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Should Have Known Better
It is easy to point a finger of blame after the deed is done. Hindsight is often employed to no avail.
However, evidence is emerging that there were serious failures of collating spy intelligence in the run-up to the attacks on Mumbai.
Paramount is the disregard of India’s domestic amalgam security services – a lose cohesion of equivalents of MI5 and the FBI – to act on specific source information from its sister foreign intelligence organisation (RAW) and sensitive details transmitted as early as September by the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
The British explained details of training of young future terrorists at locations in Pakistan, including the exact location of the threat to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
American intelligence operations agencies also warned, a month later in October, to RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), India’s external intelligence organisation, that there was a plot against Mumbai, based on an intercepted satellite phone call to a number in Pakistan known to be used by a leader of a Kashmiri terror group known as Lashkar e-Taiba.
Neither British or American signals reached Mumbai’s local police chiefs or marine harbour authoritires.
Contributions to this report have been made by members of British intelligence services familiar with relevant information on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, 1, December, security forces relinquished charge of the 105-year-old landmark hotel to its owners. Hundreds of millions of Rupees have been pledged for restoration.
Maybe, too much, too late.
