Elements of an Inside Job in Mumbai Attacks

Jeremy R. Hammond
Foreign Policy Journal
December 21, 2008

Indian police last week arrested Hassan Ali Khan, who was wanted for
investigations into money laundering and other illicit activities, and
who is also said to have ties to Dawood Ibrahim, the underworld
kingpin who evidence indicates was the mastermind behind the terrorist
attacks in Mumbai last month.

Another character linked to the CIA whose name is now beginning to
figure into the web of connections between the Mumbai attacks,
criminal organizations, and intelligence agencies is Saudi arms dealer
Adnan Khashoggi, of Iran-Contra infamy. Khashoggi has been implicated
in arms deals with drug traffickers and terrorist groups, including
within India.

Ibrahim is a native of India who rose through the ranks of the
criminal underworld in Bombay (now Mumbai).

According to media reports in India, he got his start as an undercover
informant for the police at a young age and thus has an intimate
knowledge of Indian law enforcement and intelligence, and is alleged
to have fostered close ties with individuals within the political
system.

Another known associate of Ibrahim's in Mumbai, Mohammed Ali, is
suspected of assisting the terrorists, who were met by an individual
in Uran before continuing on to Mumbai, where inflatable rubber
dinghies had been arranged to take them ashore by the same individual.
Numerous earlier press accounts indicated that the dinghies, along
with other logistical assistance, were provided by an associate of
Ibrahim's.

The Times of India, for instance, reported on November 28 that
according to police sources the Mumbai attack "was enabled by the
Dawood Ibrahim gang", and that "It would not have been possible to
carry out a terror operation on this scale without a collaborative
local network and this was provided by the D Gang. As the terrorists
had entered via the sea, the needle of suspicion is clearly pointing
at Mohammed Ali, the new poinstman of Dawood."

Yet Indian news reports indicate that officials have been slow to act
against Hassan Ali Khan, and Mohammed Ali continues smuggling
operations out of Mumbai for Ibrahim's crime syndicate, D-Company,
completely unmolested by Indian investigators and law enforcement.

As the November 28 Times of India article observed, Ali "is known to
indulge in smuggling of diesel, petroleum, naptha, drugs and arms with
impunity and it appears that the terrorists had used his networks to
enter the city by the sea route…. Despite having a detailed dossier on
him, the authorities have not taken any action against him. What is
more worrying is that Ali is believed to have also penetrated naval
intelligence.".

Again, on December 11, Times of India reported that "Mumbai police has
still not called Ali for questioning", adding that "Ali is also known
to have the backing of two powerful politicians of south Mumbai and
that could be the reason why he is still untouched."

In addition to links to Ibrahim, both men are also alleged, like
Ibrahim himself, to have ties to political officials in India, and
there are numerous other indications emerging that the attacks were
assisted by elements within India being protected by the political
establishment.

Hassan Ali Khan
India's Daily News & Analysis reported last week that it appears
Hassan Ali Khan "was part of a multi-crore [Indian numerical unit
equivalent to ten-millions] hawala syndicate racket and may have
joined hands with the organized crime operated by underworld don
Dawood Ibrahim. He is also suspected to have funded terror
organizations."

India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) "had also told the Bombay High
Court that there were indications that Ali was part of a strong
international crime syndicate with money flowing in from 'proceeds of
heinous crimes like terrorism, arms trade, gun running, corruption and
organized forgery'."

A series of news reports from March 2007 in the Times of India
revealed that Khan was being investigated for money laundering and
other illicit activities. A laptop recovered from his home showed that
he had accounts at a Swiss bank. Khan had reportedly tried to take
advantage of tax waivers granted on investments originating outside
India in countries with double taxation avoidance agreements with
India. The funds were also be used to invest in the stock market.

Khan would send funds abroad through illegal channels and re-route
them into India through shell companies in countries with such a tax
arrangement with India. According to the Times of India, "Khan has no
known sources of income in India but owns stud farms and often travels
abroad." His wealth is estimated to be in the billions, and he owns
property in Mumbai and Pune.

