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Sabtu, 29 November 2008
Five Hostages Killed at Jewish Center Americans Among Dead as Death Toll Mounts; New Phase in Radical Islam's War

An Indian policeman took position outside Chabad House, a Jewish community center where terrorists were still holed up at midday Friday in Mumbai.

Indian security forces were trying to root out the last of a terrorist group that plunged India's business capital into chaos over more than 40 hours, killing more than 150 people and taking dozens of hostages.

Five hostages were killed at Mumbai's headquarters of Chabad, a Jewish outreach organization, the Israeli embassy in India said. The building was one of several targets of presumed Islamic militants who launched an unprecedented attack on Mumbai's landmarks on Wednesday.

While the embassy declined to provide the nationalities of the victims, Chabad has said that the hostages there included rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, an Israeli citizen, and his wife Rivka. Fighting at the building lasted into Friday night, with Indian commandos launching a major operation to storm it at nightfall.

First Account of Hotel Assault


Earlier in the afternoon, a senior Indian Marine commando gave the first detailed account of their overnight assault on the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the iconic Mumbai hotel that terrorists seized Wednesday evening and have held onto since.

Speaking at a press conference from behind scarves over his face and head and sunglasses, a Marine commander said the terrorists in the hotel were intimately familiar with its layout and were accustomed to operating in the dark, two tactical advantages that gave the terrorists the ability to engage in lengthy fighting against commando forces.



The terrorists also were well-armed with ammunition, bullets and dried fruit for survival. Troops found a bag with seven magazines for an AK-47 as well as grenades and plastic explosives. Commandos also recovered several hundred spare rounds of ammunition in their assault, which took place overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

Indian army commandos took up position around Chabad House Friday as they prepared to enter the Jewish center to free hostage.

The Taj Mahal had yet to be totally secured by midafternoon Friday and gunfire could still be heard in the area.

The coordinated, commando-style assault on the Taj Mahal was part of a sweeping terrorist attack on luxury hotels, Mumbai's historic central train station, a Jewish center and other targets that began Wednesday night. The attacks were the most audacious in a string of terror incidents to shake this majority-Hindu nation of 1.1 billion in recent years.

Police said at least 150 people, including 22 foreigners, as well as security personnel and Mumbai's anti-terrorism chief, have been killed in explosions and gunfire since the terror assault began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. More than 300 people were wounded.

The dead included Alan Scherr, 58 years old, and his daughter Naomi, 13, who were in a cafe Wednesday night when they were killed, the U.S. State Department said. The Scherrs were from a Virginia community that promotes a form of meditation, and were among 25 people attending a spiritual program in Mumbai; other members of the program were injured, including two women from Tennessee. Also among the dead were Australians, a Japanese, an Italian, a Briton, a German and a Canadian, according to Indian and foreign officials.

 It is unclear how many terrorists were involved in the attacks, where they came from, or how many have been killed by security forces.

At one point, the terrorists held a total of several dozen hostages at the Taj Mahal, the Oberoi-Trident hotel complex and the Chabad House. Most had been freed or had escaped by Friday afternoon, but it wasn't clear whether others are still being held by the attackers.

Gunfire was reported at luxury hotels, a restaurant, police headquarters and a train station.

Indian security forces, led by the Marine commandos, tried to mop continued pockets of resistance and rescue any remaining hostages at several sites Friday.


Raid on Jewish Center

In the morning, masked commandos dropped from helicopters onto the roof of a Jewish center where suspected militants were holed up, possibly with hostages, as sharpshooters kept up a steady stream of fire at the five-story building in Mumbai's Colaba district. The commandos later emerged from the center with their assault rifles raised.

The assault came as commandos freed about two dozen captives from the nearby Oberoi Trident hotel complex as the troops searched the building for attackers.

Friday afternoon, a senior Indian military official said the Oberoi and Trident hotel complex was in government control. Mumbai police chief Hassan Ghaffar said two terrorists there had been killed, and that police had found 24 dead bodies in the hotels. Some people had yet to be evacuated because they were locked inside their rooms, he added.

Credit Cards Found

Describing their effort to root out terrorists at the Taj Mahal, Indian commandos said they found seven credit cards in the bag abandoned by the attackers there. The cards were issued by, among others, ICICI Bank, a big Indian bank, as well as Citibank and HSBC, both of which have operations in India.

