What went wrong: The inside story

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Shishir Gupta Tags : terror, mumbai Posted: Friday , Dec 26, 2008 at 1121 hrs

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The Intelligence failure in the run-up to the November 26 attacks and the crossed wires during the 60-hour siege: Shishir Gupta reconstructs

A day after P Chidambaram took over as the Union Home Minister, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, Intelligence Bureau Director P C Haldar and Maharashtra Director General of Police A K Roy met in his chamber to discuss the Mumbai terror attacks. Roy is said to have told them that the public was “extremely angry” and that India should militarily retaliate against Pakistan in order to teach them a lesson.

Later that evening, the top bureaucrats, without the minister, assembled again in Gupta's room. With the NSA listening, Roy asked Haldar why the November 20 intelligence alert on a Lashkar-e-Toiba ship, given to the Coast Guard and Naval Headquarters, was not passed on to the Mumbai Police. Haldar bluntly replied that the Mumbai Police could do nothing on the high seas, clearly indicating that the Navy and the Coast Guard had failed to deliver.

The alerts sent by the IB in the past three years to the Mumbai Police and the action taken were again discussed threadbare at a meeting in Nagpur on December 19 between Roy, newly sworn in Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and State Home Minister Jayant Patil. There was concurrence on the need to have a high-level inquiry, which could be headed by R D Pradhan, who was home secretary under former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, with V Balachandran, former special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing, and Ajit Nimbalkar, former Maharashtra chief secretary, as members.

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CommentBy: Guest | 04-Jan-2009 Reply | Forward It reflects any intelligence agency... Even the U.S's. It took a tragic happening like 9/11 to cause intelligence executives to even consider change or improvement. It is even more tragic that this is not the first major incident... there was a train bombing months before that killed more than 100 people. Every country needs to realize that the infrastructure of the government and intelligence systems are not indestructible and of miniscule matter. A phrase that countries these days should be shouting every breathing moment is, "Let's be proactive!"

what is wrong with the website who denies free viewsBy: banarjee | 29-Dec-2008 Reply | Forward pls put this article in priority as this is best available on Mumbai carnage.finding great difficulty to trace this article.pls try to include all replies as this will help to bring consensous among like minded people.many of my friends has replied for this article bur not able to find it as it may sound true and polittically incorrect.be brrave...

Re: What went wrongBy: Ajay S | 28-Dec-2008 Reply | Forward Fantastic work Shishir! Really appreciate this article. Eagerly awaiting more well written and researched articles from you. It will be really nice if you can keep at it and report on the investigations as well as the actual ground situation with respect to the steps taken to reform the police and other securtiy agencies responsible for Mumbai and Maharashtra.

IPS, the Indian Disaster ServiceBy: HOWLER | 27-Dec-2008 Reply | Forward The institution of state police in our country is defunct. Our intelligence bureau has failed miserably. Track record of our CBI in bringing the culprits to book is dismal.The rot has also been set into the CPMFs, INCLUDING THE NSG.All these agencies have definite and exclusive roles for themselves. However, there is a common thread running between them. The IPS. Each one of these agencies is headed by an IPS officer. Infact, the entire decision making lies in the hands of IPS in these organisations in an absolute manner.Politicisation and degradation of the IPS is a reality today. They display remarkable flexibilty and go to any depths to please their political masters.They get simply transformed in to dildos - lifeless, flexible things that vibrate only to please their political masters! Its no surprise then that EVERY THING THAT IS HEADED BY THE IPS IS A DISASTER TODAY.Any attempt to sanitise the security network in India should begin with disbanding of the dildos heading these.

INDIAN POLICES' BIGGEST PROBLEM-IPSBy: banarjee | 29-Dec-2008 Reply | Forward howler U are right.now UPSC should include in their Advt. that any person joining elite IPS,IFS DIES in the course of the service then he is entitled for Gallantry award(not less than Ashok chakra).it is not important the deceased person died without firing single bullet ,or,exemplery gallant action because by the virtue of qulifying civil service entitled them with renaissance blood.it is not important for them to do the mandatory courses as required for their counterparts in paramilitary forces.the DG of any of the paramilitary or NSG as ever took pain to do the mandatory commando courses/map reading courses/or any courses where physical is required.this is the bane for this forces as our political mandarin is not qulified enough to understand what is good or bad for the leaders to give worthy command.i remember once OPS PARAKRAM was going own then one of the IPS officer was not able to understand the basic terminology and therefore undergone map reading course in jaisalmer.what respect this officers can earn from their peers.THEY CAN SERVE IN THE COMFORT OF THE A.C AND CAN BE CATEGORISED AS MOST EDUCATED BUT LEAST EFFECTIVE POLICE FRATENNITY IN THE WORLD.

We know the mistakes, now let us correct them. Let us continue to be a class above the scum next door.By: C. Deepa | 27-Dec-2008 Reply | Forward Yes we have made mistakes and committed criminal errors, but atleast we live in a society and a culture that is willing to admit its mistakes, that is willing to investigate and at least make an attempt to fix what went wrong. If Pakistan territory was still a part of this country, we would not even be able to accomplish this much. It was traumatic and difficult, but thank god for partition. Thank god that delusional scum next door is no longer part of our family and thank god that we can hold our heads up in this world as a society that at least TRIES to do the right thing.