Comments on: Terrorism or High-Tech Consulting? Hmm, tough choice

By: Mumbaikar

Mumbaikar — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 09:00:12 +0000

Oracle denies that the blasts suspect is their employee.

By: Chocolate Brownie (yada yada)

Chocolate Brownie (yada yada) — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:01:16 +0000

Amardeep: I don't know about torture, but Punjab's ex "super-cop", KPS Gill, has already gone on record criticizing the Mumbai police's actions:

Apply that test to Bombay. You have to be even-handed is a platitude. Apply that to Bombay.
In Bombay, no action when the Shiv Sena was vandalising everything.
You mean just a few days before the blast?
Yes. And then the combing operations! It took me years to get rid of that act from the police force. It is absolutely useless, absolutely...
Provocative?
Demeaning to anybody who has to go through it. I said go for the man who has done it, not..
The Bombay police have got it wrong there?
Entirely wrong. If that is the conception of security, then heaven help us, heaven help the country.

Not holding my breath on this one. sigh

By: Amardeep

Amardeep — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:58:01 +0000

Sonia, that is a very good question -- one that's been nagging me since I put up this post. I'll be poking around on this question over the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, I wonder if anyone else has a sense of whether the policies on torture in the Mumbai police have changed since the 1990s, when it was a common practice?

By: sonia

sonia — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:18:07 +0000

one question: do people know if these confessions were obtained with no torture involved?

By: DT2004

DT2004 — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:46:08 +0000

man don't even get me started on Pakistan, or how full of sh*t those ppl are.... I dont know what the Indian politicians are doing with their nuts in their hands. If we had someone like KPS Gill, they'd be akin to what Canada is to the U.S. today. And if they had their act together, and were strong, I think a lot of these ethnic groups that feel neglected (assamese, kashmiris, etc.) would RESPECT them.

I have noticed that you don't always have to give in to one's demands to get their respect, sometimes taking a stand and sticking to it gains respect.

By: P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:07:23 +0000

The techies are the grunts of the terrorist organizations---the ones who actually wire up the bombs, fly the airplanes and so forth.

What about the leaders of the terrorist organizations? What about the idealogues? What about the people who carry out the indoctrination? What about the people who provide capital? I am sure they will be from different occupations.

In my view, terrorism is large (if unlawful) sector of economic activity. It provides active (if unlawful) employment to people of different backgrounds.

By: Arun

Arun — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:57:19 +0000

“This is the first time IÂ’ve heard of someone not in a movie choosing between life as a murderer, driven by a distorted kind of religious ideology, and life as a highly-paid employee in a blue-ribbon multinational corporation.”

This is not exactly uncommon, read Mark Sageman, Understanding Terrorist Networks. Terrorists more often than not have a technical or engineering education.

Or read a past NYT Magazine article, which interviewed young men, who were debating between joining Microsoft and joining the jihad.
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Aug/bch20030807021214.htm Hawash was making more than $300K at Intel.

Also see http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1195

By: Gujjubhai

Gujjubhai — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:34:10 +0000

BTW, does anyone else find ti scary that thelikes of Mr Muzamil Shaikh could be working on my banking, phone, cable and zillion other outsourced billing services at Indian BPOs?

By: Jai

Jai — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:24:24 +0000

Muzamil Shaikh, on the other hand, while eager to follow his brother into a radical Islamist group, seems to have had second thoughts after being offered a position at Oracle. He had been employed on a contract basis

Apologies for stating the obvious, but wouldn't Muzamil's previous "interest" now cause Oracle to seriously re-consider his current contract with them (or at least with regards to considering him as a long-term-but-non-permanent hire), considering the facts that have now publicly come to light ?

Ditto for any future potential employers, no ?

Yes I know I'll probably get the prize this week for stating the completely obvious

By: Amardeep

Amardeep — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:42:51 +0000

Thanks, Suresh. That sounds like a pretty likely explanation, though I suppose someone could question whether he's actually using the term correctly. (But perhaps that would be reading too much into it.)

Now Aziz's other comment about Jammat-ud-Daawa is annoying me: "We've done a lot to transform some of these people." Evidently it hasn't been enough!