<b>Times: US advisers training Pakistani troops</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->WASHINGTON â U.S. military advisers, mostly Army Special Forces soldiers, are training Pakistani troops in their fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The secret U.S. task force provides the Pakistanis with intelligence and advises them on combat tactics, but does not participate in combat itself, the Times reported, citing anonymous U.S. military officials.
Pakistani army officers said last year that the Pentagon had sent 32 Americans to train senior personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the northwestern part of the country, adjacent to Afghanistan.
On its Web site Sunday, the Times reported that the effort was larger and more ambitious than previously acknowledged, involving more than 70 U.S. advisers, including combat medics, communications experts and other specialists.
...............<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>India not doing it right on terror: Jaggi Vasudev
</b>
Coimbatore (IANS): Mystic and yoga expert Jaggi Vasudev, a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum (WEF), feels "India is not handling the issue of terrorism with Pakistan right".
"For the last two months India has become a big joke because of the way it has been bargaining with Pakistan to hand over wanted terrorists. If someone believes that Pakistan will hand over all the terrorists and suspects back to India, then India should go back to kindergarten school," Vasudev, head of the Coimbatore-based international non-profit organization Isha Foundation, told IANS in a free-wheeling chat here.
The tall, dark guru with a flowing mane and beard runs a sprawling spiritual and eco-friendly retreat on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border here, spread over 145 acres.
"I think India is losing a rare opportunity. Just for the first time, the country, which had sunk into depths of poverty over the last 10-20 years, had the possibility of taking people to the next step of prosperity and turning around the economy, but someone has spoilt it with this whole gamut of terror. I think India is not doing it right," he said, explaining his views on the contemporary geo-politics.
He had addressed the WEF in Davos in January on subjects ranging from recession, depression, faith and youth, new catalyst for faiths, agile leadership and cultural literacy across several sessions.
Terror, he said, is not a new phenomenon.
"It has just taken on various forms. Terror based on religion was there even 1,000 years ago. But it has taken on various forms. Attacks like those in Mumbai 26/11 had happened even 500 years ago, but no one came to know about them because there were no televisions in the bedrooms and drawing rooms. Mumbai made headlines courtesy the media.
"This does mean we are ratifying terror. In an technological age, this should not have happened. In India, terror is being perpetrated by a small group of people helped by religion, of course. These people are being helped by hostile neighbours who are in turn being helped by someone else." The 26/11 attacks left 170 people dead, including 26 foreigners.
Vasudev, who does not believe in dogma and scriptures, counsels his disciples, who include celebrities, professionals, bureaucrats and industry barons and a mammoth body of youth, with simple yogic techniques which rely on "inner engineering or transformation of the inner self, voluntary service and environmental awareness".
"I have no philosophy, no beliefs, no system. Whatever a human being has in his core - as his essence - is spirituality. Ideologies, beliefs and systems are made - but I teach my followers the technology to experience the innermost interiority," said Vasudev.
The seer, who sticks to Tamil Nadu because he does not speak Hindi, is trying to take his organisation all over the country.
The unconventional mystic is known for his penchant for high speed automobiles and two-wheelers, which he drives himself at a "maximum possible speed". Globally, he is known as the tree-planter for his environmental awareness drive, Project Greenhand, which has won a Guinness Book of World Records tag in 2006.
Vasudev feels no one is actually interested in god because they "seek individual well being". "People want to go to heaven because they have made a mess of life out here. It is best to address the contentious personal and spiritual issues in the world itself consciously. Spirituality should be practised within the ambit of worldly concerns," he said.
"The biggest problem that ails the globe today is ignorance. There are five dimensions of ignorance. Education does not eradicate ignorance; it has equipped us to lead a better quality of life with the help of technology. It is a passport to livelihood. Knowledge has not made humanity joyful or any blissful.
"For instance, a block of granite may be more precious than diamond because it is used for building edifices. What's more precious is inner joy - the basic humanity. There was a time I would not bow down to god, but now I bow down to everyone," he said.
<b>UBH AAYEGA MUZZA</b>
<b>âZardari offered us a dealâ, reveals Nawaz Sharif</b>
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (N) Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif disclosed on Wednesday that President Asif Ali Zardari asked his brother Mian Shahbaz Sharif to strike a deal with the government over the issue of judiciary.
