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We and the war on terror

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By K.N. Pandit

As days pass by our country’s reaction to Mumbai carnage is becoming more wobbled and incoherent.  If Pakistani President Asif Zardari is shifting poles day in and day out, New Delhi is no less deficient in its own brand of flip-flop. From “war is no option” to “no option is closed” and from “Pakistan must fulfill its assurances” to “Pakistan should do much more”, the rhetoric becomes farcical and ludicrous.  An impression is created that we timidly supplicate for empathy for torture by our tormentors in the vain hope that somebody will appear from nowhere to tell us, come on we are going to fight your battle.

Nearly three decades ago, the then Pakistani President said publicly that his country would fight India on Indian soil. This was the time when the blue print of Operation Topac had been approved, which planned inflicting a thousand cuts on the body of India.  Pakistan’s covert support first to Khalistan and then to Kashmir separatist movements was part of her proxy war that was to become a regular phenomenon of Indo-Pak acrimony on the sub-continent.

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Islamic Demonstrators in London

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Photos taken by a friend – in these times – during a Muslim demonstration in London:

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Regional Strategy in South Asia: New Chapter

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By K.N. Pandita

Some circles, including members in opposition, have accused the Prime Minister of inadequate response to Pakistan’s abetment of Mumbai carnage on 26 November 2008.  Obviously, they expected a bizarre retaliation keeping in mind the magnitude of loss of human life and property inflicted on the nation. The contention is that our national pride is not only challenged but also badly bruised.

However, despite cogent substance in these comments, we need to understand that it was and continues to be a very sensitive and critical situation into which the government has been dragged. Thanks to the matured statesmanship of the Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues that the entire matter has been handled with utmost caution and wisdom, and also with unusual show of courage and decisiveness.

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K.N. Pandita’s Answer to. Mr. Krepon

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Linked with Does Threat Reduction Require Threat Inflation?

Dear Mr. Krepon,

Thanks for sending me a copy of your recent write up Does Threat Reduction Require Threat Inflation? I read it keenly.

US- Soviet Union nuclear stand off is outdated subject. I think we need to update our perception of impending nuclear holocaust in a changed scenario. The real threat is not from organized states in possession of nuclear arsenal  but from disorganized, and hence irresponsible and unaccountable Theo-fascist clusters bent upon replacing the existing world’s historical geography and civilizational construct with a theocratic monolith inspired by fourteen century old concoction. First Vietnam and now Iraq are strong historical events to presage a fundamental change in the political philosophy of the US, a change in which there is no going back on clipping the veto powers of the President through an act of Congressional amendment of the constitution.

By annihilating Iraq , the US sadistically helped create Iranian Frankenstein.

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Does Threat Reduction Require Threat Inflation?

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Linked with K.N. Pandita’s Answer to. Mr. Krepon. And also linked with Michael Krepon – USA, and with STIMSON.org (will appear on our blogs on Dec. 12, 2008).

Received by mail:

From: Michael Krepon
Date: 10/12/2008

By Michael Krepon

Another panel of experts, another dire warning.  This time, a commission led by former Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent have concluded that, “Unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.”  Beware: According to the commission, “America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing.”

Senators Graham, Talent and Co. are not alone.  Another commission convened by the government of Australia has issued a public warning that the world “is on the brink of an avalanche” of nuclear danger and proliferation.  Former Senator Sam Nunn believes that “The risk of a nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding.”  And eighty-five nonproliferation experts polled by Senator Richard Lugar in 2005 (including this author) estimated that the combined risk of an attack by weapons of mass destruction was fifty per cent over five years, and seventy per cent over ten.

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India wants its ‘Osama’ back

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Published on Asia Times, by Raja Murthy , Dec. 9, 2008.

MUMBAI – Dawood Ibrahim, one of Asia’s most notorious mafia dons and India’s version of Osama bin Laden, is emerging as a key suspect in the funding and logistical support for the November 26 terrorist strike on Mumbai.

Ibrahim, who tops the Mumbai police list of its 44 most wanted criminals, is among 20 fugitives India has asked Pakistan to extradite following the multiple attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 …

… Karachi-based newspaper Newsline reported in a September 2001 cover story titled “Karachi’s Gang Wars” that two rival underworld gangs in the city were both working for Ibrahim.

“After the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, Dawood Ibrahim and his team have made Karachi their new home and base of operations,” the Karachi Newsline report said. “Living under fake names and IDs, and provided protection by government agencies, they have built up their underworld empire in Karachi employing local talent like Shoaib and Bholoo.”

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Terrorists Attacking Mumbai Have Global Agenda

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Pakistan’s LeT, not as well known as Al Qaeda, threatens India, the West and even Pakistan

Published on YaleGlobal online, by Ashley J. Tellis, 8 December 2008.

