India to create national spy agency in wake of Mumbai attacks
In the wake of 9/11, America hastened the passage of anti-terror laws, stripping citizens of personal liberty and transforming the USA into a surveillance state. Congress was urged to pass these laws without the benefit of first being allowed to read them. The Department of Homeland Security was created in order to oversee the new security infrastructure that sprang up in its wake. Now, witness India being reintegrated into the Anglo-American intelligence apparatus. Another another free nation bends its knee.
CBC News
December 11, 2008
India’s top law enforcement official has announced sweeping changes to the country’s security and intelligence agencies, which have come under heavy criticism in the aftermath of a series of deadly attacks across Mumbai.
The measures, announced Thursday by Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, are the Indian government’s first comprehensive response to public criticism over security and intelligence shortcomings during the Nov. 26 attacks.
“Given the nature of the threat, we can’t go back to business as usual,” Chidambaram said in a speech to India’s Parliament, adding he would “take certain hard decisions to prepare the country and people to face the challenge of terrorism.”
The government plans to boost coastal security and training for local police, as well as create an FBI-style national investigative agency, Chidambaram said. It will also make efforts to strengthen anti-terror laws and increase intelligence sharing.
The home minister, whose predecessor was ousted just days after the attacks, has previously acknowledged there were government “lapses” during the three-day ordeal that left 171 people dead, including two Canadians, and 239 wounded.
Chidambaram’s announcement came as security concerns prompted Indian officials to back down from a plan to have the sole surviving gunman in the attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, appear in Mumbai court.
A magistrate who came to police headquarters instead gave authorities permission to detain Kasab for another two weeks, according to public prosecutor Eknath Dhamal.
Kassab, 21, has told investigators he belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed region of Kashmir, and provided detailed information about how the attacks were planned and executed, as well as about the other nine attackers involved.
Many defence lawyers in Mumbai, still galled by the attacks, have rebuffed requests to represent Kasab.
“I will not represent him. It is against all human values,” said lawyer Dinesh Mota, who refused the court’s invitation.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani government official said Thursday that security agencies had closed nine offices of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the main city of Karachi.
A UN Security Council committee on Wednesday declared the Pakistan-based charity a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means the charity will be subject to UN sanctions. Pakistan’s cabinet is expected to review that ruling before making its own decision.
The nine Jamaat offices in Karachi were “sealed,” said Arif Ahmed Khan, home secretary for Sindh province, without providing details. The group’s headquarters, as well as other offices around the country, were still open on Wednesday.
The head of the charity, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, denied his organization was involved in terrorist activity and decried the accusation as an attack on religious groups. Saeed said the group will petition the UN, as well as national and international courts, to overturn the decision.
“If India or the U.S. has any proof against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, we are ready to stand in any court. We do not beg; we demand justice,” Saeed said at a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore.
Pakistani authorities have arrested at least 20 people, including two extremists alleged by India to be closely connected to the Mumbai attacks.
Earlier in the day, Indian officials responded to recent efforts in Pakistan to crack down on militant activities and urged the neighbouring country to fully dismantle insurgent operations and camps based within its borders.
“What we are telling the government of Pakistan is to act,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a speech to Parliament.
Pakistan has indicated anyone connected with the Mumbai attacks who is found on its soil will be punished according to its laws despite suggestions from India that it wants suspects in the attacks transferred to its custody.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday confirmed that Lashkar’s operations chief, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and another man suspected of being connected to the Mumbai attacks had been arrested and were being held for questioning.
Several offices of Lashkar-e-Taiba have also been raided by Pakistani troops in Pakistan’s portion of the disputed region of Kashmir this week, officials said Wednesday.
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