Adrian Levy
There are thence many reasons why 26/11 should never live forgotten. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 megalopolis was taken hostage in addition to inward a democratising human activeness of brutality neither the pathetic or the rich were spared, Indian, Jewish in addition to international targets attacked, making this a universal human activeness of terror that inward many ways —its scale, visibility in addition to duration —was far worse than anything else endured inward the epoch of terror nosotros are living through. The attackers sailed in, exploiting a long-warned-of vulnerability, almost which hundreds of reports —demanding the amend securing of the coast —lay gathering dust. Then in that location was the ventriloquism practised during the raid —ten gunmen remotely controlled past times shadowy handlers who watched their progress via round-the-clock cable tidings feeds that were never limited or fifty-fifty cut. Inside the buildings, captured loud-mouthed politicians in addition to oligarchs gave alive interviews to reporters, complaining almost their predicament to tidings channels, their forceful personalities jeopardising their lives in addition to those of others, past times giving away their locations in addition to helping the terrorists decipher what was going on inward places where in that location was no visual feed.
To thicken the fog in addition to deepen the panic, the terror command reached out to its hitmen on the the world using leased Internet telephone lines, making it possible to eavesdrop the calls but non locate where they were coming from —the digital equivalent to a dead missive of the alphabet box.
The creation of a seeming city-wide footprint for the attack, i that appeared far bigger than it was, saw taxis deployed to unwittingly comport timed explosive devices, killing the drivers in addition to paralysing the city, alongside explosions reported inward distant neighbourhoods. The disconnect betwixt under-funded world in addition to affluent, go-it-alone individual sectors meant that safety measures presented past times the police delineate in addition to municipality were undone past times hotel in addition to eating seat managers —who perceived them as undermining commercial considerations, a friction that remains a relevant today. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 legion of brave cops had pathetic weapons. Bad cops ran away. Entrepreneurial Special Forces defied civic obstructions, traffic in addition to bad equipping, using faulty equipment that was non jibe for purpose, to lastly defeat the killers inward the city. There are to a greater extent than benchmarks.
This appalling, ground-breaking human activeness of terror was never fully excavated —transparently —by the authorities at the the world or national level. Instead, the Pradhan committee was hired in addition to produced a desultory 68- page study spell inward other countries similar attacks prompted the world display of hundreds of thousands of pages of testimony in addition to analysis. See the 9/11 in addition to 7/7 archives for examples. The lack of this variety of visible, profound audit meant that the world was never re- assured, victims were never appeased, spell the perceived defensive posture of the urban heart in addition to soul was also never bolstered.
Digging deeper, 26/11 is a permanent reminder that spell it is truthful that no urban heart in addition to soul anywhere inward the Earth would cause got come upward out good from an onslaught of this magnitude, it is as truthful that Bombay did peculiarly badly. And nosotros should state this loudly, on this anniversary, thence as to brand certain legislators hear, stopping the mistaken chauvinism that tells Mumbaikars that everything was fine.
While the police delineate in addition to intelligence service similar to state nowadays that 26/11 was exactly a failure of imagination, in addition to that all services inward the terminate acted effectively, these night days are genuinely a desultory reminder that 26/11 was anything but a failure of imagination.
Numerous intel feeds –derived from foreign-provided humint in addition to techint –described the oncoming onslaught alongside clarity rarely seen inward these kinds of operations: the probable targets, providing fifty-fifty a make of dates. There was more. These numerous reports suggested how many attackers would live ranged against the city, how they would live deployed (by boat), the weapons they would live carrying, in addition to their strategy upon docking. The reports that also suggested landing areas for the ocean-bound laid on —warned likewise of collaboration inward Bombay past times citizens —but also past times at to the lowest degree i source within the the world or municipal safety apparatus.
And the presaging of 26/11 inward intelligence shape demonstrated several other unpalatable truths. The internecine skirmishing betwixt safety agencies within Bharat limited Mumbai’s chances of preventing in addition to and thence ending the onslaught. The mistrust sown betwixt R&AW in addition to IB, in addition to betwixt IB in addition to police, a variety of stove-piping that effected CIA in addition to FBI equally, making 9/11 far harder to prevent, meant that intelligence that was passed along the trouble arrived at its resting indicate inward a piecemeal fashion, extraordinarily slowly, alongside reports continually trimmed in addition to tailored, until the senior inspector (30 years inward service who was genuinely doing front end trouble work) received unmarried lines of teaching that did non reverberate the edifice gravity of what was coming, or its context in addition to timescale. But alongside an fifty-fifty sharper expect into the intel gathering in addition to reporting procedure prior to 26/11 what tin also live seen is that R&AW’s failings (in particular) was long foreseen past times the wisest heads at R&AW. These senior officers cause got continually canvassed politicians for rootage in addition to branch reform, alarm that R&AW has go past times away calcified past times beingness conjoin to bureaucratic structures that thwart flexible hiring in addition to firing, proscribing rapid advertisement —old protectionist measures that also ensure R&AW volition go past times away on to live unattractive to professional person immature candidates from all ethnicities in addition to religions, denying the unusual intelligence service access to specialists to thwart exceptional unusual policy in addition to technical challenges.
