Mumbai Terrorist Attack-News stories and timeline

[Gus]

"can we keep quiet after another Mumbai?"

Well, what option we have that is new that we did not have for the first Mumbai? To be correct, 26/11 itself was not the first attack on Mumbai.

I guess he has not read the attack on jingopura writeup.

[Raghavendra]

26/11: Indian smuggler had a role
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article ... id=4628794

Mumbai: The Lashkar-e-Toiba commanders who conceived and planned the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai were in touch with an Indian narcotics smuggler in Punjab in the days before the attack and even had two long phone conversations with him through the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) account they had bought for use during 26/11.

The man, accused of smuggling drugs from across the border in Pakistan, was on parole at that time and is now serving time on drug charges in a jail in Patiala, sources said.

According to call records accessed by The Indian Express, the Lashkar handlers had called this man on his mobile phone 9815263211 a day before the attack and had two conversations with him. The first call was made at 17:31 and lasted 465 seconds, while the second call was made at 17:40 and lasted 562 seconds.

Sources said that before the attack, this drug runner had been cultivated as an informer by intelligence agencies to infiltrate the terror outfit and gather information. As he was considered an intelligence asset, the Mumbai Police probe into this man's possible connection to 26/11 made little headway, they said.

Investigators had found that the Lashkar handlers had made a series of "random" phone calls to numbers across India in the days before the terror strike to keep their VoIP account active after an e-mail from their US based service provider said that the account, purchased in October 2008, was not generating any traffic.

This VoIP account, bought using the e-mail id [email protected], was used by the handlers to call the 10 gunmen on their mobile phones during the attack.

Investigations by the Mumbai Police had checked each number that had been dialed from the account before the attack. The probe found that 37 of the 38 numbers called had been chosen randomly while the one in Punjab was traced to the drug smuggler.

"All leads had been followed up by Mumbai Police, and the call receivers' antecedents had been verified by teams that had been sent across the country. When this particular number was being verified, it was found that it belonged to someone who appeared on records as an inmate serving time in a prison in Patiala and was on parole," an intelligence source said.

"Before his arrest, the receiver of the call was part of a gang that smuggled drugs across the border between Punjab and Pakistan, and who had developed links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba," said the officer.

Source: The Indian Express

[Gagan]

I am glad that someone has written in the print media that the government has considered the question of what India's response will be in the event of yet another big terrorist strike by the ISI.

I would hope that GoI has a response and a plan of action ready even as I type this. We have had two years already to ponder on the various pros and cons and we at BRF have looked at this aspect from every possible angle.

The US seems to have calculated that India will not be able to hold itself back and will respond militarily should something similar happen. Various US officials have stated so on several occasions recently. If that should give us an inside peek into what GoI seems to be thinking, I don't know.

I believe that GoI has some plan of action; Inaction is also a form of action, some would say.

So my question to the BRFites is:
What should India's response be should the ISI carry out yet another terrorist strike in India?
No jingoism please, only sane, balanced answers please.

[Rupesh]

A very big cause of concern...Hope they have built up some assets by now.

India’s premier external intelligence agency admitted that it had no assets in Pakistan to carry out such an action. It was explained that India lost all the meagre local support it had in pockets of Pakistan after the Babri Masjid attack and what little was left, was shut down by a prime ministerial diktat during I K Gujral’s tenure.

[Kati]

The Telegraph article on the NY law suit
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101126/j ... 223986.jsp

last para is important.....

[Gus]

A very big cause of concern...Hope they have built up some assets by now.

I have no such hopes. GoI is not even sold on the need to do anything to Pam covertly or overtly. Our policy seems to be to have no active policy and merely react ad hoc if at all we react. Who is going to authorise a policy to cultivate assets in Pak? MMS? PC?

[negi]

Gagan unfortunately there is no so called balanced answer for your question, the same thing was stated when Kargil happened or even when the retard hangout was attacked on 16th December but for every such attack there was a 'next time' so 26/11 happened, now I cannot predict the future but I think based on our actions in the past I think I have a fair idea as to what GoI will do in case another attack happens.

Countries that care about their citizens usually take a swift military action against such rogue states and make an example out of them, yes cowards can hide behind pseudo academic talk and bring out the nuclear issue but I ask them if the enemy is so desperate to use nukes why does it even need to be provoked, TSP can might as well nuke India on any day of it's choosing .

