Author: Reuters
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: February 24, 2009
URL: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/2611-attackers-phones-traced-to-italy-us/86184-2.html
Militants behind last year's attacks on Mumbai
used cell phones that were activated in the United States and paid for with
funds sent from Italy, an Italian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Corriere della Sera daily said India sent
the intelligence information to Italy and other countries so anti-terrorism
investigators could attempt to expose any ties to the network behind the November
assault that killed at least 179 people.
Islamabad acknowledged for the first time
this month that the November assault was launched from, and partly planned
in, Pakistan.
Corriere said Italian authorities were investigating
a wire transfer sent to the United States from the northern Italian city of
Brescia by a Pakistani-born suspect.
The suspect, named Javaid Iqbal, sent the
funds via Western Union to pay for five cell phones with Austrian country
codes - three of which were used by the attackers, Corriere said, citing the
Indian dossier.
Cops to book Kasab, 'answer' all questions
Iqbal, a former resident of Barcelona, has
been arrested in Pakistan and Italian authorities were attempting to understand
how he arrived in Brescia and whether he had support from anyone there.
The cell phones were activated in the United
States by a US company, Corriere reported, and registered to another man,
who identified himself as an Indian citizen.
India, in its intelligence dossier, highlighted
the importance of cell phone communication between the plotters and militants
carrying out the attacks.
It offered partial transcripts of the conversations
detailing orders given by phone to kill hostages, and how the plotters relayed
the media impact of the assault in real-time.
"Everything is being registered by the
media. You must inflict the maximum damage. Fight to the end. Don't leave
any survivors," read one of the excerpts, in a call to an attacker at
the Trident-Oberoi hotel, reported by Corriere.
At one point, one of the attackers explains
he has five hostages, two of them Muslims.
"Kill the hostages, except the Muslims.
Take the telephone and activate it so we can hear the shots," an attacker
says, according to Corriere.
Indian police said that, apparently through
the telephone intercepts, they could hear the non-Muslim hostages being lined
up and then shot.
