Some questions are worth asking. And why were Jews targettted?
The Bombay attack was carried out on 26 November 2008. The Indian government forces counter-attacked. Mopping up carried on for a few days after. The guerrillas are Islamics and seem to be Pakistani rather than Indian. See Deccan Mujahideen on the point. Kashmiris are the other group with a cause although one would expect them to be annoyed with the Indian government rather than Westerners. One objective was killing Brits, Americans and Jews. Given that Israel used the American and British armies to invade Iraq and steal oil for them one can see the point. In fact they got far more locals than foreigners, around 110 out of 130 dead and 370 wounded in total. The Israelis only lost five but that doesn't stop them whining about it. If they didn't cause problems we would all be able to get on with our lives.
The main stream media de-emphasized the allegation that four of the men were 'British'. They were having fun abusing the BNP. Admitting that they were right about immigrants is not on their agenda. Nor is the truth.
The Indian response was reasonably effective. Their weapons are a mixed lot. Lee-Enfields date from the Raj, serving long and well. The L1A1 SLR is more recent, using the 7.62x51 NATO round. It works; that is not a rumour. Others had the AK74 Russian rifle which uses the smaller 5.45 mm round. It does not give the confidence of the older, 7.62 cartridge.
PS Reports were written at the time and wrong.
The later versions were based on fuller information. I have not changed the
older articles. It now seems that they were Pakistani rather than 'Brits' or
there has been a cover up.
Some questions are worth asking. And why were Jews targettted?
Security Analysis From Bruce Schneier [15 December 2008 ]
QUOTE
I'm still reading about the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and I expect it'll be a long time before we get a lot of the details. What we know is horrific, and my sympathy goes out to the survivors of the dead (and the injured, who often seem to get ignored as people focus on death tolls). Without discounting the awfulness of the events, I have some initial observations:* Low-tech is very effective. Movie-plot threats -- terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists with biological agents, terrorists targeting our water supplies -- might be what people worry about, but a bunch of trained (we don't really know yet what sort of training they had, but it's clear that they had some) men with guns and grenades is all they needed.
* At the same time, the attacks had a surprisingly low body count. I can't find exact numbers, but it seems there were about 18 terrorists. The latest toll is 195 dead, 235 wounded. That's 11 dead, 13 wounded, per terrorist. As horrible as the reality is, that's much less than you might have thought if you imagined the movie in your head. Reality is different from the movies.
* Even so, terrorism is rare. If a bunch of men with guns and grenades is all they really need, then why isn't this sort of terrorism more common? Why not in the U.S., where it's easy to get hold of weapons? It's because terrorism is very, very rare.
* Specific countermeasures don't help against these attacks. None of the high-priced countermeasures that defend against specific tactics and specific targets made, or would have made, any difference: photo ID checks, confiscating liquids at airports, fingerprinting foreigners at the border, bag screening on public transportation, anything. Even metal detectors and threat warnings didn't do any good.
If there's any lesson in these attacks, it's not to focus too much on the specifics of the attacks. Of course, that's not the way we're programmed to think. We respond to stories, not analysis. I don't mean to be unsympathetic; this tendency is human and these deaths are really tragic. But 18 armed people intent on killing lots of innocents will be able to do just that, and last-line-of-defense countermeasures won't be able to stop them. Intelligence, investigation, and emergency response. We have to find and stop the terrorists before they attack, and deal with the aftermath of the attacks we don't stop. There really is no other way, and I hope that we don't let the tragedy lead us into unwise decisions about how to deal with terrorism.
UNQUOTE
Actually they did quite well; about 19 kills each. Bruce is right about the lack of useful counter-measures. Politicians use this sort of thing as an excuse to increase their power.
