WWIII, The Eastern Front: Pakistan Intel Engineered 7/11 Bombings, Intelligence Says

Had enough?

Forty-eight hours after bombs ripped through Mumbai, the needle pointed to Pakistan. Intelligence agencies on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was the “mastermind� of the blasts that killed about 200 people.

The Mumbai Police, meanwhile, identified the trio who planned and executed 11/7: Rahil, Zahibuddin Ansari and Faiyaz, linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Of them, Rahil had reportedly made an abortive bid to trigger a blast at Byculla railway station on March 11 — the eve of the anniversary of the 1993 Bombay blasts.

The agencies, which briefed National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, said the blueprint for Tuesday’s blasts was made by the ISI while the “plan� was executed by “local Indian operatives�.

A senior intelligence officer said the synchronised explosions had the “hallmark� of an ISI operation. Militants operating in Kashmir were not capable of such meticulous planning and could only carry out fidayeen attacks or plant bombs in crowded places like markets.

More on "D-Company:" ... who are Cint W. Taylor's suspects, although, really, they could all be guilty.

There are two main suspects in Tuesday's train bombing. Either way, one man will bear some responsibility for them. And it is possible the country that has harbored him will pay as well.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a radical Muslim terror group with ties to al Qaeda. It has also received heavy funding from an Indian crime lord named Dawood Ibrahim, another suspect in the bombings and a terrorist in his own right. Ibrahim is regarded as the mastermind behind Mumbai's 1993 bombing that killed 257. His gang, called D-Company, planned the first attack and smuggled in the RDX explosives from Pakistan. (I discussed his operations for The American Spectator online here and here.)

Both Lashkar-e-Taiba and D-Company are suspects in the 7-11 bombing as well. Ibrahim also has close al Qaeda ties, according to our Treasury Department, and it is likely no coincidence that this serial attack took place on the 11th of the month. I suspect that Osama bin Laden and the leadership levels of al Qaeda were not involved in this attack, but that it was carried out by home-grown terrorists (with Al Qaeda's advice and approval) as occurred in London a year ago.

For the sake of peace in the region, however, it doesn't matter which group was behind it -- both are supported by Dawood Ibrahim. And Ibrahim (and possibly elements of L-e-T) are helped by Pakistan's Intelligence Service, the ISI. Ibrahim is widely reported to live like a king in Pakistan today, controlling his criminal empire and immune from extradition to India. (Pakistan denies that he is in the country.)

Whoops! There's Pakistan's ISI again.

Anyone have any humane solutions to offer?

I will say right now I have no solutions, except some truly terrible ones.

And I will sleep just fine afterwards.

It is as of yet unknown if there are any rogue "young, bearded men" in Pak ISI. We all wait with bated breath for Pakistan's internal investigation into the allegation.

posted by Ace at 08:24 PM

| Access Comments