What If Mumbai Was About Television Cameras? 
Speaking Sunday 30 with a team of Mumbai attack analysts, Bill Roggio, Chandrakant Pancholi, Shlok Vaidya, and B. Raman from Chennai, also Aaron Klein from Jerusalem
on the massacre of the Jews at Nariman House. As of now, at nearly 60 hours, the city is not yet declared secure. The NSG commanders at the Taj Hotel ann0unced to the chorus of media cameras that three attackers were KIA and that the Taj Jotel may be clear. No confirm. This followed successful actions at the Oberoi-Trident Hotel and the Nariman House. However consider that the battle plan for the attack on Mumbai may not have been about taking hostages at hotels and fighting slow-motion gunfights with the NSG; but rather may have been about grabbing high profile targets, corraling foreign guests to attract European and American as well as South Asian eyes, and then dragging the contest out over several news cycles just in order to produce a viral theater of terror on TV and the web. The television cameras surrounding the Taj may be the best weapon for the attackers. Those cameras carried the events worldwide and built the perception of the attackers as ruthless, effective, bold, numberless, superhuman. The sleepless, ranting, repetitive, clueless, ahistorical, chauvinistic and generally banal media became a force-multiplier to the scattershot guerilla attack. Mumbai TV WMD.
Where Have We Seen This Before?
Yosef Bodansky's 2008 "Chechen Jihad: The Next Wave of Terror," re the Chechen links with Al Qaeda, opens with a spectacular what-if from the G-8 meeting at Petersburg in July 2006. Just days before, Russian Federation security forces, thanks to a tip from an insider, destroyed by missile a truck full of Chechen guerillas, arms and explosives. The commander of the guerilla was the infamous Shamil Basayev (right), who planned to lead a mass guerilla attack on Petersburg, hold hostages at hotels, hospitals, theaters and schools, demand negotiations for bogus demands, attract the massive TV coverage, wire up the building with explosives, and then destroy randomly over many days, shoot randomly, start firefights, create chaos, and then escape disguised as tourists. Basayev's battle plan was developed with Al Qaeda cooperation, and there were many nationals in the assault teams. It didn't happen. But Al Qaeda never retires a battle plan. The aim in Petersburg was a Hollywood spectacular. Was this the aim at Mumbai? Why else take the Taj except to create an opera stage? Why else drag out the confrontation for 60 hours? It would have been easy for the attackers to escape. It would be simple to throw off weapons, change clothes, take up their identity papers, and leave the Taj as rescued hostages. No evidence that the NSC or the Mumbai police did any vetting of the rescued hostages. Why stay in the Taj to shot it out with overwhelming NSG except to guarantee media. Look at the Taj event. The attackers set fire to the sea side of the Taj facing the large plaza
where the TV cameras are arranged, where the fire trucks and police are deployed. This meant that the TV would have great visuals of smoke, flames, gunfire. The mayhem of Saturday morning was televised around the world in real time. The gunfire, the fire trucks, the smoke and hot flames, the panicky rushing around, an attacker shot as he threw a grenade from a window, so that his body fell to the ground (right), and then the cameras springing up, dozens of them, to surround the white-haired, black uniformed General J.K. Dutt (below) of the NSG, who gave a heated, argumentative presser to shouted questions. A terror opera. And now the funerals and accusations against Indian intelligence and military and police mobilizations. TV WMD.
How Many? Who?
Best signals source reports that the attackers numbered up to 100 with accomplices -- control agents, support personnel, scouts, transportation, that there had been several dry runs over the last months, that the scouting was scrupulous, that the attackers had acquired safe houses,
safe rooms supplies, communications. The profile of the failed Chechen attack was that there were commanders, intelligence officers, supply officers, and assault troops. Source identifies so far a multi-national force of attackers: Britons, Pakistanis, Kashmiris, Hyderabad Indians. There is evidence of combat training with small arms, but no sign of fire discipline; and the Indian intelligence reports that there are LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) links to some of the attackers is consistent with training in the LeT camps outside Pehsawar and Lahore. The captured weapons are all types of assault weapons, Chinese grenades, no sign of RPGs or sniper rifles, or SAMs. The few photos do not show men who were in kevlar body armor, nor wearing headset communications. However we do not have photos of the attackers in the hotels, or the accomplices; and there is plenty of intercepted mobile phone traffic to suggest there was sophisticated command and control of the attacks. How good was the attacker intelligence? The murder of the three top police officials on the first night is presented as a random event, all three in the same vehicle that responded to the attack at Cama Hospital and came right up against automatic weapon fire. Best signals source
reports also that two of the KIA Americans were intelligence officers who were staying at the Taj. Random kills like the police chiefs? In sum so far, the profile of the Mumbai attack November 2008 fits the profile of the Al Qadea conceived spectacular aimed at Petersburg July 2006. We have watched sixty hours of a spectacular terror attack, and so far the Indian authorities are reporting only a handful of attackers either KIA or captured (right, Azam Amir Kasav, the only attacker taken alive so far, fluent in English, from Faridkot, Pakistan, now said to be cooperating) while up to 155 victims are reported dead (including 2 NSG officers and more than a dozen police), more than 35o wounded, and the great state of India is in mourning, shock and despair. WMD.
