Friday, November 28, 2008

Who Are the Deccan Mujahideen?

One must alwaysbe suspicious when a “new” terrorist organization crops up. Today’s horrific attacks in Mumbai were claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen. But one India journalist claims the pattern of the attacks suggests that Lashkar-e-Taiba, a nasty Islamist organization based in Lahore, Pakistan, and with a significant presence in Kashmir and links to al Qaeda, may be to blame.

Here’s where it gets interesting — and I stress here that I am just speculating. Lashkar-e-Taiba’s main goal is to expel India from Kashmir. In the past, some have accused elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence services of having ties to the group. Pakistan’s government has always hotly denied such accusations.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has in recent weeks moved closer to the United States, made some significant gestures toward India, and moved shut down the political wing of the ISI, Pakisan’s powerful intelligence service (that’s the unit that tries to steal elections). How likely is it that some angry “rogue elements” of the ISI, aligned with Kashmiri jihadists and a team of Indian domestic extremists, sought to head off these moves? I have no idea, but it’s definitely a theory worth exploring.

There’s another more straighforward explanation for today’s attacks — revenge. A group calling itself the “Indian Mujahideen” has claimed responsibility for attacks in a number of different cities over the past several months. The Indian Mujahideen sent a warning in September expressing anger over recent raids by the city’s antiterrorism squad (ATS). Today’s message from the Deccan Mujahideen appears to be identical:

You should know that your acts are not at all left unnoticed; rather we are closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the right time to execute your bloodshed. We are aware of your recent raids at Ansarnagar, Mograpada in Andheri and the harassment and trouble you created there for the Muslims.

“You threatened to murder them and your mischief went to such an extent that you even dared to abuse and insult Maulana Mahmood-ul-Hasan Qasmi and even misbehaved with the Muslim women and children there.

“If this is the degree your arrogance has reached, and if you think that by these stunts you can scare us, then let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS and their guardians - Vilasrao Deshmukh and R R Patil. You are already on our hit-list and this time very very seriously.”

The chief of Mumbai’s ATS was killed in a gun battle with some of the attackers today.

UPDATE: On CNN just now, terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna says that the Indian Mujahideen are most likely to blame, and they are the same group as the Deccan Mujahideen. “No other group has the capability,” he said, emphasizing the group’s strength in Mumbai. He also pointed out that such attacks would have taken months of planning.


Are people forgetting that the messages from the “Indian Mujahideen” traced back to American Kenneth Haywood’s laptop? Are the “Indian Muhadideen” (and the “Deccan Mujahideen” for that matter) really Muslim terrorists? Seems highly questionable. Again, ask yourself - who benefits? Who has real motive? Who’s pulling the strings?

A quick review:

Opening the Doors of Hell in India

…22 separate bomb blasts claimed between 42 and 45 lives in Ahmedabad, western India…..When a note claiming responsiblity did emerge, it was sent to India’s largest television networks, written in English and originating from a standard Yahoo account. It was also signed by a group called the “Indian mujahadeen” – previously unknown to authorities – and it focused on massacres committed by Hindus against Muslims…the police managed to track the source of the mail to a wifi connection in the Navi Mumbai area of Mumbai, a newish development targeted decidedly at the upper range of Mumbai’s demographics. This was unusual – terrorists operating out of a yuppie suburb. Police also confirmed that the cars used in the Ahmedabad attacks were also stolen from Navi Mumbai….when police tracked down the wifi signal it turned out that the laptop from which it emanated belonged not to a wizened old sheik or a member of Mumbai’s mafia families, but to an “expat American” by the name of Kenneth Haywood…. Campbell White, the firm that Haywood works for, is not a multinational company at all. Or, if it is, it’s certainly a very strange one. What I’ve managed to find out is that Campbell White is effectively a front for a far right Christian cult….[read more of the article for connections between Campbell White's employees and Christian ministry in India]

The Strange Case of ATS and US Citizen Ken Haywood Fleeing India

Times of India redeemed its credibility when it published as its front page banner headlines, the shocking news of Haywood leaving India despite a lookout notice. Haywood had been under Anti Terrorist Squad’s scrutiny, over the matter of the infamous Email supposedly sent out in the name of a fictitious organisation calling itself ‘Indian Mujahideen’, traced to Key Haywood’s laptop. For over weeks, while ATS had questioned reportedly 1000 people and searched neighbourhood apartments, trying to figure out, how Ken Haywood’s laptop could have been hacked, if at all. A narco test on Haywood too had been carried out. According to ATS, Haywood has not been arrested. In Muslim circle, this glaring discriminative practice is a matter of much debate and heartburn, that just because Haywood is a US citizen, he is being given preferential such kid glove treatment.

