So The Government Knew

It is annoying to see the government making up one excuse after another for the security failure in Delhi. Laloo's statement made headlines in The Hindu today - do not blame us ministers, blame the intelligence folks who gave us vague information. Shivraj Patil told CNN-IBN the same thing: we knew of the possibility of an attack on Delhi but 'what was not available was the timing, the place and the method to be used for the purpose'. What do these fellows expect? A detailed personal briefing by the terrorists of their plan? A press release from the Indian Mujahideen highlighting the dates and venues of their upcoming events? Intelligence gathering is difficult business - it involves developing a vast network of informants, keeping tabs on a number of unseemly characters living in the twilight zone of the law, gathering tidbits of information from different places and putting them together with that extra bit of intuition coupled with a calculated mix of surmise and conjecture. Even with good luck, it is not always either complete or fully accurate. Loose talk about intelligence failure and blaming IB folks does this government no credit.

The more important question is whether the intelligence was actionable based on what Patil has admitted. He knew the attacks were going to be in Delhi. And as the whole world knows, the series of attacks in the recent past have all taken place in major market areas in every city. Putting the two together, does it require a genius to figure that the attacks in Delhi would most likely also happen at the city's most prominent markets at Connaught place and Karol Bagh? There may be a cure for negligence but there is unfortunately none for stupidity. Do these two jokers believe that they can get away with such explanations? Do they take us all to be dunces?