Intelligence & National Security Discussion

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 28 Oct 2010 04:49

Hint of hardball in Headley spar - Pillai says US sat tight on information

...

Roemer’s remarks appeared to be in reply to the Indian assumption that Headley was a US double agent, which is why information about him was not shared earlier. Headley was arrested only after he went rogue, Indian intelligence agencies have deduced.

It appears certain that Headley will be discussed during Obama’s visit next month. Sources said the counter-terrorism discussion could centre on 26/11 and Headley.

Having learnt a lesson from the Headley experience and given that the US would eventually exit from Afghanistan, the home ministry is planning to de-link India’s intelligence gathering from dependence on US assets in West Asia and South Asia.

“We would like to depend on our own network which we would expand and strengthen,” said a source. External intelligence agency RAW’s mandate would then be expanded.
Top

sum · Post by **sum** » 28 Oct 2010 10:05

Having learnt a lesson from the Headley experience and given that the US would eventually exit from Afghanistan, the home ministry is planning to de-link India’s intelligence gathering from dependence on US assets in West Asia and South Asia.

Scary when such things like Desh depending on US assets for Asia related intel are printed in MSM...praying this is not true..

dinesha · Post by **dinesha** » 28 Oct 2010 10:50

Breakthrough in encryption tech
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 825034.cms

KOLKATA: TUSJLF BU OPPO. If it doesn't make any sense to you just use the preceding alphabet to decipher it STRIKE AT NOON.

Intelligence agencies and security forces have been grappling with such encrypted messages from militants. Some are easy to decode while the rest are difficult. An Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) professor in Kolkata has come up with an algorithm that helps decode encrypted language. Being considered as more flexible and faster than the previous methods, it could be a breakthrough in encryption technology, according to experts.

Cryptologist Palash Sarkar, who has been working on encryption for more than a decade and has more than 100 research papers under his belt, hit upon the formula recently. It has been published in an international journal and hailed as a significant improvement on existing methods. Sarkar's algorithm that can be used for data or message transfer through any medium including the Internet and the telephone can be customized which makes it suitable for defence purposes.

"We have been working in close cooperation with the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for various research projects, including this one. This method could be ideal for defence use since they don't normally use encryption techniques that are available in the public domain. My algorithm can be improvised upon which will allow them to alter it according to their needs. It will also offer the DRDO to work on an existing platform rather than try and develop something from scratch," said Sarkar.

In the system, data or messages can be transmitted in a package with a data body and a header. While the data is both encypted and authenticated, the header only has authentication. "I haven't encrypted the header to let users access it easily and be sure about the source. In terms of security, the method is certainly more advanced than what we now have," claimed Sarkar.

Senior researchers at the premier institute agreed. "This is an important breakthrough in encryption and should serve as an important constituent in the overall architecture of nationwide secure communication," said a statement issued by the ISI.

A passionate cryptologist, Sarkar has been a part of a team of scientists led by Prof. Bimal K Roy. The team has executed several government projects in encryption over the last 10 years. "Cryptology is now an interplay of computer science, mathematics and communication technology. The process has got more complex and certainly more challenging. Its importance, though remains and cryptologists now face a bigger challenge," added Sarkar.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 03 Nov 2010 22:01

Intelligent Solution

The intelligent solution
BN Bhatia, Hindustan Times
November 02, 2010
It is pointless to pump in crores of rupees to refurbish our defence equipment and associated capabilities. Instead, what we need is revamping 'Military Intelligence' and look at it differently. The armed forces don't just need a state-of-the-art intelligence apparatus. Equally important is the military commanders' mindset, a valuable force-multiplier that can't be pulled out of a hat at a critical moment. If you are a commander who likes to maintain his and the formation's poise when the chips are down, you will make sure that your intelligence advisor, like all other arms and supporting services, gets co-opted in the plan.

Military Intelligence, therefore, must be the starting point of all plans and it should be in a commander's mind at all times. It's mostly neglected and, later, it's convenient to hold 'lack of adequate intelligence' as the cause of failure. We saw it happening in Kargil.

But why do commanders neglect military intelligence? A lack of understanding of how to expect actionable intelligence unique to the operation at hand makes one focus on operations in isolation, which comes at the cost of operational intelligence and, consequently, the intelligence staff.

But surely it's not the fault of commanders alone. Earlier, people got into intelligence for convenient postings. Military secretaries know that mediocre officers are chosen for intelligence. The better ones go into 'operations'. Obviously, the image of intelligence suffers. Let me illustrate.

While attending the Defence Services Staff Course at Wellington many moons ago, I relished doing a tedious intelligence assignment. The following week I was hauled up for my task. Few students, who had waited till midnight for me to finish my work and 'consult' it till morning, were singled out in their respective syndicates for their exemplary work. At the end of the year-long course, our Directing Staff walked up to me and remarked: "You are the only one in this course whose graph has gone up after mid-term."

Many years later, the chief of staff of a command, while interviewing me, stared at my record of service for a long time. He had thought that I had furnished misleading information about topping a string of courses. He later verified it with the military secretary's branch. Commissioned into infantry, I later opted for Artillery where I did my Long Gunnery Staff Course. Posted as an instructor at the Intelligence SchooI, the commandant asked me if I wanted to switch to the Intelligence corps. I saw a new opportunity in a challenging field and agreed. In the two years in this command, I witnessed many occasions where balanced thinking from the 'adversary's point of view' defused 'crises'.

My General Officer Commanding placed his faith in the intelligence branch and allowed me to go to Delhi to update my database. There, prior to the November 1986 Operation Brasstacks, one of the largest mobilisations of the armed forces in the Indian subcontinent, I asked the concerned Director about what he thought would Pakistan's reaction be to the massive movement. He laughed at it. What followed was Pakistan's mobilisation that resulted in a face-off that was later contained at the highest political level.

I learned several lessons from the episode: First, Intelligence is not an isolated island. Second, rank is not a criterion for effective assessments. Third, senior officers can — and will — get into cemented thinking. Fourth, it pays for intelligence officers to speak out, for which you must have integrity -- and they will be respected for it.

Was Kargil avoidable? If we had thought like Pervez Musharraf and correlated all available inputs, cast away our disbeliefs, allowed the enemy to be different and filled in the intelligence gaps intelligently, maybe yes. Instead, senior commanders relied on subordinate commanders, who, in turn, relied on available inputs alone. What followed was confusion. The intelligence lesson was clear: you can't second-guess the enemy.

So, how do we get our relationship with intelligence right? It's a leadership thing. Trust the intelligence department and it will deliver. Also, avoid unrealistic expectations. We don't want situations where we'll be fed 'cooked' intelligence that can jeopardise operations and claim lives. Give importance to the intelligence staff and you'll get desired returns.

