I'm about to go to sleep (really messed up hours ), but wanted to post a little about the grave situation happening on the other end of the world. A major (and apparently ongoing) terrorist attack is underway right now on the Indian city of Mumbai. Hotels, train stations, and restaurants appear to have been targeted, and there seems to be a hostage situation going on, involving foreigners, maybe Brits or Americans. The pictures are grim, to say the least, and things are far from under control. Grenades, rifles, and some heavy artillery appear to be involved, and the dead count keeps rising with every new report. Indian commandos and special forces are trying to resolve the crisis, but it's chaos all over the city. Another day of terror and sadness to which, regretably, we seem to have gotten used to. -http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5240126.ece -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1089711/At-80-people-killed-250-wounded-India-terror-attacks-gunmen-hunt-Brits-Americans.html (some of the images are strong, you have been warned)
Its pretty scary. I fear that there will be a backlash against Muslims in India and that will stir up more trouble in that part of the world.
A very well planned and co-ordinated attack. Multiple sites attacked simultaneously. A very hard scenario for security forces to respond to. Most agencies are only resourced to respond to one major incident a a time. Just the radio communications required for command and control in responding would have been considerable. This attack was probably months in the making. The logistics would have been awesome, requiring substantial funding. No amateur hour event this time. The Indians did a fantastic job. They would have been required to set up from scratch, in real time, a command structure for multiple sites involving a number of different agencies. Develop an overall strategy with ten different tactical plans, handle international demands and concerns, plus cater for medical evacs from, again, multiple sites. The staging and logistics or the response would have dwarfed most other scenarios. The postevent investigations again will be incredibly complex. Some big lessons there for the rest of us. A big rethinking and rewriting job for many jurisdictions I think.
As far as response to multiple events occuring simultaneously, wouldn't the command/control structure that the Californian firefighters use be a reasonable model within the US? Even the amount of C2, logistics, police control, traffic, Federal interaction for one huge brushfire with multiple 'fronts' and dozens of fire companies responding seems like a tremendous 'ad hoc' effort that is practiced several times throughout the year. Seems like today's news is highlighting that local Indian citizens are upset because the gov't had advanced warning. Time will tell....
Absolutely. Good Point. The "firies" over here often have the same predicament as California. Co-ordination of a response to a large fire is quite an effort in itself. I guess the only difference is the phenomenon and the response capability. I think that we have to have a look at the fire control and command structure as well as India. I doubt if there are many jurisdictions that can cope with multiple terrorist attacks that occur simultaneously. While the Indian Government may have known of the potential, I doubt that the police chief did and, in particular, the police commander at the start of the incident. From a flat start, I think the response did very well. I understand ,from the media, that the terrorists had intended a casualty list of around 5,000. They did not get that. If they seriously thought that they might, then they underestimated the response. Intelligence failures always cause a flat footed response. The question is how well you recover. The Indians, again from the media reports, recovered.
10 terrorists attack ten targets simultaneously (?) according to media accounts. Yet other media accounts have groups of terrorists at some locations (according to witnesses). To me it seems like there must have been more than10 terrorists and some of them may have just disappeared into the crowds (or are among the dead). I agree that the USA must be prepared for such an attack and be able to dispatch independent teams to respond to each attack center.
I agree that some would have got away in the crowds and confusion. You can also bank on the fact that outside each site there would have been a support team for that purpose and ongoing intelligence. You can also bet there were some employed in the hotels etc. Want to bet that there was a live feed back to the planners in Pakistan! The Australian Government has today announced a new white paper for discussion on counter terrorism, no doubt brought forward by Mumbai. The terrorists will not be able to step into the same water twice, but they will evolve their attacks. I think they will concentrate more on the US allies than the US. America must be a hard egg to crack because there have not been any attacks since 9/11. No room to be complacent of course. I am sure that the Secret Service is especially on its toes.
I predict the next Mumbai-like attack will be in the United Kingdom. The U.K. Police don't generally carry firearms (although some special units do), and would be sitting ducks for terrorists with AK-47's. A coordinated attack could kill hundreds before an effective armed police response could be mustered.
That's true, but wouldn't British Intelligence catch them before the act? I hear MI5 is quite effective in that role, not to mention that in the UK, "Big Brother" is always watching.
I think the UK would be a priority target, but the Brits have very good intelligence and would be all over this after Mumbai. They will be on high alert, but agreed a "high risk" area. Unfortunately, with great fear in my bones, Australia must be a classed as having high potential for an attack. We are armed and now forewarned, but we are in the neighbourhood,closely allied to the US, and have a free, unsuspicious society. We also have Commandos and other Special Forces in the hotly contested area of Afghanistan, unlike a lot of the European countires, so we may be considered a higher priority for an attack by the terrorists than the Europeans.
I think the CIA/NSA are just as effective as MI-5, and they whiffed on 9/11. No security agency is infallible.
