Spy Story 1

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Hello all. Given the immense interest in Dileep's work that we all share and based on popular demand + ramana's consent (okay an assumed one), I have compiled the first spy story posted by Dileep on this forum (Possible Indian Military Scenarios – Part V & VI). The same is being presented here as quotes from Dileep.

All are requested to keep this thread comments free, to ensure a continuous flow.

Thanks

MODS : Please rename Dileep's latest work (thread name) as Spy Story 2.

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A New Beginning

Four years ago, in early 2006, cerain chain of events occured which drastically changed the course of history. Speculations, profesies and scenarios created by great fertile minds were trashed by the master stroke of destiny, once again proving that the future is never written in advance. Relationships between countries and people changed, new technologies blossomed, and new threats and challenges emerged. In the world stage, old players faded away and replaced by new faces. The game that is life on planet earth, however, went on..

<==>

The F-22 Raptor was flying over undulating terrain, with a yellowish brown hue. The altimeter read 100ft, and it was supercruising at mach 1.3. The gnarl of the two P&W F-119 engines filled the ambient. Suddenly a single blip appeared on the screen, with a synthesized voice alerting.

"Bandit at two o' clock. SU-30MKI Flanker, 120 nautical miles"

The pilot slowed down a bit and turned into the target. The target did not change course. He selected an AIM-120 AMRAAM from the starboard bay. Without difficulty, he aligned the blips and shot off the missile. Within a short duration, an orange fireball resulted.

"Hamzaa... Dinnertime!!!" Called Iram, his mother. The eight year old didn't hear it over his VR helmet. He was so absorbed in the new flight simulator his grandfather has gifted him. He liked grand dad, though he often got bored by the stories he told. He is glad that the rush of secret service and FBI people are finally over and grand dad is more relaxed these days.

Hamza slightly startled and turned around to see grand dad himself standing behind him. One thing he hated about grand dad more than his stories is his habit of entering his room without knocking. Complaining doesn't help. Even dad says "That is Pakistani Culture" half jokingly.

Hamza hit pause on the XBOX-580 and removed his VR helmet. This one is kool. It places you right into the action. Much better than the plasma screen based system he had earlier.

"Look grandad, I just killed a SU-30MKI" He said to Grand dad. "Really? On F-16?"

"No, on the raptor". The Grand dad seemed a little less enthusiastic. His country half a world away is still flying F-16s and there is no chance for the morons who lead them to get something like the F-22 Raptor. Let them wait till their new masters build a copy. He thought.

"Your mom is calling you for dinner. Let's go downstairs". And Grand dad and grand son started down the regal staircase. A mix of Pakistani and American fare awaited them on the luxurious carved oak dining table.

<==>

Jon Stewart was still at his best. Though his wit and comedy had cut down after the move to CNN, he is still the most watched newscaster in USA. Fake news, or real news, he was the star of the day. In a business controlled purely by ratings, CNN startled everyone by hiring Jon for an 8:00pm slot of news analysis. And he was giving the same fare to the new administration that he gave to Bush earlier.

"In my favourite segment "Mess-O-Potamia", the secretary of defense has announced plans to move more soldiers to Afghanistan from Iraq in an increased effort to capture Osama Bin Laden. Even though everybody other than this administration are convinced that Bin Laden is dead. This will increase the pressure on Pakistan, our "former" ally in war on terror".

"In an unrelated report, President General Mahmud Yusuf of Pakistan said today that his country will not allow the US military to conduct searches in soverigh Pakistani territory. It is a well known fact that Pakistan no longer controls the tribal areas closer to Afghanistan and a large portion of Baluchistan, and both the US military and the Pakistani military have to treat them as enemy territory now.Even the chinese, the new ally of Pakistan are not able to use the port they built."

Iram silently grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. Grand dad wiped his brow and concentrated o the food in front of him. The late summer sun bathed their mansion in Napa valley in golden rays. Another day in the retired, or more accurately exiled life of the not so old man drew to a close.

To be continued.

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Prologue

The Indo-US civil Nuclear Co-Operation agreement was touted as a groundbraking event at the time when it was made. But few people realized how that event will alter the course of the history of the subcontinent. In a remarkable deviation from long time hyphenated relationship with India and Pakistan, the USA has openly declared that India and Pakistan are two different countries with different histories. This action led to a sequence of situations that created the current scenario of international affairs in the year 2010.

General Pervez Musharraf, the man who was dubbed as "the most important ally in the war on terror" was dumbstruck by the US behaviour. He was expecting if not equal, but at least some consolatory gestures from George W Bush, but all he got was public humiliation. In a moment of his usual "Tactical Brilliance", he decided to show some guts and openly showed a shift of alliance towards China. At the same time, china, being wary of the new relationship between USA and India, was all the more willing to play along. Musharraf visited China just before the visit by Bush and photographs of him sitting in simulators for the JF-17 and J-10 fighter aircraft are widely published.

