hitler rightly hated the Jews because the
Jews at that time were using marxism to rule the world.
Chosen people: Marx was a Jew. So also Lenin. All the communist
leaders in Germany and Russia before the World War-II were Jews.
Hitler believed the Jews were using Marxism to destroy Germany and
rule the world. That is why he hated them. (Leon Poliakov: The Aryan
Myth, 1974, New American Library, for photocopy write to DV office).
Jews believe they are a “chosen people” destined to rule the world.
They are liars when they tell us “we are a religion”. Brahminists,
therefore, are not Aryan. They are also Jews. Like Jews, they say they
are “gods on earth” (Bhoodevatas).
A political movement must have a great leader and I feel I am destined
for this task. I really feel that you are a great intellectual and I
would like to meet you.
*************************
DV’s “Jews of India” theory gets unanimous support
As the architect of a novel theory — the first of its kind in the
world — that the Brahmins are the “Jews of India”, we are glad to
announce that our theory has been widely welcomed by the Brahmins
themselves. During the Chitpavan Brahmin conference at Pune (DV Jan.
16, 2008, p.28), many Chitpavans who came from America and Europe
discussed our theory while exchanging opinion on the scholarly book,
Chitpavanism (Dr.Jay Dixit, 2003, Rs. 1,200, Ultrafit, 1482-Sadashiv
Peth, White House, Tilak Road, Pune - 411 030). The book was reviewed
in Dalit Voice. The world’s largest Internet-based encyclopedia called
Wikipedia, has acknowledged our theory. The American-based Wikipedia
has thousands of Brahmin readers and contributors who keep a close
watch on it. The label “Jews of India” came as a boon to the
Brahminical race to bind them to their soulmate in America.
They hugged our theory as it helped them get closer to the 2.5% Jews
who rule America.
U.S. HELP TO MAKE “BRAHMIN BOMB”
By using our theory, the Brahmins and Jews have started working
together in close co-operation in many fields in United States:
banking, finance and specially the media on which Jews have a near
monopoly in US and Europe.
The latest “Indo-US peaceful nuclear deal”, to supply nuclear fuel to
manufacture bombs in India is the direct result of our theory which
brought the two sister races so close.
Brahmins have a similar strangle-hold on India’s media, banking,
finance, education, judiciary, bureaucracy and IT etc. And what not.
HATE MUSLIM
The nuclear deal is the result of a tremendous team work of the Jews
and the “Jews of India” living in America. Such is their profound
influence on India that the Jews, who control the American finance,
its banks, financial institutions, even the World Bank and IMF, are
now thinking of shifting their enormous capital from US to India.
(V.T. Rajshekar, Jews of India Getting Closer to Jews, DSA-2008 &
Brahminism in India & Zionism in West, DSA-2007).
What binds the two is their intense hatred of Muslims, besides the
Blacks (20%) within America and the over 20% Black Untouchables
(Dalits) of India. India has the world’s largest Muslim population
(15%) who are mostly converts from Dalits.
They went over to Islam to protest against Brahminism.
But the “Jews of India”, according to history, are an alien race. They
do not belong to India. Their behaviour since centuries confirm they
are aliens. When they came into India they belonged to no religion.
Religion as it is understood today came into existence only after the
birth of Christianity.
The natives of India, today identified as SC/ST/BCs, had their own
belief system. It is the Brahmins who made them “Hindu”, a new name
given by the Muslim. In other words the first people to resort to
conversion were the Brahmins — EDITOR.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brahmins rushing to temples
COM. AYYANKALI
After reading what George Soros said, shocked Brahmins are in total
panic. For them Soros is simply god and now their god himself has
declared that their world is facing doom. Already the media is full of
stories about how Brahminical classes who love stock market, cricket,
IT and eating are rushing to temples, astrologers, Art of Living and
babas. The Hindustan Times has been running a “Mumbai meltdown
special” for almost a month now. All GDPwallahs are crying. Many are
undergoing counselling for mental shock. A very enjoyable sight. Some
stupid Brahmins even think that evil Muslims are behind the stock
market crash. An RSS reporter of the Times of India has written a
story that Muslims helped Hindu terrorists plant Malegaon bomb. It is
great fun to watch Brahmins praying to god to save them from Muslims
and stock market meltdown.
The high priest,George Soros, Pitaamaha and Mahaguru of capitalism, is
saying that another great economic depression is now very much a
possibility. US dollar does not seem to have any hope. Even Euro may
collapse. Fortunately, DV readership is kept quite well informed about
this possibility. DV even wrote an Editorial welcoming the crisis.
Even Obama is helpless because market forces are far far bigger than
any politician.
Rand Corp has already made a presentation before the US Govt. to start
a war with a big power to climb out of the crisis. We must welcome
this crisis so that we can change history by bringing down all the
Brahminical scaffolding. The govt. will not have money to pay salaries
to the army. Army will not have money to buy even grease or petrol.
The time for a caste war based on caste identity is fast approaching.
History is on our side. Total defeat of Brahminism is possible.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEDITATION IS NOTHING BUT HYPNOTISM
RSS agent Goenka using Vipassana to hinduise Dalits & kill Ambedkarism
ANIL RANGARI, BHARATI APT., GURU NANAK NAGAR, DURG - 491 001
This refers to Brother Dr. Premjit Ray’s defence of Vipassana which
helps vaidiks in their counter-revolution against Budhism (DV Oct.1,
2008, p.23).
1. He says Vipassana is not a miracle or wonder but a practical way to
get wise. Wise men need not sit cross-legged but must work for the
society to transform it into a sorrowless world. That is what Ashoka
did and also Babasaheb.
IDLE MEDITATION
When Budha, Ashoka and Babasaheb became “wise” without vipassana and
strived to transform the society into a sorrowless world why the
cunning Goenka and his vipassanawadi followers did not become wise by
practicing vipassana for so many years? Vipassana never helps to make
us wise and intelligent. It helps to relax. the body and mind but
kills the anger which is necessary for any revolution. Vipassana is a
relaxation therapy and will not bring knowledge.
2. Dr. Premjit Ray must be true to himself when he says: “Dr.
Babasaheb’s entire life is like meditation, all of his physical and
psychological energy was used for the single cause, the upliftment of
the downtrodden”.
But Babasaheb criticised the Bhikkhus for wasting their life in
meditation and idleness and did nothing to uplift the suffering
humanity. How can he say Babasaheb’s life was meditation? Babasaheb’s
achievements through hard struggle is not meditation.
Babasaheb said:
The Bhikkhu Sangha in its present condition can therefore be of no use
for the spread of Buddhism. In the first place there are too many
Bhikkhus. Of these, a very large majority are merely sadhus and
sanyasis spreading their time in meditation or idleness. When the idea
of service to suffering humanity comes to one’s mind every one thinks
of the Ramakrishna Mission. No one thinks of the Buddhist Sangha. Yet
the sangha is a huge army of idlers. We want fewer Bhikkhus and we
want Bhikkhus highly educated. (Buddha & the Future of His Religion).
3. S.N. Goenka is not a Budhist. He says Vipassana is a technique that
leads to enlightenment.
BURMESE BUDHISM IS CORRUPT
When Budha attained enlightenment within few months and Ashoka and
Babasaheb became enlightened without practicing Vipassana and brought
revolution and transformed the society, why Goenka and his
vipassanawadis could not become enlightened even after practicing
Vipassana for so many years?
Vipassana is a Brahminic trap to destroy the revolutionary Budhist
thinking.
Goenka says he brought Vipassana from Burma about which Babasaheb
said:
In regard to the preparation of the Gospel we must be very cautious to
see that we do not adopt wholesale the Buddhism that is prevalent
either in Ceylon or Burma. It is very corrupt. (Babasaheb’s letter to
Arbinda Barua, Calcutta, July 17, 1954).
Babasaheb even had warned the highest Budhist authority of Burma on
the Sanasa Council of Burma on Dec.4, 1954. He said:
In regard to the preparation of Budha’s gospel care must be taken to
emphasise the social and moral teachings of the Buddha. I have to
emphasise this because what is emphasised is meditation, contemplation
and Abhidhamma. This way of presenting Buddhism to Indians would be
fatal to our cause.
BUDHA’S FAILURES
4. Dr. Ray said:
Vipassana is an insight through which we can understand the truth of
the nature, whether it is our body or the universe. Through this
method of reasoning Budha achieved enlightenment.
This is wrong and 100% untruth. Nobody can achieve perfect and true
knowledge by Vipassana. No scientist uses Vipassana to invent about
micro-structure of the body, disease, and universe. Only hard, deep
and vast study helps scientist to think and research but not
Vipassana. Why scientists developed and constructed vast and big
instrument LHC (large hadron collidel) to discover the nature of
universe how it is created. Why they invented microscope, endoscope,
scanning machine, and many more instrument to find out the real
truths? Why Vipassana never helped this?
India is a country of countless rishis-munis, sadhus who wasted their
life in meditation. Some of them had sexual relationship even with
queens and princesses by hypnotic miracle and ruined the country.Such
meditationwadis, however, never invented anything from atom-particle
to heavy machines nor they transformed the society. India always
borrowed scientific knowledge from abroad.
Even Budha failed to annihilate the varna system. He could not foresee
and forecast the untouchability, cancer which ruined the generations
of his own followers. Vipassana, therefore, is a cancer that killed
Budhism like the untouchability that is killing today’s so-called
Hindu society. If Budhism has to be removed this cancer must be cut
and cured.
GOENKA DID NOT UNDERSTAND BUDHISM
5. Ray, however, admits vipassana is not Budhism. But argues that
through Vipassana we can understand Budhism. Never. Vipassana never
helps to understand real Budhism.
Even Goenka did not understand Budhism till now. Goenka is not only
cunning but also very superstitious. He believes in matterless living
beings — atma. What nonsense. He says he talked with them (atma -dead
ancestors) and preached Manu Smriti. All this he wrote in his books
and Vipassana Patrika. When the biggest acharya of Vipassana could not
understood Budhism how his slave can understand? He only confuses
people and kills roots of revolution.
Vipassana is a crime on Budhism.
Budhism is not confined only to realise anicca, anatta and dukkha. Its
more important mission is to watch and detect the enemies of humanity
who spread dukkha, exploitation, oppression in the society. Punish
them according to their crimes and eliminate them.
Welding Vipassana to Budhism is a crime and criminals must be
punished.
6. A neuro-surgeon like Premjit Ray says:
Vipassana is a process of thinking with a single-pointed mind called
insight meditation through which we can realise the three cardinal
features of Budhism viz anicca, anatta and dukkha.
DANGERS OF HYPNOTISM
What is this single-pointed mind? Brahmin bhikkhus developed this
single-pointed meditation from their vedas. Buddhaghosh and other
techniques of meditation brings hypnotic trance. They developed ten
types of kasin:
1) Prithvi, 2) Aap, (3) Tej, 4) Vayu, 5) Neel, 6) Pitta, 7) Lohit, 8)
Avdat, 9) Alok and 10) Parichhinakash.
All these single-pointed Vipassana techniques are nothing but
hypnotists which never gets knowledge of real Budhism and real
problems of the society. Due to this single-pointed Vipassana some
bhikkhus suffered from psychiatric problems and some can experience
hallucinatory knowledge.
Babasaheb always wanted highly educated bhikkhus and social workers to
involve in solving the problems of the suffering society. But our
cunning vipassanawadis will never do this. It is true that our
“educated” people cheated Babasaheb but it is also true that only our
highly educated social workers can effectively fight and solve the
problems of the suffering humanity.
VIPASSANA IS NOT BUDHISM


Please note that Vipassana is not Budha’s samma samadhi. Samma Samadhi
means right thinking. But samma samadhi alone is not enough. It needs
pradnya which means hard, deep and vast study of right knowledge.
Without the right and vast knowledge mere samma samadhi alone will
never find out the real truth, the Supreme Truth. Even a samma samadhi
wala bhikkhu can never fight in high courts/Supreme Court without vast
legal knowledge acquired by hard, deep and vast study. Single-pointed
Vipassana is nonsense but Budhism is not nonsense.
If Vipassana gives knowledge of all realities and removes all the
dukkha, I ask Brother Ray and all other slave vipassanawadis that they
should never send their children to school and colleges but train them
only in Vipassana. Will Vipassana help them in their life without
education? Are they ready to do this for their own children?
BRAHMINICAL AGENDA
Here is a list of warnings to the Budhists on the Vipassana menace:
1. Bhikkhu Nirgunanand Mahathero said that Vipassana is an art of
sleep by sitting.
2. Dr. Surendra Adnyaty said Vipassana is a Baudha edition of Hindu
yoga. We must be cautious about it.
3. Goenka himself said at the Nagpur Deeksha Bhoomi on Oct.7, 2000 in
his speech, that Vipassana technique belongs to the vedic time. Budha
had not given any dhamma.
BID TO HINDUISE OUR PEOPLE
4. The one-point Brahminical secret agenda is to always keep Backward
Classes engaged in religious karmkand like Gayatri Yaga, Brahmakumari
Sanstha, Saibaba of Sirdi, and vipassana of Budhist (saptahik Mazi
Janata, Nagpur, July 30, 2000).
5. Dr. Bhadant Medhankar, president of the All-India Bhikkhu Sangha,
warned: Babasaheb gave dhamma but he could not get time to educate his
people. Due to lack of proper leader and advise some became triloki
and many vipassi and slowly-slowly they all turned antagonist to
Babasaheb. After coming from Burma Goenka started a 10-day vipassana
shibir at Deeksha Bhoomi (1972-73) and after that vipassana spread
like a typhoon throughout India.
Today all the vipassana movement is under the RSS control. Vipassana
is gradually hindusing our people. Budhist must note that if you sit
silent its effects will be dangerous.
Ambedkarite Budhist Samaj is gradually going away from Ambedkarite
thoughts because of Vipassana menace.
(Buddhaputra Ki Gatha Vainganga ke Kinare by Bhadant Medhankar, p.
337-338).
************************
Dalits must keep off Vipassana
P.S. SADAR, 71 -KOTWALNAGAR, NAGPUR 440 022
DV of Oct.16, 2008 has prompted me to write on Vipassana which is a
practice of the spiritual search by the soul of the soul i.e. self-
realization. All human beings are not at the same state of spiritual
need or development. There is nothing wrong with the Vipassana per se.
But the problem arises when able-bodied, able-minded and those with
resources withdraw from the active life and shut themselves in the
delusion of spiritual practices like the Vipassana. As a rule the
Brahminical practice of vanprastasan (retiring to the woods) should be
followed at a ripe age of 60 when one is supposed to have discharged
one’s responsibilities towards the family and the society. It is
criminal to indulge in vipassana when the Dalits have so many problems
on hand.
******************
Budha holding sword
SHER SINGH, IAS, CALCUTTA
I am shifting to my native place, Patiala. While clearing old papers/
books, I discovered a picture of Budha with a double-edged sword found
in the German museum. I will send it to you soon. My new address is:
H.No. 1897, Urban Estate, Phase-II, Patiala - 147 002.

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India facing slow death for want of honest intellectuals
V.T. RAJSHEKAR
It is said the people get the govt. they deserve. Just like that, the
people also get the media they deserve.
Having spent 25 years in the English national newspaper, Indian
Express, and later 25 years as the Editor of Dalit Voice, I have to
say with deep sorrow that our national media, both print and
electronic, is not serving the cause of the society.
That doesn’t mean the other wings of the society are angels.
VIEW FROM BOTTOM
My remark is confined to the English media. The language media is also
following the English media but it is closer to the wishes and
aspirations of the people.
As a Dalit and Editor of Dalit Voice, India’s oldest and the largest
circulated English journal, my view naturally is from the bottom of
the society. Those of you from the upper castes, and getting the view
from the top of the society, naturally, may differ.
But remember it is only those people who are crushed that cry in pain.
Those on the top of the Malabar Hill in Bombay get a dazzling view of
the city. They think the whole of Bombay is dazzling.
LARGEST COUNTRY OF ILLITERATES
But our people pushed into the slums of Bombay, steeped in filth,
gasping for breath cry in pain. You cannot understand, much less
appreciate our pain.
So you have to bear with my agonising pain as a victim of this caste-
ridden society.
The principal cause for this topsy-turvey situation is the country’s
poor literacy rate. You must be knowing that India is emerging as the
world’s largest country of illiterates. The English literacy rate is
shocking. There is a deliberate and conscious effort to deny English
education to the “low castes” and to keep the language as the preserve
of the upper caste elite. This has been verified and reported by
surveying the type of students attending our elite public schools
where the medium is English.
Some of my observations may not be true of Kerala, a state which is an
exception. But you go to Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta,
Hyderabad, Pune etc. what I said is the rule.
So much so the English-knowing population in India may not be more
than 10%.
But we are talking about the English media which needs the ability to
read, and understand English. The percentage of those who can read,
write, speak and understand English may not be more than 5%. This is
evident from the English paper circulation. Some people say it is much
less.
Be that as it may, what is the consequence of such a stranglehold on
the English language?
English is naturally restricted to upper class. In India, “class” and
“caste” go together.
With minor exceptions, all those who have a mastery over English are
upper class, meaning upper caste.
ROLE OF TIMES OF INDIA
This has been verified by a survey report made in Bangalore, the IT
capital of India, which said most of those in the highly paid IT
sector are upper castes, mainly Brahmins. That is why IT is getting so
much of importance.
And to cater to this emerging “big bourgeois” an English daily, Times
of India, is spreading its net.
Permit me to read a report on the country’s highest circulated English
daily and how it has reached that status by resorting to all sorts of
dirty tactics.
I am quoting from the world famous London Economist (May 3, 2008):
One of India’s leading newspapers launched an unusual advertising
drive last month, “Money cannot buy our integrity”, read a front-page
slogan in Daily News & Analysis (DNA), a Mumbai daily. “Make the
headlines tomorrow, By paying for it”, it added, in reference to some
other papers’ supposed tendency to give favourable coverage to firms
that place advertisements. That charge is hard to prove. But an
increasingly popular practice is exposing Indian newspapers to growing
conflicts of interest: accepting payments for ads in the form of
shares in the advertiser’s firm.
The Times Group, the country’s biggest media firm, started the
practice in 2004. According to its website, it now has 120 “private
treaties” of this nature, which “make the power of the Times group
available to our Treaty Partners”. The firm’s executives insist that
neither its own shareholdings nor its advertisers influence its
coverage. But articles in its publications do not always reveal its
own interest. Sevanti Ninan, a media activist, reckons the practice
will “grow and grow in a media which anyway has little notion of
conflicts of interest”. Indeed, HT Media Ltd., the publisher of the
Hindustan Times, recently started offering private treaties, as did
one of the owners of DNA, the Dainik Bhaskar group, even though DNA
itself does not offer ads-for-equity deals.
NO ETHICS BUT ONLY MONEY
India’s newspaper industry, bucking a worldwide trend, is flourishing.
New titles hit the newsstands practically every month. More than 350 m
literate Indians do not yet subscribe to a newspaper, which, coupled
with rising literacy, promises a long-term boom. A recent report by
Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimated that India’s print industry would
grow from 149 billion rupees ($3.6 billion) in 2007 to 281 billion
rupees in 2012.
But papers are absurdly cheap thanks to incessant price wars. The
Times of India, for example, costs just 2.50 rupees. That leaves it
and others heavily dependent upon advertisers No wonder, then, that
DNA’s campaign is attracting so much attention.
The Times gives favourable coverage to firms that place advt. It
accepts payments for advt. in the form of shares in the advertiser’s
firm. According to the Times Website it has 120 “private treaties” of
this nature.
The Hindustan Times started the same thing.
The Times of India offers the best example to prove that the media
need have no ethics except to make money. And making money and getting
rich by hook or crook is injected into the veins of all upper caste-
class youth.
And that is how India has become a money-driven society.
Not a value-driven-society.
I have worked under giant editors like Pothan Joseph, Frank Moreas,
Kuldip Nayar, who is presiding over this seminar.
They all taught us about the value-driven society. That society is
dead.
But if you talk of such a society in a Rotary Club, Lions Club or in
our Press club in Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay, they will laugh at you.
ANTI-RESERVATION CAMPAIGN
That is how the English-media was in the forefront of anti-reservation
campaign, publishing all sorts of false reports.
A survey was conducted for the first time in Delhi to verify the
social profile of 300 senior journalists in 37 Hindi and English
newspapers and TV and found “Hindu upper caste men, who form 8% of the
country’s population, hold 71% of the jobs in the national media”. I
am reading from a clipping from the Hindu of June 5, 2007.
Our media is very fond of exposing corruption. All corruption stories
hit the front-page with the picture of the “corrupt fellow”. But what
about the corruption among the journalists?
I have with me an article from Rajdeep Sardesai, a very damaging
indictment of the journalists. He says:
Publishers of books invite reviewers to wine and dine and the book and
its author with picture get a three-column spread.
I am the author of over 100 books but to this day not a single paper
in India reviewed my book.
BLACK LABEL WHISKY
We just don’t care. Our books are sold like a hot cake. We can’t
afford to lubricate these journalists with Black Label whisky.
Some of my colleagues say corruption in journalism is a reflection of
a general fall in journalistic norms and values. No. Even when I was a
reporter in the Indian Express, in the 60s and 70, there used to be
“gifted” reporters. They will attend only such press conferences where
lavish gifts are given.
Corruption is part of our value system. Every section of the society
has been corrupted including our High Court and Supreme Court
judges..
MYSTERY OF AMBANIS
How do you get such favourable coverage to Ambanis?
When I was in the Indian Express, Bombay, I used to be friendly with
some of the senior assistant editors and special correspondents who
used to write on social and cultural issues.
As the money-driven society caught up, these journalists had no work.
Sex, sports and crime combined with cricket have occupied the front-
pages of all newspapers.
Where is the demand for intellectuals? They are dead and gone.
India cannot produce honest intellectuals because our very socio-
cultural system has the tremendous capacity to corrupt anybody.
I have written a book long back, called India’s Intellectual Desert.
This desert is not confined to journalists alone. It has spread to our
academia, scientific research institutions, universities. And that is
how we as a country are facing the current gloom.
The greatness and the forward march of a society or country depends
upon the number of honest intellectuals it produces – men and women
who cannot be purchased, who will not bow to caste, religion or any
favour. Sorry, you may accuse me of placing a very pessimistic picture
of Indian scene. But it is true.
ALL REVOLUTIONARIES WERE PESSIMISTS
We are facing a serious problem with our media praising “India
Shining” walas. What I mean is those who give an optimistic, glorious
picture of India. But I don’t belong to that category.
Remember, all revolutionaries like Budha, Karl Marx, Mao, Dr.
Ambedkar, Sri Narayana Guru painted only a pessimistic picture of
their respective society. Budha said the world is full of Dukha.
They were all pessimists. Pessimists only become revolutionaries.
Optimists produce “India shining”walas, promise a glorious future and
drag you to hell.
V.T. Rajshekar, India’s Intellectual Desert, pp.50, DSA-1999, Rs. 50.
[Speech delivered as the chief guest at the seminar on “Media &
Accountability”,
Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, June 16, 2008.]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDIA SHINING
Ugly face of India’s capital city
Badarpur Khaadar, (Delhi): It is an hour’s drive from the heart of
India’s govt. and it is represented in Parliament by the son of
Delhi’s chief minister. Yet, there is no electricity. No toilets. No
piped water. No schools. Welcome to Badarpur Khaadar, a Muslim-
majority village of 1,120 whose inhabitants lack a list of amenities
that many sub-Saharan villages have, a village so steeped in chronic
poverty that a global report referred to it a case study of modern
India’s extremes. “Despite India’s poverty indicator doing well, here
is a village that looks unlikely to meet even a single millennium
goal”, Salil Shetty, director of the United Nations’ Development
Goals, had said while launching the World Chronic Poverty Report 2008
in UK last week. India’s capital tops an Ernst and Young list of 48
Indian cities as the best place to live in this country, but Badarpur
Khaadar — on whose horizon you can see cranes tower above high rises —
is worse off than even sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world’s most
backward regions.
—(Hindustan Times, Oct.30, 2008)
*****