One commando said they also found a national identity card issued by the government of Mauritius. The identity card and at least one of the credit cards bore the same name, which they didn't give. In cash, they found almost 6,800 rupees (about $130) and $1,200.

The commandos said two of their force had been injured in the Taj Mahal fighting. Initially, the troops had sought information from a room containing closed circuit television cameras, but had been unable to gain access. They were told the three or four terrorists were on the seventh or eighth floor of the old wing of the Taj Mahal, but then heard gunshots on the second floor. When they rushed toward the shots, the troops came under fire. When the commandos fired back, they were assaulted with grenades.

Staff members removed the dead and injured guests to ambulances Friday morning. About 20 minutes later, the commandos heard more shots and were told by staff that the terrorists had moved to a room in the newer tower of the hotel, next to the old building. The two buildings are connected by a large lobby.
Hotline Numbers
The U.S. State Department has established a Consular Call Center for Americans concerned about family or friends who may be visiting or living in Mumbai, India. The number is (888) 407-4747.
The U.K. government has set up hotlines for people worried about the safety of friends and family. The U.K. number is 44 (0)20 7008 0000. The number in India is (0091) 1124192288.


The commander said there was an exchange of fire "but because the room was absolutely dark and they were accustomed to the darkness there, that made it a little difficult for us," he said. He did not say why the troops didn't have lights. One of the commandos was seriously injured, another received splinter wounds.

"These people were very, very familiar with the layout of the hotel," the commander said, "They knew all the entries and exits." He said it appeared they had previously carried out a survey of the hotel.

Until about 6 a.m. Thursday morning, the two sides had exchanged fire. The commander said the commandos later found out that the room had a terrace and moved to block the exit. When there was no movement inside the room, the forces entered to find it empty. "They probably escaped in the lull," he said. In the room, they found the rucksack, ammunition, provisions, cash and credit cards, as well as four grenades of different makes and a little plastic explosive.

"Obviously they had been trained somewhere," the commander said. He said the terrorists didn't wear masks, were dressed in T-shirts, and appeared to be less than 30 years old.

With gun volleys still ringing out Friday and a fire blazing in the Oberoi Trident complex, Indian officials were just beginning to piece together their investigation. Almost immediately, several blamed traditional archenemy Pakistan.

While not mentioning Pakistan by name, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday pledged to "take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated."

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have both condemned the bloodshed in Mumbai, and the government said Friday it will send its spy chief to India to help probe the attacks. Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."

The scale and sophistication of the Mumbai attacks, as well as the choice of targets, however, appeared to point to a more insidious threat than the Indian government has been reluctant to acknowledge so far -- the potential involvement of extremists within the country's own Muslim community, which, at 150 million, is the world's third-largest after Indonesia and Pakistan. It is also one of India's most economically and politically disadvantaged minorities.

In a statement that couldn't be independently authenticated, a previously unknown group, the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the Mumbai operation, describing itself as hailing from the south Indian city of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was the world's largest Muslim-ruled monarchy until it was invaded and annexed by India in 1948.

Indian security officials cast doubt on this statement, saying that the attacks bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and Pakistani militant groups. They also claimed to have found a boat on which ammunition for the attacks was allegedly smuggled from Pakistan. That couldn't be confirmed.

While independent security experts said it is likely that the attackers received some support from like-minded radicals in Pakistan, they also stressed that such a massive operation would have been nearly impossible without a deep-rooted local network inside India itself.

"It would be extremely difficult for foreigners to come in and operate in this manner," said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore. "They certainly had intimate knowledge of the city. The pre-eminent threat to India is home-grown."

Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the Rand Corp. think tank, added that the modus operandi of the Mumbai militants -- coordinated small-arms assaults and hostage-takings, rather that suicide bombings -- didn't match the signature of the best known Pakistani militant groups or al Qaeda.

"I think it's very much a home-grown attack," she said. "There are very deep and unresolved social justice issues for Indian Muslims. They have a lot of motivation."

India's Muslims are among the country's poorest communities, partly because much of the Muslim professional class emigrated to Pakistan at partition in 1947.

In addition to being disproportionately targeted in outbreaks of religious violence, they are severely underrepresented in the country's government bureaucracy, universities and security services. On literacy scores, young Indian Muslims now lag behind even the country's historically most disadvantaged group, the Dalits, or Hinduism's "untouchables."



While Indian intelligence officials tried to determine who was behind the attacks, mopping up operations to kill or capture the remaining terrorists and free any hostages continued in Mumbai, a city of almost 19 million people.

