Monday, December 01, 2008
QUESTIONS IN PUBLIC ARENA ABOUT THE TERROR ATTACK IN MUMBAI - II - By Ghulam Muhammed
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
QUESTIONS IN PUBLIC ARENA ABOUT THE TERROR ATTACK IN MUMBAI - II
- Why Indian government did not follow up so many intelligence warnings and leads about the 'planned' terrorist attack on Mumbai? (Remember the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had declared publicly at Sharad Pawar's birthday bash at Mumbai race-course grounds, that he has intelligence information about a terrorist attack on Parliament; just a day or two before that Parliament attack. Why he did not stop the attack and instead let the terrorists run their course?)
- Why Times of India did not publish a report carried in its own sister publication: Maharashtra Times that the terrorist who killed Hemant Karkare and attacked Cama hospital, were speaking in fluent Marathi.
- Why Ratan Tata was so dismissive of advance anti-terrorist measures, when he told CNN Sunday that the enhanced measures were later eased and, in any case, "could not have stopped what took place." Why such a vast difference between the public and the elites over the mass killings?
- Do Ratan Tata and Gujarat's Narendra Modi have joint plans to undermineMaharashtra's economic status?
- Why Shaheed ATS chief Hemant Karkare's widow refused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's posthumous reward of one crore rupees? Is it to highlight Sangh Parivar's demonisation of Hemant Karkare's role in his legitimate enquiries in Malegaon bomb blast? What the Sangh Parivar had to hide? Will Chidambaram take over from where Karkare left? Will Chidambaram show the same professional integrity or absolve the Sanghi terrorists one by one to cater to the political demands on the beleaguered Congress?
- Why India has first spurned the offer of Israeli help and has now succumbed to accept the offer of US and Israeli covert agencies? What are Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's constraints? Why the West is crowding India?
- Why the British nationalities of some of the Mumbai terrorists are not highlighted by Indian media. Why the Kashmiri origin of the British terrorists has been superimposed by their 'Pakistani' identity? Are British Kashmiris forcing their government to move on Kashmir settlement?
- With so much intelligence information with the US, British and Israel, why their top leaders did not visit India to shake up Indian leadership? Why are they now trooping in with post-attack plans to sell India their expensive prescriptions? Is there any method to this madness?
- IS a solution on Kashmir to be hammered out and forced on India?
- With India's parliamentary elections not far off, is a 'regime change' operation underway by outside powers?
- When will the Indian establishment be confident enough to discard its anti-Muslim crutches that sustains it modus vivendi?
- Will Indian democracy ever empower the vast disenfranchised majority and snatch power from the oligarchs of the minority of high caste Hindus? Has the Mumbai terror attack united the nation or merely strengthened the stranglehold of the oligarchs?
U.S. Warned India in October of Potential Terror Attack - ABC NEWS
U.S. Warned India in October of Potential Terror Attack
NSA Now Tracking Captured Phones, U.S. Connections
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and PIERRE THOMAS
December 1, 2008—
U.S. intelligence agencies warned their Indian counterparts in mid-October of a potential attack "from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai," a U.S. intelligence official tells ABCNews.com.
A second government source says specific locations, including the Taj hotel, were listed in the U.S. warning.
One month later, Nov. 18, Indian intelligence also intercepted a satellite phone call to a number in Pakistan known to be used by a leader of the terror group, Lashkar e Taiba, believed responsible for the weekend attack, Indian intelligence officials say.
The Indian intercept also revealed a possible sea-borne attack, the officials say.
The chairman of the company that owns the hotel, Ratan Tata, told CNN that security was temporarily increased following a warning.
Tata told CNN Sunday that the enhanced measurers were later eased and, in any case, "could not have stopped what took place."
Since Friday, U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking the phones and SIM cards recovered by Indian authorities from the Mumbai terrorists leading to a "treasure trove" of leads in Pakistan and several possible connections to the United States, officials say.
Officials say one of the cell phone SIM cards may have been purchased in the United States but would not provide any more details because of the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The phones also include the same Thuraya satellite phone intercepted in November by the Indian spy agency RAW, the Research and Analysis Wing, which runs an extensive electronic intercept operation.
NSA, the National Security Agency, has the technical means to retrieve all calls made from satellite and cell phones in the south Asia region.
Officials say one of the phones recovered was a Thuraya satellite phone.
"Once we have the number we will be able to know everyone who was called and where the calls were made from," one former intelligence office says.
A US counter-terrorism official says all leads continue to point Lashkar e Taiba, a Kashmir separatist group with strong ties to al Qaeda.
The group, referred to as LeT in the Indian press, has taken credit for a number of previous terror attacks on India targets, including the Mumbai commuter rail system and the Indian Parliament building.
