Could The Good Old Days Return?
Let’s Hope Not
The Times OF India
Battle for Mumbai ends, death toll rises to 195
29 Nov 2008, 1304 hrs IST, AGENCIES
MUMBAI: Security forces freed the landmark Taj hotel here after an intense night-long firing amid a series of explosions, with three terrorists gunned down by the commandos, authorities said this morning. “Three terrorists have been killed but we are still continuing our operations,” Director General of NSG, J K Dutt, told reporters outside the hotel.
Mumbai disaster official R Jadhav told that 195 people had been killed and nearly 300 injured in the battle, which began when the dozen or so militants split into groups to attack multiple targets across the city, including the main railway station and a hospital.
The operation to flush out terrorists from Taj Hotel is over, signalling an end to the 62-hour siege by terrorists three of whom were killed this morning in an assault by the elite commandos of National Security Guards (NSG).
Security chiefs fear revamped version of 70s-style violence
Head-on attacks on soft targets by small, well-trained gangs will be harder to detect and to stop, say intelligence officials
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 29 2008 00.01 GMT
Western intelligence officials yesterday expressed concern about the security implications of the Mumbai attacks for their own cities as they confronted the prospect of new tactics being adopted by highly trained and motivated terrorists.
They contrasted the Mumbai attacks with suicide and car bombers who have plotted outrages in London. The latter have been mainly self-radicalised, self-selected groups of individuals, slowly gathering bomb-making equipment and vulnerable to surveillance by the security services, counter-terrorist officials said.
In contrast, they said, the group who attacked Mumbai were armed with rifles and grenades and stormed their targets in the city head-on.
USA
National Security Pick: From a Marine to a Mediator
By HELENE COOPER
Published: November 28, 2008
WASHINGTON – James L. Jones, a retired four-star general, was among a mostly Republican crowd watching a presidential debate in October when Barack Obama casually mentioned that he got a lot of his advice on foreign policy from General Jones.
“Explain yourself!” some of the Republicans demanded, as General Jones later recalled it.
He did not. A 6-foot-5 Marine Corps commandant with the looks of John Wayne, General Jones is not given to talking about his political bent, be it Republican or Democrat. And yet, he is Mr. Obama’s choice for national security adviser, a job that will make him the main foreign policy sounding board and sage to a president with relatively little foreign policy experience.