Investigators from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) "had crucial input
from the Intelligence Bureau, which was concerned about this
unaccounted money having implications for national security."

One of the countries used to route money back into India was
Mauritius, an island chain off the east coast of Africa near
Madagascar and a former British colony. The UK still maintains a
military presence there. It expelled the inhabitants of the island of
Diego Garcia in order to turn it into a military base, which has also
been used by the US for its own military operations.

According to reports, prior to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, a team
had been sent ahead and checked into the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the
key targets of the attacks, and established a control room where they
had food, weapons, and other supplies waiting in anticipation of the
siege of the hotel by police and special forces. An identification
card from Mauritius was used to check into the room.

Hassan Ali Khan has an interest in horse-racing and trades in
thoroughbreds. The Times of India reported that "he had attracted
attention on the Pune racing turf where he surfaced about five years
ago as a small-time punter who suddenly became one of the biggest
players. His contacts, by default, were with some of the top
industrialists who have an interest in horse-trading."

Last February, the Hindustan Times reported that the Swiss bank
involved in the money transfers, USB (United Bank of Switzerland) AG,
was reluctant to assist Indian investigators, and the investigation
had been stalled as a result. The ED had advised the Indian government
not to approve a plan by UBS AG to buy Standard Chartered Bank, an
Indian mutual fund business, because of its lack of cooperation in
tracking Khan's money transfers. According to the ED, Khan had $8
billion in the bank's accounts.

Adnan Khashoggi

The Hindustan Times also revealed that there was evidence that Saudi
arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi of Iran-Contra infamy had transferred $300
million to Khan from a Chase Manhattan bank account in New York. It
added that Khashoggi's "arms supplies to Tamil terrorists, the LTTE,
were revealed during an investigation into the 1991 assassination of
Rajiv Gandhi."

Khashoggi acted as a middle-man during the Iran-Contra affair,
brokering an arrangement for Israel to sell US arms from its own
stockpiles to Iran. The CIA then channeled money from the sales to the
Contras in support of their terrorist war against the democratically-
elected government of Nicaragua. The World Court later condemned the
United States for the "unlawful use of force" - a euphemism for
international terrorism or the even greater crime of a war of
aggression.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen recently reported that,
according to Asian intelligence sources, Khashoggi was also involved
with the CIA in an effort to support Bosnian Muslims that "brought
[Dawood] Ibrahim and [Osama] Bin Laden into the same big CIA tent,
along with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a key Iran-contra figure
in George H. W. Bush's global arms smuggling venture while he served
as Vice President under Ronald Reagan. There have been reports that
Ibrahim considers Khashoggi to be a hero figure."

In 1991, a Defense Intelligence Agency report listed Khashoggi as "An
international arms trafficker who allegedly has sold arms to the
Colombian drug traffickers, especially to the Medellin Cartel."

The DIA report also listed Washington's man in Columbia, Alvaro Uribe
Velez, as "A Colombian politician and senator dedicated to
collaboration with the Medillin Cartel at high government levels.
Uribe was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the
US…. Uribe has worked for the Medillin Cartel and is a close personal
friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria."

Uribe is now the President of Colombia, which receives enormous
amounts of US financing and military support, surpassed perhaps only
by US support for Israel, Egypt, and now Iraq.

Manuel Noriega was another infamous narcotics trafficker and CIA
asset, as well as a graduate of the School of Americas (SOA), which
has since changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). The SOA was responsible for training
numerous Latin American dictators and military commanders who were
responsible for torturing, murdering, or otherwise "disappearing"
countless political opponents and other individuals.