"They share training, weapons and coordinate targets with al Qaeda," says former CIA intelligence officer John Kiriakou, an ABC News consultant.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
"Injustice to Muslims is the foundation of terrorism": Gul Panag - INQUILAB, Urdu Daily, Mumbai
ViaMedia.MumbaiNews
FRONT-PAGE AND EDIT PAGE NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM MUMBAI'S URDU NEWSPAPERS TRANSLATION FROM URDU FREE SERVICE FOR WORLD MEDIA
Monday, December 01, 2008
Inquilab, Urdu Daily, Mumbai
Monday, December 01, 2008
"Injustice to Muslims is the foundation of terrorism": Gul Panag
Gul Panag clarifies her views on Terrorists and Terrorism
Gul Panag dropped an intellectual bombshell when we called her, surprising the nation with her vision and comment on theMumbai bombings. She quoted, "I don't know how my comments will be taken by you but this had to happen and is not a complete surprise. Me and you only take notice of terror when it enters the malls or the hotels. But if the same thing happens in the slums we are ok with it. This is a much larger issue than it looks. Have you ever taken into consideration the Islamic population of India? It's in the region of 18 to 20%. The figures keep on varying. Do you know what percent of Islamic population is living below the poverty line? It's 40%. I am not a fundamentalist but I am looking at a much bigger picture. There are certain segments of the society which have not got its due, whether you agree or not. But if you look at the demographics, you'll understand. Whatever the population of Muslims in India, is that population proportionate and reflect in the jobs of this country? When people are poor and have no where to go, they have no choice but to turn into radicals. I hope my views and comments make people understand the broader picture".
Gul's comment ignited anger demanding an explanation to the above quote. While some demanded an explanation to her remark, others said it wasn't enough, and some even agreed to what she said. One of the replies to her quote on Bollywood Hungama said, "I do agree with what Gul is trying to say, people are just taking it wrongly. Islam doesn't teach violence and neither does it allow innocent killings and mass murders. When Muslims do something like this in terms of revenge, they are called terrorists but when Hindus, Jews and Christians do it, they are called Freedom Fighters". Debashri, one of the surfers of Bollywood Hungama who thinks that Gul's comment was a flaw, said, "It's not because of poverty that some Muslims take the fundamentalist route. Then we would have had an equal number of Hindu terrorists too. I think we have made a habit out of making terrorists look like victims! It is fashionable to side with them. Do we then take out guns and start killing people? No. The trouble is the indoctrination that takes place". Another surfer Roopa also disagrees. She said, "Poverty doesn't justify the birth of radicalism. Many terrorists are rich and come from educated backgrounds (Osama). If people feel the government isn't helping them, it is up to them to educate themselves and grow". A surfer with the user id 'Mamuh' who sides Panag, said, "I like Gul's view (as it) was very much well thought-out and accurate. We can't stump terrorism, until we see the root of it. Injustice like Gujarat Riots or Orissa Riots need to stop. When significant politician(s) turn a blind eye and something drastic happens. India just sucks if you're a poor or a minority".
So when the actress got up this morning and logged on to Bollywood Hungama, she was taken by surprise to read comments posted by users on her quote. This got Gul to write even more. Within 10 minutes, the actress sent us what she thought of the above reactions and many more posted their views on the website. This is what she had to say:
"Poor and disenfranchised Hindus/Sikhs/Christians are not the ones being radicalized. There is no planned sustained movement in place to do so. India has the second largest population of Muslims in the world. Yet their representation in all walks of public life remains dismal (what ever the reasons). A disproportionate chunk of the Muslim population lives below the poverty line. These people are the ones the radicals target as their recruiting ground.
Yes, there are rich who also get involved. The percentage is small. The machinery in place that goes about recruiting these people is very advanced and unscrupulous. They are highly motivated by people whose full time job is to mislead these people. Their modus operandi is to show videos of Muslims being tortured /killed/women being raped, and other forms of propaganda. In Punjab ( I am a Sikh from a village in Punjabcalled Mahadian, Distt Fategarh Sahib), many youngsters from well to do families after seeing their relatives/ kin burnt alive by mobs, tortured and raped by the forces were badly shaken up. Psychologically numb. And were ready when extremists came knocking on their doors to garner support. As for the security lapses, I am sure there are many loop holes. We apart from being a booming economy are also a country of the poor and homeless, (who's primary focus is two square meals). We are NOT the United States, where we can single mindedly pursue security). But having said that, it's important to understand, that not even the best trained force in the world can be prepared for someone who is ready to kill himself. The terrorist wins by not losing/dying (for whatever short period he wreaks havoc) and the forces "lose" by not winning immediately (ultimately they do in a Mumbai like scenario, but not in J&K, Iraq). And how can I be biased? Because I am in Indian and believe that the same set of rules must apply to all? So Muslims who kill people are terrorists but Bajrang Dal/RSS activists who burn Christian homes, rape nuns are "angry misguided youth"?? My father is a serving army officer; he has 40 years of service to the nation and is currently posted as Army Commander Central Command, at the very tip of the army pyramid. He also served as Northern Army Commander. I have been brought up in the most secular way possible, where I have observed at close quarters what the army does for the Nation. And it pains me to read about people pointing fingers at the forces being "inefficient" when they constantly give away their today for us to be able to blog like this, sleep peacefully and enjoy life as we know it."
