[Plaumpholavup]

Mumbai police control room said at least 75 people had died and 240 injured, according to preliminary reports. … Local television stations reported that a British national, who escaped the Oberoi Hotel, said he saw about 15 gunmen, first demanding that American and British nationals turn over their passports and then refusing to let them out.

SOMINI SENGUPTA
The New York York Times




Coordinated Attacks Kill at Least 80 in India

Gunmen Appear to Target Foreigners in Assaults on 7 Sites


By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 26, 2008


NEW DELHI, Nov. 26 -- At least 80 people were killed and more than 200 injured Wednesday night in seven synchronized attacks in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, police said.

A senior police official in the city said gunmen were holding hostages at two luxury hotels.

Television news footage later showed flames shooting out of the top floor of the renowned Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel and black smoke billowing up from near the structure's distinctive central dome after what was described as a massive explosion.

The shootings and explosions took place in the heart of the city's affluent southern section. At least two of the attacks targeted five-star hotels.

About 10:30 p.m., witnesses told reporters, two men fired automatic weapons outside the Cafe Leopold restaurant, which is popular with foreigners, then moved toward the five-star Taj Majal hotel while continuing to fire indiscriminately. The gunmen also reached the Oberoi hotel, the city's main Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station and a hospital.

Witnesses said the gunmen initially asked for British and American nationals. About 10 Americans and Britons were believed to be trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel late Wednesday.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said he was not aware of any American casualties in the attacks so far. He said the United States "strongly condemns the terrorist attacks" and stands "ready to support the Indian authorities" as they deal with them.


The 36-story five-star Oberoi hotel was evacuated, and television stations broadcast scenes of guests wheeling out their luggage. Authorities said at least two gunmen were still inside the Oberoi hotel, while the gun battle with police raged.

It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were. Television channels reported that at least 40 police commandos in bulletproof vests had entered the Oberoi.

"These are suspected to be some terrorist strikes. In a number of places, terrorists have opened fire; some grenades have also been used. In two hotels they are still holed up," Police Chief A.N. Roy told reporters. "Terrorists are holed up inside in three places, including two five-star hotels."

Roy said an undetermined number of hostages were being held in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. He did not immediately specify the nationality of any of those being held or say who the attackers might be.

Local train service was suspended, and the police cordoned off the area, which is usually packed with revelers and street food vendors late into the night.

Two hours after the shooting began, a fire was reported in the lobby of the Oberoi, and a massive explosion was heard in a gas station in the adjoining Colaba area, killing at least 10 of the victims.

Among those barricaded inside the Taj Mahal hotel were several European lawmakers who were visiting Mumbai ahead of a summit meeting of European Union and Indian leaders.

"I was in the lobby . . . when gunmen came in and people starting running," one of the lawmakers, Sajjad Karim, told Britain's Press Association news agency by telephone from the basement of the hotel. "A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away, and I ran into the hotel kitchen."

According to railway police, several men armed with rifles and grenades attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station in southern Mumbai, a UNESCO world heritage site built in the late 19th century and formerly known as Victoria Terminus Station.

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, has been the scene of bombings that have killed hundreds of people since 1993. In the worst attack, 257 people were killed and more than 1,100 wounded in a series of 13 bomb blasts in March 1993. Indian authorities blamed Muslim militants for the attacks on the city's stock exchange, trains, hotels and gas stations. After a long-running trial, 100 people were convicted of involvement in the bombings, which authorities said were carried out to avenge the deaths of hundreds of Indian Muslims in religious riots.

In 2003, more bombings attributed to Muslim militants killed 52 people in Mumbai.

In July 2006, more than 200 people were reported killed in a series of blasts that ripped through railway trains and commuter rail stations in Mumbai. Police later filed charges against 28 suspects belonging to a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group called Lashkar-i-Taiba and a banned northern Indian organization called the Students Islamic Movement of India. Police charged that the Pakistani intelligence service was behind the bombings. Pakistan denied the accusation.

Television news footage from the scene of the one of Wednesday's attacks showed gunmen opening fire on a crowd from a passing police van that they had apparently commandeered. The incident suggested that the attacks were part of a well-planned operation that involved tactics not previously seen in India.

In previous terrorist attacks, the perpetrators mainly planted homemade bombs in crowded markets, religious sites, railway stations, trains and other so-called "soft targets," detonating the explosives with timers or by remote control. The aim, according to the Stratfor private intelligence company, was generally to incite communal strife between Hindus and Muslims.

"In this latest attack, a large number of perpetrators are attacking harder, better-secured targets using small arms," a Stratfor analysis said. It said the attackers displayed "a high degree of determination, coordination and planning" and that the targets this time were "more strategically focused."

