India – SNAFU
While India continues to demand that Pakistan take the blame for the Mumbai attacks more information is coming out about how ill-prepared and uncoordinated India’s security structure is.
It has been reported and confirmed that US ‘warned India’ about Mumbai. This wasn’t one of the Hedgemony’s vague political warnings about something happening, this was a warning about a seaborne attack on Mumbai with the hotels as a probable target, and it was last made a month ago.
What was done? Almost nothing because the BBC reports ‘Rot’ at heart of Indian intelligence. India’s first responders lack training, equipment, coordination,… everything.
Given that India’s claim about Pakistani involvement is heavily based on information coming from the only terrorist captured alive, McClatchy’s investigation of the claims being reported is rather interesting: Search for Mumbai gunman’s roots only deepens mystery
FARIDKOT, Pakistan — For the past three days Pakistani intelligence agents and police have been combing this sleepy village in search of clues to the identity of the lone gunman captured in the Mumbai terror attacks, residents said on Monday.
Indian officials and news media officials identified him variously as Ajmal Amir Kamal, Azam Amir Kasav, or Azam Ameer Qasab, and Indian news media quoted police as saying that the alleged killer’s home village was in Faridkot, near the city of Multan in the southern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Local residents, however, are bewildered and alarmed. They said there was no one of that surname in this village, and no missing resident who fit the pictures and description shown in the Indian news media.
“All the agencies have been here and the (police) special branch,” said village elder Mehboob Khan Daha, referring to Pakistan’s plainclothes counterterror police. “We have become very worried. What’s this all about?” Agents from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also appeared to be present on Monday, questioning locals.
Shown a picture of the alleged militant, Daha said: “That’s a smart-looking boy. We don’t have that sort around here.”
…“There are no jihadis here,” Ijaz Ahmed, a 41-year-old farmer, chimed in, sitting by Daha. “I can think of maybe 10 or 20 people here who have even been as far as Multan.”
The Faridkot link is a key element in the evidence cited by Indian officials that the attackers of Mumbai came from Pakistan.
The captured terror suspect was said to come from Faridkot. He was said to be 21 and to speak fluent English. A photograph of him shows a modern-looking young man swaggering in Western clothing, with an AK-47 in hand.
In Faridkot, no one appeared to be able to speak much English, and most could converse only in a dialect of the provincial language, Punjabi. None of the villagers recognized the face in the photograph, nor could they think of anyone mysteriously missing from the village.
Gee, you don’t think a terrorist might lie, do you? I mean, if you can’t trust the word of someone who casually slaughters strangers in railway stations, who can you trust?
I wonder if the Indians have thought to give his fingerprints to the US, UK, Canada, and Australia so they can check them against their passport files. They might also circulate them at Indian universities.
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Ermm… Well, I know this isn’t *funny* as such, I mean, people did die and that’s never funny. But all I can say is: LOL
*sigh* I STILL say Rove is running India. LOL (And that is funny!)
It is a form of black humor you get working in intel or law enforcement, and I know exactly where you are coming from – it’s beyond absurd. You have people beating war drums with this type of flawed information.
I assume that Australians have a small town out in the middle of nowhere that has become synonymous with a total lack of connection to the world, the way we talk about Podunk in the US. Faridkot is probably the Pakistani equivalent, and that’s why the terrorist used it.
The leaking that is going on is part of the CYA operation to divert attention from the pitiful response of the government to the problem. They have every religion on the planet in India, and every one seems to have a terrorist group aligned with it, and you add in the political and ethnic terrorists, you would think that India would be leading the world in having a response team, but apparently their commandos have to hitchhike to incidents.
This isn’t a nation, it’s a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with bad music.
This isn’t a nation, it’s a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with bad music.
Ha!! 😀 Yup! Kinda reminds me of another nation currently… not a million miles from you! 😉 LOL
Case in point (and so funny!)