Colombia is also another case where the government has been caught red-
handed staging false-flag terrorist attacks. In the late 1970s, a
series of bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations against leftist
targets was carried out by a terrorist group known as the American
Anti-Communist Alliance (AAA or Triple-A). Documents available online
at the George Washington University National Security Archives confirm
that Triple-A "was secretly created and staffed by members of
Colombian military intelligence in a plan authorized by then-army
commander Gen. Jorge Robledo Pulido."

John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, wrote in
his follow-up book The Secret History of the American Empire that a
second lieutenant in the US army sent to Colombia to establish a
"United States-commanded Southern Unified Army" told him, "Everything
we do in Colombia just makes it more attractive for the drug business.
Why do you think the situation keeps getting worse there? Because we
want it to, we're behind the drug trafficking. The CIA is–just like it
was in Asia's Golden Triangle."

One might add the "Golden Crescent" to that list. As Foreign Policy
Journal previously reported, Dawood Ibrahim "is known to be a major
drug trafficker responsible for shipping narcotics into the United
Kingdom and Western Europe." While most Afghan opium is smuggled to
Europe over land through Iran and Turkey, much of the amount that goes
to Pakistan seems to be taken either by plane or by ship directly to
the Europe, principally the UK..

And while Western media accounts typically tend to characterize
today's opium trade as being under the control of the Taliban, the
fact is that the estimated amount of funds going to the Taliban and
all other anti-government elements combined is less than 14 percent of
the total estimated export value, and US intelligence agencies are
aware of the involvement of high-level officials within the
Afghanistan government in the drug trade, such as Rashid Abdul Dostum,
former Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Armed
Forces. Dostum was also among the warlords of the Northern Alliance
the CIA doled out suitcases of cash to during the initial phase of the
US war to overthrow the Taliban.

Viktor Ivanov, the director of Russia's federal anti-narcotics
service, said in an interview recently that "The gathered inputs
testify that infamous regional drug baron Dawood Ibrahim had provided
his logistics network for preparing and carrying out the Mumbai terror
attacks by the militants." He added that "The super profits of the
narco-mafia through Afghan heroin trafficking have become a powerful
source of financing organized crime and terrorist networks,
destabilizing the political systems, including in Central Asia and
Caucasus."
A Protected Man in India

The $300 million transfer to Hassan Ali Khan from Adnan Khashoggi was
"only the tip of the iceberg", an official from ED told the Hindustan
Times. There was also evidence of another $290 million, for instance,
in two shell companies in the British Virgin Islands. This was among
the evidence obtained from the laptop computer seized from Khan's home
in Pune.

In addition to the money transfers, the ED was investigating Khan's
possession of three Indian passports. He held passports issued from
Pune, Patna, and Mumbai, and had also applied for additional passports
from Guwahati and Chandigarh. He and his wife had applied for
citizenship in Switzerland.

But it wasn't only the Swiss bank's apparent unwillingness to
cooperate with Indian investigators that was slowing progress in the
inquiry into Khan's dealings. The Times of India reported in February
that although the Prevention of Money Laundering Act provided for his
arrest, the ED had yet to do so. The ED was "acting cautiously in this
case, sources said." The paper added that "It is shocking that Khan
could have concealed all that money without Indian agencies getting to
know of it."

The report says that "The lack of evidence on the transactions seems
to have prevented ED from arresting Khan", while at the same time
noting that "The alleged presence of names of Indian politicians also
found from Khan's initial questioning by the income tax and ED
officials immediately after the raid last year, don't figure anywhere
in the submissions made by the ED to the HC [High Court]. The Income
tax department has failed to get information from the ED on the
sources of the $8 bn, despite asking for it again and again."

In September, the Times of India reported that the intelligence
community was "seething with anger for being blamed by politicians for
its 'failure' to prevent" a series of bombings across the country. A
senior intelligence official responded to the charges by telling the
Times of India that it was the politicians who were at fault, and
connected Khan to investigations of terrorism.

"Take the case of Hassan Ali, the Pune-based businessman," he said.
"He was under the scanner of several Central agencies, including the
Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence and other bodies. Finally it was found that he had
handled hawala transactions valued at a mind-numbing Rs 35,000 crore
through Swiss banks."

