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| Posted: December 5, 2008 |
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The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, took more than 170 lives and have stirred anger at both India's government and neighboring Pakistan. |
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| A viewer from Washington, D.C. asks: |
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| Were there warnings of a possible attack from the sea, and did they just go unheeded? |
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| Simon Marks responds: |
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 Well, the answer to those questions are, respectively, yes, and no. We do, now, know that the Indian government did receive warnings from intelligence agencies, including, it is reported, from intelligence agencies in the United States, that there was a possible attack in the works that would be focused on Mumbai and would be daringly launched from the sea, as, indeed, last week's attacks were. Did those warnings go entirely unheeded? The answer to that question is no, they didn't go entirely unheeded. We learnt this week from a member of the Taj hotel's board that the Taj hotel received credible information, they believed, suggesting that an attack was imminent and they ramped up security at the hotel for several weeks leading up to the attacks. Unfortunately for the hotel, that security was relaxed just two days before the terrorist strike took place, leading many here in Mumbai to wonder whether the terrorists actually had the Taj hotel and some of their other targets under active surveillance before their attacks began. |
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