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Rakesh
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Intelligence & National Security Discussion

Post by Rakesh »

shyamd
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Post by shyamd »

Court asks former RAW official why not in-camera trial
New Delhi, Jan 4 - A city court Friday asked former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official, Maj. Gen. (Retd) V.K. Singh, to explain his reluctance to face in-camera proceedings in his trial on charges of leaking official secrets in a book published last year.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Padam Kant Saxena deferred the hearing for Jan 14 and asked Singh's counsel to provide details or reasons for refusing in-camera proceedings.

Counsel for Singh, Anup Khullar, claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was keen on an in-camera trial because of 'sensitive' reports appearing in various newspapers.

Khullar earlier claimed that his client was a whistle blower who tried to expose corruption in the agency. Singh had revealed the working of the RAW and also questioned the leadership and accountability of the agency in his book 'India's External Intelligence - Secrets of RAW'.

Khullar alleged that the CBI booked him under the Official Secrets Act for writing a book that is available in the market and is not banned.

The investigating agency Sep 19 last year registered a case against Singh for allegedly violating section 5 (wrongful communication of information) of the Official Secrets Act.

The CBI raided Singh's house in September last year after the government filed a complaint with the probe agency. Singh was a former joint secretary in RAW.
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Post by rkhanna »

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2008_pg1_7



* Meeting decides India needs ‘strong’ Pakistan
* Intelligence ‘assets’ ordered not to take advantage of instability in Pakistan

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: India has quietly geared up the intelligence operatives it has in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to help President Pervez Musharraf fight terrorists.

According to a top intelligence source, this ‘practical’ step has been taken to aid the president in restoring peace and stability to Pakistan. The source said the decision to activate Indian ‘assets’ in support of the Pakistan regime was taken in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) held a day after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired the meeting.

The meeting concluded that a “strong and stable Pakistanâ€
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Post by shyamd »

Headhunting lesson: Get ’em as CIA does
[quote]Indian spymasters got a lesson on how to spot the best talents — as the US spooks do — on Friday. And the lesson came from noted industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla at the RN Kao Memorial Lecture.

Organisations must not only have the ability to gauge the new skills needed to stay contemporary but also innovate how and where they locate talent, the Aditya Birla Group chairman told a gathering of security and intelligence officers.

The US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had done this by using social networking site Facebook to recruit potential employees. It provides, he said, an overview of what the agency is looking for in a recruit, along with a 30-second promotional YouTube video aimed at potential young applicants.

“CIA has found Facebook an invaluable tool for peer-to-peer marketing. As the recruiting pitch goes: ‘If you’re a
Facebook member, a career as a government spook is only a click away’,â€
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Post by JCage »

Writer-diplomat Shashi Tharoor was the first to deliver the lecture to bring a whiff of fresh air into the closely-knit community of intelligence officers.
Probably spent most of his time praising Nehru, Nehruvian policy and railing against the Hindu fascists, no doubt.
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Post by ramana »

B. Raman was sent an air ticket to attend and much to his credit he didnt go as he felt Tharoor was inappropriate to address RAW folks as he is half baked.
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Post by shyamd »

Double Checking
Finally, V.K. Singh's allegations prompt a probe of RAW

SAIKAT DATTA
RAW Lapses

* Probe into the procurement of 27 antennas between 2000 and '02 from Germany's Rhodes & Schwarz at arbitrary rates
* Also investigate the purchase of communication equipment for the Special Protection Group, without proper checks or mandatory approvals
* Identity of the officers involved in these procurements is known
* The probe is being conducted by a former special secretary of RAW

***
The irony couldn't have been more apparent. The government has finally ordered an investigation into the allegations of corruption in RAW made by Major General V.K. Singh (retd), an army officer who served with India's external intelligence agency. Singh's book, India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), published last year, detailed the charges he was levelling. The book's publication led to its author being investigated by the CBI under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for "jeopardising national security". But even as the probe against Singh continues, the allegations he made are also being looked into (sources say they have been taken very seriously at the highest level). Thus, two investigations are now on simultaneously—one against the accuser (Singh) and the other against those accused by him!

