Now most of you in this mailing list probably wished me yesterday (or today), so I’m guessing that you probably like me a little bit. So do me a favour and try to get through what I’ve put down. It doesn’t matter if you contribute or not to what I’ve asked…just the fact that you read what I’ve written and think about it will be good enough. Since none of ya’ll bought me a birthday gift (except my roommates, thanks guys!), think of reading this as a gift to me. Thanks amigos!

Hi.

Yesterday I was repeatedly asked the question, "So...what plans?”
I didn't really have anything specific lined up. Instead the blast which happened in Pune at the German Bakery kept coming back to me. I decided to plant a seed of thought.

Since Sat, I've seen numerous posts, blogs, status messages, news articles, clips related to the incident. All of them display the feelings which I'm sure most of us must be feeling. Anger, frustration, helplessness, fear and disgust. Most of us being between the ages of 20 to 35 have witnessed the 4 different terror attacks - Parliament, Mumbai Locals, 26/11 and most recently the German Bakery blast. There are others, (like the Malegaon blast) which are of no less significance, but I can safely assume that at the least, these 4 incidents are relatively vivid in our minds.

How many of you felt the exact same feelings when these incidents occurred. I know I did. The funny thing being, (as aptly put by my brother) “Another blast, more news speculations, more solidarity, more candles and the cycle continues…what a joke!”

I do agree with him. I heard of some candle vigil outside German Bakery and some people singing “Hum honge kamiyaab” and people talking about the Puneri spirit and the people coming out on Sunday and carrying on because…you know, life goes on, we can’t let the terrorists win ya da ya da. What a crock of shit. Who could care less? I’m pretty sure candle marches and marathons don’t give the families of the victims much solace (incidentally, I’ve never really understood the significance of using a marathon to raise AIDS awareness).

What would give them solace, would be to see the masterminds and the individuals carrying out these kind of attacks being punished. What would give them solace, would be to know that no other parent would have to face the burden of having to lay to rest their child killed at the hands of a fanatic. What would give them solace, would be to have the government publically declare that they are ill-equipped to handle this menace and that public compensations to the tune of “5 lakhs” to the families of the victims is like applying a band-aid to a man whose arm has been chopped off.

Let me tell you - these terrorists succeeded when they blasted the life line of Mumbai, these terrorists succeeded when they brazenly kept Mumbai hostage for over 60 hours and they succeeded again when they murdered 9 innocent kids on Saturday. There’s probably a group of them right now, sitting around with some beers and laughing at the way we manage these incidents and the concept of “preventing terrorist attacks” in this country.

You know, while feelings of anger, frustration, helplessness, fear and disgust are prevalent, we all know that a short while from now, things are going to go back to normal. I’m no exception. I felt the same way post 26/11 and in a short while, I was out of the country, occupied with a million other things and simply speaking, “life went on”.

Until Saturday.

That’s when the same feelings arose and these same feelings will die down in a short while unless I did something about it. So while I see “anger, frustration, helplessness, fear and disgust” what I fail to see is desire. A desire or an intention to prevent these kinds of incidents from re-occurring.

I recollected a line from an article someone forwarded to me. It was based on Juval Aviv (the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie 'Munich' was based) and a lecture he was giving in NYC. He said, “Unfortunately, America hasn’t been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.” (More on this a little later)

My point of this line being, that unless someone close to us or someone we love gets directly impacted by an act of terrorism, that desire will not be invoked. Think about it. As long as the casualties of an act of terrorism are a statistical figure for us (9 dead, 53 injured), we’re never going to be dead serious about having that desire to eliminate it (or at least prevent it to the maximum possible extent).

Maybe it’s the fact that I used to regularly travel by the Mumbai locals when the blasts occurred or that I personally knew one of the victims of 26/11 or that German Bakery is about 200 m from where I live in Pune. I believe the “desire” has been set alight in me.

Now I am trying my level best NOT to make this sound like one of those soul searching out-pourings on blog sites. I’m trying to actually get something into action. Whether it works or not is up to us.
I was discussing this with a couple of guys yesterday and the basic plans of action (that usually come up post an attack) that are regularly suggested are neat.
1. Pushing the government to improve security measures
2. Equipping our police and military forces with better equipment
3. Dialogue with Pakistan (I don’t even know what this means)
4. Starting bus and train services between India and Pakistan
5. Banning Pakistani cricketers from the IPL
6. Banning Sharukh Khan movies
7. Nuking Pakistan

While I do see the benefit in the above steps being implemented and their long term effects in reducing terrorism I have to face a simple fact. I (we) don’t have a major hand to play in the implementation of any of the above measures.

Now I do understand that to solve any problem, the first step lies in establishing the cause or root of the problem. In an article forwarded today (thanks Hitesh!) there is this small paragraph –

India has never been an invader and is not in conflict of any other Muslimcountry. None of the wars and conflicts with Pakistan was instigated byIndia. In the current geopolitical situation, one can argue for the Muslimworld’s grudge and anger against Israel or the west and USA but one fail tofathom why India should also be at the receiving end and why Indians shouldbe the second largest group of people to die from terrorists attacks

Now I’m not looking to debate the source or origin of terrorism, whether it is inbred or externally inflicted, whether it’s being called LET or IM or the Sena. Elimination of the roots is not for us. Let’s work around the assumption that terrorism exists, it is growing and we are being targeted. Once this is established and we’re all on the same page, let’s look at something we can actually play a hand in.

PREVENTION

I’m asking you guys a simple question. Let’s try to avoid philosophical and clichéd responses and focus on practical and feasible solutions.

Q: What can we, as individuals in today’s society do to help prevent a terrorist attack or (in the event that we are unable to prevent it), minimize its impact?

I need help and answers from you guys. Don’t be hesitant to mark everyone in this list and add your own contacts when replying. We have this magnificent source of communication called the internet and I suggest we start using it. This way, many of us who are not even in the country can participate and more importantly IMPLEMENT what is being suggested.

I’m trying to get the ball rolling. If you think it’s a dumb idea, no sweat. You’ve read through what I’ve written and I guess I can appreciate that. But if you feel that this could work and we as individuals can work together to help reduce the terrible effects of terrorism, let the ideas flow! (And if you have some ideas to improve communication, alternate platform, etc. feel free to share it with the rest of us)

To start things off, I recommend people can read the article attached (granted it’s based on the USA. Simply substitute USA for India and it has almost the same effect). It might have reached you before and if you have read it, let’s look at implementation people!

(I heard that the manager of German Bakery told the waiter to open the unattended bag which contained the bomb and eventually triggered the explosion. Yeah, if this is true, then it was a real smart move)
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Excerpts:
Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie 'Munich' was based. He was Golda Meir's bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know.

He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.
Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke -- that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.
For example:
1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.
2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can't bring liquids on board. He says he's waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all travelling naked!
Every strategy we have is reactionary.
3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos), big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time.

Aviv says terrorists won't need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don't have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It's cheap, it's easy, it's effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to 'meet their destiny'.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad. But will be, instead, 'home-grown', having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for 'students' who frequently travel back and forth to the Middle East. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won't know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face. America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel's, Ireland's and England's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we 'can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-travelled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!
In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.

Unfortunately, America hasn’t been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defence against terrorism.