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Message from the Mumbai blasts: Don't get close to the US
rediff india ^

Posted on 07/12/2006 12:17:25 AM PDT by indianrightwinger

Message from the Mumbai blasts: Don't get close to the US

July 12, 2006

If ever there was a demonstration that cross-border terrorism remains a pertinent threat to freedom-loving people everywhere, it happened on 7/11 in Mumbai, the financial capital of India.

A series of bomb blasts on the most crowded suburban rail system in the world has killed at least 174 people and wounded scores more.

As we recently observed the one-year memorial of the 7/7 blasts in London, these attacks should not be seen as separate from them or from the wedding bombings in Jordan in 2005, or from the daily explosions of violence by Wahhabi fanatics in Iraq, or from the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

Terrorism these days is a 'globalised' industry. The attacks in London were coordinated by a foreign Al Qaeda monitor; those in Jordan by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian operating out of Iraq; those in Madrid by foreigners to force Spain out of the war in Iraq. The London blasts were targeted at the transportation links that feed London.

In Mumbai, the bombs blew apart the world's busiest commuter rail system that draws people to work at the city's centre and takes them back home. The act was geared to disrupt the engine of India's resurgent economy.

A few months ago, terrorists attacked a major institution of technical learning in the city of Bangalore, India's Information Technology hub. Last week, a plot to blow up tunnels that connect Manhattan to New Jersey was disrupted.

A look at the panorama of cross-border terrorist plots in the recent past suggests that there is a concerted pattern emerging out of the attacks which is to target economic and transportation pillars in key countries which have the potential to escalate or perpetuate the War on Terror.

The Mumbai blasts bear the Al Qaeda signature of multiple and simultaneous attacks, much like the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Although Osama bin Laden is squirreled away in a cave along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, it is apparent that the scattered elements of the movement have expanded their training and tactics to become highly adaptive.

Mumbai blasts: The Al Qaeda link

Indian intelligence believes the culprits in the attacks on Bangalore and Mumbai are from the Kashmiri groups Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The head of Jaish, Maulana Masood Azhar, was released by the Government of India on December 31, 1999 along with Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines plane that had been hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Subsequently, Sheikh was convicted of the brutal murder of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl and Maulana Azhar became a vocal critic of the US presence in Pakistan.

Bin Laden and Al Qaeda previously included Kashmir on their hit list to the extent that several Arab fighters made their way there to battle Indian troops. Links between them and groups like Lashkar and Jaish, although now apparent, have existed for a long time, and became part of the global transnational Islamist network.

This also means that, although cooperation between the US and India on security issues is now escalating, it has been necessary for a similarly long time. If the India-Pakistan peace process has reached an appropriate level of détente, why were these attacks necessary?

Make no mistake, 7/11 in Mumbai was not merely an expression of territorial desires by a disgruntled people. The scale and sophistication of the attacks suggest that they were meant to serve as a warning to India from growing too close to the US, especially in the wake of the passage of the India-US nuclear deal.

Much like Madrid 2004, 7/7 in London and the wedding bombings in Jordan were meant to send similar 'messages'.

At a time when methods used in the war on terror are being questioned in the US, the attacks in India should remind us that vigilance across the globe can not be relaxed. The enemy will continue to adapt, change methods themselves and identify new soft spots amongst countries with common interests.

Simple deterrence doesn't work against an enemy that has no borders. To successfully force the pace, democracies around the world must stand together to support the notion that political violence against citizens in countries with popularly elected governments, regardless of the 'justification', is wrong.

Only when democracies reach a unanimous opinion within themselves, only when they can wipe away the last smudge of doubt as to whether the victims did anything to 'deserve this', can a coherent strategy be forged.

It is a sad day in Mumbai.

Manohar Thyagaraj is a graduate student in international affairs at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, and a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bombay; globaljihad; india; indiabombing; indous; jihad; mumbai; terrorism; terrorists; wot
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Only when democracies reach a unanimous opinion within themselves, only when they can wipe away the last smudge of doubt as to whether the victims did anything to 'deserve this', can a coherent strategy be forged.

Think of the Dumbocrats and the liberal loonies in this country and around the world who keep repeating that we all deserve this type of madness......
1 posted on 07/12/2006 12:17:28 AM PDT by indianrightwinger
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To: All

No: the message, continues to be people who believe they can use violence, and can kill anyone for the heck of it, or kill them because they are not 'religious' enough.


2 posted on 07/12/2006 12:22:01 AM PDT by Unsolved Mysteries
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To: indianrightwinger
At a time when methods used in the war on terror are being questioned in the US..........

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

3 posted on 07/12/2006 12:42:20 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (NEVER AGAIN..Support our Troops! www.irey.com and www.vets4Irey.com - Now more than Ever!)
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To: indianrightwinger
I hope that when Indian Military Intelligence catches these people , and they will , that they flay them alive and put it on TV . The perpetrators of horrors like this should themselves be dealt with in terrible ways. Otherwise there is no deterrence at all.
4 posted on 07/12/2006 1:07:57 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse (strive on with heedfulness)
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To: LeoWindhorse

Except the looney Arundhati Roy, nobody may cry a tear!


