Mumbai attack and Intelligence:
Mumba attacks nicknamed 26/11 is one of the worst terrorist attacks in Indian soil. Mumbai being the economic capital of India has faced violence in the past. Survived one of the worst bombings of 1993 and many more of such incidents. The famous Dawood Ibrahim related to the 1993 attack is still on a free run. He remains a black mark in Indian history. As Dawood was once a local gangster turned terrorist, he has a huge lobby in Indian bureaucratic structure to evade legal action against him for several years till now. But what we gonna see in the oncoming events concerning Indian terror attack history, its gonna be a gamechanger.
Post Mumbai attack, whole India was standing on a volcano and people were in mixed emotions. From anger, agony, blame-game all the negativity surrounded us. The typical Indian attitude of reactive efforts was happening across the country. Rumors floated everywhere. Coastal India was on red alert. Politics started to show its role. The opposition demanded answers for the loss of life, intelligence failure, Lack of expertise to counter the terrorist attack of such kind, lack of security infra among domestic security agencies, etc. It was never-ending stuff. Several innocent lives, higher-ranking security agencies' lives were lost. I was following all the news via television media. I had a severe grudge on the Indian government for allowing such an attack to take place. I didn't have much understanding of the security infra needed for avoiding such incidents. But my grudge was a basic emotional outburst on the attack like any common citizen. From my past blogs, I already expressed my interest in military kinda stuff due to inspiration via Hollywood movies. So I had such kind of expectation from Government agencies to prevent such attacks. But later, my knowledge of these matters expanded post some great YouTube videos. So I came to understand the practical difficulties, diplomatic stuff, financial stuff, and other factors which decide these things for a country. But, still, the blame can be placed on the Indian government.
Any country around the world except a few exceptions, have armed forces with them. Intelligence is part of a country defense where there spy on their rival nations, rival groups, the terrorist organization even on its own agencies. That's part of their setup. There severe sub-departments of Intelligence units assisting in various areas of expertise. So, whenever an attack occurs in a country, the first department to be blamed is their intelligence unit. An attack occurred, brings big dent in the image of the Intelligence department. In most cases, the inter-department rivalry will result in miscommunication & result in a deadly situation. The recent SriLankan Church attack is the biggest example of an Intelligence failure by its own government due to fight among its own bureaucracy. It's a big shame to the SriLankan government. Whole global media wrote about. The biggest reason was certain bureaucracy officials had their allegiance to Buddhist missionaries where the Srilankan attack was on Churches especially that of SriLankan Tamils. The attack was carried by its own nationals in Muslim community. Such was the rot in their country, it was the loss of lives + reputation on the global stage. Post-LTTE, it was the worst attack in their Nation. A similar situation was in the Mumbai attack. The terrorist attackers were allegedly helped by some local fishermen. Terrorist arrival, navigation assistance was provided by local residents. The larger shame is that the Indian intelligence failed to proactively gather information on these acts of terror or failed to react when they received it. The way the attack happened surprised everyone from Security experts to the journalists. Terrorists created panic from the Mumbai Railway station to an individual house called Nariman House belonging to Jews community. Such was their organization and effectiveness of their evilness. The pathetic situation was that the local police were looking naked (unarmed) in front of a heavily armed terrorist. Before the right unit came to neutralist the attack, the attackers made a mess of innocent lives.
Whoever followed the attack via TV news channels were stunned to what they saw on it. Mumbai was burning with the blood of people. With Indian journalists many risked their lives to cover the story on the field, they also showed their ugly side. Especially, Indian TV media showed their gruesome greediness of gaining more TRP and public attention on these attacks, rather than ethics and common sense. As terrorist grip on the attack grew more, Television crew instead of aiding Indian security crew were helping terrorists. In the sense, the pattern or strategy of Indian defense was exposed, Tv News was actually fulfilling terrorist agenda to create fear, panic among the Indian population. Finally, after several hours of attack with the loss of hundreds of life, India was able to control the attack. Only one terrorist Ajmal Kasab was caught by the act of bravery by a Police constable Tukaram Omble but he was killed by Kasab when Constable tried to disarm Kasab. Later Kasab pleaded guilty on the basis he was sent by Islamic terrorist organization working with ISI. They brainwashed him and his companions that when died for their cause, they will reach heaven. With Kasab seeing his co-attackers die gruesomely, he later wept like an innocent kid in his hospital bed.
