Rules of Engagement
December 12th 2008 16:24
Rules of Engagement
The answer is not politicians but the big daddies of our intelligence that were caught napping. Forget getting good actionable intelligence in advance, once the attack happened and the NSG was on the crime scene – why wasn’t their commander trained to cordon off the area and shoo off the media and bystanders? Agreed we do not have budgets for heat sensing radars that could have detected the positions of terrorists in seconds in Nariman house but what about basic training that no one except the action task force during the operation and forensics post operation will be allowed near the crime scene. Even the investigators are only allowed once the location is completely scanned by forensics for all evidence as sometimes even the cops can contaminate the crime scene.
I won’t get into the irresponsible behavior of media and general public in this post as that deserves another blog by itself but my question is what kind of genius trainers have we got who haven’t even taught the basics like cordoning off the crime scene. You don’t need big bucks for that. You don’t need great political leaders for that. You need guys who are not sleeping on their jobs.
The commander of NSG or whoever agency is on crime scene should have the power and the protocol to override any other person except head of the country to take all action necessary to provide best possible safe and secured action ground before sending his boys into the jaws of death. Nobody and nothing should compel him to compromise on this aspect.
The commander of the NSG, the first thing he would have done is cordon off at least 3-5 km radius within the crime scene. At that time – one should be able to say - To hell with freedom of press and political compulsions or addiction of common people for reality TV. Set up a command room which can have some media who can report exactly what the commander feels fit to release.
Just 2 days back, there was a report on one of the news channels that the Delhi cops found suspicious looking safe in CP area with some unidentified liquid in it. After making sure that there was no bomb inside it, they tried opening the safe. When they couldn’t open the safe, they used small explosives to open the safe with unidentified liquid in it. Again – the media was all around, the general public was all around and the cops were going about this safe opening business very casually since there was no bomb. Some of the cops were even giving sound bytes to TV channels.
My question is – what if it had a biological weapon? Wouldn’t opening the safe with a bomb spread it like wild fire? What if it had some sort of a liquid concoction that when mixed with gunpowder from the small bombs used to open it will actually result in bigger explosion? Thank God that wasn’t the case but what if it was? Did our security agencies act in accordance with basics rule of engagement when faced with such situations? The answer is NO.
This is not a reality show being played out on our roads. These are battles and wars with terrorists who have infiltrated amongst us and are using top of the line international equipment and technology to attack us. How are we going to respond? By making a spectacle out of a grave situation?
When are we going to get into a pre-emptive mode? Or are we going to always respond by posting extra security on the locations that have just been hit by the terrorists? What purpose does that serve? The terrorists are not idiots. They are not going to come back there and use the same modus operandi. They will innovate and select new targets, new methods, new technology and new means to deliver them. That safe in CP could have been one of it.
What’s the point of hyperventilating over the airports all the time? Please get over it and understand that these guys are not fools to walk into already heavily guarded airports. They will choose millions of other soft unguarded targets. We are chasing waterfalls. When you will reach A, they will go to B, when you reach B, they will go to C. And this will carry on. We have to pre-empt them and be at B waiting for them after they have attacked A. Now, we only need to look around and pay attention to identify what is this B and rest assured we can be waiting for them when they arrive.
But before we even get there, can we please brush up our basics on rules of engagement. Will the media allow a security person to peep into their Monday morning meetings when they decide which people they will fry on their channel in the following week? Will a common citizen who could be sales man or a shopkeeper allow a security person to sit on his head when he is doing his job? If the answer is NO then why are these people being allowed to hover around crime scenes when that’s a work place only for security agencies?
Clearly, we need a lot to be done in order to secure our country but first lets at least draft a basic rules of engagement before we can get more fancy.
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