Mumbai Attackers Had GPS Units, Satellite Maps
Gunmen Used Technology as A Tactical Tool
Mumbai Attackers Had GPS Units, Satellite Maps
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 3, 2008; Page A01
NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 — The heavily armed attackers who set out for Mumbai by sea last week navigated with Global Positioning System equipment, according to Indian investigators and police. They carried BlackBerrys, CDs holding high-resolution satellite images like those used for Google Earth maps, and multiple cellphones with switchable SIM cards that would be hard to track. They spoke by satellite telephone. And as television channels broadcast live coverage of the young men carrying out the terrorist attack, TV sets were turned on in the hotel rooms occupied by the gunmen, eyewitnesses recalled.
This is terrorism in the digital age. Emerging details about the 60-hour siege of Mumbai suggest the attackers had made sophisticated use of high technology in planning and carrying out the assault that killed at least 174 people and wounded more than 300. The flood of information about the attacks — on TV, cellphones, the Internet — seized the attention of a terrified city, but it also was exploited by the assailants to direct their fire and cover their origins.
“Both sides used technology. The terrorists would not have been able to carry out these attacks had it not been for technology. Story With Video Continues At: Washington Post Foreign Service