Addressing a press conference at Raiwind after an important PML (N) meeting, Nawaz said President Zardari offered Shahbaz Sharif a political deal when he invited him to a lunch at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
âPresident Zardari offered that we (Nawaz and Shahbaz) would be declared eligible by the Supreme Court if we accept the present judiciary including Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar,â Nawaz said.
âI would have accepted the deal if power had been more dear to me than principles, he said, adding, we have embraced our disqualification but will not compromise on the national interest.â
He further said it was difficult to predict the losses and future implications of the Supreme Courtâs verdict.
The rulers have violated the promises made by the slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto with PML-N, he said.
The former prime minister said everybody knows where the verdict came from.
"I think the nation will have to rise against such actions. If not the country will be harmed by those who want to destroy Pakistan. We should save the country against potential dangers," he said. <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>American military aid for Pakistan short of money</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->* Programme to train, equip 10,000 FC fighters underfunded by 73%
* Report says shortfall may slow down operations next month
WASHINGTON: The US Defence Department effort to help Pakistan secure its border with Afghanistan and root out Taliban fighters is underfunded by as much as 73 percent â a budget shortfall so severe that it could slow down operations next month, according to a report released on Monday.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Musharraf meets Pir Pagaro</b> <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Pakistan urgently needs $4-5bnâ</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->* Senator John Kerry says Senate bill for $7.5bn non-military aid to be tabled soon
WASHINGTON: The United States and Europe must give Pakistan four to five billion dollars in urgent aid or risk seeing the nuclear-armed country slip into chaos, <b>Democratic Senator John Kerry and Republican former senator Chuck Hagel said on Tuesday</b>.
<b>The senators, now chair of Atlantic Council think tank</b>, were to release a formal report on Wednesday appealing for international help to stabilise Pakistan.
âIf we fail, we face a truly frightening prospect: terrorist sanctuary, economic meltdown, and spiralling radicalism, all in a nation with 170 million inhabitants and a full arsenal of nuclear weapons,â Kerry said in a statement released by the council.
<b>Kerry said he and Republican Senator Richard Lugar would soon introduce legislation aiming to provide Pakistan with $7.5 billion in non-military aid over five years.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
These cowards are buying short time peace.
<b>Mudy Ji :</b>
USD 7.5 Billion is small change.
Zardari wantsd USD 100 Billion, Gillani wants USD 70 Billion, Tarin wants USD 45 Billion, Javed Burki wants USD 40 Billion but will settle for USD 30 Billion and finally Zardari wants a Marshal Plan from the USA and European Countries.
Zardari has returned Empty Handed for the Second Time from China - Pakistan's Tallel than the Himalayas, Deepel than the Pacific Ocean, Lalgel than the Univelse and Sweetel than Honey Fliendship plofessing Fliend - and believe me the situation is going from Bad to Worse.
Pakistan is Bankrupt in every Department with only one asset i.e. Islamic Terrorism and its Foreign Debt has only One Point of the Compass to follow i.e. it is Northward Bound. Here is some more news to that effect :
<b>External debt highly vulnerable to shocks</b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->KARACHI - A debt sustainability analysis by the government and the IMF shows that Pakistanâs debt position worsened significantly in 2008. The External debt and liabilities (EDL) as a percentage of foreign exchange receipts (exports, services receipts, and private transfers) <b>increased to 127.2% in 2008 from 121.6% in 2006, indicating that the stock of EDL is growing at a faster rate than foreign exchange earnings.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Gwadar may lose business to Iranian port of Chabahar</b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->KARACHI : The Gwadar Port that was envisioned to become a trans-shipment port and shipping hub for the landlocked Central Asian States (CAS), Afghanistan and Western China <b>may lose this opportunity to the fast developing Iranian port of Chabahar, a Gwadar Port official said.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Pakistan is now leader in IT (International Terrorism). People are outsourcing them and back office is just a booming business. Money will flow in from everywhere. Some are buying peace, some want to destroy peace, some want to educate new IT graduate.
Pakis are smart people, They have secure place on earth.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Feb 26 2009, 09:57 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 26 2009, 09:57 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pakistan is now leader in IT (International Terrorism). People are outsourcing them and back office is just a booming business. Money will flow in from everywhere. Some are buying peace, some want to destroy peace, some want to educate new IT graduate.
