Smoke billows out of the Taj Majal hotel in Mumbai, India, during a siege in November 2008.

Reza Sayah
CNN

Seven suspects arrested in connection with last year's attacks on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai were charged in connection with the siege Wednesday, a defense attorney for one of the men told CNN.

The suspects are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Umar Abjul Wajid, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jameel Ahmed, Mohammad Younas Anjum, Mazhar Iqbal and Hammad Amin Sadiq.

Alyas Saddiqi, the defense attorney representing suspect Jameel Ahmed, said the defendants were charged with acts of terrorism, money laundering, supplying funds for terrorism, and providing tools for terrorism. Saddiqi said all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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President Barack Obama with Chinese President Hu Jintao

Fareed Zakaria | BIO
CNN Anchor

President Obama landed in South Korea Wednesday for the last stop on his 10-day trip to Asia. The president made earlier visits to China, Singapore and Japan, in his first Asian journey as president.

In Japan, he made reference to his birth in Hawaii and his childhood spent partly in Indonesia, calling himself "America's first Pacific president." But as the trip winds down, analysts are seeking to answer the question of what Obama accomplished.

Fareed Zakaria, author and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria: GPS" spoke to CNN Tuesday about the president's trip and about a grim anniversary that's about to be marked in Asia. It's been one year since 10 Pakistani gunmen put India's commercial capital, Mumbai, through an ordeal of terror that killed 170 people. [Zakaria is the narrator of a documentary on the Mumbai attacks premiering on HBO on Friday.]

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Eboo Patel
On Faith

Night is falling and I can see the Gateway of India from my Sea View room at the Taj in Mumbai, my favorite hotel in the world. There are boats coming and going, people eating and arguing, vendors buying and selling. A few minutes ago there was a band playing Sufi Muslim love songs, and now there is some sort of parade approaching - maybe a wedding, maybe a political rally. Drummers dressed in red uniforms, horn players in orange, dignitaries (the groom and his family?) in carriages drawn by oxen, a group of uniformed schoolchildren walking by, clapping along, utterly delighted.

The carnival of India.

It is chilling to think if I was sitting in this same room on November 26, 2008, I would have been witness to the nightmare of India, when a group of ten terrorists hijacked a boat and came ashore on the spot that I am staring at now, and attacked the building I am sitting in with guns and grenades - six explosions in total in this hotel.

They killed nearly 200 people and injured over 300 more, but they failed in their most important pursuit - to create a religious civil war in a city that had fallen prey to the ugliest version of the clash of civilizations in the recent past.

So why was this time different? Why did Mumbaikers overwhelmingly view November 26 as a case of pluralism vs. extremism, rather than Hindu vs. Muslim?

I've been asking journalists and religious leaders in the city this question, and here's what they've had to say:

1) The Muslim community came out against the terror attacks immediately and clearly and strongly. They organized press conferences and marches. They refused to bury the terrorists in Muslim cemeteries. "Since the ... terrorists were neither Indian nor true Muslims, they had no right to an Islamic burial in an Indian Muslim cemetery," the Indian Muslim journalist MJ Akbar told Tom Friedman in a widely read column.

2) The media paid attention. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, a Professor of Islamic Studies at St. Xavier's College and founder of an interfaith project in Mumbai, told me that Indian Muslims have long spoken out against terrorism, but their voices had rarely been carried by the media. This time, the media were not looking for messages of division, but instead messages of unity - and the Muslims of Mumbai were there with that message front and center.

Read more...

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.

Read More...

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.

I returned to a family friend's home and finally saw a television. After being isolated all night, I stood transfixed. The words and images flying around were terrible. Not just the news, but in the next room my usually unflappable, practical, maternal and scolding guardian here saying that she feels so unsafe she doesn't want to move. And then a text message from another friend stuck at a restaurant two blocks down, "Was stuck at indigo all nite. But my step bro got shot dead." The finality of saying that in a text. A girl from work more delicately said that her friend's uncle passed away last night, but is that the same as being shot dead? I still don't know.

