The Terror Within

My brother today engaged me in a very interesting debate on terrorism in terms of the cause and effect. The debate centered around the fact that terrorism is a disease whose symptoms we see around us everyday and we are busy finding the solution that will wipe out this disease but how much time do we really spend looking at the cause and doing something about it. I have far too many details floating around in my head which will make any attempt at reproducing a coherent blog all but impossible - however there is something else which this debate has made me realize and which i have to put down if only to get it out of my system.

As we stand examining our preparedness to comabat the terror from outside what exactly are we doing to protect ourselves from the terror within.

Which commando force is going to protect me when the butchers of Gujarat or the rapists of Singur or the Naxals of AP come knocking at my door in the night? Who is going to tell our people that while they hunker down behind the barricades ready for the battle ahead they do not need to fear the terror which stalks them from behind?

I am afraid that the solution to one is inextricably linked to the other and as long as we continue to distinguish the one from the other the solution for both shall continue to elude us.

Some random thoughts

Quite a few commentators have gone on TV and espoused that one way for the government to tackle and solve this menace is to get all parties together, declare a national emergency, suspend certain civil liberties and carry out all necessary measures to weed out the evil of terrorism from amongst our midst. The Homeland Security Programme introduced by the US has been put forward as an example.

I cant speak for anyone else but here’s is what I make of it – what we are being asked to do is to turn our nation into a system which resembles all these funny countries to our west and east (Pakistan, B’desh, Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, Iran, et al) in order that we become a country as safe and secure as the US. If this was the answer to our problems then I would rather live with the problems than live in circumstances prevailing in any of the countries named earlier.

It’s easy to go out there and blame the government for all that is wrong with the country. Civil Liberties sure - but when we parade the ideals of the US lets just introspect and look at ourselves in the mirror.

I stay in South Bombay, the supposed hub of India’s elite, most educated, most well to do, most sophisticated citizens? Try taking a drive around these parts on any given day and one will be witness to these very same people breaking every possible traffic signal from Mantralaya to Worli – and no it is not the drivers but the owners who do this more often than not. I have resolved to never jump a signal but it takes a lot of patience and will power to contain oneself when you find your self at a red signal at the front of a queue of cars and have the very same self serving people honking and jabbering at you willing you on to inch forward and jump the signal. It takes a lot of will power and patience to not get out and thump someone on the head. Anyone who wishes to contest this is welcome to stand at any of our busiest junctions and try and prove me wrong – don’t even contemplate the odds.

A very similar situation is repeated day in and day out at our busy domestic and international airports when important, busy and thoroughly pressed for time individuals roll their eyes, cast derisive looks at their watches and generally go out and make asses of themselves when being subjected to security searches by the airport security. Stand in any line and you will see an example of such individuals with unfailing regularity - guys with “I don’t have the time of day for you security guys who want me to remove my shoes” written all over their face.

Why am i bringing up this supposedly unrelated topic here?

I am doing so because to me the problem is not civic liberties but our very civic senses of which the majority of our well heeled citizens have none (at least not while they are in India which happens to be their personal playground). The laws of the land are good enough as long as they are applied to someone else – what we have done is usurp what little law is left here. And the problem with the educated classes is far more concerning the other half of our masses.

Lets not fool ourselves into thinking that pointing fingers at a bunch of politicians is going to change the realities of this country. Have you ever thought that the politicians we refer to are not exactly from Mars – they are people who come from within us. The problem is us and not them so let’s stop this duplicity.

For a start, when holding up the example of the West, can we start first by changing ourselves and resolving to follow the little civic laws which would give us the moral ground to demand implementation of the next level of rules and regulations? Think about it and please try and choose the right option which is not necessarily the easier one.

And coming back to the opening line – I don’t think suspension of civic liberties is required – what is required is our acceptance of civil practices. The laws are already out there but when everyone and his uncle are freely flouting these; the real criminals find it very easy to blend in when the majority on the streets tend to behave like them. So lets cooperate with the police and other authorities by giving them a little less headache when they do their duty and they will be left with that much more time and energy to identify the real targets. This would only be a start and does not for a minute mean to say that the police and other authorities themselves do not need major changes in their approach & thinking.