Pakis are smart people, They have secure place on earth.
[right][snapback]94936[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Mudy Ji :</b>
Pakistani Leadership must be <b>"Very Smart Indeed</b> to lead the Country and its People "Down the <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->" and still retain their "Pojishun".
Here's more news of Pakistan's "Phlourishing" Economy :
<b>IMF scales down growth rate to 2.5 percent: everything went well, says Tarin</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ISLAMABAD (February 26 2009) :<b> IMF has scaled down Pakistan's growth rate at 2.5 percent</b> and tax revenue at Rs 1300 billion, Shaukat Tarin told Business Recorder on Wednesday on concluding his discussions with IMF. "We were hoping to take more time, <b>but everything went well,</b> and they (IMF officials) were very positive", Tarin said from Dubai over phone.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Sharifsâ disqualification weakened democracy : Gilani</b>
ISLAMABAD ( 2009-02-26 16:48:39 ) : <b>Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said the Supreme Court verdict about disqualification of Sharif brothers saddened him and has weakened democracy</b>.
Talking to Aaj TV, the premier said the governor rule was imposed to fill the constitutional demand adding that it was his partyâs decision.
About the Pakistan Muslim League Nawazâs stance of launching protest movement, he said it is need of the hours to forge reconciliation. Outsider forces would ultimately take benefit if reconciliation bids failed, Gilani said.
<b>âI canât predict future scenarioâ, he observed</b>
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>US retains hidden grip on Pakistan nukes : report</b>
WITH political instability spreading, <b>nervous concern has mounted over the fate of Pakistanâs nuclear arsenal should Taliban sympathisers gain power within the military, but under the terms of secret agreements, US personnel have been stationed in Pakistan whose sole function is to guarantee and secure the safety of Islamabadâs nuclear arsenal and keep it out of the hands of terrorists,</b> according to several serving and former US officials.
<b>Some of the American technicians have had direct access to the nuclear weapons themselves,</b> these sources said, reports Washington-based Middle East Times on Friday. The report was authored by Richard Sale.
<b>Pakistanâs nukes are currently secure, in the opinion of several former and serving US officials. âThey are for now,â said one.</b>
In 2000, the Clinton administration created a joint commission, a âliaisonâ group, consisting of top American and Pakistani scientists. The purpose of this group was to help the Pakistanis create command and control codes for its nuclear weapons that would be unbreakable. One former senior US intelligence source told the newspaper that in the course of such work, America gained âa pretty full knowledgeâ of Pakistanâs command and control system.
<b>The United States then used Special Forces âsnatch teamsâ to kidnap Pakistani scientists who were allegedly peddling nuclear technology or knowledge of it to undesirables.</b> A group of such scientists was abruptly disappeared while travelling in Burma, these sources said. In addition, the kidnappings disrupted an alleged 200 links between the Pakistani nuclear community and terrorists with ties to Al-Qaeda, they said.
After two days of the 9/11 attacks, under US pressure, Pakistanâs military began to secretly relocate critical nuclear weapons components to six new secret locations, US sources said. Warheads and delivery systems, which were already being kept separated, were put even more widely apart, and additional surveillance was put on Pakistanâs nuclear labs and their personnel, they said. Additional steps were also taken to separate fissile material from the labs or the weapons themselves, they said. More US âtechnical advisoryâ teams, many staffed by Defence Intelligence Agency or Energy Dept intelligence officials, began to appear in Pakistan along with warning and assessment equipment.
Communications systems between Pakistani nuclear commanders and nuclear storage sites were reviewed and modernised, and certain key nodes were, at some point, on a US target list, sources said. Thanks to US technical means, the United States became aware of defects and miscommunication between Pakistani military centres of command during atomic tests which helped US analysts to grasp facets of Islamabadâs command and control areas that were of dubious reliability.