There is a particularly Indian way of keeping in touch: text messages from almost strangers ("c u," from my banker!), and an expectation that you will always pick up your phone because everyone needing to know exactly where you are at all moments of time. As an essentially independent person I find the sense of dependence difficult, at the very least annoying and a favorite word, unnecessary. It's attended by a social "sit." Come over, stay, sit—all afternoon! No conversation!

But at times of crisis it becomes so important, all you want to do is sit, not talk and be accounted for. The feeling of many strings pulling at your consciousness is not longer distracting to a sense of self, and pulls one up like a Macy's Thanksgiving parade balloon! I realize all those little, "where are you/who are you withs" are not unnecessary, but the opposite. Completely necessary in a country where crisis is much more constant. Health is an obvious example, people are constantly getting really sick and other people express real concern—"take care" means more when it comes at the end of a doctor's text message checking on your stomach! But a terrorist attack draws on the same systems.

For a small section of Bombay, the big Western hotels are an escape from those cares, and also the center of fun social life. Here they are synonymous with safe. The Taj and the Oberoi define South Bombay—loosely comparable to Upper East Side. The Taj water is "safe" to drink, you can eat anything there, meet for sushi or just enjoy the comfort of the sea room. They represent the first world (five stars! First class first!) in the midst of poverty and the co-existence proves something. Not quite sure what, that the daily discomfort can be avoided—that this hectic country can function.

But I've always felt that even the rich can't completely insulate themselves in this country. There is too much back and forth, keeping servants, buying vegetables, getting sick, servants getting sick and the heat and dirt and noise. I always found a certain humanity in this co-existence. It's even starker today, when this attack is first for those who are literate. And you must read/watch/talk about the news. When we left the restaurant Bombay was eerily quiet. Birdsongs, no horns, roads seemed wide suddenly, and a few seemingly crazy people were walking around as if nothing was going on. But many poor people don't know exactly what happened.

The fear and comfort are I guess both more local. I was annoyed that the taxi driver who dropped me home was driving so slowly because me, myself and I felt this sense of urgency and fear. But then when I paid him, he did a puja—a small prayer, touching the money to his head and to a little shrine where a NY taxi might hang dice–I must have been the first customer for the day. I thought he didn't speak English but he idiomatically pulled out "Thanks a lot," and opened the door from the inside. My anxiety was calmed. Dealing with my natural impatience has been the hardest thing about living here, especially on a night in a restaurant, a day at home, a slow cab ride and a mandatory curfew…I read once that India kicks the restlessness out of you.

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.

There are also new and chilling details about the Mumbai terror attacks. The sole surviving attacker is singing like a canary – and it’s a sobering tune, to say the least. We’ll also have shocking new video of the bombing to show you.

And speaking of chilling.. Some of the passengers aboard that U.S. cruise ship that narrowly escaped a pirate attack are also talking. Tonight we’ll have first-hand accounts from Americans about their terrifying encounter on the high seas.

See you at 10 pm ET.

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.

I am well aware that my hero Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” But surely the great man never meant for this to apply to people like Hitler who was never going to be stopped by love but only by an eloquent loathing as articulated by Winston Churchill which summoned an allied campaign to carpet-bomb his war-making apparatus into oblivion. Indeed, had King’s non-violent movement not been protected, at crucial times, by Federal Marshalls and the National Guard, the terrorist thugs of the Ku Klux Klan might have killed every last one of them.

As for my Christian brethren who regularly quote to me Jesus’ famous saying, ‘Love your enemies,’ my response is that our enemies and G-d’s enemies are different parties altogether. Jesus meant to love those steal your girlfriend, cut you off on the road, or swindle you in a business deal. But to love those who indiscriminately murder G-d’s children is an abomination against all that is sacred. Is there a man who is human whose heart is not filled with moral revulsion against terrorists who target a Rabbi who feeds the hungry? Would G-d or Jesus ask me to extend even one morsel of my limited capacity for compassion to fiends rather than saving every last particle for their victims instead? Could G-d really be so unreasonable, could Jesus be so cruel, as to ask me to love baby-killers? And would such a G-d be moral if He did? Could I pray to a G-d who loves terrorists? Could I find comfort in Him knowing that He offers them comfort as well? No, such a god would be my enemy. He would abide in Hades rather than heaven. And I would be damned before I would worship him. I will accept an eternity in purgatory rather than a moment of celestial bliss shared with these beasts.