If I may suggest India should openly declare that any terrorist attack in her territory if found to be engineered by a state or it's agencies would be responded with a overwhelming nuclear attack, it's time to make our problem everyone's problem.

[Pratyush]

Gagan,

The response to another outrage like Mumbai. depending upon when it takes place will generate diffrent responses from the GOI.

If it had taken place a month after Mumbai ie dec 08 or jan 09. It would have meant a war. No doubt about it.
If it takes place today or in the future, it will generate no responce other then trigger another exchange of dossiers.

Becaues the pain of Mumbai has dulled to an extent that it no longer resonates with a wast number of people. Efforts to keep it that way notwithstanding. So in action can be justified.

Take it as FWIW.

[SSridhar]

If I may suggest India should openly declare that any terrorist attack in her territory if found to be engineered by a state or it's agencies would be responded with a overwhelming nuclear attack, it's time to make our problem everyone's problem.

Negi, when India is not even going to recall its High Commissioner from Pakistan, leave alone expelling the Pakistani HC in New Delhi, how would it retaliate with nukes especially with its NFU declaration.

For every Indian inaction, there are many sound reasons that many trot out, including on the BRf. Just list out a few minor retaliatory steps that India can take and see the reaction. We fear everything. When pain is inflicted on us by others, we will bear it patiently and for long, but we are generally unwilling to contemplate any action that might result in some pain in the process.

[Pranav]

Brooklyn Court issues summons to ISI Chief(s), Prof. Hafeez Saeed, Lakhvi & PA Officers

No summons to Headley?

[arun]

The following is a first-hand representation of what David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American terrorist in a US prison, confessed to the sleuths of India’s National Investigation Agency in June this year. It was obtained by Dinesh Sharma of Zee News from highly placed sources in the agency and is being reproduced in a two-part series on the second anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks. …………………..

The David Headley Confessions: Part-I

The David Headley Confessions: Part-II

The confession of the Pakistani origin Islamic Terrorist Daood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley explicitly shows the involvement of organs of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in perpetrating the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai.

[Sridhar K]

On the question of GOI options, yesterday in an interview to Headlines today, Chidambaram said that Indian response would be diplomacy and if it fails more diplomacy

[shyamd]

Posting in full

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/716240/

How India debated a war with Pakistan that November

PranabDhalSamanta Posted online: Fri Nov 26 2010, 05:02 hrs


Yet, the Prime Minister kept his calm and turned to the three service chiefs. He asked them whether they had any options in mind. In the same breath, he preemptively made it clear that he did not favour another Operation Parakram. That option was off the table from day one, recall sources. The then Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta chose to remain quiet. After all, the Navy was carrying out exercises in the area when the 10 terrorists slipped in without raising an alarm. The Army Vice-Chief wanted to wait for Gen Kapoor to return before they could crystallise their thoughts.

It was Air Chief Marshal Fali Major who eventually spoke up and suggested striking terror camps in PoK. The Air Chief was sure that his planes and pilots could do the job but the intelligence agencies would have to provide the coordinates. There was no further discussion on the subject that day, but it was also not the last conversation.

So, how close did India and Pakistan come to war? The views range from “very close” to “fleetingly close” but the fact which all key players confirm is that the military option was indeed on the table. It was subsumed by only a larger question of how would Pakistan react?

LIMITED STRIKES

IN the days that followed, the military top brass went aboutnworking on the options. The Air Force, in particular, did go into the finer aspects of conducting a limited air strike in PoK but the political decision-making never moved any further.

However, the Defence Minister did hold a meeting with the three service chiefs after the PM’s first meet. At that point, the Army Chief was asked whether limited ground strikes could be carried out. Gen Kapoor is said to have responded that an operation was possible but he would need a week’s notice and that it would be a “highly risky” affair. He is said to have added that any political approval on this must include flexibility for the Army to respond anywhere along the LoC or for that matter, even the international border. In the Army’s assessment, any strike would definitely lead to an escalated military conflict and the government ought to prepared for it. The Air Force agreed that a strong Pakistani reaction was certain but was not willing to predict the levels of escalation.