BN Bhatia is a former Colonel, Indian Army. The views expressed by the author are personal.

So what he is asking for is think like a Paki to avoid surprises. What would the enemy do given the facts known to us?

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 04 Nov 2010 00:04

Essentially arguing against ossified thinking that accumulates in top brass when faced with known adversaries. And since the matter at hand is so vital, cross-verification with other people with a different pov must be given weightage. Especially irrespective of rank. I'm not sure how open top brass are to suggestions and critiques from lower order folks in the IA/F/N and hence outside views should be welcome and taken into account. That seems to be the gist of it.

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 04 Nov 2010 02:04

Prasad wrote:Essentially arguiding against ossified thinking that accumulates in top brass when faced with known adversaries. And since the matter at hand is so vital, cross-verification with other people with a different pov must be given weightage. Especially irrespective of rank. I'm not sure how open top brass are to suggestions and critiques from lower order folks in the IA/F/N and hence outside views should be welcome and taken into account. That seems to be the gist of it.

Absolutely right.Infact even on this forum sometimes ossified thinking prevails.I will give you one example.Lot of Indians still feel that In the next war with China , they will use the same tactics that they used in 1962.

sum · Post by **sum** » 06 Nov 2010 13:25

More sad reading on affairs of the RAW and NTRO:
Greying Eminence:A personnel crisis leaves espionage in the hands of a gerontocracy

In a few weeks, the government will initiate the process of appointing the next chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency. The toss-up will be between experienced officers and a lobbyist regarded as part of a clique that almost destroyed the organisation, when it was taken over, two years ago, by Ashok Chaturvedi. By all accounts, the succession battle is expected to begin soon.

It’s not just about the top job. The agency is also in the middle of a far greater crisis: it is running out of good men. Ad-hoc appointments, faulty personnel policies, the disinclination of career officers from other departments to work with RAW on deputation—these factors have pushed RAW to its worst manpower crisis since its creation in 1968. The problem has also spread to the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), carved out of RAW in 2004 to meet India’s strategic intelligence needs for the best technology. The specialist technical group is now gasping for breath and is desperately seeking qualified personnel.

The two organisations are responsible for gathering intelligence from across the world. However, they are turning into retirement homes that bestow handsome salaries and perks upon occupants. The important task of gathering external intelligence stands endangered.

Take the case of D. Nath. A month ago, he began his third innings in India’s intelligence community after he was called out of retirement to deal with the emerging Kashmir crisis. Strangely enough, neither was Nath the best man RAW had on Kashmir, nor was he aware of current trends, having retired from RAW at the beginning of the decade. Nath had earlier been pulled out of retirement to head the central monitoring services of NTRO when he was in his mid-sixties. Now nearing 70 years, Nath again finds himself in the hot seat.

He is not alone. RAW and NTRO have seen a flurry of appointments in the past few months. Amber Sen retired from RAW four years ago after he was edged out by a politically savvy colleague for the post of RAW chief. Sen was asked to go and Chaturvedi took over, and his tenure is considered one of the worst and controversial chapters in RAW’s history. Incidentally, before retirement, Sen was handling the operations desk, considered the most prestigious assignment and generally going to the most competent of officers.

But the then National Security Advisor (NSA) offered Sen a sop by hiring him as the “strategic intelligence advisor” in the Prime Minister’s Office. After a two-year stint, Sen retired a second time. Again, early this year, RAW sought out his services. He is working when he should be settled deep in the joys of comfortable retirement like other bureaucrats his age.

Sen’s third stint is understandable, given his competence. But RAW has even refused to let go of officers from its “ministerial” cadre, the administrative wing in charge of paperwork and file-keeping that is unrelated to intelligence in any way. P.K. Mathur is an administrative officer who has never served in any intelligence-related capacity. However, as a “farewell gift”, Mathur was sent as a first secretary in the Indian embassy in a Southeast Asian country before he retired. This is a post usually reserved for senior operational RAW but Mathur got to keep it for two years. This caused RAW some embarrassment with its foreign service counterparts. He would have then retired but for a brand new “favour”: his services were extended as he was found to the best man, one who knew all “the rules and regulations and the administrative set-up of RAW”. He continues to serve and enjoy all perquisites.

Ironically, RAW’s present crisis is the legacy of two men, Chaturvedi and his deputy Sanjiv Tripathi, who served as as the additional secretary (personnel) and then as the head of its technical wing known as the Aviation Research Centre (ARC). Tripathi is back in contention as the new RAW chief if the current chief, K.C. Verma, chooses to retire a month before the actual date of his retirement. During Chaturvedi and Tripathi’s run in RAW, the organisation was hit by several controversies, resignations and security lapses, causing embarrassment to the government.

It was also during this period (2007-09) that some of RAW’s finest officers quit. While Sen retired from service, Chaturvedi’s attempts to promote Tripathi led to R. Banerji, an expert on Pakistan, Afghanistan and terrorism, leaving. Chaturvedi also ensured that its China expert, P.V. Kumar, would be sidelined. Two other senior officers, Jayadeva Ranade and Ravi Nair, put in their papers under controversial circumstances. RAW was without experts in the two countries that matter the most, Pakistan and China. The exodus at the top ensured that officers from other departments began to cry off any offers of deputation in the intelligence agency. Now, ad-hoc extensions to non-essential personnel like Mathur are ensuring that the last vestige of professionalism is corroded away.

The NTRO hasn’t fared any better. Last week, unable to find a suitable officer to replace its chairman, K.V.S.S. Prasad Rao, the government decided to continue with “acting chairman” P.V. Kumar, who had lost out in RAW when Chaturvedi made allegations of corruption against him in a case related to the procurement of interception equipment. This was cited by Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who felt that a person found “unfit” to head RAW could not be posted as the head of another intelligence agency. However, Kumar was brought out of retirement to first serve as “advisor”, and now “acting chairman”, of NTRO till he retires for the second time a few months later. NTRO has seen its share of pensioners. Ramesh Kumar, an HRD manager from DRDO, was brought back when he was nearing 70. S.S. Moorthy, a little over 70 and with a work background in DRDO laboratories, was also brought in.

“The rot in these organisations is too difficult to correct,” a senior intelligence official told Outlook. “Even if the questionable appointments were to be brought to the notice of the nsa or the prime minister, there is little that they can do. These organisations are now run as personal fiefdoms with no accountability or oversight. Even if they do want to do something, the systemic problems will never be addressed.”

A case in point is the much-delayed inquiry report and the pending cag investigation into NTRO’s financial and administrative illegalities. Unless the government acts swiftly and with specific intent, the systemic rot in the intelligence apparatus will be difficult to set right. Meanwhile, one can simply watch sensitive and strategic outfits turning into retirement homes meant for the rehabilitation of favourites.

Stretchable Tenures...

