Terrorist Attacks in India

Forget the tomfoolery. Some serious news in India (live stream). 80 dead in Mumbai, hundreds injured.

NDTV: “A Briton who escaped the terrorist attack at the five-star Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai Wednesday night said the attackers specifically asked for American and British tourists.”

Bloomberg reports that “as many as 80 people were killed and 240 injured in India’s financial hub of Mumbai as gunmen armed with rifles and grenades raided five-star hotels in the country’s first terrorist attack targeting foreigners.”

Reuters: “The chief minister of Maharashtra state said on Thursday the situation in Mumbai was still not under control after attacks by gunmen across the financial hub.”

India Times: 11 policemen dead.

For current updates, see Mahalo and Mumbai Twitter tag for leads on stories.

(I am retweeting relevant news stories here.)

Bombings in India

BBC: “At least 29 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded after a series of explosions struck the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, officials have said.”

This comes a day after seven blasts in Bangalore. Are these homemade bombs from SIMI? Or is SIMI being implicated by another terrorist group?

Eat a Falafel At Your Own Peril!

CQ Politics: “The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.” (via MeFi)

We’ll Hunt Down Every Last One of Those Hand Cream Carrying Terrorists If It’s the Last Thing We Do

BBC: “A woman passenger has been arrested after a flight from London to Washington was diverted to Boston because of an on-board disturbance….She was carrying hand cream - a banned item - and matches on board the United Airlines flight. The aircraft was escorted into Logan airport by two jet fighters.”

Virgin Atlantic: Turning Sane Humans Into Basket Cases With a TV Dinner Aesthetic

Traveling from Heathrow.

And How Many More Are There?

AOL: “Of the estimated 1,200 mostly Arab and Muslim men detained nationwide as potential suspects or witnesses in the Sept. 11 investigation, Benatta would earn a dubious distinction: Human rights groups say the former Algerian air force lieutenant was locked up the longest….But time did not stand still for Benatta: The clock ran for 1,780 days. The man detained at 27 was now 32.” (via Lee Goldberg)

Dangerous Bottle of Water, Left Unattended, Causes Grief at Airport

water.jpg

[RELATED: Meanwhile, when in doubt, take out the fruit with a high-powered water cannon. (via Black Market Kidneys)]

Surely, They Acted In Their Best Interests Here and Didn’t Wait Two Weeks for Political Gain

Times Online: “Although reports that Mr Bush was woken at his ranch in Texas yesterday morning by a call from Tony Blair were denied by the White House, the two leaders had been in regular touch — as recently as Sunday — about British police efforts to track and capture those behind the aircraft plot. American authorities were told about a fortnight ago of an ‘accelerating plan’ to target US airlines flying from Britain to Los Angeles, Washington and New York. One official was quoted yesterday as saying that British authorities would not have arrested the suspects ‘if they hadn’t thought these guys were ready to go — the trip line had been reached — they dropped the hammer when they did because they thought they were out of time’.”

At the risk of coming across as a paranoid looneytune, this is damn fishy. Even if you’re waiting for the right moment for the terrorists to congregate so you can nab as much of a ring as you can, surely nabbing these guys as early as possible makes more sense — particularly when you have them all in your crosshairs. Either the British police are dumbasses or there’s clearly something else going on here. Why else would the White House deny that Bush and Blair had great morning phone sex? Unless, of course, Blair mumbled his suggestive imagery and begged Dubya to be his bottom.

Terrorist Plot

I woke up to craziness this morning. News here.

What is the evidence of this plot? There are 21 people arrested, but they better be damn clear on what went down. The skeptic in me wonders if the “no liquids” ban is a disingenuous way for airlines and airports to sell more beverages.

Or Perhaps Some Folks Need a Surrogate Baby Blanket To Cling To

Cato Institute (PDF): “In the end, it is not clear how one can deal with the public’s often irrational — or at least erratic — fears about remote dangers. Some people say they prefer comparatively dangerous forms of transportation like the private passenger automobile (the cause of over 3 million deaths during the 20th century) to safe ones like commercial airlines because they feel they have more ‘control.’ But they seem to feel no fear on buses and trains — which actually are more dangerous than airliners — even without having that sense of control and even though derailing a speeding train or crashing a speeding bus is likely to be much easier for a terrorist than downing an airliner. And people tend to be more alarmed by dramatic fatalities — which the September 11 crashes certainly provided — than by ones that cumulate statistically. Thus, the 3,000 deaths of September 11 inspire far more grief and fear than the 100,000 deaths from auto accidents that have taken place since then. In some respects, fear of terror may be something like playing the lottery except in reverse: the chances of winning the lottery or dying from terrorism may be microscopic, but for monumental events that are, or seem, random, one can irrelevantly conclude that one’s chances are just as good, or bad, as those of anyone else.” (via Boing Boing)

Homeland Security Confuses “Billy Budd” with Billy Wright

I’m no expert, but I think it’s safe to say that a has-been assclown is no terrorist threat to the United States of America. Everything after Vauxhall and I, on the other hand, has been utter nonsense and any future offerings by this twit should be seized by customs.