26/11 chargesheet filed; Kasab, Lakhvi named

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Three months after the unprecedented terror attack in Mumbai, a voluminous chargesheet was filed on Wednesday naming 38 people including Pakistani nationals Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab and suspected mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi for crimes ranging from murder to waging war against the country. Indian nationals Fahim Ansari and Sabbauddin Ahmed, arrested in the case for allegedly carrying out a recee of the targets for the attacks, have been named in the chargesheet. They were produced in the court on Wednesday, PTI reported. Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind of the 26/11 carnage and believed to be hiding in Pakistan, and Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Yosuf Muzzamil are mentioned in the chargesheet as wanted accused in the case. The 11,500-page chargesheet was filed in the Esplanade court but Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, was not produced before the court owing to security reasons, PTI report says. Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam filed the chargesheet before the metropolitan magistrate M J Mirza. Nikam told reporters, “38 people have been named in the chargesheet. We want the trial to end in three-six months. We will give the copy of chargesheet to Kasab.” According to TV reports, Nikam refused to reveal how many of them are Pakistanis. He said the court has fixed March 9 as the date of next hearing. Kasab and other accused have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. They have also been charged with waging war against the country and offences under the Customs Act, Explosives Act and other Acts, PTI says.

Sea route may be used for nuclear attack: Navy chief

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

New Delhi : A nuclear attack by terrorists?

This may no longer be confined to celluloid fiction as India sounded out a grim warning on Wednesday.
“The container would be the most likely means for terrorist organisations to illegally transport a nuclear weapon,” Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta said. The use of the sea in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai may just be a trailer. The Navy Chief has pointed out a key vulnerability that terrorists may want to exploit, and that is, India's inadequate port security, and the lack of means to scan shipping containers. “None of the Indian ports is CSI compliant,” Mehta revealed. The US-led Container Security Initiative is stuck in politics. India opposes the intrusive provision of US Customs officials supervising scanning at Indian ports. But the Navy Chief wants the Government to find a way out. “The airport security system has been working fairly well over a large number of years. And a similar system for containers would have universal acceptance,” Mehta suggested. The only good news is that the Cabinet has approved the unified functioning of all maritime security agencies, all of which will now report to the regional Navy boss. “To bring about greater coordination there will be a joint operation centre which will function from both the coasts. We will have a composite control over deployment of all maritime assets,” Mehta said. A handful of terrorists with powerful state mentors are forcing the world to change its security architecture.

Laden Located?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

OSAMA BIN LADEN MAY WELL BE IN PARACHINAR: REPORT

Fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden is most likely hiding out in a walled compound in a Pakistani border town, according to a satellite-aided geographic analysis released today. A research team led by geographer Thomas Gillespie of the University of California-Los Angeles used geographic analytical tools that have been successful in locating urban criminals and endangered species. Basing their conclusion on nighttime satellite images and other techniques, the scientists suggest bin Laden may well be in one of three compounds in Parachinar, a town 12 miles from the Pakistan border, USA Today reported. The research incorporates public reports of bin Laden's habits and whereabouts since his flight from the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in 2001.

The results, reported in the MIT International Review, are being greeted with polite but skeptical interest among people involved in the hunt for bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader behind 9/11. Bin Laden's whereabouts are considered "one of the most important political questions of our time," the study notes.
"I've never really believed the sitting-in-a-cave theory. That's the last place you would want to be bottled up," Gillespie says. The study's real value, he says, is in combining satellite records of geographic locations, patterns of nighttime electricity use and population-detection methods to produce a technique for locating fugitives.

Essentially, the study generates hiding-place location probabilities. It starts with "distance decay theory," which holds that the odds are greater that the person will be found close to where he or she was last seen.
Then the researchers add the "island biographic theory," which maintains that locales with more resources — palm trees for tropical birds and electricity for wealthy fugitives — are likelier to draw creatures of interest.

"Island biographic theory suggests bin Laden would end up in the biggest and least isolated city of the region," Gillespie says, one among about 26 towns within a 20-mile distance of Tora Bora.
"To really improve the model, you would need to include intelligence data from 2001 to 2006," Gillespie says. "It has been eight years. Honestly, I think it is time to be more open. This is a very important issue for the public."

The study also makes assumptions that bin Laden might need:
• Medical treatment, requiring electricity in an urban setting.
• Security combining few bodyguards and isolation that requires a walled compound.
• Tree cover to shield outdoor activities from aircraft.
"Of course, it all depends on the accuracy of the information on most recent whereabouts," Gillespie says. "I assume that the military has more recent information that would change the hiding place probabilities."

Says geographic-profiling expert Kim Rossmo of Texas State University in San Marcos, who has worked with the military on adapting police procedures for finding criminals to counterterrorism: "It's important to think outside the box, and this is an innovative idea worth more pursuit. However, the authors are much too certain of their conclusions.
"The idea of identifying three buildings in a city of half a million — especially one in a country the authors have likely never visited — is somewhat overconfident."

The researchers contacted the FBI with their findings, and USA TODAY asked Defense Department officials for reaction, before publication of the study.
"The combination of physical terrain, socio-cultural gravitational factors and the physical characteristic of structures are all important factors in developing an area limitation for terror suspects," say John Goolgasian of the federal National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda, Md. His spy satellite agency "looks forward to reviewing the article once it is published."

Gillespie is an expert on finding endangered species on remote islands, typically birds. A co-author, UCLA's John Agnew, is an expert on satellite-based population estimates. The study grew out of an undergraduate seminar on applying geographic profiling to real-world problems.
"We are all wondering where bin Laden is hiding," Gillespie says. "We just wanted to offer the techniques we have to help."