Pakistan Connection to Bangladesh Mutiny?

There are strong suspicions now that Pakistans' spy service, ISI, may have played a support role in last week's bloody rebellion in Bangladesh by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). ISI is also suspected of playing a role in the Mumbai massacres in India last November. Two important reports: The Telegraph UK reports: The Times of India quoted sources close to the investigation claiming arrested mutineers had named a senior a Bangladeshi businessman and politician believed to have close links with Pakistan's intelligence service. It was also reported that confession statements suggested the mutineers had received around £100,000 to bankroll their revolt. Full Report from The Telegraph UK... A report from 123 Breaking News makes a very strong case for the Pakistani connection (emphasis added): The preliminary interrogation of some of the rebels has thrown up the name of Salauddin Qadeer Chowdhury, a well-known shipping magnate and reportedly very close to the Pakistan military-intelligence complex and the opposition BNP. According to sources monitoring the situation, about one crore taka has already changed hands to help the mutiny along. Chowdhury, a close associate of opposition BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia, was closely connected to the Chittagong arms drop case of April 2004 - the arms were apparently intended for ULFA. The ships were caught carrying the arms. Salauddin Chowdhury, belonging to an old Chittagong family, has been close to Pakistan for decades. Full Report from 123 Breaking News... MUST-READ: 1,000 Murderers Hunted in Bangladesh - Chicago News Bench 'We have never raised the temperature with Pakistan' - Business Standard ISI behind BDR mutiny? - Chandigarh Tribune The BDR killings and some hard questions - The Daily Star Bangladesh a Nation under blended conspiracy - Bangladeshi Hindu Pakistan Links with BD Mutiny - Sania Mirza Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

UPDATED: PAKISTAN-INDIA TENSIONS STILL HIGH

Dec 27, 11:26 AM EST - Associated Press - Pakistan Moves Troops Toward Indian Border ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan told India on Saturday it did not want war and was committed to fighting terrorism - a move apparently aimed at reducing tensions after Pakistan moved troops toward their shared border. Islamabad also announced it was canceling all military leave - the latest turn of the screw in the rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors following last month's terror attack on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. THIS BEGS THE QUESTION: Why, then, did Pakistan move thousands of troops to its border with India on Friday? Why was leave canceled for all of Pakistan's military? That seems to be a very odd way of signalling that they don't want war. AP continues: Intelligence officials said Friday that the army was redeploying thousands of troops from the country's fight against militants along the Afghan border to the Indian frontier - an alarming scenario for the West as it tries to get Pakistan to neutralize the al-Qaida threat. FULL ARTICLE from AP... PREVIOUSLY, 26 DEC 2008: Pakistan is preparing for war with India. They are, at this moment, placing thousands of soldiers on its border with India. Tensions are very high, fingers are on the triggers. New bunkers are being built. The tension has been building since the Mumbai attacks. God forbid, it looks like it may reach the boiling point at any moment. AFP Reports today: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh summoned his military chiefs to review New Delhi's "defence preparedness" while his foreign ministry advised Indians not to travel to Pakistan, saying it was unsafe for them to be in the country. The developments sent ties plummeting to their lowest point since late 2001, when Kashmiri militants staged a brazen attack on the Indian parliament -- an attack New Delhi blamed on the Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is also blamed for the recent Mumbai massacres. Times of India - 27 Dec 2008, 0042 hrs IST, Ajay Sura, TNN - Pakistan has stepped up its war moves by cancelling all military leave, sharply increasing deployment of its troops along the border adjoining Punjab and Jammu, and building new bunkers along the border near Barmer, Jaisalmer and Ganganagar. Highly placed sources said Pakistan has shifted its 4 Corps, an important strike arm, to Lahore, just 25 km from Attari. Its 10th brigade, consisting of around 5,000 personnel, has further been moved to forward areas along Punjab. Similarly its 3rd Armoured Brigade has been moved towards Jhelum.... India's 2nd Corps from Ambala and 10 Corps from Bathinda have also moved to border areas for what an Army spokesperson described as annual exercises. This comes even as 11 Corps from Jalandhar has already moved for the exercise. RELATED: US warning on South Asia tension Pakistan Sends Troops to Indian Border Tensions mount as Pakistan shifts troops to Indian border South Asia descends into terror's vortex Newsdesk: Brown warns of Pakistan terror