Mumbai Media Message [11 December 2008 ]
QUOTE
Shortly after the London Tube bombings in 2005, a reader of Tim Blair, The Sydney Daily Telegraph's columnar wag, sent him a note-perfect parody of a typical newspaper headline -- “British Muslims fear repercussions over tomorrow's train bombing.” Indeed. And so it goes. This time round - Bombay - it was the Associated Press that filed a story about how Muslims “found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion.”Oh, I don't know about that. In fact, you would be hard-pressed from most news reports to figure out the bloodshed was “linked” to any religion, least of all one beginning with “I” and ending in “slam.” In the three years since those British bombings, the media have more or less entirely abandoned the offending formulations - “Islamic terrorists,” “Muslim extremists” - and by the time of the assault on Bombay found it easier just to call the alleged perpetrators “militants” or “gunmen” or “teenage gunmen,” as in the opening line of this report in The Australian: “An Adelaide woman in India for her wedding is lucky to be alive after teenage gunmen ran amok.” Kids today, eh? Always running amok in an aimless fashion.
The veteran British TV anchor Jon Snow, on the other hand, opted for the more cryptic locution “practitioners.” “Practitioners” of what, exactly? Hard to say. And getting harder. For the Wall Street Journal, Tom Gross produced a jaw-dropping round-up of Bombay media coverage: The discovery that, for the first time in an Indian terrorist atrocity, Jews had been attacked, tortured and killed produced from the New York Times a serene befuddlement: “It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene.”
Hmm. Greater Bombay forms one of the world's five biggest cities. It has a population of nearly 20 million. But only one Jewish center, located in a building that gives no external clue as to the bounty waiting therein. An “accidental hostage scene” that one of the “practitioners” just happened to stumble upon? “I must be the luckiest jihadist in town. What are the odds?”
UNQUOTE
It is not what they say but how they say it; what they do not say and how. Mark Steyn makes his point and makes it well. I do not quite agree with his emphasis but he is spot on regarding the media as Propaganda machines.
Pakistan will not hand over Mumbai terrorists [ 9 December 2008 ]
QUOTE
Pakistan will not hand India any of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militants arrested on Sunday for their suspected role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but will try them under its own laws, the country's foreign minister said today. Shah Mehmood Qureshi also said that Pakistan did not want war with India, but was ready to defend itself in case of another conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947. He was speaking a day after Pakistani officials revealed that security forces had arrested the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks and at least seven other suspects in a raid on an LeT training camp in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Sunday.
UNQUOTE
To be fair Pakistan is gripped sundry hooligans. This pretty much proves that the perpetrators are not 'British'.
India Has Proof Of Pakistani Spy Agency Linked To Bombay Attacks [ 5 December 2008 ]
QUOTE
Indian newspapers reported Friday that the government had proof Pakistan's military spy agency was involved in the Mumbai attacks, including evidence supplied by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. "The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) connection was clear and evident," the Times of India quoted Indian intelligence sources as saying. The ISI is Pakistan's main spy agency.......... At least 171 people were killed in the attacks last week in Mumbai. Nine of the attackers were killed while one is being interrogated. The detained man told investigators he had attended four training camps in Pakistan over the past 18 months, Mail Today newspaper said.
UNQUOTE
The Israelis know a lot about terrorism and how to do it. The Lavon Affair was one they fouled up. The USS Liberty Massacre was one they got away with.
Israelis And Jews Were Targeted Says Prisoner [ 1 December 2008 ]
QUOTE
Muslim terrorist Asam Kasab, 21, the only Mumbai killer so far caught alive, told Indian police that his group was sent with a specific mission to target Israelis to avenge the Palestinians.
UNQUOTE
That sounds entirely reasonable to me. They had a modest success but then there are not that many of them in one place.
Bombay Terrorists Told to 'Kill Whites, Especially British and Americans' [ 30 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
The sole surviving terrorist of the Mumbai attacks has told interrogators that he was instructed to “kill whites, especially British and American tourists” before taking hostages. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people. Surviving the massacre after trying to flee, the Pakistani-born terrorist has made a full confession to police. He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages.............At least 22 foreigners are known to have died, including victims from Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy, Singapore, Thailand and France. It is expected that the final death toll will be over 300. Claims that up to seven of the terrorists could have been British men of Pakistani origin, who had connections to West Yorkshire, were being widely discounted.
UNQUOTE
The BNP did a decent summary of the job.