Special Forces

I am going to go against the grain when saying this but I feel compelled to do so. Our special forces who finally ended the terrorists stand did an outstanding job but this was in spite of and not because of the infrastructure/training/information provided to them. As a result I have this feeling somewhere inside my stomach that this was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts – we are still behind the advanced world in terms of our technology and training. Our men are as good if not better than their counterparts across the world but that alone is not good enough – they need to be given the full support in terms of the latest technology, weaponry (offensive and defensive) and information control. I don’t have a clue on what Special Forces operations entail but as a thinking person I am entitled to a few questions, the answers to which might prove me wrong or right.

• The NSG had snipers/sharpshooters posted on rooftops, snorkels, etc at all the sites – however I don’t think that any meaningful action was taken by any of these shooters. I read a piece in the New York Times where the American writer has approached this particular issue unencumbered by nationalistic sentiment. The fact is that the shooters had equipment which severely limited their ability to zoom in on targets, identify Friend or Foe and take effective shots. Anyone who watched closely would also have noticed the complete lack of real time communication to these shooters from the NSG units carrying out the internal operations. Neither were these shooters guided by a central command position which could collect information from either direct surveillance or secondary feed from inside. This is standard operating procedure in such operations worldwide. The shooters in most actions are rarely left to make their own decisions – they are placed in strategic positions to await confirmation from a central command, which incidentally in high level ops also has access to the field of view which the shooter has. This allows informed decisions to be taken which can effectively end operations very fast. In our case, the shooters were placed there more as set pieces with little or no thought given as to how they would be brought into coordinated action.

• Surveillance ability from outside appeared to be practically non existent. What the hell were the GOC – Goa and Maharashtra (Gen Hooda) and DG-NSG (Lt.Gen JP Dutta) trying to achieve by taking guided tours around the conflict zone. For sure this was not a museum tour and if it was meant to be a recce, this was one funny and downright risky way of doing it, faced as it is with trained and armed terrorists holding the high ground. (This again takes me back to my point in the Police piece about placing our highest ranking officials directly in the line of fire). Can you imagine what would have happened had one or both of these two become victims of enemy fire. Any proper Special Forces operation would have involved hi-tech electronic surveillance systems being put in place which would allow the brains of the teams to direct operations from a safe zone with complete inputs from all areas – the conflict zone, all personnel on ground, hotlines to decision makers (PMO, Home Ministry, etc), media and intelligence services.

• Through the 60 hour ordeal each and every news channel was reporting a mix of fact, fiction and fantasy all ostensibly coming from informed sources, unnamed personnel and studio based analysis of pictures. It is easy to take pot shots at the media for running wild with their imaginations but such a situation is easily addressed if the authorities decide to simplify information dissemination by nominating a single spokesperson to give regular updates and answer queries. This prevents nonsense from going out on air and also ensures that the news being given out is consistent with the requirements of the operation. And one does not have to look too far for a good example – during the Kargil war I remember listening every evening to the well articulated MEA spokesperson RS Jassal, who briefed the media and took questions with the utmost confidence and composure.

