Bharat Rakshak

Johann,

It has got to be something more than Arab opinion. Syria has other neighbors. Jordan for instance has not allowed weapons transfers through its territory. Neither has the loose Iraqi grouping. Why has Trukey turned so pro-active in helping at a time when Arabs themselves are reluctant to do so.

LOL shyamd ji, melodrama? Many of us look fwd to your posts!

ShyamD ji

Pls do not take things personally. People call me Yindu-funda-mentalist and fascist and genocider and what not and I am all fine posting away...

You are our window to your sources. We hope that you use our questions/sarcasms as tools to nudge your sources so they start understand Indian Interests (not some RamaY day dreams).

(2) I will say one thing on Islamism of GCC and will stop it. I have no problem with them covering up their wimmen and goats/camels or cutting hands or going on soosai orgys. In fact I love that aspect in them. Let them live how they want. I am talking about their "State" religions and "State sponsored" religion and "State sponsored" religious extremism and "State sponsored" terrorism in their enemy camps. There is much difference and I hope you see it. I also wonder if it is YOU who see only "secular" aspects of your surroundings or it is your sources that are truly secular in their outlook.

(4) If Israel has biggest military advantage then why are they worried about Iran, a small fly that is reeling under sanctions? You also said, earlier, that GCC has the worlds nth best air farse, so why are they so worried about Iran's capabilities, especially given their sunni-munna bum?

(4) I am not moral by any standard (if you want I can send you the board warnings I have received). I want Bharat to brutally suppress adharmic regions and bring all these regions under its direct control and bring their populations back into its dharmic fold. With that clear objective I see your projection of GCC morals (soft-islam in your opinion) as nothing but a virus that needs to be cured for everyone's benefit.

I cant be bothered to add a disclaimer for every statement that my source makes.

He is giving insight into his interlocutors thinking. Its not defending them.

THE prize catch of Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected to be a key player in orchestrating the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, is the result of a covert seven-year Indian effort to appease Saudi Arabia, including an exclusive arrangement to allow Riyadh to set up a “listening post” here comprising agents from its internal intelligence agency.

In return, Saudi Arabia agreed to cooperate and send back Indian fugitives, but made it clear that it would not apprehend Pakistani nationals wanted in Indian terror cases. In fact, one of the pre-conditions for Saudi Arabia to be able to deport any terror suspect to India was that the suspect’s Indian nationality must be proven first.

As a result, Indian agencies keep a close watch on Indian terror suspects moving in and out of Saudi Arabia and activate channels whenever a suspect shows up on their radar. It is learnt that lists are regularly shared with Saudi intelligence to ensure better results. The intelligence cooperation has provided India a credible channel to prompt Saudi officials to act on any tip-off, sources said.

Despite such a system being in place, there are regular setbacks. While India could nab Ansari this time, officials rue the fact that about a year ago two known terrorists managed to flee back to Pakistan because Saudi Arabian authorities stonewalled Indian requests to seize them. At that time, sources said, Pakistani intelligence managed to leverage its considerable influence in the Saudi intelligence setup to beat the Indians.

A senior official familiar with the Saudi files said the success rate is about “one in every four”, although present results are “encouraging”.

The bilateral arrangement also allowed the Intelligence Bureau to station its officials in Riyadh but that has not materialised in reality so far due to inter-agency turf battles and also visa issues with Saudi Arabia. This has meant that India is represented only by the RAW in Riyadh to play the “cat-and-mouse game” with other agencies operating in Saudi Arabia, including a formidable Pakistani set-up.

On this occasion, Indian authorities managed to carry the day after Ansari’s identification had been confirmed. One of the reasons for this was the recent progress made on the bilateral front, especially on meeting Saudi requests on counter-terrorism cooperation after the 2009 assassination attempt on Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the then Deputy Interior Minister.

With al Qaeda targeting the royal family, the Saudi intelligence stepped up their surveillance and presence in other countries. This added urgency to the conversation started in 2005 by the then National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.

From 2009, the number of quiet visits within the intelligence community of both countries increased resulting in a more solid bilateral cooperation framework which allowed Saudi intelligence to monitor activities of Islamist militant groups active in India.

