Sebastian Rotella
Los Angeles Times

The Pakistani extremist group suspected in the Mumbai rampage remains a distant shadow for most Americans. But the threat is much nearer than it seems.

For years, Lashkar-e-Taiba has actively recruited Westerners, especially Britons and Americans, serving as a kind of farm team for Islamic militants who have gone on to execute attacks for Al Qaeda, a close ally. The Pakistani network makes its training camps accessible to English speakers, providing crucial skills to an increasingly young and Western-born generation of extremists.

Briton Aabid Khan was one of them. When British police arrested him at Manchester International Airport on his return from Pakistan in June 2006, they found a trove of terrorist propaganda and manuals on his laptop that the trial judge later described as “amongst the largest and most extensive ever discovered.” The haul included maps and videos of potential targets in New York City and Washington.

One video, shot deep in Pakistani extremist turf, shows the then-21-year-old Khan with a grinning young man who says he’s from Los Angeles — a mysterious figure in a case that apparently illustrates Lashkar’s dangerous reach.

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People sign messages of condolence on a banner in memory of those killed in the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.

Alexandra Sage Mehta
American living in Mumbai

Had a night of terrified boredom—what a weird combination. Is that what ongoing fear becomes. Boring? Went to dinner at Indigo Delhi, behind the Taj hotel with two friends. It’s an “ex-pat” spot, little sibling of Bombay’s fanciest restaurant, Indigo, serving continental kids’ food: pizza, waffles, burgers, and tollhouse-tasting cookies you can order in advance. Right before dessert we heard the first shootings down the road. An American friend called to tell me to sit tight–I casually said we had ice cream and could bide our time, a heinous thing to say. Then the area was closed off, and we were essentially in hiding. The iron curtains came down over the big glass windows, the lights were turned off and a policeman was stationed outside the door. We moved to the back of the restaurant and hunkered down to sleeplessness and second-hand news–there was no TV or radio in the restaurant.

We were a mixed group — a German couple, two French, an Indian family whose papers were in their suite at the Taj. Our bills had been brought and alcohol cut off — but the waiters continued to serve throughout the night — water, tea, coffee and then in the early morning, cakes. I had toast and an apple pie — starved from nerves. Two Indian women used table clothes as blankets, some waiters slept on chairs or benches. Through the uncovered tops of of the windows, we could see ambulances and fire engines passing and, finally, we saw day break. It was somehow relieving. The night was over. Eggs were served and we were told we could go soon, and about 7am they let us out. Being let out into the thin morning light of Thanksgiving Day, was wonderful. The relief of fresh air now seems obscene next to the awful news. The city was quiet — is it over? We thought so, and couldn’t have known then that the seige wouldn’t end for many more hours.

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Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer

We’re following breaking news on the auto bailout. We’re getting reports that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid says the Big Three bailout is in jeopardy. Democrats apparently don’t have enough votes to give the Big Three the money they want from the $700 billion rescue plan pot. We’ll have more details by air time.

According to new CNN polling, the bailout is already a bust among Americans. Six in 10 oppose rescuing the Big Three with taxpayer money. In early November, nearly half the public supported federal help for Detroit. So what’s changed? We’d love to hear your take.

Some more baffling math from the poll: Three-quarters of respondents said they think they’ll personally feel the impact if the auto makers go bankrupt. We’re intrigued that so many Americans support letting the auto makers go belly up, while admitting their families will suffer from the consequences. Again, we’d love your input.

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Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and boys pray next to the bodies of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

All terrorism is monstrous, but the murder of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg by ‘religious Islamic extremists’ stands out for its unspeakable infamy. The deliberate targeting of a small Jewish center and its married young directors, whose only purpose it was to provide for the religious needs of a community and feed travelers, proves that those who perpetrated this crime are bereft not only of even a hint of humanity, but every shred of faith as well. The world’s most aggressive atheists are more religious than these spiritual charlatans and pious frauds. When Osama bin Laden, whose beard masks the face of the ultimate religious hypocrite, attacked the World Trade Center in New York, the target was purportedly chosen as the very symbol of American materialism and excess. But what could these ‘religious’ people have been thinking in exterminating a twenty-something couple with two babies who moved from the world’s richest country to India to provide religious services and faith to the poor and the needy? What blow against Western decadence were they striking by targeting a Chabad House whose entire purpose it is to spread spirituality to people whose lives lack it? Now is not only a time to remember the victims but to hate their killers. One cannot love the innocent without simultaneously loathing those who orphan their children.

I know how uncomfortable people feel about hatred. It smacks of revenge. It poisons the heart of those who hate. But this is true only if we hate the good, the innocent, or the neutral. Hating monsters, however, motivates us to fight them. Only if an act like this repulses us to our core will we summon the will to fight these devils so that they can never murder again.

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Editor’s Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.comand contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington.

Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
Founder, themuslimguy.com

The world mourns for the people of Mumbai. Ranked immediately behind New York City as the 5th largest metropolitan city in the entire world; over 19.2 million Mumbai citizens of all religions and ethnicities watched in horror as part of the city’s virtual ‘five-star’ district reeled from the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks which has (thus far) claimed the lives of 179 people and wounded at least 300 more.

As the financial capital of India and birthplace to the global phenomenon known as Bollywood, in many ways, the city formerly known as Bombay is central to the societal heartbeat of our world’s largest democracy. As people all around the world send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the victims of these outrageous terrorist attacks; the world can again reunite to send our thoughts and prayers to anyone touched by this terrible tragedy.

