Friday, November 28, 2008

Mumbai: Days of Terror and Death

For the last 2 days the world has seen the true face of The Religion of Peace at work. Attacks on innocent civilians carried out by members of the Deccan Mujahideen, a new group to the already long list of terror groups. With over 150 people murdered and almost 400 people wounded, this is shaping up to become one of India's worse acts of terror ever.

These were no random acts of violence. They were well planned, financed and coordinated attacks. The targets were carefully chosen to attack not just Indian civilians, but American, British and Jewish tourists. Hotels, a railroad station, a hospital, a Jewish community center, a restaurant frequented by tourists. American, British and Jewish civilians were singled and killed.

Who are the Deccan Mujahideen? They have just come onto the scene. No one has ever heard of them. Are they a new group or a new name (pseudonym) for another group?

These attacks took over a year of planning and thousands of dollars in cost. The terrorists knew the layout and security details of each hotel attacked. They knew the layout and details of the hospital attacked. And they knew the location of the Chabad center. A small splinter group would not be able to do this, for they wouldn't have the resources to plan and carry out such attacks.

Reports from Indian intelligence are that the terrorists were speaking Punjabi, a dialect of Pakistan and there are teams of British intelligence in India checking to see if any of the terrorists are British of Asian Pakistani origin. I will also speculate that we are seeing the hand of Pakistani intelligence in these attacks. India and Pakistan have been at odds with each other since their independence from Great Britain in 1947. What an easy way to attack your enemy and still have plausible deniablity at the same time.

Reports that Israeli or British commandos were aiding the Indians, but both nations deny this. Search and Rescue and Medical teams from Israel were sent to India to help with this crises.

2 Americans are confirmed dead as I write this. My prayers go out to the family of Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13. Murdered by members of The Religion of Peace.

It also seems that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka of Chabad House were murdered and are among the 5 dead there. Their 18 month old son is now with his grandparents who flew out from Israel to claim him. My prayers go out to their families too.

Are we seeing the start of a new round of terror attacks? Attacking in other nations to target Americans? I certainly hope not? But fear that we just might be seeing the start of this.

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