As I read up on all the different reports from the warnings that had been there, I am more and more certain that this was not an intelligence failure so much as a failure to design intelligent responses.
What more intelligence is needed? You have warnings about an attack from the sea by captured terrorists, America, reported suspicious movements by fishermen……. Coastal Guard looking out for possible infiltrations….. the intelligence was in place. What intelligence was needed? The exact time and place for the attack? Even that was provided when calls from help at the attack sites came in, but action happened much later.
The terrorists slipped under the radar by hijacking a vessel that would not be conspicuous.
What caused the tragedy was lack of use of reports. With so much warning about an attack from sea, how is it that the police response was still so clueless? From the overall speed of the response, there seemed to be no impression that the police expected any situation to arise. All the information gathering in the world is no use if it is not taken seriously.
What we need is dedicated follow ups, investigations, confirmations and readiness to act to back up all that intelligence.