Outlook has learnt that National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan has taken the initiative in ordering the probe into Singh's allegations. G.B.S. Sidhu, a former special secretary with RAW, has been asked to look into the corruption charges. Sidhu, a China expert with vast field experience and several sensitive foreign postings including Tokyo, retired from service in 2001 after serving as RAW's second-in-command during the Kargil war. Sidhu's peers say he has a sharp eye for detail and is the right man to look into Singh's claims.

Sidhu will look into the following instances of corruption detailed in the book:

* The procurement of 27 antennas between 2000 and '02 in different batches from German manufacturer Rhode & Schwarz. With every fresh purchase, the price was arbitrarily increased. In June 2000, 11 antennas were purchased at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh each. But a month later, RAW bought 15 more units at Rs 4.2 lakh a piece. In May '01, the price was upped to Rs 5.5 lakh. By '02, the price hit Rs 15.5 lakh per unit.
* Similar arbitrary pricing was allowed in the purchase of VHF/UHF antennas. Four receivers were purchased for Rs 25 lakh in '94. By '99, the same equipment was bought for Rs 43.6 lakh—a price jump of 72 per cent.
* Singh has named the officials responsible for the purchase—Amar Bhushan, then special secretary (RAW), RAW officials R.L. Verma and R.R. Mannan and two officers from the cabinet secretariat—S.K. Mehrotra and Gaurav Sharma.
* No proper checks and the mandatory Systems Analysis Group approval was sought for the purchase of communication equipment for the SPG, which provides security to Manmohan Singh and former prime ministers and their families. Singh alleges that Hari Shanker, the secretary (security), and J.L. Sharma, assistant director (purchase cell), were responsible for clearing the deal.

While Sidhu will probe the corruption charges, RAW has decided to steer clear of the more controversial issues raised by Singh, such as RAW man Rabinder Singh's defection to the US in 2004. While an inquiry was ordered into his defection, the UPA government chose not to take any action against Amar Bhushan, then in charge of counter-intelligence. It also decided not to act against N.K. Sharma, the then director (security), who had been specifically asked to keep track of Rabinder Singh.Instead, Sharma was sent on a plum foreign posting soon after the embarrassing episode.

Strangely enough, while all this is on, the CBI is also trying to build a strong case against Singh. The CBI's Anti-Corruption Unit IX has been investigating Singh under the OSA, and has already questioned him twice. CBI sources said Singh has been questioned on several "sensitive" aspects in his book, like revealing the names of RAW officials, station codes, location of RAW stations in India, technical details of ongoing projects and the software used by RAW. Incidentally, most of this information is readily available on the internet.

Meanwhile, the internal lobbying within RAW has attracted even international media attention. The Washington correspondent of the Dubai-based Khaleej Times recently wrote a prominent article focusing on the divisions in RAW, and alleged that present chief Ashok Chaturvedi was pushing for Sanjiv Tripathi as his successor even though the latter is junior to several other officers. The article has come as a major embarrassment since it isn't often that the internal bickerings of an intelligence agency are picked up by the foreign press. More embarrassing for RAW, the write-up claimed that the agency failed to properly assess the imposition of martial law in Pakistan.

No time-frame has been set for Sidhu to complete the probe. Since it involves RAW, the findings may also never be made public. But the nsa and the prime minister will be given a detailed report. Sources say both of them are extremely upset with present chief Ashok Chaturvedi and the continuing decline of the intelligence agency. Perhaps all the flux of the last year may be for the best—the political leadership might decide to put in place a framework that makes the country's external intelligence agency accountable. Currently, it functions with complete autonomy—it is neither accountable to Parliament nor are its accounts subject to any audit.