An agency without a charter, in addition to petty working over- sight, whose opacity serves recalcitrant officers to a greater extent than than it does Parliament, or Bharat —where of course of study many officers are brilliant, insightful, long-suffering patriots hewn inward the ikon of legends similar ‘Gary’ Saxena —is ranged against a constant bombardment past times hi-tech, lawless regional rivals —and those inward the West —operating within mercurial, gratis flowing, organisations alongside no limits to their ambition, their access to novel technology, their embracing of classless, casteless, colour defying innovation, agencies chop-chop learning, languages in addition to alongside a remit to locomote alongside them. Which leads me to a terminal observation almost 26/11 —one that is component of the mix when New Delhi weighs upward the novel Indo-Pacific, in addition to the terms of that novel alliance. What should never live forgotten is that 26/11 was ultimately a pathological aspect of naked self-interest.
The terror controllers had their narrow, bloody agenda —undermining a weak President inward Pakistan, who had reached out to India, in addition to of course of study the savaging of a urban heart in addition to soul inward Bharat that remains symbolic of the subcontinent’s dreams. There is a feel also that 26/11 was an human activeness of revenge for the constant, nagging bloodbath inward Pakistan’s fiscal hub of Karachi (which around encounter as hastened past times India). But the U.S.A. in addition to Europe also had peel inward the game.
A source for all of that rich intel that came to Bharat earlier the Bombay attacks was Daood Gillani aka David Headley. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 unopen parsing of his modus operandi shows that the sociopath continually used those closest to him to acquire himself out of a fix.
Busted alongside his heroin smuggling friends inward Pakistan, he got them convicted in addition to himself off the hook. When he was caught carmine handed inward Chicago doing the same, he traded his liberty to go for the U.S.A. DEA, turning on the U.S.A. mob. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 source for the U.S.A. DEA, he continued to traffick inward Islamic Republic of Pakistan in addition to post service 9/11 when all Confidential Informers were re-assessed along ethnic in addition to communal grounds, as American sought useful Muslims to brand feel of the Islamist onslaught, Daood Gillani was handed over to the FBI that was treatment the criminal inquiry into the 9/11 plotters. That criminal illustration that required arrests in addition to trials would live undermined past times the requirements of the CIA. As Headley was passed from the FBI to CIA, thence the agency that was charged alongside capturing or killing the 9/11 figurehead Osama bin Laden —by whatsoever way necessary, worked against those attempting to acquire the guilty tried.
As David Headley cased Mumbai, he gave upward details of the impending functioning to his U.S.A. handers, who repackaged the intel, in addition to sent it along the trouble to R&AW without (as required past times practiced merchandise craft) always revealing the source or the source’s proximity, allow lone his identity. Then Headley doubled down. To rest inward the field, in addition to inward play for the Bombay attacks, he began to render his U.S.A. handlers alongside concrete proof that he had also got close to Al Qaeda, successfully reaching out to gun-for-hire Ilyas Kashmiri, an LeT commander who had thrown his lot inward alongside the Arabs inward FATA. Kashmiri had piecemeal access to Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri, but deep contact alongside the Al Qaeda scheme below him, of couriers in addition to land commanders. After years of stalling, Headley in addition to his proffer were likewise attractive, the arch betrayer kept inward the field, inching towards Osama, fifty-fifty as Bombay burned.
Of course of study the U.S.A. did non comport out 26/11. And it would live incorrect to accuse Western safety agencies of fifty-fifty having exacerbated it. Criminal killers did that. But what Western governments in addition to their agencies did do was —of course of study –act inward their ain naked self interest, elevating the targeting of Osama bin Laden, over the threat to Mumbai, an insight into the existent Earth of difficult knocks, where special relationships are no replacement for rigorous National Security.
(The writer is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker in addition to the writer of The Siege, a mass on the 26/11 terror onslaught inward Mumbai. Views are personal.)
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