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LETTER TO EDITOR
Dr. Awatar Singh Sekhon, 8507 - 174th Street, NW, Edmonton, AB T5T
2B2, Canada: There are about 12,000 villages in Punjab with 9,000
Deras. Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan,
has urged the Sikhs not to get involved with Deras. The Indian Govt.
is encouraging these Deras as part of its ongoing effort to destroy
the Sikh religion. They are polluting the Sikh religion and leading us
away from the Guru Granth. One such Dera is that of Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Singh, head of the Dera Sacha Sauda, who poses as Guru Gobind Singh
and dressing like him, promising to do baptisms. There was quite an
outcry to have the Punjab Govt. shut him down, but instead Chief
Minister Prakash Singh Badal and his son went to Ram Rahim Singh
seeking his political support. Badal and his Akalis are allied with
the Hindu terrorist (BJP). This alliance stabs the Sikh nation in the
back. India is determined to destroy the Sikh religion. The leadership
of the Akali Dal has joined hands with the enemy. It is dangerous for
the Sikh religion when the enemy is in our own camp. Ram Rahim Singh
and his Dera have shown that they are enemies of the Sikhs. The Dera’s
chief bodyguard even killed a Sikh protestor. No action has been taken
against him. He travels in a fleet of Mercedes cars, protected by 25
bodyguards. The Nirankari and Radhaswami, and their like are other
Deras that must be rejected by any true Sikh. Sikhs are not allowed to
bow their heads to any living guru, but only to the Guru Granth.
Brother Aulakh lives in far away Washington as he is not permitted to
enter India. That is how he does not know the correct situation inside
Punjab. We are aware of the existence of many sincere, devoted Sikhs.
But their number is dwindling. The Khatri Sikhs anyway have gone with
their Hindu jatwalas. But even among the Jat Sikhs, the single largest
segment among the Sikhs, we find their dedication to Guru Gobind Singh
is waning. It is the duty of the Brahminical enemy to weaken the
Sikhs. It has already won over the Akali Dal, the state’s only Sikh
political party. Even when every Sikh knows how Brahminism killed Sant
Bhindranwale after launching the Blue Star how did the Akali Dal
embrace the enemy that killed thousands of Sikhs and destroyed the
Akal Takht? This should have turned every Sikh into blood-enemy of
Brahminism. Yet the Akali Dal surrendered to Brahminism. This is an
unpardonable blunder and paved the way to hinduisation of affluent Jat
Sikhs. When the Jat Sikhs got closer to Brahminism, the very same
enemy worked on Dalit Sikhs and sharpened the contradictions between
the two. Brahminism even financed the setting up of the Deras. Dera
Sacha Saudha is one such creation. Today, Punjab is dotted with
hundreds of such Deras which are encouraged to hinduise the non-Hindu
Dalits and Dalit Sikhs. So many Dalit writers are financed to attack
Sikhs and widen the gap between the Dalits and Jat Sikhs. Dalits and
Dalit Sikhs are Punjab’s poorest. Sikhism was born to liberate them.
There may be some mistakes on the part of Dalits and Dalit Sikhs but
as the elder brothers and endowed with a revolutionary religion, the
Jat Sikhs should excuse them if there are any mistakes on the part of
the younger, weaker brothers and win them over. But this did not
happen. As Brahminism worked on Dalits to fight Sikhs, it also rubbed
salt on the Dalit-Sikh differences which today stands almost
unresolvable. Amid this fast developing gloom, Dalit Voice is the only
silver lining. But even then our close Jat Sikh friends failed to turn
up at our recent DV family get-together at the Chandigarh Ambedkar
Bhawan. There may be hundred and one mistakes on both sides but this
is not the time to repeat it. We call upon the Jat Sikh honest
intellectuals to call a meeting of intellectuals at Chandigarh and
invite Dalit intellectuals for a frank discussion. We will be happy to
attend it. This must get top priority — EDITOR.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/dec2008/articles.htm
The role played by “forces of history”
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: It is true that Dalit Voice was the first in India to
predict the Obama victory. We have received many congratulatory
messages including a call from a DV family member from Nigeria.
We had clarified that our “prediction” was not based on astrology but
from the study of “forces of history”.
Obama was not elected by the American voters alone. He was crowned by
the whole world. That is the hope raised in Obama, disgusted by the
hate-Muslim violence generated by the mad monster, George W. Bush, who
must be now tried by a people’s tribunal for war crimes, and also
pushing the world to the current global financial crisis.
DV’s another first
That does not mean Barack Obama will be able to solve all the problems
created by Bush and his Jewish advisers disguised as neocons.
It all began with the dramatic attack on the New York WTC twin towers
(9/11) which launched the prolonged war and violence on Muslims. DV
was the first in India to reveal that WTC attack was not done by Al-
Queda as claimed by official America but by the Israeli Mossad to
force America to launch a war on Muslims. The attack was launched with
the connivance of the zionist agents inside the Bush Administration as
part of the “clash of civilisations”.
None believed us then when we revealed the truth on the WTC attack in
the year 2001. Similarly none believed us when we predicted (Jan.
2008) that a young 47-year-old Black man, with a Muslim name would
crush the Clinton machine and later maul the mighty McCain of the
GOP.
Our Brahminical rulers (15%) were the first to hail the US war on
Muslims that resulted in millions of death with the sole single motive
of protecting the zionist homeland, Israel, an illegally established
encroachment which is not recognised by many countries.
Our doubts on Obama
Will Obama be able to rescue the hate-filled, violence-ridden,
financial crisis-gripped US and the world? Forget the world, will he
be able to re-assure the deeply worried innocent, poor Americans who
voted for him? We have our own doubts.
Too much hope is raised on Obama. Expectations are great. We are aware
of all this. “Forces of history” will bring pressure on Obama to
“change” which he had promised before election. But will he be able to
bring about that “change”? Our answer is he may not succeed fully.
DV will not spare Obama
We as editors and arm-chair critics are passing judgements on men and
matters sitting inside our closed rooms. But political leaders
governing the country, reconciling contradictory forces, will have to
face many practical problems.
Philosophers and prophets are not responsible to anybody. They are
seers. They write and speak what their conscience dictates. Political
leaders selectively accept what is advantageous to them from
philosophers and prophets.
Very rarely a ruler combines in him the qualities of a philosopher and
prophet. Obama is not a philosopher or prophet. But a product of
history. He is bound to compromise as proved from the appointment of
2-3 Jews and a Hindu terrorist candidate, Sonal Shah.
Brahmins in India and the Jews in US have within the last 50 years
grabbed everything by creating so much of heart-burning and hatred. It
is this heart-burning that swept Obama to power in US. That doesn’t
mean he may not disappoint us. If he does, we will pound him. We will
kick him.
Muslims defeat U.S.
Before the election, he was in left extreme but after the election the
ruling class will naturally push him to middle from where it is easier
to bring him to right extreme. Just as we are trying to keep him in
left, the ruling class, which is not only ruling but has the media,
will naturally use its magnetic power to draw him closer. This is no
surprise. We have no such magnet to attract him. But we trust in
“historical forces”.
Did not the rise of China, Iran, Japan shift the power to a great
extent from the West to East? Did not the backward, poor, unarmed
Muslims in the Middle East defeat the sole super power America with
all its awful military might? Is not America losing the world’s sole
super power status? Did the Jews in Israel get any peace after they
illegally grabbed Palestine with the full blessings of the racist
Whites and their military might? Are the toxic Brahmins of India able
to rule India in peace and establish their Hindu Rashtra after they
conspired to divide India (1947) and killed Gandhi? Did anybody dream
that China’s economy could surpass America’s by 2030? America’s
Director of Intelligence predicts that China will start to become a
global military power by 2025. (Economist, Nov.8, 2008).
These are the couple of cases determined by the “forces of history”.
Obama is a child of history. He was thrown up on the world stage by
history which has its own way of shaping the world. Obama must be
knowing it. And he must be certainly wanting to leave his mark on
history. The oppressed majority of the world not only gave him the
support but also the strength. We are sure he will use it though the
destructive forces will do everything to undermine him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BCs kicked from both sides
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: The Union Home Ministry is packed with the choicest upper
castes who have always done their best to preserve the country’s
Brahminical Social Order (BSO). The Ministry is presided over by a
Minister, Shivaraj Patil, who is a sincere votary of the BSO. In their
love for BSO, these casteists do not know the damage they have
inflicted on the socio-cultural fabric of the country which has become
like a handicapped 61-year-old man. Only a less than 15% of the upper
castes (Hindus) have surged forward, monopolising the scorce resources
of the country. The SC/STs (30%) at least have a separate census even
as they continue to be the poorest and the most neglected.
But what about over 35% of the country, forming the Backward Castes
who too are Untouchable to the upper caste in varying degrees? It is
these sections who are mostly falling prey to the Hindu terrorist
forces and organisations — even as they continue to be economically
and socially neglected. The killer Narendra Modi of Gujarat (an oil
crushing jati fellow) belong to the OBC caste. Hence the need for a
caste census to disclose where the BCs stand?
The BSO leaders say the BCs and SC/STs are Hindu and their brothers.
Then why this discrimination against their own Hindu brothers? The
denial of caste census is yet another proof that the BSO will never,
ever accept them as part of them. Not only that. The BSO is investing
so much of money and manpower to hinduise the SC/STs and instigate
them against the BCs — saying it is not the Brahmins who are the enemy
no.1 of Dalits but the BCs.
The BCs, therefore, are being kicked on one side by the Brahmins and
on another side by Dalits. Despite this double trouble, the BCs are in
eternal sleep in Hindu India.
********************
Caste-wise census demand
New Delhi: MPs from OBC outfits met home minister Shivraj Patil on Oct.
24 to demand a caste-wise census in 2011. Castes outside SCs and STs
are not recorded in the decennial exercise.
Home Ministry had refused to conduct such an exercise, arguing it was
regressive and would undo the break from the past when caste census
was last done before “independence”. The MPs said enumeration of the
population on caste lines would be in accordance with the recent
directions of Supreme Court in OBC quota in higher educational
institutions.
“A caste-wide census data would help explain socio-economic status of
various communities in the country, resolve the reservation questions
satisfactorily, throw light on the concept of creamy layer,
distribution of benefits under governmental programmes and schemes in
proportion to population and also effective and equitable
implementation of various policies of the government”, the MPs said in
a memorandum.
(Times of India, Oct.26, 2008).

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Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil gets credit for cracking Mafia
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: The country’s principal Brahminical Mafia, RSS, which once
killed even the “Father of the nation”, M.K. Gandhi, and distributed
sweets to celebrate the event, is revealing itself as the most
ferocious terrorist organisation surpassing all other declared
terrorist outfits.
If reports in their own Brahminical “national” toilet papers are to be
believed, RSS, the hydra-headed king cobra, is identified as the
culprit behind the series of anti-Muslim terrorist violence in
different parts of the country.
Home Ministry silence: What is more shocking is such India-wide
terrorist activities resulting in the death of thousands and thousands
of Muslims — so far suppressed by the their own Brahminical toilet
papers, but put the blame on innocent Muslims — is now publicised by
the same manuwadi media.
Already thousands of Muslims have been arrested and rotting in jails
without trial for the crimes committed by the Brahminical police and
suppressed by the Brahminical media.
But how did the whole conspiracy, which involved even top serving
officers in the Indian Army, come to light?
Yes. The credit goes to the brave but unassuming R.R. Patil, the Home
Minister of Maharashtra, a Maratha fighter against Brahminism.
Reports say Union Home Minister Shivaraj Patil had all the
intelligence input about the terrorist activities of the Brahminical
Mafia. Why did he not take any action against the Mafia? Reports say
Patil’s Brahminical leanings made him blind to the reality. The
credit, therefore, goes to R.R. Patil for unmasking the horrible face
of the Mafia which killed Gandhi, demolished Babri Masjid, engineered
the “Gujarat Genocide” —all resulting in thousands and thousands of
deaths of Muslims.
Pune home of Mafia: A number of hard-core Brahmins, mainly Chitpavans
from Pune, have been arrested. The list is too long. It is headed by
Lt. Col. Purohit (37) from Pune, a young woman styling as sadhvi and
many others. All of them got military training from military schools
established by the RSS with the help of serving and retired military
officers and IB officers.
The entire operation is now being bravely conducted by the Maharashtra
Govt. under the leadership of R.R. Patil but the Union Home Ministry
is still dodging. What is of prime importance is the interest of the
country and not its ruling Brahminical people. The role played by the
RSS ever since its establishment is too well known. The Maharasthra
Govt. has just opened the lid. In the interest of bringing peace and
protecting the life and property of its innocent citizens the culprits
must be booked and put on trial.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secret of Brahminists undergoing military training
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: When the Brahminical people (15%) are the rulers of the
land, hold most of the property, positions and power, why are they
taking military training? And against whom? When the country’s defence
services, police and paramilitary forces headed by them are there only
to protect the rulers, why they are so much worried and established
private military training colleges? The Brahminical Social Order (15%)
is headed by its 2.5% Brahmins who call themselves the Bhoodevatas.
They are literally worshipped and held in great reverence. Their 33-
crore Hindu gods are at their beck and call to frighten all of us.
Right from the Prime Minister down to the lowly panchayat every one is
literally their servant. The executive, judiciary, bureaucracy, media,
entire financial and education sectors are headed by their own chosen
people. Their dictatorial control extends even over Muslim, Christian,
Sikh and every shade of people. That means they are the monarch. But
the Monarch is afraid of whom? In the DV of Nov.16, 2008 p.6, after
raising this question, we said we have the answer:-
The so-called Hindus— comprising the Brahmin (2.5%), Kshatriya,
Vaishya and shudra — form not even 15% of India’s population. The
first three are the dwijas — the twice-born
The rest are SC- 20%), ST- 10%, BCs - 35% (who are the once born),
Muslim -15%, Christian and Sikh-5%. Together they form 85%.
BLOOD ENEMIES OF BRAHMINS
This is the broad demographic picture of the country. Even the
Brahminical Social Order (BSO) comprising the first category is not a
homogenous whole. The Vaishyas and Kshatriyas intensely hate the
Brahmins. The divide becomes more visible when it comes to SC/ST/BCs.
Particularly the first one, Dalits, are the blood enemies of
Brahmins.
That is why we very often say that India is not a nation but a country
divided into hundreds of nations.
Of the lot, Brahmins (2.5%), being at the apex of the caste pyramid,
are the most hated by the rest of humans. Of this the Dalits 20% are
the angriest and the most uncompromising enemies of Brahmins.
DALITS USED TO KILL MUSLIMS
The BSO has been trying to use the Dalits by hinduising (enslaving)
them. But this exercise is failing because of the existence of caste
division. This is what we described as “caste killing the
casteists” (BSO) in our book, Caste — A Nation Within the Nation,
(Books for Change, Bangalore).
The hard-core Brahminists under the RSS Mafia have been training the
Dalits to kill the Muslims — an exercise found effective to hinduise
the Dalits. But the electoral compulsions of the Congress and other
Backward Caste parties are coming in the way of ant-Muslim mayhem. BJP
is the only party backing the anti-Muslim violence but even this party
lost in the last parliament election.
DANGER FACING IN “HINDU” WORD
It could not “build” the temple to their god Ram after demolishing the
Babri Masjid. Nor could it rename India as Hindu Rashtra.
That is why the Brahmins being a micro-minority are deeply worried
that if the “caste identity” gets stronger, the society gets divided
on caste and regional basis, and the Dalit-Muslim unity gets stronger
all their “Hindu unity” business will collapse like a house of cards.
Brahmins are deeply worried about their serious numerical weakness,
coupled with their physical weakness, compounded by the all-round
hatred they generated by their commission and omission.
That is why the micro-minority Brahmins have decided to seek self-
protection by setting up military training colleges. This is the
secret.
But there is one big danger which the Bahujan leadership (85%) has not
realised. Already the BJP chief Rajnath Singh has warned that the
latest “reckless” arrests of “religious leaders” may anger the
“Hindus” and the “Hindus” may retaliate. BSO will certainly use the
current arrests to rouse the Hindus and “unite the Hindus”.
The BJP chief’s warning has already unnerved the Congress and other
parties aligned with it because all of them also claim to be Hindu.
That is why we warn that the name “Hindu” will be counter- productive
because “Hindu unity” will certainly lead to disunity of India.
The problem is our political leaders are also guided by the BSO. And
that is how they clubbed the non-Hindu if not anti-Hindu Dalits (20%)
also along with the Hindu.
The fact is only the Aryan Brahmins (2.5%) are Hindu. None else. Even
the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas are not ready to join them. The non-Aryan
SC/ST/BCs anyway are not Hindu and never Hindu. This is the verdict of
Dr. Ambedkar.
“HINDU” IS A TRAP
Backward and Dalit political parties, therefore, should not accept
that SC/ST/BCs are Hindu. If they fall a prey to Brahminical
machinations, what will they do when BJP accuses the Congress of
infuriating Hindus by “recklessly arresting Hindu sadhus and
sadhvis”?
The term Hindu is a trap and if Dalits are caught in this trap it is
difficult to escape until “caste identity” is fully established.
GITA ADVOCATES VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, the RSS Mafia, has fully backed the Malegaon terrorists —
rubbishing the theory that Hinduism stands for the nonsense of
nonviolence. Who said Hinduism is the world’s only religion that
stands for non-violence? Stupid. Did not the country’s topmost Brahmin
authority, B.G. Tilak, in his book, Gita Rahasya, say that their god
Krishna himself fully sanctioned violence in the Bhagawad Gita?
The Malegaon arrests have once for all proved that the Bhoodevatas are
indeed India’s biggest terrorists.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caste clash in Madras college
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: Dalit-Thevar caste clash so far confined to the southern
districts of Tamil Nadu has spread to the Madras capital city. The
ferocious Nov.12, 2008 Thevar student attack on Dalits at Dr. Ambedkar
Law College in Madras was perhaps the biggest clash involving
students. The incident was so ferocious that the govt. immediately
dismissed the city police commissioner for the police inaction even
when the police knew that the Thevar students were attacking the
Dalits. Law College principal Shridevi was suspended. The TN State
Assembly held a debate and demanded serious action against the
culprits.The Thevars belong to the OBC and a former “criminal tribe”
which often get into bloody clashes with Dalits in Southern TN. Being
a poor, uneducated and also a deprived people the Thevars have mostly
fallen into the Brahminical terrorist RSS net. By injecting Hindu
poison into the non-Hindu Thevar veins, the RSS may be encouraging
caste clashes between the Thevars and Dalits.
But what the Hindu terrorists do not know is caste clashes help both
the castes to strengthen their “caste identity”. Thevars have gained
nothing by attacking Dalits. But it has helped the Dalits to emerge as
a big force. Now that the caste clashes have spread into colleges, it
will take an interesting turn. The Madras College violence has already
spread to districts. The Thevar-dominated police are normally anti-
Dalit and are expected to encourage the violence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEBATE
Dr. Kancha Ilaiah on how Brahmins killed Budhism
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: The Budha was the first in India to create a perfect
alternative institutional organisation to the oppressive Brahminism
that was killing the original inhabitants of India.
Dr. Kancha Ilaiah in his book, God as a Political Philosopher ,
(Samya, 16-Southern Avenue, Calcutta - 700 026,. pp.250, Rs. 250,
2004), says it was Budha who virtually eradicated Brahminism and its
oppressive caste system which assured the hegemony of the Brahmins:
Buddha deliberately turned the hegemonic code on its head by
advocating the theory of ahimsa, of shaving the head and face, being
prepared to soil one hands in productive work, mixing with all castes
by sharing their cooked food given as alms. By that time Brahmins had
stopped accepting cooked food from sudras and Chandalas; this barrier
was merely intensified by the new Brahmin practice of vegetarianism.
Brahmins kill monks
Brahminism had to adopt underhand methods to defeat Buddhism and
reclaim its hegemonic space in the state and civil society. After
Buddha’s death pressures from within and without conspired to turn
Buddhism into a religion. During the period of Ashoka around the third
century CE it spread to other Asian countries and established itself
as one of the leading religions of the world. But in India the Vedic
Hindus retaliated. According to Ambedkar key Buddhist monks were
killed so that further propagation of Buddhism should be weakened. All
the Buddhist viharas were occupied by Brahminical forces and Hindu
idols installed in them, a tactic of which the Babri Masjid incident
is the newest manifestation. By then (the fifth and sixth centuries
CE) Buddhist institutions had accumulated considerable wealth, which
added temptation to the religious animosity that ruined them.
Caste system brought back
In the process of killing Buddhism, Brahminism brought the whole caste
system back with a vengeance as this hierarchy alone could preserve
their hegemony for centuries. In modern India, though political
democracy was adopted as a system imposed by the British, the upper
caste Hindu mentality remained exclusivist. Furthermore, they were all
too ready during the nationalist period to present their own deities,
icons, rituals, folklore and religious symbols as representative of
mainstream modern India. Once, they had constructed their culture as
the Indian culture, they implied that to lack adherence to that
culture was to be unpatriotic. The gods and customs of sudras, Dalits
and Adivasis were thus marginalized and the cultural integrity of
these groups attacked by Brahminist nationalists. The traces of
Buddhist tradition still to be found among these groups were pushed
further into the background.
Vegetarianism glorified
For example, vegetarianism was projected as the practice of most
Indians, thus undermining the sudra, Adivasi, Chandala and Buddhist
traditions which were actually the composite food culture of India —
meat, milk, vegetables and so on. Vedanta philosophy was projected as
the foundation of Indian thought.
My study of Buddha’s political thought shows that the Buddhist
political, social and spiritual philosophy have nothing to do with
Vedanta. The Vedanta which was projected as Indian nationalist
philosophy did not operate outside the bounds of varnadharma but only
within the sphere of Brahminical metaphysics.
The author says Siddhartha came from an agrarian background which was
closer to the Vaisya-sudra culture of his period. This is the reason
why Buddha never prescribed pure vegetarianism to his followers. The
Budhist Sangha people were eating meat, beef, pork, vegetables etc. In
conformity with this tradition, in all countries where Buddhism is the
main religion the composite food culture exists and continues. Budha
never prohibited eating meat and fish.
Vegetarian Vedantism’s entry into our national discourse as the
practice of mainstream India shows how false is Brahminical
nationalism. In the face of the fact that 85 per cent of India’s
population were and are mamasaharis (the correct translation of which
is meatarian) the Brahmins in charge of the nationalist project did
not feel that they were projecting the self-image of a small minority
into nationhood itself.
Pejawara Swamy hates Budhism: Though Hindu terrorist parties like RSS-
BJP say Budhism is nothing but Hinduism, Brahmin leaders like Udupi’s
Pejawara Swamy even now insists that Budhism is anti-Hindu (Deccan
Herald, Nov.3, 2008).
On one side top Brahmin leaders criticise Budhism, do everything to
destroy it but at the same time Brahminical agents like S.N. Goenka
brainwash Ambedkarite Budhists through Vipassana meditation and
Calcutta’s Maha Bodhi Society in perverting everything that Dr.
Ambedkar did.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE “MAHATMA” AS STOOGE OF THE BRITISH
One of the greatest wonders of Brahminsim is its double-face. The best
and the most famous example in history to prove this is M.K. Gandhi.
An RSS Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune, the homeland of the Brahminical
terrorist party, RSS, killed Gandhi and the RSS distributed sweets all
over India to celebrate the event.
BUNCH OF CONTRADICTIONS
Even as the vaidiks rejoiced over elimination of the only obstacle to
take over the leadership of “independent” India, they also quietly
captured Gandhi Bhavans, became the greatest gandhians and thereby
once again fooled us.
There is no point in blaming the Hindu terrorist party or the vaidik
vampire for this except Gandhi himself who was a bundle of
contradictions. The vaidiks found in him the best of traits to deceive
the innocent people of India.
One of the greatest contradictions in Gandhi was his claim that he
fought against the British rule.
Read our book to know the truth.
SERGEANT-MAJOR M.K. GANDHI
Which reveals him as a first-rate British stooge who worked in the
British army as Sergeant-Major in British-ruled South Africa.
The book written by Dr. Velu Annamalai proves how Gandhi was a
notorious anti-Black racist and how his claim for nonviolence was
totally false.
Rather, he was a first class stooge of the White rulers.
The author even calls Gandhi a dictator and an Indian version of
Hitler.
The book has excerpts from Michael Edward’s book, The Myth of the
Mahatma.
ENEMY NO.1 OF DALITS
Dr. Ambedkar called Gandhi the Enemy No.1 of Untouchables.
V.T. Rajshekar in his book, Why Godse Killed Gandhi? congratulated
Godse for liberating India from gandhian menace.
Only few copies are available.
1995 pp.60 Rs. 20
Write to Dalit Voice office.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DALIT-MUSLIM UNITY
A number of our DV family members have been telling us to promote
Dalit-Muslim unity to counter the mounting Brahminical terrorism in
the country. We want to impress that we were the first in India to
launch such a movement.
Our book on this subject was released in Bangalore by Moulana Hasan
Ali Nadvi (Ali Miya) in 1995 itself — over 13 years back.
The Editor later went round the country with copies of the book
written by Dr. Ram Nath, a noted Dalit intellectual of UP, translated
to Hindi and Urdu.
Muslims purchased the books with great enthusiasm, delivered powerful
speeches supporting the unity, treated us to good dinner parties and
there it ended.
At the end of 13 years now we stand where we were. Dalits are ready
but the Muslim hand of friendship is not forthcoming. Why?
We got the answer from a Bihari Backward Muslim who spoke at the DV
silver jubilee meeting at Lucknow on Sept.28, 2008. The entire
gathering was shocked to hear why we failed.
**********
Please order the last few remaining copies of the book
DALIT - MUSLIM UNITY
WHY? AND HOW?
Dr. Ram Nath
Agriculture Scientist, Kanpur
Foreword by V.T. Rajshekar

