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Shadow of Maoist Violence
Though writing in April, we cover developments in the month of March, one cannot but touch on the Maoist carnage in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh in India on April 6, 2010, in which seventy six members of security forces were killed – the largest casualty in one incident. Be it failures, faults or weaknesses in the system, we join all in mourning over the loss of lives of these policemen.also be seen in the file.
Coincidentally, the Naxal (now better known as Maoist) founder-icon Kanu Sanyal killed himself a few days earlier, apparently a dejected soul! While political parties in Nepal agreed to adopt the new Constitution within the stipulated time, the Maoist supremo there Prachanda alerted his folks to be in readiness to capture power once again. Change of guards took place in Iraq with the incumbent Prime Minister being defeated in election. The historic agreement signed between the US and Russia for reducing their nuclear stockpiles might augur well for world peace. March 1 was Civil Defence Day. Al Qaeda have asked Muslims in US forces to revolt. They also developed skills to hide bombs in breast implants.
On the other side, LeT asked J&K policemen in India to leave services or die. Pak ISI are reportedly putting pressure on the erstwhile Babbar Khalsa group in India revive their activities. The new-look SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) reportedly got paragliders. Hizbul Mujahideen chief openly ranted jihad against India. The twin blasts on Moscow Metro by two female suicide bombers carried more message than the havoc caused. The Maoist leadership in India once again threw open challenge to the State – “Talk or we attack”, “We have enough stockpiles to blow up Writer’s Buildings (the State Government HQ) in Kolkata,” the city reportedly again becoming the hub of the Maoists. Under pressure from security forces, they are now planning to move to bigger cities where anonymity is easier. According to authorities, the Maoists have started recruiting unemployed youth with regular monetary incentives. Their linkage with foreign sympathisers in Philippines, Peru, Venezuela and Bangladesh was reported.
FBI experts assessed that cyber attacks threatened the very existence of the United States. Google has left China. Cyber criminals are not only ‘phising’ money from bank accounts, internet piracy threatened job loss in the European market. Scientists have developed the world’s smallest superconductor.
While there is some meat for corporate sector security professionals in the Industry News File, they may also avail of the services of a well-known expert in improving CVs and interviewee skills. General readers will find excellent fitness tips by an expert.
Readers are specially urged to look up Einstein’s Questions and the Answer as also the success story of Abraham Lincoln. Whether a believer, an atheist or an agnostic, please go through Tagore’s “Go not to the Temple.” There are indeed lessons to learn. Finally, we are confident you will not miss out reading through: “An Ode To Our True Defenders” in the Article Section.
Thanking you and with best regards,
D. C. Nath, IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (MHA), Govt. of India,
Editor-cum-President & Director General,
International Institute of Security and Safety Management,
New Delhi, India.
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A Good Start: US-Russia agreement to reduce nuclear stockpiles augurs well for world’s safety
After President Barack Obama's domestic victory in pushing through landmark healthcare legislation, there's an international feather to his cap as well. The US and Russia, which between them possess 95 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons, have agreed to substantially reduce their arsenals after a previous arms control treaty expired. The breakthrough deal will pave way for Washington and Moscow to each cap their deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 as against the present limit of 2,200 over the next seven years. Heavy bombers and missiles will be capped at 700 a side. The Cold War enemies have taken a welcome step towards reducing the risk posed by nuclear weapons to the world, which comes not only in the form of their use in warfare but also in the hazard of leakages or theft during storage.
On taking office, Obama had promised to 're-set' relations with Russia. He is also a votary of moving towards a nuclear weapons-free world, a position Rajiv Gandhi famously articulated at the UN in the late 1980s. By pushing this deal through, Obama has achieved some measure of progress on both these counts. But while this is a good start, much more needs to be done. Clearly, deep-rooted mistrust on both sides will not vanish overnight. Russia is on the hop over America's missile defence plans - one of the reasons it holds out against making deeper cuts in its nuclear arsenal.
Indeed, this sore point almost derailed this updated version of START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which expired in December. The US maintains that its missile defence system is not targeted towards Russia. But when Romania agreed to host interceptors from the new missile defence system, Russia bristled. It is in both Russia and America's interests and in the interests of global peace and security that they continue to engage each other and move further down the nuclear disarmament path.
Such a move would also give the world's two largest nuclear weapons states greater leverage and moral authority in bargaining with problematic aspiring nuclear powers like Iran and North Korea. It could inspire other nuclear weapons powers to cut or cap their own programmes, which will help provide ballast to the disarmament agenda. The argument against nuclear weapons is solid. We can't turn the clock back. But we can by replacing brinkmanship with pragmatic diplomatic engagement chart a safer course for the world.
The Times of India – March 29, 2010.
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After Moscow: Unite, tackle root of terror
March.31 : The Moscow metro bombings on Monday bring home to us in India how vulnerable people everywhere are to the diabolical methods adopted by jihadist elements. In the light of this, it is useful to remind ourselves that the terrorism unleashed by these quarters can be met optimally only if there is an international recognition that jihadist outfits are well networked, regardless of their country of origin, and justify and glorify each other’s actions on the grounds of a common purpose. As such, the victims and prospective victims — which means pretty much every major country — too need to coordinate their counter-terrorism efforts at the technical as well as political levels. No place has been targeted by terrorists as long as India, and we understand the pain and anger of innocent civilians in other countries who suffer or die in terrorist attacks. We have seen Mumbai hit more than once, including its commuter rail network. Urban mass transit systems have been struck in Madrid and London, as well as in Moscow earlier in 2004. It will be shortsighted to see these geographically dispersed incidents as actions of Islamist militants responding to local grievances as encapsulated in the concept of the “accidental guerrilla” given currency by an influential Western expert. Such an understanding fails to adequately take into account the ideological component that drives Islamist militant warfare in the world today. Al Qaeda, whatever the discussion among experts on its organisational structure and international reach, is but a name with which to identify the ideological tendency that drives the international jihadist outlook whose principal instrument is terrorism unleashed against civilians.
At first sight the Moscow bombings are being ascribed to developments in the North Caucasus region of Russia, and this may well turn out to be the case on deeper examination. But the world should take little comfort from this. In the days of its infancy, the cause of Islamist terrorism in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan — the Caucasus belt — had many of its activists trained in Pakistan alongside similar elements from across the world. Pakistan, thus, became the training ground of the so-called “accidental guerrillas” from many continents. If Pakistan is the epicentre of international terrorism, it is the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba — enjoying from its inception the patronage of the Pakistan military and its principal intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence — that sits at the core of this phenomenon. According to a news report on National Public Radio in the US earlier this week, America is unable to “short-circuit” LeT on account of “political reasons” as the Islamist terror outfit has the blessings of the military and the ISI that presumably Washington cannot squeeze. Court papers in the David Headley case in Chicago revealed that the LeT has the reach to hit many parts of the world. But for a conscious decision on its part, it could have been wreaking havoc in Denmark and Sweden (the case of “Jihadi Jane” links to the latter, she being among the Westerners trained by LeT) before Mumbai was attacked in 2008. The United States can hardly afford to keep its blinkers on and seriously believe that Al Qaeda’s capabilities have been greatly reduced on account of the successes of the US counter-terrorism efforts. The truth is that the LeT is the conjoined twin of Al Qaeda and has many Western adherents who lie in wait for the right opportunity. Many delusional theories current in the West on the whittling of Al Qaeda’s capacities might be in need of revision if a major Western target is successfully hit. For now, home minister P. Chidambaram is right: if the LeT has trained and operated out of Pakistan, responsibility lies with Islamabad to curb this monster of international terrorism.
The Asian Age – March 31, 2010.
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