Factor the unthinkable into security plans

A time there was when security was construed in strictly narrow terms of protecting public figures or private individuals from being hurt, kidnapped or killed, or a piece of property from being damaged, stolen or destroyed. The remedial measures envisaged were also on traditional lines: Engaging security guards, armed or otherwise, round the clock or during nights; installing intruder alarms; police patrolling of unsafe and danger-prone areas; and keeping under watch the activities of shady characters and “history-sheeters” who had fallen foul of the law.

Latterly, advances in technology and improvements in communications have made possible widespread use of closed circuit TV cameras, smart phones, and grids of a variety of connectivities, but the thinking of security experts was still along conventional lines.

Government departments in the States and at the Centre routinely maintained, and periodically updated, Internal Security Schemes (ISS) which listed all vital and vulnerable installations, and the nature and scope of specific security arrangements to be made to protect them. There was even a War Book which took into consideration the types of dangers to national security arising out of sabotage, enemy attacks and the like.

Till some years ago, the blowing up of the Air India's plane, Emperor Kanishka, in 1985 and the PanAm flight over Lockerbie in 1988 was regarded as the ultimate in man-made disasters.

FIERY END

Much of the last century passed without any general awareness of the phenomena of fedayeen, jihadi or catastrophic terrorism, and orgies of death and destruction let loose to vent hatred on political or ideological grounds.

While humankind was still struggling conclusively or definitively to come to grips with the challenges they posed, 9/11 stood the entire concept of security preparedness on its head. Until it happened, not even the ghost of a notion crossed anybody's mind that some two dozen young desperadoes can be thoroughly indoctrinated and remote-controlled to train themselves in the basics of flying wide-body jets and to simultaneously hijack four of them from international airports and crash three of them on the two towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The fourth was conceivably targeted at the Capitol or the White House, but the horrendous plan was foiled by the passengers heroically taking on the hijackers to bring the plane to a fiery end on a barren field. That unforgettable experience brought home to the people in every corner of the world that the unthinkable can happen. ‘Being prepared for the worst' passed from the known to the unknown since every thing that stood or moved became a security risk.

Since then, there have been many terrorist acts and plots involving locations, targets and methods approaching the unusual and the ingenious.

Very few countries have been immune from the ever-morphing techniques of newer generations of militants, insurgents and terrorists. Since 9/11, the US alone has seen 45 such plots on its soil which, luckily, came to naught, thanks to the alertness of the people and security personnel.

IMMEDIATE AND IMPERATIVE

That today's security threats will be unlike any encountered before is yet to sink into the mindset of both governments and security establishments. They call for stretching the imagination to the farthest possible extent. However, just as it is said of some Generals being adepts at fighting the last war, security and intelligence agencies are hard at work battling the one that had already happened, and preparing for something similar in scale and complexion.

The former Chairman of the 9/11 Commission of the US, has bluntly said that “A decade after 9/11, the nation is not yet prepared for a truly catastrophic disaster.”

A study conducted in Australia found that groups of experts and non-experts fumbled, when asked to predict from intelligence reports as to the nature and time of occurrence of the next likely disaster.

There is an immediate and imperative need to put policy planners and operatives in the security field through exercises which would accustom them to think of scenarios that had hitherto been inconceivable and imponderable, and factor them into the security plans.

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