1995 pp. 74 Rs. 25
The book answers 35 questions on the subject with two annexures:
“Dr. Ambedkar on Islam” & “Doubts on Dalit-Muslim unity answered”.
Write to DV office.
Latest book by a Bangladeshi scholar examines how Budhism vanished
from its very land of birth
BUDDHISM IN SOUTH ASIA
A Study in History
Dr. M. Abdul Momin Chowdhury
Formerly of the University College of London
Says the credit for destroying Budhism and erasing even its memory
from India goes to Brahmins who simply burnt down all monasteries and
educational institutions including the world famous Nalanda
University. They even rewrote “history” saying their god Vishnu re-
incarnated as Budha. They destroyed all records so that no factual
history is available. They wrote their cock and bull stories in
Mahabharata and Ramayana to promote Brahminical values.
2008 pp.360 Rs. 300
London Institute of South Asia, London
Write to Dalit Voice for copies.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/dec2008/reports.htm
'Ex-Pak Army officials, ISI trained Mumbai attackers'
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Agencies
Posted: Dec 04, 2008 at 1210 hrs IST
New York Former Pakistan Army officers and those from the powerful ISI
helped train the attackers who targeted Mumbai last week killing over
180 people, a media report said on Thursday quoting a former Pentagon
official.
However, no specific links had been uncovered yet between terrorists
and the Pakistani government, the unnamed official said, according to
the 'New York Times'.
"A former Defense Department official said on Wednesday that American
intelligence agencies had determined that former officers from
Pakistan's Army and its powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency
helped train the Mumbai attackers," the paper said.
It, however, did not identify the official, saying he had spoken on
condition of anonymity.
The disclosure came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held
meetings with Indian leaders in New Delhi and Admiral Mike Mullen,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met their Pakistani
counterparts in Islamabad, in a two-pronged effort to pressure the
country to cooperate fully in tracking down the perpetrators of the
bloody attacks, the paper said.
Pakistan has refuted Indian allegations that militants operating from
its soil were responsible for the deadly attacks, with President Asif
Ali Zardari terming them as "non-state actors".
US tells Pak to 'investigate aggressively' Mumbai attack links
The United States has asked Pakistan to "investigate aggressively" all
possible links between Pakistani groups and the Mumbai attacks and to
take more action against militants across the country.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked
Pakistan's top leadership to "investigate aggressively any and all
possible ties to groups based in Pakistan", the US embassy said in a
statement.
While taking note of the recent success of Pakistani security forces
in operations against militants on the Afghan border, Mullen "also
encouraged Pakistani leaders to take more, and more concerted, action
against militant extremists elsewhere in the country", the statement
said.
"All agreed that the tragedy in Mumbai represents a dangerous
escalation in the sophistication of extremist attacks and an increased
threat to the entire region," the statement said.
Mullen, who is on a two-day visit to Pakistan for talks aimed at
defusing the tensions with India after the Mumbai attacks, met with
President Asif Ali Zardari, Mahmud Ali Durrani, Advisor to the Prime
Minister on National Security, Gen Tariq Majid, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Committee, army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI
chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
His visit to Pakistan coincided with a visit to India by US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to travel to Islamabad on
Thursday.
Are politicians suffering from foot-in-mouth syndrome?
The political class has never had it so bad with unprecedented public
anger over Mumbai terror attacks, and they have made it worse for
themselves with "foot-in-the-mouth" syndrome.
From lipstick to cur, politicians have come in for sharp criticism for
their shooting-from-the-lip with eminent personalities saying time has
come for them to think before opening their mouth.
Be it Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan's "dog" remark or former
Maharashtra Deputy CM RR Patil's "filmi-syle" statement or BJP Vice-
President MA Naqvi's "lipstick" reaction and their respective parties
taking exception to them – these kneejerk comments are now being
subjected to public scrutiny.
Says India's first woman IPS officer-turned-social activist Kiran
Bedi: "The politicians have long been suffering from the foot-in-the-
mouth syndrome. But, thanks to media now, they and their diseases are
getting exposed. We need change in the country."
Concurs historian Ramachandra Guha. He says that the anger of people
after the Mumbai mayhem "was aggravated by the cavalier behaviour of
the politicians".
Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra disagrees. "In no way, we can generalise
the politicians who make comments from time to time which are not in
good taste. Politicians as a class are not suffering from the foot-in-
mouth disease.
"Each of the comments has to be seen as a specific case. The only
exception is Kerala CM's 'dog' remark about a martyred Army Major --
that statement is despicable. However, other comments don't fall in
that category."
Achuthanandan had ignited a controversy after being "snubbed" by the
angry father of NSG officer Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was
brutally killed by terrorists in Mumbai, when he went to Bangalore to
offer his condolences, by saying, "If it had not been Sandeep's house,
not even a dog would have glanced that way."
However, noted social scientist Shabnam Hashmi disagrees with Mitra.
"A majority of politicians suffer from some sort of disease. You take
BJP leader Naqvi's audacious statement on 'women wearing lipstick and
powder' and protesting against the politicians in the wake of the
Mumbai carnage. These comments reflect one's feudal mindset.
"Likewise, Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi's announcement of
compensation for the slain policemen – Anti- Terror Squad chief Hemant
Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist
Vijay Salaskar – who died fighting the terrorists in Mumbai – is also
condemnable.
"It's evident Modi did it for political gains. But the bereaved wife
of brave heart officer Karkare showed the nation what the politicians
actually deserve by refusing the largesse from the Chief Minister,"
she exclaims.
Congress MP Adhir Choudhury fully agrees: "Some of our fellow
politicians are suffering from the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, no
doubt. It's due to the deterioration of political ethics in this
country. It's unfortunate and I feel ashamed.
"We are people's representatives. But, people hardly respect us
nowadays due to the irresponsible and immature comments made by some
flashy politicians.
"The father of the slain Major showed the nation what politicians
deserve by shooing the Kerala Chief Minister out of his home. That was
the perfect treatment which needs to be meted out by the civilian
society to what is now seen as a despicable species of Indian
population called politicians."
Mitra interrupts. "No I don't agree to the bracketing of all
politicians as despicable people. In case of Naqvi what he was really
wanted to convey was a sudden excitement among Mumbai's chattering
classes."
But, Choudhury feels that whether it's his party MP or whosoever it
be, any politician who indulges in irresponsible remarks should not be
"punished".
"See both Shivraj Patil and RR Patil had to finally resign -- one for
his sartorial fetish while the other for saying 'bade bade saheer mein
chota chota blasts hota hai' respectively after the Mumbai terror
attacks."
Sums up Kolkata-based psychologist Dr SK Dasgupta: "People's anger
against politicians is more due to fear coming from a sense of
insecurity."
Why did state government take so long to react?

4 Dec 2008, 1909 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: Two precious hours were lost as marine commandos waited
that Wednesday night for authorisation to act from the Maharashtra
Chief
Secretary Johny Joseph. By the time the commandos got the green signal
to leave their base for Mumbai, the terrorists had already ensconced
themselves in several key locations.
As the establishment begins to examine what went wrong despite the
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence
agency, claiming they had given information specifying the places and
the time bracket the terrorists were expected to attack, the state
government's role has come under the spotlight.
Highly-placed sources told IANS that at least on four occasions and
even on Nov 26, the day that 10 militants laid siege on high-profile
targets, including the Oberoi Trident and the Taj hotels, RAW had
tipped off authorities of the impending attack by sea and even given
information of the time.
RAW's mandate is to disseminate alerts to the Intelligence Bureau (IB)
that oversees domestic activities. It is now reliably learnt that the
IB did pass on the "actionable intelligence" alerts to the Maharashtra
government.
Why it did not act remains a mystery, says an official.
In a double whammy, it also procrastinated when the militants struck
at 9.30 p.m. on Nov 26.
And so it was that the marine commandos - known by their acronym
Marcos - left their naval base to leave for Mumbai an hour away only
late on Wednesday night -- more than two hours after the militants had
struck.
"Last week's terror attacks in Mumbai have once again exposed the
sheer lack of critical connectivity needed between intelligence
agencies and security agencies. We really have to do some serious soul
searching," said a senior home ministry official.
Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not informed about the
intelligence inputs. Officials say briefings from the IB director and
the RAW chief to the prime minister are not so regular any more.
Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has also made it clear his force had
received "no actionable intelligence" that could have helped pre-empt
the Mumbai terror carnage, even as he candidly admitted the entire
episode was reflective of "a systemic failure" which needs to be
urgently addressed.
"We really do not know what the state authorities conveyed or did not
convey to the navy for action," said intelligence sources.
According to another intelligence official, a failure of this
magnitude occurred from primarily three factors.
"There was no intelligence information, there was intelligence but it
was not properly relayed or the information was relayed but there was
failure of optimum response," he said.
In the light of the intelligence goof-up, new Home Minister P.
Chidambaram has been stressing on accountability, which needs to be
fixed, and on an effective feedback system every time threat
perceptions are relayed to relevant quarters.
Chidambaram has been regularly meeting top officials of the ministry,
including National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Home Secretary
Madhukar Gupta, IB Director P.C. Halder and RAW chief Ashok
Chaturvedi.
"He has been patiently listening out to the top functionaries in the
ministry but is in a hurry to see systems are in place so that the
security establishment is accountable to the people who want to live
safe," said a senior ministry official.
In the coming days and weeks, the home ministry is expected to quickly
deal with some long-pending decisions aimed at enabling the government
to effectively fight terrorism.
These measures would include the need to have a stringent anti-terror
law and a federal investigating agency, massive modernisation of the
police forces and the intelligence set-up and safeguarding coastal
security.
US insurers eye India to cut costs
4 Dec 2008, 0410 hrs IST, Khomba Singh, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: The US health insurance companies are tying up with Indian
corporate hospitals for flying down patients to the country for
treatment in Tips for buying an insurance policy |
How to choose an insurance broker

order to cut costs. Wellpoint, the largest health insurance company in
the US, and Bluecross Blueshield have joined hands with Apollo
Hospitals to treat the US citizens.
Wellpoint and Apollo Hospitals are set to start a pilot project next
month to treat the US insurer’s members in Apollo’s hospitals in Delhi
and Bangalore, which was approved by the Joint Commission
International (JCI), the US-based hospital certifying agency.
Apollo Hospitals president (corporate development) Anil Mani said:
“The pilot project will run for 6-12 months.” The Wellpoint’s website
says it has around 35 million members. In other words, one in every
nine Americans is affiliated with the company.
Apollo, the country’s largest hospital chain, was in discussions with
Wellpoint for around two years. Mr Mani said that it has also tied up
with another health insurance firm, Companion Healthcare, the South
Carolina subsidiary of another leading US insurance company BlueCross
Blueshield.
Similarly, Wockhardt Hospital, which tied up with Companion Healthcare
last month, hopes to ink similar deals with the other US health
insures to treat the insured citizens. Wockhardt Hospitals CEO Vishal
Bali said, “Wellpoint has already completed assessment of Wockhardt
Hospitals. We are also in talks with few other health insurance
companies and exploring the possibility of expanding our tie-up with
Bluecross Blueshield to other US states.”
JCI approval is mandatory for hospitals to treat the US insured
citizens. Currently, India has around 13 JCI approved hospitals. A
recent Deloitte study on medical tourism estimates that 7.5 lakh
Americans travelled abroad for treatment in 2007, and the number is
projected to touch 6 million by 2010. India received 4.5 lakh medical
tourists in 2007. At present, the global medical tourism market is $60
billion, said the study.
For some years, Indian hospitals have been unsuccessfully trying to
tap the insured patient segment which account for 70-75% of the US
market. This segment constitutes a potentially important revenue
stream for Indian hospitals. The US health authorities and patients
were apprehensive about getting treatment in India and other
developing countries, despite a substantial reduction in premium for
consumers. So far, most of the so-called medical tourist from the US
are uninsured patients.
But the change in perception has come, because a large number of the
US citizens have been treated in India. The US citizens are now
convinced that Indian hospitals provide world-class medical facilities
and the quality of Indian hospitals are approved by JCI. “A trend has
been established by the two leading health insurance companies and
other firms will also enter into similar arrangement,” Mr Bali added.
As per industry estimates, the cost of treatment in India, including
travel cost of patient and a companion, is around one-eight the cost
of treating the same disease in the US. Health insurance companies in
the US are also looking at offering new products with lower premium,
if patients are willing to get their treatment in Indian hospital
partners.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/US_health_insurance_companies_eye_India_to_cut_costs/articleshow/3790073.cms
'Ratan Tata can be India's Obama'
4 Dec 2008, 2000 hrs IST, PTI
NEW YORK: Who could be India's Obama who could unite the country and
march the nation forward at a traumatic time? US business magazine
Forbes Richest Indians |
Modern Moguls |
Old Horses of India Inc
feels it is industry captain Ratan Tata.
"While it (India) has the sympathy of the world (after the recent
attacks), India could have an Obama moment -- one in which a leader,
whose personal history epitomises the country's principles, marches
forward to unite the country during its very moment of trauma. India
has a chance now to get it right, but it needs a strong, credible
leader to step up," Forbes said in a report.
"As an American, I don't get a vote in India, but if I did, mine would
go to Ratan Tata," added the report written by Forbes magazine' Senior
Editor (Asia) Robyn Meredith.
"He is not a politician, but he is the country's most respected
business leader. His Tata Group owns the Taj hotel that was just
attacked, but his family is just as connected to India's proud history
as its shell-shocked present," Meredith wrote in a weekly column
published online.
Posing the question whether should there be not a way to involve Tata
at the highest level in the government, the report noted that "a
fractured India" would immensely benefit from his acumen and
constructive patriotism.
Meredith pointed out, "Should there not be a way to involve him in
government at the highest level? A fractured India would benefit
immeasurably from his acumen, his managerial skills, and his very
obvious--but always constructive--patriotism."
Wondering what if the nation leapfrogged America's approach, the
magazine pointed out that the political leap could be as successful as
the country's technology jump.
SEBI restricts early exit from close-ended mutual funds
4 Dec 2008, 1734 hrs IST, REUTERS
MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday
said investors won't be allowed to exit from close-ended mutual fund
schemes Tackling volatile mkts
before maturity and asked fund houses to list them on stock
exchanges.
The market regulator also said all such funds must invest in
instruments in line with their maturity profile.
"For all close-ended schemes, no early exits will be provided by the
funds," SEBI Chairman C B Bhave told a media briefing following a
board meeting earlier in the day. "All schemes will have to be listed
on the stock exchange," he added.
The decision comes in wake of a liquidity crisis faced by the industry
two months ago as investors pulled out from fixed income funds fearing
their credit quality.
More than Rs 90,000 crore flowed out of debt funds during the period,
creating a liquidity crunch for the Rs 4 trillion industry and forcing
the central bank to offer money through a special money market
operation to ease the pressure.

Under its special repo auction, the central bank is offering Rs 60,000
crore to banks. Funds, in turn, can borrow money by swapping their
large but illiquid holdings of bank debt for cash.
The regulator also extended the validity period of initial public
offers to one year from three months now.
Dawood sitting pretty in Karachi
4 Dec 2008, 0135 hrs IST, S Balakrishnan, TNN
MUMBAI: Even as India seeks Dawood Ibrahim's extradition yet again,
the don is ensconced safely in his plush bungalow in Karachi. Terror
cover premium to rise 50%? | Places targeted

Security agency sources told TOI on Wednesday that it's business as
usual for the underworld kingpin. A few days ago, a couple of his
relatives, including Salim Ansari, flew to Pakistan (using their valid
Indian passports) to meet him. Sources said the don was so confident
that he would not be touched by the Pakistani establishment that he
had made no changes in his daily routine.
He continues to phone his contacts in Mumbai. Recently, a contact who
fronts for him in the real estate business reportedly sent Rs 120
crore via hawala, sources in the government stated. The hawala channel
between Mumbai and Karachi remains busy.
Indian security agencies are keeping close tabs on Dawood's movements,
as are their counterparts in the US intelligence establishment. It's
on the basis of detailed inputs from them that India maintains that
Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan. But central agencies question why the
Maharashtra government has not taken any action against the D-company
here.
"What's the point of asking Islamabad to hand over Dawood when we're
not doing anything to destroy his empire in Mumbai and other places in
India?" a senior official asked.
Mohammed Ali, who holds sway in the docks and is a key member of the
Dawood Ibrahim network, continues to operate with impunity. Even after
the November 26 terror attacks, his smuggling racket remains
unchecked. Despite strong indications that it provided logistical
assistance to the attackers, the police insist there was no local
support. At the same time, they do not rule out Dawood Ibrahim's
involvement.