Hawala is an informal money transfer system that is an alternative to
formal banking institutions. Often, relatively little money actually
exchanges hands between hawala brokers, who operate on an honor
system. An amount deposited with one broker is not actually moved to
another broker on the receiving end. Rather, that amount is simply
taken from the receiving broker's own reserves. The only funds that
actually need be transferred are those used to offset imbalances
between brokers, and there is no record of the transaction between the
sender of the funds and the beneficiary.

The hawala system is thus ideal for moving illicit funds and for money
laundering. According to a World Bank report, "The bulk of drug-
related financial flows within Afghanistan, and also to and from
neighboring countries (primarily Pakistan), occur through the
ubiquitous hawala (informal financial transfer) system."

The report also notes that "Dubai appears to be a central clearing
point for international hawala activities, and various cities in
Pakistan also are major transaction centers." Dubai is a central
location for the financial operations of Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company.

The September article from the Times of India continued, "The bank
accounts were traced and he [Khan] was brought in for interrogation.
How was it possible for a businessman to have access to so much cash,
was the question on everyone's mind. The probe was stymied midway by
vested interests with political clout. Ali has done the vanishing act.
His wife and brother-in-law too are missing. 'Why was he allowed to go
scot free?' asked an IPS [Indian Police Service] officer.

"Sources said there was no evidence of any concrete link between Ali
and terror funds. 'Nevertheless, why was he taken off the hook? In any
other country, he would have been put through the grind given the
volume of his transactions. But in India he has been treated with kid
gloves because of the political backing that he enjoys,' another
official said.

.."
Mohammed Ali

The Times of India also noted that "Dawood Ibrahim's key contact
person is Mohammed Ali, who is known to control smuggling operations
in city docks. 'Any consignment can be taken out or brought into the
country by Ali's huge gang. A detailed dossier on his activities,
which has serious security implications for the country, has been sent
to the Union home department. But there has been no response so far,'
an official said."

Mohammed Ali also seems to be a protected person in India. Just days
after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Times of India stated that
Mumbai residents "now know their government has done nothing at all to
protect the country's financial capital", and again noted that "The
Intelligence Bureau (IB) has sent a detailed dossier about the
activities of one Mohammed Ali, who is the uncrowned king of the
docks. A close aide of Karachi-based terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, Ali
smuggles petrol, diesel, drugs, arms and other contraband with
impunity."

"There are strong indications," the Times of India added, "that the D-
gang actively collaborated with the terrorists in these attacks. And
yet, the government is reluctant to move against Ali and his gang
because he enjoys the patronage of a powerful politician, known to be
a business partner of Dawood."

The article adds, however, that "Any terror operations needs vast
funds, via the hawala route. But the authorities are still to crack
down on hawala operators. Recently, they picked up Hasan Ali, a
racehorse owner in Pune.
"A joint probe by the IB [Intelligence Bureau], enforcement
directorate [ED] and directorate of revenue intelligence revealed that
Hasan Ali had handled hawala transactions worth a whopping Rs 35,000
crore, much of it belonging to two Maharashtra politicians."

A police officer told the Times of India at the time, before his
recent arrest and while he was still missing, "I will not be surprised
if Hasan Ali has been done away with. He is the man who knows too
much."

Hemant Karkare and False Flag Terror

Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, who also
formerly an officer in India's Research Analysis Wing (RAW)
intelligence agency, had been in the spotlight for leading the
investigation into a series of bombings in the town of Malegaon that
was originally blamed on Pakistani-based Muslim terrorists. But
Karkare's probe revealed that the perpetrators were in fact Hindu
extremists. Included in the arrests was a serving army officer, Lt.
Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit.

The revelations of false-flag terrorism being carried out by home-
grown elements sent shock waves through the political establishment.