The n-threat

A few days later, a meeting was held in the nuclear bunker where the top leadership of the government is to be rushed in case of a nuclear strike. This was not provoked by 26/11. It was scheduled much before the attacks with the objective of familiarising the PM and other ministers of the emergency drill. But in the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks, the meeting could not have ignored the security environment of the day.
...........
There was near silence. Pakistan, by then, had already created “war hysteria” which many felt was unprovoked. The larger consensus was that you could not be sure about Pakistan’s response. It’s reliably learnt that it was this uncertainty which halted Indian strategists from fully backing any military response.

Under considerable pressure to show some response, the Prime Minister had independently tasked Menon to draw up a list of India’s options. Menon did carry out the exercise like a professional and gave an unsigned note that started with extreme measures like a limited military strike to less effective but dramatic steps like scaling down diplomatic relations, stopping cricketing ties, visa restrictions among others. He and Narayanan met regularly, at the PM’s instructions, to discuss the question of options in the days and weeks after the attacks.


Deniable option

In the wake of all the uncertainty over how Pakistan would respond, there was also talk about the “deniable option”. One which would involve covert operatives carrying out a sensational strike in Pakistan or in PoK. It’s learnt that RAW and the Army were specifically asked this question. RAW’s response to the NSA stunned all except, perhaps, Narayanan himself who is among the doyens of Indian intelligence. India’s premier external intelligence agency admitted that it had no assets in Pakistan to carry out such an action. It was explained that India lost all the meagre local support it had in pockets of Pakistan after the Babri Masjid attack and what little was left, was shut down by a prime ministerial diktat during I K Gujral’s tenure.

The Army said it had the ability to carry out commando operations but the government had to be clear what would be the approach if anyone was apprehended. Also, the Army let it be known that it was not sure how Pakistan would react if it found out.

This discussion headed nowhere after this because the ground realities were clear that India had consciously not cultivated this option. Some others felt it was pointless to discuss the “deniable option” because the whole idea of a response should be that the “other side” should know who did it.

...............

After the first two weeks following the attack, the question that overtook everyone’s mind was what if there is another terror strike? Would India be able to hold back then?

Two years later, when asked if that phase is now over, a high-ranking security official remarked: “I can’t say, but I think that the question is still as serious. Can we keep quiet if there is another Mumbai? No, this question is still relevant.”

I think these paragraphs are fairly important in the article. We in BR did hear of many important defence officials having meetings post 26/11.

Ultimately, this shows that India does not want a FULL SCALE war from the start. India was ready for LIMITED CONFLICT, but does not want it to escalate which will prevent our growth.

This also exposes that RAW has no assets in TSP (although looks like RAW is expanding recruitment and wants to collate intelligence independently). Indian ops are pure TECHINT ops.

After the LIMITED Strike option, the Covert option was discussed (which I favoured post 26/11), sadly we don't have pinpoint info or the human assets. So the talk was probably to send army commando's covertly to launch attacks/strikes on the key players. But this relied on RAW's ability to get this intel and be able to support such an operation. By that time all the players would have gone to ground, and locating such individuals would have required high level HUMINT or a lucky break with TECHINT and again HUMINT sources to confirm TECHINT info. So the ability for a Mossad style strike was off the table.

[kmkraoind]

Indian hacker group defaces websites; more than 100 targeted

"After each successful attack, a webpage was created displaying pictures of our brave soldiers along with a highly patriotic Indian song as background music to express our anger. We wish that every Pakistani should listen to the background music and read our message," another member of the group told MiD DAY.

A number of websites of critical importance were targeted during the onslaught. The sites that were defaced include that of the official website of the Pakistan government, ministry of foreign affairs, Pakistan Navy, Ministry of Science and Technology and official portal of auditor general of Pakistan.

[Anujan]

Spain arrests men over Mumbai attacks

Seven Pakistani men were arrested yesterday and one north African man was arrested today .... They were also accused of sending money and fake documents to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the attacks in India.

[Raja Ram]

Much before 26/11 as and when the election results were out, I had written a post here on BRF and on my blog - Can we afford a Policy of Drift?

When I read the express story above, the answer is clear - we cannot. Yet the government has just been doing just that, putting Indian lives and the larger goal that it is so passionate about - economic growth and poverty eradication at risk.

