Incredible.

“PARIS — A day after the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed over 100 people, one question remained as impenetrable as the smoke that still billowed from two of the city’s landmark hotels: who carried out the attacks?

The Indian authorities say they captured some of the attackers, so some answers may emerge soon. But for now, their identities remain a mystery. Surviving witnesses recalled the gunmen as masked young men in unremarkable T-shirts and jeans, some heavily armed, wearing backpacks filled with weapons. The only claim of responsibility came from a group that may not even exist.

The assaults represented a marked departure in scope and ambition from other recent terrorist attacks in India, which have singled out local people rather than foreigners and hit single rather than multiple targets.

The Mumbai assault, by contrast, was seemed directed at foreigners, involved hostage taking and was aimed at multiple and highly symbolic targets.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India said the attacks probably had “external linkages,” reflecting calculations among Indian officials that the level of planning, preparation and coordination could not have been achieved without help from experienced terrorists. But some security experts insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims, with a domestic agenda.

The e-mail message taking responsibility that was sent to Indian media outlets on Wednesday night said the attackers were from a group called Deccan Mujahedeen. Deccan is a neighborhood of the Indian city of Hyderabad. The word also describes the middle and south of India, which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahedeen is the commonly used Arabic word for holy fighters.

But security experts drew a blank on any such organization. Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London, called it a “front name” and said the group was “nonexistent.”

In all the years since 9/11 whenever there was a terrorist attack the question, “Was Al Qaeda involved?” has rightly been asked, but for all the wrong reasons - at least by the media.

Many times we’ve seen the media ask this question purely to discredit the efforts of the Bush administration to combat terrorism. Sounds harsh, but then we are talking about primarily the New York Times which has leaked more national security secrets than Mata Hari over the last eight years. Part of the reason - I believe - they’re in such financial dire straights. The American people hate a traitor and Bill Keller and his band of merry reporters should have been tried and hung years ago.

But I digress.

The question is simply stupid because Al Qaeda isn’t a “definitive” entity with a specific marker, it’s an ideology with ever evolving characteristics. Again, the message to Barack Obama from Al Zawahiri was very troubling. It was full of the usual rhetoric and blathering, but it also used specific language that unless you understand the dynamics of radical Islam and indeed Islam in general you might have missed the significance.

The press - being in the tank with Obama since the beginning - won’t talk about it, but no doubt they are aware of it, at least in some quarters. Yet for those who know there is a distinct racism within traditional Islam and especially in radical Islam. While Zawahiri’s words are the words of a madman, we need to pay heed.

“The Muslim Ummah received with extreme bitterness your hypocritical statements to and stances towards Israel, which confirmed to the Ummah that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims.” He said, ” And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning “House Negroes” are confirmed.”

Unforturnately the Ny Times - as usual - is actually trying to mask it. To be more blunt, this is a specific threat