"As opposed to trying to rile up extremist elements in India's Hindu and Muslim communities, the attacks in Mumbai are going after the country's tourism industry, spreading fear to Western tourists and businesspeople who frequent India, thereby hitting at India's economic lifelines," Stratfor said.



© Copyright 1996-2008 The Washington Post Company

[darieBarexish]

The Taj Mahal Hotel

[mr.calisto]

^dead link

[Agrisalia]

The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai

[SypeKifef]

At Least 100 Dead in India Terror Attacks



European Pressphoto Agency

The site of an explosion near the airport in Mumbai.

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: November 26, 2008


MUMBAI, India — Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, on Wednesday night, killing dozens in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a Jewish center, a movie theater and a hospital.


Multimedia
vvv Interactive Map vvv

Map and Photographs of the Attack Sites

Even by the standards of terrorism in India, which has suffered a rising number of attacks this year, the assaults were particularly brazen in scale and execution. The attackers used boats to reach the urban peninsula where they hit, and their targets were sites popular with tourists.

The Mumbai police said Thursday that the attacks killed at least 101 people and wounded at least 250. Guests who had escaped the hotels told television stations that the attackers were taking hostages, singling out Americans and Britons.

A previously unknown group claimed responsibility, though that claim could not be confirmed. It remained unclear whether there was any link to outside terrorist groups.

Gunfire and explosions rang out into the morning.

Hours after the assaults began, the landmark Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, next to the famed waterfront monument the Gateway of India, was in flames.

Guests banged on the windows of the upper floors as firefighters worked to rescue them.



Photo: Gautam Singh/Associated Press

"Guests banged on the windows ..."

Fire also raged inside the luxurious Oberoi Hotel, according to the police. A militant hidden in the Oberoi told India TV on Thursday morning that seven attackers were holding hostages there.

“We want all mujahedeen held in India released, and only after that we will release the people,” he said. Some guests, including two members of the European Parliament who were visiting as part of a trade delegation, remained in hiding in the hotels, making desperate cellphone calls, some of them to television stations, describing their ordeal.

Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen who was dining at the Oberoi, told Sky News television that a gunman had ushered 30 or 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and, speaking in Hindi or Urdu, ordered them to put up their hands.

“They were talking about British and Americans specifically,” he said. “There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said, ‘Where are you from?’ and he said he’s from Italy, and they said, ‘Fine,’ and they left him alone.”

Sajjad Karim, 38, a British member of the European Parliament, told Sky News: “A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me.”

Before his phone went dead, Mr. Karim added: “I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen and then we were shunted into a restaurant in the basement. We are now in the dark in this room, and we have barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad.”

Attackers had also entered Cama and Albless Hospital, according to Indian television reports, and struck Nariman House, which is home to the city’s Chabad-Lubavitch center.

A spokesman for the Lubavitch movement in New York, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, told the Associated Press that attackers “stormed the Chabad house” in Mumbai.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was trying to locate an unspecified number of Israelis missing in Mumbai, according to Haaretz.com, the Web site of an Israeli newspaper.

Several high-ranking law enforcement officials, including the chief of the antiterrorism squad and a commissioner of police, were reported killed.



Photo: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters

[Police] officers responded to the attacks.

The military was quickly called in to assist the police.

Hospitals in Mumbai, a city of more than 12 million that was formerly called Bombay, have appealed for blood donations. As a sense of crisis gripped much of the city, schools, colleges and the stock exchange were closed Thursday.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister for Maharashtra State, where Mumbai is, told the CNN-IBN station that the attacks hit five to seven targets, concentrated in the southern tip of the city, known as Colaba and Nariman Point. But even hours after the attacks began, the full scope of the assaults was unclear.

Unlike previous attacks in India this year, which consisted of anonymously planted bombs, the assailants on Wednesday night were spectacularly well-armed and very confrontational. In some cases, said the state’s highest-ranking police official, A. N. Roy, the attackers opened fire and disappeared.

Indian officials said the police had killed six of the suspected attackers and captured nine.

A group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen said it had carried out the attacks. It was not known who the group is or whether the claim was real.

Around midnight, more than two hours after the series of attacks began, television images from near the historic Metro Cinema showed journalists and bystanders ducking for cover as gunshots rang out. The charred shell of a car lay in front of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus, the mammoth railway station. A nearby gas station was blown up.

The landmark Leopold Café, a favorite tourist spot, was also hit.

Reached by phone, some guests who had been trapped in the Taj said about 1 a.m. that they had heard an explosion and gunfire in the old wing of the hotel.

A 31-year-old man who was in the Taj attending a friend’s wedding reception said he was getting a drink around 9:45 p.m. when he heard something like firecrackers — “loud bursts” interspersed with what sounded like machine-gun fire.

