V.Balachandran Spoke at Indo American Society on Combating Terrorism -The US Way

 Nine years after he retired as special secretary, Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency, V Balachandran spends a lot of time delving into security and intelligence matters.
 and regarded as one of the finest expert on terrorism related issues.

Yesterday he was invited by Indo American Society in Mumbai to deliver a talk on Combating Terrorism - The US Way. An IPS officer from the 1959 batch, Balachandran was one of India's top spymasters, who worked for RAW for 19 years in various countries including the United States and France. A specialist in security affairs, he had also been president of Indo American Society. 

While delivering his talk, Balachandran shared that before 9/11 incident took place in 1911, security in American System not paramount. On most of the major airports security was almost negligible, even for international flight one could go straight to the craft without any serious check.

In USA , the Department of Homeland Security was created in the days after the September 11 2001 attacks. The federal government went through a transformational restructuring to try to deal with the national security threats flooding the country after America was attacked on its own soil.

A Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) was  also formed, it  is an unique partnership between various U.S. law enforcement agencies that is charged with taking action against terrorism, which includes the investigation of crimes such as wire fraud  and identity theft. The agencies that a JTTF comprises generally include the Federal Bureau of Investigation , other federal agencies ,notablyDepartment of Homeland Security components such as US Coast Guard Investigative Service, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Borders Protection,  the Transportation Security Administration, and the US Secret Service  as well as the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, state and local law enforcement, and specialized agencies, such as railroad police.

JTTFs engage in surveillance, electronic monitoring, source development and interviews in their pursuits. FBI task forces obtain written MOUs between participating law enforcement agencies. Understanding the importance of installation and establishments of Corporates America, representatives of Corporates have also coopted to be a part of JTTF. The FBI provides funds to pay for participating agencies' expenses, such as officer overtime, vehicles, fuel, cell phones, and related office costs.

The many regional JTTFs coordinate their efforts through the interagency National Joint Terrorism Task Force. NJTTF is headquartered in Washington DC, and is composed of representatives from 35 federal agencies. The FBI's involvement with the JTTF falls under the Operational Support Branch of the FBI Counter Terrorism Division.

Despite of strong anti terror mechanism in place in USA ,there had been certain instances where terrorists tried to play mischief but due to alert citizens and  agencies hired by Corporates, many threats were averted. Between 1980 to 2005,  318 events including bombing, arson, malicious destructions and shooting took place  7% of these events were attributed to Islamic  extremists. Redicalisation  of innocent and poor people  into Jehadi doctrine is a challenge before the security agencies. Balachandran cited Fort Hood case.
On Nov. 5, 2009, a gunman wearing an Army combat uniform opened fire after shouting "Allahu Akbar!" --  in Arabic -- inside a Fort Hood medical building where deploying and returning soldiers received vaccines and other tests. He rapidly fired killing and injuring 12 civilians and soldiers. Later the gunman was identified as Major Nidal Hasan Born in Virginia  to parents who moved to the United States from a Palestinian town near Jerusalem . It is believed that  Hasan's attack was inspired by the radical U.S. born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and that Hasan and the cleric exchanged as many as 20 emails. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen later. A Senate report released last year said the FBI missed warning signs about Hasan, who the report said had become an Islamic extremist and a "ticking time bomb" before the rampage.

Balachandran also cited many missed opportunities to catch the 9/11 terrorists.

First, because of information silos and lack of communication and information sharing between the NSA, CIA and FBI, some of the 9/11 attackers were known to be in the United States, but were unaccounted for. In fact,  two of the attackers were pulled over by Oklahoma Highway patrol for speeding —just days before the attack. However, because they were not on any known “watch” list, they were given a speeding ticket and sent onward.

In addition, on 9/11 two terrorists were actually flagged by the computer-assisted passenger prescreening system (CAPPS) for purchasing one way tickets with cash. Once flagged, the process then was extra screening for their checked luggage in the search for explosives. Both Mihdhar and Moqed were flagged by CAPPS, but since Mihdhar had no checked luggage and Moqed wasn’t carrying any explosives, the procedures had no effect on their mission.  With no explosives found, both luggage and potential terrorists were allowed to board the plane.

Finally, the last line of defense on 9/11 was airport security screening. However, because TSA at the time had a policy that knives less than 4 inches were allowed on airplanes, it was no problem for terrorists to bring their pocket Leatherman's onboard.

On Sept. 13, 1999 Naval Station Anacostia , Washington, D.C. members of the US Park Police 'SWAT'  team take down terrorists who were holding hostages at Naval Station Anacostia. The anti-terrorist exercise pitted police against the chemical biological warfare  terrorists. Taking part in the day-long exercise were the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Naval District Washington Police, Naval District Washington Fire and Hazmat, the U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Park Police, U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit and the Washington Metropolitan Fire and Hazmat unit.

There were certain lessons learned by the US Government and its security agencies that can also be  applied across here in India  also for an effective control  and better analytics.

First, even if you know what insights you’re looking for; data silos may prevent discovery of the best answer. For most organizations, too many single-subject data marts and/or 'spreadmarks' prevent an integrated view of the business. In this instance, the NSA infrastructure acted as a data “vacuum cleaner” capturing all kinds of voice, video, text and more on potential terrorists. However, FBI and CIA organizations also had their own data silos. There was no integrated view, and in the defense of each organization and their respective missions—and because of privacy concerns—this was purposeful.

Second, your organizational processes may prevent success in analytics.

NSA was in many instances monitoring communications of Al Qaeda abroad. They even knew days before 9/11 that “something big” was going to happen. Unfortunately the NSA didn’t know what was going to happen, nor where. And because of existing laws, organizational silos and “not my business” behaviors,information was not shared across agencies that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.  Some companies have a “dog eat dog” culture that may not encourage information sharing. These companies ultimately will have less success with corporate analytics.

Finally, even when companies invest in the best analytical technologies and people, they can still be subjected to creative strategies to outwit their best efforts. For example, even with the NSA listening to terrorist conversations, mining of keywords in voice and data by sophisticated algorithms, and the best efforts to track terrorists across the globe, government agencies were unprepared for the use of airplanes as terrorist weapons. The inconceivable or in Donald Rumsfeld parlance, the 'unknown unknown' often cannot be discovered, even with the best of people, processes and technologies.

What are the lessons, we can learn from the way US Government handled situation after 9/11. There is a need to create  awareness  among the common law abiding citizens to watch and observe activities of unknown people in their vicinity and inform any such activity to the security agencies. The burden or onus of tackling terrorist related work should not be given to local police as they have already been burdened with so many other routine jobs.    

The  police only know how to fight crime, it's entire strategy revolves around it.  But in terrorism it does not happen that way. Terrorists and their mentors are very committed people and do not work for money and  their working is very close to an organized Corporate body.

Criminals work for money and policemen are tempted with money by rival gangs. Terrorism needs a much more sustained, very difficult process of intelligence collection. Penetration of a terrorist module is very difficult because nothing is decided in Mumbai. Decisions may be taken in Delhi, Kashmir or in Pakistan. Only a man or a messenger will come to the city to execute the plan. 

The only way to tackle and penetrate this kind of meticulous terrorist network is to have a local intelligence system, which can track down anything that is happening in the city. Setting up some mechanism like Joint Terrorism Task Force at state level and National Joint Terrorism Task Force at country level will also help in gathering and sharing vital information. Participation of Corporates whose business stakes are high should also be a part of this mechanism. Let us not forget that vigilant citizens may also play a very important role.