Expert advice to cops: Innovate

Expert advice to cops: Innovate
Date: Sep 15, 2008
Source: The Times Of India

Every time serial bomb blasts take place, the absence of real time intelligence is lamented. And the Delhi blasts on Saturday were no exception.
But former spymasters and top strategic analysts believe the battle between terrorists and intelligence officers is a cat-and-mouse game where the side with better innovative skills stays one step ahead of the other.
If intelligence officers are not able to surprise terrorists, then terrorists will surprise the nation, says ex-IB boss Ajit Kumar Doval. The ability to carry out a surprise strike — for terrorists, it could be a bomb blast; for intelligence officials, it could be a preventive swoop — depends on the team's ability to generate new ideas. New ideas help find ways to create new tactics to combat and thwart the adversary.
Which is why, says former Intelligence Bureau director Doval, there's nothing like a time-tested formula for either terrorists to carry out their devious plans or for intelligence officials to stop them. The sheer ingeniousness of the plan enabled terrorists to hoodwink the US intelligence apparatus and carry out the 9/11 strikes. Says Doval, "Time-tested wisdom is an anti-doctrine in successful intelligence operations. You require constant refinement of tactics on the ground. A successful tactic can be used only once. It's a use-and-throw technology."
Ironically, the same holds true for terrorists too. For instance, once a terrorist knows that intelligence officials indulge in telephone tapping, he is unlikely to divulge classified information during a call; on the contrary, he will only talk what he wants the other side to know.
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi/Expert_advice_to_cops_Innovate/articleshow/3483237.cms