One year later...

India is in the spotlight again - As the country (and the rest of the world) remembers the devastating terrorist attacks in Mumbai a year ago, while some read about chef Marcus Samuelsson's green curry shrimp at the recent State Dinner, graced by Indian PM Manmohan Singh.

One year later, are we safer? 

Earlier this year, in June, I went to Bombay for work. When I frequented the Oberoi coffee shop for breakfast meetings, I noticed the increase in hotel security, as well as the eerily quiet halls and closed chops on some floors. I found Marine Drive full of determined walkers and joggers at 5 am, and then the romantics came out at night. Bombay seemed like a cheated housewife - last year she had been let down by her protectors but still maintained a brave face. Today she has moved on. Cafe Leopold is abuzz, Colaba welcomes the tourists who had postponed their trips the year before. Her spirit shines and is growing stronger.

But again - are we truly safe?

Here is a Wall Street Journal article by Linda Blake featuring the city's Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. It may not provide an answer but sheds some light into the matter. What do you think?

Terrorists Increasingly Targeting Hotels

From Gary Thomas of VOA:

A new study by a private intelligence firm says terrorist attacks on hotels have risen dramatically in recent years. The group says tighter security at embassies and consulates has caused al-Qaida and allied groups to shift their attention to easier targets.

An armored vehicle stands posted outside the re-opened Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 30 Jul 2009

Before September 11, 2001, al-Qaida made a name for itself by attacks on Western military and diplomatic targets, such as the USS Cole and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

But the private intelligence firm STRATFOR says tough security measures implemented since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington have forced al-Qaida and its allies to strike soft targets like hotels.

"The militants are shifting away from harder targets. As security measures are put in place at airports, we've seen a shift kind of away from aircraft to embassies. And then as embassy security was ratcheted up, we saw another shift over towards hotels. And so really there's kind of a line as security that is tightened at certain targets; it makes other targets more vulnerable to militants," said

Scott Stewart, STRATFOR's Vice President for Tactical Intelligence:

Stewart adds that the fact that hotels are now targeted says something about how al-Qaida has changed. "We really saw al-Qaida going from being 'al-Qaida the core group,' where they had a small group of highly trained professional terrorist operatives, into more of what we call 'al-Qaida the movement,' where we have these regional franchises or going towards the grassroots guys - the kind of do-it-yourself militant operative. And those people don't have the same skill level as the professional al-Qaida operatives. And so they also tend to gravitate more towards the easier targets to strike," he said.

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Who will be the prosecutor?

An interesting piece from the Strategy Page:

Things That Cannot Be Said

June 30, 2009: India and Pakistan are still at odds over who will prosecute the terrorists responsible for the November 28, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Pakistan insists on trying them, but Pakistan has a track record of going through the motions, and cutting terrorists free after things quiet down. Pakistani support for Islamic terrorism, and refusal to admit it (even though Pakistan is openly at war with Islamic terror groups) continues to be the biggest unresolved dispute between the two nations.

In the Pakistani tribal territories, the Taliban have increased their attacks on girls schools. Because so many civilians fled the fighting, many of these schools are empty and unguarded. The Taliban come in and burn them down or blow them up. This angers most of the people in the area, but the Taliban pay more attention to how much media coverage they get, than to popularity polls. While most of the Taliban have been driven out of the Swat valley, there are still some left. Hiding in the hills, they mostly operate at night against civilian targets.

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Deadly Blast At Luxury Hotel in Pakistan

Breaking news from the NYT!

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Officials says a huge bomb has exploded at a luxury hotel in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least five people and wounding 25 others.

Police official Liaqat Ali says gunmen stormed into the Pearl Continental Hotel in the northwestern city on Tuesday night just before ''a big bomb went off.''

Sahibzada Anis, a top government official in Peshawar, says at least five people were killed and 25 wounded.

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Is there a calm after the storm...?

There is very little being said about the cyclone that hit India and Bangladesh recently. The death toll was probably not high enough...but then again, even Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar in May 2008 (and killed around 100,000 people, while displacing 250,0000) was soon out of mind.

BuildBurma's coverage of the days soon after Cyclone Nargis saw that one of the biggest hindrances to recovery was corruption. International aid through food and necessities weren't being passed down the chain to the survivors and instead government officials were stockpiling these supplies. I wonder where all the money for re-building went...

In the same vein, for those who want to help out victims in India and Bangladesh, do some research into local organizations on the ground who understand the people and have a track record for some years. When you're spending your time and your money, you really want it to go all the way down to that father in a fishing village, that child for school...We are looking into organizations we can recommend to IndiaUnite readers, so stay tuned.

We can't afford corruption, it costs lives.

Click here for AlertNet's coverage of this disaster.

It's the terrorism, stupid...

From the Times Of India:

It's the terrorism, stupid; not India: US message to Pakistan.

WASHINGTON: The United States will institute benchmarks that Pakistan will have to meet, including scaling down its confrontational posture  against India, if Islamabad is to earn the massive foreign aid Washington and its partners are lining up, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated on Thursday. (Watch ) 

The benchmarks will include moving troops from its border with India to its insurgency stricken areas to fight its homegrown terrorism problem, Clinton suggested, following up on the broad US prescription and advice to Pakistan that its grave domestic situation, and not India, constituted the biggest danger to its existence. 

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Mumbai Gunman Laughs Off Charges, Reads Gandhi's Autobiography in Prison

I just saw this on The Daily Beast and had to pick my jaw up off the floor:

When the court asked alleged Mumbai gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab whether he understood the charges against him, the so-called "baby face killer" broke into a fit of laughter, the London Times reports. The Pakistani national's charge sheet runs to 11,000 pages and is written in English and Marathi, the local language of Mumbai. Kasab was caught on camera with an AK-47 and a bag full of ammunition and grenades during the coordinated commando-style attacks on Mumbai last November, when he and an accomplice allegedly killed 58 people at Mumbai's main train station. Kasab reportedly smiled throughout the hearing and is reading Gandhi's autobiography in his cell. If convicted of murder and waging war against India, he'll face death by hanging.

This puts a very dark spin on Gandhi's famous words, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Looks like Kasab wants to see relentless death and destruction. Good thing his world is now confined to a 9x9 cell.

READ: Mumbai Gunman Laughs at Terror Charges