Now is the time for our Muslim cleric brethren to rise in chorus and condemn the repulsive assassins who use Islam to justify their hatred. One such courageous Imam, and one of the North America’s most prominent, is my friend Imam Shabir Ali of Toronto who courageously responded to my call with a public statement the day after the murders: “Such terrorist attacks are not justifiable on any grounds. Islam cannot condone such murder of innocent civilians. From what you have described, Rabbi and Mrs. Holtzberg are of great service to humanity. Our knowledge of their service adds to our sense of loss and grief that such bad things can happen to such good people. Islam is built on the monotheist foundations which the Jewish people struggled for many centuries to maintain in the face of much severe opposition. Muslims and Jews should work together for a better world in which the terrorist acts we have seen in Mumbai this week are a thing of the past. I pray that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, and that the Lord with compensate the victims with a handsome reward in this world and the next.”

But as the next world is reserved for G-d, who also has much to answer for as to how He can allow righteous people like the Holtzbergs and all the other Mumbai innocents to die, it is for us the living to recommit to their work. I suggest that best possible response by the world Jewish community to this travesty is to implement a program of a Jewish peace corps to Chabad Houses the world over. Young people, especially students age 16 to 30, should offer to spend two weeks of each summer volunteering for a Chabad House somewhere in the world to help the emissaries with their very difficult and important work. This past summer three of my teen children volunteered to work for Chabad in Cordova, Argentina and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of their lives, as they shared in the isolation of a dedicated Chabad family who have lived there for 20 years to cater to the spiritual needs of the local community.

Finally, the world witnessed how the Holtzberg’s non-Jewish nanny, Sandra Samuels, saved their two-year-old Moshe’s life, running out with the child while risking being mowed down by machinegun fire. In that instant, we saw how the religious differences between pale beside the higher of us all being equally G-d’s children, Indian and Jew, Muslim and Christian, and how acts of courage and compassion are that which unite us. As I write these lines the State of Israel is being lobbied by the Hotlzberg’s remaining family to grant Ms. Samuels immediate citizenship. A hero of her caliber would be an honor to the Jewish State and the request should not be delayed by even a single day.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the founder of This World: The Jewish Values Network. His upcoming book, The Kosher Sutra, will be published in January by HarperOne. His website is www.shmuley.com

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
Listen to Rabbi Shmuley's radio show on Oprah & Friends, XM Channel 156 from 12 to 1 PM and 5 to 6 PM.
See Shmuley on the web at http://www.Shmuley.com
Friend Shmuley on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523031396

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.

But unfortunately, the immediate gaze of India will now turn towards neighboring Pakistan in what will be a true test of global diplomacy in our post-9/11 world. Assuming that the perpetrators of the Mumbai Five-Star Attacks were trained in militant training camps within the borders of Pakistan, the real political test here will be whether ‘non-state’ rogue actors (aka terrorists) will be able to precipitate a war-like setting or whether we will see a regional diplomatic ‘peace surge’ (led by the Obama Administration) for the millennial future of South Asia.

The answer is probably (and hopefully) the latter. India is far too strong and resilient of a 21st century democracy to become unraveled by a group of ten (or so) terrorists. The Hindu-Muslim-Sikh South Asian social experiment of centuries and millennia of co-existence will not be rendered fruitless by a seething bunch of criminal maniacs. The shopping bazaars and hotel restaurants of Mumbai will open once again and Mumbai residents of all ethnicities, religions and castes will once again continue to collectively pump blood into the cultural heart of India.

Simply put; Bollywood will trump Al-Qaeda in India.

As a proud Muslim who is well-versed in the nuanced political history of South Asia, the Mumbai Five-Star Attacks were simply a vile and disgusting disregard for human life and an immoral crime against humanity. Regardless of the proverbial South Asian question of Kashmir, the methodical and intentional targeting of innocent civilians at Western hot-spots and Jewish cultural centers in a diverse multi-ethnic city like Mumbai can never be justified and should always be reviled by people of every faith.

Simply put; Islam forbids terrorism. Period.

