Mumbai Attacks and their impact

[Ray]

Psyops in Pakistan seem to be determined to make hay with a stupid Indian newspaper headline. This may not be smart..

http://www.brownpundits.com/2013/07/...umbai-attacks/

That is rich.

Maybe the officer could explain how Hafeez Saeed and the LeT are part of the Indian intelligence!

The man is said to be on vendetta to get to some officers of his organisation who have, as per him, not given him a fair deal.

And then there is a whole lot of politics.

This is an election year.

The Govt has performed dismally to include total looting by Ministers including possibly the 'honest' Prime Minister (or helping his mentor) and so it has to organise issues that diverts the attention.

The simple question is that how does it help India to organise terrorism against itself?

Indeed, if it does, what are the motivations to do it?

Destabilise India and for who? Foreign interests?

Too outlandish to feel India is controlled by foreign interests.

And if it is true, then let us once again be a colony so that we know where we stand!

[omarali50]

[davidbfpo]

A NYT piece on the information and intelligence before the Mumbai attacks. A choice passage:

What happened next may rank among the most devastating near-misses in the history of spycraft. The intelligence agencies of the three nations did not pull together all the strands gathered by their high-tech surveillance and other tools, which might have allowed them to disrupt a terror strike so scarring that it is often called India’s 9/11.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/wo...=67232673&_r=1

Many insights are within the article and rightly an Indian politician ends with:

The key is the analysis, we didn’t have it.

[omarali50]

But isnt this a bit of "grabbing the wrong end of the stick"? Modern intelligence gathering generates more data than can possibly be analyzed in real time by human analysts. The biggest problem is not that the human analyst did not pick up X out of all random bits; it is that the human analysts did not have a good idea of where they should have been looking most carefully.
That does not imply a fixed set of priorities, but it does mean having a constantly updated model that captures where the biggest problems are likely to come from.
In this case, it does not seem that neither Western analysts or Indian ones were fully awake to the possibilities.
Of course there will be surprises. But at that point, should this have been such a total surprise?
I dont know. I am not an intelligence analyst. But those who are: what do you think? in retrospect, should it have been such a shock?

[omarali50]

btw, another judgement in Lakhvi's favor.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1153831/ihc...cks-mastermind

Being a Pakistani, I tend to suspect that "the fix is in" (i.e. the US and the GOP have agreed that low level Kashmir Jihad is the best option to siphon off various explosive young men who might otherwise explode in more sensitive locations), but what do more rationally trained people think? Happenstance? Coincidence? or enemy action?

[davidbfpo]

A sharp review by Adrian Levy, a UK-based investigative journalist in an Indian website; entitled 'Despite Headley’s Warning, U.S. Prioritised Capturing Bin Laden Over Saving Mumbai'. Leaving aside Headley (who was eventually convicted in the USA) there are other aspects.

A stinging last paragraph:

Of course the US did not carry out 26/11. And it would be wrong to accuse Western security agencies of even having exacerbated it. Criminal killers did that. But what Western governments and their agencies did do was —of course –act in their own naked self interest, elevating the targeting of Osama bin Laden, over the threat to Mumbai, an insight into the real world of hard knocks, where special relationships are no replacement for rigorous National Security.

Link:https://sniwire.com/despite-headleys...saving-mumbai/

[davidbfpo]

He is a "lurker" and starts with:

My analysis, from different angles, on whether we are prepared to face a similar attack like 26/11.

In the 'Indian Express': 'Securing India- A decade after 26/11 terrorist methodology has changed, state response remains woefully same.'
Link:https://indianexpress.com/article/26...india-5464060/

In 'The Tribune': 'So it may never happen again..Centre-State synergy is needed between police and Intel agencies to combat terror.'
Link:https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/co...in/688820.html

From 'The Mint: 'India is not better prepared than 2008'
Link:http://https://www.livemint.com/Opin...than-2008.html

He "pulls no punches" and what has not happened is a national political decision to simply "stay calm and carry on as normal".