Here is what Priyamvada Gopal should do or have done to prove her faith in non violence: next time whenever there is any terror attack against unsuspecting civilians (wherever in the world), she should board the very next flight from Heathrow/London to that spot & preach non violence face to face to the terrorists.

Priyamvada is right !

Ms. Gopal : "s India an opportunity to show the visionary leadership in the face of pressure ...India can shun the blinding language of civilisational clash and attempt to forge a difficult new way" .

All very high-minded and high -sounding ,I have to say.

Surely ,it must be wonderful to sit ensconced in the comfort and safety of Cambridge's ivory towers ,and toss off such platitudes .

Just tell me one thing : will you ,Ms. Gopal, put your person where your 'mouth' is ? And come down to India ( demonstrating in the process , cavalier contempt for the British Government travel advisory ) to stand shoulder to shoulder, in solidarity and sympathy with the Indian people.

If you do screw up the courage to do just this - well, hats off to you. Else ,it will remain like all the others - just another piece of hollow ( and sententious ) drivel.

Bill

--"So how do you, me, the Indian authorities, and everybody with internet access know all these particulars, all so incredibly fast?"

Well its the internet and news from everywhere is a click away. You can completely disregard everything that emanates from the Indian Media or Government or the Intelligence agencies and pretend its all garbage (you know .. third world country and all). This approach also allows you to dove-tail any and all conspiracy theories (that dreaded word again).

I agree holding an individual and getting information is suspect. However there is a ton of other evidence that points in a single direction outside what the suspect says. The Indian State has definitely managed to alienate a lot of Muslims as well as farmers, Dalits (the so called lower classes) and a host of other minorities and there is definitely a backlash from it. This manifested itself in the form of other terrorist attacks (which the Media didnt cover as there werent any White People involved !!) and the Indian Mujahiddin claimed responsibility. Terrorism of any kind whether initiated by disposessed groups, religious fundamentalists or Nation States is unacceptable. I do believe the LET is responsible and elements of the ISI are involved. I also believe this operation definitely did not emanate from the top and im sure Zardari didnt know about it.

--"Is the source of all this damning evidence really some spectacularly efficient detective work diligently conducted during a time of absolutely chaotic public hysteria"

Actually the Indian police are terribly incompetent. But the coast guard found the abandoned ship that was floating around for 3 days with the satellite phones. You can google the thousands of articles on it (its easy .. trust me).

--"but I still think getting some fake passports and tourist visas, and then using readily available commercial plane, rail, bus, taxi, or private auto transportation to sneak the terrorist coconspirators into Mumbai would be a safer, lower profile clandestine operation technique than resorting to piracy and murder on the high seas, especially with 6,000 vessels in the vicinity to potentially witness the landing."

Maybe so ...however ive travelled extensively in India and believe me, short of being strip-searched i was subjected a lot of scrutiny. You are correct in that once inside, moving large arms cachements is easy. The terrorists who struck definitely had access to a fairly large arms cache, in all probability procured internally. Who knows. I do however trust Asia Times Online and OutlookIndia, as they are the most balanced and well critiqued web sites with outstanding journalists (not the embedded american variety).
http://www.atimes.com and http://www.outlookindia.com

I do not think the 2 countries will go to war but i do believe there is a tremendous amount of distrust currently and peace that is already elusive has been literally decimated overnight. Its gonna be a long haul.

Pakistan should and must take action against LET/JUD and their leaders (Hafiz Saeed, etc) as well as Dawood Ibrahim (an ex-Indian fugitive currently ensconced in Pakistan and conducting all sorts of criminal activities) whose extensive network clearly helped the terrorists (jihadis/extremists/misguided-holy-warriors whatever it is we want to call them). More importantly though, if the alienation of Indian Muslims is not addressed, India has a far bigger problem on its hands.

gyptian -

Thank you for your insights about how an amphibious landing is the easiest and most inobtrusive way to visit India.

True, it surely would be easier than trying to creep a dozen commandoes across the heavily fortified India/Pakistan DMZ, but I still think getting some fake passports and tourist visas, and then using readily available commercial plane, rail, bus, taxi, or private auto transportation to sneak the terrorist coconspirators into Mumbai would be a safer, lower profile clandestine operation technique than resorting to piracy and murder on the high seas, especially with 6,000 vessels in the vicinity to potentially witness the landing.

My sincere apologies for sounding facetious - you clearly have done your homework regarding the SIM chips, and the apparent fact that the terrorists weren't carrying arms (which had been secretly cached somewhere previously) upon arrival. Somewhere else I remember reading that each terrorist had 3,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition.