“Impeach Bush” Christmas ornament will hang from White House tree
Oh. My. GOD!! Who said irony is dead? LOL
Of course, it could just be the Bushmorons way of deflecting attention and showing they have a sense of humor (since everyone knows that’s not true). Of course they know there’s not a snowflakes chance in hell of them getting impeached or anything else. *shrug*
But it is funny! 😉
Actually, I doubt anyone sober will see it [there are different kinds of intoxication] and given this group’s well earned reputation as being out of step in a one-man parade when it comes to protocol, I’m not at all surprised it got through.
They are just coasting until the end.
I’m rather surprised that we actually managed to not only pick up useful intel, but that they actually routed it to the correct country.
The police chief in Mumbai is saying now that no one told him about a possible attack, that would appear to be typical, i.e. the chairman of the Tata Group that owns the Taj was notified, but local authorities weren’t. They have preserved the worst of the pre-WWII British civil service in their government, and never updated it.
From leaks it would appear that that is what the Hedgemony has done with the US government, turned it into a bloated, inefficient bureaucratic morass after Clinton spent 8 years putting it on a diet and streamlining things. The amazing part is that all of the extra people have done less than the people they replaced. It was obviously designed not to work.
“This isn’t a nation, it’s a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with bad music.”
Ahem.
I understand your intent… but to my knowledge, Sir Arthur Sullivan never wrote any bad music. And I’ve heard a great deal of what he did write. Some of it is occasionally a bit dull, but all of it is crafted to within an inch of its life.
Kryten, wherever they end up hanging that ball, it couldn’t be in the entryway of the White House. That would be just…
… wait for it…
… too many ironies in the foyer.
<rim_shot />
If you have ever heard Gibert and Sullivan at a dinner theater you would understand exactly what I meant, Steve. It takes skill and practice to do G&S.
[GROANNNN]
Bryan, I understand now: bad musicians, not badly written music. But I never had that experience.
The star of my high school’s production of Patience went on to star in many Houston G&S Society productions (among other professional ventures). Is Houston G&S any good? Well, they are among the very few companies in the world who have been permitted to play at D’Oyly Carte’s own house in London occasionally…
I can assure you that there is plenty of bad music in this country, and not the occasional flubs of amateurs, but bad performance by paid musicians who just don’t seem to like what they are doing. The right spirit can go a long way to ameliorating technical problems, but you have to put some heart in it.
Sadly, *bad music* (or more typically, bad musicians) seem to be a global trend. It’s primarily the big record companies trying to invent the next money making hit for the mindless masses, and once the masses realise the music is actually crap and sales die off, they dump the poor dumb bastard they filed with visions of greatness and money and find the next sucker(s). There are always plenty to choose from. I don’t know what they do now (but doubt it’s changed much if any), but when I was in the biz, the standard ploy was to wave a $250k cheque and big (literally hundreds of pages) contract as someone they thought would make them money (whether they had any talent was immaterial, that’s what we studio engineers were paid for). Unfortunately for the sucker, they couldn’t understand the contract of they tried, and they didn’t really understand that the big cheque was simply an *advance* and had to be paid back, with interest! And all costs for the first year, including recording and advertising, came from that advance. Generally, if the sucker survived for two or three years in the biz, they would be lucky to have $10 out of it. The company, on the other hand, might have millions.
I came across in interesting young American (she was born in NY I think) musician with some real talent. Her bio is fascinating! 😀
Lucia Micarelli bio
Here is a YouTube vid of Lucia performing ‘Kashmir’ with Jethro Tull:
Lucia Micarelli & Jethro Tull – Kashmir Cover
She has an amazing amount of energy for suck a little slip of a girl! 😀
I’ve also heard her play Ravel String Quartet in F major (Assez vif Tres rythme) and enjoyed it. I think she’s an accomplished musician. I’d really hate to see her get eaten alive by the industry, but she seems to be cultivating some friends who have survived the biz and know how it works. 🙂 Perhaps that will be enough.
The classical concert world is a lower level of hell that even the record industry. If you want to be really abused, join a symphony orchestra that isn’t represented by a union.
There are a lot of great young musicians, like Australia’s bassist, Tal Wilkenfeld, who can keep up with Jeff Beck and Chick Correa. You just hope they can hang around for a while and not get all screwed up or burned out like so many who went before.