* V. Kumar: Retired special secretary, RAW. Rehired as advisor to NTRO (a specialist tech group) despite opposition from Union home minister P. Chidambaram. Now, he is the acting chairman of NTRO.
* Amber Sen: Retired as special secretary, RAW. Appointed strategic intelligence advisor. After a two-year-tenure, he retired a second time. Still with RAW.
* D. Nath: Former IAF officer. Joined RAW in the 1970s and retired a decade ago. Hired by NTRO for five years and retired. Now, rehired by RAW.
* P.K. Mathur: Retired from RAW's administrative wing. Rehired by RAW in an operational posting.
* M.K. Bhandari: Retired general cadre officer from RAW. Taken back as a consultant.
* Ramesh Kumar: Retired from HRD department of DRDO. Hired by NTRO.
* S.S. Moorthy: Served at a DRDO lab (DESIDC) before retiring. He was brought back to NTRO for a second innings after retirement.
* Anil Chowdhry: Retired special secretary, (internal security), MHA. Months after his retirement, he was hired as an advisor to NTRO.
* Maj Gen A.K. Tripathi & Maj Gen V.K. Negi: Both retired and sought re-employment in NTRO. However, the appointments committee of the Union cabinet turned down their candidature. They were both hired by NTRO as consultants, though.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 10 Nov 2010 20:52

Lashkar operatives attended Maoist meet: Chhattisgarh police chief

...........
"Two LeT operatives attended a CPI-Maoist central committee meeting as observers, held sometime in April-May this year. They met in a jungle inside Orissa, close to Bastar," said Vishwa Ranjan, Director General of Police of the state worst affected by Leftist insurgency in India.

But he said the information needs to be verified.

"This information is based on a single source, and needs to be cross-checked," he said.

"Information regarding LeT operatives needs further corroboration, but it's common for observers to be present at key Maoist meetings," said Ranjan, a former additional Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB), who took charge as the state's police chief in July 2007.

Highly placed sources say that CPI-Maoist had adopted a 20-page policy document at the meet, and outlined plans of seizing political power by stepping up "armed resistance" and inflicting "severe losses to the enemy forces" all over the country.

......

Time to wipe out the resistance, before it picks up steams!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Nov 2010 21:09

I see the problem is due to bureaucratization of the Intelligence services. The chiefs should serve at the will of the PM. This retirement age shibboleth is what makes them poltick for the job. During the last decade a US senior man retired at age 70 as he was the best there was.

Good thing that MKN was able to tap the expertise of Mr Sen despite him being passed over for the top job.

I think the Outlook story is a bunch of whiners not getting their expected dues.

Rupesh · Post by **Rupesh** » 10 Nov 2010 21:59

The Outlook article is by Saikat Dutta, take it with a ton of salt!

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 11 Nov 2010 02:00

DoT proposes Rs 540 crore for hi-tech snooping

........
The centralized monitoring system (CMS) will cover a research lab and a centralized national hub with regional monitoring centres at each one of the licence areas in the country. It will include development activities for the lawful interception, monitoring, analysis and detection of grey market telecom operations by DoT's telecom enforcement, research & monitoring (TERM) cells.

The plan is to put together a world class surveillance system with the latest intelligence techniques and biometric devices, along with enhanced capabilities in crypto analysis, voice recognition, grid surveillance, encryption and decryption, mining of data bases etc.

During the Mumbai attacks, terrorists used international phone lines to stay in touch with their instructors and handlers. Later, the government and security agencies had to rely on surveillance information from foreign governments and service providers to gather meaningful intelligence
.......

However, while a centralized government-controlled system does appear to be the best solution, its main challenge will be to keep up with rapidly changing technology, especially given the government's long-drawn tendering system for equipment and software updates. The fact that it has taken two years after 26/11 to get to a proposal stage is a telling testimonial of its inherent weaknesses.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 11 Nov 2010 15:56

Obit.Professor Peter Hilton,codebreaker and mathematician.

Pioneer British codebreaker of Bletchley Park during WW2 and colleagues included...

...there were Alan Turing; Roy Jenkins (the future Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer); Peter Benenson (who later founded Amnesty International); and Hugh Alexander, the British chess champion. Also there was Donald Michie, a young Oxford classics scholar who became a professor of artificial intelligence

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... ilton.html

Professor Peter Hilton, who died on November 6 aged 87, played a key role in the secret wartime codebreaking agency at Bletchley Park and went on to become one of the most influential mathematicians of the postwar generation.

Hilton initially worked with Turing on breaking German naval codes produced by Enigma machines, and concentrated on top secret Offizier messages (for officers' eyes only). His extraordinary powers of visualisation meant that in his mind's eye he could unpick streams of characters from two separate teleprinters – a faculty that was to prove invaluable in the feverish mental chess game with the enemy.

Success rates were high and decryption was accomplished at remarkable speed. At the end of 1942 he was moved to work with a group of some 30 mathematicians on the yet more sophisticated code which the Germans had started using in 1940 to encrypt top-secret messages – mainly between Hitler and his generals.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 11 Nov 2010 21:13

Philip, Thats an extraordinary skill to be able to meld two or more disconnected streams to produce information.

His extraordinary powers of visualisation meant that in his mind's eye he could unpick streams of characters from two separate teleprinters

I guess thats what the super comuters are used for now.

As an aside long time ago we went to see Satyajit ray's "Charulata" in Bengali with English subtitiles. A few years later we saw "Khartoum" about General Gordon. My son who was 10 years old at the later instance screamed out the Charulata's obscure scenes. What was common to both the movies was the new British PM Gladstone (second term) who was reform minded. Thinking back it was remarkable that he saw across languages, film makers, different story lines, the common link of Gladstone at that young age.

He is a law school student now.

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 11 Nov 2010 22:38

R.N.Kao's(Founder of RAW) viewpoints on USA,Pakistan and China and their relationship with India according to B.Raman.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267823

With President Barack Obama in our midst, I thought it would be interesting to recall what R.N. Kao, the founding father of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), thought of the US, China and Pakistan in his retirement before he died in January 2002. Extracts from some of his letters to me are given below:

The USA
'Many years ago, after meeting some of the top functionaries in the USA, I formed the opinion that they are not necessarily anti-Indian. Their priorities are different and are determined by their perception of national interests. They follow their chosen line of action with a stubborn determination. If, in the process, we get hurt, it is just too bad.' (7-10-97)

American Cultural Influences on the Indian Elite
'Pan-American culture is making our so-called elite rootless. Indeed, it is very true that in the southern hemisphere, the young upwardly mobile affluent people find themselves more at ease with West Europeans and Americans than with their own poorer nationals. For a country like India, this could lead to dangerous tensions..' (23-1-98)

Information Revolution
'The question in my mind is whether, with the fast developing information technology, it would at all be feasible for any government agency to filter the avalanche of information, which is beamed towards us from different angles of the azimuth.' (4-8-97)