To what end? What is it that they seek and how is it manifested in these acts of murder and all the attention?
What is the gain?
Yep. What if? Not unlike as I posited here yesterday - the real targets were likely global media cameras, microphones and keyboards.
But if they retreated to the command and control centers pre-prepared in the Taj and Oberoi, they perhaps got more than even they had bargained for. Egress unexpectedly cut by Indian naval actions? Fallback points to C&C op centers? RDX tossed before entering?
Just how much was improvisation, how much design, and how much blind luck? To be sure, lessons learned on both sides. Sadly and maybe eerily so, perhaps more will be learned on theirs than ours. A model stumbled into, half by the fate of a plan gone awry.
Much to be pieced together still.
Why are we not bombing Pakistan? I've been saying this since 9.12.01 and all along. I seriously mean this--if Pakistan was taken out of the equation, wouldn't Afghanistan & India be manageable and perhaps Iran & Iraq as well?
B. Raman writes from Chennai November 29, upon NSG completion of Operation Cyclone: Al Qaeda stamp probable:
9. In my view, the terrorist strikes in Mumbai had the stamp of Al Qaeda in the way they were conceived, planned and executed. There has also been a touch of the Hizbollah of the Lebanon, the Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade and other Palestinian organizations.
10.The reported use of boats and dinghies for the clandestine transport of men and material for terrorist strikes on land is an old modus operandi (MO) used in the past against Israel. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had copied it from them. The anti-India jihadis have emulated their West Asian counterparts.
11.The use of boats for transport enables the terrorists to evade physical security checks by road, rail and air. The numerous creeks between India and Pakistan across the Bhuj area of Gujarat enable the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and the pro-Al Qaeda Pakistani terrorist organizations to clandestinely transport men and material by sea. Reports that the ISI had planned to use this MO for helping the Khalistani terrorists in the 1990s had led to the Border Security Force acquiring some boats which could be used for surveillance in these creeks.
12.The success of the terrorists in evading detection by our Coast Guard and the police reveals a serious gap in our maritime counter-terrorism architecture. If this gap is not quickly identified and closed, the vulnerability of the Bombay High off-shore oil installations and the nuclear establishments to terrorist attacks from the sea would be increased. Many of our nuclear and space establishments----not only in Mumbai, but also in other areas---are located on the coast and are particularly vulnerable to sea-borne terrorist attacks.
13.The stamp of Al Qaeda is evident in the selection of targets. The Taj Hotel, old and new, the Oberoi-Trident Hotel and the Narriman House were the strategic focus of the terrorist operation. The terrorist strikes in other places such as railway stations, a hospital etc and instances of random firing were of a tactical nature intended to create scare and panic.
14. The strategic significance of the attacks on the two hotels from Al Qaeda’s point of view arose from the fact that these hotels are the approved hotels of the US and Israeli Governments for their visiting public servants and for the temporary stay of their consular officials posted in Mumbai till a regular house is found for them.
15. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, presently undergoing trial before a military tribunal in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for his involvement in the 9/11 terrorist strikes, was reported to have told his American interrogators that before 9/11 Al Qaeda had planned to blow up the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. After the visit of President George Bush to India in March,2006, Osama bin Laden had, in an audio message, described the global jihad as directed against the Crusaders, the Jewish people and the Hindus.
16.Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organizations have been critical of India’s close co-operation with Israel and the US. In the past, the ISI had also shown an interest in having Indo-Israeli relations disrupted through terrorist attacks on visiting Israeli nationals in India. In 1991, it had instigated an attack by the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front on some Israeli tourists in Srinagar by alleging that they were really Israeli counter-terrorism experts.
17.The fact that the number of foreigners killed was small would show that the attacks on the foreigners in the hotels was selective and not indiscriminate. Available reports indicate that the terrorists were looking for American, British and Israeli nationals----particularly visiting public servants among them with official or diplomatic passports.