The case against Singh continues, with the CBI pleading for an in-camera hearing. The agency fears an open trial will only expose the thin evidence it has against him. The travesty of it all is that the CBI case is based on Singh's book, which continues to do brisk sales.
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Post by viveks »

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NEWS/news ... ewsid=9808

Well.....whoever bbc and their fellow dudes are talking to (this analyst) is puki little dude....from puki-land.
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Post by Rony »

The allegations against RAW's chief are serious.But how did foreign journos got this much of information on Indian Intel agencies.Is it a deliberate leak from someone within the RAW itself cautioning against Chaturvedi and Tripathi ! If so why did they choose foreign journos and not Indian journos ! If it is not a leak,how the hell did so much personal info got into the hands of foreign journos.The reporter also talks that the americans fully know whats going on in RAW ! what the heck ?

India's intel chief lacking intelligence
The controversial head of India's external intelligence agency, Ashok Chaturvedi, has come under the spotlight for a series of embarrassing faux pas, a major handicap when he is meant to keep the country's leaders abreast of events.

His list of public embarrassments has littered the pages of not only the Indian newspapers, but perhaps more embarrassing for the world's largest democracy, Chaturvedi is also becoming the focus of the international press as well.

Prior to being named head of India's intelligence services, the Research and Analysis Wing, known as RAW, Chaturvedi had been described as "serially paranoid and too incompetent to function. And in any other intelligence agency he would probably have been drummed out a long time ago," according to extremely reliable sources, who for obvious reasons asked not to be named.

India's intelligence agency operates on the basis of seniority and time spent in the organization, which has helped Chaturvedi get promoted. He benefited further because his relative, B.K. Chaturvedi, is the Indian cabinet secretary and a member of the promotion panel that selects the head of the intelligence organization.

"Since becoming head of RAW at the start of 2007, the scandal prone Chaturvedi has overseen the systematic dismantling of the organization which appears to be falling apart at the seams, much to the pleasure of the agency's rivals in Pakistan and China," one of the same sources told the Middle East Times.

The list of humiliating gaffes Chaturvedi has incurred in the last year could be turned into a multi-volume novel. In a number of important meetings, Chaturvedi did not even know who he was actually meeting. On one particular occasion, Timothy J. Keating, the commander of the United States Pacific Command made an official trip to India in August 2007 and met a number of senior Indian defense and intelligence chiefs including Chaturvedi. However, Chaturvedi did not seem to know who Keating was, and much to everyone's embarrassment kept referring to Keating as John Negroponte, the U.S. deputy Secretary of State.

In another episode, before leaving on a trip to China in January, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Chaturvedi for a briefing about his perspectives of the current senior leadership in China. Instead of delegating the task to the China section within RAW, Chaturvedi attempted to put together his own report which talked about Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji, the former president and premier respectively, both of whom retired in 2003.

Manmohan Singh was perplexed, to put it mildly, as to why the head of his intelligence agency had such limited intelligence, particularly on a country India needed to keep close tabs on.

Furthermore, Chaturvedi is notorious for his coarse and abrasive manner. Afghan President Hamid Karzai even complained to Manmohan Singh over the way he was spoken to by the RAW chief. According to Afghan sources, Chaturvedi treated Karzai like a servant rather than a head of state and spoke to him while chewing and spitting out tobacco.

Politicians in Nepal are also extremely upset with Chaturvedi, who made a number of visits to the country last December which were all caustically detailed by the Nepalese press. To humiliate Chaturvedi, the media even published the names of all the RAW officers stationed at the Kathmandu embassy.

Nepalese sources claimed that Chaturvedi forced the interim government of Girija Prasad Koirala to award a contract to an Indian firm for a hydropower project. It has also been alleged that Chaturvedi may have financially benefited personally from the deal. Questions have been raised in India as to why the head of an Indian intelligence agency was promoting a commercial company in Nepal.

Chaturvedi has also alienated himself from people within his own organization by ostracizing senior personnel and creating a culture of fear. Such is the level of animosity toward Chaturvedi that it is rumored he will have to leave India once he retires and would be safer seeking asylum in Pakistan. It is for this reason that Chaturvedi has been trying to position his protégé Sanjiv Tripathi to take over his post in an attempt to preempt any retribution.