So how do you, me, the Indian authorities, and everybody with internet access know all these particulars, all so incredibly fast?

Is the source of all this damning evidence really some spectacularly efficient detective work diligently conducted during a time of absolutely chaotic public hysteria, piecing together a circumstantial trail that just happened to point straight at the usual prime suspect - an account eventually corroborated by the word of one, sole, single alleged terrorist-coconspirator who was apprehended alive, and who is being held for questioning in Indian police custody?

Who knows, maybe the surviving terrorist is telling the truth.

Maybe Khalid Sheik Mohammed was telling the truth in his ranting claims about the 9/11 conspiracy at Guantanamo Bay too, waterboarding or no waterboarding.

All I'm saying is that you may want to pause and rethink how "the dead give away was the GPS satelitte phones which they should have thrown overboard but messed up and left behind", before you prematurely condemn such pesky factual inquiry to your "long list of conspiracy theories."

That derisive label itself has become a tool for a lot of folks in high places who would rather not see awkward questions ever get asked. I still say it's both too weird, and too neat, to pass the smell test.

Bill from Saginaw

NotesfromtheEdge
I agree with the authors even tempered tone about solutions to deal with the Mumbai massacre in the methods of Ghandi. Especially so because of the points that 'Bill from Saginaw' astutely observed. It really makes no sense if the ISI in Pakistan was involved, why in the world would these guys have to hijack a fishing boat and then supposedly be apprehended by the Indian coastguard, killing those on both vessels, and then proceeding into the harbor at Mumbai in a barely inflatable dingy loaded with machine guns, bullets and bombs. Sorry, but that makes no sense.

What a fantastic if utterly stupid, narrative. The ISI is a billion dollar funded Intelligence operation, this whole 'Hit' on Mumbai doesn't pan out. Opening fire on, and slaughtering people on railway platforms, and in the five star hotels, and a Jewish Center for added Islamic emphasis, of Mumbai makes for a very strange statement. One more akin to sociopathic insanity than a political demand. I agree with Bill, it makes more sense that the ISI would have assembled their 'team' of commandos on site, in Mumbai, where it would be easy, rather than risking the whole operation to be caught out at sea, or the dingy sinking with all the weapons 'onboard'. What a waste of all that training for the year they spent learning how to use the weapons only to sink in the harbor.

This is not the footprint of an intel operation funded by a billion dollar intelligence agency, regardless of the 'cell phone intercepts'{you've got communicate and coordinate somehow}, rather it appears to be more the rage of a small independent group of sociopaths probably amped on drugs, who used the opportunity of an open society to perpetrate acts of misdirected violence. What does one accomplish by requesting US and British passports from miscellaneous tourists who might happen to be in the lobby at the time of the sociopaths choosing and then killing mostly the Indian service workers there. It is a way to terrorize the populace but not to gain any concessions unless those in the Indian gov't fall for it. It is more an indication to tighten security at railstations and five star hotels, so that those who carry guns through the front door, set off the Alarm of the metal detector at the entrance. Precautions taken ahead of time, in these times of sociopaths and narcissists, go a long way in preventing these kinds of murderous events. There doesn't need to be a war over it that only acts to destroy even more nations and, that facilitates the Military Industrial Complex extracting even more 'blood money' from the people of the various nations and gov'ts, in tax revenues, to have a War {ie. between Pakistan, India, and the US}.

It looks more like Washington would be behind it to justify a larger military presence in South Asia, ringing Pakistan, with military pressure from India on the other side. And even a deal with Sri Lanka for a US base there, since being asked pointedly {perhaps as in 9/11, we don't know for sure}, to removed its' US base from Saudi Arabia. We'll see what the motives are as Obama makes his ongoing decisions as to the US military empire and what his justifications will be for what he does in South Asia.

I can't remember who said it(heard it on the radio, WBAI 99.5FM NYC www.wbai.org) but to compare Mumbai with Sept. 11,2001 is "cover" for surveillance/loss of civil liberties in the country that had the attack. After the Patriot Act, countries all over the world were using Sept. 11 and "war on terror" as excuse to rachet up repression on their own populations. It should have been a police action, and I said it at the time, not an attack/invasion of Afghanistan.

Pak would collapse within a years time if US would stop pouring billions in to its military indigence complex. But that would never happen even with Obama’s policy.

This is probably the best reasoned article in a long time.

Can we all get over the declaration of victimhood and look at what actually happened? A few hundred Indians and foreign nationals clustered around pockets of wealth died. Meanwhile in greater Mumbai millions of Indians went without proper food, water, shelter, health care or education. Some unknown number of them died also. Guess which group we are worried about?