18.The only reason for their targeting the British could have been the active British role in the anti-Taliban operations in Afghanistan and in training the commandoes of Pakistan’s Special Services Group (SSG), jointly with an American team of instructors. The SSG was in the forefront of the raid into the Lal Masjid of Islamabad in July,2007, and has been playing an active role in the operations against the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
19. The terrorist strike has also had an anti-Jewish angle as evident from the raid into the Narriman House and the taking of Jewish hostages there. The targeting of the Americans, British, Israelis and Indian Jews has to be seen in the overall context of not only the anger of some Muslims against the Indian co-operation with the US and Israel , but also the role of the US and the UK in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. One should be prepared for more attacks in future not only on American, British and Israeli nationals, but also on their diplomatic and consular missions and their business interests in India.
20. The attacks on the foreigners have already disrupted the ongoing tour of India by the English cricket team. it is ironic that at a time when we were considering the advisability of our cricket team going to Pakistan due to the poor security conditions there, foreign cricket teams sould start having fears about coming to India due to the poor internal security in India.Similar nervousness in the minds of businessmen in foreign countries over security conditions in India could be an outcome of the spectacular terrorist strikes.
21.In the US, Spain and the UK, the terrorist strikes attributed to Al Qaeda were followed by detailed enquiries to identify deficiencies which made the strikes possible and recommend remedial measures, which were implemented. In India, even though we have been facing a series of major terrorist strikes since November 2007, no enquiry has been held. Unless we have the courage to admit our deficiencies and correct them, our counter-terrorism machinery is unlikely to improve. The public has a right to be kept informed of the results of the enquiries and the action taken.
Whenever one hears the phrase “America’s policies” in connection with some criticism of her, or in justifying an attack on some installation or embassy, it is usually shorthand for America’s support of Israel. Israel has been facing proportionally a far greater existential threat than virtually any other nation on earth. This is because of its relative small size and its close proximity to openly hostile neighboring states. It has been likened to a “canary in the coal mine”, a comparison which, now more than ever, cannot be lost on any American administration that takes its responsibility to protect its own citizens seriously.
My own comments regarding the Mumbai massacre have focused on Islam’s (and Islam’s converts’) innate hatred of capitalism. While it is possible that capitalism and Israel may have become linked in some minds, it is now also evident that the root cause of continued Muslim agitation and aggression has not gone away. Witness the murders at Nariman House.
In our own media I have heard it said that the child, Moshe, “had been spared by the terrorists”. It was an attempt to give the killers a human face. The truth was that the attackers likely thought the stunned child already dead. I have also heard it discussed that some of the attackers were apprehended alive, to which the American interviewer responded by wondering out loud if these would now be subject to torture.
What was lost in the coverage and ensuing debate was outrage over acts perpetrated by avowed criminals whose single-minded mission is to exterminate the Jews (and those who dare to stand in their way). It’s already happened once and we all agreed it was a horror that would not be tolerated again. And yet, with each clear demonstration of intent, straw dogs are thrown up to obfuscate the central issue. Let’s have it straight out: There are people who want nothing more than to kill Jews. Hatred is what animates them. It is the result of years of propaganda unleashed in mosques around the world. Those who disagree, even within their own camp, are routinely threatened with death.
It is not that we ourselves are not equally susceptible to propaganda. We’ve been told repeatedly that Bush and Republicans are the worst scourge on the planet. We’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker – so much so, that we’ve been willing (despite reservations) to sacrifice our nation to one-party rule. If this can happen to us – the rich, the educated and enlightened – how do we expect poor illiterates not to fall for what amounts to the same old parlor trick?
Solid survivor accounts Daily Telegraph Nov 29:
Mumbai massacre: 'It was carnage... blood and guts everywhere': Freed Briton tells of horrific ordeal
By NICOLA BODEN and CHRISTIAN GYSIN Last updated at 7:44 PM on 28th November 2008
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Hiding: British lawyer Mark Abell who barricaded himself in his room at the Oberoi hotel when gunmen burst in
A British lawyer today told of the 'carnage' in his hotel when he was finally saved from terrorists after nearly two days barricaded in his room fearing for his life.
Mark Abell, who was in Mumbai on a business trip when the militants struck, was among dozens of foreigners saved from the Oberoi Hotel this morning.
For almost two days, the 51-year-old from London had locked himself in his room to escape the gunmen who were holding hostages several floors below after killing wildly in a raid on Wednesday night.
Speaking during the siege, he had been calm as he watched news reports, filled his bath with water and prepared for the worst as gunfire and explosions rocked the building.
'Worse things happen at sea and in these situations you have got to stay in control of whatever space you've got. And I've got my space and I'm in control,' he said.
