Archive for category India

messages

Feb 12

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Corruption & Crime, FBI, India, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terrorism | No Comments

A lawyer representing one of the three accused 26/11 terrorists has been assassinated. Shahid Azmi was representing Fahim Ansari, an Indian national. Ansari, Ahmed Sabauddin (Indian national) and Ajmad Kasab (Pakistani) stand accused of helping to plot and carry out the Mumbai attacks.

Azmi also represented over fifty other young Muslim terror suspects. People describe him as honest and courageous.

New Delhi: Advocate Shahid Azmi, who was defence lawyer for about 50 Muslim youths languishing in jails in terror cases, was shot dead about one hour ago by unknown people in his chamber near Taximen’s Colony in Kurla East, Mumbai. Five people pretending as clients entered in his office and fired five rounds at Adv Azmi from pointblank range. He was rushed hosiptal but declared dead at arrival.

…”He was a brave, humble, intelligent and efficient lawyer who charged minimum from the innocent victims,” added Dr Rahmani. Who could be behind the killing? “Those who have conspired for putting hundreds of innocent Muslim youth in terror cases, could be behind his murder,” said Dr Rahmani.

Malegaon-based Ummid.com says: Shahid Azmi came to the limelight after he began handling the 7/11 Mumbai blast case and other terror related cases in which Muslim youths were detained. His petition filed on behalf of Jamiatul Ulema challenging the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) is pending for judgment in Supreme Court.

A commenter notes: This is not simply a murder of a lawyer but a symbolism and message to all those who are fighting for the rights of innocent people. The murderer and their mentors/bosses want to send a message to the lawyers community that if you try to fight for the cases of Muslim youth arrested under the pretext of Terrorism, you will have the same fate as Adv. Shahid Azmi.

^^^^^^

About a year ago, on February 10, 2009, The Hindu reported that Ansari accused a female FBI agent of sexually harrassing him during interrogations.

Faheem has moved the court, with his lawyer Ejaz Naqvi filing an application before an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate alleging that a lady FBI officer, who had interrogated the accused, had “sexually harassed him all through the night.”...The application also made a plea for Faheem to be sent for medical check-up as he has developed “itches and wounds in his private parts and all over his body.”

“Faheem had been interrogated by three FBI officers out of which one of them, a lady officer, had sexually abused him,” Mr. Naqvi told the court. Faheem had earlier filed an application seeking action against the city police for allegedly allowing the FBI to interrogate him. The Crime Branch will have to file their reply on whether any foreign investigating agencies like the FBI had been allowed to interrogate the accused in the terror attacks case. “According to Indian law, no foreign agency can be allowed to interrogate an Indian suspect and we have sought relief from the court,” Mr. Naqvi said.

Ansari alleged that the female FBI agent removed all his clothes and showed him pornographic films while in Mumbai police custody.

Ansari has made claims similar to Kasab’s — essentially, that he had been framed by corrupt police officers.

Denying his involvement in 26/11 terror attacks, accused Faheem Ansari today alleged in the trial court that he was forced by police to prepare a map of target locations after he was arrested in this case….Ansari rubbished the witness account that he had handed over maps of 26/11 terror targets to co-accused Sabauddin Ahmed in Nepal and that the latter had forwarded them to Lashker-e-Taiba to carry out the attacks. The accused also denied the police claim that they had found a map of terror targets from the pocket of slain terrorist Abu Ismael and said it was not drawn by him.

Regarding the timing of this murder, the court had completed recording statements of the three accused and final arguments had been set for February 20th. Azmi’s killers escaped. Azmi had told colleagues not to discuss the case over the phone because he thought his calls were tapped. Despite the high profile case, the government had not provided any protection to the defense teams.

Unidentified men fired four rounds at Shahid Azmi from close range at his office in Kurla’s Taximen’s Colony, central Mumbai, around 7.40pm, police said, adding the assailants escaped in the darkness. The spot is behind the upscale Bandra-Kurla Complex, which houses the headquarters of several banks and business houses.

…The killing shocked Mumbai’s legal fraternity, with some blaming the government for failing to provide security. “I met Shahid over lunch just yesterday. He told me not to discuss the 26/11 case details on the phone as he feared the police could tap our calls. The government had not provided any protection to both of us,” said Ejaz Naqvi, the lawyer who is representing Sabahuddin. Ansari’s wife Yasmin said the incident had shocked her and left her worried about her husband’s safety and his fate in the trial.

^^^^^^^

The government’s case might hew closely to this line of reasoning, in which Ansari plays a key role conducting reconnaissance for the Mumbai attacks. In fact, the police hung quite a lot on Ansari, back in January 2009, before David Coleman Headley came into the picture. If it weren’t for Ansari’s maps, the theory goes, the attacks could not have been carried out.

Investigations have revealed that the terrorists had not been to the city before the 26/11 attacks. They identified the four targets-CST station, Taj Hotel, and Nariman House-based on an earlier survey carried out by Faheem Ansari, a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, the police claimed. Ansari, who is originally from Goregaon, was caught by the special task force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh in February last year along with co-accused Sabahuddin Ahmed alias Sabah and four others LeT operatives for allegedly attacking a CRPF camp at Rampur in UP on January 1, 2008.

…Though the UP’s police report does not mention Ansari carrying out a survey of Nariman House, a senior crime branch officer said, “He had walked through the lanes and bylanes of Colaba and noted down minute details about Nariman House, its location, building and the surrounding areas.”

Presumably, Azmi, the now-slain attorney, was going to challenge this line of reasoning….

^^^^^^^

…in light of other evidence which has come forth in the meanwhile.

Were the Mumbai Attacks of 2008 an inside-job, involving the CIA, Mossad and corrupt elements of the Indian security services?

Recent news suggests that the Indian military is corrupt.

Four top Indian generals are currently ‘involved in a land scandal’. (Indian land scandal spotlights military corruption.)
41 officers in the Indian military allegedly sold military weapons on the black market.

An army colonel was sacked after he was caught ‘faking gun battles with militants by sprinkling tomato ketchup on civilians, who were made to lie still on the ground’.

Between 2000 and 2006, the Indian military had more than 7,000 court martial proceedings.

In June 2009, India blacklisted state-run Israeli Military Industries after police accused a defense ministry bureaucrat of taking bribes. (Indian land scandal.)

The alleged Mumbai Attacks mastermind, the American David Headley, claimed to know the names and titles of senior Defence personnel in Mumbai and New Delhi. (HEADLEY-GATE)

On 8 February 2009, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi revealed that the Mumbai terror attacks could not have been carried out without internal help from India. (Indian Non Cooperation in the Mumbai Investigations)

Clicking through that last link, dated August 20, 2009, we learn more:

Confused statements by the Indian high officials show that New Delhi has been making deliberate efforts to entangle Pakistan in the Mumbai tragedy through fabricated stories and India is not serious in Mumbai probe. The aim is to conceal the involvement of Indian terrorists and the role of its secret agency RAW which is behind Mumbai drama. During attacks in Mumbai, the death of Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare left sufficient proof that Indian intelligence agencies had themselves planned the scheme. Narayan Rane, an Indian-Hindu leader of the Congress, disclosed on December 16, 2008 that Hindu politicians provided logistical and financial support to Hindutva terrorists for killing Karkare. While, Indian Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Rahman Antulay who had changed his statement after pressure from Congress had clearly revealed in the Lok Sabha that the killing of Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Karkare in Mumbai was a conspiracy, saying that Karkare was assassinated owing to his leading role in the investigation against Hindus regarding the 2006 Malegaon bombings which killed eight people outside a mosque. He further elaborated, “Anyone trying to go to the roots of terror has always been a target”, calling for a separate inquiry into Karkare’s death.

That’s particularly interesting, because, in addition to representing Ansari,

32-year-old Shahid Azmi was the defence counsel on behalf of Jamit Ulema Maharashtra for more than 50 Muslim terror suspects languishing in jails in connection with Malegaon blasts and train bombings.

So now Azmi is dead. How convenient is that?

dibs on resources in the Western hemisphere

Feb 12

Posted by A. Peasant in Brazil, India, Minerals, Oil, Russia, Southeast Asia, The West, Venezuela | No Comments

1. Venezuela awards 2 blocks in massive oil region: India, Malaysia, Chevron (US), Japan, Spain

Venezuela assigned the rights to exploit the Carabobo 1 block to a consortium that included Repsol, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Oil India Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. and Malaysia’s Petronas, while another block, Carabobo 3, was awarded to a consortium led by Chevron and that also included Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and Inpex Corp. and Venezuela’s Suelopetrol

…In both blocks, the winning consortium will have a 40 percent stake and the remaining 60 percent stake will be held by Venezuelan state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela. According to official Venezuelan figures, the blocks have the potential to produce a combined total of at least 800,000 barrels of crude per day by 2016 and will require $30 billion in investment.

“This is something historic,” President Hugo Chavez said of the auction. “It is extremely important” and is the product of “a transparent bidding process” that began on Oct. 30, 2008, with the participation of 19 foreign companies….He also stressed the importance of foreign investment in developing the potential of that region, which the U.S. Geological Survey recently said is the world’s largest petroleum reserve with more than 500 billion barels of recoverable crude.

more @ tribune

2. India moving faster to tie up mineral supplies

Thus the Indian government is reportedly moving to fast track deals to secure future supplies for its ever-growing industrial base. According to a report in today’s Hindustan Times The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has decided that the country’s state-owned corporations need to be supported in aggressively pursuing the acquisition of strategic mineral resources through a dedicated fund - and it has set a 30-day deadline for such plans to be in place. According to Hindustan Times, an unnamed senior government official told it “The PMO has asked the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission to work out the size and structure of the dedicated fund in 30 days.”