At the Oberoi Trident hotel complex, a group of people were evacuated Friday afternoon, including about 20 airline crew members, almost all Westerners. Several of the rescued airline staff were in Lufthansa and Air France uniforms, and a bus immediately took them away from the hotel.

One crew member in a Lufthansa uniform who wore a name tag identifying her as L. Laurence said things inside the hotel "were definitely not good," according to the Associated Press. "We're just very glad we're out."

About two dozen people had been evacuated from the hotel earlier Friday.

The Friday morning commando attack on the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions from within the building as forces cleared it floor by floor. Nearly 12 hours after the battle began, Indian troops left the building to cheers from the crowd, but the fate of the two to three hostages believed to be inside was unclear, said Mumbai Police Chief Hassan Ghaffoor. He added that "the operation was ongoing" but in its "final stage."

Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, said they believed there were up to nine hostages inside. Mr. Sofer denied reports that Israeli commandos were taking part in the operation.

The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked.

The gunmen were well-prepared, even carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during the fight. Their main targets appeared to be Americans, Britons and Jews, though most of the dead seemed to be Indians and foreign tourists caught in the random gunfire.

"They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared," said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda, according the AP.

Detailed Knowledge of Hotel

Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal, said they had detailed knowledge of the layout of the hotels.

A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details. The official declined to identify which agency or agencies the team members came from.

India's main opposition movement, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has repeatedly accused the ruling Congress party of undermining the country's anti-terror effort by extending "political patronage" to supporters of radical Islam. The Congress-led central government, which usually relies on the Muslim vote, has earned BJP's ire by scrapping draconian anti-terror laws passed by the previous BJP administration, and by staying a death sentence against a Muslim cleric convicted of orchestrating a 2001 attack against the Indian Parliament.

"People are very concerned about the soft policies of the present government," Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a BJP spokesman, said after the Mumbai attacks.

Addressing the country on television Thursday, Prime Minister Singh promised to prevent similar attacks in the future. He said India will create a new federal investigative agency and tighten legislation "to ensure that there are no loopholes available to terrorists to escape the clutches of the law."

Despite the carnage in Mumbai, Indian financial markets were only slightly weaker Friday despite risk aversion caused by the terrorist attacks, with hopes the broader economy would not be affected too much by the violence.

Stocks, bonds and the currency all slipped but there was no major panic among investors; there was no large-scale exodus in particular by foreign investors, many of whom had already exited the market in recent months anyway.
—The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Write to Paul Beckett at paul.beckett@wsj.com, Yaroslav Trofimov, at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com, Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com and Subhadip Sircar at subhadip.sircar@dowjones.com


posted by intermis @ 03.29   0 comments
Jumat, 28 November 2008
After Mumbai, an end to complacency?


There was a piquant, or perhaps unbelievable, moment around 8.30 yesterday morning: Flames were destroying the heritage wing of the Taj Mahal Hotel, shots were being heard, chaos mingled with shock on the streets outside and a spokesman for the government in Mumbai told CNN that the “situation is under control”. Yes, this might be considered under control if you are in Somalia.

In most cities of South Asia, hidden under the grime and neglect of poverty, there is a little Somalia waiting to burst out and infect the body politic. This nether world, patrolled and nourished by criminals who operate what is known as the “black economy”, has bred, in Mumbai, a community that has contempt for the state since it knows that its survival depends on corruption.


Organized crime requires both sophisticated management capability and the culpability of law enforcement agencies. It does not live in isolation; it has international links through smuggling routes. Once the principal commodity of this trade was gold; today it is drugs. Since it has neither patriotism nor morality, it is easily lured into partnership with terrorists, particularly when it has reason to feel aggrieved.

A good section of Mumbai’s underworld consists of Muslims who entered this space because they were denied a place in the “white economy”. During the last five decades they have developed strong vested interests. They live in a different zone from the rest of India’s Muslims, who are largely impoverished.

Details about the Mumbai outrage are still unfolding. But we do know that at least 30 men armed with AK-47s and grenades held India’s premier city hostage, targeting both Indians and foreigners, particularly Americans and the British. When facts are uncertain, theories become ascendant. Since at least some of the terrorists entered the city by sea — in a trawler registered in Vietnam — it is possible that this operation was propelled from Karachi in Pakistan through the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization sustained by hatred toward secular India and funded by shadowy Pakistani agencies and street support. At the moment of writing, one terrorist has been caught alive and interrogation will, hopefully, reveal details we can trust.