As the Independent reported on November 23, just days before the
attacks on Mumbai, "Bomb attacks are not uncommon in India - there has
been a flurry in recent months - but police usually blame them on
Muslim extremists, often said to have links to militant groups based
in either Pakistan or Bangladesh. As a result, the recent cracking of
the alleged Hindu cell has forced India to face some difficult issues.
A country that prides itself on purported religious and cultural
toleration - an ambition that in reality often falls short - has been
made to ask itself how this cell could operate for so long. India's
military, which prides itself on its professionalism, has been forced
to order an embarrassing inquiry.

"The near-daily drip of revelations from police has also caused red
faces for India's main political opposition, the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of state polls and a general
election scheduled for early next year. The BJP and its prime
ministerial candidate, Lal Krishna Advani, have long accused the
Congress Party-led government of being soft on terrorism that involved
Muslims. However, the BJP has refused to call for a clampdown on Hindu
groups, and last week Mr Advani even criticized the police over the
way they questioned one of the alleged cell members…"

Karkare was put under immense political pressure and was heavily
criticized by Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) leaders and members of the
BJP. He had received a number of death threats as a result of his
investigation, including a threatening call just one day prior to the
attacks in Mumbai last month.

Karkare was killed during those attacks. Rumors with far-reaching
implications began to spread immediately that he had been deliberately
targeted.

Images of Karkare putting on an ill-fitted bullet proof vest just
before his death were widely shown on Indian television. Indian
Express noted, "His last visuals as seen on TV showed him working with
his men near the VT station [Victoria Terminus, the former name of the
Chatrapati Shivaji central train station], the target of one of the
attacks, although it is perplexing at this point in time why such a
senior officer ended up getting exposed to a brazen terrorist attack.
Initially, he was shown wearing a shoddy helmet normally seen used by
constables during riots. A little later, a policeman lowers a flimsy
bulletproof vest over his shoulders, one that was obviously of little
protection when those fatal shots were fired at him."

According to the Pakistan Daily Mail, Karkare and several of his
colleagues "had received information that their colleague Sadanand
Dutt had been injured in the gunfire at the Cama and Albless Hospital
for women and children." As they were driving their truck to the
scene, according to the only police officer to survive that attack,
Arun Jadhav, "two terrorists stepped out from behind a tree and opened
fire with automatic rifles".

The Daily Mail article implicated Hindutva elements and Indian
intelligence in terrorist attacks, stating that Bal Thakeray, the
leader of Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party, has "publicly
pronounced in the past to setup Hindu suicide squads to target Muslims
in India and Pakistan", and claiming that "The terrorist activities
and training needs of these groups are closely coordinated by the
Indian intelligence agencies, particularly RAW", which "trained the
Tamil separatists groups of Sri Lanka such as the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam (LTTE) to start [a] militant secessionist movement based on
terrorism in the Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula."

A government investigation into the assassination of Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi, the Jain Commission, in fact confirmed that "The LTTE
was getting its supplies, including arms, ammunition, explosives, fuel
and other essential items for its war in northern Sri Lanka against
the Indian Peace Keeping Force from Tamil Nadu. That too with the
support of the Tamil Nadu government and the connivance of the law
enforcement authorities."
As noted previously, the investigation found that Adnan Khoshoggi had
dealt arms to the LTTE. The commission's report also noted that LTTE's
involvement in arms smuggling and other illicit activities "were
tolerated" and that a number of murders demonstrated the "impunity
with which the LTTE could operate in India."

Earlier this week, Amin Solkar, a lawyer in Mumbai, pressed the High
Court to launch an independent investigation into the circumstances
under which Karkare was killed. According to India Today, "The Muslims
in Malegaon have always claimed Karkare was killed by Hindutva
militants and not by Qasab."