…The significance of the Indian move should not be underestimated. Indian growth is currently matching that of China and with the two Asian potential megapowers with enormous populations taking ever increasing volumes of raw materials from the global supply, the pressure on resources can only increase dramatically.

According to the report, India is also beginning to try and use diplomatic pressures to help secure supplies with the External Affairs Ministry tasked with a strategy to help acquire them, particularly in Africa which is seen as key area of potential supply with resources frequently directly controlled by government.

more @ mineweb

3. Brazil finds more oil, shallow water, low hanging fruit

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian state-controlled energy giant Petrobras said Thursday that it has found oil at a well located in shallow waters of the Campos Basin. The find was made in waters just 200 meters (655 feet) deep and is near massive deposits in deeper areas of Campos, which is located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state and is the basin where 80 percent of Brazil’s oil is extracted. Petrobras said the 4-PM-53 well contains an estimated 25 million barrels of recoverable heavy oil and is just 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the Pampo field, which is currently being developed.

…Petrobras, Brazil’s largest corporation and one of the world’s fastest-growing oil companies, produces an average of 2.5 million barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent in Brazil and abroad. An integrated energy company and a global leader in deepwater oil exploration and production, Petrobras operates in 27 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Shares of the company trade on the Sao Paulo, New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires stock exchanges, but the Brazilian government retains control through a golden share. EFE

more @ tribune

4. Cuba, Russia confirm “strategic” nature of their relationship

HAVANA – The Russian and Cuban foreign minister emphasized on Thursday the “enormous potential” and the “strategic” nature of relations between their two countries. Sergei Lavrov arrived in Cuba for a three-day visit and presided at a meeting with Bruno Rodriguez, after which they signed three accords.

…Lavrov said that the relationship had transformed itself into a “truly strategic association” and confirmed to the Cuban government Moscow’s “unchanging” stance against the economic embargo the United States has maintained against the communist-ruled island since 1962.

…Besides the foreign minister, the Russian delegation to the fair includes Culture Minister Alexandr Avdeev and more than 200 publishers, writers, artists, officials, translators and journalists. Lavrov’s trip to Havana continues the frequent visits made by top Russian government officials to Cuba in the last two years, including those by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who has traveled to the island on at least five occasions. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev traveled to Cuba in 2008 and Cuba’s president, Gen. Raul Castro, returned the visit in 2009. EFE

more @ tribune

terrorist activity news: some narratives progress, others trail off

Feb 9

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Gatekeeping, Identities, India, Media, Pakistan, Philippines, Southeast Asia, Terrorism, The West | No Comments

Narrative progresses in Southeast Asia, West Africa, Pakistan: drug trafficking, Abu Sayyaf, JI, al qaeda, attacks on Westerners…

1. JI terrorist Dulmatin resurfaces on Jolo, Philippines - Abu Sayyaf — same area that US forces use wo/oversight

MANILA - AN ISLAMIST militant accused of being behind the deadly 2002 Bali bombings is alive and hiding in the southern Philippines despite earlier reports of his death, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

Dulmatin, leader of the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was not killed in a clash in 2008 as the military initially believed, said Major General Juancho Sabban, the head of the Philippine Marines.

‘I believe, from what my sources say, he is still in Sulu,’ Maj. Gen. Sabban told reporters, referring to the southern chain of islands in the south including Jolo, a hotbed of Islamist militants.

He also said that another JI militant, Umar Patek, is also believed to be hiding in the Sulu islands and is being sheltered by the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group linked by intelligence agencies to the Al-Qaeda network.

Dulmatin, accused of helping the JI plan and carry out the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in the Indonesian resort island, was initially believed to have been killed by the military in the southern Philippines in January 2008. However DNA tests of the body of the slain man raised doubts that it was Dulmatin.

Patek and Dulmatin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, have been hiding out in the Philippine jungle with the Abu Sayyaf group since 2003, intelligence officials have said. The US State Department has offered a reward of US$10 million (S$14 million) for information leading to the arrest of Dulmatin, and $1 million for Patek. — AFP

source: straits times

2. 2 Malaysians abducted in Borneo, affirming warning given by US authorities last month

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia) - MALAYSIAN police said on Monday that two men have been abducted by gunmen near a Borneo town which the United States warned last month was being targeted by criminal and terrorist groups.

Noor Rashid Ibrahim, police chief in Sabah state, said the maritime border with the Philippines, which lies to the north of Borneo, had been sealed off to prevent the gunmen from escaping.

He said that the two abducted men, Malaysians working at a seaweed farm near the fishing town of Semporna were seized in the early hours of Monday by five men armed with two rifles. ‘Based on police investigation, the group is believed to be comprised of foreigners and locals out to commit robbery,’ he told reporters.

Mr Noor Rashid declined to say which country they came from, and also sidestepped questions over whether they were from the Abu Sayyaf militant group which is active in the southern Philippines.

The US embassy in Kuala Lumpur had warned that there were indications of strikes being planned in isolated areas of eastern Sabah state, including the diving resort of Sipadan as well as the destinations of Semporna and Mabul.

Mr Noor Rashid said that the two kidnapped men were a 40-year-old manager and a 25-year-old farm supervisor. He said their abductors arrived in a narrow-hulled boat and were believed to still be in Malaysian waters. — AFP

source: straits times

3. Malians face cocaine charges in the US: drug trafficking, FARC, al qaeda, Europe, West Africa

Three men have been charged with plotting to transport tons of cocaine across Africa with the help of Al Qaeda. The three defendants all of them from Mali, were arrested in Ghana on Wednesday and flown to the United States on Thursday night. The men said that they were helping some people set up a trafficking network to move what they thought was FARC’s cocaine from Ghana to the deserts of North Africa to Spain.

The 3 whose names were given as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman, were charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist groups: Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the FARC.

According to the charges, the men were alleged to be members of a criminal organization operating in the West African countries of Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali and that they worked with Al Qaeda groups in the region which ultimately promised to provide security for the North African leg of the journey. According to the New York Times, the three men were charged under statutes passed in 2006 that gave federal drug agents the authority to pursue narcotics and terrorism crimes committed anywhere in the world if a link between a drug offense and a specified act of terrorism or terrorist group could be established.

source: Newstime Africa

4. Plot foiled to bomb Americans in Pakistan hotel — police get testy with reporters

LAHORE—Pakistan police claimed Monday to have arrested six suspects, including a would-be suicide bomber, who were plotting to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans. Police recovered an explosive-laden suicide vest fitted with 26 hand grenades during the operation in Lahore, the country’s second-biggest city, senior police superintendent Zulfikar Hameed told a news conference.

Police in Pakistan, which is under huge US pressure to do more to root out Islamist militants, routinely claim to foil high-profile attacks, most often in Karachi, but rarely release any details of the alleged plots. It is not possible to confirm the alleged plots independently.

The six suspects were paraded at the news conference wearing black masks to hide their identity….

Police also recovered four kilograms (nine pounds) of hashish, he added.

But officers angrily called a swift end to the news conference after a television reporter snatched away a hood, unmasking one of the suspects.

“If you behave like this we will not invite media in the future,” one police inspector said.

more @ inquirer

5. India: asks officers to please not speak to reporters there are too many leaks!

CBI officials are not allowed to interact with the media under their service rules. Only the CBI director and the chief PRO is allowed to interact with reporters and share details of stories. Journalists are not allowed to carry mobile phones, camera, laptop and other electronic gadgets inside the CBI headquarters at the CGO complex in New Delhi.

A new circular issued by the top brass of the agency has asked the officers to refrain from speaking to the media.

The agency sleuths are anyway not supposed to talk to the press under the service rules laid down for them, so why the circular?”The directions are against any particular group of mediapersons or individuals. It is only meant to alert the officials from some fake journalists who can misuse the information imparted to them,” explained an official spokesperson for the top investigating agency.

CBI sources told MiD DAY that though no such journalist has been encountered by the agency, so far but the circular seems a clear effort to “safeguard the secrets better.” While contents of the circular, issued last week, is being guarded as a much-valued secret, sources said it is “very clear and categorical in nature.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, highly-placed officials in the CBI headquarters told the agency has already been under fire from various quarters for cases under its investigation, the word of caution would help the agency to stem bad publicity. They also pointed out that the notice is “actually about mediapersons who could be trying to do sting operations on cases being investigated by the CBI.”

“Recently, the agency came under public scrutiny after news reports related to Sant Singh Chatwal. Though public enjoy such investigative stories but sometimes the repercussions are very hard on the CBI officials related to that particular case. It is assumed that the story leaked from their end,” said a senior CBI official, requesting anonymity.

Sant Singh Chatwal whose name appeared in the latest list of Padma awardees was later discovered as a multiple offender who has been under CBI scanner for cases of fraud against him. Earlier the CBI had earned public ire for its probe into cases against Bofors kickbacks accused Ottavio Quattrocchi. “Of late the department became a subject of ridicule on issues like Bofors, Nithari, kidney transplant racket, Arushi double murder case and Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. It is assumed that officers connected to the cases leak information to the media and hence the notice,” the officer said.

source: mid-day

Narrative limps along slowly in Mexico shooting cases: drug trafficking, gunmen escape and reportedly go on to kill others, arrests of a few people around the edges. evidently some people are supposed to get away with murder.