But today, after emerging unscathed, he broke down as he described the bloody scenes when he was led to safety by Indian commandos and police.
'The lobby was carnage. There was blood and guts everywhere. It was very, very upsetting,' he told the BBC.
'Just before I went to my room I had had dinner in the Kandahar restaurant. I have now found out that was one of the restaurants it started. Unfortunately, the waitress who served me was one of the first to get shot.'
Commandos involved in the rescue today revealed at least 24 bodies were found in the lobby, taking the overall death toll from the attacks to 143 and counting.
Mr Abell said the militants - two of whom have now been shot dead - had been holed up with hostages on the 19th floor of the luxury hotel, just four floors below him.
'I was on the 23rd floor and my friend was on the 20th. As far as we know now, all the action was on the 19th. We were too close for comfort,' he said.
'Throughout the night, the whole thing was punctuated by a series of explosions. 'Towards the end, it started to quieten down.
'I was communicating on my blackberry with people in a similar position and we slowly started to get the picture that we were going to be evacuated.'
Relieved: A man held hostage at the Oberoi Hotel talks on his phone after commandos took back control of the building
Speaking of his relief, he added: 'It is great to be out. It has been 48 hours, all but, without food and water surrounded by explosions and gunshots and people running down corridors screaming. It has been grim, very grim.'
Mr Abell appeared to have escaped death by just minutes. Waiting for the lift after dinner, he was chatting with a group of Japanese men. Moments later, one was dead.
'I was standing by the check-in desk just waiting for the lift and there was a group of Japanese guys so I was listening in and chatting. One of those guys was killed just three or four minutes after I left them,' he said.
The father-of-two is now hoping to return to Britain today, or tomorrow at the latest.
'I want to get home and see my children and my wife. We are hoping that we can get a flight out today, then if not tomorrow.'
I was supposed to be working in Delhi but I think I have had more than my one share for one business trip so I'm heading home.
Dozens of other Britons were caught in the Mumbai carnage. These are some of their stories:
HARNISH PATEL, 29, from Havant, Hampshire, was rushed to surgery after being shot in the ribs and legs.
His father, Manashvi Patel, 56, said his son was in shock and could not yet walk following the operation.
ALEX CHAMBERLAIN was held hostage in the Oberoi Hotel before dramatically escaping.
He said: 'I was having dinner with a colleague and then the gunfire started . . . some people initially thought it was fireworks.
'We were ushered into the kitchen area before a waiter was shot in the arm. There were then about 30 or 40 of us and the group was told to walk up the stairs of the hotel by the gunmen.
'They stopped us after two or three flights and told everyone to put their hands up and one of the gunmen said, "Where are you from? Are there any Americans or British here? Show us your ID or passports or business cards".
'My friend said, "Don't be a hero - don't say you are British. Tell them you are Italian". I am sure that is what all this is about. They were talking about British and Americans specifically.'
On the 18th floor of the building, he managed to escape through a fire door. The gunmen were a flight of stairs above us,' he said. 'I then waited with this man behind the fire door for 20 minutes but the smoke was so bad I said we had to get downstairs.
'I phoned my girlfriend Sarah and told her I loved her and I thought that was going to be the last conversation I would have with anyone.'
He and his companion managed to descend to the hotel lobby before escaping from the building.
Survivors: Britons Alex Chamberlain and Cheryl Robinson
Businessman PAUL BEAN hid under a restaurant table at the Taj Mahal Hotel for six hours before being rescued.
As bullets whizzed by his head, the managing director, 48, from Wakefield, phoned his wife at home but was unable to explain what was going on before being cut off.
Mrs Bean, 47, said: 'Until we heard from Paul again it was absolutely horrendous. When he did get through he was in total shock.
He had been rescued after hiding flat on his front under a table for about six hours.
'He told us it had all kicked off when he was in the restaurant. People started throwing hand grenades down the stairwells - one of them shattering the glass doors in the restaurant.
He had hidden there until rescuers put up a ladder to the restaurant window and he climbed out.'
Rescue: Briton Paul Bean is helped out of the Taj Mahal hotel
Businessman ALAN JONES from South Wales was in a lift in the lobby at the Oberoi when a man standing next to him was shot.
'We took the lift to the lobby and heard bangs as the door opened,' he said. 'A Japanese man - one of four in the lift - was shot and wounded. I frantically pressed the Close Door button, but had to move the shot man's foot for the door to close.'
Tory MEP SAJJAD KARIM was visiting Mumbai with a Brussels trade delegation.