The drama of events, however, could make us miss a significant element of the story. This operation must have taken months of planning: Weapons were deployed, a small army was mobilized, targets studied, routes finalized, transport organized, weak points identified; a multiple plan of attack involving hundreds at the very least was put in motion, and the massive infrastructure of government discovered nothing.

The chief of the Anti-Terror Squad, Hemant Karkare (who lost his life in the battles that raged through the night), received a death threat from the nearby city of Pune and his own unit did not bother since it was busy playing games on behalf of its political masters. Terrorists may have a religion but death has none. In the first list of dead issued by the J.J. Hospital, the name next to Karkare was that of Mastan Qureshi. There were six Hindus, four Muslims and two foreigners, presumably Christians, on that list. Complacence and politics gave the terrorists more protection than silence or camouflage could.

This represents a collapse of governance; these are the wages of the sins of administrative incompetence and political malfeasance.

India is a tough nation. No one should have illusions about that. It has fought off Muslim terrorists in Kashmir, Sikh terrorists in Punjab, Christian terrorists in Nagaland, and Hindu terrorists in Assam and across the country (there is a Maoist insurrection in a broad swathe of states in the centre of India).



India has learned that you cannot blame the whole community for the sins of a few. But under ineffectual governance, particularly in the last three years, a tough country is in danger of degenerating into a soft state. Instead of being the international leader in the worldwide war against terrorism, India is sinking into the despair of a continual victim.

Some three years ago Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rather smugly told US President George W. Bush in Delhi that Indian Muslims were not involved in any act of terrorism. The implication was that they constituted a success story, healed by the virtues of democracy, a conclusion that Bush happily repeated. Singh certainly did not fool any terrorists, some of whom may have read his self-congratulation as a challenge.

I am an Indian Muslim and proud to be both. Like any Indian, today I am angry, frustrated and depressed. I am angry at the manic, rabid dogs of war who have invaded the commercial capital and fountainhead of business energy. I am frustrated by the impotence of my governments in Mumbai and Delhi, its ministers tone-deaf to the anguish of my fellow citizens. And I am depressed at the damage being done to the idea of my India.
posted by intermis @ 08.33   0 comments
Murder in Mumbai


We will learn more in the coming days how terrorists managed to invade India's financial capital Wednesday night, killing more than 100 innocents and wounding hundreds more. But there are already two lessons emerging: The war on terror is far from won, and it is migrating to democracies with weak antiterror defenses.

India is home to the world's second-largest Muslim population after Indonesia, and it has struggled with jihadist violence for two decades. But Wednesday's attacks were particularly brazen. Jihadists attacked at least 10 sites across Mumbai, including two five-star hotels, a hospital and a Jewish center. As we went to press, 101 people were reported killed and more than 300 injured, and an operation was under way to free hostages at one of the hotels. An Islamic group called the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility.

These attacks put India back on the international terror map because they targeted Westerners explicitly. The jihadists reportedly sought out Americans and Brits after they stormed the hotels. Until now these scenes of horror have been inflicted mostly on Indians. Since 2005, India has suffered more than 12 attacks. This year alone, New Delhi, the tech capital of Bangalore and the tourist mecca of Jaipur were hit, among others.

One reason is because India is an easy target. Its intelligence units are understaffed and underresourced. Coordination among the country's 28 state police forces is poor. The country's broader legal infrastructure is also weak; there is no preventive detention law, and prosecutions can take years.

A lack of political leadership is to blame. Yesterday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised that "every perpetrator would pay the price." Yet his Congress Party has done little more than bicker with its coalition allies over the past five years on how best to fight terrorism, as Sadanand Dhume writes here. Or it has tried to deflect responsibility by blaming Pakistan. It may pay the price for its incompetence at the national polls next year.

India isn't the only place where the lack of counterterrorist capabilities has made it easier for jihadists to escalate their attacks. Across the border in Pakistan, terrorists have exploded bombs in almost all of the country's major urban centers over the past year, in a challenge to the newly elected government. In Afghanistan, suicide bombers attacked the U.S. embassy in Kabul yesterday.

Like Pakistan, India's 150-million strong Muslim population is largely moderate and not easily radicalized. But that moderation can't be taken for granted. Islamic radicals have been broadly tolerated in India's free-flowing democracy.