This act of defiance did not go well with the USA administration. They have realized that Musharraf and his regime has reached the "diminishing returns" portion of the curve in the war on terror. Osama Bin Laden was still at large, and A. Q. Khan was still not accessible to US interogators. Moreover, the control of Musharraf and his forces on the tribal areas where Bin Laden was supposedly hiding was deteriorating day by day.

In 2007, Musharraf was forced to conduct an election. In what the global media termed as one of the most corrupt and rigged election, Musharraf claimed mandate of the people for another five year term in presidency. By the time the year came to a close, Baluchistan and the tribal areas have moved almost to open civil war. The hold of Pakistani Army on the country was loosing by the day. Even increased terrorist attacks on India and propaganda in the urdu news media failed to make much effect. Pakistan was falling apart at its seams. The people who are really concerned about it was the people who are concerned about its raison d’être, that is, Islam. The ruling elite did not care much about Pakistan itself, as long as they could find a way to fill their coffers. The Islamists o the other hand was concerned about the integrity of Pakistan, and they found an ally in some part of the Pakistani Military who had some patriotism left with them. General Mahmud Yusuf, Musharraf's vice COAS found this as a good opportunity and quickly, but secretly made his moves.

The Chinese didn't really trust Musharraf. They new in their hearts that Musharraf was pro USA inside. So, when Gen Yusuf made his secret move, they were willing to listen. After all, Yusuf claimed support from the Islamists in the country. They detected the sand washing away from under Musharraf's feet. Musharraf was not dumb to sense the recent coldness in the relationship, but he failed to se the undercurrents.

As a last resort to clutch onto power, Musharraf did another 180 degree turn and offered the US army access to search the tribal areas. This was the trigger Gen Yusuf and the chinese waiting for. Musharraf was overthrown in a bloodless coup. As a rare last time favour to his old ally, President George W Bush, sent a helicopter to fly him out to Kabul and onward to stateside. After several months at different secret locations, he was finally allowed to settle down at a palatial mansion among the vineyards of Napa Valley.

In 2008 presidential election, disproving all predictions, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska won against Sen Hilary Clinton of New York. He ran on a "bring the boys home" campaign that rang well with the american public. Immediately after assuming office, he started the pull out from Iraq, but decided to finish the unfinished business of catching Osama Bin Laden. the force concentration slowly moved into Afghanistan, and a confrontation with Pakistan became all the more a possibility. General Yusuf warned against any violation of the Pakistani border on a daily basis. However, the hold of his army on the tribal areas was nominal. In fact there was de-facto war there and also in Baluchistan. The chinese were also unhappy and consistently shot down every attempt by USA to gain access to the region where Bin Laden was supposedly hiding. They had more reasons to worry. The access to the Gwadar port they built was now cut off by Balochs.

General Musharraf felt that he was not yet ready to let go of what he thought was taken from him. Now he new how the two leaders whom he kicked out of the country felt. He wanted to reapture his position, now as a civilian political figure of Pakistan. Some part of the Pakistani diaspora supported him, and slowly and surely he was making his moves from his new home, half a world away.

In mid 2010, things are coming to a head. President Hagel wanted a solution fast. He need to have it done before he face election in 2012. the chinese wanted their port back, and General Yusuf wanted his place to be secure. The Islamists supporting the General wanted the green flag to fly in Srinagar, if not in the Red Fort. India took a lot of the effects, by means of increased terror attacks and infiltration. The agreement to send Indian troops to Afghanistan didn't help a bit either.

The heat was on..

To be continued.

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The Spy Story

Sergio Sanchez straightened up from his crouched position, examining the bunch of rotten grapes in his hand. "This is bad." he thought. Black Rot, the dreaded disease of grapes is a sure killer. He started to look around for more of the affected bunches. He got to alert his boss ASAP, so that the consultant guys can come in and do the needful. He will have a lot of work now, cutting off and disposing affected bunches and spraying medication etc.

Then he heard an engine running on the winding single lane road on the opposite side of the road. He immediately stopped his search and walked up and around the side to check it out. A black Escalade was driving up the road. Sergio took a pair of field glasses from his pocket and tried to see the plates. "This'un is new" he said to himself. It was his job to know all vehicles coming up that road, or at least, all those turned into the driveway of that big house. This job is way better than the old one, scoping out US boarder patrol at Calexico.