Following 9/11, when US advisors persuaded Pakistani scientists to adopt some key features that add security to US nuclear command procedures, tension rose over whether to install Permission Action Links (PALs), an electronic lock that renders a weapon null and void until political commanders relinquish control of the special codes that allow the weapon to be turned on, several sources said. In addition, the weapons could not be used without employing a dual-key system, meaning that a single rogue commander could not initiate their use. In brief, the PALs would prevent the unauthorised use of a nuclear weapon by an aberrant member of the military, and they would prevent use of such a weapon by terrorists, and therefore are important, US officials said. Yet disputes arose immediately. There were legal implications about sharing such sensitive military technology with a foreign power, and some senior US officials balked at using the PALs, thinking they would give the Pakistanis too much insight into Americaâs own nuclear war-fighting system. âThe Pakistanis are smart. What they can see and examine, they can re-engineer,â said one.
For their part, the Pakistanis feared that American scientists would insert a âdead switchâ into the PALs, which would freeze the weapons if someone attempted their use.
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>VoIP data is a pointer to Lashkarâs wide network
</b>
Rahi Gaikwad
IP addresses traced to Chicago, Kuwait and Russia
Terrorists were in âconstant communication with co-conspiratorsâ
One IP address belongs to Col. R. Saadat Ullah
Mumbai: Technical data collected by tracing the phone calls between the Mumbai attackers and their handlers and co-conspirators serve as an indicator of the worldwide reach of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
IP (Internet Protocol) addresses listed in the November 26, 2008, charge sheet have been traced to Pakistan, Chicago in the U.S., Kuwait and Moscow in Russia. They form part of the technical evidence collected by the Mumbai Crime Branchâs Cyber Cell. There are 10 IP addresses in the charge sheet, out of which five are from Pakistan, two from Chicago, two from Russia and one from Kuwait.
According to the charge sheet, the terrorists were in âconstant communication with the co-conspiratorsâ and made 384 calls. These calls were made from three mobile numbers 9819464530, 9820704561 and 9910719424. âInstructional and motivational inputs were being provided with alarming regularityâ and the briefing among the conspirators happened in real time.
A total of 41 calls (8,834 seconds) were made from the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, 62 calls (15,705 seconds) were made from Oberoi-Trident hotels and 181 calls (35,172 seconds) were made from Nariman House, the charge sheet states.
The attackers and conspirators spoke using the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service, which uses the Internet as a medium of communication. For this, an account with the New Jersey-based VoIP provider CallPhonex was created by a person who called himself Kharak Singh.
The charge sheet states: ââ¦on October 20 and 21, 2008, an individual identifying himself as Kharak Singh indicated that he was a VoIP reseller located in India and was interested in establishing an account with CALLPHONEX.â All the calls were made via CallPhonex.
Kharak Singh, a pseudonym used by a Pakistani national, created an id kharak_telco@yahoo.com, with CallPhonex. It is this id, which was accessed by the 10 IP addresses, to make payments to CallPhonex.
âSinghâ is a wanted accused in the charge sheet.
While speculation about the involvement of Pakistani army officers is rife, data culled by tracking this VoIP communication has thrown up the name of one Col. R. Saadat Ullah.
The charge sheet says that Saadat Ullah belongs to Special Communication Organisation located in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Another member of this organisation, Khurram Shazad, is also linked to the IP address. Ullah and Shazad are listed as wanted accused in the case.
They also shared an email id pmit@sco.gov.pk. They âfacilitated the communication between the deceased accused and the wanted accused.â The charge sheet mentions a Russian name Vladimir N. Zernov. There is an indication from the police that he is a real person. During the attacks, a threatening email from the id deccanmujahideen@gmail.com, sent to a television channel on November 27, 2008, was traced to Zernovâs IP address in Russia, the charge sheet states.
In addition, Ahemed Mekky from Kuwait is also on the IP list.
While the terrorists used five Nokia mobile handsets from Pakistan for communication, they used five GPS (Global Positioning System) handsets for navigation.
<b>Salman says growth will be less than 2pc</b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LAHORE : <b>The gross domestic product would be less than 2 per cent this year, which will be the lowest in the past one decade,</b> as growth has been strangulated by high interest rates and a tight monetary policy, said former finance minister Salman Shah<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->.
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>
India accuses Pakistani Army officer of involvement in Mumbai attacks</b>
The colonel, accused of facilitating communications between the attackers and handlers in Pakistan, was named along with 34 other suspects.