The point is not to gloat that I wrote about this thing or that. If a simple, uninformed common citizen like me can think of the need to be prepared and build capabiliites to protect as well as to act in retribution, why could not the elected government with its vast resources and best minds not do the same.

Is it not incumbent of the GOI to develop and keep ready various options that we can use in case of such eventualities? To not have done so is a remiss of duty - at the least. I hope and pray (more pray than hope) that at least by now GOI has some options should there be another such strike.

[SSridhar]

Raja Ram, as usual, I agree completely with you.

Those who suggest that the best way to deal with Pakistan is for us grow economically for another decade so that Pakistan will disappear as a threat, miss the point completely. Economic growth cannot be at the cost of security. Our security cannot be ensured beyond a point by a purely defensive approach. There must be a component to make the Pakistanis feel 10X pain and retribution and that need not come through punishing military strikes alone. It must be a combination of political, economic, military, cultural, sporting and other people-to-people actions. In the process, we must be able to endure some pain too. We must realize that our economic growth is imperilled by inaction to terrorism, apart from projecting a very soft image of us which is also undesirable. That Indian growth would somehow de-fang Pakistani hostility is a myth that has run its course after decades of its propagation. We must work on the assumptions that Pakistan may not collapse anytime soon and its future postures vis-a-vis India will be only unremitting hatred and hostility and India must deal with it with all options at its command at all times.

Whether Roemer is right or wrong about India never acting in future if it did not act after 26/11, that is the perception going around. No country, except India, has taken blow after blow and yet remained silent. It is no use saying we must have confidence in GoI and bureaucrats when there is little action from them.

If the above IE report were true, it is truly a pathetic state of affairs of GoI. We were not prepared for a reaction in 2008 even six years after a devastating attack on the very symbol of our nationhood, the Parliament. We are still unprepared two years after probably the most horrendous urban warfare unleashed on a country since end of WW II.

Let us recall what P. Chidambaram was promised by Rehman Malik saheb when he visited Islamabad early this year. He said, "India will not be disappointed this time. ". To which, GoI officials going with P. Chidambaram later added, "We are expecting some credible action by Pakistan against the LeT operatives and handlers before the Foreign Minister's visit". This SDRE posed some simple questions here, "OK. What if no credible action is taken by Pakistan ? Will SM Krishna cancel his Islamabad trip ? And, what is Pakistan's definition of credible action and does it tally with ours ?" In the end, our fears came true. SM Krishna went there without any credible action from the Pakistani side and returned much humiliated by Quereshi. It was quite befitting our benign approach.

The IE article truly captures Indian dilemma. We are uncertain about Pakistan's reaction if we mount a commando operation and if somebody is caught. Pakistan has no such fears in its operations against a much stronger, and much larger India. Pakistan knows argumentative India will keep debating without harming Pakistan appreciably. It therefore constantly raises the bar. After 2002 Parliament attack, we felt nothing could be more justifying for an Indian counter punch, but we did not bargain for the more devastating 26/11. Who knows what is in store and a new thread here in BRf ?

[arun]

Wikileaks release of a US Embassy cable on the reactions of Western Embassies in India in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai 26/11 Islamic Terrorist attack to news of the involvement of Pakstani “State Actors”.

For one, the reaction of the UK High Commission in New Delhi:

While there are clear links between the attacks' perpetrators and the extremist group LeT, and likewise, there are links between LeT and the ISI, there is no clear evidence yet to suggest that ISI directed or facilitated the attacks, according to the British High Commission.

Read it all:

US embassy cables: After Mumbai, Delhi diplomats question ISI involvement

[A_Gupta]

Wikileaks release of a US Embassy cable on the reactions of Western Embassies in India in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai 26/11 Islamic Terrorist attack to news of the involvement of Pakstani “State Actors”.

For one, the reaction of the UK High Commission in New Delhi:

While there are clear links between the attacks' perpetrators and the extremist group LeT, and likewise, there are links between LeT and the ISI, there is no clear evidence yet to suggest that ISI directed or facilitated the attacks, according to the British High Commission.

