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A good writeup on the assassination of Hamas’ top leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19 at a hotel in Dubai allegedly by 11 members of Israel’s secret service organisation.  The whole operation by Mossad has many lessons for the Indian government to learn.

While dealing with terrorist supporting countries like Pakistan, an aggressive covert assassination program can go a long way in controlling the terrorism perpetrated by Pakistani supported terrorists on India.  Taking out select leaders of the rogue intelligence agency, ISI sponsoring the terrorism and leaders of JuD, LeT etc should be actively considered by India.

After the disastrous policy by the ex-Prime Minister IK Gujral who shut down the Counter Intelligence Teams of R&AW, its time India flexed its muscles.  A few targeted killings will send a strong message across to our neighbours that their transgressions will not be tolerated anymore.  The only way to stop terrorism is to increase the cost on the sponsors.  They slap you and you gouge out both their eyes and bash their face up badly.  That’s how you respond to terrorism and not by getting apologetic about it.

But it needs leaders with guts and conviction to take up such measures.  Do we have any of them?  Our leaders are either busy dividing us on caste, religion, region etc or sucking up to minorities.  Anyone out there who can implement these measures?

According to a report in the Telegraph, the group, which included a woman, entered the hotel dressed as businessmen and tennis players, and managed to strangle Mabhouh inside his room. The assassins arrived in Dubai carrying French, German, Italian and Swiss passports, and checked into different hotels, says the report. They used fake names like Gail Folliard, Kevin Daveron and Peter Elvinger.

They met later at a shopping mall, and communicated with each other before that via a ‘command centre’ in Austria, says the report. Traveling under the alias of Mahmoud Abdul Ra’ouf Mohammed, Mabhouh was spotted at the Dubai airport by a member of another surveillance team, who had waited hours for him.

Meir Dagan – The current head of Mossad

After he checked into the al-Bustan hotel, one of the hit squad dressed as a tennis player accompanied him in the lift, and followed him to his room, the daily said. The information was then passed on to Elvinger, the group’s leader, who promptly checked into the room across the corridor from Mabhouh, says the Telegraph.

Soon, another surveillance team arrived to keep a check on the target, who left the hotel half an hour later. The group tried to take advantage of his absence and attempted to break into his room, while the woman and Daveron kept a look out for other guests. The police have not released footage of what happened next, but the assassins somehow managed to force or fool Mabhouh into opening his door, and suffocated him, said the paper. They then locked the door from inside and left.

The team left Dubai on different flights over the span of the next 12 hours, and fled to various destinations including Frankfurt, Hong Kong and South Africa [ Images ], said the Telegraph. Mabhouh’s dead body was discovered over twelve hours later, and his killers, ‘a professional team that is highly skilled in these kinds of operations’, were thousands of miles away by that time, said the daily.

Read the full article here

And now, Dubai has threatened to issue an arrest warrant against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu if Mossad’s complicity in the assassination is proved.   It would be good for Dubai to first explain as to what the leader of a global terrorist organisation was doing in its country?  It would be better for even Britain who is now blowing hot and cold against Israel to see why most of the terror plots in the world today are being hatched on their own soil and why most of the terrorists seem to have some connection with Britain?

Countries like Britain and Dubai seem to be in the crosshairs of global terrorism and it would be good for these respective governments to get their houses in order before pointing their fingers at others.  As for Mossad, its job is to keep its people and country safe.  And to chase down anyone who hurts their people/country and kill them like dogs.  Three cheers to Mossad for a job well done.

Some good reading on Mossad in the Telegraph paper here – “Mossad’s license to kill“.  How i really wish our so-called external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) would grow some balls and do their job properly than being caught with their pants down.

Above pictures source:  FPP & Wikipedia

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The PSLV-C12, carrying 300-kg Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and 40-kg Micro Satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan space Centre here on Monday morning. At the end of the 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

PSLV C-12 at the launch pad early morning today

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, weighing 230 tonnes at the time of launch, soared into a clear sky at 6.45am(local time) from the spaceport here, about 90 km north of Chennai. This is the 15th flight of ISRO’s workhorse PSLV, which had launched 30 satellites (14 for India and 16 for foreign countries) into a variety of orbits since 1993.

The launch vehicle carries two payloads – RISAT-2 (with all weather capability to take images of Earth) and ANUSAT (the first satellite built by an Indian University to demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations).

The ANUSAT satellite made by the Anna University, Chennai

The rocket would place both the satellites in their orbits around the earth shortly. The SAR, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, gives RISAT defence capabilities.

ANUSAT is the first satellite developed by an Indian university (Anna University), which would demonstrate the technologies related to message storing and forward operations. University sources said scores of students and faculty from different streams had worked on this satellite for the last six years.

ANUSAT is a store-and-forward communication satellite that will help transfer confidential academic materials, including exam question papers, to prevent question paper leakages. It will also help monitor drought and wasteland, urban planning and other studies.

Above news from: TimesofIndia & pics from ISRO

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In the initial anguish reading about the terrorists strike in the heart of Mumbai, this is what i wrote on a  common forum. Reproducing it here in full.

I wonder what is the difference between the terrorists who attacked the city of Bombay and the goons of Raj / Bal Thackeray who regularly kill, injure people and destroy property just to further their political agenda?