The Indian intelligence community has dubbed Chaturvedi and Tripathi "Dumb and Dumber" a reference to the Jim Carey film.

Tripathi, like Chaturvedi, has risen in the ranks based, not on his ability, but on the number of years he has been with RAW. Tripathi is an administrator and has no expertise or experience as an intelligence officer. His father-in-law, G.S. Bajpai, was also a head of RAW.


Tripathi is also tainted by "business activities" in Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago. These activities are coming under scrutiny in an internal probe led by G.B.S. Sidhu, a former special secretary within RAW. Sidhu has been tasked to identify corruption within the organization, and his probe is also looking into allegations of sexual harassment, made by a senior member of the organization about a female employee who was allegedly intimidated and coerced into silence.


News of the scandal has reached the office of M K Narayanan, India's National Security Advisor, and persistent rumors from New Delhi's bureaucratic community have suggested that the scandal involves Chaturvedi.


Narayanan is the person Chaturvedi reports directly to, and he has now finally lost all patience with the RAW chief. Narayanan tried to give Chaturvedi the benefit of the doubt for more than a year, but has now realized that he has become an enormous liability and that through him the entire edifice of the organization is crumbling.


"The rumor mill in New Delhi is now spinning out of control that Chaturvedi may become the first head of RAW to be sacked for gross incompetence and negligence before his term expires at the end of 2008," a source told the Middle East Times.


To make matters worse, Chaturvedi and Tripathi have started a dirty tricks campaign against Narayanan to try to weaken his credibility in the hope that he will be sacked instead.


Chaturvedi has also created other fronts of confrontation. He has begun to criticize, challenge and try to undermine the highly influential Pulok Chatterji, secretary to the Prime Minister's Office. By this, he is trying to preempt his own sacking by attempting to sideline Chatterji, who carries enormous influence in New Delhi corridors of power and could force through the RAW chief's dismissal from office.


Mukesh Ambani, one of India's most influential businessmen, has also come under Chaturvedi's ire. Ambani, who is counted among the world's richest men, is often consulted by politicians from across the political divide.


In his criticism of Ambani, Chaturvedi has let it be known that he disapproves of political parties engaging with the commercial industry. Despite his own links with commercial interests in Nepal, Chaturvedi is said to hold strong ideological socialist beliefs hailing from the Cold War era. He is known to dislike the expansion of the economy started by the previous BJP-led government and continued by the Congress-led coalition.


The irony of all this is heightened, however, by the fact that another prominent businessman, Kumarmangalam Birla, was invited to deliver a lecture at the offices of RAW in memory of its founder R.N. Kao.


Security analysts in India believe that Chaturvedi and Tripathi have systematically dismantled, exposed, or damaged the intelligence gathering infrastructure of RAW to such an extent that it will take many years to restore the harm they have done.


Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party and the largest opposition party, the BJP, have both indicated that they would have no objection to Chaturvedi being replaced at the earliest possible opportunity.


Although the problems in neighboring Pakistan appear worse than India's – with politicians being assassinated, frequent suicide bombings, and al-Qaida and the Taliban running loose, the situation in India, with Chaturvedi, is allowing the same dangerous elements to enter the country, the sources said.


Unofficial briefings, originating from Manmohan Singh's office, suggest that the prime minister and his national security adviser, M K Narayanan are exasperated with the incompetent shenanigans of both Chaturvedi and Tripathi. They are concerned with the long-term harm the two are doing, not only to India's secretive intelligence agency, but also to the national security of this growing global power and ally in the war on terror.


The intelligence community in Washington has been aware for some months of the problems that Chaturvedi has created. Their own concerns have been shared with other Western intelligence agencies. But information sharing with RAW has come to a virtual standstill, as the feeling is there is too much to risk in talking to the head of India's intelligence.
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Post by shyamd »

Rony wrote:The allegations against RAW's chief are serious.But how did foreign journos got this much of information on Indian Intel agencies.Is it a deliberate leak from someone within the RAW itself cautioning against Chaturvedi and Tripathi ! If so why did they choose foreign journos and not Indian journos ! If it is not a leak,how the hell did so much personal info got into the hands of foreign journos.The reporter also talks that the americans fully know whats going on in RAW ! what the heck ?
Word gets around. It is interesting to note that the author is an ME specialist. Interesting also to find that it is the Top Headline news in the ME Times.

