German bakery attack was hurriedly planned: IB

German bakery attack was hurriedly planned: IB

Investigations into the blast that went off in a popular locality in Pune on Saturday night have revealed that the German bakery, where the attack took place, was not the first choice of terrorists.

Members of the Indian Mujahideen [ Images ], who are reportedly being blamed for the attack, had first planned on carrying out a strike at the Chabhad House and the Osho Ashram in Pune.

Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com that Pune was on alert and that several alerts had been issued in the past couple of months to the Maharashtra [ Images ] government and the state police regarding a possible terror strike in the city.

The intelligence alert that was received first was that terror outfits would target Chabhad House and Osho Ashram since there were many foreigners in these places and terror groups would be trying to get international attention.

However, the plans were changed at the last minute, as they were not able to intercept these places. Based on the advisories and the alerts that were issued, the security in these two places was beefed up.

IB sources say that it is very clear that they were looking for places, which had a large number of foreigners and hence they decided to target the German bakery.

While conducting the reccee of these places, the operatives realised that there was no way in which they could access the Chabhad House of the Osho Ashram. However, there was no particular intel on the German bakery and hence this was the easiest target for them to attack.

The IB further adds that the IM was in a hurry to carry out a strike. Over the past year, several of their plans have gone bust due to police action against their cadres. The police cleaned up the entire top rung of the IM and this was a huge setback for the organisation.

The IM was gradually regrouping under the supervision of Mohsin Chaudhary and Riyaz Bhatkal and they had managed to rope in Shahzad alias Pappu to carry out a deadly strike at New Delhi [ Images ]. However, he too was arrested.

IB officials say that they do not rule out the fact that the IM had timed the attack in such a manner to avenge the death of Shahid Azmi, the lawyer who was gunned down by unidentified persons in Mumbai [ Images ] last week. The blasts took place barely a couple of hours after the lawyer’s funeral.

Azmi was fighting several cases of SIMI [ Images ] and the IM operatives and had made a lot of enemies in the bargain.

If one looks at all these factors, it is evident that the blast at Pune was a hurried operation.

Indian media new target for Radio Pakistan

Indian media new target for Radio Pakistan

While Indian television channels are protesting against the proposed restrictions that the Government of India intends to impose on them following the live coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks on Taj, Oberoi and the Nariman house last November, the Punjabi Durbar programme of Pakistan radio still finds the Indian channels puppets of the Government. Abohar, Feb.4 : While Indian television channels are protesting against the proposed restrictions that the Government of India intends to impose on them following the live coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks on Taj, Oberoi and the Nariman house last November, the Punjabi Durbar programme of Pakistan radio still finds the Indian channels ‘puppets’ of the Government. The fact is that the Indian channels have been telecasting the truth and this has hurt the Pakistan establishment. People in Pakistan were able to view the coverage by Indian channels, which exposed the role played by persons based in Pakistan in the terror attacks. Radio Pakistan has been trying to hurt the credibility of Indian television channels. But journalists in Punjab are not impressed. Kanti Bhardwaj, a senior journalist in Abohar, says: “Electronic and print media of India don’t show or publish false news but the Pakistan authority hides the activities that are being carried out by the terrorists based in their own country,” “Pakistani media works under pressure of Pakistan’s government. They only publish news given by the government; any other news item is not publishedthere. Indian media is the fourth pillar of India. People believe on it. India’s media is appreciated all across the world,” Kanti Bhardwaj added. Pakistan Radio should remember that the Indian print media organizations are about 150 years old. Today, many of the media organizations of the country have associations with international media groups. News coverages by Indian media organizations have found acceptance across the world because of its unbiased, responsible and measured news coverage. There have been several instances where news items mentioned in newspapers or television have been quoted in the Parliament of India. It is rather Pakistani media, which is found struggling to establish its fairness in the world. ANI

OBAMA’S COUNTER-TERRORISM STRATEGY

OBAMA’S COUNTER-TERRORISM STRATEGY

B.RAMAN

The counter-terrorism strategy of President Barack Obama will be different from that followed by his predecessor George Bush. The initial emphasis will be on removing the distortions which had crept into the strategy under Bush in the hope that this would create some goodwill for the US in the Islamic world and using the goodwill thus hopefully generated for enlisting the support of the Muslims in the campaign against Al Qaeda.

2. These distortions were in the form of ethically questionable deviations from the traditional US counter-terrorism practices. Examples of such deviations: Treating the terrorist suspects as prisoners of war and keeping them in an army-controlled detention centre in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and subjecting them to trial by a military tribunal instead of by normal courts; renditions, which are nothing but avoiding the due process of the law by taking the suspects for interrogation to co-operating third countries over which the US judiciary will not have any jurisdiction; and tolerance of practices bordering on torture during the interrogation.