Read it all:

US embassy cables: After Mumbai, Delhi diplomats question ISI involvement

This is all pre-Headley. Kasab and Headley are the two keys that make public plausible deniability mostly impossible. What we need is post-Headley cables to see what happened in private.

[Lalmohan]

post headley cables, if the theories are correct, will be top-secret and therefore not reached through this leak source

[ramana]

Also don't forget that Kiyani was the ISI head from 2004 to 2007 the Headley years!

[Raghavendra]

8 held in Spain for 26/11 link
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story ... -link.html

Police have arrested eight people in Barcelona for alleged links with Pakistan-based terror groups and collaborating in the 26/11 attacks.

Seven of the suspects are Pakistanis and were arrested on Tuesday. The eighth was an African and was held on Wednesday.

The suspects belonged to a group that made fake identity documents, which were sent to the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan to be used for the 26/11 attacks.

They also allegedly arranged funds for the attack that left 166 people dead.

Seven Pak men arrested in Spain over 26/11 links
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Seven-Pak ... 33111.aspx

SER and other Spanish media say the arrested are mostly Pakistanis who robbed passports that were later doctored and sent to Thailand for distribution to groups linked to al-Qaida.

Spain arrests 7 suspected extremists
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12 ... n.arrests/

Spain Arrests Seven Terror Suspects
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

The Thailand-based head of the group, also a Pakistani citizen, was detained there, together with another Pakistani and a Thai national, the ministry added.

According to Spanish police, the group allegedly stole large amounts of foreign passports from tourists in Spain—practically all in or around Barcelona—over the 18-month period during which the group was under surveillance. The thefts were allegedly requested by the Thailand-based head of the group, who asked for passports with specific nationalities and age brackets.

[ramana]

But how are these seven linked ot 26/11. As far as we know the Terrorists didn't come thru formal entry ways showing passports etc but came on a hijacked boat. So what am I missing?

[Varoon Shekhar]

"how are these 7 linked..."

Could have given them money or fake passports, training, advice.

[Mauli]

But how are these seven linked ot 26/11. As far as we know the Terrorists dint come thru formal entry ways shwoing passports etc but came one a hijacked boat. So what am I missing? Is Spain claiming frontline status in GOAT by these arrests?

May be preemptive psy-ops against forthcoming wikileaks.

[ramana]

TOI story gives some vague details:

10 Held in Spain and Thailand

....
The Pakistanis held in Spain were identified as Junaid Humayun from Gujranwala, Atiqur Rehman of Lahore, Jabran Asghar and Malik Iftikhar Ahmad from Sialkot, Mohammad Saddique Khan Begum, alias Saddique, and Tanveer Arshad from Lahore. The Pakistanis are believed to have links with LeT and al-Qaida.

The ones picked up in Thailand were identified as Muhammad Athar Butt and Zeeshan Ehsan Butt. The other individual picked up in Barcelona was a Nigerian ^ Babatunde Agunbiade ^ while the Thai national now behind bars in Bangkok is Sirikanlaya Kijbumrung.

Anti-terror officers of the Spanish police acted on a tip-off and swooped on the suspects in and round Barcelona. They seized passports ready to be sent to Thailand and recovered computer and mobile telephone equipment.

Preliminary reports said the arrested men had helped the 26/11 attackers sneak into Mumbai through the sea route.

``They were part of the LeT's Thailand module,'' a Mumbai Police officer said.

The Spanish police are still in the early stages of their investigations and security agencies in India said they needed to wait for more details.

Investigators in Mumbai believe that these arrests would help them piece together the jigsaw of fake ID cards recovered from the slain terrorists. So far investigators have remained clueless on how they sourced these.

Sources close to the investigation said LeT had taken utmost care to outsource aspects of the 26/11 operation. Documents were forged in Spain. Accounts were opened in New Jersey for VoIP phones and payments made from somewhere else.

During the 58-hour siege of Mumbai, 284 calls running into 995 minutes, were made by the terrorists using mobile phones from the Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House to their handlers in Pakistan.

These calls made over VoIP ^ a cheap way of making international calls. These were traced to an IP address created with Callphonex, a VoIP service provider based in New Jersey, US.