Let it be known that the saddened hearts of people worldwide are with the people of Mumbai tonight. A symbolic glimmer of hope was on the horizon when BBC News recently reported Muslim leaders in India have decided that “they will not allow the militants to be buried in Muslim graveyards anywhere in the country.”

Ibrahim Tai, the president of the Indian Muslim Council, which looks after the social and religious affairs of the Muslim community in India, told BBC News that the terrorists had "defamed" his religion.

"They are not Muslims as they have not followed our religion which teaches us to live in peace…We do not want the bodies of people who have committed an act of terrorism to be buried in our cemeteries….

“These terrorists are a black spot on our religion,” he continued. “…We will very sternly protest the burial of these terrorists in our cemetery…’"

A black spot, indeed. Good night and good luck, people of Mumbai. Our hearts are with you tonight.

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.

There are now more than two dozen anti-HIV drugs, which have given those living with HIV an incredible chance at life. People around the globe have come to realize this is not a “black disease” or a “gay disease”, as so many thought years ago. That alone is an amazing and important step forward. But despite the advances in the past two decades, there is still much to do.

Like so many diseases, HIV/AIDS does not discriminate, which also means there is a chance you know one of the millions affected by this cruel disease. World AIDS Day is just one of the many ways people around the globe are keeping this disease top of mind. Many local communities have wonderful organizations who work with those affected by HIV/AIDS everyday – offering support, meals, medical help and hope… one of the most powerful medicines available.

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.

Keep reading...

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.

Read more...

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.

Indian Security services believe that Indian Mujahedeen is an offshoot of the Student Islamic Movement of India (Simi), a radical militant Islamist organization founded thirty years ago, whose stated aim is to create an Islamic state in India. Although Indian Mujahedeen is “home-grown,” Indian authorities suspect that the group has close ties to militant outfits in Pakistan, and receives funding from them.

Indigenous Indian Islamist militant groups like Simi have long been motivated by domestic grievances, particularly the belief that India’s Muslim minority is persecuted by the country’s Hindu majority. These grievances appear to be linked to a number of attacks launched by the group Indian Mujahedeen in the last year. For example, after carrying out an attack in Ahmadabad in Gujarat province in July 2008, Indian Mujahedeen claimed that the attack had been launched to avenge a wave of Hindu violence against Muslims in Gujarat province in 2002.

But Indian Mujahedeen also appears to have bought into Bin Laden’s “Global Jihad”. After launching attacks in Jaipur in May 2008 the group released a statement promising more attacks unless India decoupled itself from its strategic alliance with the United States. Such fusing of local grievances with a concept of wider global Jihad within a fringe of the world’s largest Islamic community is a development which should cause large concern in New Delhi and Washington DC, even if the vast majority of India’s Muslims continue to be remarkably resistant to al-Qaida’s ideology. Symptomatic of al-Qaida’s creeping popularity amongst Indian Muslims is the fact that at least one Indian Muslim has been implicated in an attack launched on Glasgow airport in the UK in the summer of 2007.

Already, Indian authorities are talking about “outside actors” being responsible for the plot, implying they believe this may have been the work of Kashmiri militant groups based in Pakistan. If the plot is traced back to Pakistan, it would certainly be less embarrassing to Indian authorities, but it is likely to significantly raise tension with its nuclear neighbor.

If a Kashmiri militant group was involved in the attack on Mumbai attacks the most likely group responsible is Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) which has track record of launching attacks on high profile targets in India.

Lashkar e Toiba emerged as militant force in Kashmir after the 1980s Afghan war, a conflict in which many of its current leaders participated. After the end of the Afghan Jihad, LeT’s leadership decided to transfer their energies from fighting Soviets in Afghanistan towards fighting Indian troops in Kashmir. To this end they recruited hundreds of “fedayeen” fighters, from across Pakistan, which they trained in northwestern Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, and then sent them into battle against Indian troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir. LeT’s fedayeen fighters have been distinguished by their desire to die in the course of launching daring “suicidal” attacks so that they could attain martyrdom and heavenly reward. It has not escaped the notice of Western counter-terrorism officials that the armed youths laying carnage to Mumbai have the same fight-to-the-death approach that Lashkar e Toiba pioneered in Kashmir.