' The recent advances in information technology are quite dazzling, but one doubts whether an overwhelming data bank is synonymous with wisdom. Indeed, I have always felt a little uneasy at the thought that the world would become a mirror image of the US. What a dull prospect it would be, and how disastrous for the natural resources of this planet.! It has been truly said that man is the only creature of this earth who destroys the environment in which it survives.' (12-1- 98)

Sino-US Relations
'China and USA have some kind of a love-hate relationship. The Chinese will feel they have arrived only if they can show to the world that they are in the same league as the USA. The latter, on their part, have, to my mind, a long-standing guilt complex so far as China is concerned. Perhaps, it flows from the long history of American Methodist missionary activity in China.' (25-11-97)

China
'As a people,we sometimes get carried away by euphoria or sink into gloom. It is quite clear that, so far as China is concerned, it would be a long haul for us. I remember that, in the mid fifties, while addressing an annual conference of the intelligence chiefs of the States, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said that while our problems with Pakistan were acute and demanded urgent solution, our problems with China would prove more intractable and continue for a long long time.' (14-12-96)

'The Chinese, too, are busy playing games, as every one else does. In 1984, when I was leaving for Beijing, my then boss (My comment: Mrs Indira Gandhi) asked me what I hoped to achieve. In reply, I had said I expected very little, but that I saw no reason why we should leave the field to Pakistan unchallenged and not make even an effort.' (23-12-96)

'I think that with economic prosperity being more evenly spread out in China, the liberalisation of the political system would be inevitable. Once the people have enough to eat and a roof over their head, all kinds of explosive ideas of individual liberties, human rights and freedom of expression begin to take shape. One only hopes that the Chinese would be able to manage this better than, apparently, the Russians have been able to handle the economic problems following their attempts at political liberalisation.' (30-1-97)

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 12 Nov 2010 15:40

Two intriguing reports.

1.(In) famous member oif the Cambridge 5,George Blake at 88,predicting the US's downfall!

British double agent George Blake predicts end of 'American empire'
George Blake, the British double agent, has forecast that the "American empire" will crumble and predicted that every country in the world will one day embrace Communism

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... mpire.html

2.Russia allegedly sent assassin to "hit" defector who leaked info about the ravishing,gorgeous,red-head Anna Chapman (pant,pant,pant!)and her Russian spy ring.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/no ... an-traitor

A contract killer has been dispatched to assassinate the Russian double agent who betrayed Anna Chapman and nine other spies in the United States this spring, according to reports in Moscow.

"We know who he is and where he is," a high-ranking Kremlin source told the reputable Kommersant newspaper.

"You can have no doubt – a Mercader has already been sent after him."

Ramón Mercader was the KGB-hired Spanish communist who was sent to kill Leon Trotsky with an icepick in Mexico in 1940.

The traitor was reportedly identified as a Colonel Shcherbakov, an officer of the SVR (foreign intelligence service) who headed the S directorate of the service's US department, which controlled the ring of sleeper agents, including Chapman.

Shcherbakov is thought to have fled Russia three days before the president, Dmitry Medvedev, visited Barack Obama on 24 June, when the two leaders ate hamburgers together at a diner in Virginia.

wig · Post by **wig** » 14 Nov 2010 11:07

Centralised snooper to scan calls, SMS, mails - a nes item in the tribune, published from chandigarh

Indian intelligence agencies will soon get technical support for a centralised monitoring system to watch over every phone call, SMS and email made, sent and received by millions of Indians.

The MHA, in association with the Department of Telecom, is pioneering a one-of-its-kind Rs 500-crore computer server and peripherals to set up the “centralised snooper”. It will give agencies the power to scan calls at the proverbial touch of a button. The snooper will intercept, monitor and analyse call patterns and aid in detecting suspicious patterns and numbers besides email addresses, said an official.

Countrywide, all calls made from mobile and landline connection offered by private players or state-run operators will be routed through this server. This will apply to SMSes as well. The centralised server will have various regional nodes and existing servers of all telecom providers will be routed through this “centralised snooper” and its regional nodes. Requests of agencies to track phone records were getting leaked.

Each telecom circle — usually one state comprises a circle — has eight-ten operators. Normally, a written request is made to an operator to track a number. Security agencies depend on telecom operators for call records and data. The “centralised snooper” will give total control to the government agencies. The MHA wanted that the Department of Telecom should build a system that will allow real time interception.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101114/nation.htm#7

shanksinha · Post by **shanksinha** » 14 Nov 2010 11:56

^^" The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. Fort Meade has 18 acres of mainframe computers underground. You're talking to your wife on the phone and you use the word "bomb", "president", "Allah", any of a hundred keywords, the computer recognizes it, automatically records it, red-flags it for analysis. That was 20 years ago."
Gene Hackman in Enemy of The State, (Touchstone Films 1998)

Sometimes Paranoias do come true.

Rupesh · Post by **Rupesh** » 15 Nov 2010 12:01

The Man Behind Mumbai

This is an investigation by ProPublica, an independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in public interest. The report exposes the conspiracy behind the terror attacks on Mumbai

Hundreds of miles away in Pakistan, a terrorist chief named Sajid Mir was preparing a different sort of religious mission. Mir had spent two years using a Pakistani-American operative named David Coleman Headley to conduct meticulous reconnaissance on Mumbai, according to investigators and court documents.

Mir ordered the gunman to “get rid” of Rabinovich.

“Stand her up on this side of your door,” he said. “Shoot her such that the bullet goes right through her head and out the other side ... Do it. I’m listening. ... Do it, in God’s name.”

For five months, ProPublica has examined the investigation of the attacks and previous cases documenting the rise of Lashkar. This account is based on interviews with more than two dozen law enforcement, intelligence and diplomatic officials from the United States, India, Pakistan, France, Britain, Australia and Israel, including front-line investigators. ProPublica also interviewed associates and relatives of suspects and victims who had not discussed the case with journalists and reviewed foreign and US case files, some of them previously undisclosed.

These documents and interviews paint the fullest portrait yet of the mysterious Mir, whose global trail traces Lashkar’s evolution. His name has surfaced in investigations on four continents, his web reaching as far as suburban Virginia. Fleeting glimpses of him appear in case files and communications intercepts. A French court even convicted him in absentia in 2007. But he remains free and dangerous, according to US and Indian officials.

ProPublica’s investigation leads to another disturbing revelation: Despite isolated voices of concern, for years the US intelligence community was slow to focus on Lashkar and detect the extent of its determination to strike Western targets. Some officials admit that counterterrorism agencies grasped the dimensions of the threat only after the Mumbai attacks.