WASHINGTON: Whenever New Delhi points a finger at Pakistan in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in India, a weary world seems to say, “Here we go again!” The old enmity between the two countries can tire spectators who often quickly dismiss Indian accusations of Pakistani malfeasance are little other than political recriminations. Yet, the latest terrorist assault in Bombay – involving 10 coordinated strikes that killed close to 200 and the capture of a Pakistani terrorist, Azam Amir Kasab, from Faridkot – leaves no doubt about the authenticity of the Indian charge …

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The case of stateless terrorists

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By K.N. Pandit

Pakistani President’s denial of ISI’s involvement in Mumbai attacks is not surprising.  This has been the patent response of Pakistan to India’s allegations that Pakistan-based terrorist organizations are engaged in launching suicide attacks in Indian cities and towns to destabilize the country.  Pakistan’s rhetoric is that India should provide a proof but when a proof is provided, the response is that it is not convincing.

Secrecy and non-transparency are the hallmark of terrorism in contemporary times. Such is the level of secrecy that if there are ten terrorists in a group one does not know the background of the other. The terrorists always adopt pseudonyms mostly borrowed from Islamic history. Doing so is among the basics of terrorists’ desk book rules.

Everybody knows that a suicide terrorist hardly leaves anything behind that would identify him or gives a clue to his organization or his links. When a blast happens, it destroys each and everything on the person of the suicide attacker. How then can one produce a proof that cannot be challenged?

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Indo-Pak stand off and the US mediation

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By K.N. Pandit

In the past the US intervened thrice to avert breaking out of a war between India and Pakistan. She and the world powers have a stake in helping maintain normalcy in South Asian region. Any well-wisher of peace and tranquility will appreciate the role of the US in brokering cordiality between the two nuclear but hostile states of the region.

But is it enough just to avert the crisis and then wait for the return of another crisis with greater intensity and potentiality for a disastrous war? Will it not be in the interests of the world community to find a lasting solution to the menace and lift the Damocles’ sword from the head of innocent human beings?

Historically speaking, the US is committed to ensure the existence of Pakistan even though many observers think it a failed state. The reality is that Pakistan never was nor ever shall be a failed state. The creation of Pakistan is the handiwork of imperialists. How can they let this piece of their creation fall apart? The US has been sustaining it by providing cash doles from time to time especially to its army, which has the final say in Pakistan’s affairs. If there were not the war on terrorism and the need for direct action by the US and NATO forces, still the US would never abandon Pakistan. The Friends of Pakistan caucus spearheaded by the US and Saudi Arabia has promised over 7.6 billion dollars to Pakistan to bridge over her ongoing financial crisis.

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Mumbai suicide bombers: Inside story

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By K.N. Pandita

Washington’s tough anti-terrorism policy in the aftermath of 9/11 brought exasperating pressure on Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the ISI sponsored and Muridke (Pakistan) – based terrorist outfit entrusted with armed insurgency operations in Kashmir. The outfit split into two and, in consequence, some of its top commanders whose brain-washing in Islamic Theo-fascism had been of high pitch joined hands with Al-Qaeda.

By way of a show of solidarity with the Americans in their war against terrorism, General Pervez Musharraf’s government arrested a Karachi-based multi millionaire, Arif Qasmani, who was a major donor of ISI’s prestigious outfit LeT. He was charged of a game of double funding — the LeT and the Afghan Taliban at one and the same time.  Harakatul Jihade Islami (HJL), a major beneficiary of ISI in the sub-continent especially in Bangladesh, too, felt the heat of the US pressure on Islamabad, and jumped on the bandwagon of Al Qaeda. Its prominent leader Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, who had been operating in Kashmir and had managed through bribe his escape from the custody of Indian security forces after two years of internment, shifted to North Waziristan along with his family. HE was arrested by Pakistani police on allegations of involvement in an attempt on the life of General Pervez Musharraf in 2004. A month later he was released from jail.

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Editor LA Times – Indian Muslims

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Dear Sir,

Apropos of ‘A Cloud over Indian Muslims’ (Nov.30) by Martha Nussbaum,  we find a rabid anti-India writer smartly defending  brutal and barbaric acts of Islamic Theo-fascist not only in India but all over the world, USA, UK, France, Spain, Indonesia, Egypt, Russian Federation, Pakistan etc. The free world is gearing up to resist and fight  Theo-fascists who have openly said they intend to establish an Islamic Caliphate by wiping out all other religions and their institutions from the surface of the globe so that Islam flourishes to become the sole religion  of the world as predicted in their  scriptures.

Kashinath Pandit, New Delhi.