Case Study on Mumbai Attacks Relevance

Introduction

Terrorism involves the utilization of violence to ensure a large population of people develops fear. In this case, those attacking the vast mass of people intend to generate terror among them through causing the death of innocent people. There are several features associated with terrorism. First, advanced technology serves as a useful tool that threatens the security of a targeted state. For instance, during the Mumbai attack, there were very high technology advancements which facilitated secure communication of the terrorists. Not only were the attackers able to communicate but they were also able to access and learn what was happening within their surroundings through the social media. The Mumbai attack showed how new technologies were being used by terrorist to control and exploit different events.

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Secondly, another characteristic that can be related to terrorism is highly training of the military. During the Mumbai attack, the terrorist had high training that enabled them to demonstrate adequate control during their operation. It was revealed that after the attackers hijacked Kuber area, the military comprising of ten gentlemen divided themselves into groups of fours and managed to attack six different places at the same time(Rizvi et al., 2015). As a result, the death of 172 individuals and lasted for 62 hours.

Thirdly, terrorism feature entails the use of improvised weapons that are quite small but dangerous. In most cases, they utilize devices which are explosive and portable arms which properly fits their team that tends to be highly mobile during operation. The explosive devices serve as the best form of weapons that enables them to kill a large group of people, especially where one of the terrorists commits suicide. When Mumbai was attacked, the terrorists employed massive shooting and utilized explosives(Rizvi et al., 2015). Thus, they covered a large area within a short time.

Arguably, although different terrorist attacks employ certain features; the Mumbai attack had some characteristics which appeared to be so unique for that incident only. First, a small number of terrorist conducted the raid, but it was well coordinated, sustained and carried out in a disciplined manner. Additionally, the small number of terrorists were able to cover quite a wide area of the metropolitan within a short period of time. The success that was achieved by the small group of terrorists is always associated with technology advancements.

In the same manner, during the Mumbai attack, low-fi tools and cell phones were highly used by the terrorists to give detailed information regarding the area where they were to attack and at the same time during the attack, the devices offered them an advantage tactically. No one understands how the offense took place. Furthermore, how the attackers were able to use communication devices effectively even without fear to accomplish their well-known plan took place is something that remains unique to date(Rizvi et al., 2015). Overall, technology was used by the Headley to prevent the attacking troop to be detected. The employed technology remains to be a unique form of intelligence only utilized during the Mumbai attack.

Evidently, the surprise tactic and preventing information monopoly stand out to be special tactics which were utilized during the Mumbai attack. In this case, the attackers invaded the area all over sudden and immediately accomplished their mission within a short time. During the scenario, the attackers were shown to avoid mining of data and keenly observed their real-time for the attack. In fact, during the attack, the terrorist carried their activities in a nonstop manner and was able to ensure that their information asymmetry was well balanced during their invasion of the place.

Reasonably, there is a possibility of the US having an attack similar to that which happened in Mumbai. In this case, the style which the terrorist used to invade Mumbai was facilitated by outstanding factors which could also promote the same form of attack happening in the United States. Part of the concern includes the advanced level of technology in the US. The level of technology in the US increased at a high rate, and this has allowed most people including terrorists to access relevant information about these states. Nevertheless, the communication level of terrorists and criminals in the US is also carried out efficiently and quite often. Thus, sharing of information regarding the US has become possible and easy. The advanced technology issue is similar to what happened in Mumbai before the attackers accomplished their mission.

Consequently, in the US there are very many smartphones which have been developed and utilized. Similar to what happened in Mumbai where Lashkar-Taiba phones were designed and issued with the aim of facilitating the attack, there is also a high chance that the US can also fall trap of allowing phones developed with the terrorist mission to be issued and used in their area. Hence, the attackers can easily make a connection and be able to attack the United States.

Overall, in the US the use of social media including Twitter and Facebook has highly increased. Thus, most residents of US tend to share relevant information through these public platforms. Similar to what happened in Mumbai whereby thousands of messages got posted on social media regarding the attack events, the same case is likely to occur where residents of US can in the same manner share attack information making it easier for the terrorists to follow what is taking place. These shows there is a need for those in the US to regulate or stop sharing terrorist events on social media if in any case it ever happens.

Likewise, the media, as well as other public sources of information in the US, should ensure that they do not share news on the tactics employed during a terror attack. Because like it happened in Mumbai the media kept sharing tactical information to the terrorists, and this enabled them to come up with unique techniques that allowed them to carry out their activities in new ways.Notably, public sources in the US should ensure that terrorist tactic is no longer part of the information which they share.

Before the Mumbai attack accomplishment Headley the leader kept visiting the area and collecting different photos and videos as well as tracing the key targets using GPS. The frequent visits allowed him to generate a map of their targeted region(Rizvi et al., 2015). Thus, there is a great concern about the visitors who find their way frequently in the US. It, therefore, shows that there is a need for the US to closely monitor what the frequent visitors do once they are in their lands to prevent terrorists' survey activities.

Reasonably, I do consider part of the concerns to be very legitimate especially the sharing on public platforms, frequent visits of foreigners and smartphones innovations. This is because these concerns can serve as US weak point which would support effective carrying out of terrorist activities.

As far as the goals of national preparedness goals are concerned, assessment of the response of India to Mumbai attacks is enhanced. It could be seen that India failed to prevent the Mumbai attack despite the officials of India receiving intelligence concerning the attack from their sources as well as those of US. The information was disregarded and was not shared broadly(Rizvi et al., 2015). On the other hand, the Indian security officers failed to protect the citizens adequately because the terrorists found their way through the sea showing that the officers at the coast were not keen on their work.

India failed to attain the mitigation goal because the security forces who tried to counteract the terrorists were not well equipped and they were unable to reduce the harmful activities of the attackers which took place as planned. Additionally, the response that the national security offered was not valid since it was too slow to hinder the attacks. The solution employed was termed to be a total failure tactically, strategically as well as operationally.Finally, the recovery goal was poorly applied. In this case, there were no airlifts and the media was not restricted to share terrorism information. Furthermore, poor communication and poor training skills that the operational security had limited their recovery capabilities.

Reference

Rizvi, S., & Kelly, J. L. (2015). The Continued Relevance of the November 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attack: Countering New Attacks With Old Lessons. Homeland Security Affairs, 11.