US mobilised special forces during attack: Ex- official

Recalling the developments at the White House during the 2008 Thanksgiving weekend, when LeT terrorists went on a rampage in Mumbai for several days, Mr Goel said the US had “some ( special forces) teams in the region that we’re willing to deploy quickly”.

The Indians “didn’t accept it ( US offer) in time for the commandos to arrive and make a difference,” he said. “I think technically they eventually cleared their ( US commandos) arrival, but by the time the team was mobilised, the Indian commando teams had taken over and neutralised the attack,” he said.

As a result, the US commandos never landed in India.

“As the attack dragged on after two, three days, I think they came to the realisation that it was much more sophisticated than they had thought,” said Goel, who now is a fellow in think- tank New America’s International Security programme. As the news of terrorist attack broke, Goel was driving from Washington DC to his parent’s house, some eight hours away.

“On the drive I noticed that my Blackberry was filling up with messages, but since as I was driving I didn’t check my messages. When I reached my parents’ house, I checked my Blackberry and that’s when I first learned about the Mumbai attacks,” he said, recollecting the events of the day 10 years ago. It was immediately clear that it was a terrorist attack, he added.

“We were offering law enforcement capabilities. We were offering to send special forces to help bring the attack under control. We were trying to ensure that it didn’t result in a larger conflagration in the region. It was very much a multipronged approach, in the first few days,” said the former White House official.