Why dont we feel the same pain and shame when a politician rouses communal fears and tries to divide us and makes us fight among ourselves?

What makes the Indian / Deccan Mujahideen / SIMI / Lashkar  any more dangerous than home grown terror like the VHP, RSS, Shiv Sena, Maoists, the Christian fundamentalists in Eastern India?

Is Advani not responsible enough for all the violence we are facing today due to his role in the Babri Masjid demolition?  Is the Congress not responsible for repeated miscarriage of justice by their pseudo secularism and pandering to the extremist muslims?  Is Narendra Modi not responsible for the 1000s of muslims killed under his watch in the Gujarat riots? Is Congress not responsible for the thousands of Sikhs killed in 1984?

And then, why are we surprised that someone from our own country wants to kill his fellow countrymen?  When he/she asked for justice as his house was being burnt, his sister was being raped, where were we?  Why did we turn a blind eye?

All the miscarriages of justice is finally coming home to roost.

We will still bounce back and am sure of that.  But is it this kind of a society that we want to live in?

Raj Thuggeray, the leader of Maharashtra Napunsak Sena (Maharashtra Eunuch’s Army) and the paper tiger leader of Shiv Sena, Balls Thuggeray are so busy setting up vada pav stalls that they have retreated into the kitchens of their houses. The bloody uncle and nephew team that has held Bombay to ransom over their petty anti-North Indian politics are nowhere to be seen.  The NSG, Marine Commandos, RAF and Black Cats from other states of India have to come down to clean up the mess.  How come the Thuggeray family is not complaining now?  Bloody nincompoops.

Narendra Modi after lording over a state that recently was hit by more than 20 bomb blasts at various places tries to blame the central government saying that they are lenient.  For all his show of bravado, i have never seen a bigger coward.  In any other country, he would have been hung on a pole for being a mass murderer. Advani, the ever colour changing chameleon of Indian politics and the biggest terrorist India has ever produced is also busy fishing in troubled waters.

For all my respect for Manmohan Singh, i should admit that when it comes to internal security, he is the worst PM we ever had.  Sorry Mr Singh, i appreciate your honesty, your work in finance and the Indo-US nuclear deal, but you are pathetic when it comes to the security of our country.  It would be great if you could take your bloody incompetent Home Minister, Shivraj Patil (who might be busy at some clothes shop looking for the shirt to wear in the next press conference), your boss Sonia Gandhi and resign.  Please do us a favour.

What about RAW (Research & Analysis Wing), IB (Intelligence Bureau), the spy agencies who were supposed to smell the conspiracy and nip it in the bud?  We have another incompetent National Security Advisor in Narayanan.  He is so bloody camera happy that he has no qualms shooting off his mouth on TV.  Mr Narayanan, i wish you had the same competency in your work, at least these attacks would have had been stopped.  The RAW & IB has not been able to stop at least 20 attacks in different places of India in the past 2 years.  If they even have a shred of shame, heads should roll in all these 3 organisations.

If you cant bloody well protect us, then get the hell out of your seats.  We do not have a choice and that’s why we go back to our schools, work and daily routine inspite of a bomb blast.  Now that’s been bandied about as the resilience of our people and economy.  And, iam sick of being reminded of my resilience when iam being ruled by spineless and incompetent people who instead of saving me and my family are more busy playing politics hiding beind a bullet proof screen and being swamped by some black cats who put their lives at stake so that ingrates like you can live to see another day.

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Intel unveiled the Xeon 7400 family of server processors, code-named Dunnington, including its first six-core design. The range includes three low-voltage versions, whereas the 7300 range had one, and Intel is claiming “the lowest watts-per-core usage of any device in their category”.

It’s the first microprocessor for the mass market that [Intel] has developed almost exclusively at its design centre in Bangalore in a milestone for the research and development of computer hardware in India.

“It’s not just services and software that India is known for but this shows you also can do this kind of complex research and development and product design here in India,” said Praveen Vishakantaiah, president of Intel India.

AMD is trailing Intel at the 45nm level, and its six-core server processor, code-named Istanbul, isn’t expected until next year.

Intel has already benefited from developing chips outside the US. Its lab in Israel came up with the Banias processor used in the original Centrino design for laptops. Intel then abandoned the US-designed high-clock-speed Pentium NetBurst architecture and switched to the new Core Duo design, Yonah. A six-core chip isn’t exactly a novel idea but success should certainly enhance the Bangalore lab’s credibility.

News from: Guardian UK

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Other than a press conference and a brief note on the ISRO’s website, there doesnt seem to be much news about the Israeli spy satellite launch in the Indian papers. The Israeli papers are indicating that the satellite is meant to keep an eye on Iran.

India successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit in a boost to the South Asian nation’s efforts to win a share of the multi-billion-dollar space launch market.

The launch of the Tecsar satellite by an Indian-made rocket was carried out in clear weather at 9:15 am local time (0345 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in southern India, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

The 300-kilogram (650-pound) satellite, sometimes referred to as the Polaris, was steered into orbit about 20 minutes later, said Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Bangalore-based space agency.

The satellite was designed and developed by MBT Space, a division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It is equipped with a camera that can see through clouds and carry out day and night all-weather imaging.

Full article here.

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