The FBI investigation into the killings of the Americans has focused on a half-dozen accused masterminds who are still at large: Mir, top Lashkar chiefs and a man thought to be a major in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). US officials say Washington has urged Islamabad to arrest the suspects.

“We put consistent pressure on the Pakistanis to deal with Lashkar and do so at the highest levels,” said the senior US counterterrorism official. “There has been no lack of clarity in our message.”

But US officials acknowledge that the response has been insufficient. The effort to bring to justice the masterminds — under a US law that makes terrorist attacks against Americans overseas a crime — faces obstacles. A US prosecution could implicate Pakistani military chiefs who, at minimum, have allowed Lashkar to operate freely. US pressure on Pakistan to confront both the military and Lashkar could damage counterterrorism efforts.

“It’s a balancing act,” a high-ranking US law enforcement official said. “We can only push so far. It’s very political. Sajid Mir is too powerful for them to go after. Too well-connected. We need the Pakistanis to go after the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”

“There should have been a recognition that Lashkar had the desire and the potential to attack the West and that we needed to get up to speed on this group,” said Charles Faddis, a retired CIA chief of counterterrorist operations in South Asia and other hot spots. “It was a mistake to dismiss it as just a threat to India.”

Today, Mir personifies Lashkar’s evolving danger. The group’s longtime ties to the security forces have made it more professional and potentially more menacing than al-Qaeda.

“Lashkar is not just a tool of the ISI, but an ally of al-Qaeda that participates in its global jihad,” said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a French judge who investigated Mir.

Yet the US intelligence community still viewed the group as a regional player focused on India and Kashmir. Rep Gary L Ackerman (D-N Y), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said he tried and failed to get Lashkar designated as a terrorist organization in the late 1990s.

“I said it had a huge potential for damage,” Ackerman recalled. “People were not paying attention.”

The camps

To reach Lashkar’s mountain training complex, recruits drove overnight past checkpoints manned by Pakistani soldiers, according to court testimony.

“They were deferential to us and let us pass without difficulty,” Brigitte said. “There was no search and no verification of our passports, which were in the hands of the Lashkar bosses.”

From a base camp, the recruits hiked to an altitude of 4,000 feet for nine days of firearms instruction, then climbed another 4,000 feet to a camp that taught covert warfare. The Pakistani army supplied crates of weapons with filed-off serial numbers, Brigitte testified.

The mountains teemed with more than 3,000 trainees. Although Pakistanis dominated the ranks, there were Americans, Arabs, Australians, Azeris, Britons, Chechens, Filipinos, Kurds, Singaporeans, Turks and Uzbeks.

“It was very impressive every morning when we would gather and shout ‘Allah Ouallah Akbar,’ “ Brigitte testified. “The setting was imposing because you could see the outline of the Himalayas.”

The Frenchman bunked with the Virginia trainees in a mud hut. His zeal and endurance impressed his instructors, who led drills in English and Arabic. Over tea, Brigitte befriended several instructors, who told him they were Pakistani Army officers on special assignment.

“The close relations between the Pakistani Army and Lashkar were clear,” Brigitte testified.

Brigitte became convinced that Mir was also in the Pakistani military. During Mir’s visits to check on training progress, everyone from the camp chief to army sentries treated him like a superior, Brigitte said. It was clear to him that Mir was a military officer, he said.

“He never told me formally, but I understood it because of many details,” Brigitte testified. “He was very respected by the instructors who were themselves members of the Pakistani Army but also at the checkpoints where he was well-known... . Nonetheless, I never knew what unit Sajid belonged to or what his rank was.”

“Lashkar was the only major jihadi outfit to escape the Pakistani crackdown,” wrote Stephen Tankel, author of the forthcoming book “Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-E-Taiba,” in a recent academic report. “Lashkar served as a major provider of military training for jihadi actors in the region.”

In early 2002, Mir led an overseas buying spree for military equipment. He sent his British quartermaster, Abu Khalid, on four trans-Atlantic trips. Abu Khalid reported to Mir via e-mail as he worked with three of the Virginia militants, including Khan. They helped the Briton buy an unmanned airborne vehicle and more paintballs than the US Marine Corps needs for a year of drills.

The procurement ended when the FBI arrested 11 Virginia militants in mid-2003. A search of Khan’s home turned up guns, a terrorist manual and photos of the White House and FBI headquarters.

Because the Virginia crew had played paintball war games as they radicalized, a somewhat skeptical news media dubbed them “The Paintball Jihadis.” Lawyers and Muslim activists complained about over-zealous prosecution.

Nonetheless, the defendants were sentenced to long prison terms.

n calls and e-mails in 2002 and 2003, he prepared Brigitte, the Grouchy Frenchman, for a trip to Australia. Mir directed British operatives to send $5,000 to Brigitte, asking his quartermaster in an e-mail: “How is our French Connection Project going?”

Brigitte arrived in Australia in May 2003 and joined forces with Faheem Lodhi, a Pakistani-born architect and militant who had worked for Mir in the camps. With Lodhi’s help, Brigitte settled into a new life in Sydney, quickly marrying a former Australian army intelligence officer who had converted to Islam.

At Mir’s direction, Brigitte collected maps and photos of targets taken by his new wife, though she resisted his demands that she provide him with intelligence. Lodhi created an alias and a fictitious business to obtain bomb chemicals and maps of the electrical grid. He compiled a 15-page manual for making homemade poisons, explosives and detonators. Investigators believe the duo planned to bomb a military base or a nuclear plant.

The plot was foiled by French agents, who were hunting Brigitte as part of a larger investigation. They learned he was in Sydney and alerted Australian intelligence. Police deported him to France in October and captured Lodhi after watching him throw satellite photos of military bases in a dumpster and call Mir from a phone booth. Mir sent Lodhi an e-mail asking for “fresh news about our friend,” according to court documents.

“Our friend has returned to his country and his government has him,” the Australian operative responded.

Lodhi was sentenced to 20 years for preparing a terrorist act.

Brigitte’s deportation put Mir in the sights of Bruguiere, France’s best-known terrorist hunter. Questioned by Bruguiere in November 2003, Brigitte discussed Mir in a tone of respect and fear. His account made French investigators suspect that Pakistani spies had played a role in the Australian plot.

“In the heart of Lashkar there are camps that train individuals for the mission of eliminating those who talk,” Brigitte testified. “And you understand that the Pakistani army and Pakistani intelligence were stakeholders in these operations.”

Bruguiere took advantage of French laws allowing him to pursue terrorist conspiracies across borders. He worked with investigators in Virginia, Australia and Britain. Mir’s name, he said, popped up everywhere.