A window of the banquet hall shattered, and guests scattered under tables and were quickly escorted to another room, he said. No one was allowed to leave.

Just before 1 a.m., another loud explosion rang out, and then another about a half-hour later, the man said.



Photo: Reuters

A policeman walked with an elderly man after one attack at a
railway station. Unlike previous attacks in India this year, which
consisted of anonymously planted bombs, the assailants on
Wednesday night were spectacularly well-armed and
very confrontational.
Photo: Indranil Mukherjee/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images

Rescue workers carried a victim
toward an ambulance near the site of
an attack in the Colaba area of the city.

At 6 a.m., he said that when the guests tried to leave the room early Thursday, gunmen opened fire. One person was shot.

The man’s friend, the groom, was two floors above, in the old wing of the hotel, trapped in a room with his bride. One explosion, he said, took the door off its hinges. He blocked it with a table.

Then came another blast, and gunfire rang out throughout the night. He did not want to be identified, for fear of being tracked down.

Rakesh Patel, a British businessman who escaped the Taj, told a television station that two young men armed with a rifle and a machine gun took 15 hostages, forcing them to the roof.

The gunmen, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, “were saying they wanted anyone with British or American passports,” Mr. Patel said.

He and four others managed to slip away in the confusion and smoke of the upper floors, he said. He said he did not know the fate of the remaining hostages.

Clarence Rich Diffenderffer, of Wilmington, Del., said after dinner at the hotel he headed to the business center on the fifth floor.

“A man in a hood with an AK-47 came running down the hall,” shooting and throwing four grenades, Mr. Diffenderffer said. “I, needless to say, beat it back to my room and locked it, and double-locked it, and put the bureau up against the door.”

Mr. Diffenderffer said he was rescued hours later, at 6:30 a.m., by a cherrypicker.

Among those apparently trapped at the Oberoi were executives and board members of Hindustan Unilever, part of the multinational corporate giant, The Times of India reported.

Indian military forces arrived outside the Oberoi at 2 a.m., and some 100 officers from the central government’s Rapid Action Force, an elite police unit, entered later.

CNN-IBN reported the sounds of gunfire from the hotel just after the police contingent went in.

The Bush administration condemned the attacks, as did President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team. The White House said it was still “assessing the hostage situation.”


Reporting was contributed by Michael Rubenstein and Prashanth Vishwanathan from Mumbai; Jeremy Kahn and Hari Kumar from New Delhi; Souad Mekhennet from Frankfurt, Germany; Sharon Otterman and Michael Moss from New York; and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[Roker]

... The attackers used boats to reach the urban peninsula where they hit, and their targets were sites popular with tourists.

Coast Guard locates suspected terrorist ship M V Alpha

The TIMES of INDIA
November 27, 2008

MUMBAI: M V Alpha, a ship which is suspected to have carried the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, was today found 112 km from here by the Coast Guard, officials said.

A CG spokesman said that searches were being carried out on board the ship but declined to elaborate.

The Coast Guard had launched two aircraft, choppers and its vessels after receiving information that the ship could have carried the terrorists from Gujarat to Mumbai.

Copyright © 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.

***

Mumbai Gujarat Google MAP

***

GUJARAT

Gujarat is a state in western India. Gujarat borders Pakistan to the north west ...



Mumbai lies 193 kilometres south of the coastal city of Daman, in the southernmost section of Gujarat ...

***

Home >> Mumbai >> Mumbai Terror Attacks

>> Map of Mumbai Attacks




So far:

• Latest from Trident Hotel: 12.00 pm GMT- Commandos are in an apartments across the road from Trident hotel, and firing at the terrorists.
• Latest at Oberoi Hotel:12.00 pm GMT- Gunshots heard from inside Oberoi hotel where terrorists are holding around 40 people as hostage.
• Latest From Taj Hotel:12.30 GMT- Loud explosion and Gun shots heard and fire seen in the Taj Hotel.
• Latest from Delhi- IAF keeps seven transport aircraft and one VVIP aircraft on standby in Delhi for airlifting troops and leaders at short notice.
• Latest From Nariman Point- Grenade sound could be heard from Nariman House building. Police and Commandos taking control and do clearing operations.

[Zoxeeoy]

GOOGLE MAP: Mumbai Attacks

Al Jazeera English has been tracking the points of attack with the help Google and Twitter users.

Get the news at http://english.aljazeera.net

Follow all the latest developments on Twitter at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mumbai

***

Seems FOX News broadcast a MAP that's of no use to anyone interested in a "Fair & Balanced" account of what's going on in Mubai

*

[yovbQVpD]

NY1

Updated 1:21 PM

Brooklyn Rabbi, Wife Among Hostages In Mumbai



The Associated Press is reporting that eight hostages, among them a Brooklyn rabbi and his wife, have been freed from the Mumbai headquarters of the New York-based outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, where they were being held by terrorists.

