Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai

Muslim terrorists planned to slaughter 5,000 people in Mumbai.

They failed at that. They didn't come close to killing that many people, but that's no solace to family and friends of the people who were murdered. That makes their loss no easier to bear.

MUMBAI, India (AP) -- This crowded, bustling financial capital, wracked by three days bloodshed, slowly began puling itself back together Sunday as a once-besieged restaurant reopened its doors and Indians mourned their dead.

A day after the siege ended, corpses were still being brought out of the ritzy Taj Mahal hotel where three suspected Muslim militants made a last stand before Indian commandos killed them in a blaze of gunfire and explosions.

Sunday morning found the landmark waterfront hotel, popular among foreign tourists and Indian society, surrounded by metal barricades, its shattered windows boarded over. At the famous Gateway of India basalt arch nearby, a shrine of candles, flowers and messages commemorated victims.

...At least 174 people were massacred in the rampage carried out by gunmen at 10 sites across Mumbai starting Wednesday night. One site, the Cafe Leopold, a famous tourist restaurant and scene of one of the first attacks, opened for the first time since the attacks on Sunday afternoon.

The death toll was revised down Sunday from 195 after authorities said some bodies were counted twice, but they said it could rise again as areas of the Taj Mahal were still being searched. Among the dead were 18 foreigners, including six Americans. Nine attackers were killed.

The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

...A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen—a name suggesting origins inside India—has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 170 people. But Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman, now in custody, was from Pakistan and voiced suspicions of their neighbor.

Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.

The assaults have raised fears among U.S. officials about a possible surge in violence between Pakistan and India—the nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars against each other, two over the disputed region of Kashmir.

...The gunmen were as brazen as they were well trained, using sophisticated weapons as well as GPS technology and mobile and satellite phones to communicate, officials said. The group made repeated contact with an unidentified foreign country.

The investigation suggested the attackers planned to massacre 5,000 people, said R.R. Patil, deputy to the chief of Maharashtra state, without giving further details.

"Whenever they were under a little bit of pressure they would hurl a grenade. They freely used grenades," said J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite commando unit.

Suspicions in Indian media quickly settled on the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.

President George W. Bush pledged full U.S. support for the investigation, saying the killers "will not have the final word." FBI agents were sent to India to help with the probe.

"As the people of the world's largest democracy recover from these attacks, they can count on the people of world's oldest democracy to stand by their side," Bush added in a brief address from the White House.

This should be a reminder of the ruthlessness of al Qaeda and the resolve that President Bush has shown since 9/11.

This is war.

I think of Barack Obama and the Democrats complaining about President Bush and the Republicans playing up the so-called "politics of fear," as if Muslim militants aren't really that great a threat to our safety.

What just happened in Mumbai should be a wake-up call to all those people in denial about the terrorist threat, the ones who think all will be right with the world just because Obama won the election.

Bill Ayers is a perfect example of a denier. Describing his reaction to Obama's victory and the celebration in Grant Park, Ayers said:

This was all unity, all love, and what people were celebrating was this milestone which was sweet and exciting and important. But they were also celebrating, there was... you could kind of cut the relief in people's feelings with a knife. I mean, it was the sense that we were gonna leave behind the era of 9/11, an era of fear, and war without end, and repression, and Constitutional shredding, and tar... scapegoating of gay and lesbian people, on and on. And there we were, millions in the park, representing everybody - hugging, dancing, carrying on - right in the spot 40 years ago where many of us were beaten and dragged to jail. It was an extraordinary feeling...

Ayers is clueless.

Muslim terrorists are at war with the free world. It's not over. There is reason to be fearful. Discussing it is not a tactic to score political points. The War on Terror isn't a bumper sticker, sloganeering. It's a realistic response to reality.

According to an Indian commando in Mumbai, "[t]he siege was particularly troubling because 'they didn't spare women or children.'"

The scene Saturday night inside the Taj Majal hotel was one of unimaginable carnage in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist onslaught across Mumbai.

Two Indian commandos told FOX News that 150 bodies still were inside the hotel, and dead victims were found all over the hotel, on all five floors.

That's absolutely horrific.

During the campaign, Obama downplayed the terrorist threat. I hope now since he's getting the same briefings that President Bush gets, Obama is realizing that his past whining about the politics of fear was irresponsible and, basically, a load of crap.



Obama is so naïve. I hope during this transition period, he's getting a crash course in reality. He desperately needs one.