"Qasab" is an alternate spelling for "Kasab", a reference to Azam Amir
Kasab, the only terrorist from last month's attacks to be captured
alive. A transcript of his confession to interrogators was leaked to
the media and contains the following statements: "When we were coming
out of the hospital premises, we suddenly saw one police vehicle
passing in front of us. Therefore, we took shelter behind a bush.

"Another vehicle passed in front of us and stopped at some distance.
One police officer got down from the said vehicle and started firing
at us. One bullet hit my hand and my AK-47 dropped down. I bent to
pick it up when second bullet hit me on the same hand. I got injured.
Ismail opened fire at the officers who were in said vehicle. They got
injured and firing from their side stopped." Kasab and his companion,
Ismail, then removed the bodies of three dead officers and apprehended
the vehicle.

Assuming this incident is the one in which Karakare and his colleagues
were killed, this characterization of events seems to cast doubt on
the theory that the officials were deliberately targeted for
assassination, set up and ambushed. But the Joint Commissioner of
Police Rakesh Maria, who is in charge of the investigation into the
attacks, Rakesh Maria, has rejected the authenticity of the confession
document.

Pakistan's The News reported earlier this week that "A Pakistani
lawyer C M Farooque claimed that many people, including Ajmal Kasab,
were arrested before 2006 from Kathmandu by the Indian agencies with
the help of Nepalese forces." Farooque said he was contacted by
Kasab's parents and had filed a petition with the Nepalese Supreme
Court with regard to the disappeared individuals last February. "The
people arrested in Nepal," the report added, "had gone there on legal
visa for business but Indian agencies were in the habit of capturing
Pakistanis from Nepal and afterwards implicated them in the Mumbai-
like incidents to malign Pakistan."

Kasab is from the Punjab province of Pakistan. Rakesh Maria said last
week that "He expressed his desire to write a letter to his parents.
He wants to write the letter saying he was misled by the group."

More questions about the death of Hemant Karkare were raised this week
by Union Minority Affairs Minister A. R. Antulay, who also implied
that he may have been deliberately targeted with the involvement of
others. "Superficially speaking they [the terrorists] had no reason to
kill Karkare. Whether he was a victim of terrorism or terrorism plus
something I do not know," he told reporters.

"Karkare found that there are non-Muslims involved in the acts [of]
terrorism during his investigations in some cases. Any person going to
the roots of terror has always been the target." He added that "There
is more than what meets the eye" with regard to Karkare's killing.

After coming under fire for his remarks, he responded by asking, "How
come instead of going to Hotel Taj or Oberai or even the Nariman
House, he went to such a place where there was nothing compared to
what happened in the three places?" He asked, "Why all the three
(Hemant Karakre, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte) went together. It is
beyond my comprehension."

He later defended his remarks further, asking, "Who had sent them to
Cama Hospital? What were they told that made them leave for the same
spot in the same vehicle?" He added, "I repeat what I had said. I had
not said who had killed them but only questioned who had sent them
there in that direction."

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, spokesman for the BJP party called the remarks
"obnoxious" and called for a "clarification from the Prime Minister"
whether this was a private view or one held by his government.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said, "we do not accept the
innuendo and the aspersions cast" by Antulay's remarks. "This should
be the end of the matter. The Congress does not agree with Antulay's
statement."

Others were more inclined to take the remarks seriously. Union
Minister Vilas Paswan noted that Antulay was from Maharashtra and
suggested he must therefore have "more information".

Vijay Salaskar, who, as previously noted, was killed along with
Karkare, "had closely investigated the entrenched links between a
prominent gutka [a betel-nut and tobacco based product] manufacturer
and the Dawood gang," The Times of India reported in an editorial
piece. "He had unearthed a mass of evidence about the manufacturer's
visit to Dubai, where he met Hamid Antulay, a nephew of Dawood, and
then went on a false Pakistani passport to Karachi where he met the
don and his brother Anees. The purpose of the visit was to settle a
business dispute with a rival.

