Mumbai Attacks

When an International incident like the Mumbai attacks happens I usually give it time for the dust to settle to figure out what is going on. The dust has yet to really settle so here are my first impressions. Living in the USA makes information suspect especially when it comes from overseas. In Mumbai, India it appears gunmen of probable Pakistani origins carried out multiple violent attacks with bombs and gunmen.

“When the rampage began, gunmen opened fire at several locations throughout the city, including a crowded train station, a popular restaurant and several luxury hotels. The terrorists apparently sought victims with British or American passports. Attacks began on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 and ended Saturday, November 29, 2008. The locations attacked were:

1. Taj Mahal Palace and Tower
2. Hotel Oberoi
3. Cama Hospital
4. Trident Hotel
5. Ramada Hotel Mumbai
6. Cafe Leopold
7. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
8. Nariman House

At least 195 people have died in the attacks, including 22 foreigners and six Americans. A formerly unknown group that calls itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.”

With even just this basic information people could let emotions cloud judgment on what happened. The group that claims responsibility could indeed just be a front group. This seems to have been a well planned attack. It seems too well done in fact to be done by some upstart group. There are many suspects. I of course do not believe Pakistan itself is responsible, but this could be used as an excuse for India to butt heads with it rival, maybe even start a war. Pakistan is in no state to start a war, but India is. Could the Indian military be responsible for the attacks? It is certainly a possibility, as well as CIA involvement as well. The first suspects in a terrorist attack should always be the government or a government that would benefit from the attacks. Then next on the list should be disgruntled religious and ethnic groups.

India does have a nuclear agreement with the USA which could anger its rivals and their disgruntled radical groups. Not to mention India’s rising power in Asia. The fact Americans, British, and Jews could have been targeted seems that the reasons behind the attacks could move away from anger towards India and more towards the west. Of course that could be their secondary goal while their first was to attack India. There are many possible variables and scenarios that could be the pre-text for this attack. Right now it is all assumption.

It appears CNN interviewed Deepak Chopra a famous Indian about the attack, but cut him off when he got too controversial. They cut him off after the following remarks:
“What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation. ”Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.”

I can see why the State run media would cut him off after essentially telling people the truth about how Washington funds many different sides of the same war, not mention murders many on each side. He also has a point in how Hindu’s could retaliate against Muslims which would cause escalation. Leave it to the media to be too scared to pick his brain more or show it at least.

I will keep following this story to see what else comes up. This is going to be rough with the USA government “helping” with the investigation. Any information that comes out of the media needs to be treated with suspect. In conclusion I have no idea what the real story is and am not about to commit to any theory.

Another random point I need to make is as always the bad guys were armed and the victims were not. This is also another example of how police arrive too little too late. If you wish to stay alive then you need to be armed. Governments of course make this as difficult as possible so to make you dependent on their bad security services. It only takes a few armed people to kill many unarmed people. The bombs there is not much to do about except understand why someone would bomb people in the first place?!

Update: 12/2/08
A Mumbai Photographer wished he had a gun because police refused to fire.
"The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles."

"There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

Update 12/4/08:
The best theory so far I have heard is that radicals who are fighting American/Coalition forces in Afghanistan provoked problems between Pakistan and India which could explain why they also targeted Westerners and Jews. This would force Pakistan to move its forces away from radical cells on the Pakistani/Afghan border and move then to their border with India. This would free up groups to hide in Pakistan and attack American forces in Aghanistan easier.

This makes the most sense because it is a brilliant strategy if you are a Guerilla group.

Posted by AzraelsJudgement