Lashkar e Toiba operatives are suspected by Indian authorities of playing a role in an attempt to storm the Indian parliament in December 2001 and of launching several attacks in Mumbai in the last several years, including a coordinated bomb attack on Mumbai’s commuter rail service in July 2006 that killed around 200. The recent warming up of relations between India and Pakistan following the election of a democratic government in Pakistan may have provided a motive for LeT to again launch attacks. Lashkar e Toiba is virulently opposed to any deal being cut over Kashmir to bring to peace to the troubled region. It does not want a non Muslim power to control any part of Kashmir.

There are other Kashmiri groups that could have carried out the Mumbai attacks. Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) has also launched attacks on Indian interests in the past, notably hijacking an Indian airliner in Nepal and diverting it to Kandahar in Taliban-run Afghanistan in December 1999. JeM is also suspected by Indian authorities of cooperating with LeT to storm the Indian Parliament in 2001. Like most other Kashmiri militant groups, JeM has close ties to al-Qaida. Rachid Rauf, the British al-Qaida operative suspected of orchestrating a plot to bring down seven transatlantic airliners in 2006, who was killed in a Predator strike several days ago, had very close ties to the group.

It is quite possible, and even likely, that the Mumbai attacks were the result of a joint operation between a Kashmiri group and indigenous Indian militants. According to eyewitness accounts some of the attackers spoke Hindi, which is not a language widely spoken in Pakistan.

Conversely Indian authorities have said that at least one of the fighters was a Pakistani national and that another attacker made references to Kashmir when he placed a phone call to make demands. All such claims should be treated with caution, but if there was cooperation between Indian and Pakistani militants, it would not be unprecedented. Indian security services suspect that the July 2006 Mumbai commuter train bombings may have been a joint effort between Indian Mujahedeen and LeT.

Inevitably questions are being asked about the role of al-Qaida in this attack. Clearly the targeting and killing of British, American and Jewish individuals, fit into its concept of “Global Jihad”. At the very least this seems, therefore, to have been an “al-Qaeda inspired” attack. The exact leadership ties between Indian Mujahedeen and al-Qaida are unclear, but the Indian militant group is thought to send recruits to Pakistan for training, al-Qaida’s operations hub in South Asia.

The ties between Kashmiri groups and al-Qaida are clearer and stronger. Many of the top leaders of LeT and JeM fought alongside Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Since 2002, when LeT and JeM were banned by the Pakistani authorities, their ties to al-Qaida have strengthened significantly. The arrival of US troops in Afghanistan, the war on terrorism alliance between former Pakistani president Musharraf and the US’s President Bush, fears that former President Musharraf would “sell out” Kashmir at the bidding of his friends in Washington, and anger kicked up by the war in Iraq, all pushed Kashmiri militant groups closer to Bin Laden’s worldview.

After the US election, Ayman al Zawahiri called on Mujahedeen around the world to continue to inflict pain on Americans and their allies. His call appears to have been answered.

Paul Cruickshank is a Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security and the Author of “Al Qaeda: the Current Threat” (Pocket Issue, October 2008).

Watch Canadian Jonathan Ehrlich describe his harrowing and narrow escape from the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai.

Two of the hostages freed after police stormed the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai.

Program note: See Sara Sidner's full report during special CNN coverage of the Mumbai attacks, tonight, 7-9p ET.

SARA SIDNER, CNN Correspondent: I'm just getting a text message from four Americans who have been inside this hotel from Chicago who we have been talking to throughout this 42 or 43-hour ordeal now. They have apparently been taken out. They have made it out and they are well.

The family is writing me, and they are very happy. And so, we should say that that group of four people who are calling and saying we're running out of water - sorry, they made it out and so the family is very happy.

CAROL COSTELLO, American Morning Contributor: Oh, you're so emotional about this. You've established a relationship with the family in Chicago then and have been texting them often, right?

SIDNER: Yes. Over the past few hours, I text them "are you OK," because I heard all of the loud bangs. As I was coming from my hotel, I had taken down for a few hours and was feeling quite guilty that I wasn't out here watching the situation. And when I got back, I got a text from one of their family members in Chicago saying we have gotten a text from them. They say they are out. They've been led out, and they are safe. Just a few moments ago, I got a text saying, "We are safe."