3. By issuing an order on the very first day in office suspending the trial before the military tribunal for 120 days, Obama has made clear his determination to do away with these deviations and make US counter-terrorism practices once again acceptable to the civil society as a whole—- in the US itself as well as in the rest of the world.

4. Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice-President, and some professionals of the US intelligence community had convinced Bush that without such deviations it would be difficult to prevail over a dreaded terrorist organisation such as Al Qaeda. Obama, who does not buy such arguments, expects that there would be opposition from these professionals to his attempts to do away with these deviations. That is why he has chosen for the post of the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta , who is not an intelligence professional, but who is believed to

agree with Obama that such deviations have done more harm than good to the fight against Al Qaeda and hence need to be abolished. A professional as the head of the CIA might have dragged his feet in implementing the ideas of Obama. In some instances in the past too, when there were allegations of unethical practices by the CIA, US Presidents had brought outsiders to head it to put an end to such practices.

5. Implementing Obama’s ideas with regard to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre is not going to be easy. Only a small number of the nearly 300 detenus there have specific cases going against them. There should be no problem in transferring their cases to normal courts and shifting them to jails in the US. But, the majority of the inmates of the detention centre are preventive detenus, who are suspected to be associated with Al Qaeda, but against whom there is not sufficient evidence for prosecution. What to do with them since it may not be possible to transfer them to jails in the US? If they are handed over to the countries to which they belong and if those countries release them, they might once again join Al Qaeda with renewed anger against the US for keeping them in the detention centre. Some of the detenus—-such as the around 15 Uighurs—- are from countries such as China, which might execute them. Winding up the detention centre without adding to the strength of Al Qaeda and without creating new groups of anger against the US is going to be a tricky task.

6. Will the abolition of such practices help Obama in winning the support of the Muslims for the campaign against Al Qaeda? Doubtful. The anger of the Muslims against the US is not only due to such practices, but also due to the indiscriminate use of air strikes in counter-terrorism operations in Iraq as well as in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. These air strikes have allegedly been causing a large number of civilian casualties. In the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, the Bush Administration was constrained to increase the number of air strikes by unmanned Predator aircraft of the CIA on suspected Al Qaeda hide-outs because of the unwillingness or inability or both of the Pakistan Army to act on the ground against these hide-outs.

7. Under the Bush Administration, the number of such air strikes increased dramatically from 10 in 2006 and 2007 combined to over 30 in 2008. Only eight of these strikes were successful in killing Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives. Over 22 strikes proved to have been based on incorrect intelligence and resulted in many civilian casualties. The accuracy rate of the US intelligence is not more than one-third of the reports disseminated.

8. Obama, who was critical of the deviations in the treatment of detained terrorist suspects, was not critical of the use of air strikes. In fact, he has promised a more robust and proactive campaign against Al Qaeda than was, according to him, followed under Bush in order to wipe out the surviving leaders of Al Qaeda operating from sanctuaries in the Pakistani territory. Rules of engagement authorizing air and ground strikes against Al Qada hide-outs in the Pakistani territory are favoured not only by the CIA, but also by the US Armed Forces. Thus, Obama cannot but continue the policy of stepped-up air strikes followed by Bush. His ability to do so without adding to the civilian casualties will depend on an improvement in the quality of the intelligence flow. Will the posting of an outsider and a non-professional as the chief of the CIA help in improving the quality of intelligence? If it does not, the goodwill which Obama might earn by abolishing the deviations might be wiped out by the anger over continuing civilian casualties due to inaccurate intelligence.

9. Obama’s objective is to delink Iraq from the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, divert more forces to Afghanistan and concentrate on the fight against them. His ability to divert forces from Iraq to Afghanistan would depend on the present low level of activity by Al Qaeda in Iraq continuing, thereby enabling the US to thin out its presence in Iraq. The low level of activity of Al Qaeda in Iraq is partly due to the parting of the ways between it and the secular Iraqi resistance fighters and the crushing of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi authorities. Wahabised Saudis constituted a large component of Al Qaeda in Iraq. A decrease in the flow of Saudis has contributed to the weakening of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

10. Will Al Qaeda consider it to be in the interest of the global jihad being waged by it to let the US shift many of its troops to Afghanistan for crushing the Taliban or will it try to step up its activities in the Sunni areas of Iraq in order to frustrate the plans of Obama to shift troops to Afghanistan? To be able to do so, it will need a fresh flow of Arab volunteers. The widespread anger in the Arab world over the Israeli military strikes in Gaza, the perceived US support for Israel in the UN Security Council and the alleged silence of Obama on the issue could help Al Qaeda in its recruitment of new volunteers for keeping the fighting going in Iraq. If it happens, Obama may not be able to delink Iraq from the ongoing war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

11. Al Qaeda and its Arab supporters do not view Obama as a man of change. They see him as no different from Bush and other American leaders so far as support for Israel is concerned. They do not expect any dramatic change in the US attitude towards Israel under him. If they have to hurt Israel, they have to hurt the US. So they think and so they will try to do.