According to the Chabad Lubavitch website, Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka were detained when gunmen seized the headquarters of the organization.

The group's website says Holtzberg had been in touch with the Israeli Consulate, but the line was cut and no further contact had been made.

The group's website also says the couple's toddler son was among three people who left the headquarters.

The State Department says at least three Americans are among the injured in the attacks.

Just after 1 p.m., the hostage situation at the luxury Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel ended and the last three attackers killed.

This morning, a top Indian general said as many as a dozen gunmen remained inside two luxury hotels and a Jewish center; the rest of the gunment appeared to have been killed or captured.

Terrorists launched coordinated attacks on 10 locations over the last day – including the Chabad headquarters, a train station, hospitals and two five-star hotels, including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower.

Authorities in India say more than 100 people are dead and more than 300 others have been injured in the attacks.

A group of suspected Muslim militants has claimed responsibility.

The United States State Department says all the diplomats at the consulate are safe.

A call center has been set up for those concerned about family members. The number is 1-888-407-4747.



Copyright © 2008 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

[Candykiss]

NEWS ANALYSIS
India’s Suspicion of Pakistan Clouds U.S. Strategy in Region


By JANE PERLEZ
Published: November 27, 2008

A version of this article appeared in print on November 28, 2008 … of the New York edition.


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The terrorist attacks in Mumbai occurred as India and Pakistan, two big, hostile and nuclear-armed nations, were delicately moving toward improved relations with the encouragement of the United States and in particular the incoming Obama administration.

Those steps could quickly be derailed, with deep consequences for the United States, if India finds Pakistani fingerprints on the well-planned operation. India has raised suspicions. Pakistan has vehemently denied them.

But no matter who turns out to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks, their scale and the choice of international targets will make the agenda of the new American administration harder.

Reconciliation between India and Pakistan has emerged as a basic tenet in the approaches to foreign policy of President-elect Barack Obama, and the new leader of Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus. The point is to persuade Pakistan to focus less of its military effort on India, and more on the militants in its lawless tribal regions who are ripping at the soul of Pakistan.

A strategic pivot by Pakistan’s military away from a focus on India to an all-out effort against the Taliban and their associates in Al Qaeda, the thinking goes, would serve to weaken the militants who are fiercely battling American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

But attacks as devastating as those that unfolded in Mumbai — whether ultimately traced to homegrown Indian militants or to others from abroad, or a combination — seem likely to sour relations, fuel distrust and hamper, at least for now, America’s ambitions for reconciliation in the region.

The early signs were that India, where state elections are scheduled next week, would take a tough stand and blame its neighbor. In his statement to the nation, the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who in the past has been relatively moderate in his approach to Pakistan, sounded a harsh tone.

He said the attacks probably had “external linkages,” and were carried out by a group “based outside the country.” There would be a “cost” to “our neighbors,” he said, if their territory was found to have been used as a launching pad.

The prime minister did not name Pakistan. But everyone — certainly on Pakistani television news programs Thursday night — knew that is what he meant, and that the long history of Pakistani-Indian finger-pointing had returned.

The Hindustan Times, an influential Indian newspaper, reported Thursday that India’s security agencies believed that the multiple attacks in Mumbai were by an Islamic militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, operating out of Pakistan.

According to the newspaper, the special secretary at the Home Affairs Ministry, M. L. Kumawat, said that Lashkar-e-Taiba was a “distinct possibility.” The newspaper stopped short of saying that Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, had helped Lashkar-e-Taiba plan and execute the Mumbai operation, a role that the Indian government has ascribed to the Pakistani intelligence agency in past terrorist attacks.

But if India discovers that the intelligence agency is connected to the Mumbai attacks — even rogue elements of the agency — the slightly warmer relationship that has been fostered between the neighbors would no doubt return to a deep freeze. And that may have partly been the motivation of whoever carried out the attacks.

“If the Indians believe this was Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda, as they are suggesting, we could see a crisis like 2002 with enormous pressure to do something,” an American official said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. “The key will be if the Indians see an ISI hand.”

After a dozen people died in an assault on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi in December 2001, India blamed a jihadist group, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and said Inter-Services Intelligence had backed the operation. For the next year the neighbors remained on the brink of war with forces massed along their 1,800-mile border.

According to a new book, “The Search for Al Qaeda,” by Bruce Riedel, an adviser on South Asia to Mr. Obama, Osama bin Laden worked with the Pakistani intelligence agency in the late 1980s to create Lashkar-e-Taiba as a jihadist group intended to challenge Indian rule in Kashmir.

But the new president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, appears to be acting according to America’s playbook for better relations with India.

