U.S. says it warned India of attacks

As the world continues to mourn those killed in last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, U.S. news agencies reported yesterday that the United States had passed intelligence to the Indian government warning of possible attacks, not once but twice.

U.S. officials are saying that they delivered intelligence reports to Indian government officials in mid-October that specifically detailed the threat of an attack "from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai" and named the Taj Mahal hotel.

The Indian Navy is now shifting blame around while it sorts out where the "systematic failure" of security and intelligence actually occurred. On Sunday, the Mumbai fishermen's union claimed it reported suspicions that "explosives were being smuggled in by boat" to police.

But the Indian government (which believes the militant group thought responsible, Lashkar-e-Taiba, has ties to the Pakistani government), insists these warnings were minded. Alerts were raised and precautions were taken 10 days before the attack occurred and the measures, officials believe, did postpone the attacks, even if only for a few days.

Ratan Tata, owner of the Taj Mahal hotel, has said in interviews that while they beefed up security in the days before the attacks, even the information they had was not enough to "have stopped what took place."