Mumbai Intel

Gathered from various open sources.  More to come as details emerge, not sure if every detail is true.

The shooters operated in multiple teams of twos, threes, fours; total estimated between 20-30.  They were well-trained initially for about 3 months in firearms and explosives, probably in Pakistan.  The second phase was training on water-borne drills.

We face a determined and trained enemy ~ not confused drop-outs but dedicated fighters. They are not cowards.  We must be as dedicated and prepared.  And more brave than they. 

It’s not that cops can’t or won’t respond.  They will do their best.  It’s that there are only so many of them to go around, their resources are limited in terms of men and equipment, and sometimes training.  I won't even go into how poorly private security guards will probably respond, if they do at all. 

Terrorists will surely manipulate this deficit to their tactical advantage.  There may be multiple bomb threat hoaxes called in simultaneously to draw fire, medical, police and hazmat resources away from the real target or target area.  So what will you do?

If you make a decision to pay attention as much as you can and respond to the scene of a possible or actual attack to see if there’s some way for you to help, then perhaps you’ll need to sort of plan ahead, like this:

• Know your town; the major landmarks, neighborhoods, schools, etc.
• If you hear of two or more crisis situations developing at the same time in different parts of town, probably at opposite ends or near the outer edges of the city, then take a moment and try to figure out what landmark or facility in between those crisis locations would be the most attractive target to terrorists.
• Then head for that area, if that’s your decision.
• Be alert for signs of terrorist activity and do your best to report them to the police immediately.
• I can't tell you what to do after that or at anytime for that matter.  Each man and woman must choose their level of involvement, what they're willing and able to commit to given the totality of circumstances.

The shooters took drugs before and during the attack, it can be revealed... as the Brits say.  What does that mean when they hit Vegas or Branson?  It means they’re going to be almost immune to pain and possessed of great strength, at least until the drugs wear off.  In this case, you pretty much have two choices. Remember these are decisions you choose to make for yourself:

• You’re going to have to hit the shooter with so much firepower that it tears his body apart ~ literally.  Since we’re talking about civilian response here, probably the most firepower that can be brought to bear will be from the ubiquitous 12 ga shotgun, firing big-ass slugs.  If using a shotgun in this scenario, it will take multiple quick hits to the heart, if head-shots are not possible for some reason.

• If you don’t have a shotgun, then you’re going to have to shut down his computer ~ his brain. If this is your decision, then you’re going to have to practice head shots. You may not actually have to buy a silhouette target and shoot at the head but practice on a target that’s about 5 inches square-ish ~ that’s about the center of mass of the head that you need to hit with bullets to shut one of these monsters down.  This may be the minimum amount of force necessary to stop the attack.

Another tactic that might work is grazing fire: shooting about 6” above the ground, hitting the target in the feet and ankles. This drops the target to the ground making him a longer, less mobile target as you continue to fire at him there on the ground.  This would have worked very nicely against the Northridge bank robbery guys a few years back. 

Looks like two teams of shooters checked into the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotel four days prior to assault to stash weapons and study the layout.  

 I don’t know what they looked like, how they appeared to the hurried eye there in Mumbai. Maybe they truly blended in and there was nothing to set them apart from any other person on the street there ~ nothing suspicious about them or their activities.  I don’t know.  But I’m inclined to think they exhibited at least one or two of the behaviors I wrote about here and here.

Pay attention out there, unerschrocken.

  Shooters maintained comms by satellite phone.  Directions came "live" from camps in Pakistan to the shooters in Mumbai.  Really.

This is what a sat-phone may look like; pretty much like a regular cell phone but with that huge, obvious antenna.

 

I'm sure there are people in the world who use sat-phones on street corners every day who are innocent of any wrong-doing a/o intent.  But pay attention to these phones anyway.  There may be something about the user a/o the situation that gets your spidey sense tinglin'.  If something in your gut whispers or screams that something's wrong, you may want to report your totality of circumstances suspicion to a near-by cop. 

The plan included taking hostages, movement to higher areas of buildings for defense against counter-attack, commandeering of vehicles, as I mentioned here, for drive-by attacks to expand the perimeter and spread out response teams, to cause fear and confusion.

Reports such as this tell of local residents who insisted some attackers had rented an apartment in or near the Nariman House for months prior to the attacks, although this intel couldn’t be confirmed. I wrote about this possibility here.

Terrorist Azam Amir Kasab  told cops they’d done recon at Mumbai months prior to the actual attack.  He came with eight operatives to Mumbai as students, lived in a rented room at Colaba Market, very near Nariman House.

 The master planner went to Mumbai in October to do final recon ~ just like Yossef Bodansky said in Target the West.  Locals pull some surveillance and send video and other intel to planners who help terrorist train and rehearse the approach and attacks.  Then some operatives go to the target area to familiarize themselves with the terrain and target first-hand.  Just before the attack, the chief planner will come to do one final check, a/o the highly trained experts necessary for some tasks show up. These experts are too valuable to the tribe to risk discovery and capture by having them in the target area for too long.  They're on site just long enough to double-check the final preparations a/o to make minor last-minute adjustments, or to put a special bomb/fuse together and emplace it, or to lead a particularly important phase of an armed attack.  

Then, POOF... they're gone; whisked out of town by the support people who live in the area. 

Bombs were brought in, according to Kasab, to be planted outside the main doors of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, to be detonated later in an attempt to kill police, and other emergency responders and bystanders, like I warned you... right here.

More to follow...

Comments

[Alan Lake]

Very useful, thanks.