A businessman at heart, Mr. Zardari understands the benefit of strong trade between India and Pakistan. Now on life support from the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan would profit immensely from the normalization of relations.

Mr. Zardari has called for visa-free travel, a huge step from a situation in which there are not even scheduled flights between the nation’s capitals. Speaking to an Indian audience over a video link from Islamabad last weekend, Mr. Zardari proposed a “no first nuclear strike” policy with India. The idea came as a shock to the Pakistani Army, which has always refused to commit to a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons.

Going further, Mr. Zardari said South Asia should be a nuclear-weapon-free zone, which could be achieved by a “nonnuclear treaty.”

“I can get around my Parliament to this view, but can you get around the Indian Parliament to this view?” he asked.

Pakistani officials said the president’s sentiments did not reflect the policies of the powerful Pakistani security establishment, whose existence has been predicated since partition of the subcontinent 61 years ago on viewing India as the enemy.

It will take more than off-the-cuff remarks intended to please a dinner audience to change these longstanding policies, Pakistani newspaper editorials said.

“He wants improved relations with India,” said Sajjan M.Gohel, director for international security of the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London. “But Zardari needs the full support of the Pakistani security apparatus, and he doesn’t have it.”

Some of the moves toward improving the atmosphere between India and Pakistan were under way on the night of the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on a four-day trip to India, had just finished discussions with the Indian foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, on terrorism, trade and the loosening of visa restrictions when the terrorists struck.

Visibly moved by the attacks, Mr. Qureshi appeared on Indian television on Thursday, calling the attacks “barbaric.” He urged both sides not to resort to “knee-jerk” reactions and to drop the usual “blame game.” Across the board, senior Pakistani officials condemned the attacks.

But there was also immediate anxiety among Pakistanis about the Indian prime minister’s unequivocal tone. “It is unfair to blame Pakistan or Pakistanis for these acts of terrorism even before an investigation is undertaken,” said the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani. “Instead of scoring political points at the expense of a neighboring country that is itself a victim of terrorism, it is time for India’s leaders to work together with Pakistan’s elected leaders in putting up a joint front against terrorism.”

Unless care is exercised, one of the apparent goals of the Mumbai attack will be achieved, said Moonis Ahmar, a lecturer in international relations at Karachi University. And the new American agenda of reconciliation between India and Pakistan will be sacrificed. “It’s a well-thought-out conspiracy to destabilize relations between the two countries,” Mr. Ahmar said.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[rikdpola]

NY1

Updated 5:51 PM

Three From Brooklyn Killed In Mumbai Terrorist Attack



Officials confirmed Friday that a former Brooklyn rabbi and his wife were among five killed hostages killed in an ultra-orthodox Jewish center in Mumbai, India that was held under siege that morning.

Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, seen above, as well as Brooklyn resident Leibish Teitelbaum were found in Mumbai's Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Community Center, following a two-day attack by militants.

Mumbai Families' Hotline
A call center has been set up for those concerned about family members in Mumbai, at 1-888-407-4747.

A day-long effort to flush out militants believed to be holed up inside the headquarters of the Jewish outreach group ended Friday morning. Sources told NY1 that police took over two floors of the center, and that the struggle ended when a massive explosion rocked the center, which appeared to have been part of the commando assault on the building.

In New York, Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said Friday that security was increased at the city's Lubavitcher center, as well as at Jewish centers and large hotels.

"This is indeed a very sad day," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a Friday afternoon conference in Crown Heights. "It is a reminder to all of us just how connected we are."

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement confirmed the Holtzbergs' death at the conference and wiped tears from his eyes as he described the rescue of the couple's young son.

"The Holtzbergs' toddler son, Moshe, [who] was heroically rescued from the hell by his nanny Sandra, will mark his second birthday tomorrow, Saturday, November 29th," said Krinsky. "Today, he became an orphan without a dad and mom to lovingly embrace him and celebrate with him."

Krinsky said the couple had another child, who is not in the Mumbai center and is currently safe.

According to the Chabad-Lubavitchers, the Holtzbergs were in Mumbai since 2003 to serve the city's small Jewish community, founding a Chabad House to teach mentor and help the needy.

Lubavitcher Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky also became emotional as he described Holtzberg, who he called a close colleague.

“In the most trying of times, he always wore a smile,” said Kotlarsky. “He was a real ‘mensch’ [honorable man]. He was a very special person, he and his wife.”

Also on Friday, the State Department confirmed that another U.S. citizen and his daughter were killed while traveling Mumbai with a group from the Synchronicity Foundation, a Virginia-based group that studies holistic meditation.

The group identified the victims as Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi.



Meanwhile, Indian forces were still battling militants at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai Friday night.

Commandos were launching grenades at the Taj, where at least one militant was believed to be holed up inside a ballroom Friday night.