10 Men Did The Attack With Kalashnikovs And Pistols Say Police [ 30 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
The city crime branch probing the terror attack on Saturday confirmed that only 10 terrorists had entered the city just an hour before the hostage drama unfolded on November 26. While nine of them were killed in encounter, a 21-year-old was captured alive. Arms and ammunition brought in by the terrorists was enough to kill around 5,000 people, said police. Cops officially put toll at 162, including 18 foreign nationals. The arrested terrorist, Ajmal Mohammed Amir Kasab, resident of Faridkot village in Pakistani Punjab's Ukada district, told investigators all the terrorists had come from Karachi, police said.
They had come in a ship and used a boat to come to the shore, said the police. "Four Indians were already on the boat and the terrorists killed three of them while they used one, Amar Narayan, to handle the boat. When the boat was just three nautical miles away from shore, they slit Narayan's throat and dumped his body in the trawler. They then used their own skill to come to shore." "After landing at Fish Market at Cuffe Parade near Colaba, they formed four groups and hired taxis to reach to their destinations. A group of two young terrorists entered Hotel Oberoi, four into Hotel Taj Mahal, two stormed into Nariman House while the rest entered the CST railway station from its mail trains' gate. Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police, crime branch.
UNQUOTE
That is the official position and sounds about right. Their escape plan was not really thought through.
Jews Targeted By Pakistanis In India [ 30 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
The terrorists knew who they were targeting. Nariman House in Colaba is the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Jews. Assuming the attackers were Islamic terrorists, Israelis were a deliberate target.
UNQUOTE
Sounds fair to me. Think of all the Islamics Jews have murdered in Palestine and the Lebanon. The attackers were from Bradford.
Nine Jews Killed In Bombay [ 30 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
Israeli embassy representatives and rescue personnel have identified six of the victims killed in the assault that began Wednesday night across India's financial capital, including its Chabad centre. The Foreign Ministry said nine people - most Israelis, some dual citizens but all of them Jews - were killed in an attack on the Chabad house in Mumbai this week, part of a spectacular assault on symbols of luxury and foreign appeal across the city........ The carnage began Wednesday at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes - the Jewish centre, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. By Saturday morning the death toll was at 195, the deadliest attack in India since 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai killed 257 people. But officials said the toll was likely to rise as more bodies are found in the hotels.
UNQUOTE
Ask why a Jewish outfit was targeted then think how many people the Jews have murdered in Palestine and know.
Indians Not Amused By Israeli Insolence [ 29 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
Indian media have reacted angrily to Israeli criticism of the Indian commando operation against the terrorists who took control of Chabad house in Mumbai. Six of the hostages inside the centre were killed, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka. Israeli and international media quoted Israeli security officials as claiming the operation was risky and premature. Indian media published the criticisms at length, and although there has yet to be an official reaction from the Indian government, local journalists and television commentators have reacted strongly. They accuse Israel of casting doubt on the effectiveness of their 'brave' Indian commandos, and claim that Israel has a bad record in hostage-rescue operations, aside from the successful Operation Entebbe in 1976.
UNQUOTE
Israeli are expert terrorists who have murdered far more than the Deccan Mujahideen. The Lavon Affair was one of their more amateurish operations. The Qana Massacre, Operation Grapes of Wrath and the USS Liberty Massacre are just a few of the more effective attacks. But they have no hesitation about whining when a few of theirs come unstuck.
Jew Says Brits, Americans And Israelis Targeted In Bombay [ 29 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
[ Israel's ] Foreign minister tells press conference............. "This is a reminder to the world. We are the target, and it's not just Israel but the whole Western world. As we understand it they were looking for guests with American, British, and Israeli citizenship."
UNQUOTE
She claims implicitly that Israel and Israelis are part of Western civilization. They are in fact our chief enemy, far more dangerous than Islamics. The main thrusts of their attack are Cultural Genocide and financial turmoil. They used the American and British armies to invade Iraq and steal oil for Israel thereby annoying millions of Islamics and inciting counter-attacks like the Deccan Mujahideen's little operation in Bombay.