Most people are unaware of the fact that there are over 1.1 billion (yes, one billion) inhabitants of India today. As the single largest democracy in the entire world, India’s ethnic and religious diversity will withstand these latest heinous terrorist attacks and strengthen its own democratic social fabric amidst the shattered glass of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotel lobbies. The ridiculously hateful ideology of criminal terrorists who would carry out such a senseless terror campaign will not unravel the resilient social fabric which is turning India into a future millennial global powerhouse.

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Erica Hill | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Thanksgiving wasn’t the same this year. It was a wonderful day – my husband’s family was in town, and it’s rare we have everyone together more than once a year. It was a beautiful day here in NY; we took in our first live Thanksgiving Day Parade, enjoyed a wonderful feast and created new memories. We made up for lost time and were reminded how lucky we are to be blessed with a family we all like. Yet, I couldn’t help but think of Mumbai and the families forever torn apart by these senseless terrorists.

I take some comfort in the vigils being held worldwide, uniting people across oceans and continents, bringing together different faiths, united in one belief: the 179 people killed and the 300 injured last week in Mumbai should still be here.

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December 1 is World AIDS Day…another good reason to reflect. Dec 1 was first set aside as a day to highlight the disease 20 years ago. The good news: Progress, and lots of it, on both the medical and social fronts.

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Mumbai residents held a demonstration on Sunday to protest the recent terror attacks.

M.J. Gohel and Sajjan Gohel
Asia-Pacific Foundation

The Indian media have described the Mumbai terrorist siege as India’s 9/11.

The targets for the attacks, many of them symbols of Mumbai’s growing power and wealth, were not randomly selected and were intended to send a direct message to India, Israel and the West.

Indeed, the Mumbai attacks had all the hallmarks of a powerful transnational terrorist group inspired by the ideology of al Qaeda.

Mumbai is no stranger to terrorism.

On March 12, 1993, a series of 15 bombs exploded across several districts of India’s financial capital, killing 257. On July 11, 2006, a coordinated bombing spree on the city’s transportation system killed 209 people.

Uniquely disturbing about the recent Mumbai attacks, in addition to killing locals, is the deliberate targeting of restaurants and hotels used by Westerners and a Jewish cultural center.

Mumbai is to India as New York is to the United States or London to the United Kingdom. The city is driving India’s economic boom.

It is the commercial and entertainment capital of the country, where the “Bollywood” film industry is based. It is the heartbeat of India. What happens there vibrates throughout the nation.

Three factors may help explain the timing of the attacks.

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The Hindu

A. Vaidyanathan , eminent economist and a member of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India, was in his room in the heritage wing of Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace and Towers when the terrorists struck on the night of Wednesday, November 26. After his return to Chennai, he spoke to The Hindu on his experience. Here is his first-person account, given to Meera Srinivasan in Chennai on Friday:

I was there for a meeting on the 26th. The meeting was in the afternoon. They usually put me up at the Taj, so I went there. Some of my friends, whom I normally spend time with, were not in town. So I decided to stay back in the room. I ate in the room and was just watching cricket.

Then at 9.30 p.m., things began popping. My room was in the second floor of the Palace, very close to the stairwell of the central dome. That’s where the thing apparently started. It went padapadapda…single shots and then bursts of fire. I was wondering why they were bursting crackers. There was no particular celebration at that time, there was no festival. And certainly inside the Taj wasn’t the place.

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A commando in disguise give details of what went down in the Taj hotel when commandos went in.

Ken Robinson
Security analyst & former military intelligence officer

Many reports from Mumbai cite gunfire and “grenade” explosions coming from the 5-Star Taj Mahal hotel, the scene of previous terrorist attacks.

It is very possible the gunfire and explosions are actually “room clearing” tactics used by Counter Terrorism forces as they clear rooms.

The tactic of choice is to use what’s known as a Flash Bang Simulator, which creates a loud, explosive shock wave, enabling the CT forces to enter a room dynamically, gain a tactical advantage, and overwhelm anyone barracaded inside.

Paul Cruickshank
NYU Center on Law and Security

Editor’s note: This article was published today in The Guardian of London. Don’t miss Cruickshank on tonight’s show.

India’s commercial and cultural capital has been witnessing a terrorist attack whose ambition and scope has led seasoned observers to call it “India’s 9/11″. But just who was responsible? Shortly after the attacks started, several Indian newspapers reported receiving messages from an unknown group calling itself “Deccan Mujahedeen” and claiming responsibility for the attacks. Could this unknown group be responsible? The answer is almost certainly no.

The nature of the attack - something akin to scores of heavily armed terrorists storming the Waldorf Astoria and Ritz Carlton in New York City and then going on a shooting rampage through Times Square and the Upper East side - suggests months of painstaking logistical and operational planning. Only an established militant group would have had the ability to carry out such an attack. The Deccan Mujahedeen is not such a group.

If capability and track record are anything to go by, it is likely that the attack was either carried out by Indian Mujahedeen, an indigenous Indian militant group or a Kashmiri militant group with ties to al-Qaida such as Lashkar e Toiba, or some combination of the two.

Indian Mujahedeen first emerged as a terrorist threat in India exactly a year ago when it launched attacks in the north of India. Since then it has carried out about a half dozen attacks across the country, most recently launching an attack on a market place in New Delhi in September. Its signature tactic has been to set off multiple explosive devices simultaneously in crowded public spaces such as market places and buses. Hundreds have died in these attacks. Indian Mujahedeen has not to date carried out the sort of brazen armed attack seen in Mumbai in the last days. But it does appear to have had some access in the past to RDX, a military high explosive, which has reportedly now been discovered in Mumbai. On September 23 Mumbai police arrested five suspected Indian Mujahideen leaders in the Mumbai area and found a quantity of RDX in their possession. Also found in their possession was a large amount of ammunition, including ammonium nitrate rods, detonators and sub machine guns.

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