(Gul Panag is a Sikh from Punjab and is a Bollywood actresswhose recent blog is translated and published by Inquilab in Urdu.)
Pakistan media declare war on Indian counterparts - By Nirupama Subramanian - The Hindu, Chennai, India
Pakistan media declare war on Indian
counterparts
Indian media accused of not demanding for evidence
“They are overcommitted to projecting India as a success story”
ISLAMABAD: The escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks have led to the declaration of hostilities in unexpected quarters – Pakistani media has declared a virtual war on Indian media for its “knee-jerk” finger-pointing across the border, and its unquestioning acceptance of the Indian government’s “Pakistan-link” theory.
Most Pakistanis are angry and upset about the Indian allegations, which they believe are “unsubstantiated”. Even the Indian government, whose highest officials have made the allegation in unambiguous terms, have not come in for as much flak as the messenger, the assumption being that governments will say what they have to, but it is the duty of the media to question.
Leading the charge against the India media are the Pakistani television channels, with panel discussions shows devoted exclusively to the coverage of the Mumbai attacks by the Indian media.
Even on talk shows about the impact of the attacks on the relations between the two countries, among the first questions that anchors are shooting off are: “Do you think the India media should have pointed a finger at Pakistan within such a short time, and without any evidence? Why do we see this knee-jerk response every time some terrorist incident takes place in India?”
OvershadowedOne of the big successes of the peace process since 2004 was the greater understanding and camaraderie between the media of the two countries, thanks to frequent interactions. But the smoke and gunfire of Mumbai has overshadowed even that.
Top Pakistani journalists are asking why the Indian media, more specifically the electronic media, have been so willing to accept the government theory that the attackers came from Pakistan. Top Pakistani journalists are asking why the Indian media, more specifically the electronic media, have been so willing to accept the government theory that the attackers came from Pakistan.
They are dismissive of reports in the Indian press that the terrorists had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, or that they landed in Mumbai in a boat from Karachi. Instead, they are asking why these reports are not demanding the government for evidence of these allegations.
“Too nationalistic”On Dawn News, three top guns of the Pakistani media – anchors Hamid Mir, Talat Hussain and Nasim Zehra – dissected the coverage in an hour-long programme that was aired both on Saturday and Sunday.
Their scathing conclusion – Indian media are “too nationalistic”, “smug”, they told “lies” or at best “half-truths”, “did not ask questions”, resorted to “clichés” and have perfected the art of projecting Pakistan as the enemy.
A similar programme aired on Geo TV on Sunday. The feeling is widespread in the Pakistan journalistic community that the Indian media are responsible for the current tensions between the two countries and for pushing the Indian government to take on its neighbour even if it means launching a military strike. The India media have been accused of not even looking at other possibilities, such as the involvement of an Indian group in the attacks.
The new evidence in the Samjhauta Express firebombings pointing a finger at a Hindutva militant group has come up repeatedly as one reason why the Indian media should have been less “hasty” in arriving at its conclusions.
On the whole, Pakistanis — as evident from public phone-ins to talk shows — are even questioning if the entire ghastly episode was not all engineered by Indian intelligence agencies working in connivance with the U.S. to “defame” Pakistan with the intention of dismembering it.
“[The] Indian media is overcommitted to projecting India as a success story. They are not used to reporting state failures. They are used to reporting India as a country where nothing bad happens, its Army as the best thing in the world. It projects its heroes as supermen, taller than the Himlayas…So the gap between what the Indian media are committed to reporting, and the crass state failure they had to do report [in Mumbai], they ended up filling it with lies,” Mr. Hussain, a top-rated anchor with Aaj TV, told Dawn News.
On the same programme, Mr. Mir, who anchors Geo’s flagship show Capital Talk, asked why the Indian media were not asking hard questions of the Indian government.
“When Pakistani forces say they have killed five Al-Qaeda, when they say Rashid Rauf has been killed in a drone attack, Pakistani media are asking them questions — show us the bodies. But Indian media are not asking important questions.
“There are 500 nautical miles between Karachi and Gujarat, and the Indian media are saying the terrorists came in boats from Karachi. Why are they not questioning the failure of their intelligence agencies?”
Mr. Mir said the Indian media had to take responsibility of the sharp downslide in the relations between the two countries.
At a press conference, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too accused the Indian media of “irresponsible” conduct.
Giving himself credit for having stayed on in India for three days after the Mumbai incidents began, he said he had “engaged with their political leadership, engaged their intelligentsia, faced their media,” to explain Pakistan’s point of view.
In response to his appeal for “national unity” and his declaration that the country must “hope for the best and plan for the worst”, at least one Punjabi television channel started playing national songs from the 1965 and 1971 wars, including Noorjehan’s famous song dedicated to soldiers, “Merey watan key sajheeley jawanon”.
