"With a job that brought in an annual salary of over Rs. 19,00,000 ($56,000) a year, 31-year-old Peerbhoy is as distant as could be imagined from the madrasa-educated, no-prospects jihadist of media caricature."
More on this story. "White-collar 'media terror cell' alert," by Arjun Ramachandran for the Sydney Morning Herald, October 8:
In recent years, the skills of Indian software engineers have been sought by companies worldwide to help advance them in a digital age.
Now, the same Indian IT professionals are being recruited by terrorist cells to be part of a new "media wing" aimed at enhancing their potency through use of the latest technology, say Indian police.
The warning came afer Indian police arrested three software engineers alleged to be part of terror group Islamic Mujahideen, and who allegedly sent emails to media outlets just moments before bomb blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur that killed 78 people.
The head of the "media terror cell" was named by police as Mohammed Mansoor Peerbhoy, a 31-year-old Yahoo! employee, the Guardian reported.
"The Indian Mujahideen started a media wing with software engineers," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of Mumbai police.
"They had the technical knowledge to know to send out messages just before the blasts and after the blasts took place."
Police said the hi-tech unit hacked into unprotected wireless networks in Mumbai and sent emails to Indian media outlets just minutes before the blasts.
"Await, only for 5 minutes, to feel the fear of death," one of the emails said.
They also claimed responsibility for Indian Mujahideen, and warned Hindus that the "falsehood" of their "dirty mud idols" would not prevent them "from being slaughtered".
The three programmers were among a total of 15 people arrested by Indian police in the past week.
It was the involvement of programmers - described as "highly qualified, computer-savvy people belonging to good and educated families" - that appeared to have startled many Indians.
For many years, software engineers in India have been highly respected, the qualifications seen as a gateway to well-paid work both overseas and in India's rapidly growing IT sector.
'White-collar jihadists, a cause for growing concern', was the title of an article about the arrests in The Hindu this week.
"With a job that brought in an annual salary of over Rs. 19,00,000 ($56,000) a year, 31-year-old Peerbhoy is as distant as could be imagined from the madrasa-educated, no-prospects jihadist of media caricature," it said.
The arrested trio were also considered "model citizens" prior to their arrest, it said.
Police said Peerbhoy spoke good English, was as a principal software engineer, lived in Pune - a city in southern India known for its IT companies - and visited the US for work several times, The Guardian said.
But Peerbhoy had "radicalised himself" after a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2004, The Hindu said.
JW-
I first got involved w/ jw via reading Ayaan's book "Infidel". From there, I was exposed to websites I'd never heard of. I'd been doing extensive research, especially re: odinga/obama and ended up on Kenyan websites where they were concerned about defaming their hero Obama should they speak of the mob riots....
Shortly thereafter, my computer (I admit, I was a newbie and had terrible protection) was taken over and my ISP made me a personae non grata...
I got professional help and got Symantec protections. As part of the sign up process, I was speaking w/ symantec people in India, Bombay to be exact. Khalid Choudary was my technition, and I remember having him take over my computer to install the relevant security. He really wanted to talk about how nasty Bush was....we spoke of his name and how the caste system is reflected in their names....
The same time, I was having difficulty w/ issues pertaining to filing my taxes via turbo tax. again, i ended up in India, speaking w/ a woman who knew nothing about US taxes.
I tried to contact my house rep and request that we scrutinze these providers from a homeland security perspective, but I started feeling like I was being too paranoid.....
Not any more.
derak
But Peerbhoy had "radicalised himself"
Islamic self hypnosis by chanting "kill the kaffir, Allahu Akbar" one million times.
I dont see anywhere in the article the word moslem used to describe the arrested three software programmers. All the 15 arrested were moslems who were following the islamic doctrine as they have been asked to follow by the koran(terror handbook)and their profit mo.
Kinda blows the whole "poverty causes extremism" BS right out of the water........again.
Kinda blows the whole "poverty causes extremism" BS right out of the water........again.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi
But the media has never let the truth get in the way of a story, particularly if its plotline is meant to denigrate the West.
"poverty causes terrorism"
Marisol, surely you jest?
Dmann-- I'm afraid I don't follow...
The point of the headline is precisely that the persistent excuse that poverty causes terrorism fails to explain the root of jihadist violence.
From the article - "Peerbhoy spoke good English, was as a principal software engineer, lived in Pune - a city in southern India known for its IT companies - and visited the US for work several times". {::shudder::}.
Memo to all - and I mean *all* companies in the kafir lands, thinking of hiring one of those brilliant Indian software engineers.
First: *do not* hire anyone who by their name is clearly a Mohammedan.
Second: find the nearest Sikh temple. Hire three Sikhs who can be vouched for, by their community, as Sikhs of good character.
Employ these gentlemen - in full regalia, complete with kukris - to be present at the interviews that you conduct with your prospective Indian employees.
I imagine any intending Mohammedan infiltrator might be at least a *little* rattled by such an interviewing environment.
Did everyone notice the name attached to the report from the 'Sydney Morning Herald' (which is the main paper in New South Wales)?
'Arjun Ramachandran'.
A classically Indian Hindu name.
He may be the SMH's Indian 'contact'.
Or he might be an Indo-Australian, possibly even 2nd or 3rd or 4th-generation Australian-Indian, hired by the SMH, perhaps even sent over to be their man in India.
One hopes that he is studying his Sita Ram Goel and his David McCutchion and his K S Lal and his V S Naipaul.
I am glad that his report cites that little piece of information from 'The Hindu', concerning the fact that Peerbhoy "radicalised himself' after a pilgrimage to Mecca".
Pilgrimages to Mecca do seem to have that effect, quite often. Simon Winchester, in his book 'Krakatoa', notes the increasing fanaticism and aggression of Muslims in Indonesia after improvements in transport, due to Dutch colonisation, made it quicker, cheaper and easier for larger numbers of people to make the haj.
The haj is, perhaps, rather different from other kinds of pilgrimages.
It's not like a trip to Varanasi, to Jerusalem, to St James of Compostela, to Rome or Canterbury or Our Lady of Walsingham or Glastonbury; it's the return to Central Command, to receive Programming and Marching Orders.
Which brings me to my final point.
I gather that the government in India subsidises the haj expenses of Indian Muslim citizens.
Time to stop. Too dangerous. Much too expensive. Send your common-or-garden Muslim on haj, all expenses paid - get back a freshly-minted newly-fanaticised wannabe-Arab jihadist all ready to kill lots of Infidels and destroy lots of valuable property and infrastructure.
No more haj subsidies!