'I was in the lobby of the Taj Mahal when gunmen came in and people started running,' he said.
'Some of us split one way and some another - a gunman just stood there spraying bullets around and he was right next to me. I just turned and fled.
'I was then in a room that was completely sealed off but I could hear what was going on. The Indian security forces fought them floor by floor, and room by room.
'It was carnage, absolute panic, shouting and confusion. It was absolutely horrible.'
MYLES CURTIS - a Briton living in Australia and visiting Mumbai on business - gave a dramatic account of unwittingly being held with two of the gunmen as he and others sheltered in a darkened room.
He and some 100 guests in the Taj Mahal had taken refuge in a room in the hotel. When the group finally made a dash for the exit Indian troops shot the two men - one of whom was thought to be carrying a bag containing explosives.
'We did not know they were in the room with us until they tried to escape with us. But the security services knew who they were and shot them.'
Enlarge
Tourist CHERYL ROBINSON was trapped inside the Taj Mahal with two friends.
She said: 'We were at dinner when the first shots were fired. We stayed on the floor, many were lying under tables, under furniture, and the hotel staff told us to be quiet.'
Businessman HUGH BROWN took refuge in a library area in the Taj Mahal Hotel with a large group of people.
'There was a gunman who had been in among us in the room for the best part of the evening,' he said.
'When he got out with us, he started shooting some of the people as they were leaving the room and was then dealt with by the security forces.'
Last night 28-year-old Londoner WILLIAM PIKE was recovering from surgery for gunshot wounds sustained when the terrorists walked into the Taj Mahal lobby and began firing.
Mr Pike and his girlfriend KELLY DOYLE were due to have flown home to Britain today.
Miss Doyle said: 'It's going to take William a long time before he's all right but at least he's here - he's alive.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1089915/Mumbai-massacre-It-carnage--blood-guts-Freed-Briton-tells-horrific-ordeal.html
Post-op debrief: lessons learned:
My regular correspondent Larry Johnson of No Quarter sends along this exchange with his colleagues from a counter-terrorism blog: much meaty debate:
Subject: Re: WP: Investigation Begins as Assault in Mumbai Ends
Rick,
I think the argument over treating terrorism as a criminal act rather than a military threat is flat out silly. I'm the only one on this list who is actually working with the US military forces that have the counterterrorism mission. In fact, even identifying those units by name is a security violation. I have been to Iraq with them and I have 14 years experience scripting readiness exercises for them.
Here's the reality. Those units don't have targets they can easily hit. In fact, that don't even have a viable list of actionable targets. Part of this is because there are not a lot of terrorists. And the groups that carry out terrorist attacks are not organized and deployed in a manner that makes them easy to target, at least militarily. If they were easy to locate I'm all in favor of killing the bastards. I'm not some new age tree hugger who believes that we need to understand where they are coming from. That's horseshit in my view.
The reality is that we need the techniques most commonly used by criminal investigators and intelligence officers to locate these bad actors. Once we can locate them (and Iraq has been an excellent laboratory in this regard for highlighting the limits of what the military can and cannot do) you then have the problem of how to get them. It is not a simple matter of launching a cruise missile or a HARM from a predator. If the opportunity presents itself, fine. But we rarely get those opportunities.
Thankfully Pakistan is almost unique, so far, as a terrorist incubator. The Egyptians and even the Saudis, along with the Jordanians, have been pretty effective in rooting out and exterminating extremist cells. It may make us feel good to talk about bombing camps in Pakistan, but when they are located amid civilian populations we have to weigh the cost of the negative public reaction of killing women and children in order to destroy terrorists because that ends up essentially putting us on the same level as the terrorists, who argue they are justified in killing women and children in order to destroy their enemy.
Somehow we need to help educate the public that relying on criminal procedures or intelligence assets is not cowardice or surrender to terrorists. I watched firsthand at S/CT back in 1992 when George H.W. Bush started dismantling the CT community because they, Republicans mind you, believed terrorism was not a threat that merited the skimpy assets dedicated to the mission at the time. Trying to make this a partisan wedge issue is not helpful. There are things that both Republicans and Democrats failed to do in the past. I fear the Obama team will be pressured out of fear as being labled "soft" will not correct the unbalanced military focus that has characterized the Bush policy of the past seven years.
LJ
On Nov 29, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Philip Henika wrote:
Group:
Questions in the form of hypothesis:
Suffice it to say, comments and actions of world leaders have not proceeded to downplay the Mumbai terrorists as a crime. The hypothesis that might be worth testing suggests that if this downplay occurred than chances for cooperation between India and Pakistan might actually increase.