Payments for these calls were made by opening an account in the name of one Kharak Singh from India. In reality, payments were made on two occasions by wire transfer through MoneyGram and Western Union Money Transfer by Pakistani nationals -- Javed Iqbal and Mohammed Ishtiaq. The duo, while communicating with Callphonex, used the e-mail id [email protected].

.....

So did anyone get arrested for the New Jersey VoIP account or was that by Daivd Headley?

[Ambar]

Didn't Italy arrest 3 Poakis earlier this year for 26/11 links as well? GoI shows no appetite to pursue the extradition of these roaches,and for the very reason i expect these arrests to go down the 'Italian' way.

Ramanaji, you mentioned Abu Salem's extradition from Portugal in another thread : GoI had to run from pillar to pillar to get the pickety Portugal agree for his extradition, not to mention the ample rumors that Abu Salem himself wanted to get out of Europe as he felt much more safer in his Arthur road penthouse.

[ramana]

I think all these Europe located Paksi are red herrings or faltu kuttas to throw of the scent from the ISI located in TSP.

Dead trails are spy linked as we know from our John LeCarre.

[Rangudu]

Ramana

There is likely no one in New Jersey. The Italy/Spain module used the identity of a guy in New Jersey (and his credit card?) to pay for the VoIP accounts. I'm trying to confirm this but the stories suggest the following links.

* There's a network of LeT cadres in Europe (Spain, Italy, possibly other countries) that uses travel agencies as cover for jihad funding
* Today's arrest is the third in the sequence - Jan 2009 in Spain, Nov 2009 in Italy and now. All arrests were of TSPian LeT operatives
* These guys were known from the initial days of 26/11 investigations. I'm told that the FBI cyber crimes wing was instrumental in tracing the IP address and internet data and linking it to cell phones and money transfers
* Headley's pal Rana also had links to these guys. Remember that Rana himself as a travel agency and he helped set up a fake travel agency for Headley as cover for his Mumbai recce
* Despite knowing these guys' links to 26/11, the enthu for arrests came after their connections to the Headley - Denmark plot

[SSridhar]

On June 12, 2009, the Italian police arrested five Pakistanis, who were running telephone call centres there, who stole from phone companies around the world to fund Islamic terrorist activities in South Asia. Three hackers were arrested in the Philippines and later brought to the US where a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted them for providing the five Pakistanis in Italy with access to thousands of stolen phone lines. Funds generated from these stolen phone lines were used for jihad. The five Pakistanis arrested simultaneously there were paying these hackers USD for each such hack.

In Nov. 2009, two Pakistanis were arrested in Italy who paid for the VoIP service of the 26/11 terrorists. The leads for their arrests partly came from dossier given by India. The Pakistanis, a father and his son, used false, stolen identities to make the payment.

[Raghavendra]

Terrorist forgery gang broken up in Thailand, Spain
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... land-spain

A combined security force has detained a Pakistani national and a Thai man allegedly linked to a terrorist group responsible for attacks in Spain, according to the Department of Special Investigation.

DSI chief Tharit Pengdit said the two men were detained Wednesday following a raid on a house in Bangkok's Rat Burana district carried out by DSI officers and immigration police.

Another Pakistani and his Thai wife were detained on Monday. They were believed to be members of a passport-forgery gang linked with the terrorist group involved in attacks in Spain, Mr Tharit said.

The couple had spent some time in Thailand and were about to cross the border to Laos through the northeastern province of Nong Khai.

Details of the two Pakistanis and two Thais will be made public Thursday at a news conference called by the DSI. Their identities have not been disclosed.

Seven men were arrested in the Spanish city of Barcelona accused of providing fake identification documents to groups linked to al-Qaeda including the one that carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The six Pakistanis and one Nigerian are suspected of stealing passports and other travel documents from tourists in Barcelona and sending them to Thailand, where they were falsified and passed to extremist-organised crime groups, it said in a news release.

Among the groups receiving fake documents were Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, and Sri Lanka's separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The ministry said the arrests were part of an international operation in which the two Pakistanis and two Thais were arrested in Thailand.

It said that the group robbed people whose ages and nationalities enabled members of militant groups holding falsified documents to travel freely across borders.

"This large-scale operation neutralises an important cell providing passports to al-Qaeda, weakening the falsification apparatus of this organisation at an international level, and as such its operational capabilities," the ministry said.