The Police and ATS

• Appearance – I believe Don Bradman once said that to be a good cricketer you have first to look like a good cricketer. This is exactly what I want to apply here – our police might look good enough as a force to enforce the rule of law against the local goons, robbers, etc (which is also questionable) but they don’t even begin to resemble a force which can handle seriously trained terrorists/insurgents/organized criminals. To illustrate this even more compare the look of the fully kitted commandos versus those we saw sitting around in the buses without their ski-masks looking like just any other uninformed force (not very imposing at all). When they were kitted out fully they seemed a highly professional, trained and focused force which would have without doubt instilled a sense of awe into any one facing them. This is exactly what is needed for the police forces or rather a section of them. Improve their looks and get them to be smarter/fitter and better equipped (come to that later). There is a reason why military forces practice marches, parades and dress formations and it is not about looking good to Republic Day crowds – the reason is to inculcate a discipline within the ranks which allows them to present a thoroughly professional and focused appearance when facing the enemy – something which if portrayed successfully can be very demoralizing to the opponent. (for parallel examples one can look at the All Blacks Rugby team performing the haka – their pre game war dance)
• Gap in force specialization - The US city police forces have specialized divisions within them called SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams who exist for the purpose of handling situations which the ordinary police could not. They look far more imposing than the average police and they are but not necessarily anywhere close to the marines/delta forces/seals etc each of which can be compared to our NSG. However what they do is to provide the police with a response mechanism which can either handle more complex situations or in case the situations turn out to be even out of their league, at least provide reasonable amount of resistance till the next level of forces take over. This is sorely missing in our forces where be it the regular police, the ATS or the other local forces all exist on more or less one level with simply no skill in at the very least holding a situation leave alone solving it. The need for a specialized “SWAT” style force in our cities is absolutely critical.
• Outdated tactics – The police in our system have for ages relied on the theory of the force of numbers which unfortunately in today’s times of highly advanced weaponry as well as protective equipment and training proves to be counter productive leading at times to a casualty ratio which is ridiculously high even when facing minor numbers albeit better trained (eg again these terrorist attacks). World wide the handling of such situations is left to specialized forces which are lean in numbers but disproportionately effective in applying force backed up by conventional forces as a 2nd line of defence. Such tactics will automatically come into play once the police have specialized units to handle such situations
• Leadership –I am going to touch upon an extremely sensitive topic here. The Mumbai police force lost 3 of its top leadership in one moment right at the beginning of the engagement leaving the force demoralized??? Headless?? wondering where to look next. Without doubting the bravery of the officers who died, the point to be made here is – was it necessary for these senior officers to put themselves right in the front line and risk all???? And this is not an argument about better body armour, etc. That is all bull. In a military engagement the general does not stand at the front but he is no lesser a man because of it. The general stands at the back and directs operations not because he cannot fight but because he can think and strategise better. Similarly the soldier in the frontline is not put there because he cannot think but because he can fight better than he can think. The idea of leading men into battle however romantic it may be is rarely sound of logic. Men by nature need leaders (which not everyone can be) to look up to and it is for this reason that the leaders need to be protected. Cut off the head and the body becomes pretty much useless. (Our army has a high casualty ratio of officer:enlisted men – sure this might be great for drumming up patriotic fervour but you cannot even imagine the amount of morale boost the enemy is getting when he sees our leaders falling first). Accordingly what is needed is a well thought out doctrine for the police forces which ensures that they follow certain avowed systems to ensure that their senior officers do not go down fighting while their juniors go down thinking.
• Response Timing: The police need to have a doctrine in place which envisages a number of situations and the appropriate responses for each with a defined set of procedures which would kick in the moment an incident is reported. This doctrine would also need to have a very clear chain of command set out as well as communication channels outlined so that in case of escalation of situation no time is lost in securing the next level of help. In case of the Mumbai terror attacks the Maharashtra Chief Secretary was the one who appealed to the Navy for deployment of MARCOS. I am quite sure this was not part of any standard operation procedure but simply an SOS sent out in desperation to the nearest force available.
• Availability of Response Units: There is talk of locating NSG divisions in Mumbai and other cities. For sure this is a step in the right direction but in my view this step in isolation will not help. A country as large and vast as India cannot possibly have specialized units in every town and city just sitting around waiting to go into action. Specialized units by definition are limited in number but highly mobile with quick deployment capabilities. The need of the hour is to work backwards from an anticipated situation and work out the earliest response times given certain strategic postings of the specialized units. In an ideal situation the country could have 5-6 NSG/quick reaction force centres each of which would have been located with the intention of providing the quickest possible response within a set radius. For this purpose they should be equipped and provided with standalone infrastructure to react to and respond to any call. The sight of NSG commandoes commandeering BEST buses to reach South Mumbai from the airport is quite ridiculous. For them to be a complete unit they cannot depend on any other branch of govt/private enterprise.
• Equipment: There is absolutely no debate on the fact that our police units work with weaponry and protective equipment which would not even stand up in a WWII theatre. Who are we fooling here – not the enemy for sure and definitely not the police themselves. I cannot comment on the technical aspects of equipment but you cannot thrust a police officer/constable into a confrontation with a Special Forces style terrorist armed only with wooden sticks, six shooters, riot gear and whistles/payphone size wireless sets for communication. The only solution is to provide the latest, most effective equipment along with right training to the police.