By Huma Yusuf
posted February 26, 2009 at 9:58 am EST
⢠A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
Indian police have named a serving colonel of the Pakistani Army in connection with the November Mumbai (Bombay) attacks, in which 164 people were killed. The colonel has been accused of facilitating communications between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan using "voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)." A charge sheet filed by the Mumbai police on Wednesday lists the colonel as one of 35 suspects wanted in connection with the attacks. Investigations by the Indian authorities also hint at the involvement of another Pakistani Army official and a government employee in the attacks.
According to The Guardian, VoIP calls made by the attackers were traced to the officer, who is wanted for questioning by the Indian authorities.
An 11,509-page charge sheet filed by the Mumbai police yesterday named the officer as Colonel Sadatullah, the highest-ranked Pakistani to be implicated in the three-day siege of two luxury hotels and other sites that strained tensions between the two neighbours.
Sadatullah is a colonel in the special communications organisation (SCO), a telecommunications agency of the Pakistani government run by officers from the army's signal corps....
Indian investigators say the calls were made using voice over internet protocol, or VoIP, a cheap way of making international calls. They were traced to an IP address created with CallPhonex, a VoIP service provider based in New Jersey, in the US. Payments for the calls were made by opening an account in the name of Kharak Singh, from India.
However, payments to the account were made by wire transfer through MoneyGram and Western Union Money Transfer by two Pakistani nationals, Javed Iqbal and Mohammed Ishtiaq. The two used the email address ID kharak_telco@yahoo.com to communicate with CallPhonex. Indian investigators say there was contact between this email address and Sadatullah's official email, pmit@sco.gov.pk, which police say is the email service for all SCO officers.
The Mumbai-based daily The Times of India explains that "the SCO ... stands for Special Communications Organization, a telecommunications agency of the Pakistani government which is run by officers from the Army's signals corps and operates only in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the conflict-wracked Northern Areas."
The involvement of another Pakistan Army official mentioned in phone calls placed by the Mumbai terrorists is also being investigated, reports The Times (of London).
Police also suspect the involvement of another army officer, who is referred to only as the "major general" in telephone calls between the ten Islamist gunmen who carried out the attacks and their alleged handlers in Pakistan, Mr [Rakesh] Mariah [the head of the Mumbai police crime branch] added.
According to the English-language Indian daily, the Hindustan Times, another civilian employee of the Pakistani telecommunications agency SCO is also wanted for questioning by the Mumbai police.
The Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell tracked the two officials â Colonel R. Saadat Ullah and Khurram Shazad â during their search for Kharak Singh, the name used to open a VoIP account with Callphonex, a US-based service provider. The account was opened on October 21 and 22, 2008. On October 27, an initial payment of $250 was wired to the account via Moneygram. The moneygram agent, Paracha International Exchange, was traced to Lahore....
During investigation, it came to light that the communication with Callphonex was made using the e-mail ID kharaktelco@yahoo.com. The ID was accessed from at least 10 Internet Protocol addresses. It is from one of these that the cell traced the location of Saadat Ullah and Shazad.
In response to these allegations, the Pakistani Army minimized its connection to the Mumbai attacks, reports The Times of India.
However, the Pakistan army downplayed its link to the Mumbai terror carnage and said that the chargesheet filed on Wednesday is very vague on the link.
Speaking to TIMES NOW, Brigadier Azmat Ali, Pak army spokesperson said, "[The] chargesheet does not accurately identify armyman allegedly linked to 26/11. There are many Colonel Sadatullahs in the Pakistan army. We are trying to find out if this is true or it is all a media speculation."
On Wednesday, Indian police charged Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks, along with two Indian nationals, with "waging war" against India, reports the BBC. All three could face the death penalty.
The BBC report adds, however, that the Pakistani Army has not been directly implicated in the Mumbai attacks.
[The charge sheet] does not establish any connection to the underworld of Mumbai nor does it mention any Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan intelligence agency) or Pakistani army officials.
As Mr. Qasab's trial begins, the Pakistani authorities have "raised the prospect that Indian authorities could have padded evidence to buttress its claims that Pakistani nationals were involved in the attacks," reports the Indian daily, The Hindu.
Last month, Islamabad submitted a 30-point questionnaire to New Delhi, in response to a formal dossier of evidence handed over by India. For the most part, the questionnaire sought evidence that will be needed for a possible criminal trial of Lashkar terrorists in that country.