US and Indian anti-terrorism officials suspect Major Iqbal was a serving ISI officer and a liaison to Lashkar. According to anti-terrorism officials and US court documents, Major Iqbal and Mir became Headley’s handlers. They instructed him to use the money to open a front company and begin reconnaissance in the city that was their next target: Mumbai.

by Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica

This article was co-published with the Washington Post. This is the first of two parts.

http://www.propublica.org/article/the-man-behind-mumbai

wig · Post by **wig** » 19 Nov 2010 08:24

an article in tribune from chandigarh on the jousting involved as top positions in espionage agencies fall vacant

It’s spy vs spy for top RAW job
It is spy versus spy. In the secretive world of espionage agencies, knives are out among ‘rival’ Indian Police Service officers to grab the coveted posts of heads of various intelligence agencies.
The fast moving developments are not less than a cloak and dagger thriller film. Although the ball began rolling to ‘select’ new heads last Friday, aspirants have for several months been making efforts to ‘eliminate’ their competitors, reminding one of their covert operations. The main focus is on the 42-year-old RAW, India’s foreign espionage agency, and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) formed in 2004. Last Friday, three top PMO officers -- Principal Secretary, TKA Nair, National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon and Cabinet Secretary MN Prasad -- met to consider the profiles of several ‘candidates’ for top positions of RAW, NTRO, Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). A decision from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected soon.
Reliable sources told The Tribune that ‘manoeuvres’ were being made to shift current RAW chief KC Verma to the NTRO as its head, despite the fact that he has no experience in technical espionage. The NTRO works like America’s National Security Agency that specialises in the collection and analysis of foreign communications and signals intelligence.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101119/main7.htm

VinodTK · Post by **VinodTK** » 20 Nov 2010 04:00

No War, No Peace
The Ring of the Dragon

HOW CHINA IS FLEXING ITS MUSCLES

For reasons best known to it, the UPA 2 government has not come clean on the extent of Chinese incursions in Ladakh, consistently playing them down. In September 2009, New Delhi and Srinagar were alarmed by reports of Chinese incursions in Zulung La in Chumar sector in the east of Leh, located at the junction of Ladakh, Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Tibet. While Chinese claims on Arunachal grab news space, it is in the Western Sector that Indian and Chinese troops are endlessly trying to outwit each other.

India has deployed elements of the Vikas Regiment of the Special Frontier Force (SFF) in the Ladakh part of the Western Sector. The secretive SFF reports to the Cabinet Secretariat. This regiment was formed by recruiting and training Tibetan settlers in India. They operate in an area where “not even a blade of grass grows” as Jawaharlal Nehru famously said. There is no habitation, only nomadic shepherds. China has used this to gradually advance on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
On the move Chinese forces have kept their Indian counterparts at bay in the Pangong lake

On the move Chinese forces have kept their Indian counterparts at bay in the Pangong lake

“Two-thirds of Pangong Tso is in their control. There are reports that the Chinese have brought in the artillery and fast patrol boats. They are aggressively patrolling the lake, which is believed to be 50 to 300 metres deep in most parts. There are even reports in the Chinese media about the induction of a submarine,” says Kondapalli. The Indian armed forces are outnumbered because there is no way they can effectively dominate the third of the lake under their control. “We cannot frequently go on patrols because our forces don’t have patrol boats on the lake.”

China is trying to make J&K a tripartite issue. ‘They’ll keep pushing in the western sector,’ says analyst Roy. This will add another layer to the complex dispute

Long and interesting article.

wig · Post by **wig** » 20 Nov 2010 07:30

Sandhu, Tripathi to head IB, RAW

The country’s two top intelligence agencies — Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing - are set to have a rejig with the appointment of new heads. Nehchal Sandhu and Sanjeev Tripathi are all set to take charge of IB and R&AW respectively beginning next year and orders in this effect are expected to be issued soon.

While Sandhu will succeed incumbent Rajiv Mathur, who led the country’s internal intelligence agency for two years, Tripathi will take charge from K C Verma, who was brought in to the external intelligence agency after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Though Verma’s tenure ends January-end next year, he is expected to be moved out of R&AW to the National Technical Research Organisation as its chief next month.

Sandhu is currently Special Director of IB while Tripathi heads the Aviation Research Centre.

Meanwhile, the high-level panel comprising the Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the Secretary, Department of Personnel, and the Home Secretary shortlisted three names for the post of Director CBI and recommended them to the Appointments’ Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

The shortlisted names are CBI Special Director A P Singh, National Investigation Agency chief S C Sinha and Director General of CISF N R Das.

The name of the new CBI Director is expected to be announced soon as incumbent Ashwini Kumar will be retiring by the end of this month. (PTI

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/

Vivek Raghuvanshi · Post by **Vivek Raghuvanshi** » 20 Nov 2010 09:20

Paradise on Earth

http://www.google.co.in/images?hl=en&um ... tbs=isch:1

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 22 Nov 2010 22:20

Austin wrote:Home Ministry official a Pakistan spy?

The Special Cell of Delhi Police raided the North Block office and residence of Ravi Inder Singh, a 1994 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, who was working as Director in the sensitive Internal Security division.

"The raid has been conducted following allegation that he has been leaking sensitive information out of Home Ministry," Home Secretary G K Pillai told

A Home Ministry source said Singh was passing sensitive information to commercial firms in connection with security clearance. The officer has been under surveillance for about a month.

Is there anything that is not for sale in Delhi??

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 22 Nov 2010 23:28

The people's attitude today is - let's make as much money as possible. That's the same whether its a politician, businesman, govt doctor.

nits · Post by **nits** » 22 Nov 2010 23:52

VinodTK wrote:
“Two-thirds of Pangong Tso is in their control. There are reports that the Chinese have brought in the artillery and fast patrol boats. They are aggressively patrolling the lake, which is believed to be 50 to 300 metres deep in most parts. There are even reports in the Chinese media about the induction of a submarine,” says Kondapalli. The Indian armed forces are outnumbered because there is no way they can effectively dominate the third of the lake under their control. “We cannot frequently go on patrols because our forces don’t have patrol boats on the lake.”

I believe this is a old news; India Last year planned to get new high speed boats - See article from Ajay Shulka - Link

Ajay Shulka's Article Quotes -

Now, the Pangong Tso playing field will become more level. The army will soon patrol in modern, indigenously-built Fast Interceptor Boats (FIBs) that can travel faster than the Chinese boats, while carrying 16 fully equipped jawans to respond to a crisis. Rear Admiral KC Sekhar, Chairman and Managing Director of the public sector Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, confirmed to Business Standard, “We have received a Request for Proposal (RfP) from the army. They want 17 FIBs for deployment in a high altitude, extreme cold environment. We have prepared a design which we hope will be accepted.”

Sources in the army confirm that the boats will be deployed on the Pangong Tso. GRSE is offering the army a modified version of the 12-tonne FIB it is building for the Home Ministry. Built of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), and capable of a scorching 38 knots (70 kmph), these FIBs were designed by Greek shipbuilder, Motomarine. GRSE bought this design, along with that of a smaller 5-tonne FIB, for building 78 such boats by September 2010 for coastal police forces of states along the Bay of Bengal. Goa Shipyard Limited is simultaneously building the same boats for the Arabian Sea coast.