1. a suspected lookout arrested in attack that killed 15 youth in Ciudad Juarez

Reporting from Mexico City — Authorities in the border city of Ciudad Juarez said on Tuesday night that they had arrested a man suspected of taking part in a shooting attack on a high-school party that killed at least 15 people early Sunday.

Officials summoned reporters to see the suspect, who said in their presence that the main Juarez-based drug cartel targeted the party because it had received reports that members of a rival trafficking group were in attendance.

The suspect, identified as Jose Dolores Arroyo Chavarria, said he acted as a lookout for the 24 or so gunmen he said took part. He said they were ordered to kill everyone inside.

Authorities said they arrested the suspect Monday afternoon after army troops interrupted the planned assassination of a drug rival. Killed during that gunfight was one of the men who allegedly supervised the assault on the party, in which dozens of young people packed a private home.

Officials said some of the same gunmen are believed to be responsible for the killings of four people Monday at a dance hall.

Authorities in the state of Chihuahua on Tuesday gave the number of dead as 15, though a day earlier they had said 16 died, a figure corroborated by local news reports.

Parents of the slain teens have denied that their children were involved in criminal activity.

source: la times

2. another arrest in the same case

Police have made a second arrest in connection with last weekend’s party massacre which left 15 people dead in the Colonia Salvarcar of Cuidad Juarez. Witnesses at the site of the massacre said they believed one of the “lookouts” for the group of armed men was driving a Jeep Cherokee.

Police said the witnesses gave police a description of the jeep and the license plate number. Police stopped the Jeep Cherokee and arrested the driver, Israel Arzate Melendez, who later confessed to taking part in the massacre. Juarez police say they now know the names of three other suspects.

http://www.foxrio2.com/2nd-shooting-suspect-arrested-in-cuidad-juarez/

3. Salvadore Cabanas case: just unconfirmed rumors (links removed)
Salvador Cabañas: Assailant Captured and Arrested in Sonora? True? Or Rumors?

Al Dia, Costa Rica newspaper, has reported that the Mexican newspaper, Diario Reforma, suggests that Jose Jorge Balderas (aka. JJ or el Modelo), Salvador Cabañas’ assailant, has been captured and arrested by Mexican authorities. Baldera was staying at a local hotel in the Municipality of Puerto Peñasco located in the State of Sonora.

According to Al Dia, it appears that media reports have been confirmed by the State Attorney General’s Office and Notimex, the official Mexican Government News Agency. However, no other governmental office has either confirmed or denied this rumor.

http://www.beautifulfootball.info/2010/02/salvador-caba%C3%B1as-assailant-captured-and-arrested-in-sonora-true-or-rumors.html

another independent media owner murdered

Feb 8

Posted by A. Peasant in Corruption & Crime, France, India, Media, Mumbai, Terrorism | No Comments

Recall the Hadjicostis murder: an independent media owner shot by men on a motorcycle, during daylight, near embassies.

Another murder this weekend, strikingly similar to the Hadjicostis murder, but this time in Kathmandu:

Chairman of Space Time Network and Channel Nepal, Jamim Shah was shot dead by an unknown gang at Lajimpat Sunday’s afternoon. The unidentified person riding a motorcycle shot Chairman Shah near French Embassy, Lajimpat at 2:55 pm. He was immediately taken to TU Teaching Hospital, but in vain. Shot on chest and head, he breathed his last on the way to the Hospital. Chauffeur Mathura Man Malakar was also injured seriously in the firing.

…Meanwhile, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has expressed deep grief over the killing of Jamim Shah, the Chairman of Channel Nepal, the first television channel of Nepal, and Space Time Network.

The killing of a prestigious person in broad daylight in the sensitive and important place of the capital city proves that ………

the security situation in the country was very lax, the FNJ said, making strong demand to the government to immediately initiate the investigation into the crime and bring the culprits to book.

Maybe. Maybe it proves something else. Sometimes security seems to be lax on purpose.

A gangster claims responsibility.

Avenues Television, a private television station, Monday said it received a call from a man who identified himself as Bharat Nepali and said he had masterminded the death of Shah, who is alleged to have had links with another underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Nepali was reported last year to have split from the Chhota Rajan gang to start his own. He faces several murder charges and has been absconding in India. Nepal’s coalition government said it was unaware of the claim.

…Shah was returning home from a health club at a five-star hotel when slow traffic forced his Pajero to come to a stop near the French Embassy in Kathmandu’s VIP area that houses four embassies. A motorcycle drew up to the car and the pillion rider walked over and fired through the open window.

Shot in the chest and neck, Shah died while being taken to hospital; his driver Mathura Man Malakar received leg injuries.

The assailants’ bike had a fake number plate. Ansari said the hit job was the work of an organised gang. Nepal’s media world has condemned the incident and warned they would start a protest movement if the murderers were not arrested soon.

Even before the call to the television station came, there was conjecture that Chhota Rajan had a hand in Shah’s killing.

In 1998, a powerful Nepali MP who was also alleged to have links with Dawood and the ISI, was shot dead in a similar way in Kathmandu. Mirza Dilshad Beg’s murder is believed to have been the handiwork of the Chhota Rajan who fell out with Dawood.

A faction in India accused Shah of being anti-Indian and linked him to Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, but this has not been proven.

A section of Indian media that is better known for jumping the gun in matters related to regional security and politics have alleged that Shah’s media outlets were routinely used for anti-India propaganda….

“Shah ran the Channel Nepal television station that in 2000 instigated anti-India riots when it falsely reported Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan as saying that he hated Nepalis,” claims a report by carried by Times of India. “Four people died in the violence that followed and scores of Indian shops and businesses came under attack. Though the channel was banned for some time, it was lifted once the furore receded.”

Here’s what India’s government-controlled news agency Press Trust of India wrote about Shah: “The Nepali media mogul is alleged to have links with the underworld, including Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, allegations he had consistently denied. It was also alleged that his TV channel had received investments from underworld sources.”

It was widely reported at that time that a local Nepali-language weekly from Chitwan had originally carried such report about Roshan and afterwards major media from Kathmandu quoted the same report. Shah may be guilty for his alleged anti-India activities on Nepali soil but that was never verified. Neither we heard of any reports of India sharing its intelligence about Shah’s anti-India activities with Nepali authorities. There are many media outlets in Nepal (particularly newspapers) that are believed to be run (or help run) by the Indian embassy in Kathmandu because they run not only hagiographic reports about everything-India but also negative reports about Pakistan. About Shah too, there were rumors in Kahtmandu about his anti-India things but again they were never challenged in related authorities.

Additional details of the murder:

KATHMANDU, Feb 7: Media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, 47, was shot dead by two motorbike-borne masked men in Lazimpat, a high priority security zone of the capital, on Sunday afternoon. He received three bullets — one in the head and two in chest — fired from a point blank range.

…Shah was apparently being followed after he left Yak & Yeti Hotel– where he took sauna bath. He was attacked by gunmen near the French embassy, while heading home to Panipokhari on his car (Na 1 Cha 2151).

The place where the incident took place is quite close to the Indian and British Embassies and is only about a kilometer away from the president´s office, Sheetal Niwas, where security personnel had been deployed in large numbers owing to the movement of Vice-president Paramananda Jha´s for oath retake.

…The pillion rider on the Yamaha Escort bike, with fake number plate (Ba 15 Pa 8733) as claimed by the police, caught up with his Pajero and first fired through the left hand side window and then, having overtaken, straight through the windscreen. Police has recovered a 9 mm bullet from the scene. The attackers could have used a silencer pistol as witnesses did not apparently hear sound of gunfire, said the police.

The media baron, who also ran two vernacular dailies for four years since 2001, had also courted controversy for his alleged links with Dawood Ibrahim and ISI, which he always denied stoutly.

The second son of Dr Mohim Shah, a retired senior government officer, is survived by wife Anjali and son Jacky, 24. According to family sources, Anjali had flown to East Timor for a personal visit with two other relatives a few days ago. Jacky, a young musician has been living in US.

Security officers tally the modus operandi of Shah´s murder with that of Mirza Dilshad Beg 12 years ago, who courted controversy for similar allegations.

Police arrested eight persons on suspicion of involvement in the incident till Sunday evening but an investigative official at Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) said on condition of anonymity that real culprits could be hiding in ´star hotels´. According to SP Ganesh KC, chief of MPRK, the shooters had a black complexion and wore black jackets.

While there are widespread suspicions about “international links” behind the homicide, a high level intelligence source said that the killing might be an act of revenge by a local party with whom Jamim had a long animosity. The source even warned another partner of the dispute could meet the same fate.

In 2004, the Times of India reported on Shah’s alleged links to Dawood Ibrahim.

The Indian government has officially asked Nepal to investigate the emerging media mogul’s links to Dawood Ibrahim, specifically to assert that the D-Company has heavily invested in Shah’s media empire in the Himalayan kingdom….According to the Indian government, Dawood Ibraham has heavily invested in the ventures and Shah is only a caretaker for the Karachi-based Mumbai don who was declared a global terrorist by the US authorities recently.

The Indian embassy in its letter last week to Nepal government said it had “credible information” that Dawood has heavily invested in Shah’s ventures and asked for an immediate investigation. The allegations are not new, but it is probably for the first time that India is claiming that it has such concrete evidence….Shah was emphatic when he denied any wrong on his part during a long interview this correspondent had with him on a rain-swept evening at his office in Kathmandu. The man laughed and often kept poker face while denying being in a Pakistani jail, or being Dawood’s front man, or even a smuggler. His mother’s sudden death, Shah said in tears, was because of such allegations by India and his business rivals.