About 400 people were rescued from the Taj Thursday.

Meanwhile, security officials say commandos now control the Oberoi hotel, after killing two gunmen there and after finding at least 24 bodies inside.
Dozens of hostages were rescued from the hotel yesterday.

The violence started Wednesday, when terrorists launched coordinated attacks on 10 locations, including a cafe, theater and train terminal.

As of Friday night, it was estimated that 150 people were killed and nearly 400 were wounded.

Authorities did not know Friday night who was responsible for the siege, but India's foreign minister said "elements in Pakistan" were behind the attacks.

No motive had been established by Friday.

Kelly said Friday the NYPD is not familiar with the terror group that claimed responsibility although he said it might be a coalition of several terror cells.

He said the NYPD may send officers to India to gather intelligence, as happened after Mumbai's 2006 bombings.

A U.S. investigative team is headed to Mumbai, and the State Department urged Americans not to travel to the city, at least through the weekend.



Copyright © 2008 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

[domeffire]

... another U.S. citizen and his daughter were killed while traveling Mumbai with a group from the Synchronicity Foundation, a Virginia-based group that studies holistic meditation.

The group identified the victims as Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi.

My Life With a Contemporary Master

25 years of Eastern meditation brought me to the feet of a Western Master.

By ALAN SCHERR
Realization.Org

IT IS ABOUT 7:30 PM in mid-April, 1994 and I am sitting in the second-row aisle seat of a large round room in a small town called Faber in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia. I have come to a place called Synchronicity Sanctuary to meet Master Charles, a man who is described as a contemporary mystic and Master of meditation.

Perhaps it is a mixture of curiosity and a compelling sense of destiny that brings me to this remote place, after spending the last 25 years of my life in close connection with a well-known Eastern Master. At the moment, however, what I notice is that my heart is pounding out of my chest and I am buzzing all over with electric energy. Thirty minutes remain before Master Charles is scheduled to arrive, and I am sitting on the edge of my seat, enveloped in an expanding awareness that can barely be contained ...

Copyright 2000 Alan Scherr.

Alan Scherr, his wife Kia, and daughter Naomi have been actively involved
in the Synchronicity community since moving to Maryland in 1996. Prior to
that, Alan and Kia had been regular program participants, as was Naomi, in
utero. Before meeting Master Charles, Alan was affiliated with the
Transcendental Meditation organization for 25 years as a practitioner,
teacher, and program facilitator. He was also a university faculty member in
the art departments of the University of Maryland and Loyola College.
Presently, Alan serves as president and administrative council member of
Synchronicity Foundation, USA.

***

To the Synchronicity Community:

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of two of our loved community members Alan and Naomi Scherr who were tragically killed in the recent events at the Oberoi in Mumbai. Our love and support go out to Kia and Alan's family at such a heartbreaking time.
We choose to reflect and remember Alan and Naomi, two beautiful people who brought so much into our lives and who will always remain in our hearts.
Alan and his wife Kia have been integral members of the Synchronicity community for more than a decade since moving to Faber with their young daughter Naomi. Alan committed most of his adult life to meditation, spirituality and conscious living. He was a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher who inspired many people to begin a journey of self awareness and meditation. He was committed to making a positive difference in the world and devoted himself to the community he lived in.
Naomi was a bright and lively young woman who loved spending time with people and living life to the fullest. She was passionate, if not a little mischievous, and will be fondly remembered by many of us for colorful hair styles and radiant energy.
A site is currently being set up for those who wish to express their love and pay tribute to Alan and Naomi:
www.alanandnaomi.com
We will be holding a memorial service in the future which we will announce in the coming days. In the mean time we ask for the media to allow time for our community to deal with these tragic events before making any further statements.
************************************************** **************
All other Synchronicity participants who were staying at the Oberoi are accounted for and safe.
For information about Synchronicity Foundation click here.

[Gmvkgkmn]

The Barbarians

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish
30 Nov 2008 08:34 pm

In case anyone is in any doubt what we're up against:
Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies, including
that of the terrorists, were taken said they had not seen
anything like this in their lives. "Bombay has a long history of
terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and
previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely
different. It was shocking and disturbing," a doctor said.

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said:
"It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What
shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the
hostages were executed in cold blood," one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem
of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore
the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed
on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and
tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not
want to go over the details even in my head again," he said. The pathological anti-Semitism of the Islamists is a trade-mark, isn't it?

[apannamma]

This attack.

The stupidity of it all.

That's all I dare to mutter about it at this time.