Everybody knows what is going on internally in most organisations. Everyone knows what is going on in each others agency, word just spreads in liaison meetings, friendly chatter and so on. The guy is based in washington, so probably someone reliable is feeding him.


The intelligence community in Washington has been aware for some months of the problems that Chaturvedi has created. Their own concerns have been shared with other Western intelligence agencies. But information sharing with RAW has come to a virtual standstill, as the feeling is there is too much to risk in talking to the head of India's intelligence.
Sounds like back in the 70's when the KGB and CIA had penetrated the RAW heavily, and what happenned was they(CIA) would never give out anything to their indian agent because the news would feed its way to the KGB and visa-e-versa.So in the end they never say anything to the agents.


The expose in Nepal came before Chaturvedi's trip to Nepal I think.
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Post by Austin »

The truth should be some where in between , It could be a combination of rivalry , genuine incompetence and some disliking by western intel of the RAW chief in planting such stories.

Certainly by now ,the RAW chief would be the blue eyed boy of PMO :)
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Post by Austin »

The CIA operation that should have prevented the Iraq war

I wonder how vulnerable our Intel Organisation is to penetration by such relatives and families settled in US , since we seems to have fascination to settle in US.
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Post by sum »

Real bad times for RAW...
As if the critisism from within all corners of India was not enough, we have ME papers having detailed stories on our "secretive" agencies....
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Post by ramana »

While RAW is getting cooked, here is some links on how others think about the world.


AFCEA Intel White papers
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Post by Kati »

Austin wrote:The CIA operation that should have prevented the Iraq war

I wonder how vulnerable our Intel Organisation is to penetration by such relatives and families settled in US , since we seems to have fascination to settle in US.
Very much. This is one issue which isn't discussed much (even with in our BRF). Even if it is raised, it is hurriedly hushed up.

It is no coincidence that while the regular US visa seekers are interviewed and hundreds of questions asked, those who have close relatives in IA (with the rank of a brigerier and up) are generously given visas. Same policy holds for those with close connections in the intel setup as well as high bureaucracy. This is done by the US pretty much for all countries, and followed by UK too.

It has been observed that if a person without much external link rises above a certain level within the armed forces, intel se-up or in bureaucracy, then immediately there is some pressure to remove him/her no matter how competent he/she is.

Oh, another thing, unkil and his chamchas love those corrupt politicians, babus and retd generals who moonlight as arms dealers to stash their ill-gotten wealth in western banks so that, if needed, unkil can squeeze the b@11s to extract info and/or favor.
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Post by Austin »

Although a blanket statement on this will not be fair , but even I was thinking on those lines , Its a known fact that many Sr Babus and Armed Forces Sons and daughter are either studying in US or well settled there.

Not to mention our aam junta fascination to be there.

Making them easy targets for Intel Ops , Iraq had a pecular problem and according to US Intel , it was a impossible place for any field operation during saddam regime.

Now as we know they used relatives settled in US to get all the information and quite sucessfully.

The US has been very aggressive to penetrate our estb post Pokhran 2 , lets hope they don't have a easy way via relative and friend route.
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Post by Paul »

NSA MK Narayan's son lives in NY.

This was mentioned in the runup to the 2005 Nuke deal
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Post by Rudranathh »

Austin wrote:Making them easy targets for Intel Ops , Iraq had a pecular problem and according to US Intel , it was a impossible place for any field operation during saddam regime.

Now as we know they used relatives settled in US to get all the information and quite sucessfully.
Remember the Ahmed Chalabi guy who fed false info to american spy orgs.

When the first one kicked him out for reporting false news another us spy agency picked him up.