With judicial trial going on, political pressure on to hang Kasab, the Indian government took time by gathering intelligence based on Kasab confession. Also, with Indian judiciary with its complicated process took more time to decide the case. Finally, in 2012, Kasab was hanged to death.
The curious case of David Headley:
With the brief history of the Mumbai attack being talked above, the incident created an impact on me. It had a deep wound on my feelings as Indian. With days gone, the Mumbai attack was not part of my thought process, until 4 years back a documentary triggered my interest again. In my previous blogs, I have spoken more than 2-3 documentaries and my understanding on Terrorism grew more. But, here it's about a single documentary, but much deeper impact. It had a curious name 'American Terrorist'.
Americans are famous for creating many terrorist groups around the globe and lobby the world against their own creatures when it turns against Americans. From the Taliban to ISIS, American government agencies directly or indirectly worked for them and later against them. Isn't it Irony. That's what America's secret is being Worlds powerful nation. But the term 'American Terrorist' was so intriguing and made me watch the documentary. It was a revelation for me. Edward Snowden - one of our heroes in our previous blog, was also the hero here. His leaked documents on the American espionage revealed an interesting character - David Coleman Headley. US Media termed him American Terrorist. It triggered a great sense of uncertainty on National Security experts. An American was found to be involved with Terrorist organizations lobbying for them around the world without gaining the attention of US national security agencies.
Without Snowden leaking the documents, Headley could have escaped from Media attention, and also many dark secrets would have not come out. The documentary I watched was part of Investigative journalism on David Headley. It showcased, how Snowden's documents helped to track Headley and finally led him to arrest. He serving prison now. Without the leaked documents, US government agencies could have let him go or he might have gone some other way. But before his arrest, Headley did unlimited damage using his role as part of a terrorist group. David Headley was a drug dealer turned terrorist.
David Headley had many things unusual for a usual terror suspect. Though labeled American terrorists, Headley was Half Pakistani and Half American. He had two faces. Islamic faces in Pakistan and Americans face when touring for his Job. This dual mask helped to camouflage himself escaping Security agencies' radar. Headley spent his childhood in Pakistan with his father. His American mother at a certain stage divorced his Pakistani father and returned to America. David Headley at his teens, with his rusty relationship with his stepmother, he moved back along with his biological mother. With a comfortable life under his mother's shade, like a typical spoiled American kid, he turned to drugs especially Heroin. Later tried to earn money through the same. With his Pakistan contacts, he involved in drug dealing there and visited Pakistan several times with his friends. At a certain point, he was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. With his negotiation skills, he accepted to turn as a Mole against the Drug dealings. But he literally played with DEA, using his powers revealed few drug catchments but did business on a larger scale through other channels. With DEA fed upon his activities, he was later brought back to the US & a trial against him was done with a leveraged Jail sentence. His little leveraged sentence was for his mole activities. This also led to certain changes that led from being a drug dealer to a lead suspect on terrorism charges. His Jail sentence + his Pakistan upbringing had an impact on his thought process. He turned himself towards Islam and turned Devout Muslim. Now David Headley to Daood Sayed Gilani, his new identity.
With some loopholes in the US Legal system, he goes on early release from jail with his Marriage proposal in Pakistan. With his Marriage scenario, he later got in touch with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist organization. His anti-India stances post his childhood memories, his drug-dealing contacts helped immensely LET organization to gain more strength. He later moved back to the USA just as a part of the LET strategy. His behavior on Sep 9/11 attack on the USA made people around him suspicious. He was in the FBI loop for the first time. But later DEA intervened in the FBI's watch. This shows how effective David was in lobbying his contacts. We can understand why LET had David Headley as their key figure in helping the organization grow bigger. David Headley with a license to roam freely started to work for LET without much attention from US security agencies. Several visits helped Headley gain basic training from LET. Apart from basic training of warfare, he was later moved to the diplomatic activities of LET. His American face helped this agenda of LET very effectively.
