Mumbai Attacks and their impact

[Bill Moore]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28221884/

MUMBAI, India - When the attackers arrived on the shores of Mumbai last month, they had studied satellite images of the city, were carrying handheld GPS sets and were communicating with their handlers via the Internet and satellite phone.

Many of the Indian police they encountered did not even have walkie-talkies.

The Mumbai gunmen not only overwhelmed security forces with their weaponry and willingness to die, but also with their sophisticated use of technology, security experts said.

This is an overly simplistic conclusion, the attackers were able to overwhelm the police because they conducted a "surprise" attack, and quickly exploited the inherent confusion. They could have done this without the use of cell phone to some degree. Obviously the Indian police were not properly equipped, armed, nor trained, which reflects poorly on the government, but even if they were the first couple of hours of the attack would have still been chaos.

[Ron Humphrey]

Columbine, The Snipers, Recent School and Church shootings all very simplistic compared to the Mumbai tactical operation. One definately hopes quite a bit has been done in our LE communities to recognize and adapt to the possibilities of that sort of thing here.