"Salaskar found out that the manufacturer was Dawood's partner in the
gutka business, alongside a leading politician who dabbles in real
estate development. Despite Salaskar's best efforts, he was never
allowed even to summon the manufacturer for questioning."

The editorial continued, "The details of Dawood's vast business
transactions and the man fronting it are available with the Central
government. But there is inaction. Is it any wonder the security
agencies are deeply cynical about enforcing law and order and
protecting the country? Is it any wonder the people are enraged?"

On December 6, Maharashtra's former revenue minister Narayan Rane
alleged in a press conference that the terrorists who had attacked
Mumbai the week before received "logistical and financial" support
from a number of politicians. According to the Press Trust of India,
Rane also alleged that former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had
links with a person connected with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim."

Indians Arrested in Connection with Attacks

Two Indians were also arrested in connection with the recent Mumbai
attacks. One of the men, Tauseef Rahman, reportedly bought SIM cards
that were used by the terrorists, which were purchased in Calcutta
according to a report from the Associated Press. The other, Mukhtar
Ahmed, was an undercover operative of for a special counter-insurgency
unit of the Calcutta police force.

Another Indian citizen, Faheem Ansari, was arrested in February and is
now being questioned about his possible involvement. According to the
AP, he was found "carrying hand-drawn sketches of hotels, the train
terminal and other sites that were later attacked". According to lead
investigator Rakesh Maria, "Ansari was trained by Lashkar and sent to
do reconnaissance."

India's top law enforcement official, Home Minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram, apologized for failing to stop the attacks, saying "There
have been lapses. I would be less than truthful if I said there had
been no lapses."
In fact, as previously reported by Foreign Policy Journal, Indian
intelligence had numerous warnings of an imminent attack, both from
its own sources and from the US. The warnings were specific, including
that it would come from the sea. Mumbai, and even the Taj Mahal hotel,
were identified as specific targets.

Additionally, Rakesh Maria said his investigation was looking into the
possible involvement of Riyaz Bhatkal, the leader of the Indian
Mujahideen (IM), in the attacks. "We are looking at various
possibilities about who could have provided vital local support and
intelligence. Bhatkal being a local person is known to have links with
terror outfits."
In October, Indian Express reported that Bhatkal and a terrorist named
"Shahrukh" might be the same individual. "Sources said that since his
name was linked to the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Bhatkal may have used the
name Shahrukh to protect his identity," the newspaper said. One
official said, "For the 1993 blasts, he arranged money from Pakistan
through hawala channels. But he could not be arrested." In addition,
"Officials also suspect an underworld link to the blasts. 'Since
Bhatkal's name came up in the Mumbai blasts, it is evident that he is
an important financial link for the underworld,' said a source."

Whitewash of the Attacks
Foreign Policy Journal previously reported on indications that the
role of Dawood Ibrahim and his network of organized crime in the
attacks in Mumbai last month is being downplayed by both Pakistan and
the US and assessed that this was "possibly the result of a deal
taking place behind the scenes between the governments of the US,
Pakistan, and India, to have others involved in the Mumbai attacks
turned over while quietly diverting attention from a man who some say
could reveal embarrassing secrets about the CIA's involvement in
criminal enterprises."

What's clear now, as further developments have come to light, is that
there are also elements within India, both in the criminal underworld
and the government, that are perfectly willing to see the role in the
Mumbai attacks of an even larger shadowy international criminal
network whitewashed; a network with links to numerous moneyed
interests, including trafficking in drugs and arms, and to numerous
intelligence agencies, including the ISI, the CIA, and India's own
RAW.

While Dawood Ibrahim is officially a wanted man in the US and India,
and is on Interpol's wanted list, the evidence emerging from last
month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai is yet another indication that
what is commonly referred to as a "shadow government" or "deep state"
extending well beyond national boundaries is really pulling the
strings behind the scenes in countries around the world, while the
public–such as the residents of Mumbai–and well-intentioned
individuals within their democratically-elected governments are left
paying the price, often in blood.
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