…But last week’s letter to Nepal government indicates that Indian agencies may have managed irrefutable evidence to nail Shah. In the post-9/11 scenario and due to its heavy dependence on India, Nepal government cannot just ignore the Indian demand for detailed investigations against Shah. But it may not be easy to nail Shah, given the fact that he has friends far and wide in Nepal, and even within the palace.

Evidently, whatever the “irrefutable” evidence the Indian government had in 2004, it was insufficiently irrefutable to procure his arrest. And now he’s dead. The wanted man is dead, murdered in broad daylight in front of the French embassy in a heavily secured area.

The Himalayan Times, quoting a witness, reported that the gunmen came nose-to-nose with Shah and then shot him several times and then quickly escaped from the crime scene.

Did someone deliver a personal message?

Also, police admit to “weakness” as they detain 18 people for questioning.

Police have raided various suspicious places of the capital last night and detained 18 persons in suspicion of involvement in the incident or having information about the murder of Jamim Shah.

Talking to Kantipur FM Monday morning, Nepal Police spokesperson Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Bigyan Raj Sharma said, police had sealed all exit points from Kathmandu, scanned suspicious persons leaving the valley, and mobilised security personnel in plain clothes to seek information on the incident.

Indirectly conceding weakness of security personnel in the incident DIG Sharma said, the police are investigating the incident from all angles. Meanwhile, a meeting of the top security officers held at the police headquarters Sunday accepted weakness of the police as the murderers fled from the scene without being caught.

Police have said, a silencer could have been used with the gun used to fire at Shah as police personnel deployed in the nearby security posts said they did not hear the firing.

There are at least half-dozen embassies around the area where the firing took place and the murders had fled through the road along the President’s office and Police training academy among other places with high security sensitivity.

UPDATE: Two more unconfirmed but interesting details:

1) It was reported Shah was scheduled to make a visit at the French embassy.

2) A sharpshooter attacked Shah (52) just outside the French Embassy in Lazmipat on the main road….The police said ‘it has not ruled out any possibility, including the use of cross border criminals and syndicate given the use of sharpshooter’ in the crime’.

Other reports give his age as 45.

Other reports say he was shot three times at point blank range — twice in the head and once in the chest.

For the purposes of American consumption, the narrative goes roughly like this: Two men gun down self-made media tycoon near French embassy. Possible connection to “international crime syndicate” next breath Dawood Ibrahim. That should remind you of Mumbai and Pakistan and terrorism.

unauthorized terrorist incident and worldwide tentacles of money laundering (hawala)

Feb 8

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Corruption & Crime, France, India, Italy, Money Laundering, Nigeria, Psychopaths, Terrorism, UK | No Comments

1. “terrorist” on a Dubai-bound plane incident in India brushed under the rug as a “family dispute” — sociopath son wants his dad’s property so pulls this stunt… oh that’s a little inconvenient for our war on terror. nevermind!!

That’s why Arif Khan laid the ‘terrorist on board’ trap for his father, who was on the same flight, say police; the latter has been detained

A son’s desire to see his father behind bars may have been behind the drama surrounding the Emirates flight yesterday. The Dubai-bound flight, with 356 passengers and crew on board, was grounded for four hours in Mumbai, after an anonymous phone call before takeoff warned about the presence of a ‘terrorist’ on board.

A businessman Shahbaz Khan and his wife Munira were detained. The MRA Marg police believe that the caller was none other than their son Arif, who is embroiled in a property dispute with them.

Sanjeev Kokil, senior police inspector, MRA Marg police station, said, “I am cent sure that the son has done this. If the Sahar police ask for our help, we will prove this. Arif, at regular intervals, comes out with a plan to frame his father, so that he can lay his hands on his property.”

Kokil added that when Shahbaz was contesting the Assembly elections in 2009 from Colaba “Arif made a call to the Election Commissioner, saying his father had a criminal background and should not be allowed to contest”.

Criminal record

Arif and his father are locked in a dispute over a flat belonging to Shahbaz, which is currently leased to a tenant. Arif was even sent to seven days’ police custody for stealing from the tenant’s home. Said Kokil, “In June 2009, he entered the tenant’s house and stole everything. He even put up his nameplate on the door, stating that he was the owner of the property.” When cops arrested Arif, he confessed.

The father and son have also registered a number of non cognizable complaints against each other.

“Shahbaz always helps the poor, helps them get treatment at local hospitals. His son has ruined him,” rued Kokil.

Neighbours say

When MiD DAY reached Arif’s house on Modi Street in Fort, a female family member said, “Shahbaz and Munira have gone to Dubai and Arif is not at home. When Arif returns, I’ll ask him to call you.”

A neighbour said, “Arif is stupid. All the people in the building are fed up of him. Wonder how the father is tolerating the son. He is always shouting at his father and disturbing the building.”

Another neighbour added, “Arif has not only given a bad name to his family, but also to the entire building.”

DCP Zone 8, Brijesh Singh said, “We cannot confirm any thing. Whether the arrested people are members of a terrorist group or if the call was a hoax — everything is under investigation.”

A senior ATC official said, “We got a call from the airport manager around 9.55 am that a terrorist was on the flight and sent a message to the captain not to take off.”

An Emirates spokesperson said, “We handed over a passenger and his wife to the police. We are cooperating with them.”

source: mid-day

2. India: IAS officer with 220 bank accounts, assets worth millions

An Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) in Chhattisgarh has been found to have a staggering 220 bank accounts and assets worth millions of rupees. This was revealed after the income tax department raided his residence here, official sources said on Saturday.

The IT department raided the houses of some IAS officers and businessmen in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the past two days. Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party government is waiting for a final report from the IT department about Agriculture Secretary BL Agrawal’s assets to initiate action against him. IT officials searched the residence of Agrawal as well as business establishments of his close relatives on Thursday. On Friday, the officials similarly raided his chartered account Sunil Agrawal’s house and came across documents suggesting that the IAS officer had amassed assets disproportionate to his known income.

The officer had at least 220 bank accounts, several of them opened on fake names and addresses, and a few in the names of his domestic helps.

Efforts to contact BL Agrawal failed. A man who answered his mobile telephone said Agrawal was busy in a meeting.

Income Tax department sources said they were analysing the documents and papers they seized. Some documents suggest he might be involved in hawala transactions, the sources said.

The Madhya Pradesh government had on Friday suspended a Bhopal-based IAS couple - women and child development department principal secretary Tinu Joshi and her husband Arvind Joshi, principal secretary of the jail and parliamentary affairs department. IT department found Rs three crore in unaccounted cash in a raid on their residence on Thursday. Brajesh Gupta, Director General of Investigations (I-T) for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, said bank notes stuffed in a suitcase were recovered from the residence of the couple.

source: mid-day

3. hawala transactions: part of money laundering
Hawala (also known as hundi) is an informal value transfer system based on the performance and honor of a huge network of money brokers, which are primarily located in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and South Asia….In the most basic variant of the hawala system, money is transferred via a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars. A customer approaches a hawala broker in one city and gives a sum of money to be transferred to a recipient in another, usually foreign, city. The hawala broker calls another hawala broker in the recipient’s city, gives disposition instructions of the funds (usually minus a small commission), and promises to settle the debt at a later date.

The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers; the transaction takes place entirely on the honor system. As the system does not depend on the legal enforceability of claims, it can operate even in the absence of a legal and juridical environment. No records are produced of individual transactions; only a running tally of the amount owed by one broker to another is kept. Settlements of debts between hawala brokers can take a variety of forms, and need not take the form of direct cash transactions.

more @ wikipedia

also see: Interpol http://www.interpol.int/Public/FinancialCrime/MoneyLaundering/Hawala/default.asp

also see: IMF http://www.gdrc.org/icm/hawala.html

See? they know all about it.

4. India: SIFO (serious fraud investigation department) not all the serious — unlikely to get power to track funds parked abroad. that might impinge on the money laundering!

NEW DELHI: The government has said it is not considering to give the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) the powers to trail money stashed abroad by corporates.

A corporate fraud investigating body under the corporate affairs ministry (MCA), the SFIO has for long been seeking powers to carry out investigations abroad. The SFIO is one of the agencies probing the multi-crore Satyam scam on which it has submitted a 14,000-page report.
“Not just during Satyam, but even before that we have been asking the MCA to permit us to carry out investigations abroad. We cannot trail funds abroad, therefore, we could not completely probe the Satyam fraud,” an SFIO official said.

Set up in 2003, the government plans to give the SFIO more teeth in the new Companies Bill, which was tabled in Parliament last August. However, the government officials say allowing the SFIO to probe cases related to routing of money outside the country is not a part of the proposal.

When contacted, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said, “No, there is no proposal to allow the SFIO carry out investigations abroad. There is no point. We do not want duplication of work, as the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are already equipped to do that job.”

Diversion of funds is a Companies Act violation, but when funds are hived off abroad it becomes a hawala transaction, and falls under the ambit of the ED, the minister explained.

The proposals to give the Serious Frauds Investigation Office more teeth for investigation, is mostly based on the recommendations of the V Vepa Kamesam Committee, Khurshid had earlier said. Giving the SFIO powers to trail money stashed away abroad is, however, not part of the committee’s suggestions.

The eight-member committee has suggested that the SFIO be given exclusive jurisdiction to probe and prosecute entities involved in financial frauds, besides also probing cases related erring entities/individuals like chartered accountants and company secretaries.