However, the WP Post article below says just the opposite in many respects.
President Obama says: "These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them," Obama said in a statement. "The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks, and defeating their hate-filled ideology."
Agreement with Rohan's comments in an email sent earlier re: global cooperation include "the will of a global coalition to defeat them". However, if the hypothesis stated above is correct then reference to "their their hate-filled ideology" gives terrorists more credit than they deserve. In lieu of Larry's comments re: the ISI, it is also unfortunate that Pakistan is withdrawing its senior intelligence officer which is an indication of less cooperation when more cooperation is the test of the hypothesis. Finally, if the military is required for help with an overwhelmed law enforcement then perhaps the "war footing" comment below also gives terrorists more credit than they deserve.
Rick
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112900858.html?hpid=topnews
Investigation Begins as Assault in Mumbai Ends
Lone-Surviving Gunmen in Custody as Civilian Death Tolls Near 200
By Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 29, 2008; 10:32 AM
MUMBAI, Nov. 29 -- Indian officials said today that 10 gunmen, nine of whom were killed, were responsible for the three-day assault on India's financial and cultural capital. Nearly 200 people died in the violence.
No SVD-9 sniper rifles, no Chechens, I'd guess. How many of teh gunmen with their first combat in Iraq and Afghanistan against us?
Why did this take 36 hours to roll up? What isn't getting reported?
Survivor speaks:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090546/I-told-kill-breath-Captured-terrorist-gives-police-account-Mumbai-massacre.html
'I was told to kill to my last breath': Captured terrorist gives police account of Mumbai massacre
By IAN GALLAGHER
Last updated at 10:01 PM on 29th November 2008
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The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’.
Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people.
He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages.
Destroyed: The charred interior of the the Taj Mahal hotel after the terrorists were finally stopped
Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the
105-year-old building’s solid foundations.
As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise significantly once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces.
Yesterday, Kasab chillingly went through details of Wednesday night’s killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police.
He pretended to be dead, which probably saved his life. It was only when he was being transferred to hospital by ambulance that his accompanying officer noticed he was still breathing.
Once inside Nair Hospital, Kasab, who suffered only minor injuries, told medical staff: ‘I do not want to die. Please put me on saline.’ And as Indian commandos ended the bloody 59-hour siege at the Taj yesterday by killing the last three Islamic gunmen, baby-faced Kasab was dispassionately detailing the background to the mayhem.
He described how its mastermind briefed the group to ‘target whites, preferably Americans and British’.
Some of the militants, including Kasab, posed as students during a visit to Mumbai a month ago, filming the ‘strike locations’ and familiarising themselves with the city’s roads.
Devastation: Wrecked by explosions and fire, below is a picture of the Harbour Bar at the Taj Mahal Palace on Saturday. A few days ago it was one of India's finest venues, above. Now all that remains is a charred shell
And Kasab described how he and an accomplice sprayed machine-gun fire around a busy railway station, killing dozens of people, before intending to move to the exclusive district of Malabar Hill, where they planned to ‘take VIPs hostage’.
One police officer said: ‘That, thankfully, never happened because we managed to stop them.’ Police insist that Kasab confessed to being a member of the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has denied involvement in the carnage, and claimed he and the others were trained in the Muslim country.
Intelligence analysts are keeping more of an open mind, however. And some political observers point out an unhelpful tendency by the Indian authorities continually to blame ‘Pakistan elements’ without solid evidence.
Some speculative reports emerging from New Delhi even suggested Pakistan’s intelligence services had a hand in training the terrorists.
Meanwhile, claims that up to seven of the terrorists could have been British men of Pakistani origin, who had connections to West Yorkshire, were being widely discounted.
A top Indian official, Maharashtra state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, said there was ‘no authentic information’ to suggest that any British citizens were involved.
The UK Foreign Office also said there was ‘no evidence’ that any of the terrorists were British.
Killers: Two armed gunmen are seen at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai on Wednesday
One report suggested that one of the terrorists had been working at the Taj hotel as a kitchen porter for up to eight months before the attacks and had produced a British passport during his job interview. But this was strongly denied by the hotel management.
Scotland Yard detectives arrived in Mumbai yesterday, but only to lend their assistance and expertise to the investigation.
According to the account of Kasab’s interrogation, given by police sources, the terrorists were trained over five months in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, then had a month off before the attacks. At some stage, they also received intensive instruction in ‘marine assault’ operations.
Terrifying: One of the gunmen carrying an automatic rifle in the train station in Mumbai
Kasab and the nine other terrorists, who communicated using BlackBerry mobiles, began their journey to Mumbai on November 21.