Meanwhile, security agencies are hoping the US will move on Lashkar-e-
Taiba leaders, including Abu Hamza and Hafeez Syed. An email sent to a
TV channel was traced to an LeT hideout near Muridke in Pakistan's
Punjab province. The phone intercepts of the LeT terrorists who
executed the Mumbai massacre also reveal their links to Pakistan and
Bangladesh.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Dawood_confident_Pak_establishment_wont_touch_him/articleshow/3790021.cms
Wealth managers go head hunting in times of pink slips
4 Dec 2008, 1341 hrs IST, Saikat Das, ECONOMICTIMES.COM
MUMBAI: In times of rising lay offs across industries, wealth managers
are going head hunting for new talent as they see huge opportunity in
the
wealth management domain. They are recruiting people both at senior
and junior levels, to keep pace with their expansion plans.
In a downturn when investors are at a loss as to where to invest,
wealth management services appear 'meaningful'.
Axis Bank, SMC Global, Reliance Money, Birla Sun Life, ASK Investment
Managers are looking at recruitments in sales/wealth advisory
verticals. Encouraged by an increasing number of queries, all of these
wealth managers are on an expansion spree geographically.
Launched in July, the wealth management division of Reliance Money has
set a target of 1,00,000 clients by the end of current fiscal.
Expanding its services from 20 cities to 50, Reliance Money will be
hiring close to 100 people for the wealth management team in the next
couple of months.
Similarly, the wealth management arm of Axis Bank plans to recruit
60-70 people in sales by the end of 2007-08, expecting an ambitious
100 per cent growth in business.
"We are adding to the central wealth management team in Mumbai,
besides other cities. With economic development of the country, the
need for wealth management services will grow exponentially. Within a
period of next 5 years, the market should see 10-fold growth," said
Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director and CEO, Reliance Money.
Sonu Bhasin, president – retail financial services, Axis Bank, said,
"Earlier, people would not listen to us when we approached them for
wealth management services. Now the situation has changed. We expect
to convert most of them into our clients."
The wealth management division of Axis Bank will expand to 60-70
cities from the current 30 by the end of CY2009.
Expecting 30-40 per cent growth, SMC Global is looking to expand its
presence to 4-6 cities by the end of current fiscal. "We will be
recruiting 15-20 people in posts like vice president, assistant vice
president and senior wealth managers," said S.S. Bansal, head – wealth
management, SMC Global.
Wealth managers feel there is a large talent pool which is more
affordable and available now, but were not forthcoming about
compensation packages being offered.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Wealth_managers_go_head_hunting_in_times_of_pink_slips/articleshow/3792067.cms
Terrorists planned to ram boat into US consulate in 2007
3 Dec 2008, 1305 hrs IST, C Unnikrishnan, TNN
MUMBAI: In mid-2007, two persons from Indonesia flew into Mumbai and
stayed at the Taj President off Cuffe Parade. They were exploring the
Mumbai attack: Common man blames politicians
Travel Insurance: 5 points to remember
Wanted by India, living in Pakistan
What to do when terror attacks
possibility of attacking Mumbai by sea.
One of them was related to an accused in the al-Qaida bombing of a
Bali night club in 2002, which claimed 202 lives. According to
sources, the duo got in touch with an aide of underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim.
For several days, the two foreign nationals scouted for an apartment
in Colaba Market with a local contact of this aide. They finalised the
leave-and-licence agreement for a flat in the name of this local
contact’s wife. The flat was completely renovated with new furniture.
"They were extremely discreet in their operations and communicated in
a foreign language. They had sophisticated communication equipment
like satellite phones and a laptop and at times, spoke at length on
phone. They moved around in a black SUV,’’ sources told TOI.
The local contact learnt from the Dawood aide that they were planning
a sea route attack on the US consulate at Breach Candy. “They planned
to ram a fuel-laden vessel at high speed into the sea-facing
building,” a source said.
Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Europeans make big rate cuts to fight recession
4 Dec 2008, 1933 hrs IST, REUTERS
LONDON: The European Central Bank, Britain and Sweden all made big
cuts in interest rates on Thursday to shore up economies across Europe
in the Ghosts of 1929 |
Competitive economies|
2008: Year of global financial crisis
face of ever-bleaker financial news.
The cuts were applauded by many analysts but market reaction indicated
that even more sweeping moves may be needed to halt the decline.
Sweden lopped off a record 175 basis points to 2.0 percent and the ECB
slashed 75 points to 2.50 percent, the eurozone's biggest ever cut.
The Bank of England chopped 100 basis points for an interest rate of
2.0 percent, the lowest level since 1951, as recession loomed over
Britain.
France meanwhile unveiled a 26 billion euro ($32.9 billion) stimulus
plan for its faltering economy as unemployment rose, the latest
European country to open state coffers to fight the downturn.
With the United States, Europe and Japan now in recession and other
countries sliding that way, data showed a mounting pattern of job
losses and corporate woes across the globe.
The rate cuts are aimed at making credit cheaper and so boost
spending, but banks will need to overcome their reluctance to lend for
the measure to take hold and savers will suffer.
Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank said it expected rates to remain
at the new 2.0 percent level over the coming year. There was an
"unexpectedly rapid and clear deterioration in economic activity since
October," it said.
The Bank of England, also taking rates to 2.0 percent, made clear the
downturn had gathered pace and conditions in credit markets remained
difficult.
"Across the UK, deteriorating house prices and rising unemployment are
both taking their toll on business and consumer confidence," said
Trevor Williams, chief economist, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.
Analysts had widely expected the move following business indicators
suggesting Britain's economy could be heading for an even deeper
recession than most people had predicted.
But it disappointed some investors who had begun to speculate on a
bigger easing following Sweden's action and European shares and bund
futures pared Thursday's earlier gains.
Most analysts had predicted a 50 basis point cut by the ECB, but with
inflation plummeting and the economy of the 15-nation eurozone sinking
deeper into recession, it opted for a bigger slice.
"They are now taking bolder decisions and this reflects a shift in
perception in the ECB," said Bank of America economist Gilles Moec."
Nevertheless, European shares gave up gains to turn deeply negative,
tracking U.S. index futures after a bearish update from chemicals
group DuPont.
U.S. interest rates will fall below 1 percent if the Fed cuts again as
expected later this month.
Earlier on Thursday, New Zealand sliced interest rates by a record 150
basis points to a five-year low of 5.0 percent and said it would
probably have to trim again.
Indonesia also made a surprise cut in its key interest rate, by 25
basis points to 9.25 percent, the first since December 2007 as the
government sought to protect the economy.
In trading that closed before the European rate cuts, Asian shares
fell as investors braced for a sharp turn lower in the global economy
and sought safety in U.S. government debt.
France draws up 26 bln euro stimulus package
4 Dec 2008, 1749 hrs IST, REUTERS
DOUAI: The French government has drawn up a 26 billion euro ($32.9
billion) stimulus plan for the faltering economy, or around 1.3
percent of gross domestic product, according to official documents
seen on Thursday.
The package will boost French growth by around 0.6 percent next year,
but will also push the deficit to 3.9 percent of GDP against a
previous target of 3.1 percent.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to unveil the package later on
Thursday, which is expected to focus on investment and infrastructure
projects rather than consumers.
Bailouts creating conditions for another economic crisis
4 Dec 2008, 1646 hrs IST, Mandar Nimkar, ECONOMICTIMES.COM
MUMBAI: With more and more industries asking for stimulus packages
from US government, analysts feel it will create conditions for the
next round
of economic crises: an abrupt drop in the dollar and a massive
national debt.
The size of the stimulus packages is getting bigger and bigger, which
financial experts say is needed to turn around the situation.
Economists are now talking of a $1 trillion stimulus package.
But the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed president Ben
Bernanke could be putting consumers deeper into debt by doing so.
“They are just overlooking the facts that show US households are in
deeper debt than ever before, and that consumer spending in October
fell the most in seven years. What was the reason? Is it because
credit card rates are too high? No. Look at the jobs data-- some 15
lakh jobs have been lost so far this year and millions more fear that
their jobs are in jeopardy," said Ankit Sinha, CEO-Spark Advisory.
Not only in US but across the world, lay-offs and fears of job losses
have hampered consumer spending. Companies are experiencing declining
revenues, tightening their belts and laying off workers. Even
companies that have the money are reluctant to spend it as economies
are sinking deeper into recession.
Increasing consumer lending and dollar supplies to banks won't stem
the failures and buy-outs in the financial sector. One should remember
that spending more than we earn is how we got into this economic mess
in the first place.
Analysts see a rise in default rates for all kinds of collateral over
the next 2-3 years. Mortgage-backed securities, junk bonds, triple-A
rated corporate bonds, car loans, credit-card loans, and loans made to
the governments and companies of dozens of countries.
The world collateral debt swap market is over $60 trillion. These
swaps are essentially insurance contracts on corporate debt. Thus, the
cry by the US automakers gains importance. As, if even one of the
three--GM, Ford, Chrysler--fail, it would trigger underwriting and
losses of around $1.2 trillion for banks with exposure to this
market.
Government intervention usually helps in the short-term, but brings
unexpected and harmful consequences in the longer-term. In the current
situation, even the short-term relief is not in sight.
“There is a better way to get out of this mess than relying on a
consumer-led recovery. The government should let and encourage
consumers to put more of what they earn into their savings accounts
and for banks to use this money for infrastructure and capital
equipment investments which in turn will create jobs and then
automatically encourage consumer spending,” said Sinha by way of a
likely solution.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Bailouts_creating_conditions_for_another_economic_crisis/articleshow/3793156.cms
Pak groups may use captured Indian boats for more strikes
4 Dec 2008, 1655 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: With Pakistan having captured more than 600 Indian fishing
boats and trawlers over a long period of time, India is worried that
these
vessels may be used to carry out more terror attacks on its soil and
leave the maritime law-enforcing agencies flummoxed.
"Pakistani terrorists used an Indian fishing boat to sneak into Mumbai
to execute their terror plans. With so many Indian boats with them,
they can send a fleet to carry out more strikes against Indian
maritime and shore-based assets," A Home Ministry source told PTI here
today.
And these boats would raise no suspicion due to their Indian origin,
it said. Since 2003, the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) has
captured more than 600 Indian fishing boats and a large number of
fishermen in the Pakistani territorial waters and has not returned the
vessels to India.
"After relations between the two countries started improving,
fishermen were allowed to go back through diplomatic channels, but the
captured boats are never returned," the source said. Agencies have
received inputs about the PMSA and other "suspicious" elements along
with Pakistani fishermen using boats from the captured fleet to enter
Indian waters.
"We knew that these boats were being used by Pakistani fishermen only
to enter our waters. But later, we found that they were being used by
PMSA and the suspicious elements to carry out reconnaissance of Indian
coastal areas. These boats could provide a good platform to enter
Indian waters without raising any suspicion," the source said.
'Attack on Mumbai is attack on London'
4 Dec 2008, 1548 hrs IST, IANS
LONDON: Hundreds of workers in the City of London - the world's
premier financial centre - held a candle-light vigil Wednesday evening
to honour
those who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The vigil at Canary Wharf, in the heart of London's financial
district, aimed to show "solidarity and strength" between the two
financial centres that have both been attacked by terrorists.
The financial centre of London, which includes the square mile and
Canary Wharf, has a huge Indian workforce numbering thousands, but
organisers said the vigil was attended by a large number of Britons as
well.
The attacks have shocked the over half a million Indian-origin
population of the British capital - the most Indian city outside
India.
"An attack on Mumbai is an attack on London," said Arup Ganguly,
president of SewaVolunteers, an Indian charity that organized the
event.
"It sends a strong message to the terrorists. The special rich
cultural tapestry of the city of London stands united with Mumbai,"
Ganguly added.
Indo-US relationship has taken on a new direction
Jyoti Malhotra
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font size New Delhi: As a US Democrat, Karl Inderfurth chose to go
with Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton, which is probably why he is
high on the list of those tipped to be the next US ambassador to
India. South Asia is Inderfurth’s old hunting-ground. As assistant
secretary of state for the region in the second Bill Clinton
administration, he was part of the team that rebuilt the relationship
between India and the US after India and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat
nuclear tests. A speaker at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit last
week, he spoke to Mint. Edited excerpts:
What does a Barack Obama victory mean for India? Does it mean anything
at all?
I think it means a great deal. It means a great deal more of the same…
Click here to watch video
More of the same, business as usual…
This business is not usual, this Indo-US relationship has taken on a
whole new direction and energy, including the successful conclusion of
the civilian nuclear deal. That unlocks cooperation that we have not
seen before, including space cooperation, although we have been with
you to the moon now, we had two Nasa payloads on this Isro mission.
What a great achievement that was.
But no big idea, nothing to capture the imagination like what the
Republicans had…
Give the Obama administration a chance to come into office and see
what they can come up with. Fact is, under Presidents Clinton and Bush
we’ve seen policy continuity, there has been bi partisan support, the
votes in the House (of Representatives) and the Senate show there is
strong support for India…
And Barack Obama voted in the end for the deal…
Not in the end, he said what he would do before, in an indication of
his support for the new strategic partnership with India.
Although Hillary Clinton, who’s tipped to be the secretary of state,
voted in favour of a killer amendment to the Hyde Act in December
2006, which, if it had carried, would have killed the Indo-US nuclear
deal.
Optimistic: Karl Inderfurth thinks Democrats will be as good with
India as the Republicans were. In a lot of places, the Republicans and
Democrats are always fighting but not about India. That is a good
thing. Harikrishna Katragadda / MintThat wasn’t going to happen. The
votes that took place on the Hyde Act were important votes and both
senators Clinton and Obama voted for it in the end. But there were
important issues that needed to be aired at the time. There’s no
question in my view, and I supported the agreement from the start,
that from India’s standpoint the agreement was about energy, but it
also had non-proliferation aspects. The US should be a leader on that
issue. This is something the US and India should work closely on. We
don’t want to see nuclear materials or weapons or knowhow get into the
wrong hands. Once we have signed this agreement, I think we should
broaden the nuclear dialogue to talk about working together to prevent
proliferation… You want a big idea? A nuclear-free world. Lets work on
that… How about getting rid of nuclear weapons for all time?
So you think the Democrats could be as good with India as the
Republicans were?
I absolutely do, but I don’t want to put it as “good” or “better”. The
fact is that we have policy continuity, we see bi-partisan support.
The best thing about the US-India relationship is that it is not
partisan. India should be very relieved about that because in a lot of
places around the world, the Republicans and Democrats are always
fighting. But not about India. That is a good thing.
Can I ask you about 1998 when India conducted its tests and the then
secretary of state Madeleine Albright said India has dug itself into a
hole? In retrospect, what would you say about that?
I don’t want to go there. This is 10 years later, India is recognized
as a nuclear state, the US and India are going to have full nuclear
cooperation. This is a night and day situation and I think that’s
where we ought to begin the discussion. We don’t need to go back to
1998.
One more question about the past. Your predecessor in the first
Clinton administration, Robin Raphel, went on record to say that the
US doesn’t recognize the Instrument of accession in Kashmir. What
would you say about this today?
We are beyond that. These past statements may be interesting for some,
but look at where we are today. You do not hear statements like that.
You see India and the US cooperation across the board, on counter-
terrorism, on defence relations, on space cooperation, on nuclear
issues… We are in a new place.
So you’re not worried that Barack Obama will play an interventionist
role in Kashmir?
No, I’m not. I think he recognizes that this is an issue that must be
dealt with by the two parties, taking into account the wishes of the
Kashmiri people.
Are you going to be the next US ambassador to India?
I think it would be a great job to whoever is offered it. It would be
a fascinating assignment…
http://www.livemint.com/2008/11/25234556/IndoUS-relationship-has-taken.html
US may change China policy again, says former NSA Mishra
November 25th, 2008 - 7:55 pm ICT by ANI -
New Delhi, Nov.25 (ANI): United States foreign policy would continue
to be guided by its national interest as it had been since the World
War II, feels Brajesh Mishra, National Security Advisor in the
Vajpayee Government.
Chairing a discussion on the “Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Impact on Asian
Security Framework” at Observer Research Foundation, Mishra said the
Bush Administration had been working on two key US strategies of
expanding eastward in the Europe and balancing of China.
“Mr. Obama will also do that,” he remarked, saying while the new
President-elect talks of international cooperation, they also say “we
have to lead it,” an ORF press release quoted him as saying further.
Mishra, a Trustee of ORF, said the Indo-US nuclear deal and alongwith
it the better bilateral relations would lead to increased investments
from the US. “This is a plus point in the Indo-US relations,” he said.
Saying that international situation has changed in the last few months
following the financial crisis, Mr. Mishra said he was of the opinion
that the US would seek Chinese cooperation to survive the economic
crisis and perform well in the first four years so that he can seek re-
election.
The ORF press release quoted General (retired) V.P. Malik, President
of the Institute of Security Studies and former Chief of Army Staff,
as saying that it is too early to assess the material gains from the
nuclear agreement, especially in the hi-technology transfer area.
Giving the US and India perspective, former Foreign Secretary and
former Ambassador to US, Lalit Mansingh, also said that the US would
continue its hegemony in the world irrespective of whoever is the
President.
“There would be continuity (in its foreign policy) though there may be
some differences,” he said.
“Obama is not going to be hostile (to India), but at the same time, he
is not going to be as friendly as President Bush,” he added.
Mansingh said though President George Bush articulated the US-India
agreement, it really started when Pentagon and CIA said in studies
that India was a ‘’swing state which would make difference war and
peace.” He described 1998 as a point of departure as far as the India-
US relations were concerned, with the Clinton administration making U-
turn months after it imposed sanctions on India after its Pokhran II
nuclear test.
Noting that the US military is under stress now, Mr. Mansingh said the
US think only China can become a possible threat to it as it has the
capability to challenge the US. So, the US think that strategic
partnership with India can help balance the China factor, he said.
Mansingh said India can benefit immensely from the Indo-US
partnership, especially in high technology and counter terrorism. Only
US have the political will and military capability to fight the terror
in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is very vital to Indian interests,
the ORF press release quoted him, as saying.
Mansingh was clear that there is no alternative to the India’’s
relations with the US. He was not so certain about the possibility of
friendly behaviour from rising China. In such a scenario, he did not
see anything as effective as the Indo-US relations.
Giving the Chinese perspective, Dr. Surjit Dutta, Senior Fellow, IDSA,
said though China was not happy with the Indo-US agreement, it decided
to go alongwith the agreement because the “Chinese diplomacy was not
willing to stand alone.”
“So, it decided to adjust to the new reality of a new world nuclear
order. And attempt to engage strongly with the US and India to create
a conducive situation”, Dr. Dutta said.
Giving the Russian perspective, Kanwal Sibal, a former Foreign
Secretary and former Ambassador to Russia, said Russia may not be much
concerned about the Indo-US deal and it was ready to give US the due
credit for its efforts to get India into the Nuclear Suppliers Group
which Russia was reluctant to do earlier.
Sibal said Russia would have a problem only if Indo-US relations start
to trouble them strategically and economically.
Giving the Southeast Asian perspective, Prof. GVC Naidu of Jawaharlal
Nehru University explained how the new Indo-US relations have fetched
India a critical role in the new security architecture and deeper Indo-
Japan relations, with many countries suspicious of China. He also
spoke of the possibility of increased civil nuclear energy cooperation
with Japan which has stakes in both US and French nuclear energy
firms.
Saying that the current economic crisis has no parallel, former
Ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar said the US knows that only a cash-rich
China can save the US from this crisis and hence there might be a
change in the US policy towards China. “The Americans may survive
their closer relations with China,” he cautioned.
He also opined that the Indo-US deal has led to losses for the United
States in Afghan war as it led to mistrust in Pakistan. (ANI)

'N deal would lead to increased investments from US'
Tags: Nuke deal , Brijesh Mishra
Published: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 at 09:47 IST
New Delhi, Nov 26: The Indo-US nuclear deal along with better
bilateral relations with US would lead to increased investments from
that country in India, former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra
said.
"This is a plus point in Indo-US relations," Mishra remarked while
chairing a discussion on "Indo-US Nuclear deal: Impact on Asian
Security Framework" at Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
Mishra, however, felt that the US foreign policy would continue to be
guided by its national interest as it had been since the World War II
despite the historic victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential
elections and "the change" he has promised.
Bush administration had been working on two key US strategies of
expanding eastward in the Europe and balancing of China.
"Obama will also do that," he remarked, saying while the new President-
elect talks of international co-operation, they also say "we have to
lead it".
Stating that international situation has changed in the last few
months following the financial crisis, Mishra opined that the US could
seek Chinese cooperation to survive the economic crisis and perform
well in the first four years so that he (Obama) can seek re-election.
However, General (retired) VP Mallick, president of the Institute of
Security Studies which organised the discussion, said it is too early
to assess the material gains from the nuclear agreement, especially in
the hi-technology transfer area.
http://www.samaylive.com/news/n-deal-would-lead-to-increased-investments-from-us/600031.html


National interest will guide Obama’s India policy: ex-NSA
Font Size Express news service
Posted: Nov 26, 2008 at 0041 hrs IST
New Delhi: Former National Security Advisor in the NDA regime Brajesh
Mishra has said the US under Obama will maintain ties with India on
its own terms.
“Obama may have won the US Presidential elections on the plank of
change but he will not change the foreign policy with respect to
India,” said Mishra, who was chairing a session on “Indo-US nuclear
deal: Impact on Asian Security Framework” at the Observer Research
Foundation, on Tuesday.
He cited a discussion by five US secretaries of state, organised by
CNN after Obama’s win, where it was said that the US will continue to
have strategic cooperation with countries but it will have to
“lead” (the countries). The US foreign policy would continue to be
guided by its own national interest as has happened since the World
War II, Mishra added.
Mishra said the Bush administration’s two key strategies — of
expanding eastwards in Europe and balancing of China— will remain
under Obama as well.
He said the Indo-US nuclear deal would lead to increased investments
from the US. “This is a plus point in the Indo-US relations,” he
said.
Saying that the international situation has changed over the past few
months following the financial crisis, Mishra said he was of the
opinion that the US would seek Chinese cooperation to survive the
economic crisis and perform better in the first four years so as to
seek re-election.
Former foreign secretary and former Ambassador to US, Lalit Mansingh,
said the US would continue its hegemony in the world irrespective of
whoever is at the helm. “There would be continuity (in its foreign
policy) though there may be some differences¿ Obama is not going to be
hostile (to India), but at the same time he is not going to be as
friendly as President Bush,” he said.
Mansingh said India could benefit immensely from the Indo-US
partnership, especially in technology and fighting terrorism. Only the
US has the political will and military capability to fight Terror in
Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is vital to Indian interests, he
said.
Giving the Russian perspective, Kanwal Sibal, a former foreign
secretary and former Ambassador to Russia, said the country may not be
much concerned about the Indo-US deal and would credit the US for its
efforts to bring India into the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. Russia was
reluctant to do so earlier, he added.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/National-interest-will-guide-Obama-s-India-policy--ex-NSA/390602

Sujit Pruseth & Sachi SatpathyFirst Published : 01 Dec 2008 02:09:00
AM ISTLast Updated : 01 Dec 2008 04:14:54 PM ISTPresident-elect
Obama’s historic statement on the further consolidation of Indo-US
relations in certain common areas like tackling international
terrorism has gained increased relevance with the latest terrorist
attack on India’s financial capital, Mumbai. It is now confirmed that
the original plan of the terrorists was to attack the Indian Prime
Minister in Mumbai in that particular hotel. The audacity and brazen
act of terrorism has taken a new serious form with this recent
incident.

