Michael,
Musharraf is clearly, to quote a somewhat antiquated phrase much beloved of the Indian media, "running with the hares and hunting with the hounds". My guess would be that the ISI is in control and General M is just about surviving by selling himself to all concerned as the lesser of the various evils - a sales pitch that not everyonr is buying, which explains the assasination attempts. It is important to remember that subcontinental intrigue and deception are a few notches above what one might be familiar with through the writings of Le Carre and the like and as such is beyond mere mortals like us. Some glimmer of the truth comes through in reports like this one at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1785453,curpg-1.cms.
Sujeet
Mumbai terror makes NYPD Blue Chidanand Rajghatta [ 21 Jul, 2006 1035hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
WASHINGTON: US State Department officials might like to believe the Mumbai terror blasts are the work of a local terror network, but the American intelligence community, including the famed New York Police Department, is not taking it so lightly.
The NYPD sent an intelligence officer to Mumbai last week to report on the blasts, even as the city's transit system was put on high alert hours after the attack in India.
The officer, a lieutenant whose name is being withheld, briefed 65 security chiefs from major New York corporations, banks and institutions in a teleconference on Wednesday in what a local newspaper described as an ''unusual security briefing.''
Grimly noting that the terror blasts in Mumbai last week were the equivalent of bombing seven commuter stations between Manhattan and Westchester, the NYPD intelligence officer made the following observations in his presentation, according to the New York Daily News, which first reported the development:
# Terrorists disguised their bombs in burlap knapsacks used by Indian commuters.
# They stuffed the explosives in overhead racks near the train doors - giving themselves an easy way to slip out unnoticed and ensuring that many victims would suffer head wounds.
# The bombers apparently timed the attack so the seven devices detonated within 11 minutes - and blew while the trains were at commuter stations.
The tactic assured more casualties and added to the bombings' psychological warfare by making sure the blasts were seen by rush-hour crowds.
The NYPD has been in a constant state of alert since 9/11 and the vigil was heightened immediately after the Mumbai blasts that were akin in many ways to the commuter train attacks in London and Madrid.
The similarities galvanized the world's intelligence community although some State Department functionaries have tried to minimize the gravity of the Mumbai attacks and the worldwide threat posed by it by suggesting that it is the handiwork of local disaffected populations.
The NYPD move to study the Mumbai blasts first hand and its subsequent briefing to NYC security honchos came on a day US prosecutors indicted two young men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin on charges of undergoing paramilitary training with an intent to carry out attacks against targets in US metropolises.
The indictment accuses Pakistan-born Syed Ahmed, 21, a Georgia Tech student who was arrested in March, and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 19, of travelling to Washington to film possible targets, including the US Capitol and the headquarters of the World Bank, and sharing the recordings with another terror suspect in Great Britain.
The indictment also alleges that Ahmed travelled to Pakistan in an unsuccessful attempt to train with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the Pakistan-sponsored terror group that is believed to be behind the blasts on the Mumbai transit systems and other terror attacks in India.