Were the Mumbai Terrorists Fueled by Coke?

[meegbear]

Source: Time.com

Did the jihadists who tore up Mumbai last week rely on party drugs usually associated with Western decadence to stay awake and alert throughout their three-day killing spree? Britain's Telegraph newspaper suggests that they did, citing unidentified officials claiming physical evidence shows the assailants used cocaine and other stimulants to sustain their violent frenzy. And if the notion of self-anointed holy warriors on a coke binge sounds incongruous, the report also maintains that the killers imbibed the psychedelic drug LSD while fighting advancing security forces.

"We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists, and later found drugs in their blood," the Telegraph was told by one official, whose nationality and relation to the investigation were not specified. "This explains why they managed to battle the commandos for over 50 hours with no food or sleep." (See the terrorism in Mumbai.)

The hallucinogenic and sensory-distorting effects of LSD make it an unlikely combat drug, even for kamikaze assailants who were, after all, seeking to kill as many people as possible before their own inevitable death. But the suggestion that the Mumbai jihadists may have amped themselves up on stimulants typically forbidden by their strict Salafist brand of Islam strikes some experts as plausible, particularly within the twisted jihadist logic in which holy ends justify impious means.

"We've never seen instances of operatives using drugs in attacks before, but we've also never seen the kind of open-ended, insurgent-style strike of civilian targets by Islamists prior to Mumbai," says Jean-Louis Bruguière, who retired this year as France's chief counterterrorism investigator to take a top post in the transatlantic Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. Bruguière had no information to confirm or deny the reported cocaine binge by the Mumbai assailants, but he believes that discounting it out of hand would be naive.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1864049,00.html?xid=rss-world

[Taverner]

1. Wow - the religiously insane looking to increase the insanity

As if religion wasn't stupid and insane enough already

[tekisui]

2. I just can't imagine hurting anyone on LSD.

Of course, I believe I am more balanced than a mass murderer. I knew they must have been on coke, or some other drug to stay up and alert that long.

[GliderGuider]

4. Agree

Killing people at close range with a rifle while on acid in only imaginable by people that have never done acid.

Crystal meth would be a much more effective fuel for a multi-day murder binge.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Can you imagine...

Tripping your face off in the middle of a firefight? Where were the people running around, screaming their heads off and freaking right the fuck out because people were shooting at them?

Also, Cocaine? In India? Did they have a designated squad member chopping out 12 inch gaggers on the top of corpses? Does gagging from post-nasal drip affect one's aim? How did they get any fighting done when everyone was talking a mile a minute? Does one praise their god before or after honking up a huge rail?

I smell bullshit.

[On the Road]

3. Cocaine is Probably More Effective

than the hashish that drove the original "assassins." Good thing it wasn't available back then.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. No.

The Telegraph's a disreputable paper with their own agenda to push.

[islandmkl]

7. some friends and i tried to play darts while tripping once...

let's just say that didn't work out too good....

[juno jones]

8. If true

it sounds not so islamic, but very MKultra-ish.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Terrorism isn't Islamic.

:shrug:

[juno jones]

11. I know.

I think that's the point I was trying to make. Islam is pretty drug negative. Most real muslims are also quite peaceful. The Mumbai excercise is very possibly (and I have been usuing the words 'if' and 'possibly') an act designed to drive a bigger wedge between hindus and muslims in India and reflect badly on muslims the world over.

Personally I find the backchatter, the weird behind the scenes comments, like the drugs and the undetonated explosives, very interesting. Even IF this event weren't engineered by one of the intelligence culprits, they are doing their best to spin it certain ways in the press from the git-go. The 9-11 framing is something I find very interesting.


But I know islam in itself is nothing to be feared, although I much prefer sufism to wahabism philisophically.

PS: And the LSD thing stinks. Anyone who has taken the drug (like myself, several times) knows that it's effects aren't conducive to mass murder and military prescision. Heck, the CIA pretty much found that out in the 50's and 60's after trying it out a a truth serum, etc. I also remember from somewhere that LSD is not quickly tested for in the blood, but my information on that could be outdated.

Really, I just think something smells and the drug mentions have raised a couple of flags mostly for what substances they have been claimed them to be. Meth would have been somewhat believable (if strict muslims could at all be envisioned as drug takers which I find unlikely and if these guys WERE taking drugs, then that's prima facie evidence that they weren't devout muslims), acid isn't...unless one has watched too many 60's films.

[noonwitch]

9. Manson used LSD to "program" his followers into killing

But they weren't intoxicated at the time of the killings.

I can see it being used in a small dose with other drugs that cause more aggressive behavior, like cocaine or speed.

I think a lot of the terrorists get brainwashed in a similar way to how cult leaders operate. Throw some drugs into the mix, and you've got delusional killers. These kinds of attacks are personal, compared to 9-11. If they leaders want the terrorists to be unflinching in their violence, it takes some type of preparation.