See where the false info fed by chalabi on iraqi wmd has led america to.
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Post by Philip »

Here is a classic operation by British intelligence monitoring IRA/Sinn Fein leaders through the use of the humble chauffeur!

The leader, his driver and the driver's handler: chauffeur revealed as MI5 agent

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northern ... 01,00.html

· Latest mole in Sinn Fein drove Gerry Adams
· Roy McShane taken into protective custody

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
Saturday February 9, 2008
The Guardian

MI5 took one of Gerry Adams' personal drivers into protective custody yesterday after the man, Roy McShane, was unmasked as a British agent.
It is understood MI5 advised him to leave his west Belfast home after it emerged that an internal IRA investigation found he had been working for the British for more than a decade.

McShane was part of a pool of drivers for senior republican leaders from the time of the IRA's first ceasefire in 1994. He was one of the Sinn Féin president's drivers during one of the most politically important periods of the Irish peace process, the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The unmasking of yet another British agent inside the republican movement in Belfast is an embarrassment for Sinn Féin and an indication of the depths to which the security forces penetrated the organisation in the latter years of the Troubles.
A security source said MI5 was so concerned to get the man out quickly that he had to leave behind his wife and family. But Sinn Féin, who said McShane had never been a party member, emphasised he was "not under any threat from republicans". Republican sources said he was not party to sensitive information and added that there had been a cloud of suspicion over him for some time. He had recently stopped working as a driver for the party.

Alex Maskey, Sinn Féin's assembly member for South Belfast, said McShane had confessed to his family that he was working for the British security forces. Trying to play down McShane's significance, Maskey said: "I see him under no threat from republicans. The war is over. We made steps sometime ago to remove him from his position as a driver, but we didn't have specific evidence against him." He said McShane was safe to return and the affair had been "extremely distressing" for his family.

The smaller nationalist party at Stormont, the SDLP, said last night this latest unmasking of another agent underlined the need for a full inquiry into the role of informers operating in organisations such as the IRA. Alex Attwood, the party's assembly member for West Belfast, said: "It will come as no surprise that it has now come out that yet another member of the movement, who drove for leading members of Sinn Féin, was working for the security forces.

"But what we now need to know is how high and how deep in Sinn Féin and other parts of the Provisional movement the penetration by police, army and security services agents went.

"We need to know the full extent of collusion between republican and loyalist groups and the security forces, and we need to know the full price of such collusion in terms of human life."

This latest mole is understood to have worked as a pool driver for Adams at the same time as the security services were bugging a car which transported Martin McGuinness to and from negotiations. The late Mo Mowlam, then Northern Ireland secretary, had authorised the bugging of a car driven by IRA intelligence officer Martin "Duckster" Lynch throughout 1997 and 1998.

Lynch's job was to take McGuinness, now Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, to talks with British and Irish ministers as well as other political parties prior to the Good Friday deal.

After the deal there were further revelations that senior republicans had been working as British agents. In December 2005 Denis Donaldson, then head of Sinn Féin's administration at Stormont, was forced to confess publicly that for more than two decades he had been working for the British security forces, firstly for RUC special branch and then for MI5.

He was shot dead near Glenties, Co Donegal in April 2006.

McShane was part of a pool of drivers established by the republican movement from the time of the IRA's first ceasefire in 1994. The pool was headed by Adams' confidant the late Terence "Cleeky" Clarke. Among those whom McShane worked with on the car pool was Paul "Chico" Hamilton, once named as the chief of the IRA section which carried out so-called punishment attacks and shootings.

Past moles

Stakeknife, claimed to be Freddie Scappaticci, was one of the most important British agents working inside the IRA. He was head of IRA counter-intelligence whose job it was to smoke out informers but was in fact a top British spy. Scappaticci has denied he was a spy.

Denis Donaldson Confidant of Gerry Adams who rose up through republicans ranks to run Sinn Féin at Stormont. Accused of deliberately deselecting candidates whose loyalty to Adams was in doubt. As Sinn Féin's international spokesman had links with Hizbullah and the PLO. All the time working for both RUC special branch and MI5.

