Lessons from Mumbai

Campus Report ^ | February 3, 2009 | Heather Latham

[bs9021]

Lessons from Mumbai

by: Heather Latham, February 03, 2009

In the second episode of a Senate hearing about what can be learned from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, five senators and four witnesses discuss what has been done and what still needs to be done.

The first witness was Brian Michael Jenkins. He is the Senior Advisor at RAND Corporation. He argues that terrorists are smart: “Terrorists are dangerous when they kill; they’re even more dangerous when they think….The masterminds of the Mumbai attack displayed sophisticated strategic thinking in their meticulous planning, in their choice of targets, their tactics, their efforts to achieve multiple objectives.” He also says that their only really advanced technology is with regards to communications: “in Mumbai, the terrorists demonstrated that with simple tactics and low-tech weapons, they can produce vastly disproportionate results…. The attack was carried out by just ten men, armed with easily-obtained assault weapons, pistols, hand grenades, simple improvised assault explosive devices—little more than the arsenal of a 1940s infantryman. Except they had with them 21st Century communications technology—cell phones, satellite phones, Blackberrys, GPS locators.” Jenkins also asserts that terrorists want a high body count, and they go to places congested with people, like public transit areas, to get such a count.

The second witness was Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He starts by discussing the actual terrorist group they believed initiated the attacks—Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)....

[basil]

“Terrorists are dangerous when they kill;

Had a bit of a NS Sherlock moment there.

[MahatmaGandu]

No reason why the terrorists can’t attack in the USA. The best places for them to attack are colleges and universities where the students are all disarmed and the security guards are quick to say “STOP!! Or I’ll say STOP!! again!!”