Sergio walked down the trail for around 100 feet and crouched behind a row of vines. From that point the front porch of the mansion is visible. The escalade turned into the long driveway and stopped in front of the house. Two south asian men got out and walked up to the front porch. "Doesn't look like relatives", Sergio muttered to himself. He took the cell phone from his pocket and started dialling. "Mr. Vyas, good mornin'" he begun.

Sergio Sanchez really loved working for this man. As luck have it, he met him when he was running his cover job as a handyman in San Diego. That was tough time, working odd jobs during the day and running people across the boarder at night. He was not sure how, but Mr. Mahendra Vyas seemed to specifically choose him from the bunch of illegal freehanders loitering in front of Home Depot. And it was equally surprising he offered him a job in a Napa Valley Vineyard. All he had to do was to keep tabs on the vehicles going into the house on the opposite side of the hill. Time again he was also tasked to check out various places in and around the area and report. He loved this job. It pays well and he no longer had to be scared of the law.

Sergio was expecting the usual "OK" as reply. But this time he was asked to meet Mr. Vyas at a mutually known place in the evening. It seems he has some work to do in the night. Sergio agreed and got back to his job of hunting Black Rot.

<==>

The night was clear and starlit. In contrast to the cities to the south, the sky in Napa was remarkably clear during the nights. The starlight was enough to move around in the night.

The Six foot two well built frame of Sergio Sanchez easily vaulted over the low row of bushes and gained the trail going uphill. This trail brought him on the easterly side of the small hill that house the group of mansions. This area was part of the residential area, and even though it was prime land for growing zinfandel, was left as it is, to be a nice backdrop for the mansions. there were a few trees and bush around, but was kept without clutter for the residents to easily take a stroll or ride.

It took around half an hour for Sergio to find a suitable tree. It should be tall enough, and should have a branch not too high above. And on top of all, it must have the proper view to the target. Finally he found one. He took a rope out of his backpack. Looping it across the branch starting at around 20 feet, he started climbing up. Upon reacing the branch, he settled down at the fork and started unpacking his backpack.

He took out what looked like a golf tee. He inverted the tee on the branch and using a small electric screwdriver, screwed it onto the branch. Then he took out an irregularly shaped object and screwed it onto the stem of the tee. Once in place, it looked like a bird's nest, snug on the branch. He then took out what looked like an iPod music player. He fumbled with some cables and finally was able to plug it into the "bird's nest". A faint glow came up on the iPod screen, and a faint image of the buildings in front appeared on the screen. Sergio adjusted the bird's nest to bring the proper building into view. His job done, he unplugged the iPod, packed his stuff and climbed down back from the tree. He sat down under the tree to take a brief rest, took out his phone and dialled.

<==>

In a downtown San Francisco apartment, Sanjeev Gupta was awake, browsing the net. Suddenly his cellphone rang, and the familiar number appeared on the display. He answered it and simply said "Yes". He listened for a moment, said "OK" and hung up.

He then brought up a new window on the PC. This appeared like a standard media player. He typed in a string that did not make any sense into the address window. After a minute or so, a window popped up with a few edit boxes. He typed in more strings and hit enter. Then images similar to what appeared on the iPod started showing up on the media player screen. He did a brief test on zoom and pan. Satisfied, he closed the window and sent of an SMS.

<==>

Sergio was glad to learn that he did a good job. He was also happy that his boss has entrusted him with this job. It was good feeling trustworthy. He stood up, put on his backpack and started back down the trail. Quarter way down, he was startled by a noise coming from further down the trail. He decided to take an alternate route back and cut across the bushes to catch another trail. This brought him closer to the mansion, and he ventured closer to the fence and take a look. He didn't see anything there, but an electronic eye inside did see HIM. Sergio turned around, and walked down the trail. He got onto the access road and started walking down towards his residence a quarter mile away on the other side.

He was startled to hear a car coming down the road. He didn't think much of it. Even if he did, there was nowhere to run anyway. The car came closer. Then in a short instant. It stopped right close to Sergio, the rear door slid open, a strong pair of arms pulled him in, and before he could do anything, he heard the click of a gun and the most feared phrase. "FBI, you are under arrest".

To be continued

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"Those goddarn b@$*@rd Indians!" gnarled agent Jeff Boger. He has watched the place for the presence of anyone remotely South Asian, but who knew those a$$40les would use a mexican, an illegal one to boot? But he was glad in a way. The poor b@$*@rd readily talked. He seemed to be a new recruit and not too loyal to his employer. He readily handed over the cell phone, iPod and other stuff. He also gave out the name of his handler. One Mahendra Vyas. Jeff knew most of the RAW agents operating in the area, but this one was new. Of course it would be an alias. He got one outgoing call and ont incoming SMS from his number on his cell phone. The iPod had only music files, and some erotic videos.