Initially unarmed, they left an isolated beach near Karachi in a small boat, before being picked up the following day by a larger vessel.
At this point they were each given eight hand grenades, an AK-47 rifle, an automatic pistol and ammunition. And in anticipation of a lengthy siege, they also carried dried fruit.
Kasab told police that the group then hijacked a fishing trawler bearing the name Kuber near the maritime boundary between Pakistan and India.
A rubber dinghy lies in a police station in Mumbai, it was found near the site of the attacks - Kasab said the gunmen transferred to inflatable dinghies to go ashore after journeying from a beach near Karachi, Pakistan
Four of its crew are missing while the fifth has been found dead, apparently beheaded. Its owner and his brother are being questioned by police.
On November 23, after reaching Porbandar in the Indian state of Gujarat, 310 nautical miles from Mumbai, the insurgents were intercepted by two coastguard officers. The group hoisted a white flag and allowed the two men to board their boat.
According to Kasab, one of the militants then attacked one of the officers, slitting his throat and throwing him overboard. The other man was forced to help the group reach their destination before being executed as the vessel drew near to Mumbai.
For most of the journey, Kasab’s friend, 25-year-old Abu Ismail, a trained sailor, steered the vessel using GPS equipment. Three speedboats met the Kuber a mile and a half from the Mumbai seafront on Wednesday. After waiting for the light to fade, they moved off, later transferring to two inflatable dinghies to go ashore.
Grim task: An Indian soldier gives instructions inside a charred room of the Taj Mahal Hotel
The two groups then split up. Four men went to to the Taj hotel, two to the Jewish centre of Nariman House, Kasab and another man set off by taxi towards the railway station, and two headed for the Leopold restaurant.
While his colleagues were executing hostages at the Taj, Kasab and Ismail first opened fire with their assault rifles at around 10.20pm, killing dozens of people standing at Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station.
Then they hijacked a police 4x4, killing the two officers inside. Kasab told investigators they continued their killing spree by attacking a petrol station and blowing up a taxi before being stopped.
‘I have done right,’ he told investigators. ‘I have no regrets.’
Engulfed: The Taj Mahal engulfed in smoke during a gun battle between Indian commandos and the militants
One police source said: ‘He [Kasab] was telling our people this in a most dispassionate way and responded to the horror their faces betrayed by shrugging his shoulders, as if it was all of no real consequence.’
Sources said tests on Kamal’s blood and urine showed he was under the influence of drugs to help keep him alert during the long battles with Indian security forces.
Guests who had been holed up during the three-day siege at the Taj hotel told of their ordeal yesterday.
Briton Richard Farah, who was trapped in his room before being rescued by commandos, hid his passport in his false leg after terrorists were reported to be seeking British and American passport holders.
‘I saw all the blood and broken glass and shrapnel. Tons of blood and shoes, people’s shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes,’ he said.
‘In the last few hours there were so many explosions and the floors shook.
I said, 'I’m a goner,' because it was right below me.
Eventually, we got to the lobby. I’d hidden my passport in my leg. If they had come to get me they wouldn’t have found it.’
Evidence was emerging last night that the the gunmen killed their victims early in the siege and fooled Indian security forces into thinking that they were holding hostages.
At the Sir J.J. Hospital morgue, an official said that of the 87 bodies he had examined, all but a handful had been killed during Wednesday night.
I know this opinion won't be popular, but India has rather restrictive gun control laws. Too bad there weren't some armed civilians in the Taj. These people were like sheep led to the slaughter. Of course the result of this in regards to gun rights will be to put further restrictions on civilians in regards to gun ownership both in India and abroad.
Sounds like a pretty popular idea to me. It's a trite expression, but if guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns. And having everyone or a number of people armed in the Taj hotel would have either prevented the attack entirely or ... , no, no ORS, it would have prevented the attack entirely. The attackers are obviously cowards and cowards prefer to shoot unarmed people first.
Now that I've come down solidly on the side of the Second Amendment (and implied that I think every country should have one!), I'll leave you with an "On the other hand" story. Yesterday, Friday after Thanksgiving, two families in a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, the wives start arguing over something, presumably the same toy, and it escalated into shouting and eventually the husbands both pulled pistols and shot each other dead. Panic ensued. Not sure which of the wives ended up getting the toy (the newspapers always leave out the most important details....) So, I'm all for Second Amendment rights, but while you have upsides like no Taj Hotel massacre, you have downsides like Palm Desert Toys R Us incidents. And, probably lots of them. On the other hand, is the world really worse off for it?