Pakistan and Terrorism: Motivation of the Poet

Was Pakistan complicit in the Massacres of Mumbai last month? India is saying they were, and has presented "evidence" of this to representatives of Germany and the US. If the Indians are correct, this should be acted on swiftly. If they are being paranoid, the Indians are to be forgiven; Pakistan has never been a friend to India. In fact, history shows without ambiguity that Pakistan has always been an enemy of India and of the Indian people. There has been tension - hatred - between India and Pakistan for 41 years. In 1947, Pakistan became a nation when it was split off away from India when its the British colonial rulers drew a line on a map that fateful August 14. Pakistan was created for the sole purpose of giving Muslim Indians a nation of their own, an idea that gained steam in 1930 when poet Allama Iqbal pushed the notion of a separate country for Muslims. The motivation of the poet, and of all those who bought into his idea, was driven by religious intolerance of their non-Muslim fellow Indians. (Imagine a push in the US by a religious group to split New England away as a new nation just for them.) We could go back even farther in history, to the year 711 A.D., when the first Islamist invasion of India occurred. (In the same year, Islamists were invading and conquering Spain; this was hundreds of years before the first Crusades.) Since 1947, India and Pakistan have engaged in three major wars. There has been frequent skirmishing along their borders, too, most notably in Kashmir. But let's stay in the year 2008: Taking full advantage of the international community’s concern over the growing lawlessness in “ terror epicentre” Pakistan, New Delhi on Friday provided more evidence of its neighbour’s complicity in the Mumbai mayhem to the US and Germany. India also asked them to put pressure on Islamabad for dismantling the terror infrastructure on its soil. (Source: India Today Group Online) BE READY FOR NUCLEAR WAR: The head of India’s rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Corps) gave an ominous warning this week. According to Dawn.com, Sangh "warned that a nuclear war with Pakistan could become inevitable if peaceful means fail to rein in terrorism and voiced the chilling prospect of a Third World War breaking out, which he feels may cleanse the world of evil." Pakistan has deep internal problems, India aside. Engaged reluctantly in the War on Terror, with Afghanistan right next door, wild tribal areas that are uncontrollable, and tensions between fundamentalists and an educated, religiously moderate middle class, Pakistan's leaders have plenty of distractions. Nevertheless, Pakistan's ruling class needs to grapple with the fact the hard core militant Islamists who want to destroy India would also like to destroy Pakistan. To the Islamists, borders mean nothing, and the government of Pakistan is hated by the Islamist militants as much as is India. To make anything short of an all out effort to hunt down and destroy them within their own borders is a slow road to national suicide. The fact that Pakistani army’s ties to Islamists is under scrutiny is a good step, but should have happened years ago, with full fledged purges effectively cleaning them out of the military ranks. Pakistan must cooperate firmly and fully with India in moving against groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Tabai, if for no other reason than self-preservation. RELATED: RSS chief says India should be ready for nuclear war India, Pak standoff will intensify if no Pakistani is handed over Pak hasn't followed up on any proof: Pranab Pak has to act forcefully: US ‘Clear proof of Pak role in Mumbai blasts UN says Pakistan charity front for terrorist group Indonesia calls for united action to fight terrorism Pakistan's Post-Mumbai Clampdown Targets Islamists Pak detains over 30 JuD men; seals 65 of its offices

PAKISTAN STRIKES LASHKAR-E-TAIBA CAMP: "QUIET" CRACKDOWN NATIONWIDE

Pakistan engaging in nationwide, internal sweep to clean house: ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani security forces on Sunday raided a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), two sources said, in a strike against the militant group blamed by India for last month's deadly attacks on Mumbai. Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday that Pakistan had put its forces on high alert after a caller pretending to be Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee threatened President Asif Ali Zardari while the attacks were still going on. More from Reuters... The story from Dawn, mention by Reuters above, tells us that more than just one camp was targeted and that there is now a nationwide sweep of Pakistan by the military to arrest extremists: MUZAFFARABAD/ISLAMABAD, Dec 7 - Security forces have launched a ‘quiet’ crackdown on activists belonging to the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in different parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.In Muzaffarabad, a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-i-Taiba’s ‘commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested. More at Dawn... ALSO: NATO supplies attacked in Pakistan