This can't continue. Wednesday's attacks should serve as a wake-up call not only to New Delhi, but to all democracies.
posted by intermis @ 08.25   0 comments
Obama recalls fondness for Indonesian food


JAKARTA: US president-elect Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Jakarta, told Indonesia’s leader he would like to visit the Southeast Asian nation again and recalled a taste for local food.

Obama’s remarks were recounted by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after a six-inute phone call between the two leaders.

“He greeted me with ‘apa kabar, Bapak Presiden’ (How are you Mr President) in fluent Indonesian,” Yudhoyono was quoted as saying by the Koran Tempo daily.Yudhoyono has just returned from a trip to the United States and South America, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).

“When I invited him to come to Jakarta during the APEC meeting in Singapore next year, he said coming to Indonesia is very important,” Yudhoyono said. The Indonesian president said that Obama also said that besides forging greater cooperation between the two nations, a visit would give him a chance to try local food again including meatball soup, nasi goreng and rambutan, the paper reported.

Nasi goreng is a fried rice dish popular in Indonesia, while rambutans are a tropical fruit with a sweet translucent flesh.

Obama, who will be sworn in as the 44th US president in January spent four years in Indonesia after his American mother married Muslim Indonesian Lolo Soetoro following the end of her marriage to Obama’s Kenyan father.

dawn.com
posted by intermis @ 00.52   0 comments
Motorola VE66

Motorola VE66 delivers everything that is expected from a multimedia phone. It clicks luminous images from its 5 MP camera, offers audio conversations free from background noises, a music player with an audio quality as razor sharp as a needle and WiFi internet browsing that gives instant results as a PC would do.

POSITIVE COMMUNICATION

Don’t let noise pollution become a communication barrier as VE66’s Crystal Clear technology’s solves all problems and makes sure that all background noises are reduced and you have a good, positive communication with your contacts.

YOU GET WHAT YOU SEE

When you capture the seen reality with your 5 MP camera you get it exact copy of it on your display screen. That’s how accurate the lens and features of VE66’s camera are.

JUST A CLICK AWAY


One touch navigation wheel gives you instant access to the menu and all applications of VE66. And with WiFi and USB you can easily send, receive and download music tracks, videos, ringtones and photos.


5MP camera


Dedicated 5 MP camera technology keeps this handset in line with Digi-cam image quality making this the only photographic device you need.


CrystalTalk Technology


CrystalTalk technology uses sound-canceling microphones to filter out background noise. This help you to listen to calls on your cell phone, clearly even in noisy places.



Email


A function that lets you send and receive email anywhere.


FM Radio with RDS


Boredom is past tense with FM Radio as it comes with integrated RDS (Radio Data System) that displays available FM station information like song titles, artist, genre.



Video streaming


Transfers real-time video feeds from the Internet to your phone.


Web browser Opera™


Really Simple Syndication: keeps you updated on news and other content.



Wi-Fi


With Wi-Fi capabilities on board all you need to do is connect to a wireless modem in your vicinity; and the ability to browse the web and email is yours at no extra cost.

posted by intermis @ 00.18   0 comments
Toshiba releases the G450

Toshiba have finally released the G450, a phone an mp3 player and a 3G/HSDPA modem, all in one.



The handset comes with 160 MB of internal memory and it contains a Qualcomm MSM6280 chipset. Additionally it can play mp3, aac, aac+, eaac+ music files. The handset connects to the internet via GSM, GRPS, EDGE or UMTS/HSDPA with speed up to 7.2 mbps.



The handset comes in three colors, red, white, black. Pricing details are unknown for the moment but they should be available soon. Stay tuned!
posted by intermis @ 00.17   0 comments
Kamis, 27 November 2008
Motorola introduces a new Music Phone


Motorola have lost their position as the leading mobile phone manufacturer in the US, but they surely try to retake the throne by releasing new spectacular handsets.



Recently, Motorola announced the MOTO VE240 Music phone. As the name says, this handset is made to satisfy the entertainment needs of users while on the go. In this matter the MOTO VE240 comes with a 4 GB of removable memory and offers a speakerphone for handsfree talking. Additionally it comes with an USB 2.0 for file transfer capabilities. This will enable transferring music files from PC to Mobile.



Of course, the new handset offers features like MP3 capability and stereo Bluetooth. At this time, pricing information is not available, but they should be any time soon.
posted by intermis @ 23.59   0 comments
 
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