Mumbai

[William Kelly]

The militant attacks on Mumbai are extremely important for a number of reasons, including the fact that terrorists have continued to adapt the small outboard engine powered crafts - 20 to 30 foot speedboats, attacking USS Cole, US ships on patrol off Iran, capturing merchant ships off Simalia and now an amphibious assault on a major city, all using small - mobile motorboats.

Such small motorcraft are the preferred means of transport for today's terrorists.

The use of such small boats by covert commandos was perfected by the CIA and anti-Castro Cubans, and according to Victor Marchetti and John Marks, the CIA gave General Dynamics a contract to develop a highly sophisticated small craft that could be used by anti-Castro Cubans in their coastal operations.

Collins Radio, another major defense contractor, also employed former Nazi scientists who came into the USA under Project Paperclip, and assigned them to the CIA project to develop a small, highly maneuverable boat for use by the anti-Castro commandos.

After the assassination of JFK, the action shifted from Cuba to Vietnam, and the project helped develop the small boats used in coastal and river operations in Vietnam.

Now, it appears that the terrorists operations worldwide have adapted the small, outboard motor propelled water craft as the primary means of transport to target sites, and after the Cole, straights off Iran, Somalia pirates and Mumbai, such small crafts will be recognized as one of the most significant threats to national security worldwide.