Among the other influencing factors has been the United States, which has leaned on Saudi Arabia to be more responsive to India given the larger security situation in the Middle-East and the “growing threat” from Iran. Official sources, however, cautioned that none of these factors have dramatically changed the Saudi approach to Pakistan in the context of Indian interests. “At best, there is a more calibrated version of a so-called equidistant policy,” said an official.

by FP Staff Jun 26, 2012

SANAA (Reuters) – Up to five al Qaeda members escaped a Yemeni prison on Tuesday as Omani and Yemeni security forces hunted for several other militants fleeing a military offensive in southern Yemen who crossed into Oman, Yemeni security sources said.

The infiltration into Oman, which sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one third of the world’s seaborne oil exports, fuelled fears that Islamist militants may try to set up a base in a region of strategic importance for the United States.

“A limited number of al Qaeda elements managed to cross the border line to Oman in recent days,” the Yemeni source told Reuters. “Both sides are coordinating at the level of the border guards and the intelligence service to pursue and capture them.”

An Omani foreign ministry official, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, told the newspaper “Oman” that his country was hunting infiltrators from Yemen, but he said no arrests had been made.

The small oil and gas exporter is an ally of the United States and Britain.

Separately, in the northern Yemeni province of Hodeidah, at least 23 inmates, including a number of al Qaeda operatives, fled prison, a security official told Reuters.

“They dug a tunnel from their cell leading to a nearby grave yard,” the official, who asked not to be named, said. Saba state news agency said five militants had fled the prison.

Saudi Arabia fought a militant insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which al Qaeda members killed dozens of people in attacks on foreign workers and on government facilities.

Many of the militants fled the Saudi crackdown and regrouped to set up a base in Yemen.

Ansar al Sharia, an offshoot of al Qaeda, last year exploited political turmoil to capture several cities in southern Yemen, before being driven out by government forces this month who now appear to have the rebels on the run.

Yemeni officials have said some militants have fled towards a province bordering Oman.

Last year, the sultanate was rocked by mass protests against corruption and unemployment, which appeared to have been inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings.

Those protests have now subsided, largely giving way to sporadic labour protests in the oil, health and education sectors.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Osborn)

He is giving insight into his interlocutors thinking. Its not defending them.

India got cooperation from Saudi Arabia in netting one of the key conspirators of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal alias Abu Hamza, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna confirmed to Headlines Today on Tuesday.

Jundal was arrested from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport last week. He was traced to Saudi a year ago, but the authorities in the Middle East nation were not forthcoming as he had travelled there on a Pakistani passport.

India was in touch with Pakistan to ascertain how Jundal reached Saudi. He was nabbed after a nearly year long operation by the Indian intelligence. Some very intense bargaining and a DNA test led Saudi authorities to cooperate.

What made matters difficult for India was pressure mounted on Saudi authorities by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). New Delhi produced several documents to establish that Jundal was an Indian citizen from Beed in Maharashtra.

The tables were turned following a DNA test. Authorities in India obtained a sample from Jundal's family and sent it to Saudi and won its support.


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indi ... 02430.html

Can someone help me understand this?
(1) What appeasement India has to give to KSA to get this access?
(2) Who allowed Riyadh to setup a listening post here, where?
After reading this news item, I am convinced with Bji's perspective...

Ansari arrest outcome of 7-year India-Saudi intel embrace

Assuming the relationship nurtured since 2005 (7yrs ago) I wish they, KSA, helped nabbing him prior to 11/26.



Can someone help me understand this?
(1) What appeasement India has to give to KSA to get this access?
(2) Who allowed Riyadh to setup a listening post here, where?

After reading this news item, I am convinced with Bji's perspective...

>> In return, Saudi Arabia agreed to cooperate and send back Indian fugitives, but made it clear that it would not apprehend Pakistani nationals wanted in Indian terror cases.

So much for the great cooperation.

Dalip Singh and Anirban Bhaumik, New Delhi, June 26, 2012, DHNS:

Islamabad claimed falsely that Jundal was their citizen

Pakistan’s double-talk on fighting terror stands exposed with Saudi Arabia deporting 26/11 terror accused Syed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jundal.

A day after the news broke out that Jundal who was present in the Lashkar-e-Toiba-run Karachi-based control room to supervise and dictate through mobile phone the Mumbai terror strike in 2008, the Pakistani high commission here issued a statement that their government has “renewed its offer of cooperation in this domain”.