5 posted on 07/12/2006 1:17:23 AM PDT by indianrightwinger
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To: indianrightwinger

poor Arundhati , so pretty yet so misguided.....


6 posted on 07/12/2006 1:18:15 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse (strive on with heedfulness)
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To: Unsolved Mysteries
the message, continues to be people who believe they can use violence, and can kill anyone for the heck of it, or kill them because they are not 'religious' enough.

Or you are the wrong religion or the wrong sect of the right religion.

Or you have friends that are the wrong religion or you do not observe the obscure tribal practices that through the centuries have come to be associated with religious piety.

Or you have too much modern technology in your home

Or you sell foreign foods in your restaurant.

Or you watch foreign sports on TV.

When you make your self the judge and jury of piety there is not much that can escape you notice that deserves the death penalty.

7 posted on 07/12/2006 1:24:03 AM PDT by Pontiac (All are worthy of freedom, none are incapable.)
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To: LeoWindhorse

hehehehehehehehehe.....

Yes, just like the millions of elitist liberals in this country. :-)


8 posted on 07/12/2006 1:26:01 AM PDT by indianrightwinger
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To: indianrightwinger

I think the terrorists, pals of AQ, misunderestimate the will of the People of India. Retribution for these acts of violence are and will awaken the will of fence sitters all around the world. It was a stupid move by the terrorists, one which they will regret fiercely while they rot in Hell.


9 posted on 07/12/2006 3:50:40 AM PDT by Alia
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To: indianrightwinger

Wait till the hear our reply.


10 posted on 07/12/2006 4:04:43 AM PDT by Gengis Khan
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To: indianrightwinger

The Muslims have been terrorizing the Indians for decades. It has nothing to do with the US.


11 posted on 07/12/2006 4:23:11 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Brilliant

If you don't want to get too close to the US, don't take our money and don't ask us for anything.


12 posted on 07/12/2006 4:27:56 AM PDT by djpg
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To: djpg

At some point, which I believe is long past, we need to go after the Muslim countries that support terrorists. Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia top the list. The President ought to give these countries an ultimatum, stop terrorism or your government will be attacked. Iran is sending operatives and IEDs into Iraq to kill Americans, Iraqis and de-stabilize the situation. This is an act of war. If they want war, give them a taste of war. Pakistan is doing the same in Afghanistan. Tell Musharef and his ISI that the ISI will be attacked unless they stop support for the Taliban and hand over Bin Laden. Tell Saudi, stop your funding of Wahabbism around the world or we'll come in and split your country and turn the oil producing part of it over to the Shia, who live in that area. I think the Shia will become US allies for their own protection.

Bush ought to have been supporting regime-change in Iran since the Iraq invasion. I don't know if he's taking the war on terror seriously. He sure doesn't seem like it.


13 posted on 07/12/2006 5:07:27 AM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Jabba the Hutt's bigger, meaner, uglier brother.)
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To: indianrightwinger

I can't help but wonder if the Mumbai bombing on 7/11 had anything to do with Joe Biden's comments about Indians working at 7-11. I'm staying away from Dunkin' Donuts just in case.


14 posted on 07/12/2006 5:17:22 AM PDT by Riptides
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To: Riptides

That is pretty ironic!


15 posted on 07/12/2006 5:22:09 AM PDT by wolfcreek
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To: Brilliant

How dare you mention muslimes!!!!!
Listen to the MSM!!
It was freedom fighters.
It was youths.
It was Pakis.

It is NEVER muslims!


16 posted on 07/12/2006 5:49:02 AM PDT by newcthem (This is the final crusade, there are only two sides: pick one.)
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To: indianrightwinger

Just read that Hebollah kidnapped some more Israelies. Now the IDF is in S. Lebanon, Syria will be next. The Third world war is at our doorsteps. This time its Asia. I see 3 fronts. Israel and the Middle East, North Korea, China vs Japan and The USA, India vs Pakistan. I wonder how all this will play out in the coming weeks/months.


17 posted on 07/12/2006 6:38:38 AM PDT by MimirsWell (Pakistaneo delenda est.)
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To: Jabba the Nutt
At some point, which I believe is long past, we need to go after the Muslim countries that support terrorists.

Wish I had more time to dissect your post, but I will start here:

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.)

From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.
President George W. Bush, 9-20-01

18 posted on 07/12/2006 8:30:20 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (NEVER AGAIN..Support our Troops! www.irey.com and www.vets4Irey.com - Now more than Ever!)
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To: Jabba the Nutt
At some point, which I believe is long past, we need to go after the Muslim countries that support terrorists.

Ummmmmmmm,

AFGHANISTAN?.....IRAQ?

19 posted on 07/12/2006 8:33:34 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (NEVER AGAIN..Support our Troops! www.irey.com and www.vets4Irey.com - Now more than Ever!)
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To: indianrightwinger
The Indians have been fighting these Mooselimbs longer than we have. I doubt the Islamicists will give India a break depending on the closeness of the US-India relationship.

Unrelated pet peeve. The Indians have not changed the name of their city. Why is it that English translators are using a different spelling for Bombay?

It gets on my nerves that historically set names are changed willy-nilly by contemporary journalists

20 posted on 07/12/2006 8:38:20 AM PDT by george wythe
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