The committee is of the opinion that power of search and seizure, and attachment should be entrusted with the SFIO as available with the Income Tax authorities, Customs, Enforcement Directorate etc. It has also suggested that the SFIO be empowered to take up a case suo moto and even on a source-based information if a corporate fraud has been committed.

The committee has also called for the SFIO having flexibility to outsource the services of experts like chartered accountants, legal experts
etc and officers joining the investigating agency on deputation be ensured protection of their existing pay and allowances, sources said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/SFIO-unlikely-to-get-power-to-track-funds-parked-abroad/articleshow/5546719.cms

5. 1/18/10: enough evidence to arrest hawala kingpin: Naresh Jain — linked to Dubai, Pakistan, Italy, Dawood Ibrahim

New Delhi: A Delhi court today said there was “sufficient material” with Narcotics Control Bureau to arrest alleged hawala kingpin Naresh Kumar Jain for his reported complicity in international drug trafficking trade.

“The accused has rightly been arrested. There is sufficient material to effect his arrest under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act,” additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain said.

The court, which extended the judicial remand of Jain till February 1, trashed his plea that he has “wrongly” been arrested by NCB, that too at the instance of Enforcement Directorate (ED).

“The accused is involved in nefarious activities of drugs trade and money laundering… investigation has revealed that the proceeds of the drugs trade were being laundered through hawala banking,” Rajesh Manchanda, special public prosecutor for NCB, told the court.

Jain was being supported by Dubai-based Ahmed Parvez, a Pakistan national, who is now being prosecuted in Italy, in the hawala trade, the prosecutor claimed.

Besides NCB, ED has also filed a separate case against Jain under various provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for his alleged hawala transactions relating to proceeds of drugs trade.

Naveen Kumar Matta, special prosecutor for ED, had earlier informed another court that the probe into the money trail of Jain was at a “crucial” stage. Jain was arrested by NCB on December 6 last year for allegedly financing and transporting narcotic drugs.

The accused, who used to run M/s Kumar Trading Company in Dubai, was arrested there as well after it came to light that sale proceeds of drugs, running into several crores of rupees, were credited in the firm’s account, the ED had said.

The money was transferred into the account of the company from Europe, China and Africa, it said.

The accused was also under the surveillance of the US authorities which had confiscated $4.3 million from Jain in June last year, they added. It also alleged the accused had financed persons involved in drug syndicate in India and abroad.

He allegedly laundered money for global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and financed narcotic cells.

source: DNA india

6. 2/7/10: REMINISCENT OF HADJICOSTIS MURDER, gunmen kill Nepal media baron with alleged Dawood links in broad daylight near French, Indian and British embassies in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU: Twelve years after Mirza Dilshad Beg, a controversial – and powerful – Nepali MP with links with Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI, was gunned down on a public road in Kathmandu by a rival gang, a Nepali media baron, also rumoured to have the same connexions, shared the same fate.

Jamim Shah, a Nepali of Kashmiri origin who headed the Space Time Network, was gunned down in broad daylight near the French Embassy in Kathmandu’s crowded Lazimpat area on Sunday, close to the Indian and British Embassies. Police told TNN two masked men on a motorcycle fired at Shah’s car around 2.55 pm, hitting both him and his chauffeur, Mathura Man Malakar. Shah, in his 40s, was shot in the chest and died while being treated at the nearby Teaching Hospital. Malakar has been hit in his left thigh.

Though police were informed about the number of the motorcycle, no arrests had been made till the time of writing this report. Shah ran the Channel Nepal television station that in 2000 instigated anti-India riots when it falsely reported Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan as saying that he hated Nepalis. Four people died in the violence that followed and scores of Indian shops and businesses came under attack. Though the channel was banned for some time, it was lifted once the furore receded.

Shah also ran a newspaper, Space Time, that carried anti-India propaganda. In 2004, he came under the ire of the Indian government who asked Nepal to freeze the assets of Space Time Network, alleging that it was funded by Dawood. Shah is also believed to have had ISI links. However, he had stoutly denied both allegations.

Shah’s killing comes after the arrest of Yunus Ansari, son of former Nepal minister Salim Miya Ansari. Ansari was caught recently after Nepal police busted a fake Indian currency network that ran from Karachi. Yunus Ansari is currently behind bars.

source: times of india

7. f**k India group on Facebook may be banned, complaint lodged with President’s office

Youtube videos belonging to India or Pakistan have been a favourite ground for warring groups from the two countries to vent their ire.Going by the war of words, one can easily imagine the fate of track two diplomacy. It shows that if such groups are let loose they will wage a bitter war than what the armies from both sides could achieve.
F**k India - a group on the social networking website, Facebook - has solicited a similar response.
The web page that shows “F**k India” written in the middle of the national tricolour says Pakistan Zindabad in its description.

But, as the anti-group is getting stronger with the membership going up by leaps and bounds, the web page may soon be banned.

Naresh Kadyan, an animal rights activist, has written to the President of India on February 7 demanding an immediate ban on the site, and has recommended corrective measures to the department concerned.

Forwarding the url link to the objectionable website, Kadyan, has written in his complaint : “I have seen many hate material on the web about India and our beloved leaders. Few years ago, I moved a public interest litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High court, seeking removal of vulgar content from Youtube. Following my plea, the controversial Gandhi pole dance was also removed from the Internet.”

“There are many communities on Facebook that spread hate against India, violating National Flag Code of India as well. Hence, you are requested to look into the matter for concerned authorities to take legal action against offenders and promoters. Both Orkut and Facebook may also be directed to filter such content,” the letter to the President read.

more @ source: mid-day

8. Africa: Atiku deals with the Mafia

Three months after his re-election as Nigeria’s Vice President, in August 2003, Atiku Abubakar was the guest of Domenico Gitto, who anonymous risk consultants and media sources say is a member of the Italian mafia clan Provenzano and owner of Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited. The meeting was held at Mr. Gitto’s home in Sicily, Italy.

This revelation, based on NEXT’s ongoing investigations into the connections between foreign interests and Nigerian politicians, also shows that a major fallout of Mr. Atiku’s visit was a significant jump in the fortunes of Gitto Construzioni which subsequently earned contracts worth over N100 billion from different tiers of government in Nigeria.

Mr. Atiku was accompanied on that trip by his wife, Jennifer Douglas Abubakar; two of his political associates, Boni Haruna, then governor of Adamawa State, and Musa Adede, a former senator; as well as two Italian business associates, Gabrielle Volpi, and Angelo Perucci, believed to be members of a different mafia family.

Garba Shehu, the former Vice President’s media officer told NEXT when contacted on this matter that “Atiku has always wanted more world renowned companies to compete for construction business in Nigeria” and that “When Gitto made an entry into the country, Intels of which he (Atiku) is a shareholder bought 5% stake. Intels became unhappy with Gitto at certain stage and decided to divest. That ended the relationship.”

The Gitto revelation further puts Mr. Atiku in a negative spotlight at a time when he is under harsh scrutiny for money laundering by congressional investigators in the United States.

Last Wednesday, the United States Senate’s permanent sub-committee on investigations, which is affiliated to the committee on homeland securities and intergovernmental affairs, stated in its report that “from 2000 to 2008, Ms. Douglas (Jennifer Abubakar) helped her husband (Atiku Abubakar) bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States, including at least $1.7 million in bribe payments from Siemens AG, a German corporation, and over $38 million from little known offshore corporations, primarily LetsGo Ltd. Inc., Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd., and Sima Holding Ltd.”

more @ next

diplomacy: a poke in the eye, a wink across the room…

Feb 5

Posted by A. Peasant in Diplomats, Georgia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Unreality, Venezuela | No Comments

1. Moscow wants answers from US on Romania missile shield plan as US does what looks like a work-around

Moscow is waiting for clarification from the United States over its plans to deploy missile defense elements in Romania, the Russian foreign minister said Friday. Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday his country had approved a U.S. plan to deploy interceptor missiles as part of a missile shield to protect Europe.

“We expect the United States to provide an exhaustive explanation, taking into account the fact that the Black Sea regime is regulated by the Montreux Convention,” Sergei Lavrov said. He said Russia acted on the assumption that “there is an agreement between the two presidents on the joint study of common threats, with the participation of the European Union.” “When we understand that we have a common understanding of possible threats, it will be possible to say what measures could be taken in response,” the minister said.

A U.S. State Department official said the facilities were due to become operational by 2015 and were aimed at defending against “current and emerging ballistic missile threats from Iran.” U.S. President Barack Obama scrapped plans last year for Poland and the Czech Republic to host missile shield elements to counter possible strikes from Iran. The plans had infuriated Russia.

Washington then announced a new scheme for a more flexible system, with a combination of land- and sea-based interceptors, to be deployed in Central Europe by 2015. U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden visited Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic last October to promote the new missile shield plan. Warsaw and Prague have already expressed their support for the revamped U.S. strategy.

BERLIN, February 5 (RIA Novosti)

2. US determined to park missiles as close to Russia as possible

Russia is very close. There are about 500 kilometers between Romania and Russia’s major naval base in Sevastopol. Russia’s southern areas are close too. Even if the missile base is not going to be a threat to Russia, as the Romanian president said, Russia is not thrilled about such a neighborhood.

Romania was prepared to provide its territory for the missile defense system several years ago. In 2005, Romania was mentioned as a location for CIA’s secret prisons. President Basescu did not feel shy to call the United States Romania’s main strategic partner.

