deepak pace
DJ_DEE
Washington: US cities are vulnerable to an attack like the gun-and-grenade assault that terrorised Mumbai for three days and killed 179 people, White House Homeland Security Adviser, Ken Wainstein said on Wednesday.
Wainstein told a Washington think tank the Mumbai attacks in November showed the effectiveness of a low-technology coordinated assault on an open city.
"You can envision that happening in any American city, and it's chilling when you think about it," Wainstein told policy-makers and others in a speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"That's the kind of thing that is all too realistic anywhere in the world."
Wainstein's comments reflected a growing unease among international security officials that the Mumbai attacks may have established a new model for terrorism.
He spoke a day before government and local officials were to testify to US Congress on the Mumbai attacks.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday will consider the response by Indian officials, and what is needed to prevent such an attack in the United States.
"We're going to go through where they screwed up, and how do we fix it - how do we make sure we don't make the same mistakes?" Committee Spokesman Seamus Hughes said.
The 10 attackers, who India say came from Pakistan, came ashore on speedboats and fanned out to locations such as hotels, taking and executing hostages and holding off security forces for days. They were armed with automatic rifles and grenades and carried global positioning equipment. '
Wainstein told a Washington think tank the Mumbai attacks in November showed the effectiveness of a low-technology coordinated assault on an open city.
"You can envision that happening in any American city, and it's chilling when you think about it," Wainstein told policy-makers and others in a speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"That's the kind of thing that is all too realistic anywhere in the world."
Wainstein's comments reflected a growing unease among international security officials that the Mumbai attacks may have established a new model for terrorism.
He spoke a day before government and local officials were to testify to US Congress on the Mumbai attacks.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday will consider the response by Indian officials, and what is needed to prevent such an attack in the United States.
"We're going to go through where they screwed up, and how do we fix it - how do we make sure we don't make the same mistakes?" Committee Spokesman Seamus Hughes said.
The 10 attackers, who India say came from Pakistan, came ashore on speedboats and fanned out to locations such as hotels, taking and executing hostages and holding off security forces for days. They were armed with automatic rifles and grenades and carried global positioning equipment. '