This attack seems designed to stampede India's elites into squandering blood and treasure on a more active war with Pakistan. Such a move would surely waste resources that could otherwise be spent to the betterment of the Indian people. Despite the fact that the international media has it's panties in a major twist this was nothing more than a stubbed toe compared to the needs of India's poor majority.

Don't chase the McGuffin when your enemies want you to. Be doubly suspicious if it's your "friends" who would benefit most.

Fighting the forces of rather dim lighting wherever they may be found!!

This whole essay is a non sequitor. What does America's reaction to 9/11, which I too find disagreeable, have to do with the fact that India suffered a grand tragedy comparable to that of 9/11?

The author asks, "Does India need a 9/11?" Well, India got one whether she needed one or not.

Priyamvada Gopal's perceptive warning that "We should not let 9/11 become a badge of honor, a tragic status symbol of the arrival of a nation into the fraternity of wounded super powers" says it all.

"Ineffectual jingoism" and a "mobile political metaphor that sanctions endless vengeance" is exactly what was foisted upon the United States body politic by the Bush regime and the mainstream American media in the aftermath of the World Trade Center terrorist attack. By all means, may India learn from America's mistakes.

At a completely different level, however, I find myself uncomfortably drawing comparisons between the immediate media coverage of Mumbai and Manhattan. I apologize in advance for venting off in a different direction from Gopal's splendid essay, but vent I must.

There is something very fishy about the enormous wealth of detail concerning the Mumbai terrorist conspirators' activities that has emerged as the official narrative, and emerged so incredibly fast.

The rubble in New York was still smoldering when the names and mug shots of all the al Qaeda suicide jihadis were plastered on the front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Fox News. Along with this nearly instantaneous identification of the guilty parties, there came highly detailed accounts of their personal biographies, training, movements about the country in the weeks preceding the attacks, and their modus operandi in carrying out the airliner high jackings on September 11th. Nearly all of this news was anonymously sourced, based upon highly classified information. Yet that initial account still basically remains the official, US government 911 Commission approved narrative version of who did what to who, and why, and how, on that incredibly awful day. Case closed.

Similarly, while gunfights were still in standoff phase in a couple of the Mumbai attack locations, official Indian government sources and media pinned responsibility squarely upon Pakistan - these guys trained for over a year at some camp location, left by boat from Karachi, seized an Indian fishing boat, killed the crew, sneaked into the Mumbai harbor waters, came ashore on rubber dinghys, and then dispersed to a half dozen different locations to reek murder and mayhem with their AK-47's and taxi bombs. Uncle Sam warned India shortly in advance that a plot might have been afoot. Cell phone records prove the evil linkage. Although the investigation continues, it's already pretty much case closed.

I've never been to Mumbai, but from what I've read about it, the former Bombay took pride in its cosmopolitan reputation (as Gopal says) on "a long history of commerce and migration..... openness" that "paradoxically made it the crucible of ethnic and religious majoritarianism..... The city has faced terrorism before." Sort of like New York City.

Okay.

Regardless of whether you were a big shot black ops honcho in the Pakistani ISI, or some low level jihadi non-governmental terrorist outfit operating entirely on your own - if the ultimate goal of the plot was to attack multiple locations in this densely urban, polyglot of an environment using semiautomatic weapons and taxicab size bombs as your weaponry - why would you fart around high jacking a fishing vessel and running the risk of an amphibious landing? Why not just assemble your team and your lethal materiale gradually, over several days or weeks, and then stage your terror strike taking care to leave no telltale cell phone records behind?

Something does not smell right to me about this whole scenario, and the inordinate speed with which it has been accepted as official truth.

Sometimes great nations make great mistakes. Along with paying heed to the wisdom of Gandhi, let us hope that the good people of India, in their grief, also do their investigative homework first before jumping off to fateful conclusions.

Bill from Saginaw

Sioux Rose

The author of this piece evidences clarity of a spiritual AND intellectual sort. Advocating for solutions OTHER than violence is always wise; and suggesting a better model than the U.S. use of vengeance disguised as (the pursuit of) justice would be a welcome therapeutic model for other nations, unfortunate enough to know violence first hand, to emulate.

We need to show our solidarity with the people of India for this horrible attack they have endured. This was not a revolutionary act. This was not class warfare. It was the cowardly work of madmen h-e-l-l bent on establishing an Islamic caliphate. We must all band together to defeat Al Qaeda. My prayers are with the people of Mumbai.