FLASH: UK PAPER PROVES PAKISTAN CONNECTION

The Hindu newspaper (India) has this now: Contradicting Pakistani denials that its nationals were involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, The Observer reported on Sunday that it had established that Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab,’ the lone surviving suspect, came from a village called Faridkot in the Okara district of Pakistan. The story indicated that the terrorist’s correct name is Mohammed Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammed Amir Iman. (Source: The Hindu)

LSD, Cocaine Helped Fuel Terror in Mumbai

Cocaine partially fueled the terrorist rampage in Mumbai last week. So reports CBS3 (Philadephia) in an Associated Press story today. MUMBAI, India (AP) ― The gunmen who went on a rampage in Mumbai, India for almost three days had drugs in their system and drug paraphernalia, such as syringes, were recovered from the scene of the assaults, according to British paper the Telegraph: The killers were doing more than cocaine: "We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists and later found drugs in their blood," an official told the Telegraph. The official also noted that "There was also evidence of steroids, which isn't uncommon in terrorists." More at CBS-13... RELATED: Mumbai attacks: Jews tortured before executed during hostage crisis India demands Pakistan turn over 20 fugitives US official: India attack may have Pakistani roots India was warned of Mumbai attack, US officials say

UPDATED 12/2/2008: INDIA READY FOR WAR, SAYS PAKISTAN GUILTY OF MUMBAI SLAUGHTER

UPDATED 12/02/2008: INDIA IS STILL RATTLING SABRES. (This is not fear mongering, folks, it's passing on what the Indian government is saying.) From inthenews.co.uk today: India raises spectre of war over Mumbai attacks Previous Post, 12/01/2008: INDIANS SEEK REVENGE FOR MUMBAI TERRORISM. DEVELOPING. FROM THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK (Monday December 1 2008 00.01 GMT ): The Indian minister said yesterday [30 Nov 2008] there was "no doubt that the terrorists had come from Pakistan ... We have evidence of their nationalities. We will reveal everything soon". The Indian government raised the country's security to a "war level" yesterday saying it had certain proof of a Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks. The dramatic move prompted Pakistan to say it would end military operations against Islamist militants on the Afghan border, which are critical to the "war on terror", for an "unwanted conflict" with Delhi. FULL STORY... RELATED: Pakistan warns west over growing crisis Pak may relocate 100,000 armymen to border Tribal leaders vow to support Pak govt against India

India Loves George W. Bush

For nearly eight years, we've been hearing the twin lies that "the world hates America" and "the world hates President Bush." Just ask India's Prime Minister what he thinks of George W. Bush. The Hindu newspaper ran an article on September 27 (well before the Mumbai chaos of last week), in which he unabashedly lavished praise on Mr. Bush. “People of India deeply love you,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told United States President George W. Bush here on Thursday evening. The actual quote was "deeply, deeply love you." I've heard the audio. Singh continued: “In the last four and half years that I have been Prime Minister, I have been the recipient of your generosity, your affection, your friendship. It means a lot to me and to the people of India.” As Mr. Bush sat beaming in the glare of television cameras, he heard the visitor saying, “When the history is written, I think it will be recorded that President George W. Bush played a historic role in bringing our two democracies closer to each other.” Praise for George W. Bush - from a foreign leader??? This must sound like science fiction to the average American liberal, but the fact is that Bush is not the evil dictator that the lying liars have worked so hard to portray. Singh noted that President Bush made a major contribution to peace in Southern Asia. “For 34 years, India has suffered from a nuclear apartheid. We have not been able to trade in nuclear material, nuclear reactions, and nuclear raw materials. And when this restrictive regime ends, I think a great deal of credit will go to President Bush. And, for this I am very grateful to you, Mr. President.” Full Article at The Hindu... Wow. A major world leader saying that he is "grateful" to George W. Bush. Imagine. RELATED LOVE NOTES: Manmohan Professes India’s Deep Love for Bush - Prime Minister ... South Asia Investor Review: Manmohan Says India Loves Bush Bill Clinton Praises Bush : Next Stop Lauderdale Howard Dean fails again. Nagin praises Bush. Scott Allan's World Praise for George Bush's leadership skills Education The Guardian Bush's record in Africa receives well-deserved praise - Opinion ... Praise for President Bush in German Paper - Atlantic Review ... PajamaHadin » Blog Archive » ABC surprised by praise for Bush Open Letter Of Praise For George W Bush Putin criticizes NATO but has praise for Bush - International ... Well-Deserved Praise for Bush's Africa Record - Examiner.com Grudging Praise for Bush on Environment praise for bush from danish P.M. « The Homesick American… Rock star Bono praises Bush for AIDS plans

Trade on Four Banned Items Might Resume

Commodity Online reports some good news out of Mumbai, India. Life goes on, life goes on... MUMBAI: The major commodity bourses in India, Multi-Commodity Exchange of India and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) is likely to resume trading soon in natural rubber, soybean oil, potatoes and chickpeas following the lifting of suspension of futures in these commodities, officials of Finance Ministry said. Full Story...

