In a panel hosted by Counterterrorism Blog, CNAS Fellow and COIN guru David Kilcullen offers good insight on the Mumbai attacks:
On the tactics:
‘This was not some Islamic charity or some group working alone from the Deccan Mujahedeen: this has all the hallmarks of a Special Forces raid, closer to a commando or SBS raiding activity [...]
Archive for the ‘Terrorism’ Category
Kilcullen on Mumbai: Did U.S. Money Help Plan the Attack?
Posted in Al-Qaeda, India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mumbai Attacks, the Grand Scheme and Shadows of 2001
Posted in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I think this much is clear:
Whoever the Mumbai attackers were, and whatever power they swore allegiance to, they weren’t acting on their own, and those who set things in motion had a larger strategic goal in mind: to relieve military pressure on the Taleban, al-Qaeda and other forces operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border, by provoking [...]
Torture: Brennan, Feinstein and the Risks of Misquoting
Posted in Human rights, Terrorism on December 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
At the risk of belabouring the point, I’m going to say a few more words about Case Brennan.
A few days ago, commenting on blog posts that contributed to John Brennan withdrawing his candidacy for CIA director, I suggested that we bloggers “don’t dig up stuff, we just rip off other people’s work; and when that [...]
After John Brennan, Who Will Withstand Vetting-by-Google?
Posted in Human rights, Terrorism on December 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In today’s New York Times, CIA veteran Mark Lowenthal sums up what’s wrong with Obama’s decision to let John Brennan withdraw. According to Lowenthal,
Mr. Obama’s decision to exclude Mr. Brennan from contention for the top job had sent a message that ‘if you worked in the C.I.A. during the war on terror, you are now [...]
Mumbai Attacks: Suggested Reading for the (Still) Needy
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My Firefox tabs are buckling under a pile of first-class terrorism analysis, so, in the spirit of international co-operation, I thought I’d share:
“The Coming Urban Terror” — John Robb’s prophetic 2007 City Journal article on how the fabric of a modern metropolis unravels.
“Al Qaida’s strategy to puncture the war on terror” — A thoughtful new [...]
Mumbai Attacks: Pakistan, al-Qaeda and Indian Muslims
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on December 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Researching a backgrounder on the Mumbai attacks, I exchanged emails with Wilson John, a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based thinktank.
Although I’m what they used to call “an old India hand”, I haven’t paid much attention to the Subcontinent for quite some time, and a lot of what John told me came as [...]
Indian Terrorism: Homegrown, By Pakistan
Posted in India, Militancy, Pakistan, Terrorism on November 28, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Aryn Baker writes in Time:
The roots of Muslim rage run deep in India, nourished by a long-held sense of injustice over what many Indian Muslims believe is institutionalized discrimination against the country’s largest minority group. The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India’s Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are [...]
Mumbai: Is India Within Its Rights to Attack Pakistan?
Posted in India, Terrorism on November 27, 2008 | 5 Comments »
As the tragedy unfolds in Mumbai, I find myself wondering why no one is bringing up this fact:
This is by all definitions a foreign attack on Indian soil. India is not a Muslim country, and its own Muslim minority, apart from Kashmiris, by and large does not have a beef with the central government. There [...]
John Brennan: From Man to Boogeyman, Pt. 2
Posted in Human rights, Terrorism on November 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So he withdraws:
John O. Brennan, a C.I.A. veteran who many believed would be the spy agency’s next director, on Tuesday withdrew his name from consideration for a top job in the Obama administration amid concerns he was intimately linked to controversial C.I.A. programs authorized by President Bush.
The reason? Better believe it:
The opposition to Mr. Brennan [...]
John Brennan: From Man to Boogeyman
Posted in Human rights, Terrorism on November 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
John Brennan, who was Bill Clinton’s daily intelligence briefer and George Tenet’s XO, and who ran the National Counterterrorism Center for its first two years, has lately become something of a pet villain for Obama supporters. Judging by the blogospheric reaction to the news of his possible nomination as the head of CIA, you’d think [...]