At this critical juncture President-elect Obama has to carve out a
‘new deal’ in terms of international joint mechanism to counter
international terrorism as both the thriving democracies have been
facing the scourge of extremism.
In earlier occasions and in this recent attack, Pakistan’s hand is
evident from the very nature of terrorist strategies adopted.
This fact has indeed reflected in the policy of US that has recently
recognised that equating an emerging India with a growingly
dysfunctional Pakistan does not serve American interests.
This led to the commencement of what is called as a policy of
“decoupling” US relations with India and Pakistan.
The close proximity between USA and India in various forms including
recent two incidences such as signing historic Indo-US nuclear deal
and President-elect Barack Obama’s pro-India stand in reference to
terrorism and other related issues of fighting poverty have become
unacceptable to these anti-India-USA elements and trying to show their
frustration to destabilise these two most vibrant democracies of the
world. In his letter in September to the Indian Prime Minister, Obama
pointed out that “the recent bombings in Kabul remind us that we are
both victims of terrorist attacks on our soil, and we share a common
goal of defeating these forces of extremism”.
In fact a Democratic Party document entitled “Renewing America’s
Promise” adopted at its convention in Denver eschews using the phrase
“Global War on Terror” and focuses on “combating violent extremism”.
The new US administration will have to re-craft its relations with
India and Pakistan based on an objective assessment of the intrinsic
value of each country to US interests. While the US will have to
recognise that India is on the way to becoming a major Asian power,
and Pakistan as a country in “serious crisis” and has become the
heaven for producing militancy. This approach will definitely make the
Obama regime being more responsive than in the past on Indian concerns
on terrorism, by acting to ban groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the
Jaish-e-Mohammed. Obama has, in fact, accused Pakistan of misusing
funds for the war against terror and allegedly using it to fund
militancy against India in one of his campaign speech. The past
experiences on affairs in Indian neighbourhood the US have generally
backed what India did in the interests of regional stability. There
have been ample examples; like Reagan’s backing for the 1987 Indo- Sri
Lanka Agreement and for our 1988 military intervention in the
Maldives. This present hour of crisis also requires similar actions in
Indian neighbourhood on breeding points of terrorism. Pakistan’s
constant claim of being serious in clamping down terrorism activities
from its soil has remained a hollow statement and it looks like
Pakistan’s inability to handle these types of fundamentalist groups.
As India has become the worst suffer of extremism in the region, it
needs to convince Pakistan to help India in attacking terrorist camps
in the Pakistan soil with international consensus.
Barack Obama even talked of launching unilateral strikes or hot
pursuit across the Afghan border to hit al- Qaeda. That is the
question quite a few in the region started asking. Even the next
probable Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a sensational
statement few days ago about Pakistan’s dangerous instability and its
nuclear dimension. She even went to the extent of promising a drastic
solution, just short of the demented idea of a forcible takeover of
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
The attack on Mumbai has also reinforced the urgency of taking some
non-conventional steps to eliminate terrorism without any trace.
India has to reach out all responsible nations towards crafting a pro-
active anti-terrorist drive without delay. This shocking and most
atrocious form of terrorism after 9/11 will also have policy
ramifications for president-elect Barack Obama’s future foreign
policy. The new US President will have to take an extra mile in
enacting an Indo-US joint strategy to fight extremism. The policy has
to be shifted to fighting terrorism in a new and concerted way with
the active help of country like India in a leading position.
The authors are with Bangalore Based National Law School of India
University and Institute for Social and Economic Change respectively
sujitp...@nls.ac.in, sachis...@isec.ac.in
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Can+US+and+India+fight+terror+together?&artid=gTuhulHxpgY=&SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&MainSectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=
Obama’s first crisis
Font Size C Raja Mohan
Posted: Dec 03, 2008 at 2346 hrs IST
The audacity of restraintAs the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice
arrives in New Delhi to handle what could be the last major
international crisis for the Bush administration in the wake of the
Mumbai aggression, President-elect Barack Obama is gearing up for his
first.
Obama and his team are being kept in the loop by Rice and her
colleagues in the Bush administration on the post-Mumbai dynamic
between India and Pakistan. Obama got his first briefing as he sat
down for Thanksgiving dinner, when an official team arrived in Chicago
to fill him in.
When he announced his national security team on Monday, Obama
reaffirmed his solidarity with India that he had earlier conveyed to
Manmohan Singh. He also declared that “the situation in South Asia as
a whole and the safe havens for terrorists that have been established
there, represent the single most important threat against the American
people”.
During the campaign, Obama articulated the proposition that
Afghanistan can’t be stabilised without addressing the problems
insidePakistan. He also pointed to the relationship between the crises
on Pakistan’s western and eastern frontiers.The Mumbai attacks are
likely to reinforce his conviction that South Asia needs an integrated
approach. If the Bush administration is unable to manage the crisis in
the next weeks, it could well be the first order of diplomatic
business when Obama is sworn in next month.

At the moment though, American attention will be riveted to Indo-Pak
crisis management rather than conflict resolution. Although Rice is
not traveling to Pakistan in an obvious mediatory effort, India knows
Washington is fully engaged with Islamabad on defusing the gathering
tension. Obama promised that his “administration will remain steadfast
in support of India’s efforts to catch the perpetrators of this
terrible act and bring them to justice”.
Rice’s options
Rice is no stranger to South Asian crises. When terrorists attacked
the Indian parliament in December 2001, Rice was the national security
adviser to President Bush and was instrumental in pressing Pakistan to
ban Lashkar e Toiba and other anti-India Terror groups operating in
Pakistan. To defuse the Indo-Pak military confrontation in 2001-02,
Rice got Musharraf to promise that he will put a permanent end to
cross-border terrorism.
This time she will have to do a lot more. Dr. Singh has already heard
many positive words from Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari about
cracking down on anti-India terror groups. If Zardari can’t match his
words with deeds, Manmohan Singh will have to make good of his threat
to extract a cost from Pakistan for the attacks.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Obama-s-first-crisis/393369
Obama’s South Asian Dilemma Analysis: Why Afghanistan, India, and
Pakistan matter
By Mimi Li
Epoch Times Staff
President-elect and leader-of-the-free-world to-be Barack Obama
formally announced his national security team Monday, which includes
Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and Robert Gates as
Defense Secretary. With two wars overseas on their hands and an
ongoing War on Terror, they will have their hands full, carefully
balancing support for America’s friends and resistance against
America’s foes.
Most of their energy will go towards the stabilization of Iraq and a
focus on multilateralism that would drastically differ from Bush’s
eight years of unilateral policy. But amid the fallout of the latest
terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India, Obama and his team will now have
to be aware of a new worry: a volatile South Asia.
As the death toll of the Mumbai massacre rises to upward of 180, the
Indian government is slowly gathering the facts of all the attacks and
piecing together who was behind the assault. Early analysis has
revealed that the terrorists are Islamist militants, and India claims
that they have Pakistani links.
And they are probably true, according to Stratfor, a leading
geopolitical intelligence and analysis company. The Mumbai attackers
are likely Islamist militants operating within India, “with some level
of outside support from Pakistan.” This news is troubling, and won’t
bode well for Indo-Pak relations: India can’t afford to take any blame
for the attacks, so all the blame will be aimed at Pakistan, and in
return, India can “use the crisis atmosphere to strengthen the
government’s internal position by invoking nationalism,” according to
Stratfor.
“That, in turn, will plunge India and Pakistan into the worst crisis
they have had since 2002,” Stratfor says. As the situation escalates,
the United States would be drawn in, not only because Americans and
Westerners were held hostage and allegedly targeted at the hotels in
Mumbai, but also because Pakistan has always sided with the United
States on the War on Terror, and would be expected to cooperate.
Demands to crush domestic militants would flood into Pakistan.
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Obama Says South Asia is Chief Threat to U.S.
But both India and Pakistan could face another ticking time-bomb: one
coming inside their borders, warns Stratfor. Should India not be
assertive in its demands to Pakistan to hunt down Islamic militants,
or should Pakistan not answer calls to respond, their respective
leaders and governments could lose credibility and their grip on their
populaces, and “massive destabilization [would be] possible,” which,
Stratfor comments, is “never a good thing with a nuclear power.”
Pakistan faces a unique predicament, since its military has “created,
trained and sustained [Islamic militant] groups” like those that
attacked Mumbai, according to Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria. The United
States even has relatively close ties to Pakistan’s military, to the
point of propping up corrupt and ruthless General Pervez Musharraf as
the former Prime Minister, in exchange for his allegiance on the War
on Terror. Under Musharraf, and for the past three decades, the
Pakistani military didn’t care to suppress some militants, for the
simple fact that they felt the militants that threatened to
destabilize India and Afghanistan were “good” and the ones that killed
Pakistanis “bad.”
But more recently, according to Zakaria, the “problems of Pakistan,
Afghanistan and India are bleeding into one another so that what you
have is a kind of south Asian terrorism where these groups are feeding
off each other, finding pockets where they can train in lawless parts
of the country.”
One notable region is Waziristan—the mountainous region between
Afghanistan and Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is suspected of hiding.
During his presidential campaign and more specifically during the
presidential debates, Obama has repeatedly vowed that he would make
finding and eliminating bin Laden a top priority and that he would
order strikes in Pakistan if Pakistan was unable to pursue bin Laden.
Bin Laden and al-Qaeda have dominated America’s attention, having been
the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks and multiple other
terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. However, Islamist militants breeding
in South Asia, along with terrorists harbored by the resurgence of the
Taliban of Afghanistan, could pose significant threats as well in the
near future.
Seven years after America invaded Afghanistan, the ruling Taliban that
was toppled is eyeing a resurrection, setting up “courts and other
local-government institutions across southern Afghanistan, challenging
U.S. efforts to pacify the country and bolster the authority of the
central government in Kabul,” according to the November 20 edition of
the Wall Street Journal.
American generals are saying that not enough troops are in Afghanistan
to weed out the Taliban, echoing a sentiment felt by the President-
elect himself, who has argued that more troops in Afghanistan were
needed as much as in Iraq.
If Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists would likely run rampant. If India and
Pakistan erupt in war, not only would all of South Asia become a
powder keg, but militants would get the green-light to wreak further
havoc.
Last Updated
Dec 3, 2008
http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/united-states/obama-south-asian-dilemma-7997.html
Mercury rises, Indo-Pak hyphen returns
SUJAN DUTTA

Mullen: Shuttle diplomacy
New Delhi, Dec. 3: The hyphen is back in the US’s view of South Asia,
with the rhetoric of conflict taking over India-Pakistan relations in
the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and chairman of the US joint
chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen will be criss-crossing each other
between New Delhi and Islamabad tomorrow in Washington’s latest round
of trouble-shooting shuttle diplomacy.
“The chairman intends to meet civilian and military leaders of both
nations (India and Pakistan) to encourage a co-operative approach to
regional security concerns in the wake of the Mumbai attacks,” a
spokesperson for Admiral Mullen has said.
The hyphenation threatens to turn the clock back seven years. With the
123 Agreement and the civilian nuclear deal under Manmohan Singh,
India was upbeat about taking the global high table. But just as in
2001-2002 after India and Pakistan mobilised troops, US officials have
begun shuttling between the capitals this time, with tensions between
the two countries rising.
Rice is pushing George W. Bush’s agenda, telling Indian officials that
the US will tell Pakistan to act transparently against terror, even
though Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has struck down India’s
demand for 20 fugitives.
Admiral Mullen, America’s senior-most military officer who met
Pakistan’s army chief and leaders in Islamabad today, is slated to
meet Indian naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta tomorrow.
The Pakistan army chief had threatened to pull out troops from the
Afghan frontier and deploy them against India.
According to Reuters, Mullen urged Islamabad to broaden its campaign
against jihadi groups and to “investigate aggressively any and all
possible ties to groups in Pakistan”. He also asked Pakistan to “take
more and more concerted action against militant extremists elsewhere
in the country”.
In Delhi, Mullen will meet Indian military leaders after defence
minister A.K. Antony today took “a review of the security situation
and the state of preparedness to face any terrorist threats”, as an
official statement put it.
The defence minister “has called for greater co-ordination among all
agencies — both defence and internal security — in such a way that
intelligence inputs available become actionable”.
The official statement noted: “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is known to
be an important area for recruitment and training of terrorists.”
The defence minister routinely meets the service chiefs on Thursdays.
Today’s meeting was called to review the situation after the terror
attacks.
AIR ALERT
Defence minister A.K.Antony has told the armed forces to be on alert
for possible terror strikes from airborne platforms similar to the
September 11 attacks in the US. A statement after a security meeting
in Delhi said Antony reviewed “the preparedness against any possible
terror threats from air”. Defence sources said the coast guard was
being asked to buy fast interceptor boats off the shelf to acquire
“offensive capabilities.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081204/jsp/nation/story_10203138.jsp
Condoleezza Rice in New Delhi to showcase Indo US solidarity against
terrorism
December 3rd, 2008 - 2:31 pm ICT by ANI -
New Delhi, Dec.3 (ANI): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has
arrived in New Delhi reportedly to ease tensions between India and
Pakistan following last weeks attacks in Mumbai.
Rice arrived this morning and is expected to meet Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee,Home
Minister P. Chidambaram and the National Security Advisor M.K.
Narayanan.
After her meeting with the Indian leadership, Rice will address a
press conference at the Roosevelt House here at 3.25 pm.
Earlier , in Brussels Rice said that the primary goal of her visit to
India is to “express solidarity with the leadership there. This was a
horrible attack. It was, of course, also an attack that killed
American citizens. And, it is therefore of very great concern to the
United States,” Rice said .
“It underscores the importance of getting to the bottom of what
happened, both to bring those who perpetrated this terrible crime to
justice and to try and prevent further attacks of this kind. And in
that regard, I want to consult with the Indian government further
about what we can do to help,” she added.
Everyone, including Pakistan, needs to cooperate fully and
transparently in the investigations of these audacious attacks ,Rice
said.
The real problem we have with terrorism is that terrorists can be
right once and we have to be right 100 per cent all the time. And in
that regard, I have not just sympathy, but empathy for what theIndian
Government has gone through,” Rice said, according to a transcript
released by the State Department in Washington.
“And I know that the Indian Government is looking hard at how it might
be more effective in counterterrorism responses, how it might use the
information better. We”ve been through that in United States; it is a
tough business, particularly for a democracy.Rice added .
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has met American
officials to discuss issues related toMumbai terror attacks that
claimed 200 lives, including foreigners.
Menon met Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns during his two-
day visit to Washington.
“The meetings covered a range of bilateral issues, including
counterterrorism co-operation, anti-piracy co-ordination, the India-US
civil nuclear agreement, defence trade, space co-operation and
economic and investment relations between the two countries,” the
Indian Embassy said in a press statement.
Menon’’s visit was planned ahead of the terror attacks on Mumbai last
week but the trip took place as scheduled and terrorism was on top of
the agenda during the discussions.
Menon received a call from the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi who offered her condolences over the tragedy.
Menon also had a conversation with Senator John Kerry, the Chairman of
the Sub Committee on Near East, Central and South Asia in the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and met with several think-tanks and
influential opinion-makers.
Earlier, Mike McConnell, US Director of National Intelligence,
implicated the Lashkar-e-Taiba in the deadly attacks in Mumbai that
killed 200 people.
Speaking at Harvard University, McConnell said on Tuesday that US
intelligence is left with little doubt that the group responsible for
the bloody attacks on Mumbai is the Lashkar-e- Taiba.
“The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a
similar attack in 2006 on a train and killed a similar number of
people,” said McConnell. “Go back to 2001 and it was an attack on the
Parliament,” he added. (ANI)
analysis: Obama and Kashmir —Ijaz Hussain

If Obama tries to force things on India, it would negatively impact
Indo-US relations which, given the importance that India currently
enjoys in American strategic thinking, the US simply cannot afford

When then-Senator Barack Obama linked peace in Afghanistan with the
settlement of the Kashmir dispute, the Pakistani and Kashmiri
leadership welcomed it. The Indian government, on the other hand, was
quite upset, though it put up a brave face by dismissing the statement
as a “pre-election rhetoric that deserved to be ignored”.

However, following Obama’s election as president, and the media
speculation that he was thinking of appointing former President Bill
Clinton as special envoy on Kashmir, India got worried and directed
the Indian delegation, which was leaving for the UN General Assembly,
to apprise Obama’s aides about the state of the ongoing peace process
between the two countries and the futility of the American
initiative.

Since Obama’s statement, others have expressed similar views. For
example, the French government too has linked the prospects of peace
in Afghanistan with resolution of the Kashmir conflict as have the
Afghanistan specialists Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid.

What is the significance of Obama’s statement and will he be the
Kashmiris’ messiah?

To fully appreciate the significance of Obama’s statement, one needs
to examine the American attitude towards the Kashmir dispute over the
last sixty years. Even before the UN was seized of the dispute, the US
State Department on December 2, 1947 instructed the American
representative to the UN to opt for a bilateral settlement between
Pakistan and India. The US practice at the UN was however utterly
contrary to the instructions as the American representative took sides
in the matter by voting in favour of a number of resolutions that the
SC adopted, and on one occasion he, along with other permanent SC
members, even sponsored a resolution (of April 21, 1948). The
explanation for this departure from instructions partly lies in the
fact that being unfamiliar with the issue, the US relied on the United
Kingdom for guidance, and partly in the fact that Pakistan became a US
ally during the Cold War.

The next event that marked strong American association with the
Kashmir dispute related to the Pakistan-India talks which the US,
along with Britain, sponsored after the Sino-Indian border war. It
mediated because of the commitment that it had made to Pakistan to
help settle the Kashmir dispute as a reward for desisting from
mounting an assault on Kashmir during the Sino-Indian war, which,
according to Altaf Gauhar, Ayub Khan was under pressure to undertake.

Following the end of hostilities, Pakistan and India held six rounds
of talks under the US-British auspices, which were inconclusive
because the US sided with India. India was not ready to part with
Srinagar as it wanted to build an all-weather military artery from
there to Leh for defence against China.

1972 marked a watershed in Pakistan-India relations because of the
Simla Accord, under which the two neighbours made the Kashmir dispute
a bilateral affair. This must have been a welcome development as it
provided the US with an excuse to politely refuse Pakistan’s nagging
entreaties to play a mediatory role on Kashmir.

One event where it nonetheless made a commitment of sorts related to
the Kargil crisis. Following this misadventure, Nawaz Sharif flew to
Washington seeking US help in getting out of that cul-de-sac. Then-
President Clinton helped Sharif by forcing the Washington Agreement on
him by virtue of which Pakistan was made to underwrite the sanctity of
the Line of Control. Clinton at the same time made a commitment to
take a “personal interest” in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
Nothing came out of the commitment because it was more of a face
saving device for Sharif to withdraw troops from Kargil than anything
else.

The last major event that reveals the American attitude towards the
Kashmir dispute is the ongoing peace process. Its genesis goes back to
the Armitage mission that took place at the height of the military
standoff between Pakistan and India in 2002, and resumption of talks
was linked with a permanent end to “cross-border terrorism” by
Pakistan.

Two years later, the two countries signed the Islamabad Declaration,
which stipulated the Indian commitment to resume talks in exchange for
Pakistan’s pledge to end “cross-border terrorism”. It is an open
secret that behind the scenes, the US was instrumental in getting the
peace process started. However, it must also be recognised that by
deciding to abandon the UN resolutions on Kashmir even before talks
got underway, Musharraf too played an important role in bringing India
to the negotiating table.

This review shows that the US has mostly played the role of a
facilitator or a mediator on Kashmir rather than, in the words of
Feroze Khan Noon, an initiator of “courageous or decisive action”. In
this backdrop, how do we explain Obama’s statement, which appears to
invest the US with an intrusive and proactive role?

