Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Investigators: Mumbai jihadists trained in Pakistan

Temperatures rising. "Mumbai gunmen trained in Pakistan-investigators," by Krittivas Mukherjee for Reuters, December 1 (thanks to all who sent this in):

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian investigators said on Monday the militants who attacked Mumbai had months of commando training in Pakistan, raising the risk of heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors as recriminations mounted at home. The fallout prompted a second top politician from the ruling Congress party to resign, amid growing fury at intelligence lapses many Indians believe let 10 Islamist gunmen kill 183 people and besiege India's financial capital for three days....

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect (from Pakistan)," Rice told reporters traveling with her to London....

Good luck with that.

"This is a different relationship than it was a number of years ago. Obviously they share a common enemy because extremists in any form are a threat to the Pakistanis as well as the Indians," Rice said.

Yeah, sure, that's it.

A team from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was in Mumbai on Monday to help with the probe into the attacks, in which six Americans died, an embassy spokesman said.

Two senior Indian investigators told Reuters on condition of anonymity that evidence from the interrogation of Azam Amir Kasav, the only gunmen of the 10 not killed by commandos, clearly showed that Pakistani militants had a hand in the attack.

The clean-shaven, 21-year-old with fluent English was photographed during the attack wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Versace logo. He has said his team took orders from "their command in Pakistan," police officials said.

The training was organized by the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, and conducted by a former member of the Pakistani army, a police officer close to the interrogation told Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.

"They underwent training in several phases, which included training in handling weapons, bomb making, survival strategies, survival in a marine environment and even dietary habits," another senior officer told Reuters.

The Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba made its name fighting Indian rule in Kashmir but was also blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 that brought the nuclear-armed neighbors close to war the next year.

Lashkar had close links to Pakistan's military spy agency in the past, security experts say, although the government in Islamabad insists it too is fighting the group and other Islamist militants based on its soil.

"NO ONE ACTED"

India said on Sunday it was raising security to a "war level" and had no doubt of a Pakistani link....

Pakistan denied Indian TV reports on Monday that its envoy to India had been summoned over the crisis, an embassy official in New Delhi said, adding that a planned meeting with Indian authorities was scheduled and routine.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks, saying militants could precipitate a war, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" Zardari told the newspaper.

Officials in Islamabad have warned any escalation would force it to divert troops to the Indian border and away from a U.S.-led anti-militant campaign on the Afghan frontier....

And what are they doing there, except fuming at U.S. strikes inside Pakistan?

Home Minister Shivraj Patil stepped down on Sunday, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he would overhaul and boost the nation's counter-terrorism capabilities....

"We have a figurehead prime minister," strategic affairs expert K. Subrahmanyam said. "There is an impression that the government is weak and not able to deal with terrorism."

Uh, yeah. But join the club. What government in the West and the rest of the non-Islamic world isn't weak and unable to deal with Islamic supremacism in all its forms, including the stealth jihad?

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