Sean O'Callaghan Former IRA southern commander who thwarted a number of bombings attacks in Britain for both the Garda Síochána and RUC special branch.

"Kevin Fulton" Former British soldier from south Armagh sent into the IRA by his handlers. "Fulton" has described how he worked for the security forces while helping to upgrade IRA bomb-making technology. He bugged arms dumps, the homes of south Armagh republicans and de-activated weapons.

Martin McGartland aka Agent Carol, a special branch informer working inside the IRA's Belfast brigade. His book Fifty Dead Men Walking has now been made into a film.

PS: I advocate the essential viewing of this splendid film,"The lives of others",the Academy Award winning film about a Stasi operation during the Cold War.It is simply riveting.It teaches you that no place is safe to speak,even the most unlikely and to remember the ancient adage,"into a closed mouth,entereth no fly".
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Post by Rajesh_MR »

Paul wrote:NSA MK Narayan's son lives in NY.
Same with politicians as well.
I think PM's daughter lives there. So did Yashwanth Singha's son during NDA regime.
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Post by shyamd »

Come to think of it, some former senior DRDO scientists who worked on the programs are also in the US/UK. Remember Jaswant Singh accused there of being a mole, like 2 years ago. Didn't he say it was a scientist or something?
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Post by Kati »

shyamd wrote:Come to think of it, some former senior DRDO scientists who worked on the programs are also in the US/UK. Remember Jaswant Singh accused there of being a mole, like 2 years ago. Didn't he say it was a scientist or something?
And who could forget PM's scientific advisor V. Arunachalam's migration ("defection"?) to the western greener pasture?

Of the first batch of 15 scientists who worked on the Agni missile project under APJ, 11 are now in the US. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
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Post by Austin »

VS didn't exactly defect , but went there with due approval/knowledge of delhi and Jaswant after accusing every one , didn't have a name of the spy , guess he made it up to sell his book .
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Post by sum »

Pravin swami on the lashkar
Decent article except the last part where he is trying to absolve the Paki govt.... :-?
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Post by sum »

babus holding back intelligence agencies
And we wonder why we repeatedly get attacked??? :roll: :x :evil: [/quote]
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Post by Baljeet »

Rajesh_MR wrote:
Paul wrote:NSA MK Narayan's son lives in NY.
Same with politicians as well.
I think PM's daughter lives there. So did Yashwanth Singha's son during NDA regime.
Yashwant Sinha's daughter lived in Mauritius, with limited skill set she became VP for Merrill Lynch India Operatoins I think not sure though, she always made the right calls about Merrill Lynch operations. One wonder how could she make calls on Indian Budget, Policies etc.
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Post by ramana »

Is there a need for a new covert organization for operations? RAW seems fully compromised. And IB potential directors cavort with US houries.
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Post by Austin »

ramana is it viable and feasible to develop an organization along the lines of MI6 where the organization doesn't exist on paper and is not a monolithic large organization but task oriented one.

what is your idea on having a new covert organisation like ?
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Post by shyamd »

RAW is compromised for what reasons? That is the reason we need to ask ourselves. Is it pay? Is it a lack of interest in the job and the nation at heart? Why is it happening? IMHO I think it is pay. Most people say the main reason they join is because of foreign posting.

It is the government of the day that sets out the policies and the requirements. If the organisation is not doing its function well, then we need to re-organise it and start to recruit the best rather than people on deputation.

Gone are the days, where we had quality collection capabilities against China, US, Pak.
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Post by sum »

Gone are the days, where we had quality collection capabilities against China, US, Pak.
Is our intelligence setup in such bad shape as is being suggested in this forum?
At a time when our clout is growing worldwide, instead of dramatic increase in our intelligence capabilities,all one hears these days is gloom stories about our "premier" external intelligence agency... :cry:
Hope that atleast the internal intelligence agency, the IB, is doing better!!!!
Btw, any news on how the NTRO is doing or is it a still born considering the squabbles over assets which had broken out when the NTRO was first announced...?
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Post by k prasad »

shyamd wrote: It is the government of the day that sets out the policies and the requirements. If the organisation is not doing its function well, then we need to re-organise it and start to recruit the best rather than people on deputation.
Thats something I've always wondered. Why is it that we get police officers to take senior RAW posts and head it. Intell business is a far cry from the police, and specialized officers are needed.

