Amr Ismail

American bankers, British business moguls, New York Jewish Rabbi, Dual Israeli American nationals, western multinationals CEO’s, and a host of international business executives. They all converged on Mumbai in the hopes of cutting business deals, sizing investment opportunities, and taking advantage of the second largest economy in the world in terms of growth and outlook. Terror hit the financial district and its most lucrative locations. But Foreigners were not the only ones targeted in hotels and the cafe by the attackers; One hundred and counting local Indians were gunned down in the main train station just as they were heading for the platforms in the second busiest station in India.

The message seems to be directed at the Indian Government first and foremost. It is obviously meant for the British, American, and Israeli business and defence contractors to take their begging hats out of the country as well. The choice of city, sites, and execution plan suggests the target is the Financial elite, and defence contractors. The Mumbai financial district is an aspiring target for militants in Pakistan whose beef with the Indians, Americans, or British is political rather than financial, and there are plenty of easier to attack sites between Pakistan and Afghanistan to cause the desired collateral damage, so have Pakistani militants changed tactics all of a sudden?

Equally puzzling would be to consider an ideological Muslim group inside India for the same reasons. They are likely to be British citizens of Indian and/or Pakistani background.

Here is what journalist John Pilger observed and wrote in May 2002 shortly after high-level tensions erupted between India and Pakistan:

“With nuclear powers India and Pakistan on the edge of war, the role of the Blair government in fuelling the conflict has been critical. In the year 2000, the Government approved nearly 700 export licences for weapons and military equipment to both countries. These had a total value of £64million. India, which gets the great majority of British weapons, is building under licence Jaguar bombers that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

“In January, as the two countries prepared for war, Tony Blair arrived in the subcontinent on what was called a "peace mission." In fact, as the Indian press revealed, he discussed the opposite of peace - a £1billion deal to sell India 60 Hawk fighter-bombers made by British Aerospace. "The issue of India acquiring the Hawks," reported the periodical Outlook India, "was raised by Prime Minister Blair with Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, defence minister George Fernandes said today."
Three weeks later, the British High Commission in New Delhi threw a party for a group of British arms salesmen in town for a major weapons fair called Defexpo, whose organisers made no secret of their aim to exploit the "recent developments taking place in south-east Asia" - in other words, the conflicts in Kashmir and Afghanistan.”

”So keen has the Blair government been to exploit this opportunity of war that a British official has the full-time assignment, in New Delhi, of "defence supply". He works with the Defence Export Sales Organisation (DESO) in London, an arm of the Ministry of Defence, whose sole aim is to sell weapons to foreign armies. A secret list of 22 "highly valuable priority markets" targeted for British arms sales has India and Pakistan near the top. British missiles, tanks, artillery, howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, small arms and ammunition are all available on buy-now-pay-later terms.”

“Arming both sides is, of course, as British as pith helmets. In the horrendous war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, Britain did just that in company with other Western countries. At least a million people were killed. Britain is the world's third biggest arms trader. Under Blair, sales of weapons and military equipment have become the most heavily subsidised sector of the UK economy apart from agriculture. This means that taxpayers underwrite loans-for-arms to dictators oppressing their people. The argument that the Government is "protecting jobs" is demolished by the writing-off of billions of pounds, which could create jobs in peace-time industries.”

“Arms sales and the development of multi-billion dollar warplanes, ships and missile systems, have an essential place in the "global economy". They invariably lead to an American economic "boom" or "recovery" which influences the economies of Europe and much of the world.”

“When the New York Stock Exchange re-opened after September 11, the stocks of arms companies were almost alone in showing an increase in value. Raytheon, the missile maker and contributor to New Labour, was one of them.”

”Tony Blair's close links with Israel - many of them forged by his friend, the deal-maker Michael Levy, whom he made Lord Levy - are described as "the Government's tireless efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East." The opposite is true. Business is business, and it never stops. On September 11, at an arms fair in London's Docklands, there was not even a respectful silence in honour of the victims of the Twin Towers. The Israelis had a whole pavilion; one Israeli company, Rafael, was here to sell the Ministry of Defence the Gill-Spike Anti-tank missile, a weapon distinguished by its history of use against civilians in Palestine and Lebanon. One of the main causes of poverty in Africa is the amount spent on arms by regimes offered a variety of enticements by Western business and governments.”

And what Wall Street and America’s drooling bankers see in India today is the only friendly growing economy where money can still be made, and gold and cash reserves are high. India’s economy enjoys a firm 7% growth rate at a time where most advanced economies are contracting, and emerging markets can’t sustain their growth. The majority of IT firms in India are vulnerable to the global financial chaos, 70% of India’s $40 billion software exports is to the US and 40% of it is in financial services which is dwindling fast. However, together with China, India can hold its own very well, and its growth prospects won’t be badly damaged, that is not what the US and Britain have in mind as Fortune magazine Nina Easton reveals in “Paulson Hot on India”: (http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/26/magazines/fortune/easton_treasury.fortune/index.htm)

Whether Pakistani militants played a hand in the Mumbai attacks or not, I believe that the response of the Indian government may take many by surprise, and we could see emerging a solid friendly relationship and cooperation with Pakistan as the best answer to set a precedent in dealing with massive attack and with a conflict that traces its roots to British India. That is not to say that the Indian government won’t sort its own internal problems and political rifts as well; surely it will, but without using Pakistan as a scapegoat. And if there are links to local Muslim groups, then it is time to reconcile differences with its 15% mostly impoverished Muslim population and in the broader context of improving the standard of living for millions of poor and unequally treated Indians in tens of thousands of villages and towns.

Into its third day, the standoff at the Taj Hotel may continue for a while, and it does look like apart from the apparent loss that India will incur, this will be a big blow to British and American interests in particular in a time both countries have rapidly collapsing economies.

The Indian government is, as I write, negotiating with the terrorists, contrary to all news media reports, and that has not been going very well judging by the number of dead hostages that continues to rise. This massacre may cause the government in India to resign or at least face the wrath of an angry country. The pressure is on to provide a secure environment around the Indian business community, and to forego economic measures that may hurt the common Indian.

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Amr Ismail is a Canadian writer based in Brussels. He edits Leadaship.com