Read more about how Sara Sidner stayed in contact with the Mackoff family while they were trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel for 48 hours during the Mumbai attacks.

A commando during the operation at the Jewish center.

Program note: See Peter Bergen's full report during special CNN coverage of the Mumbai attacks, tonight, 7-9p ET.
Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst

It was an al Qaeda-influenced attack with western targets, British targets, American targets, Jewish targets, multiple coordinated attacks. In terms of who could have done this, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials that I've been speaking with recently, they don't think that this could be just simply a local indigenous group.

We have seen numerous terrorist attacks in India, of course, and in Bombay. But some of the attacks in Bombay - one of the counterterrorism officials I talked to pointed to the '93 attack in Bombay which killed 250 people, multiple attacks, was coordinated according to the U.S. government by a guy called Daoud Ebraham (ph). Now Daoud Ebraham (ph) is an Indian gangster with strong links to Pakistan.

He's believed to be living in Karachi right now, Karachi, Pakistan, the large port city where it is possible that the ship came from that delivered the terrorists, so that's one angle I'm sure investigators are going to be looking at. A significant Kashmir militant group conducted a similar operation to what we've seen in Bombay against the Indian Parliament back in December of 2001 where numerous gunmen was sent into the Parliament on a de facto suicide mission, shot up the Parliament. It nearly brought India and Pakistan to war in 2002, perhaps the intent again with these recent attacks to kind of inflame tensions between these two long-time rivals.

There's a lot of tension between Pakistan and India. They fought three major wars and one smaller war since 1947. And they nearly came to a nuclear exchange in 2002. So the fact that they are sharing this intelligence at the high levels is a good thing. However, Indian popular opinion is going to be very much inflamed if indeed this links back to Pakistani terrorist groups.

The Indian government has in the past proven quite responsible and mature in its responses to terrorist attacks that may have some Pakistani links. And we can only hope that's the case in the future. However, Indian politicians have to respond to their public, so going forward, as the investigation goes forward, if there are links back to Pakistan, the Indian population may demand some kind of further action than is being taken right now.

This attack could have been designed to derail the improving relationship between India and Pakistan. I mean the last several years' confidence-building measures between the two countries have included bus services, flights resuming, cricket matches, small things, but the sorts of things that would have been almost impossible to think of five years ago when relations between these two countries were really at their worst. So if these attacks are designed to inflame relations and they may well succeed, unfortunately.

One of President-elect Obama's advisers is a man called Bruce Riddell (ph), who's an expert on South Asia and al Qaeda. He has been advocating greater attempts by the United States to solve the Kashmir issue, so that's some advice the President-elect Obama is probably hearing. Also, if indeed Hillary Clinton is secretary of state, this is a part of the world that she knows very well.

She has been interested in perhaps appointing a special envoy to try and solve that dispute. This is something that she's been thinking about for a couple of years. Obviously that's something that she would have to discuss with President-elect Obama, so I would anticipate the new administration putting a great deal more diplomatic efforts to solve this long-festering dispute between these two countries.

The fact that we've been covering this event for more than 48 hours now rather than just having that brief news hit on suicide attackers, that they are taking hostages, we saw that going back to the Munich Olympics in 1972. If you can prolong the news coverage, obviously you prolong the news attention.

But one very strange thing about these hostage-takings is that they haven't issued any demands. We don't know what these people want. I mean usually when you take hostages, you make some demands. These people have made no demands at all, so all we can do is speculate about what the political issues are that they're interested in highlighting.

One of the gunmen is pictured in Mumbai, India, during the deadly attacks.

Program note: Watch an interview with the Scotts' son, Jonathan Macoff, tonight during special CNN coverage of the Mumbai attacks.  Tonight, 7-9p ET.

This report first aired on CNN-IBN and CNN Newsroom. Below is a rough transcript of an interview with two American survivors of the Mumbai attacks.

CNN-IBN Reporter: The story of every survivor we have met today is really the same, Indian or foreigner that kept us on tenterhooks that survived today. I'm being joined by Patricia and Bruce - I think they look safe all, they're continuing to stay here in India.