MUST READ: "8 Links to al-Qaeda"

A stunning article that shows al-Qaeda ties to the terrorists that attacked Mumbai last week. Written by 20-year CNN veteran correspondent Maria A. Ressa for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. MANILA, Philippines—There is increasing evidence that the attacks in Mumbai were carried out by a Pakistani militant group linked to al-Qaeda, Indian and American intelligence sources tell me....The ties are clear if we take the facts in Mumbai and compare them with the history of al-Qaeda and its affiliate groups. Full Article...

AND WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

What have the lessons of 9/11, Bali, Madrid and now Mumbai taught us? Not much, apparently. Sadly, the West (which has been slumping toward suicide since the end of WWI) has its collective head in the sand when it comes to acknowledging the threat of radical Muslims. Most major news outlets are reluctant to even call Muslim terrorists what they are: Muslim terrorists. Calling them that does not mean that all Mulsims are terrorists; they're obviously not. But the the terrorists in Mumbai, those in Bali, the ones flying into New York and the Pentagon, were Muslims. It is an undeniable commonality, yet it is undeniably denied by the Western media. Raphael Israeli, a Moroccan by birth, is a professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern and Chinese history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has written more than two dozen books. Jihad Watch has a profound piece written by Prof. Israeli that addresses the foolish ignorance of the West in dealing with the threat of the global spread of radical Islam: The events of Mumbai, the “surprise” they caused, the clumsy fashion in which they were treated, and the almost glorifying attitude meted out to them by the world media, demonstrate, seven years after the September 11 attacks, that little was learned in the West from them, while the pledges of Islamic terrorism to pursue its novel strategy proved credible and feasible. For after Madrid, London, Bali and other acts of mega-terrorism, the West still hesitates to pronounce the M-word, and talks about “Militants”, who draw sympathy in the Islamic world, instead of condemning them as Muslim terrorists and trying to rally moderate governments worldwide in support of the war against them. Moreover, instead of vigorously rejecting the Muslim notion of jihad, in the name of which all these horrors are done, the West has been indulging in the vain distinction between Islam and “Islamism”, ignoring the fact that they are one and the same faith and that jihad is the language of both. FULL ARTICLE... Hat tip to sister blog Muslims Against Sharia...

Nigeria: Rioting Kills At Least 300

Contested election results and religion-based hatred were the cause of rioting that has killed more than 300 so far. Fighting erupted over the results of a local election in the city of Jos in central Nigeria. This is not the first time this has happened in Nigeria. CNN notes that "More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since civilian leaders took over from a former military junta in 1999. Political strife over local issues is common in Nigeria, where government offices control massive budgets stemming from the country's oil industry." Nigeria's religious demographics are Muslim 50%, Christian 40% and indigenous beliefs 10%. (CIA Word Factbook) BBC on the current mayhem in Nigeria: Police have imposed a 24-hour curfew and the army is patrolling the streets. They have been given orders to shoot on sight in an effort to quell the bloodshed, some of the most serious in Nigeria in recent years. The Nigerian Red Cross says at least 10,000 people have fled their homes. More at BBC News... A report from AFP: "I was at the central mosque this afternoon and I counted 378 dead bodies but just as I was about to leave, three more bodies were brought in," a correspondent for Radio France Internationale in Jos, Aminu Manu, told AFP, adding that families were coming forward to claim their dead relatives. "Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started. Remains of burned bodies litter some parts of the town; it is so terrible," Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said. Full Story at AFP... It should be noted that more people have died in the current Nigerian situation than in Mumbai and all Wal-Marts combined this week. RELATED: Troops Deployed to Stop Fighting in Central Nigeria - VOA 28 Nov 2008 ZIMBABWE: Soldiers riot over cash shortage - IRIN 28 Nov 2008 Islam in Nigeria: Simmering tensions BBC, 2003 Christians Killed And Churches Burned In Nigerian Riots (2002) RTÉ News: 175 killed in Nigerian riots over beauty contest (2002) Religious hatred sparks Nigerian riots... (2001) BBC News AFRICA Murder charges after Nigerian riots (2000) Nigeria, Crime Timeline, 21st Century Nigeria Christian / Muslim Conflict

Did Mumbai Locals Help Terrorists? Pakistan Connection Still In Play...