No, JL,
You are right. I am regularly in densely populated parts of NYC that remind me of the Mumbai areas. Lots of well heeled tourists and locals.
I often think now, why hasn't this happened in the US with this type of attack?
I feel if I were armed, I could at least try to do something to stop a lunatic gunman if I had the opportunity.
Or put it this way - I'm sure no terrorist would try that attack anywhere in Texas.
And the ever popular - when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
vsk
I have heard those guys were gang bangers and in no way lawful citizens with firearms.
Here is something I gleaned from John R. Lott's site regarding Mumbai: http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2008/11/mumbai-photographer-i-wish-id-had-gun.html
And the toys R us: http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2008/11/shooting-at-california-toys-r-us.html
"I know this opinion won't be popular, but India has rather restrictive gun control laws. Too bad there weren't some armed civilians in the Taj."
India is too much of an ethnic powder keg to make anything like our Second Amendment a workable proposition there. (I'm thinking of the account given by a good friend of mine, an American-raised Indian, who journeyed back home and nearly caused a Hindu-Muslim riot at a train station merely because she took some pictures of travelers at their afternoon prayers.)
Given that prejudice, tribalism, and xenophobia appear to be genetically hardwired into the human brain, only relatively homogeneous societies dare to permit widespread gun ownership.
So, what is the purpose of these type operations?
I recall the tracking of Zarqawi... it seems that he was known to be in areas and villages when men were unexplainably missing from their families and then later their remains were discovered after he had already moved on. The last place he visited there were multiple heads found in a fruit crate a couple of days before he was killed by a well placed missile. The assumption being that he became more brazen in his murderous zeal and less wary of the dedicated pursuit to find and put an end to him. My hope is that he suffered greatly as he was gasping for breath and like this Kasav was pleading for help to be able to go on living.
My point is that these people are not warriors or freedom fighters. They are debase sadists and serial murderers. While they declare a religious apportion as justification for their mayhem against innocent victims they decry any intolerance for their animalism as an attack on their religion.
Kasav says he was told to do his worst until the end. What of the acid attacks on little girls in Afgha on their way to school? Khalid Mohammed (I will not call him sheik-) bragged about the murder by his own hand of Mr Pearl which he took 13 minutes to do.
They talk about Sharia... don’t they deserve the same as they have done? But, for some reason they will say they want mercy shown to them, won’t they. I say, give them the Sharia they talk about and give them the martyrdom they desire... just as they have done.
Ken:
Yet we see Homogenous societies like Japan and england as very restrictive in this way and if you read further about India, their control stems from being a british colony. America is not so homogenous...In fact less so than India when you consider the urban areas. THe primary reason for disarming a populace is to take power away from a possible enemy of the government, at least that's my opinion. If the government can't trust its populace it is probably doing something wrong.
No doubt, if some of the targeted people in Bombay had been armed, the attackers would have had to think long and hard about what they had signed up to do. These madmen are cowards; they basically agreed to nothing more than shooting fish in a barrel. They are not afraid of death; that much is true. They are afraid of life. Their aim is to make us all submit to the denominator that is common to all: death.
JB, Peter et al, it gets worse: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/30mumterror-doctors-shocked-at-hostagess-torture.htm
Truly cowardly bastards.
I think our security types, from NYPD to FBI HRT and Delta are a lot better trained.
Re "no sign of fire discipline": I'm not so sure of that.
"The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded."
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article14086308.ece
I am certain we have awesome security forces. But there are plenty of soft targets here that can be hit, then the attackers can run. I mean, the country is so vast. I wouldn't want to mention.
Where the fluff is the show tonight???
First the football game, then these vitamin infomercials!!!!!!
I wonder if WMAL has the show on.
vsk
Yes the show is on WMAL, hope that ABC hasn't gotten foolish..some shows have been changed lately.
No mention of torture on JB's show...I wonder why?
Maybe the economic game theory is simplistically that we have been in a tug of war with the US and Israel and sometimes Nato on one side and Russia, China , KSA Iran and the third world on the other side. The credit crisis made the rope taut or lessened the slack and caused more friction.
The friction exposed all the fiction. The Rope either snapped or better yet Pauulson after trying to pull back decided to let go and the moorings on the other side collapsed. So now both sides collapsed and have to pick themselves up.
In the fiction, Soros was able to ruin the British pound in the early 90s doing it now and to the $ wrecked everyone because he pulled too hard and there was no resistance on US end No Lehman bailout. Once he pulled our side the other side also tumbled.
Hopefully there is more division and rancor on Russia, China KSA end than on our side although with incoming administration they may owe lots of favors to some on the other side for getting them elected.
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