Casualty States [ 29 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
The battle of Mumbai was nearing its close late last night after Indian commandos stormed a Jewish centre and took control of one of two luxury hotels where dozens of foreigners had been trapped or taken hostage by armed Islamist militants. But India's victory was hollowed by the discovery of five dead Israeli hostages and dozens more corpses of Indians and foreigners in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. At dawn, 17 Indian commandos abseiled on to the roof of Nariman House, a building housing a Jewish centre where militants were holding five Israelis. Commandos from India's "Black Cat" National Security Guards stormed the building, while snipers provided cover. "It's the final clean-up, we hope," a police officer said. The operations at Nariman House, the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi were to last for most of the day and take the death toll from the attacks to at least 130, including 19 foreigners, with another 370 injured.
UNQUOTE
It seems to have been Indians taking the brunt but then there are a lot more them in Bombay
British Muslims Have Become A Mainstay Of The Global Jihad [ 29 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
More than 4,000 British Muslims have passed through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to security agencies, providing a fertile recruitment pool for the Islamist international jihad. Men from the UK's Kashmiri community have joined groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, the prime suspects in the Mumbai attacks, which have been fighting against Indian forces in Kashmir. Others from a Pakistani background are in the ranks of the Taliban and other groups taking part in action against British and NATO forces in Afghanistan.A former commander of the British force in Helmand, Brigadier Ed Butler, has revealed that his troops had come across British Muslims in southern Afghanistan. "There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places such as Kandahar," he said. "There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands, but the British public does not." Last year, RAF Nimrod intelligence-gathering aircraft tracking Taliban radio signals in Afghanistan heard insurgent fighters speaking with Yorkshire and Midlands accents.
UNQUOTE
Import foreigners; import aggravation, import disease, import crime. That is what Her Majesty's Government do and why they do it.
PS The writer is Kim Sengupta who might reasonably thought to have a feel for the situation in India.
Bombay From A Man On The Ground [ 29 November 2008 ]
QUOTE
It is 4AM in India right now. I am in Mumbai reporting from the ground...... For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. The Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed......... Karkare was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several quarters....... And the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead–gone–the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House–which is the only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels–they openly said that the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one took notice......... It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair.
Amaresh Misra
91-9250305699
UNQUOTE
Mossad is guilty? Perhaps. There is a leap of logic in Mr Misra's account. It seems that five Jews got sorted out there. Were there others? Who knows? He says that there was a lot of coming and going at the place; men with brief cases. Also that they took in a lot of food the day before the attack.
Pictures From The Irish Independent
This bomb was an earlier effort.
This one was anti-personnel.
These hotel guards are armed and serious.
Initiative pays off.
These men have AK 74s not the 7.62 AK 47. One has the safety on and the other has it off so they are half right.
Police with .303 Lee Enfields. They are simple, reliable and effective.
This hotel is going to be out of action for a while.
Journos come under fire.
So do these.
They have SLRs - self loading rifles which are effective and reliable.
The grenade launcher looks rather fun.
Helicopters are a useful way of getting there fast. Traffic jams are suddenly irrelevant.
Snipers move into position. The weapons look seriously useful.
Robert Ruark - said always use enough gun. This comedian understood.
Men in silhouette with Lee Enfields. An artistic camera man was on the loose.
Another well composed picture.
This is an attacker going into action.
This shooting technique is called Spray and Pray; praying being more important because the shooting is worthless. It might frighten people but that is about it. The approach was developed in Vietnam. It didn't work there either.
Bombay - the Aftermath
The attack went in big time. Helicoptering onto the roof and mouse holing are both noisy approaches.
One of them bled a lot. This does not happen with a well placed round and a quick kill.
This is mouse holing for real Perhaps they used a bit more explosive than necessary but it worked. Second guessing is easy. Doing it when it matters is not the same.
The mess is a mess.
They didn't tidy up after themselves.
Schneerson was the head man of the Chabad Lubavitch.
Email
me at Mike Emery. All
financial contributions are cheerfully accepted. If you want to keep
it private, use my PGP Key. Home
Page