[Niiinioa]

Brutal. High on lsd and cocaine just going around killing as many people as possible. And the fact that they were trained for months perhaps years to do this.

sends chills

[MpNelQTU]

Bomb alert at Mumbai train station
Two bombs found in bag are defused at
station that was attacked last week


By Angela Balakrishnan and agencies
guardian.co.uk
December 3 2008


Mumbai police have defused two bombs found in a bag at the train station attacked by terrorists last week. Officers called the bomb squad after finding a suspicious-looking bag while searching 150 pieces of luggage at Chhatrapati Shivaji station. Two bombs of 4kg were found inside and defused, police said. The bombs are understood to have been left during the original attack on the city last week in which 183 people were killed.

A senior police official, Rakesh Maria, gave no further details about the explosives, where exactly they were found or how they remained undetected.

The station, one of the country's busiest, was among the first of 10 targets during the three days of attacks and sieges that began last Wednesday. Authorities reopened the station and declared it safe within a day.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, had been due to visit the station today to mark a week since the attacks, India's NDTV channel reported.

India's security status is at war level in the wake of the attacks.



© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

[neeclindy]

India

Please Don't Go Down the Bush- Cheney Road

By Juan Cole
December 02, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" --- Many Indians have called the attacks in Mumbai "India's 9/11." As an American who lived in India, I can feel that country's anguish over these horrific and indiscriminate acts of terror.

Most Indian observers, however, were critical in 2001 (and after) of how exactly the Bush administration (i.e. Dick Cheney) responded to September 11. They were right, and they would do well to remember their own critique at this fateful moment.

What where the major mistakes of the United States government, and how might India avoid repeating them?

Remember asymmetryThe Bush administration was convinced that 9/11 could not have been the work of a small, independent terrorist organization. They insisted that Iraq must somehow have been behind it. States are used to dealing with other states, and military and intelligence agencies are fixated on state rivals. But Bush and Cheney were wrong. We have entered an era of asymmetrical terrorism threats, in which relatively small groups can inflict substantial damage.

The Bush administration clung to its conviction of an Iraq-al-Qaeda operational cooperation despite the excellent evidence, which the FBI and CIA quickly uncovered, that the money had all come via the UAE from Pakistan and Afghanistan. There was never any money trail back to the Iraqi government.

Many Indian officials and much of the Indian public is falling into the Cheney fallacy. It is being argued that the terrorists fought as trained guerrillas, and implied that only a state (i.e. Pakistan) could have given them that sort of training.

But to the extent that the terrorists were professional fighters, they could have come by their training in many ways. Some might have been ex-military in Britain or Pakistan. Or they might have interned in some training camp somewhere. Some could have fought as vigilantes in Afghanistan or Iraq. They needn't be state-backed.

Keep your eye on the ballThe Bush administration took its eye off al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and instead put most of its resources into confronting Iraq. But Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Eventually this American fickleness allowed both al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup.

Likewise, India should not allow itself to be distracted by implausible conspiracy theories about high Pakistani officials wanting to destroy the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai. (Does that even make any sense?) Focusing on a conventional state threat alone will leave the country unprepared to meet further asymmetrical, guerrilla-style attacks.

Avoid Easy Bigotry about National CharacterMany Americans decided after 9/11 that since 13 of the hijackers were Saudi Wahhabis, there is something evil about Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia itself was attacked repeatedly by al-Qaeda in 2003-2006 and waged a major national struggle against it. You can't tar a whole people with the brush of a few nationals that turn to terrorism.

Worse, a whole industry of Islamphobia grew up, with dedicated television programs (0'Reilly, Glen Beck), specialized sermonizers, and political hatchetmen (Giuliani). Persons born in the Middle East or Pakistan were systematically harassed at airports. And the stigmatization of Muslim Americans and Arab Americans was used as a wedge to attack liberals and leftists, as well, however illogical the juxtaposition may seem.

There is a danger in India as we speak of mob action against Muslims, which will ineluctably drag the country into communal violence. The terrorists that attacked Mumbai were not Muslims in any meaningful sense of the word. They were cultists. Some of them brought stocks of alcohol for the siege they knew they would provoke. They were not pious.
They killed and wounded Muslims along with other kinds of Indians.

Muslims in general must not be punished for the actions of a handful of unbalanced fanatics. Down that road lies the end of civilization. It should be remembered that Hindu extremists have killed 100 Christians in eastern India in recent weeks. But that would be no excuse for a Christian crusade against Hindus or Hinduism.

Likewise, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as a Sikh, will remember the dark days when PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards after she had sent the Indian security forces into the Golden Temple-- and the mob attacks on Sikhs in Delhi that took place in the aftermath. Blaming all Sikhs for the actions of a few was wrong then. It would be wrong now if applied to Muslims.