The strange fact is this stuff about David Headley was all revealed after Snowden leaks. Headley can be called an invisible man in the eyes of any anti-terrorist agency. David's Headley case took a big turn when he was found to be involved in the Mumbai terrorist attack. It was a big shock to everyone. the problem was the revelation on David Headley's role was revealed very late. That too courtesy of Snowden's leak. With our discussion on the documentary on American terrorists, the documentary reveals many interesting digital data on David Headley and his activities. With US agencies monitoring terrorist moments and activities, David managed to bypass the monitoring of the system. Leaked data contained David Headley's mail communication with his handlers. His role was defined via mails. Concerning the Mumbai attack, I already told that terrorists managed to carry on their activities with ease. They knew the know-how of Mumbai in their palms. The critical part of David's role in the Mumbai attack was, he was the one who provided GPS points, surveillance data gathered as tourist and businessman of place the terrorist targeted. In the disguise of a businessman, he came to Mumbai, set up a travel company the same he used to smuggle drugs long back in the USA. He also visited as a tourist with his 3rd wife. With these visits to Mumbai, he even befriended few celebrities. It all happened due to his American national mask. Through his LET and ISI handlers, he geotagged key locations from Taj Hotel to the Jews Nariman House. The irony part is, he went to the Nariman house as a Jew. Such was his role. With geotagged latitude and longitude, he marked the places for the terrorist attack. CCTV location later revealed these bitter truth's crystal clearly. Also, the camouflage of the Digital data was full of coded email which never raised a red flag on the terrorism monitoring system.
Also, later the documentary digs more on David's role in the Mumbai attack. But it had more dark secrets more than David's role in the Mumbai attack. The leaked emails pointed there was more than David. Though David escaped monitoring, his handlers were part of the monitoring setup. That revealed more secrets. With the help of David GPS data, the attack started in Mumbai. After an hour of the attack, with world attention going towards it, an interesting thing happened. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a UK government intelligence agencies found that they had access to a direct control center which was aiding the Mumbai attackers. They literally were digitally watching the LET control center from their back. The documentary carries audio recordings of the conversation between the terrorists which even Indian intelligence never had. It will bleed your heart. Such was this. The GCHQ recordings also exposed how the attackers were using Media cameras as their eyes to inform their troops on what is going to happen. It was shocking to watch. GCHQ spy watch was just icing on the cake on the subject of international intelligence functioning. The problem was that an International agency could back watch the terrorist call center with ease but there was never an intelligence-sharing with India based on this at least during the course of the attack. It all happened very late. International agencies were watching LET more closely than India. They even had a report that tracking LET was a successful operation despite their failure to stop or reduce the Mumbai terror attack with their sophisticated intelligence. Without Snowden leaking such documents, these glaring intelligence backstabbing would never be exposed. India was made to look like a poor victim standing deserted.
Post Mumbai attack, UK intelligence agencies shared the details of the conspirators. But David never got caught, but others were. Pakistan's government was forced to take action on the LET members involved in the attack after daring pieces of evidence against them. It was more reactive than a proactive reaction by Indian and other international agencies. If India had such a sophisticated setup to monitor such terror organization, we could have prevented such attacks without dependencies. It exposed our biggest weakness in the Intelligence domain. David Headley roaming free post the Mumbai attack had a very successful operation to his profile and was ready for the next challenge. Targeting a weakly organized country, David was ready for his next role in Europe. I would like to discuss this in the next blog.
To be honest, I have tried to simplify the David case based on the documentary. Would highly recommend watching the documentary to understand the act of terror on a whole new perspective.
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(To be Continued..)
Observed the documentary is removed from the official channel. But a similar minded person like me has uploaded it on his YouTube channel. Please watch the attached link to see the documentary.
(To be Continued..)
Observed the documentary is removed from the official channel. But a similar minded person like me has uploaded it on his YouTube channel. Please watch the attached link to see the documentary.
