Current situation and the thief analogy

Last updated on: December 5, 2008 at 6:00 am By Desh Kapoor

This article from TOI has an analogy - and a brilliant one - of the situation between Indian and Pakistan and where US comes in. It shows how, in the past few decades, India has landed in a situation of check mate against the chess laid out by Pakistan's Army and ISI. In this regional chess, India has really traded all its pieces for nothing! Imagine your pocket has been picked. You see the young pickpocket running away but can't chase him down with a sprained ankle. There's a constable on the other side of the road but he's got a potbelly and you've heard that he is mixed up with criminals. Just then a police officer you know is driving past. Seeing you're crying yourself silly, he stops and listens to you sympathetically. "I've has been summoned by the boss," he tells you. "If I find the chor on my way, I'll catch him and get back your purse," he adds helpfully. Meanwhile, the constable on the other side has vanished. It's a wretched situation. You can see the thief and yet can't do anything about it. You only have a number of non-options and this leaves you virtually paralyzed. You curse your luck that the purse contains the month's salary. Now magnify this crime a hundred times over. It's not just that you've lost your money. It's a matter of your life and security. The killer has already mowed down hundreds and is coming towards you. You may have ways of stopping him but each option will come with scary side effects. You face the same paralysis-inducing dilemma, leading to a sense of helplessness. That's really the predicament of the government in the wake of the Mumbai carnage — it knows the killers, knows where they were trained, who were the trainers, their links with sections of the ISI, and much more. Yet it doesn't know what to do next. The article goes into how the US is responding and how Pakistan is responding.. as well as what may be happening behind the scenes - preparation for another coup. A coup, I believe is still a "good option"... .I am seeing a Taliban/Al Qaeda/Islamist takeover of Islamabad through the "friendly" groups within and out the Pak Army and ISI. Read more

New Pak Army, ISI connections but Hawala and Dawood keep going on

Last updated on: December 4, 2008 at 8:49 pm By Desh Kapoor

It is now becoming clear that more and more links to Pakistan Army and ISI are coming up. This time, however, more links are being unearthed by the US officials. Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Condelezza Rice have been to Pakistan and impressed upon the leadership of the country to "do more" with regards to the terrorists. The people whom Kasab, the surviving killer has been naming are second Lashkar-e-Taiba military commander who helped engineer the attacks was Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi apart from several retired Pak Army people. Meanwhile, Indian and American intelligence officials have already identified another Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, Yusuf Muzammil, as a mastermind of the attacks, and said he was in contact by satellite phone with the attackers during their journey. Also Musharraf has made his first remark on the issue of terror and Pak Govt., and it was pretty surprising one: "Well, you know if you don't fight terror and make sure everybody knows how strong you feel about it, you may have problems with other countries like America. And yes - now the situation with India," the former military ruler said in an interview in London, where he is on a private visit. Asked if the tension between India and Pakistan would not have occurred if the current Pakistani administration had made it clear how strong it is about fighting terrorism, Musharraf told interviewer Daphne Barak: "You said it." Read more

Dawood Ibrahim's Interpol page

Last updated on: December 3, 2008 at 2:05 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is the complete set of particulars on Dawood Ibrahim as they appear on Interpol website. Go check out that link. Read more

Next Attack on US will be from Pakistan

Last updated on: December 3, 2008 at 1:57 pm By Desh Kapoor

Two important things - - US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has implicated the Lashkar e Toiba in the attacks in Mumbai. Said he believed that LeT was responsible for the attacks and then added "The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a similar attack in 2006 on a train and killed a similar number of people.....Go back to 2001 and it was an attack on the Parliament," - The other important occurrence: a high-powered bipartisan US Congressional commission has said in its report that "Pakistan is the weakest link in world security and the next terror attack in the US will originate in that country as it is at the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism." Of course, the committee forgot to say that origins of 9-11 itself were clearly and unambiguously in Pakistan. Read more

Discussion on Fear

Last updated on: December 2, 2008 at 5:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

Last night I had an interesting discussion with a friend, Puneet. He is an ex-Indian Army officer and a very dear friend. Also, he is probably the source of a lot of the wisdom that gets attributed to me because of the posts. The topic last night was "Fear". Needless to say, that in the aftermath of the Mumbai Attacks - one thing that has come to the fore is this central human quality called "Fear". It was Fear that set those killers on the journey to kill - the fear of diversity or a world of differences or opinions that do not work with our opinions. Their answer to "fighting" that Fear was to instill Fear in others by killing those "others" that they thought would end this dichotomy of opinions. Little realizing that the differences of opinions are because the minds are different (because the baggage they carry is different). So, killing a person will not eliminate that difference. Once the killings happened, the people in the city and elsewhere were full of Fear. It was a more physical fear and that of the unknown. The unknown nature of this beast that had descended on the country and this society. Everybody's reaction - including mine, those I support and criticize - are fashioned by a certain level of fear. The degree may be different, but fear is at the center of everyone's response. We are not looking at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that dichotomies and the differences and the diversity (forced and natural) will stay in this Universe (or multi-verse if you so insist). The entire existence itself has a basic dichotomy - of Creation and Destruction. Both are its natural states. Read more

We are all victims of Political Correctness.