EARLIER STORY:

Police in Spain and Thailand arrested 10 people suspected of operating a counterfeiting network to provided forged European passports to al-Qaeda linked terrorist groups in order to smooth their entry into Western countries.

Three men - two Pakistanis and one Thai - were arrested in Bangkok, which served as the base for the operation. Seven others, - six Pakistanis and a Nigerian - were arrested in Barcelona in raids late Tuesday and early Wednesday, said the Spanish Interior Ministry.

The authorities said that terror organisations would request forged passports from the group according to nationality and age. Members of the group would then steal passports from tourists, mainly in Barcelona, and send them to Thailand where they were forwarded to the terror groups, the police said.

[niran]

^^^ the atmosphere is full of lil birdies chirping this was made possible after India identified and chopped off the money line which caused a default of hafta to the local bolis and the arrests was made.

[KLNMurthy]

Raja Ram, as usual, I agree completely with you.

Those who suggest that the best way to deal with Pakistan is for us grow economically for another decade so that Pakistan will disappear as a threat, miss the point completely. Economic growth cannot be at the cost of security. Our security cannot be ensured beyond a point by a purely defensive approach. There must be a component to make the Pakistanis feel 10X pain and retribution and that need not come through punishing military strikes alone. It must be a combination of political, economic, military, cultural, sporting and other people-to-people actions. In the process, we must be able to endure some pain too. We must realize that our economic growth is imperilled by inaction to terrorism, apart from projecting a very soft image of us which is also undesirable. That Indian growth would somehow de-fang Pakistani hostility is a myth that has run its course after decades of its propagation. We must work on the assumptions that Pakistan may not collapse anytime soon and its future postures vis-a-vis India will be only unremitting hatred and hostility and India must deal with it with all options at its command at all times.

Whether Roemer is right or wrong about India never acting in future if it did not act after 26/11, that is the perception going around. No country, except India, has taken blow after blow and yet remained silent. It is no use saying we must have confidence in GoI and bureaucrats when there is little action from them.

If the above IE report were true, it is truly a pathetic state of affairs of GoI. We were not prepared for a reaction in 2008 even six years after a devastating attack on the very symbol of our nationhood, the Parliament. We are still unprepared two years after probably the most horrendous urban warfare unleashed on a country since end of WW II.

Let us recall what P. Chidambaram was promised by Rehman Malik saheb when he visited Islamabad early this year. He said, "India will not be disappointed this time. ". To which, GoI officials going with P. Chidambaram later added, "We are expecting some credible action by Pakistan against the LeT operatives and handlers before the Foreign Minister's visit". This SDRE posed some simple questions here, "OK. What if no credible action is taken by Pakistan ? Will SM Krishna cancel his Islamabad trip ? And, what is Pakistan's definition of credible action and does it tally with ours ?" In the end, our fears came true. SM Krishna went there without any credible action from the Pakistani side and returned much humiliated by Quereshi. It was quite befitting our benign approach.

The IE article truly captures Indian dilemma. We are uncertain about Pakistan's reaction if we mount a commando operation and if somebody is caught. Pakistan has no such fears in its operations against a much stronger, and much larger India. Pakistan knows argumentative India will keep debating without harming Pakistan appreciably. It therefore constantly raises the bar. After 2002 Parliament attack, we felt nothing could be more justifying for an Indian counter punch, but we did not bargain for the more devastating 26/11. Who knows what is in store and a new thread here in BRf ?

Taking action is an existential choice--we can live and die without any action at all other than the minimum. Taking any action requires a readiness to absorb the consequences and still prevail. Taking action intelligently requires the skill to mitigate those consequences.

It seems to me that our leadership collectively has developed a mentality of extreme risk-aversion, debating action superficially but shrinking back as soon as they get to level 1 in the analysis where the obvious risks are exposed. I put it down in part to a generation of "selected" and "appointed" top leaders who only proceeded along well-rutted career paths without risky maneuvering and were picked by a "high command" which itself has inherited its power.

It is ultimately a question of character and culture.

[shyamd]

Found out today, Al Hooti, the Omani, played a Major role in 26/11. Press blackout I think.

[arun]

X Posted from the India-US Strategic News and Discussion thread.