The curious case of Ken Haywood

Mumbai/ Bangalore , August 13: Ken Haywood, the American national from whose Internet Protocol (IP) address the terror e-mail was sent prior to the Ahmedabad serial blasts, underwent lie detector tests on Wednesday, a senior police official said in Mumbai. Maharashtra’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), which is probing the case, traced the e-mail to Haywood’s flat in Navi Mumbai and found that his background and job were “of a slightly dubious nature”. But the information available so far is not good enough to charge him or suggest his involvement in the case.

…Physical and Internet-based checks on other past and present employees of Campbell White like Scott Grabowska, a former Mumbai-based international protocol trainer, David Curwen-Walker, a senior operations manager, and Jonathan Heimberg, a senior information services manager, both in Bangalore, have shown links to the church. For instance, Curwen-Walker and Heimberg head the Door churches at Kammanahalli and Koramangala in Bangalore.

Maybe Jonathan Heimberg hacked fellow Campbell White employee Ken Haywood’s laptop. According to the employee information they removed from their site, “Jonathan’s vast experience, and training in Computer Programming, Systems Security and Electronic Encryption gives our customers great peace of mind in the age of Identity Theft, and Corporate Espionage.” Did the authorities check? Is there any way for them to? And why should they?

Well, consider the connections between Jewish Zionists, Christian Zionists and Hindutva along with the connection between the interests of Israel, America and India (neoliberal imperialism, predatory capitalism):

Zionism and Hindutva in the U.S. Update - May 2004

by Raja Swamy

….While USINPAC differs from FISI in terms of specific institutional ties with Hindutva, both share a common passion for Israel’s perceived military, and political power, and a desire to utilize the Israeli lobby’s experience and power, real and perceived, to further the ends of India’s ruling classes in alliance with the neoliberal Indian American big bourgeoisie. These ends include gaining the favors of U.S. imperial power, while welcoming predatory capitalism, and its institutional tentacles in India.

While FISI may be more Hindutva than neoliberal, USINPAC is more neoliberal than Hindutva. Both FISI and USINPAC share a vision of a militaristic India, antagonistic to Pakistan, and to different degrees, i.e. between outright hatred and blatant indifference, share contempt towards the rights of Indian Muslims….

Three years ago, it was noted that several Hindutva groups in the U.S. had begun to cooperate closely with extremist pro-Israel Zionist organizations. At that time, the most significant instance of this cooperation was the warm ties developing between New York based Rohit Vyasmaan’s HinduUnity.org, a front for Bajrang Dal in the U.S., and Kahane.org.4 Apparently, when Vyasmaan’s HinduUnity.org website was taken down after complaints to the service provider, he contacted the Kahane group’s director Michael Guzofsky who was then in Israel. Guzofsky introduced Vyasmaan to his friend Gary Wardell5, a businessman in Annandale Virginia, who now hosts both websites6. Wardell works closely with a Christian Zionist organization affiliated to David Wilkerson’s Times Square Church….

Wikipedia

Hindutva groups are overwhelmingly supportive of the Jewish State of Israel, including Savarkar himself, who supported Israel during its formation.[16]. The RSS is politically pro-Israel and actively praised the efforts of Ariel Sharon when he visited India.[17]HYPERLINK \l “cite_note-17″[18] R.S.S spokesperson Ram Madhav recently expressed support for Israel.[19]

Initial report describes bomb-making factory linked to Hindutva parties was intended to fabricate terror

A report on the Nanded blast in April prepared by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Secular Citizen’s Forum, has accused the Bajrang Dal of running bomb-making units with the intent of fomenting communal mayhem.

…The report says that the incident points to a larger plot by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to disrupt communal harmony and fan anti-Muslim feelings. RSS leaders have dismissed the allegations.

http://www.dictatorshipwatch.com/


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