Recent attacks on public figures make fun of the security knowledge accumulated by security agencies
Recent attacks on public figures make fun of the security knowledge accumulated by security agencies
The two recent terror attacks in Russia and the US are ominous signs for India. The first was the attempted assassination of the controversial “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie at an event in Upstate New York. He had been under constant police protection for years after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a veritable death warrant, against him in 1989. So much time had passed since that threat that the security services lowered their vigil, and then, a previously unknown terrorist found them for the words they had written 34 years earlier.
Mr. Rushdie is recovering but it is worrying that hardliners have such long memories. Terrorists motivated by religious fanaticism are courageous, suicidal and vengeful individuals and their fanaticism has no expiry date.
The second incident occurred in Moscow on August 20 when 29-year-old Daria Dugina, a nationalist and outspoken daughter of a Russian conservative ideologue Alexander Dugin – a supporter of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – died in a car. detonate the bombs. Russian state security services have already released details of one suspect, a woman they claim came from Ukraine, rented an apartment and fled to Europe via Estonia. Soon after the attack, the Ukrainian government called the claim “fictitious”. There is a reference to a Ukrainian website called a “hit list” by Russian state security officials that listed the home addresses and personal data of several pro-Putin journalists and writers. Daria Dugina was on that list, and her name was ‘expired’ the moment after the explosion.
These two incidents involve prominent personalities and should worry the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The attack on Mr. Rushdie was the handiwork of a 24-year-old “sleeper,” an unregistered criminal who was not on FBI records as a terrorist suspect. The FBI should be extremely concerned because of the considerable time lag between the edict issued by Iran’s religious leader and its execution.
high price target
The UK and the US have invested heavily in protecting high-value targets such as Mr. Rushdie. The question is whether the US security establishment has become complacent or whether it is impossible to defend a target because terrorists can melt and integrate into the maze of United States ethnicity and emerge only to kill.
The US has seen many human rights and privacy erosions in an attempt to identify the fanatical “needles” that pose a terrorist threat. US agencies scrutinize the personal data of citizens and people around the world and deploy tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) to identify terrorists or their sympathizers.
Similarly, the Moscow incident puts a question mark on the effectiveness of Russian intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The incident involving Daria Dugina is either due to Russian overconfidence or helplessness in keeping track of all threats, or both.
spying on democracy
When it comes to terrorism these two attacks tell us that in a democracy there is no difference between the rigidity of the security apparatus and the heavily guarded state. Democracy and autocracy are known to use similar tools to spy on citizens, listen in on conversations, sift through petabytes of data online using AI to find patterns or abnormalities that may be part of a terrorist organization. The recent attacks on prominent public figures make fun of all the security practices and knowledge that has been accumulated by security agencies over the years.
Against this background comes startling reports from Russia that a suspect has been apprehended there, who is alleged to have been preparing to enter India and harm an unnamed dignitary. The person is said to have allegiance to an Islamic terrorist group. Names can be difficult to name but the outline is clear. Even in India’s chaotic and fiery democracy, leaders of all kinds must be mindful of their words, lest they become terrorist targets.
The infiltration of security agencies by terror groups has always been a nightmare for governments across the world. Over the past decade, technology, software and tools have been deployed to eavesdrop on all forms of communication to combat intrusion. But it is clear that they offer no guarantee of pre-emptive and early detection. Only vigilant vigilance in physically protecting critical infrastructure, strengthened by international cooperation, can keep the determined terrorist at bay.
RK Raghavan is a former director of CBI. Ajay Goyal is a Security Analyst based in Europe.