“As agreed at the highest level between Pakistan and India, terrorism is a common concern and counter-terrorism cooperation is in the mutual interest of both countries,” the statement, rarely issued at the time of a suspected terrorist arrest, by the high commission read.

This goes contrary to the dubious role Zardari government played while opposing for almost a year Jundal alias Zabiuddin Ansari’s deportation to New Delhi on the grounds that the suspected Lashkar terrorist was a Pakistani since he was travelling on a passport issued by them. Government sources said Jundal, a resident of Beed district in Maharashtra, was detained by Saudi authorities almost a year ago on an intelligence input country’s external spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) got. Armed with a dossier prepared by the RAW, the matter was taken up with the Saudi authorities in Riyadh who in turn sought the Pakistan government’s view as Jundal had become a Pakistani by then.

Jundal married a Pakistani woman in Muzaffarabad in 2009, another piece of evidence Islamabad used, during behind-the-scene hard diplomacy that followed for months, to impress that he was not an Indian but their citizen.

But, the UPA government decided to confront Pakistan with the DNA profiling of Jundal with the help of RAW and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

After taking DNA sample from him and his family, it was matched in a laboratory in the US with the help of the FBI which proved that Jundal was an Indian.

In between the cat fight to get Jundal, India also sought the help of the American government to influence Saudis to hand him over. It is learnt that the American government intervened and asked the Saudis to accede New Delhi’s request given the strong case against the suspected terrorist.

Finally, the Saudis decided to hand him over to India. A team of officials, including from the IB, went to get him to New Delhi and handed him over to the Delhi police’s special cell. New Delhi on Tuesday acknowledged the security and counter-terrorism cooperation Saudi Arabia had extended in Jundal’s episode. “Issues of this nature are rather new in the relationship between the two countries. I would like to share with you that our relationship with Saudi Arabia is expanding in a variety of ways,” official spokesperson and Joint Secretary (External Publicity), Syed Akbaruddin, told journalists.

Riyadh has been hesitant to step up its security or defence cooperation with New Delhi, primarily due to its close ties with Pakistan — the country that was blamed as the principal source of terror to India.

Tags: 26/11 terrorists | Abu Hamza | terrorists | Saudi Arabia

After acknowledging the arrest of suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal alias Abu Hamza , government sources on Tuesday also confirmed reports of more terror operatives' detention in Saudi Arabia.

Suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Fasih Mohammad was one of those detained in Saudi, sources said. He is known to have been with Jundal for last 45 days in the oil-rich Middle East nation.

However, Fasih's family has claimed that he was being illegally detained by the Saudi authorities.

Sources told Headlines Today that Saudi Arabia has now emerged as the new refuge and platform for Indian terror modules. The suspected IM operatives get detailed briefing from their mentors about their missions while staying in Saudi Arabia.

According to sources, Haj and Umrah pilgrimage is used as the excuse to take IM undercover agents from India to Saudi. They are then introduced to Pakistani agents to plot terror attacks against India.

The modus operandi allows Pakistan to brief IM agents without them travelling to the neighbouring country. IM agents then return to India without Pak visa on their passports to avoid suspicion.

Earlier in the day Krishna confirmed that Jundal, a key player in the 26/11 Mumbai terror operation, was arrested with the help of Saudi authorities. He was arrested from Delhi airport on June 21 after India gave crucial evidence against him.


Read more at:

Deeptimaan Tiwary, TNN | Jun 27, 2012, 03.40AM IST

6
NEW DELHI: Mumbai attacks handler and LeT operative Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal was arrested by Saudi Arabian authorities in May last year in a case of alleged forged passport. He was arrested on the insistence of the US and was in a Saudi jail ever since even as India and Pakistan fought over his citizenship and custody.

The claim was finally settled in favour of India when it provided voice samples from 26/11 intercepts that matched with those of Jundal's voice. India also sent his father's blood sample for a DNA test which proved he was the son of Maharashtra-based insurance agent Syed Zakiuddin Ansari.

Most importantly, it was the alertness of US authorities, the growing cooperation between Indian and US security agencies post-26/11 attacks and the Americans' good offices with Saudi Arabia that helped India bring Jundal home.

