India's Top Security Official Resigns

With Dead Still Being Pulled From Site Of Attack, Criticism Builds Over Government's Handling of Mumbai Terror

(AP)  With corpses still being pulled from a once-besieged hotel, India's top security official resigned Sunday as the government struggled under growing accusations of security failures following terror attacks that killed 174 people.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks across India, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who accepted it, according to the president's office.

The Cabinet reshuffle comes as a chorus of criticism about the government's handling of the Mumbai attacks grows louder.

"Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die," read a headline Sunday in the Times of India newspaper.

A day after the siege ended, authorities were still removing victims' bodies from the ritzy Taj Mahal hotel, where three suspected Muslim militants made a last stand before Indian commandos killed them in a blaze of gunfire and explosions.

On Sunday, the waterfront landmark, popular among foreign tourists and Indian high society, was surrounded by metal barricades, its shattered windows boarded over. At the iconic Gateway of India basalt arch nearby, a shrine of candles, flowers and messages commemorated victims.

"We have been to two funerals already," Mumbai resident Karin Dutta said as she placed a small bouquet of white flowers for several friends killed in the hotel. "We're going to another one now."

The rampage was carried out by gunmen at 10 sites across Mumbai starting Wednesday night. At least 239 were wounded.

One site, the Cafe Leopold, a famous tourist restaurant and the scene of one of the first attacks, opened Sunday for the first time since the mayhem - but police asked it to close just minutes later because they said the eatery needed permission first.

Mirrors, doors and paneling were riddled with bullet holes from the assault that killed seven people there.

"I want them (the attackers) to feel we have won, they have lost," restaurant manager Farzad Jehani said of the symbolic opening. "We're back in action."

The death toll was revised down Sunday from 195 after authorities said some bodies were counted twice, but they said it could rise again as areas of the Taj Mahal were still being searched. Among the dead were 18 foreigners, including six Americans. Nine gunmen were killed.

The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen - a name suggesting origins inside India - has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 170 people. But Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman, now in custody, was from Pakistan and voiced suspicions of their neighbor.

Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.

The assaults have raised fears among U.S. officials about a possible surge in violence between Pakistan and India. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars against each other, two over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Singh called a rare meeting of leaders from the country's main political parties to discuss the situation Sunday.

As officials pointed the finger at "elements in Pakistan," public ire over the government's actions widened.

"People are worried, but the key difference is anger," said Rajesh Jain, chief executive officer at a brokerage firm, Pranav Securities. "Does the government have the will, the ability to tackle the dangers we face?"

But J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite commandos, brushed off criticism that his unit, which had to fly from New Delhi to Mumbai, was slow to respond to the attacks.

"There was no delay," he told reporters Sunday.

Patil (left), the former home minister, succumbed to the mounting criticism of the government's inability to prevent repeated terrorist attacks. To replace him, Singh tapped Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, a Harvard-educated lawyer who has been one of the most prominent faces in the administration.

Chidambaram, 63, served as Minister of Internal Security in the 1980s under slain Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Authorities say the gunmen may have arrived in Mumbai on a trawler that was found abandoned and drifting off the coast with a bound corpse aboard a day after the attacks started.

The government suspects they then transferred to a dinghy and docked at a fishermen's colony near the two hotels and Jewish center targeted in the assaults.

Local fishermen were suspicious of the group of young men, police inspector Dattatray Rajbhog said.

"The fishermen shouted at them and asked who they were and where they had come from. But they abused them and fled," he said.

Suspicions in Indian media quickly settled on the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al Qaeda.

President George W. Bush pledged full U.S. support for the investigation, saying the killers "will not have the final word." FBI agents were sent to India to help with the probe.

It was the country's deadliest terrorist act since 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai killed 257 people.

[juwboy]

MikeTotten1:

When Hitler came to power, one of his first acts was the elimination of his political opponents -- Socialists, Communists, Marxists, Trotsyites, labor leaders and other left-wingers.