One has to give Basescu credit for his determination as a politician. Romania became a member of the European Union in 2007 despite such deviations from the rules as an extremely low living standard.

The deployment of US military objects in Romania will not improve security in the region, but US and Romanian officials do not seem to care much about it.

more @ pravda

3. Saakashvili attacked on all fronts

The authorities’ opponents say that Saakashvili is losing not only Europe’s support but the support of the blessed West as well. First, there appeared information about the Georgian president being abandoned by his American advisor Daniel Kunin. The press service, however, denied the fact. As was stated by Press Speaker Manana Mandzhgaladze, the information does not quadrate to facts. For instance, one of these days, the All News Georgian edition has published an article titled: “Saakashvili may be seriously concerned about his political future”.

The newspaper pays attention to the fact that the general attitude of the most foreign media towards the Georgian president who had been treated as a golden boy in Washington has switched to negative. “There are many articles saying that Georgia has got an image of an unstable country because of Saakashvili’s policy, which prevents the inflow of considerable investments to Georgia”, - the periodical reports.

The foreign friends seemed to forget to invite the Caucasian democrat to the Munich conference on safety policy that will be held on February 5-7. The oppositional Georgian media noticed mockingly that this fact confirmed Mikhail Nikolaevitch being in disfavor of his friends and partners. The press service asserts that he does not come to Munich because of being too busy. The official authorities did not make any comments as to the fact that leader of the oppositional Alliance for Georgia Irakliy Alasania has been officially invited to Munich to represent Georgia this year.

more @ georgia times

3. Daniel Kunin interview from August 2008 w/ telegraph uk

Meanwhile, Mr Kunin has been working hard to keep himself below the radar. This is his first interview. One of the reasons for this secrecy may be that until March this year he was being paid by USAID (the US government’s development arm). Mr Kunin insists that he was a consultant paid by the US, not an employee - and therefore not beholden in any way - but as the calls on his mobile phone suggest, clearly this is the man that provides the link with America.

If Mr Saakashivili is winning the propaganda war against the Kremlin, Daniel Kunin is his general, tutoring him on his press appearances, advising on strategy and trying to spin the criticism that the Georgian administration is receiving of both breath-taking naivety and recklessness in baiting the bear of Russia. But did the confidence in his pro-West PR campaign create so much confidence that it caused Mr Saakashvili to over-reach himself, over-estimating the support he would get from the West, and thus causing his downfall?

“It wasn’t a case of over-estimating ourselves, but a case of under-estimating Russia,” he says. “There is a tendency to blame victim. Saying that it was Saakashvili’s gamble is a convenient way of ducking the issues, and not accepting responsibility for what they have to do.”

So is there any advice he regrets having given? “None at all,” says Mr. Kunin unrepentantly.

more @ telegraph

4. India breaks the ice, calls Pak for talks. the game seems to have changed a bit.

New Delhi In an incremental step aimed at restoring some official-level conversation on terrorism and a range of issues affecting bilateral ties, India has invited the Pakistan Foreign Secretary for talks to New Delhi.

While modalities will be worked out after a response from Islamabad, sources said the Indian side was hoping for a meeting this month.

In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said there were signals emanating from India that it was willing to hold bilateral talks….Sources said the government is moving cautiously this time given the political backlash after the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement which sought to delink the dialogue process from terrorism directed at India from Pakistan soil. This time the government is keen to make the point that the core focus at the talks will be on cross-border terrorism. At the same time, the discussions will look at other “peace and stability” issues….This dialogue also has a bearing on larger issues related to developments in the broader AfPak region. With its overtures drawing no answer from New Delhi, Islamabad had begun to take a more combative approach against involving India in any regional discussion on the future of Afghanistan. It was at Pakistan’s instance that India was not involved in the Turkey-sponsored regional meeting. The US too has been indicating to India that starting a conversation was better than having no interaction at all.

more @ express india

5. more regime change efforts

CARACAS (Venezuela) - VENEZUELA accused the United States on Thursday of portraying President Hugo Chavez’s government as thuggish in an effort to entice the opposition to try to topple the socialist leader.

Venezuela’s ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, took issue with an intelligence report presented to US senators earlier this week that described Mr Chavez as an autocratic leader who uses repression to stifle dissent.

In a letter sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Mr Alvarez rebuked the findings of the report, saying it ‘is full of politically motivated and cynical accusations’. Mr Alvarez called it part of a US campaign ‘to criminalise our government and encourage groups within Venezuela’s opposition to seek anti-democratic paths to take power’.

US officials have repeatedly denied they would support any attempt to unseat Mr Chavez through anti-democratic means, and Venezuela’s opposition leaders insist they want to remove the former paratrooper at the polls.

Mr Chavez vehemently rejects allegations that his government has sought to silence criticism, including using trumped up criminal charges to imprison or intimidate outspoken political adversaries. — AP

source: straits times

6. Dora Akunyili, Nigerian Information Minister, tells fellow ministers to stop lying about Yar’Adua

The cabinet must stop lying to Nigerians about President Yar’Adua’s illness and face up to the reality that he is no longer able to perform his duties; information minister Dora Akunyili bluntly admonished fellow ministers yesterday.

At the regular weekly meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation, Mrs Akunyili stunned her colleagues by presenting a memo in which she challenged them to tell Nigerians the truth about the president’s health and stop deceiving the people.

…

According to our sources, Mrs Akunyili had wanted to submit the memo through the cabinet office but was worried that the office might sit on the memo so she took it to the Council meeting to distribute.

NEXT however learnt that as soon as she began to do that, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation stood up to challenge her. He said what she was doing was irregular and she should have passed it through the cabinet office. Both the Minister of Water Resources, Ruma Sayyadi and his colleague in charge of transportation Diezani Allison-Madueke also supported Mr. Aondoakaa that she should follow procedures.

At this point, a perplexed Akunyili looked up to the Vice President for support but Mr. Jonathan told her to withdraw the memo and pass it through the requisite channels. With no support from her colleagues, Mrs Akunyili left the meeting and Mr. Yayale went around collecting all copies of the memo. Inevitably, the meeting which ended in less than two hours, discussed only one memo before it dispersed, without considering even the customary approval of contracts.

In a surprising twist, many of the ministers went to meet her and praised her candour after the meeting.

more @ next

India’s geostrategic role: enhance

Feb 3

Posted by A. Peasant in Canada, China, India, Military, Pakistan, Russia, Terrorism | No Comments

1. Harper for stronger Canada-India ties. kiss kiss hug hug.

Toronto: Canada and India must forge stronger trade, investment and educational ties to build a more productive friendship, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said. “Canada stands besides India as a steadfast and faithful friend,” Harper said in a message to a function organised by Panorama India to commemorate India’s 61st Republic Day celebration here. Outlining the many historical, cultural, social and economic ties between the two countries, Harper said: “These bonds are a solid foundation upon which we can build an even stronger, more productive friendship.”

more @ samachar

2. US more at ease with India’s rise than China’s ascent. and pakistan is at the geopolitical crossroads of the region and so maybe that explains why some people would really like to control pakistan, and the usual way of doing that sort of thing is to destroy the country and take it over from the inside, as in iraq and afghanistan

The Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) 2010 has recognized ”a more influential role in global affairs” for India including in the Indian Ocean region and beyond based on its commonalities with the US, while expressing Washington’s concern about the nature of China’s military development and decision-making processes.

The rise of China and India is a prominent theme underlying the QDR, a four-yearly document that offers a broad outline of US security posture that was released on Tuesday. While jettisoning the long-held goal of being able to fight two conventional wars at once (just when India is considering it) and recognizing a new range of threats including terrorism, the review also spells out US views of the two countries (China and India) it says will shape the international system in the years to come….The US policy projection comes at a time when there is much talk of India and China jostling for position and influence in the Indian Ocean region, and there are doubts and hand-wringing in New Delhi over Washington sidelining India in Afghanistan. in deference to a Pakistan-China flaking move. But the 2010 QDR is distinctly upbeat about its India outlook overall compared to reservations – laced with respect — about China.

…Virtually abandoning the US military’s traditional goal of being able to fight two conventional wars at once, the QDR instead emphases a new range of threats, including irregular warfare and cybersecurity. Urging a rethink on the ”construct” of national security, U.S defense secretary Robert Gates told reporters at Pentagon while releasing the report that ”we have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars that we planned”

In one of several references to the Af-Pak imbroglio, the QDR says the United States recognizes that Pakistan is at the geopolitical crossroads of South and Central Asia, giving it an important regional role in security and stability. ”Our efforts in Afghanistan are inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan. Though our partnership with Pakistan is focused urgently on confronting al-Qaida and its allies, America’s interest in Pakistan’s security and prosperity will endure long after the campaign ends. While the epicenter of the terrorist threat to the US is rooted in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the war against al-Qaida and its allies continues around the world,” it says.

more @ times of india

3. US gives India policing power in the Indian Ocean, citing same report

Taking note of India’s “growing influence” in global affairs, the US has said the country will be a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean and beyond with the growth of its military capabilities.

more @ times of india

4. intelligence blooper! 1/29/10 - there weren’t 50 hang gliders procured for terrorism, only 3.

New Delhi, Jan 29: Intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba has acquired as high as 50 para-gliding equipments for potential use to launch suicide attacks prompting a security alert in India ahead of the Republic Day appears to be a blooper.The Union Home Ministry has begun a discreet probe into the basis for the inputs with official sources today saying it has now emerged that only three para gliding equipments were procured from China. According to intelligence inputs ahead of the R-Day, LeT is believed to have procured 50 such equipments from Europe sending security personnel into a tizzy.