As for the NTRO question, see The india Today piece from September 2007.

http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index ... issueid=37

Hopefully that provides some answers.
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Post by ramana »

I want the kaccha folks to do analysis and all that. I want the police ethos of the RAW to change. I think thats a big handicap as it restricts their prespective. For intelligence one has to skate close to whats allowable legally. In police setup, by nature of their training, they conform to the law. On other hand policeis the right way to catch outsiders like spies. Thats classic counter-intelligence work.

Austin have you ever wondered why India's agencies are police origin while UK are military origin even for counter-intelligence?
I am asking I dont have answers.
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Post by shyamd »

NTRO is getting a permanent complex, If I recall from memory in Hyderabad. I think the reason why they haven't been allowed to conduct cyber warfare is because IB controls certain key assets there i.e it is their turf. NTRO is doing a lot of research in IIT-D and partnering with many institutions for research. They are also doing loads of commericial stuff aswell like protection of Credit card info and stuff.

But they are also doubling RAW's work, because I know that they employ nook scientistes. They do IMINT, have weapons specialists and so on to analyse images. As far as I know they do these type of work. They employ a number of software types, who write codes for strategic software. NTRO will also be developing code breakers in the long run, which are desperately needed as of 2006(don't know if things have changed from last year), RAW's code breaking eqpt was old and UK/US etc refused to sell them their eqpt. Although the effort has started too late, it is a step in the right direction.
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Post by svinayak »

ramana wrote:

Austin have you ever wondered why India's agencies are police origin while UK are military origin even for counter-intelligence?
I am asking I dont have answers.
Probably colonial legacy since External was handled by British military.
Even after independence it took more than 20 years before an external agency was created.
External needs a military wing
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Post by shyamd »

Acharya, do you mean Military controlled external organisation or do you mean a wing of RAW staffed only by military personel?
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Post by ramana »

Both. RAW should be an intel processing agency as its name suggests- Research and Analyisis. Leave ops to military folks as that is a military operation. I wonder how much of RAW formation was due to US inputs?
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Post by Anabhaya »

But every agency is vulnerable. Even the British had the Cambridge Five. We have the institutional setup. Should we shake it down?
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Post by svinayak »

shyamd wrote:Acharya, do you mean Military controlled external organisation or do you mean a wing of RAW staffed only by military personel?
Field and ops must have a military wing.
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Post by shyamd »

But the present set-up, allows Army intel to post their officers under cover in foreign missions. Army intel is also legally allowed 100km inside enemy territory also right? I do agree that the army intel should be able to operate anywhere in enemy territory. So effectively army intel "could" presently be doing most of the field/operational work. IB did do some border work, then RAW took over and I know a couple of retired IB officers(wrote in their books) were angry at RAW for not patrolling borders properly or as effectively as the IB.
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Post by sum »

From the NTRO India Today article:
Early last year, NTRO finished evaluating four new long-range surveillance aircraft to be purchased from Canada’s Bombardier. Packed with the newest all-weather Israeli radars and sensors, these aircraft could datalink intelligence in real time and would be a generation ahead of the ARC’s ageing fleet of Gulfstream IIIs equipped with wash-and-process film cameras.

Over one-and-a-half years later, the agency is yet to hear from the Government on the aircraft or its proposal to acquire helicopters. The word is that RAW has stonewalled the acquisition because it is anxious to protect its in-house technical division—which also snoops on nuclear tests and missile launches in the neighbourhood making it a vital component of the Nuclear Command Authority.
ISI and chinese intelligence(whatever it is called) must be rolling in laughter seeing how the agencies tasked with protecting the country arecoming to blows with each other... :roll:
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