Mumbai Attacks and their impact

[parvati]

Sir,

The Dengue issue is all over the Indi-Pak mainstream(very mainstream) and social media. I think the Indian Government should not have done it in secrecy given South Asia's propensity towards conpiracy theories.

From the Indian Defense Forum:http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/p...ged-death.html

Kasab died due to high BP and cholesterol, thanks to all the rich food served to him. After he was found dead, they hanged his dead body just to show that he did not die due to natural causes!

Nonetheless- one less terrorist on this planet, and it was long due!!!

[SWJ Blog]

For Mumbai, Justice If Not Peace

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[davidbfpo]

The BIJ return with a lengthy article asking 'Four Disturbing Questions About the Mumbai Terror Attack':http://www.propublica.org/article/fo...-terror-attack

Q. Why doesn't Pakistan capture Sajid Mir?
Q. What was the full extent of the role of Pakistani intelligence in Mumbai?
Q. What risk does Lashkar-e-Taiba pose in the future?
Q. Why didn't U.S. authorities stop Headley sooner?

It ends with a lawyer's quote:

Headley proved that for all our changes in security, we are not much safer.....It was too easy. When the real big bad terrorist showed up, no one saw him.

[omarali50]

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/

[omarali50]

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

Above link updated with explanation of sorts

[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]

This academic study was published in March 2011, with the title 'Information control and terrorism: Tracking the Mumbai terrorist attack through twitter' and was discovered via Twitter today!

The study is behind a paywall:http://link.springer.com/article/10....796-010-9275-8

So here is the blog comment, first the author's bio:

Patrick Meier (PhD) is an internationally recognized thought leader on the application of new technologies for crisis early warning, humanitarian response and resilience.

It starts with, my emphasis:

Those who are still sceptical about the value of Twitter for real-time situational awareness during a crisis ought to ask why terrorists likely think otherwise. In 2008, terrorists carried out multiple attacks on Mumbai in what many refer to as the worst terrorist incident in Indian history. This study, summarized below, explains how the terrorists in question could have used social media for coordination and decision-making purposes.

The study concluded, in part:

...we conclude that the Mumbai Twitter page indirectly contributed to enhancing the situational awareness level of Mumbai terrorists, although we cannot exclude the possibility of its direct contribution as well....Because terrorists’ political goals function as interpretative filters to process situational information, understanding of adversaries’ political goals may reduce costs for security operation teams to monitor and decide which tweets need to be controlled.

Link:http://irevolution.net/2013/02/14/te...-used-twitter/

Ah, controlling tweets - now there is a dilemma. I do not understand the technology, but know a tweet can be withdrawn and the system can hinder activity. One wonders if anyone has thought through an operating protocol. Plus I assume Twitter is not the only provider.

[Red Rat]

Social Media is becoming a significant factor in real time situational awareness:

Ushahidi is a good example of the potential and Google is experimenting with the same concept.

The ability to monitor near real time social media feeds for content is also spreading, again looking at Kenya: Umati

[davidbfpo]

From an observer of the social media scene, with my emphasis:

The use of Social Media for Situational Awareness is a real issue and here is some evidence to back up what was suspected. I think the authorities are somewhat slow in thinking about the implications of this. I am just starting to see some interest from the commercial risk management sector but there needs to be much more momentum here. We are clearly somewhat behind the bad guys.

[AdamG]

Yoo hoo. See also
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...9&postcount=46

[davidbfpo]

The attached paper given at a Mumbai conference is more a commentary on the continuing inability of India to get a coherent CT strategy and structure in place. the author Vappala Balachandran writes a regular column on such matters; in the past he was a police officer and intelligence officer. He also co-authored a state report on the attacks, which is linked on an earlier post.

[davidbfpo]

I have moved the recent posts on the US declaration of a reward for the location / capture of LeT's leader to the LeT's thread, where they fit better:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=13337

Please post there!

[davidbfpo]

A FP article which reviews the prospects for complex urban assaults, with many links within and worthy of adding here:http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts...rban_terrorism

To date there have been no repeats of Mumbai in the West and rightly the author reminds us that we are the lucky ones:

The terrorist attacks in Kabul, Mumbai, and Pakistan constitute gruesome evidence of the important role of sound command and control and intelligence in dealing with the urban adversary's potential for operational disruption in crowded cities.

[carl]

David:

Allow me a bit of chauvinism but I think a big part of it is that the average western street cops are just better and will react to contain the situation without any central direction.

[Ray]

I would not know about how efficiently the Police of the West can handle terrorists, but in India the Police is not geared to handle terrorists.

In India, with regional political parties holding sway in many States, the issue of federalism has also surfaced.

The States find the Central overbearance and practically taking over the States' responsiblility as an infringement to the concept of federalism.

This is stil to be resolved.

Till that time, the terrorist wil have a field day!

[blueblood]

David:

Allow me a bit of chauvinism but I think a big part of it is that the average western street cops are just better and will react to contain the situation without any central direction.

Yes, they definitely are but then again money talks. The budget of NYPD alone is more than the combined budget of two of the largest paramilitaries of India i.e., CRPF and BSF. Jurisdiction of NYPD is tri state area and has ~35,000 employees.

On the other hand BSF guards the nearly 7500 kms of border and CRPF's jurisdiction is entire India and have a total of 550,000 employees. And trust me these are the "well funded" agencies. Salary of a NYPD police officer (corporal) is more than 4 times than that of an Indian Assistant Supritendent (Captain equivalent).

Now you do the math.