12. How successful will Obama’s counter-terrorism strategy will be will depend not only on how Obama views the war against Al Qaeda. It will also depend on how Al Qaeda views its jihad against the US. Despite the weakening of its position in Iraq and despite its inability to organize any major terrorist strike outside Pakistan and Algeria since the London and Bali blasts of 2005, Al Qaeda does not think it is losing its global jihad against the US and Israel.

13. It may not have had any spectacular gain on the ground since 2005, but it has convinced itself that the economic difficulties faced by the US are only partly due to the mismanagement of the economy by the Bush Administration. In its view—-as seen from its recent messages—- the global jihad as waged under its leadership has also contributed to the economic difficulties of the US by forcing it to spend more and more on the war against it. It thinks it is in the interest of the global jihad to force the US to spend more and more thereby aggravating its economic difficulties. For that, the US will have to be kept preoccupied in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. It has been trying to take advantage of the Arab anger over the Israeli military strikes in Gaza to step up its recruitment and increase its activities in Iraq.

14. The weakest point of the still-evolving counter-terrorism strategy of Obama—- as it was with the strategy of Bush—- is its inability to think of a coherent and compelling response to Pakistan’s complicity, if not collusion, with Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the various other pro-Al Qaeda jihadi terrorist groups operating from Pakistani territory. The present Government of President Asif Ali Zirdari—like its predecessor Government of Pervez Musharraf— is skillfully exploiting the US fears of a jihadi deluge without Pakistan’s co-operation for following a policy of seeming co-operation with the US and covert complicity with the terrorists. Like Bush, Obama too seems reluctant to confront Pakistan with punitive action if it fails to co-operate. Unless and until Pakistan knows that it will suffer if it does not change its present devious policy, things are not going to change. (22-1-09)

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.

Was Anita, the 26/11 witness, grilled in the US?

Was Anita, the 26/11 witness, grilled in the US?

Mumbai: The United States has denied any involvement in the disappearance of Anita Uddaiya, the star witness in the November 26 Mumbai attacks case.

Denying that the US had anything to do with her disappearance, a embassy spokesperson said: “No American agency have been involved.”

Asked where she could have been taken for interrogation and by whom, the spokesperson said: “You should ask her where she went.”

Anita Uddaiya, the woman who saw the six terrorists involved in the November 26 terror attacks arrive in the city, claims she was taken to the United States and questioned by investigating agencies there.

“I was informed that the (US) officers who questioned me about the Mumbai attacks here earlier would take me to America. They came on Sunday morning and took me to America,” Uddaiya told PTI.

“I had lied to the police when I returned home stating that I went to Satara district as the officers told me not to disclose anything about my visit to America,” Uddaiya said.

Uddaiya went missing on Sunday morning and returned to Mumbai on Wednesday at around 1.30 am.

She had seen the terrorists land in a rubber dinghy on the beach at the colony. But when she asked them where they had come from, she was told to mind her own business.

Giving details, she said on Saturday at around 10.00 pm, the investigating officers were supposed to come to her home.

“Since we were informed about Uddaiya’s America visit, we sat with her throughout the night waiting for the American investigators. Nobody turned up till morning 5 am. At that time, Uddaiya went to toilet from where she was whisked away by the investigators,” said Madhusudhan Nair, president of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar slum area.

Uddaiya said four officers were inside the posh vehicle and one of them knew Hindi.

“First, I was taken to St George Hospital to see my husband Rajendra. I told him that I would return home in a couple of days. From the hospital I was taken to airport,” Uddaiya said.

“I was sitting in the airport while they (officers) were showing documents to the officials at the airport. I had no luggage with me. After sometime, I boarded the flight but I was feeling uncomfortable,” Uddaiya recalled.

Uddaiya, who spent 17-18 hours in her flight to the US, said she was told they were heading to America.

“I could not eat in the flight properly as they were serving chocolates, sandwiches and some other stuff. I don’t know how I managed to eat that food.”

“I was taken to a posh hotel in a car soon after I landed in America. After a couple of hours, we all went to a building where I was asked several questions about the terrorists and Mumbai attacks,” she said.

She said she was asked about the terrorists whom she had seen landing at Mumbai.

“The questions were translated in Hindi by one of them and whatever answers I had given were also explained to them in English. Everything was over in two to three hours. I even called Hamid Qureshi (a scrap dealer where she works in Mumbai) telling him I am safe,” she said, adding that she was taken to the hotel subsequently and then to the airport to board a flight back to Mumbai.

