INDIA SEIZES TWO PAKISTANI SHIPS SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN MUMBAI ATTACKS -It's Time To Reject "Plausible Deniability"

From Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers:

An excuse that has to be rejected. An attack launched from ships on the high seas, with coordinated strikes against several different targets, was not the work of disaffected amateurs.

The operation has every hallmark of a well-planned military operation. *******UPDATE (Relipaundit): 

Officials in India, Europe and the United States said likely culprits included Islamist networks based in Pakistan that have received support in the past from Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

Analysts said this week's attacks surpassed previous plots carried out by domestic groups in terms of complexity, the number of people involved and their success in achieving their primary goal: namely, to spread fear.

"This is a new, horrific milestone in the global jihad," said Bruce Riedel, a former South Asia analyst for the CIA and National Security Council and author of the book "The Search for Al Qaeda." "No indigenous Indian group has this level of capability

Major terrorist operations require the cooperation of nation-states. It is high time to hold them accountable.

Do you remember what Don Corleone told Sollozzo?

"But let me say this. I am a superstitious man, a ridiculous failing but I must confess it here. And so if some unlucky accident should befall my youngest son, if some police officer should accidentally shoot him, if he should hang himself while in his jail cell, if new witnesses appear to testify to his guilt, my superstition will make me feel that it was the result of the ill will still borne me by some people here. Let me go further. If my son is struck by a bolt of lightning I will blame some of the people here. If his plane show fall into the sea or his ship sink beneath the waves of the ocean, if he should catch a mortal fever, if his automobile should be struck by a train, such is my superstition that I would blame the ill will felt by people here."

It's time to get superstitious.

INDIA SEIZES TWO PAKISTANI MERCHANT SHIPS SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN MUMBAI ATTACKS

THEY CAME BY SEA: CNN:

Gunmen who arrived by boats launched attacks on at least seven locations in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday night, killing more than 120 people, authorities say.

By Friday morning, authorities believed militants still were in two luxury hotels and a Jewish center in the city.

The following is what is known about the attacks:

• Gunmen arrived by boats at the Mumbai waterfront near the Gateway of India monument on Wednesday night, police said. The gunmen hijacked cars, including a police van, and split into at least three groups to carry out the attacks, according to police.

THE MOTHER SHIPS MAY HAVE BEEN SEIZED: Pakistani ships seized after Mumbai attacks

The Indian navy has seized two Pakistani merchant ships as authorities try to track down those responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

Authorities believe the Mumbai attackers came ashore in a series of small boats, and all the merchant ships that have passed through Mumbai in the past few days have come under particular scrutiny.

According to Indian news agencies, intelligence sources pinpointed one particular cargo vessel that had stopped there briefly before leaving for Karachi and Pakistan.

By luck, Indian navy and coastguard vessels were engaged in routine exercises off the coast of Gujarat and were immediately dispatched to intercept the vessel.

Both it and another Pakistani freighter have now been boarded by Indian forces, but it is not yet clear if they found anything suspicious on board.

• INDIA WILL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS ATTACK, AND PUNISH ALL THE CONSPIRATORS THEY CAN.

• IT MATTERS NOT WHICH PARTICULAR JIHADIST GROUP THEY BELONG TO. OR IF THEY WERE STATE-SPONSORED.
  

• BECAUSE WE KNOW THE ROOT CAUSE - AND IT'S IDEOLOGICAL:

IT'S THEIR "RELIGION", STUPID.

IF BY RELIGION WE MEAN THE TOTALITARIAN AND MARTIAL IDEOLOGY THEY CALL ISLAM.

LET'S FACE IT FOLKS, ISLAM IS THE COMMON DENOMINATOR.

WE IGNORE THIS AT OUR PERIL.