'India Received 26 Intelligence Warnings About 26/11 Attacks'

"The first gobbet had arrived in August 2006 and stated that LeT, an influential Pakistani jihadi organisation that had cut its teeth sending Muslim insurgents to fight the Indian security forces in divided Kashmir, was 'making preparations' for a assault on Mumbai," the journalists wrote.

Several five-star hotels were mentioned as targets, including the Trident—Oberoi and the Taj.

"Since then there had been 25 further alerts, many of them delivered by the CIA to the Indian government's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, and passed on to India's domestic Intelligence Bureau." According to the book, Mumbai Police officials who examined this information felt the U.S. was tapping into a significant source. The leads drew a picture of someone inside the notoriously closed LeT, a group that everyone believed was funded by Pakistani intelligence despite being banned by former President Pervez Musharraf's regime.

Though Mumbai has been a victim of several terrorist attacks in the past, the book said the new intelligence suggested that LeT was plotting something new for a raid on the financial hub.

Three warnings specifically mentioned the use of fidayeen, or guerrillas who fight to the death, inflicting heavy casualties before being overcome. The LeT had "deployed this strategy in Kashmir to deadly effect", the book says.