Next, he turned his attention to the group he considered the greatest threat to the purity of his glorious German master-race.

It wasn`t the Jews.

It wasn`t the gipsies.

It wasn`t homosexu@ls.

It was the mentally-retarded and feeble-minded.

Idiots, imbeciles, half-wits, simpletons, morons and cretins.

People just like you, MikeTotten1.

[rudy6543]

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 02:52 AM

I provided two sources for you earlier regarding fringe Muslim extremists groups in the provinces of Pakistan causing a stir. I cited an article you pooped on as zionist and I cited the President of Pakistan himself. Go away you racist.

[rudy6543]

Re: "You make blanket statements about Jews, not just zionists."

Can you cite one, or are you lying again?

*******

Nope. Yesterday when I argued about how many AMERICANS were killed, you immediately drew a distinction between Americans and Jews, not wanting to count the Jews as Americans for one reason or another despite them holding US citizenship. That is when you also labled them as Zionist and killers. I got your number right from the start.

[rudy6543]

Re: "The fact that you throw out the term "zionist" willy nilly proves you''''''''re a basket case racist."

The fact that you would call someone a racist because they criticize poop-in-their pants imbeciles like Zionists, suggests that you don''''t inderstand the definition of the term "racist".

Re: "Technically, there are many Christians that consider themselves zionists."

Looks like you just refuted your own ignorant effort to peg me as a "racist".

Or do you figure that religious folks in general comprise a "race"?



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Posted by MikeTotten1 at 01:35 AM

I believe I have already clarified earlier that there is no such thing as race in the literal sense. However, that doesn''t mean your not a racist, because you are, in agreement with a much broader and better defined meaning of racism. You make blanket statements about Jews, not just zionists. Zionism is a political movement. You make the accusation against all Jews, because you are a racist.

[rudy6543]

Re: "Oh, and proof will be required to show that the Telegraph is Zionist owned and controlled."

Do a little research on Zionist dingleberry Ruppert Murdoch, find out which media sources he owns and controls (hint-one of them is named the Telegraph) and educate yourself.

You keep on demanding proof, yet you still can''''t even support your flimsy claims.

You must be a Zionist.



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Posted by MikeTotten1 at 01:29 AM

YOU make the accusation, YOU produce the proof. I don''t chase feathers for the likes of you or any other racist.

[wdh3007]

Yeah I''m sure he resigned I probably would have to if I was the top security chief responsible for that many deaths. I wonder if he ever worked in the Bush Administration?

[rudy6543]

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 11:06 PM

The fact that you throw out the term "zionist" willy nilly proves you''re a basket case racist. Notice how you distinguish between Mormons and Zionists? Technically, there are many Christians that consider themselves zionists. Try again, you racist slime.

[rudy6543]

I have only seen one vague reference from a Zionist-owned and operated source
**********

And which zionist owned source are you referring to you little pathetic disgusting racist? Oh, and proof will be required to show that the Telegraph is Zionist owned and controlled. You pathetic little ugly, ugly worthless imp!

[earth562]

Miketotten1

Is an imposter who has used a reporters name to spread lies and distortions.

He is paid by a Saudi/Wahabist organization set up in the United States.

This poster is on this website for over 14 hours a day 7 days a week.

Please check it out for yourself

[rudy6543]

You are the one making wild certain claims here with zero proof.

Do you ever look at non-Zionist-owned sources for your news and information?

It might be a real eye-opener for you.



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Posted by MikeTotten1 at 10:30 PM

I have obviously provided more than enough support for my statements. You on the other hand have handed out nothing but racist statements from the start. It''s nice to see that you spend 24 hours a day spamming and trolling on this. How is that possible?

[whitemale08]

Mission Accomplished!!!

The British are getting exactly what they wanted, ''public demand for aggressive 9/11 style security''.

Ruling out of chaos has allways been the British way.