But, government sources told The Hindu, several elements of the questionnaire have caused disquiet â among them, thinly-veiled insinuations that evidence was tampered with and allegations that the role of Indian nationals in facilitating the attack were being glossed over.
India Journal
CSI Mumbai Grapples With The Terror Attacks
By ERIC BELLMAN
MUMBAI--When Mumbai's joint police commissioner Rakesh Maria on Wednesday unveiled the results of his three-month investigation into the November terrorist attacks, about a dozen of his investigators stood behind him to face the cameras and get some airtime.
[Eric Bellman]
Eric Bellman
At first glance, it appears their star turn before the nation's media was well-deserved.
Despite concerns that the Mumbai police force â which seemed helpless to prevent or contain the attacks which killed more than 170 â could bungle again, their investigation seems to have been sufficiently sophisticated and thorough to warrant a pitch for a new television series: CSI Mumbai.
Parts of the 11,280-page charge sheet seen by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday suggest that the undermanned, underequipped and underpaid police officers in India's largest city have gone to great lengths to earn back the respect of India's citizens.
The police did have a great advantage in getting to the bottom of what happened: A live terror suspect, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was talking. He is the only one of the 10 attackers who survived.
âDespite repeated questions by the media, Mr. Maria said that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was not mentioned in the massive report.â
The police, however, went much further. They say they have matched DNA and fingerprint evidence found on the attackers and on the ship they hijacked to come to India from Pakistan.
They also followed the trail of money from the phones and the Voice Over Internet Protocol service used by the attackers to a network that included money transfers from Italy and Pakistan as well as emails through IP addresses in Kuwait, Moscow, Lahore and Chicago. They asked, and received, assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to unlock five global positioning system handsets used by the attackers to plot their journey from Karachi to Mumbai.
Their investigation also turned up 35 accomplices, though most of them are only known by their aliases. They include leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant group based in Pakistan that has been blamed for masterminding the attacks. The police also tracked every bullet, bomb and grenade brought in by the attackers as well as the more than 200 calls between them and their handlers.
More
* Read a synopsis of the police report.
* For Rakesh Maria, the Toughest Case Yet
* Police Morale Takes a Hit After Mumbai Attacks
The ultimate test of the police's thoroughness will be whether their charges stand in court when Mr. Kasab faces trial. But it's already clear that this investigation is of a different order than those that many Indians now expect from their police. It is also vintage Maria, a 50-year-old cop whose investigative skills have inspired at least one Bollywood movie.
The charge sheet also is significant for what Mr. Maria says it doesn't include: Any information connecting the attacks directly to the government, military or intelligence service in Pakistan. Despite repeated questions by the media Wednesday, Mr. Maria said that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Pakistan's premier spy service, was not mentioned in the massive report.
Parts of the report seen by the Wall Street Journal name two suspected accomplices with military titles: "Major General Sahab" and "Col. R. Saadatullah." Mr. Maria emphasized, however that investigators were still trying to find out whether these were just aliases or actual serving or retired army officers.
Some may be disappointed by the lack of a smoking gun connecting the attacks directly to people in power in Pakistan, especially since senior Indian government officials continue to insist that the ISI must have had a role because of the sophistication of the attacks, even though they never provide evidence to back up that claim.
That absence of a closer link to Pakistan in the police report likely will add, rather than undermine, its credibility.
"We have been very careful," Mr. Maria said to a packed press room below his office as his team tried to squeeze through reporters to get in front of the cameras. "The boys have worked very hard."
â Mr. Bellman is a Wall Street Journal correspondent based in Mumbai
<b>No parade on Pakistan Day</b>
ISLAMABAD: On the directive of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Joint Services Parade of 23rd March, commonly known as <b>Pakistan Day Parade, will not be held as a measure of an austerity drive.</b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> According to a press statement issued by the Prime Ministerâs Media Office, Gilani has, however, directed to hold all other events as scheduled. staff report
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Sri Lankan media, quoting the sports minister, said four players received minor injuries in the attack -- Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis [Images], Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana..<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why they play with them?
Pak convinces people that is is safe, it will be good for the game...people fall for it..
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