On returning home in a taxi from Mumbai airport, Uddaiya said she was confused and surprised at what was happening around her. She said she was taken to the Cuffe Parade police station for recording her statement.

After the Mumbai attacks, Uddaiya had also been shown pictures of ten terrorists but she was not taken to J J Hospital to identify the bodies of the terrorists, she said.

“Since I was unwilling to do so, the Mumbai police did not take me to J J hospital,” she said.

Uddaiya, who deals in scrap, had been living with her husband, daughter and son in the colony of Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai.

India rejects Miliband’s ‘unsolicited advice’ on Kashmir
Pak admits the presence of `terror camps’

26/11 can be replicated in US: Obama

26/11 can be replicated in US: Obama

Washington: President-elect Barack Obama today voiced fear that Mumbai-type attacks can be replicated by terrorists in other parts of the world, including the US and said his administration will focus on putting more pressure on al-Qaeda.

Asked about 26/11 terror strikes in an interview to ABC News, Obama said the “danger is always there” of a Mumbai-type attack on an American city.

“When you see what happened in Mumbai, that potentially points to a new strategy, not simply suicide bombings but you have commandos taking over…,” he said.

“I think you have to anticipate that having seen the mayhem that was created in Mumbai, that there are going to be potential copycats or other terrorist organisations that think this is something that they can replicate,” Obama said.

At a Congressional hearing on Mumbai attack this week, top US intelligence and police officials had expressed similar fears and said that this makes all the more necessary to ensure that those responsible for such an attack are brought to justice, given that US cities are always on top of the hit list of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

“So we’re going to have to be vigilant in terms of our intelligence, we’re going to have to make sure that we are more effective in terms of anticipating some of these issues, and we’ve got to continue to put pressure on al-Qaeda, which is our major target,” Obama said.

“That has to be one of our primary areas of focus when it comes to our international security.”

MSN Special
Terror as it unveiled in Mumbai

Arrested Mumbai attack terrorist’s father speaks up

The Lashkar-e-Taiyba and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa might have disowned him, but the father of the lone Pakistani gunman arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks has admitted that the young man whose photograph was beamed by media across the world, is his son.

Amir Kasab , the father of Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, broke down as he made the admission to the influential Dawn newspaper in the courtyard of his house in Faridkot, a village of about 2,500 people in Okara district of Punjab province.

“I was in denial for the first couple of days, saying to myself it could not have been my son… Now I have accepted it. This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son,” Amir said in his first interview to the media since his son’s arrest.

Britain’s Observer newspaper and the BBC had earlier reported that Kasab belonged to Faridkot and had joined the Lashker-e-Tayiba some time ago.

The Observer’s correspondent had located Kasab’s home and gotten hold of the voters’ roll which had the names of his parents Amir Kasab and Noor as well as the numbers on their national identity cards.

External Link: Crackdown hints at Faridkot-Mumbai link

Reports had said that Kasab left home as a frustrated teenager about four years ago and went to Lahore in search of a job. After a brush with crime in that city, he reportedly joined the LeT.

Amir Kasab, a father of three sons and two daughters, said his son disappeared from home four years ago. “He had asked me for new clothes on Eid that I couldn’t provide him. He got angry and left,” he said.

As Amir talked to the Dawn’s correspondents, Kasab’s two sisters and a younger brother stood nearby. Their mother, wrapped in a chador, lay on a nearby charpoy.

“Her trance was broken as the small picture of Kasab lying in a Mumbai hospital was shown around. They appeared to have identified their son. The mother shrunk back in her chador but the father said he had no problem in talking about the subject,” the newspaper reported.

Amir said he had settled in Faridkot after arriving from the nearby Haveli Lakha many years ago. He owned the house the family lived in and made a living by selling pakoras in the streets of the village.

He pointed to a hand-cart in one corner of the courtyard and said, “This is all I have. I shifted back to the village after doing the same job in Lahore. My eldest son, Afzal, is also back after a stint in Lahore. He is out working in the fields.”

Faridkot is located off a busy road and bears all the characteristics of a lower-middle class locality in a big city, the newspaper reported.

Amir said he has had little say in Kasab’s life since the day his son walked out on him. He calls the people who snatched his son from him his enemies, but has no clue who these enemies are, the paper reported.

Asked why he did not look for his son all this while, he said, “What could I do with the few resources that I had?”

Media reports had said that Kasab’s handlers had promised him that his family would be compensated with Rs 1,50,000 after the completion of the Mumbai mission.

Though mild-mannered, Amir became agitated at the mention of the link between his son’s actions and money. “I don’t sell my sons,” Amir said.

source:rediff.com