Nothing new. The US yet again, as in the past under various pretexts like evidence destroyed in testing etc., attempting to assist the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in covering up their involvement in Islamic terrorism targeting India:

US defended Pak, shielded ISI chief after 26/11 strikes?

The Cable sent by US Ambassador Anne Patterson is available here:

US embassy cables: PRESERVING INFORMATION SHARING

[SSridhar]

We will respond to an Indian attack: Kayani to US
From WikiLeaks,

In a meeting with General David Petraeus, the ((US Central Command) CENTCOM Commander, in Islamabad on January 24, four days after Barack Obama took over the US presidency, Kayani claimed Pakistan is exercising restraint in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attack, according to a US Embassy Cable from Islamabad, released by Wikileaks, a whistle blower website.

"Kayani said he was going to exercise restraint with India, but would respond to an Indian attack," the cable says. "Petraeus said the most important threat to Pakistan was on the western border and internally. Terrorists were an existential threat to Pakistan. Kayani agreed. However, Kayani observed that he had postponed a missile test. The Indians, he said, in contrast, had conducted one just a few hours before," the cable said.

Kayani said he had no intention to resume missile testing as long as the current tensions persisted and promised to be transparent with allies about his plans and had briefed us about his move of 6,000 troops to the Indian border. Kayani said he was determined to exercise restraint in his actions with India. "He recounted that he had taken no action the evening that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had supposedly called President Zardari and threatened to declare war," the cable said.

[Raja Ram]

the above report on leak shows and reiterates two things

(i) the control of strategic assets has no civilian oversight or role at all, Kayani himself admits that he orders missile launches, testing etc. So zardari/gilani have no role in pressing the button

(ii) the paronia/taquia that afflicts the top echelons of Paki military - see how easily Kayani believes that Pranab called and threatened Zardari - either he is paranoid or he is doing his taquia to the US - in both cases he is living upto BR expectations

[shyamd]

Hooti was another Headley. He also played a crucial role in 26/11. I think he was involved in funding the attacks and he probably did the last recce prior to the attacks. Watch out for an article. Not enough attention was given to this angle, too much focus on headley, he is just one of the many people involved.
As expected looks like Oman said no for extradition. He is already in prison for life in Oman.

Keep an eye out for the article.

[SSridhar]

From this Praveen Swami article in The Hindu,

. Late in 2008, Oman authorities cracked down on the Lashkar's operations in Muscat, after intelligence emerged that local residents linked to the jihadist groups were planning strikes in the city. Key among them was Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, son of an Omani father and an Indian mother. Al-Hooti is said to have recruited Fahim Arshad Ansari — an alleged Lashkar covert operative facing multiple terrorism charges, who was acquitted by a Mumbai court, of charges related to the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Interestingly, al-Hooti was in Mumbai between November 9, 2008 and November 17, 2008 — returning home to Oman just days before the attacks. The Oman investigators have told India he called Nawaz twice from the city during this time. Many in India's intelligence services suspect that al-Hooti, who frequently travelled to India, may have knowledge of the surveillance operations that preceded the November 26 attacks on Mumbai

The reference to Nawaz above is to Sarfraz Nawaz. Sarfaraz Nawaz — the Ernakulam man who was deported by Oman authorities in 2009 and brought home under RAW escort. A former Students Islamic Movement of India activist, Nawaz is being tried on charges of helping finance and execute the July 2008 bombings in Bangalore. Nawaz turned to Tadiyantavide Nasir, a Kerala-based jihadist who was in the process of setting up a jihadist group run from a ginger plantation in Madikere, near Kodagu in Karnataka.

[Lalmohan]

that cable provides proof that the whole tamasha was scripted at ISI HQ with the express purpose of creating a war like situation between India and Pakistan - so that Kayani could have exactly that dialogue with the US to maintain the inaction status quo on the afghan front
cold start or not, they calibrated that they could nudge the thermometer towards melting point, but rely on unkil to pour some liquid nitrogen in at the last minute
india denying cold start now is another part of the chess game... what aggression do you paquis fear now? what is holding you back?
ironically, this 'confidence' of GOI not responding is probably making kayani pakistan his musharraf more than any jingoing has
the clock is ticking on the dissolution of pakistan