Blogs of War

It seemed inevitable anyway:

Prime Minister Singh accepted the resignation and immediately named Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take over the Home Ministry post, according to a source in the prime minster’s office.

Singh will add the Finance Ministry to his responsibilities, the source said.

N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu — a major Indian newspaper — said Patil’s departure was overdue. “This man has been widely criticized for not being up to it and it was simply impossible that he could stay on after this,” Ram said.

The criticism of Patil was “that he has been very slow, that they haven’t delivered in the promise to improve intelligence.”

With general elections mandated by next May “this government is really fighting for its political life,” he said.

The political impact of this attack, within India, is going to be far-reaching and is unlikely to stop here. It will be interesting to see if this pushes them towards a post-9/11 style reorganization.

President Bush on how he’d like to be seen:

“I’d like to be a President (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package; that came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do,”

There’s more here. Unfortunately, there are very few people who can discuss this topic dispassionately at this time. So much of this is still in flux anyway. Only time will tell if opinions will shift – even slightly.

It’s not like we haven’t heard these warnings before but events in Mumbai, our economic situation, and this period of significant political transition may prove too tempting for Al Qaeda to pass up:

If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at Penn and Grand Central stations.

“The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible,” said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Uniformed officers, including this NYPD Counter Terrorism Squad members and Amtrak cops with M-16s, flooded Penn Station Wednesday after the FBI said it had received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that Al Qaeda operatives discussed a plan two months ago to bomb New York City’s mass transit system.

The report said: “These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems.”

This warning is a bit unusual in that some information about the source has been released or leaked:

Police sources said the information came from a Pakistani citizen arrested overseas within the past week. Those sources said the target would have been trains arriving at Penn Station.

It’s going to be a long night, a long couple of days really, for our homeland security – public safety folks.

Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel

This is still a very fluid situation but some hotel guests escaped in the chaos and have provided some insight:

Another British guest at the Taj Mahal hotel, where the England cricket team had been staying two weeks ago, said that he had managed to escape the terrorists after finding himself among a dozen people who were herded together by two heavily armed men and taken up to the hotel’s upper floors.

“They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts,” he added. “They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports and then they took us up the stairs. I think they wanted to take us to the roof.” He said he escaped when they reached the 18th floor.

As he was speaking, there was a loud explosion from the roof of the hotel. Several European politicians were among a group who had barricaded themselves inside the Taj Mahal, a century-old seaside hotel complex and one of the city’s best-known destinations.

They included Sajjad Karim, a Conservative MEP. He said by mobile phone: “I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running. There were about 25 or 30 of us. Some of us split one way and some another. A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen and then we were shunted into a restaurant in the basement. We are now in the dark in this room and we’ve barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad.”

THe number of hostages seems to range wildly in reports – with some estimates at 100 or more:

Over 40 western hostages are reportedly being held at two luxury hotels in soutern Mumbai, say the Times of India.

Fire is reportedly spreading across the Heritage Wing of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel amid ongoing firefights between the army and terrorists.

CNN is reporting that 7-15 hostages remain in the Taj specifically. While NDTV puts the number of terrorists still on scene at 3 to 4.

More on the historic Taj at its website.

Police losses are significant and possibly growing:

Three top police officials, including Mumbai Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, were among the nine police officers killed as security forces took on terrorists in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday, authorities said.Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte, Mumbai Police ‘encounter specialist’ Vijay Salaskar were also killed in separate gun battles following a series of attacks in India’s financial capital, the officials said.

There are many Twitter users in and around Mumbai who are posting updates but the conversation is global. Follow it here and here.

This sort of attack, requiring little more than light weapons, relatively small amounts of explosives, and pretty basic coordination, is what worries me most as we head into the holidays. They’re relatively easy to stage and quite effective:

Several people have been killed in a series of coordinated attacks targeting sites popular with tourists and business people, according to police and CNN’s sister network in India.

Ongoing battles between police and gunmen were reported at two five-star hotels by CNN-IBN.

Gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked targets including the hotels, a cafe, and a train station, police say.