Official sources said the inquiry will focus on how the quantum of acquisition was apparently inflated irrespective of their source.

Senior officials in the Home ministry claimed that they had been briefed by the officials of the security agencies, who washed their hands off about the possibility of the para gliders being used to carry out terror strikes, sources said.

source

5. Monday: Russian NSA in Delhi to discuss terrorism

New Delhi: With the London conference clearing the way for reconciliation with the Taliban, national security advisers (NSA) of India and Russia will meet Monday to share views on the new strategy of integrating the hardline militia in Afghanistan that is a cause of concern to both countries.

National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation - the first foreign NSA to visit New Delhi since Menon assumed charge a week ago.

“Negotiations are expected to focus on topical issues of regional and international security, development of multifaceted Russian-Indian cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats,” the Russian embassy said here Sunday while announcing Patrushev’s visit.

The agenda includes exchange of opinions on such urgent problems as fight against international terrorism, illegal production and trafficking of drugs, the embassy said.

more @ zee news

karachi project and related news

Feb 3

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Identities, India, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terrorism | No Comments

1. tension in Mumbai, sports as the venue

Rejecting Shiv Sena contention of ‘Mumbai for Maharashtrians’ as “pernicious thesis”, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday that the financial capital belonged to all Indians who are free to live and work there. Speaking on Sena threats to Australian and Pakistani players’ participation in the IPL cricket event in Mumbai, the Home Minister asserted that he would “guarantee them full security.”

…Asked about safety of Australian and Pakistani players’ participating in IPL, Chidambaram said, “Let Australian players come to India. Let Pakistani players come to India. Let them play in Mumbai and I will guarantee them full security”. Sena had said its activists would not allow Australian players to play IPL matches in Maharashtra to protest the attacks on Indians in that country. The party has been opposing sporting ties with Pakistan contending that the neighbouring country has been supporting anti-India terrorists.

more @ samachar

2. ‘another LeT strike on India will undermine US efforts’ - PANETTA, CIA

Washington: Amidst reports that terror outfit LeT might be planning a major attack in India, the CIA chief today told US lawmakers that another such strike would undermine US efforts in Pakistan by raising tensions between the two neighbours.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said at a Congressional hearing that besides al Qaeda the US now faces a series of threats from terror groups like al-Shabaab, Hezbollah and Hamas. “A particular concern is Lashkar-e-Taiba which, if they should conduct an attack against India, could very well undermine our efforts in Pakistan,” Panetta said expressing his apprehension of the impact that attack could have on relationship between India and Pakistan.

Panetta said this in his appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which held a hearing on ‘Current Projected Threats to the United States’. A US-based security think tank in its yearly forecast had recently said that Pakistan-based terror groups have a “strategic intent” to launch major new attacks on the Indian soil to trigger a conflict between the two countries.

Panetta said one of the greatest concerns was of an al Qaeda attack on the United States, and the threat was a prime reason why the US has undertaken the task of dismantling terror infrastructure. He said the greatest threat comes from the fact that al Qaeda, which had launched the 9/11 attacks, had adapted its methods making them difficult to detect.

“We have done a very effective job at disrupting their operations in FATA,” forcing them to move to other regional nodes like Yemen and Somalia, the Maghreb and others, Panetta said. “I think intelligence confirms that they are finding it difficult to be able to engage in planning and command-and-control operations to put together a large attack,” he said.

He said the terrorists were now pursuing an effort to try to strike at the US in three ways, including deploying individuals like Zazi and Headley in the country and by using terrorists who have hitherto had “clean credentials” like Abdulmutallab. “And the third is the loner, an individual like Hasan (Texas military base shooter) who, out of self-radicalisation, decides that the moment has come to engage in an attack by himself,” Panetta said.

The bottom line here, he said, is that the war on terrorism is against a series of groups confronting the US.

Appearing before the same committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said al Qaeda trainers see Pakistan’s tribal areas as less secure and this had led al Qaeda to franchise into regional components in places such as North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. “This evolution has been most rapid with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which has changed from a regional group with links to al Qaeda to a global threat with reach into American cities such as Detroit,” he said.

source: zee news

3. suspected US drone strike kills 16 in NW Pak, Karachi violence continues - VOA

Suspected U.S. drones fired missiles at several suspected militant hideouts in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region Tuesday, killing at least 16 people. North Waziristan is known as a base for the Taliban-allied Haqqani group, which is blamed for cross-border attacks against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials do not publicly comment on the drone strikes, which have raised tensions between Pakistan and the United States in the past.

Meanwhile, the death toll from four days of violence in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi has reached at least 26, after at least six more people were killed Tuesday. The clashes appeared to be between activists from rival political parties - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party - which traditionally gather support from different ethnic groups.

source: VOA

4. Headley and Khwaja both talk about “karachi project” in which Pak trains Indian nationals to commit terror in India. so Pakistan can get Indians to strike India, and India can still blame everything on Pakistan for turning these people into terrorists i guess. right? but that would make Leon Panetta very sad, because he predicts that another LeT strike on India will ‘undermine US efforts’ with Pakistan, and perhaps spark a war between India and Pakistan…..which can be blamed on…….Pakistan.

Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI is planning to carry out terror attacks in the country and has put together a team of Indian jihadis in Karachi for the same, a media report claimed on Monday. The alleged plot has been revealed to investigators by terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, the report added.

The FBI had arrested Headley in Chicago in October last year. He is accused of conducting a recce of Mumbai and several other Indian cities on behalf of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for the 26/11 attacks. Khwaja, who is a member of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihad-i Islami (HuJI), was nabbed on January 18, and is currently in the custody of Hyderabad police.

The plot has been named “Karachi project”, details of which Headley has shared with FBI sleuths. The US investigating agency, on its part, has forwarded the details to New Delhi. According to sources, Headley has told the FBI that Indian nationals are being regularly trained for terror activities both by the ISI and the LeT. Once trained, these Indian jihadis are sent back to India for “terror projects” from time to time.

HuJI’s Khwaja, who was arrested by the Chennai police following his return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport, too has told investigators that the ISI-LeT Karachi project was a reality. According to sources, Khwaja has revealed that Karachi had a huge number of highly-indoctrinated jihadi Indian nationals.

Khwaja is also believed to have revealed that he met alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists Amir Raza Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal in Karachi, both of whom are staying in Karachi’s Defence Enclave, probably under the ISI protection.

source: zee news

5. possibly related, i guess we’ll see if they’re part of the same shadowy network: Indian militant arrested, confessed to planning air attacks, also “mastermind” arrested in multiple train blasts from 1993.. .

The arrested Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant and Delhi bomb blast accused Shehzad Ahmed alias Pappu confessed that the outfit was planning air attacks through its air terror module, reports Zee News. As per reports, Shehzad had undergone pilot training in Bangalore and was planning to carry out aerial attacks on key installations. He was also actively involved in the regrouping the IM following the death of key operative Atif Amin in the Batla House encounter and the arrest of Sadiq Sheikh. As per Sehzad’’s confession, besides the plan to carry out aerial attacks, the IM had also planned to plant bombs in education centres during the counselling season in May-June. He also, reportedly, revealed that the IM had sent young men out of the country for terror training by packing them in containers. As reported earlier, Shehzad was arrested by a joint team of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Delhi Police from his native village in Azamgarh District on February 1.

source

also: train blast mastermind nabbed

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested Hamiduddin alias Hamiruddin alias Salim, who was wanted in connection with the serial bomb blasts on running trains in different parts of the country in 1993.

Hamiduddin, who carried a reward of Rs. 50,000 on his head, was nabbed by the Special Task Force after an encounter on the outskirts of Lucknow, Additional Director-General ( Law and Order, STF and ATS) Brij Lal said here. A .32 bore pistol, a hand grenade and a fuse were seized from Hamiduddin, who had been absconding for the past 16 years. “Three other serial bomb blasts accused, Syed Abdul Kareem, Mohammad Tufail and Irfan Ahmed, are still at large. They belong to Ghaziabad, Hardoi and Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh,” Mr. Lal said. Hamiduddin was among the 15 persons who were instrumental in planting bombs aboard the Rajdhani Express, the Flying Queen Express and the A.P. Express in December 1993.

source

take one for the team

Feb 3

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, FBI, India, Israel, Limited Hangouts, Mossad, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terrorism | No Comments

aangirfan asks:

Were the Mumbai Attacks of 2008 an inside-job, involving the CIA, Mossad and corrupt elements of the Indian security services?

Recent news suggests that the Indian military is corrupt.

…The alleged Mumbai Attacks mastermind, the American David Headley, claimed to know the names and titles of senior Defence personnel in Mumbai and New Delhi. (HEADLEY-GATE)
On 8 February 2009, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi revealed that the Mumbai terror attacks could not have been carried out without internal help from India. (Indian Non Cooperation in the Mumbai Investigations)

On 12 February 2009, the Mumbai police Chief Hassan Ghafoor admitted that two Indians who were arrested by the Indian police had been involved in the Mumbai carnage.

Something to keep in mind when India accuses Pakistan of “dragging it’s feet” on the Mumbai investigation.

Today we learn of the “Karachi project.” Both Headley AND Khwaja have told their interrogators of this project. What could this mean?

The ISI has put together a team of Indian jihadis in Karachi, and is waiting to launch them into the country on a terrorist project, alleged terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad Khwaja have told their interrogators.