Terror Limitation - Protect our Borders

• Illegal immigrants - Remove all Bangladeshi immigrants from the cities and towns in India. We have thousands of these illegal immigrants setting up home across our cities in slums and shanties. That they are poor does not need qualification. But what they present is a base which can be exploited by terrorist masterminds to act as local accomplices, agents for gathering information and foot soldiers to carry out the more basic tasks. Apart from this their quarters can also be used as safe houses and repositories for weapons, explosives, etc till the time they are needed. What do you think the term sleeper cell entails if not this.
• Land Border - Embark on a comprehensive programme to seal our land borders with B’desh, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan and not just with barbed wire fences but with a concerted strategy mixing physical barriers, electronic/technological aid and trained manpower (for eg. US – Mexico land border which is large and bigger than the Indo-Pak/Indo-B’desh border is looked after by the United States Border Patrol agents. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol
• Air Border – this is the only border which has infiltration protection measures in place in the right sense of the word – but this is largely due to limited points of entry and the obvious requirement of security procedures at international airports.
• Sea Border – highly porous and security needs to be upgraded. Let’s recognize that the biggest problem which poses India in this exercise is two fold – a) a long coastline b) most of the inhabitation along the coastline consists not of urban settlements but remote village/farming settlements both of which combine to make it an extremely difficult environment to monitor. Possible solutions – a) Upgrade the coast guard to carry out more intense aggressive patrolling b) identify points which are more susceptible to infiltration than others (for eg the coast from Guj to Mumbai offers a higher chance of infiltration than say Kerala simply because of the distance involved from the embarkation point of a would be infiltrator. At these points use higher intensity patrolling supported by land based preventive as well as possible interceptor systems – a mix of electronic and human. At remote points as aforementioned rely on more measures which are deterrent. c) Improve communication links between remote sectors and regional hubs so that any violation if noticed can be brought to notice at higher level faster. d) Study a system abroad which is most similar to ours and try and integrate the best of their systems into ours.

The War on Terror

The War on Terror

The world looks at the USofA and its war on terror with contempt and scorn. I look at what they have embarked upon as the world’s only successful execution of an anti-terrorism strategy. Since 9/11, America has not been subjected to a single act of terror on its soil by any external force. A lot of commentators would attribute this to their new Homeland Security Programme, the willingness of the average Amercian citizen to have his civil liberties compromised in exchange for safety, etc, etc. But I don’t believe for a minute that this has put off any terrorist from embarking on a fresh mission.

In my opinion, what has really prevented the reoccurrence is simply one factor – FEAR.

And it is not the terrorist who is afraid – no – because he has never really been the target of America’s war on terror. Its real target has been the softer underbelly of the nation states who have allowed terror units to function and operate from their soil. America realizes that you cannot stop a committed terrorist – what you need is to pull out the rug from under his feet by putting the fear of god in those around him. In this case the Middle East and North African nations. Afghanistan and Iraq might sound like intelligence and strategic follies with the inability of the forces to hunt down Osama Bin Laden (is he even for real?) or to locate WMDs. But to be honest does America really even care? I don’t think so. They are simply convenient ploys to embark upon a war which is more a demonstration of capability to the other rogue nations – warning them to either get their flock in order or to face the very painful condition of having war waged on them by the might of the US. Iraq and Afghanistan simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the end of the day if you need proof please point out the last terrorist activity against the US on its soil (or for that matter specifically against the US even on foreign soil). If this is not winning than what is? In the bargain if America loses a few soldiers so be it, one cannot really win a bloodless war or can one?

The lessons here for India are two fold

1) Please do not look towards the US to sympathise with our problems. For them Pakistan is a necessary evil to be lived with as it provides them with the right platform to conduct their activities while at the same time ensuring that it controls it’s home grown terrorist modules from acting against the US. You only have to look back at countless examples of the US courting the many dictators and despots in banana republics to ensure that it secured its interests. And for the record – I am completely with the US on this strategy – ones own interest comes first, second and last.
2) India may or may not, can or cannot mount a similar campaign against those whom it perceives to be the original perpetrators. However one can be reasonably sure that if India was to do something, no other country in the world would object or step in. “Peace comes from the barrel of a gun”. So India has to find its own solution without caring a damn about what the world thinks or does – because the world is going to think nothing and do nothing.

I could not find any other picture except these but it does not really matter - the story is not in the face but in the minds and the hearts. I am going to borrow a line without remorse from pop culture and put it out (with license) for all of us to ponder over

" these are the heroes we need but not the heroes we deserve!! When will we be able to live in a India we can proudly stand next to them (and not behind) and declare that they are the heroes that we deserve and not the heroes that we need???"

As i write this i dont have the answer but i also know that i cannot look to anyone else for the answer - it has to come from within. So i dont know what i am going to do tomorrow or day after but for sure i am going to do something which will allow me the pleasure of answering that question.

In gratitude today
In memorium tomorrow
& in promise .....................