PATRICIA SCOTT, SURVIVOR ON MUMBAI SIEGE: Yes, of course, of course. It was the only phone we had. The battery was running down. The phones in the hotel, the TV wasn't working, the lights were hardly working. They had re-invented our tour and we're not going home. We are not going to let the terrorists win there and ruin every thing.

BRUCE SCOTT, SURVIVOR ON MUMBAI SIEGE: We heard some noise outside. We didn't see or hear anybody, we didn't see terrorists but when I looked through I saw what looked like police. They were wearing armor, and a body armor, they had weapons. So I kind of tapped on the door and made a little, hello, I'm in here. I was afraid if I ran in the hall, they might think I was a bad guy. So we were very careful about that. They came in, they checked our credentials and they looked at our passport, they made sure the room was clean and they brought us out. They brought us down the 17 floors and we're here to tell the story and thank God.

P. SCOTT: And when we came down the floor with an Australian man and a South African man and a Chinese man and the two of us as American and there was blood all over the steps.

Thank God they took the bodies away because it would have been so hard. Everybody grabbed hands, a woman's heel, just standing there and you know that she kind of tried before as we were walking out - we are so grateful that the passage of India tour group came through and helped us every hour, every step of the way. The commandos were so powerful, we felt so protected they did just a phenomenal job.

B. SCOTT: I might say, if you let fear control you, fear runs your life, and the terrorists have won. Don't let that happen. It's important to be fearful if someone's got a gun on you, then that's the appropriate time, but to live the rest of your life in fear because of this attack, no you don't do that.

Gary Tuchman
AC360 Correspondent

The terrorists who killed so many innocent humans in India are thugs. They are not any smarter, any better, any more noble, or any more thoughtful than the thugs who murder people during bank robberies in Miami, convenience store hold-ups in Los Angeles, or carjackings in Chicago.

There's a tendency among some to marvel at how "well coordinated" an attack like this India one was. Well, don't marvel. If you no longer held a real job, were given bucket loads of money, and had a multitude of time on your hands, you too could "well coordinate" such a plan.

Fortunately, most people have consciences. Let's not allow society to romanticize and marvel over the planning of terrorists' soulless and monstorous escapades.

They are no different from your average street thug.

David Schechter
CNN Senior National editor

Some people have been puzzled or surprised that a Jewish Center, called a Chabad house, was attacked in Mumbai. It's true that the Jewish population in India numbers just a few thousand - in a country of billions. But Jews have a long history in India, maybe 2,500 years; and some say they are descended from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.

Most of India's Jews live in Mumbai, making it a natural place to find Chabad, a movement within Orthodox Judaism that sends emissaries world-wide from its headquarters in the Crown Heights section of New York City.

Mumbai also is a center of international business and a city frequented by young Israelis, who set off to see the world after completing their military service obligation and before entering university. Chabad is even big in Katmandu.

Chabad is an acronym of the Jewish words for wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Though rooted in the oldest of Jewish beliefs, Chabad also spreads its message online at www.chabad.org. And if you'd like to know more, a good read about Chabad is "The Rebbe's Army" by Sue Fishkoff.

Watch Nic Robertson's report on the stand-off at a Chabad in Mumbai.

Security forces outside the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Kelli Arena
CNN Washington Correspondent

The FBI has a team ready to fly to Mumbai and join the investigation. Officials are working with Indian diplomats to get them there. They need an invitation from the Indian government. And the State Department is still discussing Indian officials how the FBI would operate once it hits the ground.

That can be a delicate negotiation with any country. But U.S. ties to Pakistan, India's longtime enemy, make it more complicated.

Whenever Americans are injured or killed anywhere in the world by a terrorist attack, the FBI opens a case. But it can only operate in another country with that government's permission.

After the U.S. embassy Bombings in Nairobi, there was full and total cooperation. After the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, there were more guarded dealings with the host government.

In India's case, you have a strong, sovereign, and fairly well organized government that has investigators from Canada, Great Britain, Australia and other countries all asking for access because their citizens were victims here.

The Indian government will have to arrange whatever access they will grant for each country's agencies. For the FBI, the State Department will have to negotiate that carefully.