The Times of India reports that this seems to be the case: MUMBAI - Did some Mumbai locals provide support to the Pakistani terrorists? Azam Amir Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist nabbed alive, has revealed names and addresses of at least five people from the city who helped the terror operation. Perhaps those five people hate their own country in same way that this guy does. Meanwhile, the Pakistan connection is still in play: Crime branch has also recovered several fake identity and credit cards from the belongings of dead terrorists. "All the cards are in different names and of different banks. Now we are at least trying to figure out how they procured credit cards from various banks.'' said Maria. The recovery of so many cards with different names have led Mumbai police to suspect the involvement of ISI. Full Story at Times of India...

PAKISTAN BLINKS

Pakistan is on many peoples' minds this weekend in the wake of the horror unleashed in Mumbai. At least a few of the barbarians who brought death and destruction to India's financial capitol are Pakistani. Publicly, Pakistan's leaders condemned the carnage, but Pakistan has a history of supporting such barbarism. Their secret intelligence service, ISI, is known to have backed terrorist attacks inside of India a number of times previously. The average Indian citizen - indeed, the world - cannot help but suspect Pakistani involvement once again. So, when Pakistan offered up its top intelligence chief to "help" investigate the Mumbai chaos, skepticism abounded. Instead of their top man, a subordinate will be sent. Perhaps the Pakistanis have no sense of the urgency of this situation, or perhaps they just have bad diplomatic manners. In either case, they are making an already bad situation worse by adding insult to suspected injury. Two reports explain: Pakistan U-turns on sending spy chief to India ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan on Saturday withdrew a pledge to send its spy chief to India to help probe the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, denting efforts to prevent a crisis between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Indian officials have linked the attacks to "elements" in Pakistan, raising the prospect of a breakdown in a tentative peace process between the South Asia rivals. Full Report at AP... Pakistan to send agent to India, not spy chief Pakistan has condemned the Mumbai attacks and denied any involvement, but the office of the Pakistani prime minister said in a statement that an ISI representative would go to India instead of the director general. Full Report at France 24...

Militant Muslims + Militant Hindus = Trouble

Some people are quite happy about the murder and mayhem in Mumbai this week. It seems to make them giddy and cheerful. Those who feel that way have one thing in common: They are followers of the "religion of peace." Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks. (Source: adnkronos international) Hindus can be just as unpleasantly murderous. To wit: Extremist Hindu groups offered money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to Christian aid workers in the eastern [Indian] state of Orissa. Orissa has suffered a series of murders and arson attacks in recent months, with at least 67 Christians killed, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Several thousand homes have been razed and hundreds of places of worship destroyed, and crops are now wasting in the fields. In recent weeks the violence has subsided but at least 11,000 Christian refugees remain in camps in Kandhamal, the district worst affected. “They are too scared to go home. They know that if they return to their villages they will be forced to convert to Hinduism,” Father Manoj, who is based at the Archbishop’s office in Bhubaneshwar, the state capital, said. (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk) Free drinks to kill a Christian! Such a deal, eh? What was it that that the unpatriotic American comedian Rosie O'Donnell said about Christians being such dangerous people? Ah, I remember. She said, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state." Really, Rosie? Really? RELATED: Hindu Militants Offer Bribes to Hurt Christians, Says Rights Group ... Christian 'Untouchables' describe attacks by Hindu militants in India BBC News South Asia Hindu militants stage lesbian film attacks India Hindu Militants Threaten To "Burn" Pastor And Family ... Suspected Hindu militants burn orphanage, killing nun locked ... Rosie O'Donnell Ratings Disaster: Nemesis Barbara Walters Soars

Mumbai Attacks Are NOT 9/11

The world is watching Mumbai and the tragic events there, and we pray for all of the victims. We pray that India will pull this intact and move on. History indicated that they will. However, while we are sympathetic and do not wish to diminish the horrific scope of the events in Mumbai, we would like to remind the world of something:

MUMBAI IS NOT NEW YORK, AND THE TERROR ATTACKS THERE ARE MINISCULE COMPARED TO SEPT. 11, 2001.