The explanation seems to lie in Obama’s realisation that the US cannot
win the war in Afghanistan without the full and unstinted cooperation
of Pakistan, which it is reluctant to extend. This is due to the
Pakistani perception that India is using its consulates in Afghanistan
to do mischief in the tribal areas and Balochistan. Besides, it has
built a strategic road linking the Afghan road network with the
Iranian port of Chahbahar. Consequently, Pakistan regards India as a
greater threat to its security than terrorism. In this perspective,
the argument goes that if Kashmir, which is the mother of all discord
between the two countries, is resolved Pakistan would extend full
cooperation in winning the war in Afghanistan.

Here the question arises whether Obama would play the role that his
statement requires. In our estimation, it is a non-starter because
India is utterly opposed to third-party intervention in its disputes
with Pakistan, and the Indian foreign minister reiterated this stance
when he commented on Obama’s statement.

If Obama tries to force things on India it would negatively impact
Indo-US relations which, given the importance that India currently
enjoys in American strategic thinking, the US simply cannot afford.
Let us not forget that in a letter addressed to Manmohan Singh last
September, Obama stated that “deepening and broadening the friendship
between our two countries will be a first-order priority for me in the
coming years.”

Whatever the explanation for Obama’s statement, we do not think that
the “Man of Change” would depart from traditional American policy on
Kashmir, which incidentally also comes out from his interview in
Outlook last July, in which he stated that the US should encourage the
ongoing peace process. In the light of the foregoing, we do not think
that Obama will be a messiah for Kashmir.

The writer is a former dean of social sciences at the Quaid-i-Azam
University. He can be reached at hussai...@hotmail.com
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C12%5C03%5Cstory_3-12-2008_pg3_2

A Free Kashmir: Random Thoughts- XLVI




Part 46

Kashmir Watch, December 2

By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal




An independent Kashmir: Poll and Politics

India has been reeling under the weight of resurgent Kashmiri freedom
movement. Pro-freedom groups have boycotted the poll calling it is an
exercise without any credibility and as a futile exercise to “inform”
the world about its “democracy standards” with terror military
occupation of Jammu Kashmir. Those Kashmiris who voted in Indian poll
underway in JK have made it loud and clear that they seek independence
from Indian yoke and they have voted for regaining their sovereignty
form India.

Not withstanding the protests and anger of Kashmiris India is bent
upon showcasing it poll under terror shield in JK. With the first two
phases of the Assembly elections having passed smoothly, the focus of
various political parties and anti-poll organizations has now shifted
to the frontier district of Kupwara where five assembly segments are
scheduled to go to polls on November 30 in the third phase. The
constituencies going to polls in the third phase include Karnah,
Kupwara, Lolab, Handwara and Langate in district Kupwara. Dozens of
people were injured and as many vehicles damaged when agitated people
hurled stones at various mainstream leaders at many places in Pulwama
district. A day after polling in Ganderbal and Kangan constituencies
in Kashmir, the cavalcades of several contesting candidates were
attacked by mobs in this south district of Pulwama. Murders and
injuries of Kashmiris have taken place in the polls highlighting the
vulnerability of defenseless Kashmiris. At least 30 persons were
injured in the clashes between protestors and cops while four vehicles
suffered damages.

India is keen to show its faulty and fractured democracy to the wolrd
terrorized by US-led nations by denying any protests by the people of
Kashmir and hopes if the poll is ‘done” in JK, then every thing would
be OK. The authorities, as usual, have declared that no security
restrictions will be imposed when Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman,
Syed Ali Shah Geelani returns to Kashmir after undergoing surgery in
New Delhi. It is being expected that Indian authorities, with a view
to removing hurdles in the conduct of poll in JK in Indian ways, might
impose undeclared curfew in Srinagar on arrival of Geelani "for
maintaining law and order”. The possible hysterical response of
Geelani’s arrival for the remaining phases of Indian poll in JK, the
Indian strategists hatched plans to strike some where. According to
Geelani’s family members doctors have advised him to take maximum rest
and avoid any stressful and exerting exercise. However, ailing Geelani
said that he thinks it is important to be in JK at this turning point
of time when Kashmiris are deciding for their future. The
septuagenarian leader whose pace maker was replaced by a team of
doctors in New Delhi’s Escorts Hospital on October 15, has declared
his will to resume fighting the freedom cause henceforth.
After blaming a Muslim organization in India for the terror attacks,
Prime Minister Manmohan slowly pinned blame for the Mumbai attacks on
militant groups based in India's "neighbors", usually an allusion to
Pakistan, raising prospects of renewed tension between the nuclear-
armed rivals.. The idea behind this focused blame is to derail the
peace talks underway now and stop the freedom movement of Kashmiris.
But will they succeed now?

Amid reports that the next US administration under Barack Obama might
appoint former President Bill Clinton as a mediator on Kashmir, India
rejected any third party intervention and asserted that the matter
would have to be addressed bilaterally with Pakistan.


Don’t divide the Kashmiris on religious basis!

I

Among Pundits a good number of them support the freedom cause. Non-
migrant Kashmiri Pandits say they would follow their Muslim neighbors
on casting or not casting votes. “If they vote, we too will. If they
prefer to stay away from polls, we will follow suit,” they said. “Most
probably we will boycott polls,” said Neeraj Koul, a non-migrant
Kashmiri Pandit. “We did not leave our Muslim brothers when our entire
community fled the Valley for safer destinations. We are with the
resistance movement and will do the movement wants us to do.” After
armed rebellion broke out in 1989, a large chunk of KPs fled Kashmir
valley. However, some of them, unwilling to leave their homeland,
stayed put.

India should feel ashamed of the fact, in spite of the military
killings, the Kashmiris condemned strongly deadly Mumbai attack,
meanwhile their own civil life is tightened under undeclared curfew by
India to thwart anti-polls demonstrations. Both sides, pro-
independence and pro-Indian parties condemned bloody Mumbai attack.
Senior Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani while condemning the
strikes termed it as an "anti-human act". The perpetrators are enemies
of humanity; he said and called for a probe in the strikes by
international intelligence agencies. In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman
of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has strongly
condemned the imposition of undeclared curfew by the occupation
authorities to thwart anti-polls demonstrations. Farooq deplored that
India was not allowing Kashmiris to perform their religious rites. "We
can't tolerate interference into our religious affairs. We are even
ready to sacrifice our lives for protecting our religious rights," he
said. Farooq was scheduled to meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah
Mehmood Qureshi could not fly to New Delhi as he was placed under
house arrest.


The APHC Chairman compared the prevailing situation in the Kashmir
Valley with the Sikh rule. "It was during the Sikh rule that the
autocratic rulers didn't allow Kashmiris to offer prayers at Jamia
Masjid. The black history has been repeated by the Indian stooges in
Kashmir," he added. Mirwaiz said that India claims to be the biggest
democratic and secular nation. "However, the infringement into our
religious affairs by its agencies has exposed real face of its so-
called democracy. New Delhi seems to be so frustrated by the pro-
freedom marches that it has snatched our religious right to offer
prayers," he said. He maintained that imposition of restrictions to
foil the anti-election program symbolizes India's defeat and a
democratic victory for Kashmiris, said Kashmiri Media Service.

II

JK poll by Indian side is taking place along side the Indo-Pakistan
“peace move”. Within days of coming to power, President Zardari has
become unpopular party for his own faults, but mostly in spite of his
best efforts to be popular. India is aware of this too and wants to
exploit the situation. While India has all along stuck to its original
stand that Kashmir was its integral part, Pakistan, in its bid to
engage New Delhi at all costs, diluted its position to the shameful
extent. Pakistan has a genuine and legitimate case but it is losing
the case because of lack of necessary interest and commitment on the
part of our policy and decision makers. There is no doubt that the
Kashmir issue has always remained on the agenda of Pakistan-India
talks but it is also a fact that there was no progress towards its
resolution and the two countries are still poles apart on the issue.
India has used the process of talks just as time gaining tactics,
Pakistan with drifting postures recently too is to be blamed for the
current dismal state of affairs on the Kashmir dispute. In its zest
for ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions, Pakistan offered unprecedented
concessions in the hope that it would get some reciprocal gesture from
India but at the end of the day nothing of the sort happened and
instead India is hardening its position and consolidating its hold
with the passage of time.

India keeps its relations with Pakistan under terror shadow. Whenever
there is a positive move to improve the ties, Indian employs terrorist
methods to thwart the move, knowing well that Pakistan is keen to have
good neighborly relations with Pakistan. Pakistan’s new leader Zardari
calling the Kashmiris as “terrorists” has created some confidence in
New Delhi about the prospects for a better trade deal from Islamabad.
As the Poll taking more intensive shift with campaign getting more
focused on independence, Indian terrorists once again struck in
Mumbai, trying, to dilute the freedom move contents of the campaign.
But Kashmiris are now able to se though the hidden dramas of India.

On the Mumbai terror eve, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi, not knowing the hidden terror agenda in India to keep the
tensions intact with Pakistan, undertook a four-day visit in India
from Nov 26 Wednesday during which the two sides will review the
Composite Dialogue and consider more confidence-building measures.
After opening the Line of Control for trade last month, the two sides
are expected to look at more CBMs like expanding the pilgrim places
that can be visited by people of the other country.

The talks were taking place in the backdrop of statement by the
Pakistani leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari who
promised not to use nuclear weapons against India first and talked
about reconciliation to build the bilateral ties. New Delhi, keen to
get trade with Pakistan in favor of India, feels that the meeting
between Manmohan and Zardari in New York in September had marked a
change in Islamabad’s attitude, providing positive impetus to the
relations that had witnessed a low after the July 7 attack on Indian
embassy in Kabul. Trade has also witnessed a boom, touching a high of
USD 2.6 billion dollars officially as compared to about 300 million
dollars three years back. Volume of unofficial trade, via a third
country, is as high as USD six billion dollars.

Qureshi said Kashmir is an "important segment" of the dialogue process
between the two countries and pointed out that Foreign Secretaries of
the two countries would be discussing it under the fifth round of
composite dialogue which has got underway.

Pitching for friendly relations with India, Qureshi said "we have
spent six decades in hostilities and acrimony. People of the two
countries have suffered. We must add a new leaf in the relations". He
said the political atmosphere in Pakistan is "very positive" at the
moment as most of the parties, including opposition parties are in
favor of improving ties with India. "There is a window of opportunity
which both countries should avail of and not let pass by".

India had violated the 1960 Indus water treaty that governs the right
over Chenab River, Mukherjee said adequate water should be available
in the river so that it could be given to Pakistan. Qureshi alleged
that the flow of water in Chenab River from India to Pakistan had
decreased substantially because of construction of Baglihar Power
Project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Qureshi held talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee on a
whole range of issues including terrorism, Kashmir, Siachen, Sir
Creek, trade and river water sharing. India, as a routine strategy to
make global media to ridicule Pakistan for fun, keeps ‘terrorism” on
the agenda indirectly blaming Islamabad for Indian terrorism. The 2007
blast on cross-border Samjhauta Express train in Panipat that had
created tension between the two countries was also expected to figure
in the talks, with the Pakistani side likely to raise the matter in
view of investigators in India reportedly suggesting involvement of
some Hindu groups in the attack as against the Pakistan-based elements
as suspected earlier. The two sides also discussed the problem of
terrorism, with Pakistan saying that it is a "common threat" and
should be fought jointly by the two countries.

Addressing a joint press conference with Qureshi after their 90-minute
talks, Mukherjee said the two sides discussed ways to build on the
initiatives taken to improve ties, including launching cross-LoC trade
and in-principle agreement to open the Wagah-Attari and Khokhrapar-
Munnabao borders for commerce. When referred to reports that the
Barack Obama administration could appoint Clinton as a mediator on
Kashmir, Mukherjee said "Jammu and Kashmir is essentially a bilateral
issue which we have agreed to resolve bilaterally from the Simla
Agreement to Lahore Declaration".

Both sides agreed that the issue of inadvertent border crossers should
be viewed from a humanitarian dimension and recommended early
finalization of a draft agreement regarding inadvertent crossings by
the expert group on conventional CBMs, which is due to meet soon, the
joint statement said. Noting that a 1974 protocol on visits to
religious shrines was due for revision along with lists of religious
shrines in both countries, the two sides decided the matter will be
discussed under the talks between Culture Secretaries on promotion of
friendly exchanges, likely to take place soon. Indo-Pakistan welcomed
release of prisoners and fishermen by each other ahead of the talks as
a gesture of goodwill. They agreed to exchange by December 31 the
names of civil prisoners who had completed their sentences and whose
national status has been confirmed to facilitate their release in
January next year.

A joint statement issued at the end of the two-day talks, held as part
of the Composite Dialogue started in 2004, said both countries
"condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and affirmed
their resolve to cooperate with each other to combat the menace of
terrorism". Both sides also made progress on efforts to liberalize
their cumbersome Visa regime, with India saying that it would provide
a draft Visa agreement to Pakistan within four weeks, which would be
based on already discussed parameters.

However, the Mumbai terrorism has been cleverly used by India to
thwart any further improvement in ties.

III

Some Kashmiri Diaspora members think by appeasing Hindus in India,
Kashmir shall have its lost independence back. This is not just
innocent but sheer hypocrisy on their part. They have not yet
comprehended the issue properly. India has tactfully, more tactfully
than this special Kashmiri Diaspora thinks, annexed Jammu Kashmir by
cleverly using a Hindu king there. And it tries all tricks and
terrorist methods to retain the region under brutal control. As such
they would accept appeasement, but would not give back the stolen
properly to Kashmiris. There have been a lot of pro-India Kashmiri
leaders who have tried all these tricks of appeasing Hindus, but India
has shown its foot on the face after creating secret graveyards. Of
course the pro-India leaders got some coins form New Delhi for their
“services” to India and its terror forces occupying Jammu Kashmir.

With the latest Mumbai blasts it has become pretty clear about Indian
state terrorism trends. All evils affecting the Muslims in the sub-
continent originate from the Indian intelligence wings, especially the
military special RAW that has been waging a hidden war with Muslims in
India, Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But what has been a hidden
agenda for India has become visible now RAW openly revealing its
hidden agenda against Muslims. The amount of hatred this democratic
and secular organization towards Muslims could be gauged from the
regular statements, write-ups and talks by the Hindu leaders in
military, intelligence media and bureaucracy. Indian media are keen to
link the Mumbai terrorism to Muslims in Pakistan and Kashmir somehow
and defame Islam.

Post-script

There is no doubt that terrorism is caused by anti-Islamic forces,
funded chiefly by the US-led Western nations and promoted by their
media and USA remains the global terrorist nation of today which is
focused on Midestern energy resurces and killing Muslims. India’s
options remain fixed at vacating the alien Jammu Kashmir and not to
employ any more tricks to silence the defenseless Kashmiris by killing
them.

Terrorism does help Indian posture on Kashmir. Terrorism helped India
deviate from the just demand for solution of the dispute as per UN
resolution that envisages plebiscite to ascertain the will of the
Kashmiri people and has moved closer to Indian position that it was a
bilateral dispute to be settled through bilateral talks. In bilateral
talks, Pakistan however always maintains that there can’t be
normalization of relations sans resolution of the Kashmir issue but
now we are seeking liberal trade and all-embracing cooperation without
any progress on Kashmir front.

Pakistan government has created confusion among Kashmiris recently, it
also has to learn, to invest in them and re-earn their respect. The
real strength of the government lies in the people and the
parliament ? both support Kashmir cause. But the present Islamabad
Government is seen somehow adopting a policy of total surrender with
President Asif Ali Zardari even vaguely equating the freedom struggle
of Kashmiris to terrorism. It is because of this kind of attitude that
Kashmiris have lost hopes for solution of the problem through talks
between Pakistan and India and are now re-organizing their movement.
Under these circumstances, one fails to understand what Shah Mehmood
Qureshi meant by “fruitful talks” when the Government itself is not
clear on how to proceed further. And, the Indian verbal attack on
Pakistan for the Mumbai terrorism is incredible and it makes a point
in favor of Kashmir freedom fighters.

Not withstanding the international outcry for freeing Jammu Kashmir,
India still resists Independence move of the Kashmiris, but,
obviously, in its own peril. Many Indians now do feel Kashmir should
be let free and Indian leaders should concentrate on welfare of the
people at home. Terrorism tactics cannot keep Indian aggression on for
too long. The official Indian ideology offers no accommodation except
on its terms, still rules out all compromises, and demands an
allegiance with any violation of what was declared blasphemous,
inviting instantaneous annihilation. Hence it goes ahead with the
polls by adding more terror troops in JK.

The Freedom leaders owe to continue with their struggle until the
alien Indian occupation of our Kashmir land is evicted. Victory shall
be theirs.



(....>> continued)


The author is Delhi based Research Scholar in International Studies
and can be reached at abdulr...@yahoo.com
http://www.kashmirwatch.com/showexclusives.php?subaction=showfull&id=1228224607&archive=&start_from=&ucat=15&var1news=value1news

Efforts Underway to Defuse Rising Indo-Pakistani Tension
By Steve Herman
New Delhi
02 December 2008



A trio of U.S. senators is in South Asia, one of several sets of high-
level foreign visitors trying to defuse rising tension between India
and Pakistan following the Mumbai terror attacks. Meanwhile, India is
renewing demands Pakistan hand over wanted fugitives. VOA
Correspondent Steve Herman reports from New Delhi.

Three senior U.S. senators who met with top Indian-government
officials say emotions are running high following the Mumbai terror
attack.

Senator Joseph Lieberman told reporters the feelings expressed during
their meeting Tuesday with prime minister Manmohan Singh and external
affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee are understandable.

"They are clearly both full of pain and anger as I am sure most of the
people of India are. And, as I can tell you, most of the people of
America are," Lieberman said.

The U.S. lawmakers are among those visiting the region to offer
condolences and perhaps engage in some shuttle diplomacy. The senators
are to meet top Pakistani government and military leaders in Islamabad
later in the week.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa is also in the Indian
capital. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice arrives Wednesday.
Russian president Dmitri Medvedev is due Thursday.

Senator John McCain says Mumbai's attackers meant to put India and
Pakistan at each others' throats again.

"One of the objects of the terrorist attack and this act of outrage is
to try to provoke confrontation between Pakistan and India," McCain
said. "And I know that this [Indian] government is committed to not
letting that happen."

But the senators say New Delhi, which is blaming "elements" in
Pakistan for the attack, needs answers from Islamabad.

Senator Lindsey Graham says he feels there is now a "real strong
resolve" among India's leaders to make needed changes to bolster the
country's internal security.

India and Pakistan, which both have nuclear weapons, now face their
worst state of relations in six years. The two have gone to war
against each other three times since their independence in 1947.

Foreign minister Mukherjee acknowledges the India-Pakistan peace
process is jeopardized. He has handed Pakistan's top envoy here a
formal diplomatic note - known as a demarche - with the names of about
20 individuals India wants Pakistan to extradite.

"The demarche asks the arrest and hand-over of those persons who are
settled in Pakistan and who are fugitives of Indian law," Mukherjee
said.

Those on the list include the infamous Mumbai crime kingpin, Dawood
Ibrahim, and Maulana Masood Azhar - a Pakistani Muslim cleric who, in
1999, was freed from an Indian prison, in exchange for passengers on a
hijacked Indian airliner.

Ibrahim is considered India's most wanted man. His organization is
suspected of involvement in a 1993 bombing in Mumbai that left 250
people dead. Indian media reports say there is also official suspicion
some of his underlings may have provided support to the terrorists who
struck last week.

Azhar leads the group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which is believed to support
Muslim separatists in the part of disputed Kashmir which is under
Indian control.

India initially gave Pakistani officials such a list six years ago and
says it never received an adequate response.

Top Pakistani government officials promise cooperation with India to
determine responsibility for the attack on Mumbai. But Islamabad
rejects any allegations of complicity, blaming "non-state actors",
which Pakistan says it is also battling and says India must provide
specific information of those it accuses of taking part.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2008/12/sec-081202-voa07.htm

'Obama administration to strengthen Indo-US biz ties'

Press Trust of India / New Delhi November 19, 2008, 19:23 IST



Former US Defence Secretary William S Cohen today expressed confidence
that the change of guard in the US would further strengthen business
ties between India and the US.

Cohen was in the capital to attend the three-day India Economic Forum.
During a meeting with the members of US-India Business Council
(USIBC), Cohen said, "The commercial relationship between the two
countries (India and US), will deepen under the Obama
administration."

He said, "The recently concluded G-20 talks in Washington DC
demonstrated a deep respect around the world for an economically
strong India. Indo-US relations enjoy strong bipartisan support in the
US. It was evident by overwhelming support for the civil nuclear
agreement."

USIBC was established in 1975 to promote trade between India and the
US.

Experts Ponder Indo-U.S. Relations in Obama Administration
By SUNITA SOHRABJI
indiawest.com November 13, 2008 03:17:00 PM



Indo-U.S. diplomatic and trade relations under President Barack
Obama’s administration will remain relatively unchanged in the short
term, but the issue of Kashmir will be central to dealing with the war
on terror, concluded several South Asia experts in the week following
the historical election of the country’s first African American
president.

“The banality of normality” will characterize immediate relations
between the two countries, said Philip Oldenburg, associate director
of the South Asian Institute at Columbia University and co-editor of
the “India Briefings” series, at an online briefing hosted by the
South Asian Journalists Association Nov. 5.

Steven Cohen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and an expert
on India and Pakistan security policy, opined that the new
administration’s first priority will be to establish a global economic
structure – “the overarching thematic of the Obama-led relationship to
South Asia,” he said.

“The biggest priority for the Obama administration will be the
domestic economy, which will dominate the agenda for at least the
first 100 days,” Rafiq Dossani, professor of international relations
at Stanford University, told India-West.

India remains a relatively small player in U.S. imports, and is thus
unlikely to figure large in Obama’s immediate agenda, he said.

“Reassuring noises at lower levels” will be made to both India and
Pakistan in the short-term, said Dossani, senior research scholar at
the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford.

He added that the issue of Kashmir would not likely be on the agenda
until 2011.

In an interview with Time magazine last month, Obama indicated his
intention of appointing former President Bill Clinton as a special
envoy to Kashmir and said he had spoken to Clinton about the matter
over lunch in Harlem. Clinton successfully intervened in the 1999
Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan.