After ascertaining Jundal's real identity as Zabiuddin Ansari in early 2010, India had shared details with US authorities to put pressure on Pakistan to get him. However, by the end of 2010, Jundal fled to Saudi Arabia on the insistence of his bosses in LeT and the Pakistani intelligence establishment.

In 2011, US authorities intercepted some calls that revealed Jundal's presence in Saudi Arabia. Having located him, US authorities then put pressure on the Saudis and got Jundal arrested in an alleged forged passport case in May 2011.

However, the real battle was yet to begin as Saudi Arabia, having good relations with Pakistan, refused to give Jundal to India as he was living in that country as Riyasat Ali on a Pakistani passport. Meanwhile, Pakistan staked claim to Jundal as its citizen and pushed Saudi Arabia to release him. At that time, Saudi Arabia was at best inclined to allow Indian authorities limited access to Jundal. India, on the other hand, wanted his custody.

Thus started negotiations involving US, Indian and Saudi authorities. The latter demanded each contesting country to produce evidence to prove that Jundal or Riyasat was their citizen. This is when India sent several documents including charge sheets filed against Jundal in India, details of the red corner notice (RCN) in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, civic certificates of his family that showed he was the son of Syed Zakiuddin Ansari from Beed in Maharashtra; and finally, the voice samples of Jundal in the 26/11 attacks intercepts where he is heard directing terrorists in Nariman House in an unmistakable Indian accent.

The last one tilted the balance in favour of India as Jundal's voice matched that of the voice of the handler. To further bolster this evidence, about nine months ago, the home department asked Maharashtra ATS to collect blood samples from Jundal's father.

A team under DIG Sukhvinder Singh with men from ATS's Aurangabad unit visited Jundal's home in Hattikhana in Beed and collected the samples. Agencies were so secretive about this operation that ATS was not even informed about the actual purpose of this exercise and was told that the samples were being collected merely to update the RCN against Jundal.

These samples were then sent to Saudi Arabai where a DNA test confirmed parentage. "To counter all this evidence, all Pakistan had was a fake passport. Their case fell through and Saudis agreed to hand over Jundal.

LONDON: The Arab Spring has spawned a new generation of British-born terrorists after al-Qaeda moved into unstable countries and began training potential bombers for possible attacks on Britain, the head of MI5 has warned.

Jonathan Evans said the terrorist network had taken advantage of the revolutions that began last year to spread its influence and create new bases for planning attacks.

British jihadis were known to be receiving training in countries such as Libya and Egypt, mirroring what has happened in the Yemen and Somalia, he claimed.

They could return to attack Britain in what was a ''new and worrying development'', he said.

Mr Evans, the director-general of MI5, warned of the emerging threats in a rare speech, his first in almost two years. He also said:

The intelligence services and police were preparing for potential threats from extremists and ''lone wolf'' terrorists should the eurozone collapse.

Cyber attacks were causing ''real world damage'', with one British company suffering estimated losses of £800 million after its computers were hacked.

There was a renewed threat of state-sponsored terrorism from Iran and associates such as Hezbollah.

It would be ''extraordinary and self-defeating'' if government proposals to give the security services greater powers to snoop on emails and phone calls were blocked.

The popular revolts in Arab nations won widespread acclaim, with Western leaders welcoming the demise of Hosni Mubarak's rule in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya, among others.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, described events at the time as ''incredibly exciting''. But in the inaugural Lord Mayor's Annual Defence and Security Lecture in London on Monday, Mr Evans warned that a new terrorist threat had emerged from an ''Arab world in radical transition''.

He said while events offered hope in the long term, there was a ''more immediate problem'' as al-Qaeda returned home.

Figures published last year suggested that more than 100 Britons had received training from terrorist groups in Somalia. It is feared that many are now attending al-Qaeda camps in Yemen, Egypt and Libya.

Mr Evans offered some reassurance by saying that the tactics and methods of the security services had improved over the years. ''You could say that we are near to reaching a form of stalemate - they haven't stopped trying but we have got better at stopping them.''

State-sponsored terrorism, coupled with Iran's nuclear intentions, raised the chilling prospect of a dirty bomb attack, he said.

even the impotent feels desire, but we are probably on a lower rung than that too...

I am yet to see any shred of overt support for kasab from any indian ulema, no allegations of victimization, no false flag theories.

who exactly is the INC trying to pander to?