The British wants to break up India and have it balkanized by a nuclear-fight with Pakistan.

We are so so stupid and naive to never poke fingers at our long time enemy, the enemy we fought at the Revolutionary War in 1776.

These British idiots, in particular so-called Prince Charlie, Lords of nothing and Duke so and so, want the China, India and Russia broken up in a nuclear war.

The British-Gloval-Monetary-System is DEAD!!!!

The British wants to replace that system with an official Global Banking System which will run broken up countries consolidated by security-forces.

That way they can tax the ''security'' of every existant human being and reduce the earth''s population 2/3rds.

[rudy6543]

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 09:13 PM

Proof? Oh. that''s right. you don''t have any proof. Just opportunity.

[rudy6543]

President Zadari of Pakistan supports what I have said as well:

I have a country [threatened] by these same forces. They may not be the same individuals, but they are definitely the same forces with the same mindset. So I am not standing in to appease any other people. I am trying to save my own nation, my own country and the future of my children. So therefore I am as committed as can be.

[rudy6543]

Proof? LOL! More than you have!

Excerpt from the Telegraph:

There are some 45 violent extremist Islamic groups in Pakistan. The best-known are Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami (The Movement for Islamic Jihad), Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) and Jundullah (Army of God), but with ever-changing names, splits and overlapping ideologies, it is difficult to differentiate one from another let alone keep track of their murderous attempts to topple Pakistans'' current leaders and replace them with a fundamentalist regime.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3533425/Mumbai-attacks-How-young-Britons-are-radicalised-in-Pakistan.html

[rudy6543]

These attacks are without doubt carried out by fringe Muslim groups that dominate the provinces of Pakistan. The pictures of these young people who carried out this tragedy show that they thought they were really doing something grand and mighty in killing innocent people for their god. They should find out what clerics led them in the war propaganda and arrest them, and their families as accomplices.

[wardoglrs]

With a traumatized nation and a paralyzed government, a core group of secular ideologues and Hindu nationalists are executing a %u2018soft coup%u2019 in New Delhi to bring to power hawks who want to pursue America%u2019s agenda of grooming India as a regional policeman, sort out Pakistan and confront China.

India will self-destroy in the process. India%u2019s military and intelligence has been penetrated. The man who uncovered the plot, Hemant Karkare, the anti-terrorism chief of Mumbai police, was the first target of the mysterious terrorists. Patriotic Indians need to wake up and save their country.

[gorgeousm]

The fraudulent scum using the name of:
MikeTotten1
has wrongfully been permitted to use this medium to defend Islamofascist murderers, as well as espouse his/her hate-filled messages against America, Israel, and even against any preventative measures we in The Western Free, Democratic World must take to defend ourselves against Islamofascist murderers.

In all probability, this depraved individual is an agent for said Islamofascist murderers.

Beware of such pro-Islamofascist propagandists who lurk within these sites!

[mtminds]

You spelled Iran wrong. This act of brutal sadistic violence has all the marks of Iran''s terrorist regime on it.

Iran is training and equipping and funding terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran must be brought to justice soon.

[gorgeousm]

We cannot lose our resolve regarding standing up to, and taking the offensive, against Islamic or other religious fanatical murderers.

Our Western World leaders must lead us to safety, or be flushed away with the other fecal waste matter.

Urge your representatives to press our leaders for immediate MAJOR and thorough military action against Islamofascists, and if we have to use nuclear weapons to save the world from this Islamofascist scourge, then we sould NOT hesitate to to so !!

[gorgeousm]

Each and every time Muslims go out and slaughter people, the same depraved Jihadist apologists just jump on their computers and CBS and flood these forums with lies and defense of the death-cult called Islam. Every single time. I''m sick of it. Why can''t CBS screen out and block the IP addresses that come from the caves of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia? If they did, we could get rid of 90% of the scum that post these lies and propaganda.

Posted by AnitaY417 at 01:34 PM : Nov 30, 2008