Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Last week’s Mumbai terrorists may have been following a 15-year-old script on how to attack a city’s fanciest hotels.

The Mumbai attacks “closely followed” the framework of a foiled 1993 New York plot, including “high-profile soft targets” such as hotels, the use of watercraft to gain access to sites and the choice of weaponry, according to a Dec. 3 report from Austin, Texas-based Stratfor, an intelligence company.

The so-called Landmark plot in 1993 was thwarted when U.S. authorities arrested eight people linked to the then-nascent al- Qaeda group before they had a chance to execute their plan to attack several sites in Manhattan, the report said. The targets included the Waldorf-Astoria and UN Plaza hotels as well as the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, Stratfor said.

In Mumbai, India’s financial center, at least 10 gunmen armed with automatic rifles, grenades and explosives targeted the main railway station, two five-star hotel complexes, a Jewish center and a hospital. The assaults, which killed 195 people, began late on Nov. 26 and ended on Nov. 29.

“Gauging by the success of the Mumbai incident, we can expect similar strategies and tactics in future attacks,” the report said. The thwarted 1993 attack could have “undermined the security and effectiveness of New York as a center for financial and diplomatic dealings,” the report said.

Meeting N.Y. Police

Hotel industry representatives are meeting with the New York City Police Department today to discuss how to best secure the city’s hotels.

“There are of course certain inconveniences you can impose without scaring the life out of tourists and your guests,” said Jimmy Chin, executive director of risk management at the New York Palace Hotel and chairman of the security committee for the Hotel Association of New York. “There has to be a happy medium and a balance to it.”

The NYPD deployed heavily armed “Hercules” anti-terror squads to most of the city’s major hotels immediately after the Mumbai attacks, including the Waldorf-Astoria, the Palace Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner for public information and the department’s main spokesman.

The department has more than 1,000 officers assigned to counterterrorism, both in uniform and undercover, he said.

Daily Briefing

Every day, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly meets with David Cohen, deputy commissioner for intelligence, and Richard Falkenrath, deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, for a briefing on any attacks around the world, Browne said.

The police have snipers to target anyone who might use a gun at a public gathering, such as the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, and practice how to respond to multiple, simultaneous attacks, like those in Mumbai, Browne said.

“None of this is foolproof,” Browne said by telephone. “It’s a big open city and we live in an open democratic society. We’re doing what we reasonably can, but probably more than any other police department.”

NYPD detectives are often sent around the world to gather intelligence in the wake of terrorist attacks, and the department is considering sending investigators to Mumbai, Browne said.

“Various parts of the attack cycle can change, but rarely does an attack occur that is completely novel,” Stratfor said in the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in New York at rstringer@bloomberg.net; Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: December 4, 2008 17:06 EST