The comparison of this week's terror attacks in Mumbai to the terror attack on New York 2001 is flawed for many glaringly obvious reasons. Just a few:

1) The death toll of Mumbai now stands at just under 200 officially. Sadly, many of those already injured will probably not pull through and will add to the death toll. Nevertheless, how do you compare 200 deaths to 3,000?

2) The destruction of property and of businesses in Mumbai this week is a small fraction of that which was destroyed when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

3) The impact that the New York attacks of 2001 had on the economy of the US and the world was infinitely greater than will be the impact of this week's attacks in Mumbai. Remember that in 2001, all commercial airline flights into and out of the US were grounded, whereas the Mumbai airport continues to function.

4) The events this week in Mumbai will probably not spark a war. Highest level officials of Pakistan and India are talking, face to face. After the 9/11 attack on New York, highest-level US officials did not sit at a table with leaders of al Qaeda or the Taliban in Afghanistan.

5) The 9/11 attacks in 2001 included the Pentagon, the center of US military command. No Indian equivalent was attacked in Mumbai.

So please, for the sake of historical accuracy, and so as not to diminish the scope of September 11, 2001, stop calling this week's events in Mumbai "India's 9/11."

Islamists Say They Killed Russian Mayor

As the Mumbai ordeal winds down, we are reminded - yet again - that the radical Islamists are playing on a worldwide battlefield. "Islamists claim responsibility for murder of S.Russian mayor." MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - An Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the murder of the mayor of Vladikavkaz in south Russia, a website believed to have links to Chechen militants said Thursday."Vitaly Karayev, this enemy of Allah, was eliminated near his home when he was on his way to the city hall," the Kataib al-Khoul group said in a statement posted on the kavkazcenter site. FULL STORY at RIA Novosti... (Hat tip to my friends at Muslims Against Sharia) RELATED: Militants Say They Shot Mayor - The Moscow Times- Vladikavkaz Mayor Vitaly Karayev was struck in the heart by a single bullet... The heart of Vladikavkaz mayor hit by a displaced-centre bullet -ITAR-TASS, Russia

MUMBAI UPDATE: TROOPS ATTACK LAST TERRORISTS

Mumbai terror attacks: Indian troops storm last militant hideouts Thank God.

UPDATED: IS INDO-PAK WAR ON HORIZON?

UPDATE 11/28: Associate Press: "Clues point to domestic terrorists in India attack." NOTE: Earlier, intelligence officials were implicating Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks. Now, opinions have changed: LONDON (AP) - The attack on India's financial capital bears all the trademarks of al-Qaida - simultaneous assaults meant to kill scores of Westerners in iconic buildings - but clues so far point to homegrown Indian terrorists. FULL ARTICLE... Original Post: FLASH, HIGH PRIORITY: It now appears that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by Islamic terrorists. India has been racked by many such attacks in recent years, but this one was the largest and most organized. Strong evidence that they came into India from the sea indicates foreign involvement, and the top suspect is Pakistan. Terror attacks are known to have been sponsored and choreographed by Pakistan's intelligence service. A LATE BREAKING BULLETIN FROM STRATFOR WARNS US THAT A NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION MAY BE COMING. THE ALARMING REPORT: If the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai were carried out by Islamist militants as it appears, the Indian government will have little choice, politically speaking, but to blame them on Pakistan. That will in turn spark a crisis between the two nuclear rivals that will draw the United States into the fray. FULL REPORT at STRATFOR... (NOTE: IS THIS WHAT US VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN CRYPTICALLY WARNED ABOUT WEEKS AGO?)

MUMBAI - LUFTHANSA, AIR FRANCE CREW TAKEN OUT OF OBEROI HOTEL

DEVELOPING (2:45 AM, EST) - From Yahoo News and Associated Press: A fresh group of people have been evacuated from Mumbai's Oberoi hotel — a group of about 20 airline crew members, almost all Westerners. Several of the rescued airline staff were in Lufthansa and Air France uniforms....One crew member in a Lufthansa uniform who wore a name tag identifying her as L. Laurence said things inside the hotel "were definitely not good." RELATED: Video: Flights From Mumbai Arrive In LAX After Attacks CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles Clues point to domestic terrorists in India attack (AP)