Police confirmed two deaths but IBN said at least 18 people were killed in the coordinated strikes, according to IBN.

The attacks included five shootouts and two grenade attacks, said a police officer who answered Mumbai’s police control room line.

IBN reported an ongoing battle at the five-star Oberoi Hotel where gunmen have reportedly taken hostages after searching out people with U.S. or British passports.

Up to 80 may have been killed and 200 injured but these numbers are in flux:

There have been multiple attacks in India’s city of Mumbai and breaking reports have just revealed that up to 80people may be dead.

It appears that new attacks are occurring and that Americans are being targeted. It’s difficult to tell in the chaos. More as the story develops.

Update:
Follow the global conversation about these attacks on Twitter.

Indian bloggers are pulling together at Mumbai Help.

Now following updates from Mumbai by Twitter user Kaushal.

More on the terrorists effort to identify foreigners in their attacks:

Shootings were reported in the lobby of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the Colaba area of south Bombay and at the nearby Leopolds bar, a popular destination with western backpackers. Witnesses described pools of blood and bullet scarred walls at both locations.

A witness at the hotel told a local television station: “They wanted anyone with British or American passports.
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“They wanted foreigners.”

It’s still difficult to tell if this round of attacks is coming to an end or if it will continue:

The attacks began about 2230 local time (1700 GMT) and more than two hours later witnesses were reporting new explosions and gunfire.

The targets include businesses frequented by international visitors.

CNN correspondent Andrew Stevens said: “We are getting reports of ongoing incidents at the railway station and the Oberoi Hotel.

“We do not know if this has reached its peak or if more attacks to come.”

A local journalist told CNN he had seen evidence of an attack at the city’s domestic airport, which is on the outskirts of the Mumbai.
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IBN reported explosions at a gas station and inside a taxi on a dockside road.

Not much really. Obama may appear presidential (it depends on who you ask) but the Office of the President-Elect doesn’t grant him any real authority:

Obama has employed over 500 staffers to assist in his transition operations — working from a nondescript office building in downtown Washington and from locations in his hometown of Chicago.

His transition team has received a budget of $12 million — $5.2 million of which was allocated by Congress, and the rest from private donations of under $5,000.

As president-elect, Obama is also given the same highly classified intelligence briefings that President Bush receives on a daily basis. And Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden get full Secret Service protection, which Obama also received during the Democratic primaries and general election campaign.

But the “Office of the President-Elect,” while critical in building the future government, has no official power — which Obama himself acknowledged during his victory speech in Chicago on Election Night.

“It is an office — it’s just a quasi-government office for planning the takeover of the government,” said Stephen J. Wayne, a professor at Georgetown University’s department of government.

“Obama has no formal power as far as the existing government is concerned, but he has a lot of informal influence, which President Bush has encouraged,” he added.

Wayne compared the function of the “Office of the President-Elect” to spring training in baseball. “It doesn’t count in the standings, but it does contribute to a team’s ability to do well from day one,” he said.

In short, Obama has the authority to prepare his developing administration for greater authority so that they can hit the ground running. Unfortunately, they’ll be heading left.

I guess there aren’t enough video games and trinkets in Iceland’s shops to keep everyone in a consumer coma. Perhaps they just can’t afford the coma. Then again, they might just be paying attention:

Despite the loans, Iceland faces a sharp economic contraction and surging unemployment while many Icelanders also risk losing their homes and life savings.

A young man climbed onto the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland’s national day, and hung a banner reading: “Iceland for Sale – $2.100.000.000″, the amount of the loan Iceland is getting from the IMF.

The rally lasted less than one hour and as daylight began to wane, demonstrators drifted away into the nearby coffee shops where the price of a cup of coffee has shot up to 300 kronas in the last few weeks, up by about one third from before the crisis struck, as the currency has tumbled.

Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion in the government on Friday over its handling of the crisis, but the motion carries little chance of toppling the ruling coalition which has a solid parliamentary majority.

“I’ve just had enough of this whole thing,” said Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker.

“I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust the banks, I don’t trust the political parties, and I don’t trust the IMF. We had a good country here and they’ve ruined it.”

Join the club Gudun.