Somnath temple, Bollywood and Shiv Sena leaders on LeT hit list: FBI,

Islamic World News

Somnath temple, Bollywood and Shiv Sena leaders on LeT hit list: FBI

WASHINGTON: In a new disclosure, the FBI has said that the famous Somnath temple in Gujarat, Bollywood stars and Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai were also the targets of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was planning to carry out strikes with the help of two Chicago-based residents of Pakistani origin.

These three possible LeT targets were revealed for the first time by the FBI in a footnote to the fresh evidence and chargesheet submitted by it against Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, the terror suspect whose bail plea hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in a Chicago court.

Earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had said that the National Defence College in New Delhi was on the hit list of LeT.

"In the September 7, 2009 conversation, Headley discussed four targets with Rana - Somnath (a temple in India) and Denmark, Bollywood (a reference to the Indian film industry) and Shiv Sena (a political party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism)," the FBI said in a foot note on page nine of the 10-page fresh affidavit.

"In his post-arrest statement, Rana falsely claimed that these were references to potential business ventures. It is difficult to imagine why a person who praises the work of a designated terrorist group that attacks India would look at an Indian temple or a Hindu nationalist party as a business venture," the FBI noted.

"It bears note that, as set out in the complaint, 'business' and 'investments' were code words used by Rana, David Coleman Headley (Pakistani-origin American terror suspect has been charged for plotting Mumbai terror attacks), "Pasha" (a retired Pakistani Army Brigadier) and others to describe terrorist plots," the FBI said.

The Somnath temple, located on the western coast of Gujarat, is the most sacred of the twelve Jyotirlings (lingas of light) of the God Shiva and is a revered pilgrimage center.

http://newageislam.com/somnath-temple,-bollywood-and-shiv-sena-leaders-on-let-hit-list--fbi/islamic-world-news/d/2226

Afghanistan: The Fog of War, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Afghanistan: The Fog of War

By Arun Gupta

Currently correspondent for The Wall Street Journal based in Kabul, Afghanistan, Gopal embedded with the Taliban in 2008, giving him unique insight into a force that was swept away by the U.S. invasion after the 9/11 attacks but still rules much of the countryside and has battled Western forces to a stalemate.

In his writings, Gopal explains that while every “suicide attack and kidnapping is usually attributed to ‘the Taliban’ … the insurgency is far from monolithic.” The United States is battling a diverse group of fighters, Gopal says. “There are the shadowy, kohl-eyed mullahs and head-bobbing religious students, of course, but there are also erudite university students; poor, illiterate farmers, and veteran anti-Soviet commanders. The movement is a mélange of nationalists, Islamists and bandits that fall uneasily into three or four main factions. The factions themselves are made up of competing commanders with differing ideologies and strategies who nonetheless agree on one essential goal: kicking out the foreigners.”

Gopal notes the Taliban are drawn from the Pashtun ethnic group. “They are motivated by joblessness, bad government and U.S. military violence. They have a good deal of support from the locals and they are a different breed of Taliban from the ones that were there in the 1990s.”

This past June, at the Socialism 2009 conference in Chicago, Gopal spoke about what motivates the Taliban to fight, how the U.S. reconstruction effort has failed, why neither side can prevail, the role of Pakistan and what further U. S. escalation portends.

http://newageislam.com/afghanistan--the-fog-of-war/war-on-terror/d/2289