Headley was arrested by the FBI in Chicago in October last year, and is accused of recceing Mumbai and other Indian cities for the Lashkar-e-Toiba as part of the preparations for 26/11. Khwaja, belonging to the Harkat-ul Jihad-i Islami, was arrested on January 18, and is being held in Hyderabad.

Headley has described the “Karachi project” to FBI interrogators, details of which have been shared with New Delhi, sources said. He is believed to have said that both the ISI and the Lashkar have been training Indian nationals in terrorist activities, and using them for anti-India “projects” from time to time.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been able to unearth significant details about Headley’s movements in Pakistan through his e-mail correspondence. Contents of his Gmail account were shared with New Delhi following an official request to Google.

Details of Headley’s movements in and out of India, reported in The Indian Express last Thursday, show that he flew into Mumbai from Karachi and returned to the same city twice over the last three years — once in late 2006, and then again in April 2008.

Evidence of the ISI-Lashkar Karachi project has also come independently from HuJI man Khwaja, who was picked up by Chennai Police on his return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport. Top sources said Khwaja has told his interrogators that a large number of highly-indoctrinated jihadi Indian nationals have been housed in the Pakistani port city.

Reportedly, Headley had earlier told investigators of other targets, including high-profile boarding schools:

Then comes an input from the FBI’s interrogation of David Coleman Headley and Pakistani Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana that the prestigious National Defence College in New Delhi, Doon School, Dehra Dun, and Woodstock, Mussoorie, both high-profile boarding schools in Uttarakhand, are on the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s target list. America and Israel have already issued advisories on travel to India.

Killing promising young people? That is certain to get a response.

More recently, it was reported that Headley was in the process of finalizing the next target in India at the time of his arrest.

Mumbai, Jan. 31: American terror suspect David Headley was scheduled to visit India aga-in in November last year ap-parently to finalise the next target for LeT group and set up a base in Delhi.

Sources privy to the investigations said that Headley had told his friends in India that he was coming to the country in November for his business. Headley’s messages to his friends, who have recorded their statements before the NIA, stopped in the last week of September, barely a few days before he was arrested by the FBI at O’Hare airport in Chicago on October 3 last year, the sources said.

After recording the statements, the sleuths believe that since Lashker had postponed its planned terror strike on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten because of international pressure following 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, Headley, who was arrested just before he could board a plane for Philadelphia en route to Pakistan, was coming to India for finalising the next target.

The friends, which included some women, told the investigators that Headley was constantly in touch with them from the US and before being arrested he had said that he was coming to India and that they will have a get-together.

According to the documents shared by the FBI, Headley had been asked by his handler, a Pakistani Army official, that he should wind up his office — First World Office — in Mumbai and “open up a new business centre in Delhi to be used as a cover for future activities”.

The travel details of Headley, who is now turning out to be the globe-trotting prize asset of LeT, was being examined by various agencies, the sources said.

The investigators believe that the last visit of Headley to India in March last year may have been to finalise synchronised terror strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities. —PTI

Headley frequently introduced himself as a CIA agent. I’m pret-ty sure that it’s illegal to impersonate a CIA agent. I bet the “various agencies” are poring over Headley’s travel details. We will probably learn some more interesting details about them soon.

Why would Headley and Khwaja get pinched and start talking about the “Karachi project,” which now implicates India?

One possibility: Limited Hangout

A limited hangout is a form of deception, misdirection, or coverup often associated with intelligence agencies involving a release or “mea culpa” type of confession of only part of a set of previously hidden sensitive information, that establishes credibility for the one releasing the information who by the very act of confession appears to be “coming clean” and acting with integrity; but in actuality by withholding key facts is protecting a deeper crime and those who could be exposed if the whole truth came out. In effect, if an array of offenses or misdeeds is suspected, this confession admits to a lesser offense while covering up the greater ones.

A limited hangout typically is a response to lower the pressure felt from inquisitive investigators pursuing clues that threaten to expose everything, and the disclosure is often combined with red herrings or propaganda elements that lead to false trails, distractions, or ideological disinformation; thus allowing covert or criminal elements to continue in their improper activities.

Victor Marchetti wrote: “A ‘limited hangout’ is spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting - sometimes even volunteering - some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.”

You know… take one for the team……?

Khwaja speaks

Feb 1

Posted by A. Peasant in India, Pakistan, Terrorism, The West, UK | No Comments

As we learned last week, Mohammed Abdul Khwaja, the terrorist arrested recently in India, gave authorities intelligence that lead to the recent UK terrorism alerts. He was allegedly plotting terrorist attacks on Western tourists in Goa, India, and recruiting locals for training. I did a run-down on Khwaja here.

According to the Indian police, Kwaja has been involved in other terrorist plots.

According to the police, Khwaja, who is a close associate of Shahid Bilal, a Huji commander, masterminded the suicide attack on Hyderabad’s Special Task Force (STF) headquarters in October 2005. Khwaja told the police that he and his accomplices attacked the STF office to avenge the killing of Hyderabad youth Mujahid Saleem by a team of the Gujarat police in the Andhra capital in 2004.

Khwaja rose through the ranks to become a commander of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi, better known as Huji, following the death of his classmate Shahid Bilal, the mastermind of the Hyderabad twin blasts. Educated in a convent school in Hyderabad, he is one among the many youth who took to jihad following the Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat Riots took place in 2002. Apparently, the numbers involved have been the topic of considerable dispute.

“The Gujarat riots was a reaction to the Godhra train burning. An entire coach was burnt down by a mob of 2,000 local Muslims in which 58 Hindus were killed. The victims included 25 women, 14 children that were returning from Ayodhya. Hindu mobs rioted after this incident. Gujarat administration completely failed to control the riots effectively in time. More than 700 people from both the communities were killed in this and the following riots.”

What is the actual toll of Gujarat Riots?
NOT 2000, 5000 or 10000 as may be claimed by the Jihadis and anti-nationals.
The death toll is about 700+ (including 58 killed by the strong mob of 2000)
Hindus 250+ Muslims 400+ Policemen 100+ …….facts and figures

The Gujarat riots might be the topic for another day. But until then, one might consider them a triggering event, as described by this expose in Frontline (India’s National Magazine) from January 2004:

Memories of the demolition of the Babri Masjid had begun to fade, and even the war in Jammu and Kashmir attracted little attention among South Asian Muslims. Then, in 2002, came the communal massacres in Gujarat: and the voice of the Lashkar’s spiritual head began to resonate in many young minds. Along with hard currency, terror has now become a major remittance to India: a source of growing concern to the intelligence community. Lashkar cells based in Kuwait and Dubai have emerged as central to several major terrorist actions in India over the last two years.

Gujarat made Lashkar relevant. The strategy of tension.

Today The Hindu reports new connections made since the arrest of Khwaja:

Mumbai police investigators say they may have succeeded in putting a face to an until-now-unidentified Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who played a key role in guiding the operations of the team that attacked Mumbai in November 2008.

Based on information provided by India’s intelligence services, as well as interviews with arrested jihadists, the police believe the Indian national in the Lashkar’s control room could be Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Ansari, a Lashkar-linked Maharashtra resident who has been a fugitive since 2005.

The unidentified Indian operative was one of several Lashkar personnel who used voice-over-internet links to provide orders to the assault team. Last month, The Hindu had broken the news that one of the operatives in the Lashkar control station spoke Mumbai-inflected Hindi, in stark contrast to the Punjabi used by the others.

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Lashkar terrorist arrested in the course of the assault, said his team had been trained by an Indian national identified as Abu Jindal — the alias also used by the unidentified controller, and a nom de guerre known to have been adopted by Ansari in the past.

The police say Ansari played a key role in a plot to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an operation meant to avenge the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. Ansari is alleged to have been the key leader of an Aurangabad-based Lashkar cell, which received assault rifles and military-grade explosives from Pakistan to stage an attack which would have closely resembled the Mumbai operation in tactics and execution.

Eleven men linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students Islamic Movement of India were held for their alleged role in the 2005 Aurangabad-based plot. However, Ansari eluded the police after a high-speed car chase and has been sought by Interpol since then. He was last sighted at a Lashkar safe house in Karachi by Hyderabad-based jihadist Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, who was arrested earlier this year.

Imran Babar, one of the two terrorists who took hostages at the Chabad House Jewish prayer centre, was told by the Hindi-speaking controller [Ansari] to call the media with a manifesto to condemn what he described as the Indian government’s “two-faced policy” towards Muslims.

The Lashkar manifesto demanded that Muslims held in jails be released; the Indian Army be pulled out of Jammu and Kashmir; the land on which the Babri Masjid stood be returned to Muslims and a new mosque constructed; India break off its alliance with Israel; and what the organisation called “Muslim states be handed back to the Muslims.”

To recap: Khwaja was planning and recruiting for attacks on Western tourists in Goa. But he was captured. (Phew!) After capture, he gave Indian investigators intelligence that led to the UK raising it’s terror alert. So very helpful. Now he has also given up the intelligence that Ansari, who last got away after a high-speed car chase (eyeroll), was the very same guy with the Mumbai Hindi accent, who directed one of the two terrorists who held the Chabad House, to contact the media with a Muslim “manifesto.”

So you can see what a good thing it was they they captured Khwaja, hmm? He’s providing some “new” information that will allow the investigations to take some twists and turns and swerves, to avoid all the giant holes in the Mumbai narrative.

As an afterthought, it’s interesting to note that Kasab flip flops — until he says something useful. Then he’s a good witness.

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