“Kashmir in particular is an interesting situation where that is
obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically,” said Obama in the
interview. “But, for us to devote serious diplomatic resources to get
a special envoy in there, to figure out a plausible approach, and
essentially make the argument to the Indians, you guys are on the
brink of being an economic superpower, why do you want to keep on
messing with this?”

“To make the argument to the Pakistanis, look at India and what they
are doing, why do you want to keep on being bogged down with this
particularly at a time where the biggest threat now is coming from the
Afghan boarder? I think there is a moment where potentially we could
get their attention. It won’t be easy, but it’s important,” he said.

In interviews earlier this summer, Obama said that the Kashmir issue
should be settled so that Pakistan could have some breathing room to
assist the U.S. with the war on terror at its borders, a statement
which struck a nerve with the Indian government.

“The appointment of Clinton as a special envoy would do more harm than
good,” Dossani told India-West. “What could he possibly achieve
there?” he asked, adding that neither India nor Pakistan would be
happy with an outsider – even a friendly one – interfering in what is
essentially considered domestic policy.

Oldenburg said the Clinton battle against nuclear non-proliferation
will be resumed again. “Obama has said nuclear proliferation is the
biggest threat to the U.S.,” he said, adding that such a position
could affect the recently-signed nuclear deal between India and the
U.S.

Cohen said India’s ties to Iran and Afghanistan could be used to
advantage if the Obama administration attempted to develop a
relationship to those countries.

“India can play a useful role in Afghanistan, but only with Pakistan’s
blessings,” said Cohen, adding: “The billion dollar question is
whether India wants to work with Pakistan, ignore Pakistan, or destroy
Pakistan.”

Newsweek International editor and author Fareed Zakaria as a possible
Secretary of State was discussed by Oldenburg and Cohen at the SAJA
briefing.

“Fareed is a marvelous person, a thoughtful guy whose strategic bent
is compatible with the Obama people,” said Cohen, adding that the
Mumbai-born author of “The Post American World” was “a big picture
person,” not specifically a South Asia specialist, and could be tapped
for an undersecretary role in the new administration.

A Web site devoted to drafting Zakaria for the Secretary of State
position popped up this September, exhorting the next U.S. president
to appoint the CNN analyst to the post.

The draftfareed.org Web site’s petition, which has gathered 128
signatures globally, states: “Fareed Zakaria has defined what it means
to be a modern day foreign policy expert. Fareed’s interviews and
writings demonstrate a rational view of the world and a keen sense of
the forces shaping growth in the rest of the world.”

Other South Asia experts likely to have policy-making roles in the new
administration could include Karl “Rick” Inderfurth, Assistant
Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs in the Clinton
administration; and Jonah Blank, former journalist and policy advisor
on South Asia/Near East policy to the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, which was chaired by Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

Cohen concluded the new secretary of state is likely to have an
economics background more than a foreign relations background, because
of the current American focus on international economics.

Trade relations between the two countries would likely remain
untouched, Dossani told India-West, despite Obama’s statements on the
campaign trail saying he would eliminate tax breaks for companies
moving jobs overseas.

“There’s the realization that the real problem is not outsourcing, but
the financial crisis at home,” he said, adding that outsourcing to
India had no real impact on the domestic financial crisis.

Blocking the flow of jobs would not work, said Dossani, adding that
countries would immediately retaliate. Obama’s proposed economic team
– many old Clinton hands – are all proponents of a free market, he
said.

Nasscom president Ganesh Natarajan reiterated that view in an
interview with CNBC TV shortly after Obama’s victory.

“We should not worry about a ban on outsourcing; it is just not going
to happen.” He added that Obama might give incentives to job creation
in the U.S., which Nasscomm supports.

Indian American organizations continued to pour in their support for
the new administration. Dr. Rajwant Singh, national president of the
Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said: “Obama’s election
represents dynamic America at ease with its diversity. This is a
profound and incomparable moment in American history since it is
happening 232 years after the declaration of the Independence and 40
years after the Selma march for civil rights.”

“It is a giant step towards fulfilling the vision of the founding
concepts of this nation and leaders like Martin Luther King who
struggled for equality for all in America,” said Singh.

“Senator Obama’s personal story clearly has a special appeal to the
Indian American community with him being the son of an immigrant,”
said Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S.-India Political Action
Committee.

“We celebrate his victory and look forward to working in a united
manner to confront the many challenges we face today and transform our
society for the better for all,” he said.

“This election also marks a turning point in the participation of
South Asian American citizens in the American democracy,” said the
National Coalition of South Asian Organizations in a press release.
“We encourage South Asians around the country to continue to
vigorously engage in all aspects of civic life, and to lend our voices
and energy to creating change in our communities,” said the coalition,
which represents more than 35 Indian American organizations.

"Voting is only the beginning of civic engagement; we as a community
now face the tasks ahead of working with a new Administration and
Congress, and ensuring that AAPI concerns and policy issues are
included in the agenda moving forward," said Asian and Pacific
Islander American Vote board co-chair Eunsook Lee. "APIAVote also
looks to sustaining and strengthening the local and national
infrastructure of AAPI civic engagement so that we can build on this
momentum," she said.

Dr R.K. Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, issued a statement
following Obama’s victory Nov. 4, saying: “The U.S. now has a unique
opportunity to assume leadership in meeting the threat of climate
change, and it would help greatly if the new president were to
announce a coherent and forward looking policy soon after he takes
office.”

“There is every reason to believe that President Obama will actually
do so. This should please people across the globe, because U.S.
leadership is critical for mounting global efforts to meet this threat
effectively. For this reason itself, apart from several others, the
election of Mr. Obama is a development that should generate optimism
all-round,” said Pachauri.



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Indo-Barack Obama Deal; Myths and Realities
MIL, Nov 8, 2008

November 8, 2008, Balaji - India loves United States' President-elect,
Barack Obama. Indians love their look-alike; at least in color to
become the most powerful individual in our planet. Barack Obama has
more supporters in India than in his country; it's a truth. (The
author has very ably tried to present the facts before the world to
differentiate between myth and realities).

Diplomatic Answer-Obama keeps India equal to Pakistan

However, does he love India? Yes, of course would be his answer.
Perhaps, may be.
During his campaign Barack Obama said two things relevant most to
India. He idolizes Gandhi and worships Lord Hanuman.

But Barack Obama's love is not confined to India alone, it's is
extended to Pakistan too. He called himself a "desi" which means a
local both in India and Pakistan.

Barack Obama proved his improbably love for both the countries when he
said in an interview that former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be
appointed as "Special Envoy to Kashmir". This improbably love is due
to "compulsion" and not in good faith.

The last thing that an Indian government either headed by the Congress
or the Bharatiya Janata Party want is to internationalize Kashmir,
though the person who announced the proposal (Barack Obama), and the
one who acts (Bill Clinton) might have fan- followers in India.

Obama to favor Pakistan in lieu of cooperation in Afghanistan

Barack Obama's deal is simple: Pakistan can have an upper hand in
Jammu and Kashmir but has to co-operate more in "War on Terror" in
Afghanistan which would lead to the possible capture of Osama Bin
Laden. On the other hand, India could be dealt with its obsession on
J&K, though U.S. will continue to recognize the growing economic super
power.

From a distance, Indian government has been following the U.S.
politics. Indian journalists too have been following the Presidential
elections. But India's journalists and the government had missed one
picture of Obama.

Of all the traits essential for a great leader and visionary that
Barack Obama possesses such as charisma, intellectual and
articulation, nothing stands more than his ability to find and exploit
the opponent's weakness and to mention "nice about them" only after
defeating them.

Obama's deep diplomacy of praising his opponents

Remember how he exploited Hillary's bad judgment on "War on Iraq" and
McCain's track record resemblance to George W Bush. After winning the
primaries, however Barack Obama praised both Bill and Hillary
Clinton's contribution to the U.S. and acknowledged McCain's
patriotism on winning the Presidential elections.

Barack Obama would "deal" with India on same note. India's weakness is
Kashmir. He knows it. Also, Pakistan's weakness is its sympathy to
Taliban in Afghanistan even seven years after 9/11.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has not got the message. The improved
Indo-US relations during George W Bush's Presidency which culminated
in the Indo-US nuclear deal would become history, if Obama's deal is
put in practice.

Myth of Democrat US President more favorable to India do not match
facts

Also, the myth is that U.S Presidents from the Democrat party are
favorable to India than the Republicans, whereas facts prove
otherwise.

Democratic Party's Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Bill Clinton had
let India down whereas Republican Party Presidents who had ruled
either in the beginning of the 20th century (Theodore Roosevelt) or
the 21st century (George W Bush) had favored India.

Woodrow Wilson failed to implement in his promise on India's
independence despite its active co-operation with the allies during
the World War I, John F Kennedy was reluctant to intervene when China
invaded Akai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh in 1962, Bill Clinton's
presidency was quoted with Kargil War and Kandhakar hijack, Lyndon B
Johnson didn't support India during the Indo-Pak war in 1965, and
above all Kashmir was internationalized during the Harry S Truman's
presidency in 1948.

On the other hand, 20th century's first President, Theodore Roosevelt
was a Republican who supported India's independence, Dwight D.
Eisenhower normalised Indo-US relations in 1958 during his visit to
India, Democrat turned Republican President, Ronald Reagan started co-
operation with India in the field of technology, and 21st century 's
first U.S. President George W Bus pulled India out of the nuclear
isolation by signing the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal.

But there are two exceptions to the reality. One, during the
Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 Republican President Richard Nixon
threatened India by sending the nuclear submarine - USS Enterprise to
Bay of Bengal, and Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
( FDR) risked his working relations with then British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill by proposing a "new deal". The deal envisaged U.S.
co-operation with the allied forces in the World War II only after
India's independence from the colonial British government. Though FDR
didn't live long to see India's independence in 1947, his role in
Indian independence couldn't be denied.

Obama changed American History, would he change for India?

Meanwhile, can Obama, who had changed his party, country, can change
himself for India.

Even Obama's cynic will accept that Obama appeals to all religions,
citizens, tribes, ethnics and parties, and "Obamania" is above bi-
partisan politics.

After all, Obama emulates two Republican Presidents. The best American
President- the unifier of the whites and blacks in U.S. - President
Abraham Lincoln who led with success during the "Civil War" and
second, the founding father of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and
freedom fighter, George Washington.

India's present generations are not aware of Abraham Lincoln and
George Washington. But Abraham Lincoln's speech on the "Perfect Union"
among all sections of the society, and George Washington's rhetoric of
Freedom and Democracy holds India together as a nation.

India still wish Obama all success and hope balance in his policies

However, India wishes to see Barack Obama – the first African-American
as President of the U.S. to "change" myths on Indo-U.S relations from
the past and expects the today's reality that India is an economic
super-power to be accepted by the U. S.

(The writer is an international reporter who's studying journalism in
New Zealand. He can be contacted in his email
mohanbala...@yahoo.co.in )
http://www.internationalreporter.com/News-4256/Indo-Barack-Obama-Deal;-Myths-and-Realities.html

Mumbai: Lessons For The Future

I was shocked to see on television that the top police officer with
the most threats had not been given protective gear tailor-made for
him

B.RAMAN

While the picture of what happened in Mumbai between 9-21 PM on
Wednesday and 8 AM on Saturday, when the terrorist situation was
finally terminated, is still incomplete and confusing, certain facts
available should give an attitude of the magnitude of the strikes, the
like of which the world has not seen before:

There were 13 incidents of intense firing with assault rifles at
different places, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Train (CST)
terminus, where the terrorist operation started at 9-21 PM, the Metro
Cinema junction, the Cama and Albless Hospital, outside the Olympia
restaurant in Colaba, the lobbies of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi/Trident
hotels, and the Leopald Café behind the Taj Mahal Hotel. The
terrorists would seem to have chosen the CST for the launching of
their strikes because it is named after Shivaji, a Hindu ruler, who
fiercely opposed the Muslim rulers of India. Near the Metro Cinema
junction, some terrorists hijacked a police vehicle and went around
spraying bullets on passers-by.


There were seven incidents involving explosive devices----outside the
Taj Mahal Hotel, in the BPT Colony at Mazgaon, three near the Oberoi/
Trident Hotels, the Colaba market and inside a taxi.


There were many incidents of throwing hand-grenades---two of them at
the Cama hospital and on Free Press Road. Hemant Karkare, the legenday
head of Mumbai’s Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS), is reported to have been
killed in the incident near the hospital.


There were three incidents of fidayeen style (suicidal, not suicide)
infiltration into buildings followed by a prolonged confrontation with
the security forces before being killed or captured. These took place
in the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi/Trident hotels and in the Narriman
House in Colaba, where a Jewish religious-cum-cultural centre is
located, headed by a Jewish Rabbi. Jewish people of different
nationalities often congregate there. The centre also has cheap
accommodation for Jewish visitors from abroad.


According to the local authorities, most of the hotel guests who were
subsequently rescued by the NSG, had run into their rooms and locked
themselves up when the terrorists forced their way into the lobbies
and restaurants and started opening fire. They were not hostages. It
is not yet clear whether the terrorists did manage to take hostages
and, if so, of which nationalities.


The terrorists took four Jewish people hostages in the Narriman House,
three of them Israeli nationals. They were found dead when the NSG
made their entry and killed the terrorists. It is not yet known how
they died-----through bullet wounds or beheading as the jihadis
normally do.


There were over 160 fatalities. The number may go up as the security
forces inspect the hotels. According to present indications, the
number of foreigners killed was about 10 only--- including three
Israelis, two Greeks, one Japanese and possibly two Americans (not yet
confirmed ). The terrorists were reportedly looking for people with
American, British and Israeli passports.


Almost all the terrorist strikes took place against targets near the
sea, indicating thereby that the terrorists, who had reportedly come
by sea, were hoping to escape by sea if they managed to survive.


Between 15 and 20 terrorists, who came from outside, are believed to
have participated in the operation, The kind of local support they had
is not yet clear.


Two of the terrorists are reported to have been caught alive and are
presently under interrogation. According to the police, one of them,
who gave his name as Ajmal Amir Kamal, is a resident of Faridot, near
Multan, in Pakistani Punjab. He identified himself as a member of the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). His preliminary interrogation also indicates
that the others, who came from outside, also belonged to the LET and
had been trained at Muridke, in Pakistani Punjab, where the
headquarters of the LET are located.

The Mumbai Police, the NSG, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the
Mumbai Fire Brigade have confronted the terrorists and handled the
crisis in an exemplary manner, of which the entire nation can be
proud. Their performance has been as exemplary as the crisis
management of their counterparts in New York after 9/11. About 20
officers of various ranks, including the chief of the ATS, an
additional Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, and two young and
intrepid officers of the NSG have died fighting the terrorists.

The Government of Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and his Congress
(I) are back to their denial and cover-up mode. They play down the
possibility of the involvement of Al Qaeda despite tell-tale signs of
an Al Qaeda stamp on the strikes. They continue to maintain a silence
on the role of sections of the Indian Muslims lest any open projection
of this cost them Muslim votes. They continue to highlight the role of
the LET, but without highlighting the fact that it is a member of
Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF) and that it has
many associates in the Indian Muslim community.

I watched with shock and disbelief on the TV, visuals of Karkare
trying different helmets and bullet-proof vests before choosing one
which suited his build. Here was the most threatened officer of the
Mumbai Police and the Government had not even given him a protective
gear tailor-made for him. This is a telling instance of the casual way
we handle counter-terrorism and we look after our brave officers
fighting terrorism.

.The Prime Minister has been unwise in reportedly suggesting a visit
to India by Lt.Gen.Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Director-General of
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for discussions on the
Mumbai blasts. One fails to understand what useful results will come
out of it. There are strong indications of the involvement of the LET
in the Mumbai strikes----either on its own or at the direction of bin
Laden and most likely with the logistic support of some Indian
Muslims. By failing to act against the LET, its leaders and terrorist
infrastructure even after ostensibly banning it on January 12,2002,
the State of Pakistan has definitely facilitated its acts of terrorism
in Indian territory. By sharing the information collected by us at
this stage with the ISI chief we will help him in covering up the
tracks of the LET and the ISI before we could complete the
investigation. There has been opposition in Pakistan to his visit
particularly from the Army.

One should not be surprised if the suggestion for the visit had come
from the US and the Prime Minister had accepted it just as he accepted
in September,2006, the US suggestion for setting up a joint counter-
terrorism mechanism with Pakistan. The American ploy would have been
to divert any Indian public anger against Pakistan and the Prime
Minister should have firmly rejected it.

Three of the most gruesome acts of terrorism since India became
independent have taken place in Mumbai---the March 1993 blasts, the
July 2006 blasts in suburban trains and the strikes of November 26-29.
It is a shame that we have not been able to protect effectively this
city, which is the jewel of India. Mumbai is India’s New York and
Shanghai. Look at the way the Americans have protected NY after 9/11.
Look at the way the Chinese have protected Shanghai. The immediate
priority of the Government should be to set up a joint task force of
serving and retired officers from Maharashtra in the Police,
intelligence agencies and the Armed Forces to work-out and implement a
time-bound plan to ensure that 26/11 cannot be repeated again. Mumbai
has till now been the gateway of India. The terrorists have exploited
it. We should make it Fortress India. Foreign investors will lose
confidence in India if Mumbai, where most of the corporate
headquarters are located, can be attacked repeatedly with impunity by
terrorists.

The second lesson is that confidence-building measures with Pakistan
cannot be at the expense of national security. In the name of
confidence-building, there have been too many relaxations of
immigration regulations applicable to Pakistan. There has been
pressure on the Government for more relaxations from the so-called
Indians-Pakistanis Bhai Bhai (Indians-Pakistanis are brothers) lobby.
The terrorists have been a major beneficiary of these relaxations.
These relaxations have decreased the vigilance of our people. For
example, hotels, which immediately used to alert the Police when a
Pakistani national or a foreigner of Pakistani origin checked in, no
longer do so. According to one as yet unconfirmed report, some of the
perpetrators of the attacks on the hotels had checked in some days
before the strike and the others came subsequently by boat. If this
was so and if the hotels had immediately alerted the Police, the
terrorist strikes might have been prevented.

In my view, the terrorist strikes in Mumbai had the stamp of Al Qaeda
in the way they were conceived, planned and executed. There has also
been a touch of the Hizbollah of the Lebanon, the Popular Front For
The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade and
other Palestinian organizations.

The reported use of boats and dinghies for the clandestine transport
of men and material for terrorist strikes on land is an old modus
operandi (MO) used in the past against Israel. The Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had copied it from them. The anti-India jihadis
have emulated their West Asian counterparts.

The use of boats for transport enables the terrorists to evade
physical security checks by road, rail and air. The numerous creeks
between India and Pakistan across the Bhuj area of Gujarat enable the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and the pro-Al Qaeda
Pakistani terrorist organizations to clandestinely transport men and
material by sea. Reports that the ISI had planned to use this MO for
helping the Khalistani terrorists in the 1990s had led to the Border
Security Force acquiring some boats which could be used for
surveillance in these creeks.

The success of the terrorists in evading detection by our Coast Guard
and the police reveals a serious gap in our maritime counter-terrorism
architecture. If this gap is not quickly identified and closed, the
vulnerability of the Bombay High off-shore oil installations and the
nuclear establishments to terrorist attacks from the sea would be
increased. Many of our nuclear and space establishments----not only in
Mumbai, but also in other areas---are located on the coast and are
particularly vulnerable to sea-borne terrorist attacks.

The stamp of Al Qaeda is evident in the selection of targets. The Taj
Hotel, old and new, the Oberoi-Trident Hotel and the Narriman House
were the strategic focus of the terrorist operation. The terrorist
strikes in other places such as railway stations, a hospital etc and
instances of random firing were of a tactical nature intended to
create scare and panic.

The strategic significance of the attacks on the two hotels from Al
Qaeda’s point of view arose from the fact that these hotels are the
approved hotels of the US and Israeli Governments for their visiting
public servants and for the temporary stay of their consular officials
posted in Mumbai till a regular house is found for them.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, presently undergoing trial before a military
tribunal in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for his involvement in
the 9/11 terrorist strikes, was reported to have told his American
interrogators that before 9/11 Al Qaeda had planned to blow up the
Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. After the visit of President George Bush
to India in March,2006, Osama bin Laden had, in an audio message,
described the global jihad as directed against the Crusaders, the
Jewish people and the Hindus.

.Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organizations have been critical of India’s
close co-operation with Israel and the US. In the past, the ISI had
also shown an interest in having Indo-Israeli relations disrupted
through terrorist attacks on visiting Israeli nationals in India. In
1991, it had instigated an attack by the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation
Front on some Israeli tourists in Srinagar by alleging that they were
really Israeli counter-terrorism experts.

17.The fact that the number of foreigners killed was small would show
that the attacks on the foreigners in the hotels was selective and not
indiscriminate. Available reports indicate that the terrorists were
looking for American, British and Israeli nationals----particularly
visiting public servants among them with official or diplomatic
passports.

18.The only reason for their targeting the British could have been the
active British role in the anti-Taliban operations in Afghanistan and
in training the commandoes of Pakistan’s Special Services Group (SSG),
jointly with an American team of instructors. The SSG was in the
forefront of the raid into the Lal Masjid of Islamabad in July,2007,
and has been playing an active role in the operations against the
Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley of the North-West Frontier
Province (NWFP) and in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA).

19. The terrorist strike has also had an anti-Jewish angle as evident
from the raid into the Narriman House and the taking of Jewish
hostages there. The targeting of the Americans, British, Israelis and
Indian Jews has to be seen in the overall context of not only the
anger of some Muslims against the Indian co-operation with the US and
Israel , but also the role of the US and the UK in the war against Al
Qaeda and the Taliban. One should be prepared for more attacks in
future not only on American, British and Israeli nationals, but also
on their diplomatic and consular missions and their business interests
in India.

20. The attacks on the foreigners have already disrupted the ongoing
tour of India by the English cricket team. it is ironic that at a time
when we were considering the advisability of our cricket team going to
Pakistan due to the poor security conditions there, foreign cricket
teams sould start having fears about coming to India due to the poor
internal security in India.Similar nervousness in the minds of
businessmen in foreign countries over security conditions in India
could be an outcome of the spectacular terrorist strikes.

