- Sovereign nations have the right to protect themselves, US president-elect Barack Obama said on Monday, when asked if India could follow the same policy he advocated during his election campaign — of bombing terrorist camps in Pakistan if there was actionable evidence and Islamabad refused to act on it. Although Obama said he did not want to comment on the specific situation involving India and Pakistan, his tacit endorsement of New Delhi adopting the same policy was circumscribed by two caveats: first, let the investigators reach definite conclusions about the Mumbai carnage, and second, see if Pakistan will follow through with its commitment to cooperate in eliminating terrorism.
- The schedule of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's India visit is still being worked on but there is "no plan" of her travel to Mumbai or Pakistan as of now, the State Department has said. "And as I said, they're still working out the schedule, so I don't have any details in terms of with whom she'll be meeting yet. But we'll get that to you as soon as we have it," Wood said adding that at this point, there's "no plan" of travel to Mumbai where around 200 people, including foreigners, were killed in terror attacks last week.
- American diplomats were working Monday to dissuade India from lashing out at Pakistan or insurgent groups based there, worried that such a strike might further inflame tensions and lead to violence. In response to a question about India at a news conference.
- Warning that "non-state actors" had the potential to precipitate a war in the region, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to "resist striking out" at his country "should investigations show that Pakstani militant groups were responsible for the attacks in Mumbai". Zardari told the Financial Times that his country should not be punished for the Terror rampage in Mumbai.
- Part of Kasav's crew were British-based Pakistani's - these Britishers were highly motivated and even had links to Al-Qaeda. In fact, Qasab's interrogation tallies with intelligence intercepts made. On November 19, a sat-phone conversation of a caller headed to Mumbai with cargo, was traced to the Lashkar military commander in Lahore, Muzammil. Warnings of a possible sea route for terror were also reported to the Mumbai police by local fishermen, but fell on deaf ears. Another intercept was traced to Bangladesh, to a handler who arranged for western id cards. These cards were found on the dead terrorists.
- Security expert Praveen Swami reported that there was credible intelligence of an imminent assault. The intelligence was credible enough to push the state police to meet with top corporate security heads to convince them of "the need to invest in defending their facilities," this included the hotels. However, Swami writes, "nothing was done." According to The Times of India , it took the highly-regarded commando strike force nine-and-a-half hours to arrive on the scene. By the time the force got the orders 90 minutes had passed. Then it took four hours for the plane to arrive in Delhi and pick up the troops and another three hours to fly and land in Mumbai, plus time for buses and briefing, they started their operation at 7 a.m.
- In a knee jerk reaction so typical of New Delhi, long standing proposals to strengthen the counter terror apparatus at the Centre and the states are hurriedly being resurrected. With the general elections in another three months, no Indian political party can afford any more to soft pedal terrorism of any hue – religious, ideological or ethnic. The national impact of the Mumbai terror raid is so strong that policy makers from now onwards can only take a hard line on activities of terrorist organisations.
- Consider this! The PM gets out of his deep slumber and still sleep-walking, calls an all party meeting to discuss the situation after Mumbai. The leader of the biggest opposition party, which does not miss an opportunity to display its nationalist credentials, L K. Advani does not even deem it necessary to attend the meeting. He is in Rajasthan campaigning for the assembly elections! The petty, parochial politics does not allow him to participate in such an important meeting concerning national security.
- India has been carrying out its own reshuffling of top officials amid widespread anger over perceived intelligence lapses and poor response times during last week's attacks. India's home minister resigned over the weekend, and there were more resignations Monday, including Vilasrao Deshmukh, the top official in Maharashtra state, which includes Mumbai.
- Ramping up the diplomatic pressure on Pakistan significantly, the government asked Islamabad to turn in 20 of India's most wanted terrorists, including Dawood Ibrahim and Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad