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 23 Nov 2010 00:42

VinodTK wrote: On the move Chinese forces have kept their Indian counterparts at bay in the Pangong lake

“Two-thirds of Pangong Tso is in their control. There are reports that the Chinese have brought in the artillery and fast patrol boats. They are aggressively patrolling the lake, which is believed to be 50 to 300 metres deep in most parts. There are even reports in the Chinese media about the induction of a submarine,” says Kondapalli. The Indian armed forces are outnumbered because there is no way they can effectively dominate the third of the lake under their control. “We cannot frequently go on patrols because our forces don’t have patrol boats on the lake.”

Long and interesting article.[/quote]

WTF . A submarine in Pangong tso!

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 23 Nov 2010 00:44

Any opinions on the current Secy (R)'s mercurial rise as Director IB, and now Chairman NTRO? Can the government find noone better to head its intel agencies, that it must appoint a 61 year old man, on reemployment for three years?

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 23 Nov 2010 00:50

if tripathi is from ARC does it mean he is from RAS cadre ?

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 23 Nov 2010 01:50

^^ Rahul m ji . Yes Sanjeev Tripathi is a RAS man according to this Tehelka report.He was originally an IPS guy but he resigned and then joined RAS.Infact he is the first RAS guy to head RAW in almost 42 yrs.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp ... TMENTS.asp

The prime minister is understood to have given his nod to the appointment of a triumvirate to handle India’s intelligence: Nehchal (read as Nischal) Sandhu in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Sanjeev Tripathi in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency, and KC Verma in the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) that handles cyber intelligence.

All three posts have a fixed tenure of two years and as such these new officers will be coordinating India’s intelligence until December 2012. Tripathi, who currently heads the Aviation Research Centre (ARC), and Verma, the present RAW secretary, would have retired over the next two months but for bagging these new jobs.

The only intelligence agency that is yet to get a new boss is ARC, which deals in aerial surveillance, signal intelligence, photo reconnaissance flights, monitoring of borders and imagery intelligence operations. The post is touted to go to IB special director Ajit Lal, a Himachal Pradesh cadre 1974 batch Indian Police Service (IPS), who is one year junior to Sandhu.

Sandhu, a 1973 batch Sikh IPS officer of Bihar cadre and currently No 2 in the IB as special director I, is expected to be made OSD (officer on special duty) by this month-end and will work as an understudy to IB Director Rajiv Mathur, who is retiring end-December, before taking over from him.

Sandhu has over three decades of work experience serving in the IB and RAW, which included Punjab during the years of militancy, and is known as an operations man who has a tenacious grip on the ground realities in Jammu and Kashmir. But for his equal standing in the IPS cadre with Mathur, he would have become the first head of the National Investigation Agency, as the government did not want to break the practice of treating the IB chief as the topmost post for the IPS officers.

Sandhu has been with the IB for a long time and earned a reward for leading commandoes of the National Security Guards from the front to nab two Sikh terrorists in Jalandhar in the late 1980s, something IB officials rarely do.

At the time, Sandhu was posted at the IB headquarters in Delhi. He received a tip-off about a meeting of four top terrorists in Jalandhar. Gathering a team, Sandhu set off. In Jalandhar, Sandhu learned, during the operation, that only two terrorists had turned up and were about to escape. Sandhu scaled the rear wall of a building and mounted an attack. The terrorists were captured alive after Sandhu shot them in legs.

He also served in RAW in Canada and he was earlier being considered to head the external intelligence agency after Ashok Chaturvedi’s retirement in January.

RAW will be headed for the first time by its own RAS (RAW Allied Services) cadre officer, breaking 42 years of a monopoly by IPS officers, always cause for heartburn for the many anonymous employees of the agency. It is another matter that Sanjeev Tripathi had resigned from the IPS cadre and joined the RAS. Tripathi takes over at a time when the government is planning a massive expansion of RAW to increase intelligence collection and collation and eventually decrease dependence on foreign agencies for intelligence inputs.

Verma, a 1971 batch IPS officer and the present RAW chief who is due to retire on January 31, is lucky to get an extension as he will be the chairman of the NTRO, a post that fell vacant with the retirement of KVSS Prasada Rao in October.

Prasada Rao was a scientist who had earlier served in the Department of Space and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Verma’s selection raised many eyebrows in the bureaucracy as he has no technical training, even though the NTRO is the agency both the IB and RAW bank upon heavily for intelligence on cyber terrorism. Sources say IPS cadre officers watched with amusement as Verma lobbied to get the NTRO post for himself even as he “facilitated” the appointment of “friend officer” Tripathi as RAW chief.

Though the ARC that Tripathi heads currently is an autonomous organisation in itself, it has served for years as a sub-outfit of RAW. This explains why Tripathi’s father-in-law Gauri Shankar Bajpayee, the seventh chief of RAW, had virtually shifted from Lucknow to Delhi to lobby for him for the past several months.

dinesha · Post by **dinesha** » 24 Nov 2010 08:30

Intel network planned to keep an eye on sea
Rajat Pandit

NEW DELHI: Two years ago, Laskhar jihadis exposed gaping holes in India's maritime and coastal security architecture to unleash the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai. After plugging some gaps, the government is now also considering a comprehensive maritime intelligence network to detect, share and neutralize threats swiftly.

Towards this, Navy has submitted an exhaustive technical blueprint on the integrated national "maritime domain awareness (MDA)" project to all the Union ministries concerned and the 14 coastal states and island territories. This detailed project report also came up for discussion during a meeting of the national committee for strengthening maritime and coastal security, chaired by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, on Tuesday, said sources.

The 262-page blueprint, accessed by TOI, centres around the high-tech National Command Control Communication and Intelligence Network (NC3IN), already being set up by Navy as the "main backbone" for the national MDA project. While several components are already in place, with the central hub for NC3IN coming up at Gurgaon for instance, the blueprint says an additional Rs 900 crore in capital expenditure is needed to implement the entire MDA project.

The aim is to generate a "common operational picture" of all ongoing activities at sea through an institutionalised mechanism for collecting, fusing and analysing information from technical and other sources like coastal surveillance network radars, space-based automatic identification systems, vessel traffic management systems (VTMS), fishing vessel registration and fishermen biometric identity databases.

The new MDA proposals include "state monitoring centres" in coastal states/UTs to act as nodes for the national MDA network and upgradation of the four existing joint operations centres at Mumbai, Kochi, Vizag and Port Blair as well as creation of a shipping hub and fisheries monitoring centre. There is also the need to set up VTMS at the 56 non-major ports that handle international traffic. While India's 13 major ports either have or are being equipped with VTMS, except for Port Blair, none of the 200 non-major ports have any identification or surveillance systems. It also calls for a VTMS for the eastern off-shore development areas like the one set up for the western ones

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 24 Nov 2010 12:26

darshhan wrote:^^ Rahul m ji . Yes Sanjeev Tripathi is a RAS man according to this Tehelka report.He was originally an IPS guy but he resigned and then joined RAS.Infact he is the first RAS guy to head RAW in almost 42 yrs.

Not quite the whole story, Im afraid. From the founding of RAW, until MK Narayanan's tinkering in 2008, ALL officers joining RAW had to join permanently, and resign from their prior service (notwithstanding temp appointments for a limited period for special purposes). So, Tripathi's "resigning from the IPS" was simply de rigeur, and required by service rules. He was still considered an IPS officer within the org. The "IPS Lobby" within RAW consists mostly of such "Inside" officers. Of course, governments have been appointing "outside" officers to head the service also. But these are fewer in number than "insiders".

When RAW officials refer to "RAW Cadre" officers, they mean those who were recruited directly. Such as PV Kumar, who was the senior most such officer (1971 batch), but was retired as special secretary, even though he had the best claim over the job of Secy (R). He was later appointed as Special Advisor to NTRO, and was tipped to take over as chairman of that org, but KC Verma once again was appointed in his stead.

Tripathi is very much a member of the IPS lobby within RAW. He was being promulgated as successor by the disgraced Ashok Chaturvedi. However, the powers that be intervened, and put their foot down, and so KC Verma was appointed instead, to clean up the mess. That Tripathi has despite this setback become Secretary (R), is a testament to the power of the IPS lobby within RAW!

Tripathi was also Rabinder Singh's immediate boss, and the officer in charge of counterintelligence, when the whole Rabinder Saga broke lose. He is known as being a close confidant of Ashok Chaturvedi.

Of course, the nepotism and bhai bandi is also quite clear. Ashok Chaturvedi was appointed when his brother in Law was Cabinet Secretary. Tripathis father in law (GS Bajpai) used to be Secretary (RAW). Anyway, Tripathi is CERTAINLY NOT the first RAS officer to hold the post of Secy (R). Most of the previous chief's have also been RAS officers (of IPS origin, just like Sanjiv Tripathi).

1. Ashok Chaturvedi was an RAS officer (also an IPS officer originally)
2. Vikram Sood was the only NON IPS officer to become Secy (R) (He was a Postal Service officer before joining RAS)
3. Anand Verma, etc etc most of the previous Secy (R)'s are IPS officers who joined RAS.

Tehelka is spouting DDM nonsense. They know little to nothing about RAW, and their ponytailed editor in chief seems to be printing whatever he hears. More details on the matter can be seen here.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?237864
http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=14511
http://www.morungexpress.com/analysis/6579.html

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 24 Nov 2010 19:20

I'm not sure if you mentioned it, but there is secondment from services. In this case, as far as I know from open source, no resignation required. Maybe that's what you meant by temp appointments.

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 24 Nov 2010 22:19

JE Menon wrote:I'm not sure if you mentioned it, but there is secondment from services. In this case, as far as I know from open source, no resignation required. Maybe that's what you meant by temp appointments.

JEM, there are some temp appointments in the case of special needs. Sometimes DRDO personnel are appointed. Sometimes specialised accounts personnel. However they do not become RAS officers. To become RAS officers, members of the Secret Intelligence Service, they USED to need to resign their previous service. However, MK Narayanan changed this, and now IPS officers can apparently join RAW on deputation like they do with other orgs.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 24 Nov 2010 23:01

True. Also armed services people are often placed here and there ..

venku_Raj · Post by **venku_Raj** » 25 Nov 2010 06:52

Saab receives order for coastal surveillance system in India

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 25 Nov 2010 11:48

JEM, yes, this is correct. Also, RAW also has a Military Advisor, of the rank of Major General, who is appointed on a cadre basis, and is not a deputationist, as I understand it.

On another note, for all BR techies who want to be spooks, IB has entry level officer vacancies in its technical cadre:

Please see here for more details:

http://www.upsc.gov.in/recruitment/advt/2010/21_10.pdf
\

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 26 Nov 2010 14:32

Mumbai had big shopping list post-26/11, little in pocket yet

Nearly two years after the Maharashtra government sanctioned an emergency budget of Rs 126 crore for the Mumbai Police to buy new weapons and hi-tech gadgets in the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attack, more than 20 per cent of the amount remains unspent.

A combination of red tape, conflict with suppliers and legal wrangles has meant that the force is yet to receive all the new boats and MP5 guns ordered, bomb suits, bullet-proof jackets, total containment vehicles and a robot, officials told The Indian Express.

sunny y · Post by **sunny y** » 26 Nov 2010 21:57

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLIC ... tml?Mode=1

The imposter in the Taliban-Afghan talks showed how easy it is to fool even tech-savvy Nato

It could be straight out of a spy novel or from a particularly loopy Monty Python movie. The secret talks between the Taliban and Afghan leaders under the watchful eye of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) seem have run into identity problems. The insurgent leader and one of the senior most commanders of the Taliban at the table, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, it now transpires, was an imposter. He was even flown down to Kabul in a Nato aircraft to have a natter with President Hamid Karzai and showered with money. Dear, oh dear, whatever happened to all that smart identification technology?

He was finally found out when an Afghan official noticed that he looked markedly different from the real Mansour. We can imagine the conversation. “My friend, when I last saw you, you looked far more prosperous and your eyes were green.“ The fake Mansour would answer, “I have knocked off a few pounds, brother, it's all this cave living and staying awake watching for the drones. Oh, I'm wearing brown contacts because I find the winter sun a bit harsh.“ The Taliban must be laughing up their beards that the Afghans and Nato fell for that old wheeze.

Now it's anyone's game. Are the Americans sure that the toothsome gent they have been yammering with in Islamabad is really Asif Zardari or some stand-up comic from Southall? Or that the man they thought was Hamid Karzai is not really an extra who had escaped years ago from the sets of Lawrence of Arabia?

You can never be sure these days if you are getting the real McCoy. This is where technology kicks in. What we need is a skeletal profile using the new scanners deployed in American airports. That way, we will be able to see right through any shyster posing as an insurgent. This is the only way to understand the situation inside out and not take things at face value.

Jamal K. Malik · Post by **Jamal K. Malik** » 26 Nov 2010 23:55

New coastal surveillance system ready, says BEL

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 27 Nov 2010 00:07

>> The imposter in the Taliban-Afghan talks showed how easy it is to fool even tech-savvy Nato

the tailor of panama anyone ? MI6 is going from embarrassment to embarrassment.