21.In the US, Spain and the UK, the terrorist strikes attributed to Al
Qaeda were followed by detailed enquiries to identify deficiencies
which made the strikes possible and recommend remedial measures, which
were implemented. In India, even though we have been facing a series
of major terrorist strikes since November 2007, no enquiry has been
held. Unless we have the courage to admit our deficiencies and correct
them, our counter-terrorism machinery is unlikely to improve. The
public has a right to be kept informed of the results of the enquiries
and the action taken.

22.There is a misleading debate started by the Congress (I) on the
importance of patriotism in the face of the terrorist strikes. It has
been trying to silence criticism of its mishandling in the name of
patriotism. It has been citing the example of the US after 9/11. In
the US, patriotism did not mean support of the Government, right or
wrong. It meant support for all the measures taken by the Government
for strengthening the counter-terrorism machinery such as additional
powers for the agencies and the police, increase in budgetary
allocations for the agencies, tightening of immigration procedures
etc. It did not mean silence on the sins of commission and omission of
the Government. Electoral calculations seem to be the only motivating
factor of the Government’s actions and not national interests and
national security----even after the colossal Mumbai failure and the
consequent tragedy. (29-11-08)

The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt.
of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical
Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seven...@gmail.com
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne061208raman.asp

Spotlight Falls on Pakistan After Mumbai Terror Attacks
Monday, December 01, 2008
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor




Caption: An Indian police officer and hotel staffer hoist an Indian
national flag at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai on Sunday, Nov. 30,
2008, the day after a terrorist siege there ended (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – As India continues to count the cost of Mumbai’s three-
day standoff with Islamic terrorists, the key question exercising
government officials and security experts alike is who was behind the
coordinated and well-planned operation.

A major focus of attention is the interrogation of only known survivor
among the attackers, a 21-year-old Pakistani who was captured after
being shot in the hand and according to police sources has provided
detailed information.

The chief suspect is a terrorist group operating in Pakistan, with al-
Qaeda sympathies and a long history of violent attacks. Fragile
relations between the neighboring rivals have soured significantly,
and the White House announced Sunday that President Bush has asked
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit India in the coming
days.

Like other attacks in India in recent years, the main goal appears to
have been to incite fear, inter-communal distrust and socio-economic
insecurity, as well as hostility between India and Pakistan.

Although one message purportedly sent by someone linked to the attack
cited perceived injustices including references to “Afghanistan, Iraq,
Palestine, Somalia and Kashmir,” the head of India’s paramilitary
National Security Guard, J.K. Dutt, said the authorities received no
demands from the gunmen, “who appeared to have come with the sole
intention of killing as many people as they could.”

Mumbai’s ordeal began on Wednesday night, and only ended when
commandos overcame the remaining gunmen holding the landmark Taj Mahal
hotel early on Saturday morning.

Over a period of 59 hours, the terrorists attacked a railway station,
two hospitals, a municipal facility, a cinema, a café, a bank, a
Jewish community center and two hotels in India’s financial capital.

The gunmen seized control of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident Hotels
and a Chabad-Lubavitch facility known as Nariman House. By the time
the three sieges had been broken, 30 people had died at the Oberoi,
more than 50 at the Taj Mahal, and six Jewish hostages had been killed
at Nariman House.

Authorities said the death toll was 183 and could rise further.
Unconfirmed reports said several dozen of the victims were foreigners,
including Americans, Israelis, Australians, Canadians and Germans. At
least 20 soldiers and police officers were among the dead.

According to the captured terrorist, who was named variously as Azam
or Ajmal Amir Kasab, 10 attackers had set off by small boat from
Karachi, then rendezvoused with a Pakistani ship and were issued with
weapons – an assault rifle, a handgun, half a dozen magazines and
eight hand grenades each.

En route to India they commandeered an Indian fishing boat, killed its
crew, later beheaded its skipper, killed a coast guard officer and
forced his colleague to take them towards Mumbai before killing him
too. They then transferred to inflatable speedboats for the landing,
Kasab reportedly confessed.

Once ashore they split into four groups and headed for their various
targets, some by taxi. The attacks began after 9 PM on Wednesday.

The Times of India said Kasab told interrogators the attackers had
planned to blow up the Taj Mahal, in an intended reprise of the
destruction of Islambad’s Marriott Hotel last September.


Caption: The gunman identified by police as Kasab and now in custody
was photographed on Nov. 26, 2008 at Mumbai’s Chatrapathi Sivaji
Terminal railway station, among the terrorists’ first targets (AP
Photo/Mumbai Mirror)Collaboration

The captured man’s account suggested a sophisticated and meticulously
planned operation, with strenuous training, a visit to Mumbai months
earlier to reconnoiter the targets, and the involvement of individuals
beyond the assault group, including those on the Pakistani ship as
well as a separate group who Kasab claimed had checked into the hotels
earlier to stockpile more weapons.

Rakesh Maria, Mumbai’s joint police commissioner, told Indian media
the gunman told police he belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a
Pakistan-based Sunni and Wahhabist group whose main focus has been to
end Indian control in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Pakistan maintains an official policy of supporting Kashmiris’
“legitimate struggle for self-determination,” and LeT is widely
suspected to have enjoyed historical support from Pakistan’s Inter-
Services Intelligence agency, or ISI.

Under outside pressure, Gen. Pervez Musharraf formally banned LeT and
other militant groups in 2002 but they continue operating under
different incarnations – in LeT’s case a so-called political wing,
Jamaat ul-Dawat (JuD).

Both LeT/JuD and the Pakistani government have denied involvement in
the Mumbai attacks.

For Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, there seemed little doubt
about the origin of the terrorists.

“We will take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their
territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that
there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them,” he
said in a statement to the nation, the reference to Pakistan clear.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, while urging
India not to “overreact.”

Emails sent to Indian media early on during the attacks claimed
responsibility on behalf of something called the “Deccan
Mujahideen” (the Deccan plateau accounts for most of southern India).

Some counter terrorism researchers who have been tracking “homegrown”
Indian Islamists, believe they are linking increasingly with jihadist
groups based abroad. A possible scenario could be an operation planned
by Pakistan-based terrorists who collaborated with Indian-based
radicals.

Some counter terrorism researchers who have been tracking “homegrown”
Indian Islamists, believe they are linking increasingly with jihadist
groups based abroad. A possible scenario could be an operation planned
by Pakistan-based terrorists who collaborated with Indian-based
radicals.

Animesh Roul, executive director of the Society for the Study of Peace
and Conflict in New Delhi, said Monday he believed the Mumbai
terrorists were likely Pakistanis who had been “trained and
brainwashed” by LeT leaders.

But the scale of the attacks and prior training required suggested the
possibility as well of “a covert local hand, perhaps for logistics and
prior security related inputs.”

Some Indian Muslims, primarily youths, have turned towards radicalism
and violence, increasingly falling prey to Pakistan and Bangladesh-
based terror groups, Roul said.

As for claim of responsibility by the “Deccan Mujahideen,” he called
it “a product of a fertile terror imagination and desperate attempt to
Indianize the whole terror struggle.”

al-Qaeda

Former Indian counter terrorism chief Bahukutumbi Raman noted that LeT
was a member of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front for
Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews. He said it also had “many associates
in the Indian Muslim community.”

Indian security officials have said previous LeT attacks were carried
out with the help of Indian Islamists, including members of the banned
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). According to Indian
terrorism expert K.P.S. Gill, SIMI’s operational control has for some
time been based in Pakistan.

After Bush paid a first visit to India in March 2006 to strengthen
Indo-U.S. strategic ties, bin Laden in a public message began
referring to India as an apparent target, denouncing what he called “a
Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war against the Muslims.”

Some experts believe terrorists like those behind the Mumbai attacks
are likely inspired by, but not directly under the supervision of, al-
Qaeda.

Unlike suicide attacks that have become a trademark of al-Qaeda, the
Mumbai attackers reportedly prepared an escape route by sea, stored on
a GPS device. The brazen nature of the attack – evidently well-trained
men using assault rifles and grenades in multiple locations – bore
similarities to earlier LeT operations.

The FBI and Scotland Yard have dispatched teams to help India’s
investigation.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40048

Mumbai attacks - Pakistan
After attacks, India-Pakistan tensions mount in serial déjà vu
Monday 01 December 2008

The Indian government and security officials say they have enough
evidence to hold Pakistan responsible for the Mumbai attacks, rapidly
destroying recent progress in relations between the two countries,
still divided over Kashmir.

Read Leela Jacinto's notebook from terror-stricken Mumbai.

Also read her previous report: "Heroes bow, politicians take the rap
in terror's aftermath"



At a kiosk on Mumbai’s scenic Marine Drive opposite the Oberoi hotel,
which was attacked last week, a scrawled message on a poster screams,
“We want war with Pakistan.”



In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, which killed at least 172
people, there is discernible sense in some quarters of Mumbai’s
population that India would be justified in striking alleged Pakistani-
based terrorist camps.



“When we have enough evidence that Pakistani-based groups and
individuals are responsible for the attacks, why don’t we just go
after them?” asks Vinod Pursran, a 62-year-old Mumbai businessman who
joined the crowds gaping at one of the devastated sites of the recent
attacks during their lunch break in this busy commercial district.



Indian security officials and politicians say the attacks, which began
Nov 26 and lasted nearly 60 hours, were carried out by Pakistani-based
militants. While New Delhi has been careful not to blame the Pakistani
government for the attacks, the latest accusations have increased
tensions between the two South Asian nations.



On Monday, the Indian government summoned Pakistan's high commissioner
to lodge a formal protest over the attacks in Mumbai.



When asked about the grave implications of a conflict between two
nuclear-armed nations, Pursran said it did not bother him. “I’m not
worried, not at all, because we have to go inside Pakistan and destroy
the terrorist camps,” he said.



It’s hard to take the pulse of this teeming metropolis and its 13
million-strong, extraordinarily diverse population. In the absence of
opinion polls, analysts are loath to aggregate the public mood. But
there’s a palpable sense of rage in India’s commercial capital. While
the anger is primarily directed at the Indian government’s failure to
act on intelligence to thwart the attacks, India’s old foe is also
bearing some of the brunt of this rage.



The old India-Pakistan blame-game





In a case of serial déja-vu, sabres are once more rattling in this
nuclear corner of the globe following one of the most brazen terrorist
attacks on Indian soil. The rules of the India-Pakistan blame-game
follow time-honoured patterns, although the particular contexts
change.



Based primarily on the testimony of one gunman captured during the
Mumbai attacks, Indian investigators say the militants of last week’s
assaults were trained in an Islamist training camp in Pakistan.



Indian investigation teams have also tracked the abandoned ship from
which the attacks were reportedly launched as well as some of the
personal belongings of the men who carried out the audacious
operations. They all point, they say, to a Pakistani involvement, most
likely the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.



While the Lashkar has denied involvements in the attacks, senior
Pakistani officials have repeatedly asked their Indian counterparts to
provide evidence of Pakistani involvement before issuing incendiary
public accusations.



Islamabad’s position comes as the Indian media, quoting Indian
investigation sources, produces a steady stream of reports of
Pakistani involvement. These include a recovered satellite phone and a
GPS device tracing the attackers’ planned return to Pakistan after
their mission.



Rice to the rescue





Alarmed by the escalating tensions, US President George Bush is
dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region later
this week to try to ease the tensions between the two neighbouring
nations.



Amid fears of a troop buildup along the Indo-Pakistan border, a senior
Pakistani security official warned that a buildup along Pakistan’s
eastern border with India would result in Islamabad pulling out its
troops from the western border, where they are fighting a Taliban and
al Qaeda resurgence in the troubled tribal areas along the Afghan
border.



It’s a disclosure guaranteed to displease US political and military
officials who have repeatedly voiced concerns that Pakistan was not
doing enough to fight Islamist militants in its tribal zones.



The latest escalation threatens to dampen the hopes that a new US
administration led by President-elect Barack Obama would be invested
in tackling the Kashmir dispute, which lies at the root of India and
Pakistan’s six decade-old history of animosity.



Despite the ratcheting tensions, there are several voices of restraint
in India’s commercial capital. In an editorial in “The Hindustan
Times”, a national daily, renowned Indian-born novelist Amitav Ghosh
called on Indians to seize the opportunity to “forge strategic
alliances with those sections of Pakistani society who also perceive
themselves to be under fire.”



Even here, at the ground zero of the recent Mumbai attacks, there are
calls for restraint. Scrawled prominently below the shrill pitch for a
war on the Marine Drive poster is a statement which reads, “We don’t
want a Pakistan war.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20081201-post-attacks-india-pakistan-tensions-mount-serial-deja-vu-mumbai-attacks

November 28, 2008
India Terror Attacks Point to Need for Stronger U.S.-India
Counterterrorism Cooperation
by Lisa Curtis
WebMemo #2146
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.

A New Kind of Terrorism in India

Although the name of the group claiming responsibility for Wednesday's
attacks, Deccan Mujahideen, is new, the group is likely affiliated
with the same individuals responsible for conducting a series of
attacks across the country over the last year, attacks that have
claimed the lives of hundreds of Indian citizens.For instance, a group
calling itself the Indian Mujahideen (IM) claimed responsibility for
the May 13 bomb blasts that exploded at crowded markets in the city of
Jaipur. The IM also took credit for the similar November 23, 2007,
attacks on the Indian cities of Varnasi, Faizabad, and Lucknow.

Additionally, an organization identifying itself as ISF-IM claimed
responsibility for the October 30 serial blasts in Assam (a state in
northeast India) that left 75 dead.Local police believe the acronym
may stand for Indian Security Force-Indian Mujahideen.

Wednesday's attacks bear another similarity to IM bombings of the past
year: Just as, in most instances, the IM takes credit for its
atrocities via e-mails sent either prior to or immediately following
an attack, shortly after the November 26 strikes, the Deccan
Mujahideen apparently also sent e-mails claiming responsibility for
the attacks.

By using names that relate to India, the terrorists clearly want to
portray themselves as indigenous, but given the level of
sophistication, planning, and organization of the attacks, especially
Wednesday's assault on Mumbai, they almost certainly have external
links and support.Focusing Wednesday's attacks on Americans also
further demonstrates the group's pan-Islamic agenda, yet another
strong indication that these terrorists could be under the command of
a well-organized group located outside India.

Information gleaned about the IM from the previous attacks indicates
India is facing a new kind of terrorist threat that is not limited to
any one part of the country and involves homegrown extremists who are
linking domestic grievances with pan-Islamic agendas. Many of the
individuals arrested for involvement in the numerous attacks of the
past year are young men (under the age of 35) with good educations and
lucrative, prestigious occupations, such as web designers, doctors,
and engineers--a fact that has surprised Indian authorities, as well
as the general public. Although these individuals could be self-
radicalizing through al-Qaeda propaganda over the Internet, it is
possible they have received training and support from outside
India.Indian terrorism analysts have yet to determine if IM is a
single organization or a united front of several autonomous groups.

Impact on Indo-Pakistani Peace Talks

Wednesday's attack could have a negative impact on Indo-Pakistani
ties, which--due to revelations of Pakistani intelligence involvement
in the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008--were
already strained.

Although Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has made several peace
gestures toward India since he took office a few months ago, many
Indians question whether the Pakistani security establishment supports
his efforts to improve relations.Without backing from Pakistan's still-
powerful army, Zardari's efforts at confidence building will have
little real impact on boosting India-Pakistan ties, especially if
India believes the Pakistani security establishment is fomenting
violence against India. However, Islamabad and New Delhi did recently
re-open a road between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir that had been
closed for over 60 years, a significant milestone in improving
relations between the two countries over the complex issue of
Kashmir.

The historical animosity between Pakistan and India has also begun to
increasingly manifest itself in Afghanistan, where Pakistan fears it
is losing influence to India.New Delhi has pledged over $1 billion in
assistance to the Afghan government and increased its political and
economic influence throughout the country over the last few
years.Pakistan's ability to maintain influence in Afghanistan
throughout the 1990s stemmed from its support to the Taliban, whose
leadership is allied with al-Qaeda. Other than strengthening ties to
Kabul through stronger economic and trade linkages, Pakistan now finds
itself with few options to project influence in Afghanistan; any
further dealings with the Taliban risk isolation from the
international community.

Strengthening U.S.-India Counterterrorism Cooperation

The massive scale of the Mumbai attacks and the specific targeting of
U.S. citizens should bring the U.S. and India closer in terms of
counterterrorism cooperation and intelligence sharing. U.S. and Indian
counterterrorism interests are increasingly converging, and
Wednesday's attack could help jolt both sides into even closer
coordination with the goal of preventing further regional and global
attacks.

Despite their agreement on the need to aggressively contain terrorist
threats, Washington and New Delhi have failed in the past to work as
closely as they could to minimize terrorist threats. This failure is
largely the result of divergent geo-strategic perceptions, Indian
reticence to deepen the intelligence relationship, and U.S.
bureaucratic resistance toward elevating counterterrorism cooperation
beyond a certain level.The gravity of the threat posed to both
countries from terrorists in the region require New Delhi and
Washington to overcome past suspicions and recognize that they both
stand to gain considerably from stepping up their cooperation.

To some degree, intelligence cooperation between New Delhi and
Washington may already be improving. For example, Indian media reports
indicate that the U.S. possessed intelligence information related to
the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that it shared with the
Indian government weeks before the attack occurred.Unfortunately, U.S.-
India intelligence sharing was unable to prevent this horrific attack,
but there may be future opportunities for the U.S. and India to assist
each other in preventing Taliban and al-Qaeda attacks against both
coalition forces and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

Toward a Mutually Beneficial Relationship

Washington and New Delhi will both benefit by pooling their
counterterrorism expertise and increasing joint activities to address
regional and global terrorist threats.Since 90 percent of
counterterrorism is about intelligence, Washington and New Delhi
should focus on breaking down barriers to intelligence sharing. But to
take full advantage of the opportunities for enhancing Indo-U.S.
counterterrorism coordination, both sides will have to work on
enhancing trust and confidence in each other's counterterrorism
strategies.Each nation will have to increase their understanding of
the other's core national security interests that drive their
respective counterterrorism objectives while demonstrating that
pre-9/11 regional narratives on the issue are no longer relevant.

Lisa Curtis is Senior Research Fellow for South Asia in the Asian
Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm2146.cfm
December 2, 2008

Was The Real Target Indo-Pak Peace?Peter Brookes




In the wake of the terror attacks that killed more than 180 people
(including at least six Americans) and wounded another 300 in Mumbai,
India, last week, the burning question is: Who done it - and why?

It's still speculative, but most fingers are pointing toward Pakistan
and such terrorist groups as Lashkar e Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish e
Mohammed (JeM).

Yes, the attacks could've been homegrown. India is home to more than
150 million Muslims, including several active Islamist terror groups -
one of which claimed responsibility for the attack early on. But few
believe these indigenous groups could've pulled off such a well-
coordinated, sustained assault without outside assistance from a
highly capable foreign organization.

Some have mentioned al Qaeda because of the attack's relative
sophistication - and the simultaneity of the numerous strikes across
Mumbai, India's financial and (Bollywood) entertainment center.

The Indians claim al Qaeda doesn't exist in their country, and the
lack of suicide bombers lends credence to the idea it wasn't Osama's
cronies. Yet his direction or inspiration for an attack can't be ruled
out - many of the suspect groups have al Qaeda ties.

Which leads us back to the notion the attacks were orchestrated by the
likes of LeT and JeM.

In fact, the early investigation in Mumbai is focusing on a ship that
may have carried the attackers from Pakistan to the waterfront near
the Taj Mahal Hotel, one of their targets.

If it's a pack of Pakistanis, their likeliest motive was the disputed
territory of Kashmir, which India has held but Pakistan has also laid
claim to since the two nations divided on gaining independence from
Britain in 1947.

Kashmir has driven Islamabad and New Delhi to become enemies, leading
to three wars and propelling both to become nuclear-weapons states in
1998.

Regaining Kashmir is the goal of LeT and JeM, which have attacked
India repeatedly - including a strike against the federal parliament,
which nearly brought India and Pakistan to blows again in 2002. Both
groups were established by Pakistani intelligence - the roguish ISI -
to destabilize India and create pressure for concessions on Kashmir.
(Islamabad has denied any government involvement this time.)

Indeed, the motivation for these strikes could be putting the kibosh
on improving Indo-Pakistani relations under new Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari (the widower of the slain pol Benazir Bhutto).

He has been making peace overtures to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, hoping to improve economic and trade ties between the two South
Asian giants to help Pakistan's struggling economy. This led LeT's
founder to say Zardari was growing too "dovish" on India. Zardari may
have also added fuel to the fire by referring to Kashmiri resistance
groups as "terrorists" rather than freedom fighters.

Thus, the terrorists may have felt the need to halt any improvement in
New Delhi-Islamabad ties, especially if it prevents Pakistan from
giving up the Kashmir struggle. They'd likely find some terror groups,
such as Indian Mujahedeen, willing to assist with such an effort.

Another attack on India with even a whiff of Pakistani government
involvement would kill any chance of better relations - and maintain
the terrorists' leverage over Pakistani policies.

If there's any glint of hopeful news, it's that Islamabad may finally
take tougher steps to rein in JeM and LeT. (We've already seen some
improved efforts recently against the Taliban and al Qaeda in the
tribal areas near Afghanistan.)

Zardari's offer of full cooperation with India may help restabilize
relations between the neighbors. The early challenge is a possible
Indian military response against Pakistani interests, which could lead
to escalation.

The tragedy also provides Washington an opportunity for greater
counterterror cooperation with both Islamabad and New Delhi - an idea
both may be open to now. That step would make us all safer.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Peter Brookes is a
Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation
and is a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission. Feedback: editoria...@familysecuritymatters.org.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1906/pub_detail.asp














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&nbsp;gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551


palashcbiswas,
&nbsp;gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551


Palash Biswas





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