Last updated on: December 2, 2008 at 11:25 am By MacKenzie Babb

A deeper analysis of what happened in Mumbai the last few days as also all the other terror events that have plagued India for the last 3 decades points to a stark reality- that it is notion of "political correctness" that has helped the menace grow. We as a nation have always put up this facade of always being polite and politically correct. We do not want to look at the terrorist in the eye and take decisive action- for that would amount to be not politically correct. Read more

Why do our TV channels interview ex ISI chiefs???

Last updated on: December 2, 2008 at 7:18 am By MacKenzie Babb

I switched on the TV to a English news channel- Times now, in my opinion among the more credible ones in operation. And surprise, surprise there was an interview going on between the anchor and guess whom- a ex chief of the Pakistani ISI. Now these media guys should have some decency and sense of responsibility- when you are interviewing the ISI it is as good as interviewing the captured terrorist. I do not see any distinction between the two. The question being asked is does the media house believe with a hand on its heart that there is a distinction between the ISI and the terrorists? Read more

Zaid Hamid and the Hallucinating Pakistani minds

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 3:26 pm By Desh Kapoor

A commenter had mentioned this guy called Zaid Hamid. I have been listening to his discussions which follow a unique pattern that I have ONLY seen in the analysts of Pakistan: Delusionary, Inflammatory, Provocative and downright Hallucinating. Here he talks of a few things that prove this point: 1. "We should reject Commonwealth and treat it with as much contempt as it treats us. After all we don't need any of these bodies for our economic strength". Hmmm.. that's a lot of confidence from a guy whose country has just enough money that can probably (not certain) pay for next two weeks!!! 2. "We have China as our friend, we lead the Muslim world who will come to our rescue always and help us economically". Again, I was kinda wondering who amongst these "friends" gave their Finance Minister and the President a "CHEQUE" when these two officials went to the so-called friends??? They finally got some chips in their begging bowl from IMF on very tough terms!! India offered to give some money, but I am not sure where it went? 3. He talks of Burma as the place over which the war would happen because of Oil. Nice theory, but here is an article from the Chinese Government mouthpiece "People's Daily" where it explains that 6 countries are collborating in Myanmar's oil and gas exploration: Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Australia, India and Singapore. And has this to say about Russia and Indian collaboration in Myanmar: This year was signified by the involvement for the first time of an oil company from Russia in cooperation with Myanmar and India to explore oil and natural gas at a block lying off the Mottama offshore area. Under a production sharing contract initiated in September by the JSC Zarubezhneft Itera Oil and Gas Company of Russia, the Sun Group of India and the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the three companies will carry out the undertaking at block M-8 in the offshore area. 4. I find it very inrtiguing that this guy is advocating putting all the chips for security in China! Pakistan is a surrogate for China.. carrying out its strategy to fight India and also keeping the Islamists away from its own Muslim province where it butchers the Muslims anyways - Tibetan style! Now, interestingly in NO WAR - 1965, 1971 or even during Kargil, has China EVER helped Pakistan militarily or economically! When Pakistani forces were capitulating and Nawaz Sharif was shaking.. he ran to US!! China was NOWHERE TO BE SEEN! If I were a Pakistani analyst with even puny of a useless brain... I would have figured it out already. But it takes someone SO drunk on self-confidence when SO close to the brink only soothing hallucinations to keep alive his hope in life. For that, I will not fault this Hamid guy. Read more

Taliban Commander: "We will take over Entire Pakistan Now"

Last updated on: December 1, 2008 at 9:32 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is an interesting video where the second in command of Taliban says that Taliban is set to take over the entire Pakistan very soon. Like I have said earlier, the Mumbai Attacks are part of a wider puzzle being put together by these very forces. Read more

Terror Email of so-called Deccan Mujahideen traced to Lahore (#mumbai)

Last updated on: December 1, 2008 at 6:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

US intelligence services have worked with the Indian intelligence agencies to track the email of the so-called Deccan Mujahideen to Lahore. The IP address was traced to Lahore from where the email originated and was sent using relay servers in Russia. It is apparent that now more and more evidence will come forth to nail the Pakistani lie! Read more