^ Beautiful. So we are back to mad-dog and its owner. Now what should the opponent do? Kill the mad dog and leave its deceptive owner OR Kill the owner and leave the dog OR put both the mad owner and dog to rest?

Raise your own mad dog, whether or green or any other color!

as they have colour footage of kasab moving around shooting people from day1, what exactly is stopping conclusion of the trial and sentencing now?

Istanbul (CNN) -- A Syrian official said his country's forces might have thought the Turkish jet it downed last week was from Israel.

"As you know there is a country called Israel there and as you know this Zionism country's planes are very similar and because they both are from the same factory, from the U.S., maybe Syria thought it was an Israeli plane," Syrian Information Minister Omran Al Zubi told the Turkish A Haber channel on Wednesday.

Israel and Syria are longtime neighboring adversaries and don't have diplomatic relations.

Al Zubi adopted a friendly tone toward Turkey in the interview, which belied the increase in tough rhetoric in recent days over the downing of the jet. Relations between the two neighbors have deteriorated during the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The act drew sharp condemnation from NATO, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday his country is changing its military rules of engagement and will now treat a military approach toward its borders by Syria as a potential threat that "will be dealt with accordingly."

Both sides say the jet strayed into Syrian airspace, but Turkey says the incursion was accidental and quickly corrected.
Unsettled neighbors

"I underline that Syria did not launch an attack and I wish that the Turkish-Syria relations are at a better point. The current issue is that the Turkish plane entered Syrian space and it was responded as an unknown target. It was not downed because it was Turkey's plane," Al Zubi said. "We never want to do any harm to the Turkish people and Turkey."

Both countries are searching for the jet's pilots.

"We have no information about the two pilots currently. Our wish is that they are alive and well," Al Zubi said.

Erdogan, dressed in a bomber jacket for a photo op inside the cockpit of a Turkish military jet in Ankara, stressed that his country isn't an aggressor but will respond to it bluntly.

"I express this at every opportunity: we never have our eyes on any country's lands. We don't show a hostile attitude against any country. We never threaten the security of any country," Erdogan said, in remarks aired on CNN Turk.

"We never hesitate to respond in the harshest way and do what is necessary with all our existing power as well as with the power and inspiration that we get from our history, against hostile attitudes, attacks and threats against us."

NATO did not promise any action in response to the incident. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Turkey did not invoke the NATO article calling for collective defense of members.

The NATO consultations were held under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's founding charter. The article allows any member to call for consultations "whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened," the charter says.

Syria raised the stakes Monday in the war of words over the incident.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the plane was shot down in Syrian airspace, disputing Turkey's claim that it was downed over international waters after briefly straying into Syrian airspace by mistake.

"What happened was a violation of Syrian airspace. Even Turkey says Syrian sovereignty was violated. Regardless of whether it was a training mission, a reconnaissance mission, it was a violation," Makdissi said.

He insisted that Syria was the wronged party, not Turkey.

Also Monday, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry told CNN that Syria on Friday fired at a second Turkish plane that was part of a search-and-rescue mission sent in after the jet was shot down. The plane, which entered Syrian airspace in search of the jet, was not hit, said Selcuk Unal.

"There was no injury, nobody was harmed. But that plane immediately returned to Turkish airspace. And through military diplomatic channels we (asked) them: 'What's going on?'" Unal said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it considered the shooting to be a hostile act. Turkey delivered the message in a diplomatic note to the Syrian consulate in Istanbul, Unal told CNN.

In addition to NATO, Turkey also submitted a letter about the incident to the U.N. Security Council. The country made no request for action, but outlined its version of events.

"This attack at the international airspace, causing possible loss of two Turkish pilots, is a hostile act by the Syrian authorities against Turkey's national security. Thus, we strongly condemn it," read the letter, dated Sunday.

It identified the downed plane as a Turkish RF-4 reconnaissance aircraft, a version of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. It was flying alone, without arms, in international airspace when it was shot down, the letter read.

Turkish search-and-rescue teams found the wreckage of the jet in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday, about 1,300 meters (4,260 feet) underwater, Foreign Ministry spokesman Unal said.

I think Turkey is making itself useful to justify its EU ambitions by helping to keep the Arabs in check?

No chance. There will be no invasion IMO as long as Iran and Russia are in the picture.