Local officials to visit India to evaluate Mumbai attacks

The Metropolitan Police Department will send five people to India in January in an effort to learn about last month's terrorist attacks that crippled Mumbai.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said the purpose of the trip, in which Las Vegas officials will accompany Los Angeles Police Department investigators, will be to evaluate the tactics the terrorists used and how officials responded.

"There are definitely aspects of this attack that concern us," Gillespie said during a meeting of the Nevada Commission on Homeland Security on Friday.

Last month's attacks, in which 10 terrorists killed more than 170 people and injured hundreds over a three-day stretch, has law enforcement officials here concerned about Las Vegas' vulnerability to a similar attack.

The tactics used were highly sophisticated, the weapons were readily available and the attacks were carried out in Mumbai's resort corridor, at hotels and cafes that attract Westerners. Las Vegas and Reno both have resort corridors with some of the largest hotels in the world.

It was a new play for terrorists, said Las Vegas police Lt. Tom Monahan, who oversees the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center.

"The enemy is learning from this, so they will, in my view, continue to exploit this particular play," Monahan said. "Just like the New England Patriots, they have their favorite play, I suspect that al-Qaida and associated and affiliated smaller groups will engage in this type of attack."

Rod Swanson, FBI terrorism task force special agent for Las Vegas, said federal and local law enforcement have no evidence that an attack in Nevada is being planned. But the city remains a target, he said, and an attack would be devastating to the local economy.

Law enforcement officials would not discuss specifics of how they would respond to similar attacks here. They did say that they briefed the heads of local police and fire departments, some elected officials and resort officials on the Mumbai attacks.

Law enforcement will need to prepare for a sophisticated multi-site attack such as the one in Mumbai, Monahan said. In addition to taking hostages at some locations, the terrorists used taxis to get to the locations, then left explosives in backbacks in the taxis. The bombs exploded throughout the city.

The attacks were so well coordinated that initial reports were that dozens of suspects were involved, Monahan said.

Gillespie said he's sending people to Mumbai to look at the response and find out about the preparedness level of the city's law enforcement agencies.

"You can look at that event and say, 'You know what? That could happen here,'" Gillespie said. "You can never look at these things and say, 'Oh, we can handle that.'"

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440