India PM: Pakistan is the ‘Epicenter of Terrorism’

The Prime Minister of India is calling Pakistan the ‘epicenter of terrorism,’ and hinting broadly that India’s patience is reaching its end.

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday called Pakistan “the epicentre of terrorism” and said the international community must deal with the problem.

“We have to galvanise the international community to deal with the epicentre of terrorism, which is located in Pakistan,” Singh said in a speech to parliament.

The prime minister said India had exercised “the utmost restraint so far” but added that should not be “misconstrued” as a sign of weakness. He said India “cannot be satisfied with mere assurances on an end to terror emanating from Pakistan.”

Pakistan is one epicenter of terrorism, it’s true, but not the only one. Our friends the Saudis are pretty accomplished at funding and exporting extremist Islam around the world, too, and it’s a continuing mistake to ignore them.

(Hat tip:Nancy)

Terror Attack Destroys Marriott Hotel, Kills At Least 40

A gigantic truck bomb has destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 40 people including one member of the US military.

A massive truck bomb destroyed much of Islamabad’s most popular hotel this evening, killing at least 40 people, wounding at least 100 and leaving a crater more than 25 feet deep. Officials feared the death toll would increase by dozens as rescue teams continue work at the scene.

At approximately 8 p.m. local time, an apparent suicide bomber blew himself up as his vehicle was being checked at the security gate of the luxury Marriott Hotel. The bomb was felt as far as 15 miles away. Within 500 feet of the blast, buildings and trees were shredded by the bomb, which was believed to be the biggest in Islamabad’s history.

In the minutes after the blast, dozens of dead bodies littered what used to be the lobby of the hotel. Between the entrance and the security checkpoint, about 50 feet away, there were mounds of rubble under which more dead are feared to be buried.

At least one member of the U.S. miltary was missing at the scene of the blast and presumed dead. Other U.S. military members eating at the hotel’s restaurant sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

(Hat tip:Chas@LGF)

Hitchens: Pakistan is the Problem

If Barack Obama means what he’s saying about Pakistan, liberals who back him had better get ready for more war: Pakistan is the problem.

Recent accounts of murderous violence in the capital cities of two of our allies, India and Afghanistan, make it appear overwhelmingly probable that the bombs were not the work of local or homegrown “insurgents” but were orchestrated by agents of the Pakistani ISI. This is a fantastically unacceptable state of affairs, which needs to be given its right name of state-sponsored terrorism. Meanwhile, and on Pakistani soil and under the very noses of its army and the ISI, the city of Quetta and the so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas are becoming the incubating ground of a reorganized and protected al-Qaida. Sen. Barack Obama has, if anything, been the more militant of the two presidential candidates in stressing the danger here and the need to act without too much sentiment about our so-called Islamabad ally. He began using this rhetoric when it was much simpler to counterpose the “good” war in Afghanistan with the “bad” one in Iraq. Never mind that now; he is committed in advance to a serious projection of American power into the heartland of our deadliest enemy. And that, I think, is another reason why so many people are reluctant to employ truthful descriptions for the emerging Afghan-Pakistan confrontation: American liberals can’t quite face the fact that if their man does win in November, and if he has meant a single serious word he’s ever said, it means more war, and more bitter and protracted war at that—not less.

(Hat tip:Charlie Manson the LGF Cult Leader)