Address Security Flaws, but Keep Civil Liberties StrongThe 9/11 hijackings exploited three simple flaws in airline security of a procedural sort. Cockpit doors were not thought to need strengthening. It was assumed that hijackers could not fly planes. And no one expected hijackers to kill themselves. Once those assumptions are no longer made, security is already much better. Likewise, the Mumbai terrorists exploited flaws in coastal, urban and hotel security, which need to be addressed.

But Bush and Cheney hardly contented themselves with counter-terrorism measures. They dropped a thousand-page "p.a.t.r.i.o.t. act" on Congress one night and insisted they vote on it the next day. They created outlaw spaces like Guantanamo and engaged in torture (or encouraged allies to torture for them). They railroaded innocent people. They deeply damaged American democracy.

India's own democracy has all along been fragile. I actually travelled in India in summer of 1976 when Indira Gandhi had declared "Emergency," i.e., had suspended civil liberties and democracy (the only such period in Indian history since 1947). India's leadership must not allow a handful of terrorists to push the country into another Emergency. It is not always possible for lapsed democracies to recover their liberties once they are undermined.

Avoid WarThe Bush administration fought two major wars in the aftermath of 9/11 but was never able to kill or capture the top al-Qaeda leadership. Conventional warfare did not actually destroy the Taliban, who later experienced a resurgence. The attack on Iraq destabilized the eastern stretches of the Middle East, which will be fragile and will face the threat of further wars for some time to come.

War with Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks would be a huge error. President Asaf Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani certainly did not have anything to do with those attacks. Indeed, the bombing of the Islamabad Marriott, which was intended to kill them, was done by exactly the same sort of people as attacked Mumbai. Nor was Chief of Staff Ashfaq Kiyani involved. Is it possible that a military cell under Gen. Pervez Musharraf trained Lashkar-e Tayiba terrorists for attacks in Kashmir, and then some of the LET went rogue and decided to hit Mumbai instead? Yes. But to interpret such a thing as a Pakistan government operation would be incorrect.

With a new civilian government, headed by politicians who have themselves suffered from Muslim extremism and terrorism, Pakistan could be an increasingly important security partner for India. Allowing past enmities to derail these potentialities for detente would be most unwise.

Don't Swing to the RightThe American public, traumatized by 9/11 and misled by propaganda from corporate media, swung right. Instead of rebuking Bush and Cheney for their sins against the Republic, for their illegal war on Iraq, for their gutting of the Bill of Rights, for their Orwellian techniques of governance, the public gave them another 4 years in 2004. This Himalayan error of judgment allowed Bush and Cheney to go on, like giant termites, undermining the economic and legal foundations of American values and prosperity.

The fundamentalist, rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which has extensive links with Hindu extremist groups, is already attacking the secular, left-of-center Congress Party for allegedly being soft on Muslim terrorism. The BJP almost dragged India into a nuclear war with Pakistan in 2002, and it seeded RSS extremists in the civil bureaucracy, and for the Indian public to return it to power now would risk further geopolitical and domestic tensions.

India may well become a global superpower during the coming century. The choices it makes now on how it will deal with this threat of terrorism will help determine what kind of country it will be, and what kind of global impact it will have. While it may be hypocritical of an American to hope that New Delhi deals with its crisis better than we did, it bespeaks my confidence in the country that I believe it can.


Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute - Please visit his blog - www.juancole.com

[djmassk]

NYPD: New York hotels are vulnerable
to Mumbai-type terror attack

NY DAILY NEWS
By WIL CRUZ
December 5th 2008

Can Mumbai happen here?

The NYPD believes it is prepared to prevent - or quickly respond to - an attack because of its intelligence and training.

"We have a very proactive intelligence gathering and analytical capability that will hopefully assist us in preventing something like Mumbai from happening," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Ten heavily-armed terrorists killed at least 173 people and injured hundreds in Mumbai last week in highly-organized siege that lasted three days. Nine of the young militants were killed and one was captured.

Indian and American officials have recently pointed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization with Pakistani ties.

The NYPD's Shield program on Friday unveiled some of its preliminary intelligence about the Mumbai attacks. An intelligence team, which was dispatched to India shortly after the attacks, found that the country's law enforcement was ill-prepared for the siege.

"This event took them by surprise," Capt. Brandon del Pozo said of Indian authorities.

Kelly was careful not to criticize the Indian police. Still, he assured New Yorkers the NYPD is doing everything it can to prevent a copycat attack. "We live in a dangerous world; there are no guarantees," he said. "But we've done more than any other city ... to prevent an attack."

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com

[liontutuxx]

One might wonder if that "botched robbery" at the Waldorf Astoria in mid-November was more than meets the eye. Trial run to check out the soft spots and pattern of response ...

[Ijkavylo]

Perish the thought!

[Dpkefsuf]

Only a matter of time before we see another attack on our soil. Vigilance is the only measure to prevent an attack, but unfortunately, we tend to forget with time.