But what was the Mexican doing there in the night. His story is that he was asked to check out if any visitor is staying in the house. Jeff didn't quite believe it, but what else this illiterate Mexican is good for anyway?

Jeff started to complete his paperwork. He found that San Diego PD had a file on the Mexican, so he was handed over to the US Marshall's office for due processing. Finally he ended up with a cell phone, iPod and a phone number. The phone, it turned out, was from a prepaid mobile service that did not need identification, and was purchased by cash. The name Mahendra Vyas too didn't turn up anything worthwhile.

<==>

Sanjeev Gupta had guessed that Sergio was in trouble, but there was nothing he could do. He already was desperate to find out what is the General upto. He was briefed that he is upto something and his boss wanted him to be on top of that. The only problem is, the Americans are not all co-operating. Hell, not co-operating would be diplomatese. They are being outright hostile these days. Their argument is, the general is retired, he is nothing now, and he is not doing anything. All Sanjeev got to show now is the camera he got installed. He assumed Sergio didn't disclose it, because he is still able to access it over the cell network. But he had no way of even approaching the mansion, thanks to the Americans.

Sanjeev Gupta knew the general uses the web a lot. How he wished to get a peek on his PC. If the Americans were any helpful, he could have got gigabytes of data delivered to his desk, but now he is upto his own tricks. He took a deep breath, closed up his desk and prepared to leave for the day from his desk job. Before he shut down his PC, he just took a casual look around one of his favorite sites. The one run by a bunch of enthusiasts who call themselves Jingoes. A post in the forum caught his eye. "General Yusuf would read this and $hit in his pants". Someone wrote. He got an idea. He sent a brief e-mail to his friend in Australia who is an admin. Within hours the software configuration at a few servers at some unknown locations got modified, and a trap was set.

To be Continued

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Spy Story: Cyberhunt

"BisonBoy e-mail me [email protected]" was the cryptic post made by user Dragu in the SuperHornet thread. BisonBoy frequented that thread, and that was the best place to grab his attention.The expectation didn't fail. Within an hour, Sanjeev got an e-mail from Rajeev Mallar.

Rajeev Mallar was a typical nut case, according to his family and community. He belonged to a wealthy respected Konkani family of Cochin. His father Sudhakar Mallar ran the biggest sanitaryware business in the city, and two brothers are heling their father running the business. But Rajeev, the youngest, was considered the black sheep of the family. He did neither try for higher education, nor joined the family business. Instead he dropped out at second year of his BSc Mathematics and became a full time amateur programmer. His involvement in busting a few high profile cybercrimes didn't really help his standing with the family, but when a multinational company hired him as project leader, even without formal qualifications, everyone was happy. Not many people knew that he turned out to be one of the foremost experts in computer security. Sanjeev met him in the forum, and this is not the first time they corresponded.

Within half an hour, a new sets of e-mail addresses were established and security keys exchanged, an extremely secure correspondence started betwen the two. Sanjeev e-mailed a big list of IP Addresses and access logs, and Rajeev went to work on the earnest. He took one of those "french leaves" and went home early that day.

The IP list and sever logs are carefully examined and the painstaking elimination process begun. It is not a simple task to trace an IP address, but Rajeev had a lot of custom tools he created to help automate a lot of the activities. Still the amount of work needed is phenomenal.As the day came to a close, he had figured out that none of the suspected IPs originate at the expected geographic location.

But of course, the target could have used an anonymiser proxy. There are proxy servers available located at a number of countries and regions, and a number of them are free, so anyone can use them. Tracing an IP Address beyond a proxy is practically impossible. His search has hit a brick wall. Drastic steps are needed. He sent another e-mail to Sanjeev, explaining a wild idea.

<==>

Edvin Mendez started sweating profusely. The Australian summer suddenly seemed blazing up. The task he was asked to pull off was tremendous. He knew Sanjeev Gupta personally. They had shared many a drink and many a stroll at Golden Gate Park. Even after his moving to Sidney, they used to catch up with each other whenever he visit San Francisco. However, this is the first time Sanjeev asked him for anything related to his RAW deal. Edvin was glad that he is in a position to help, but to be asked to shut down the whole website and make a new database seemed crazy. Sanjeev had to finally explain who the target was, and that information helped Edvin to get that last bit of determination.

He corresponded with his colleagues, the admins, all around the globe, and all of them went to work immediately. The databases are backed up and the scripts and widgets provided by Rajeev are integrated. The famous site went down without notice and when it came back, there was chaos. More than 20 thousand active members received shocking news of massive database corruption, needing sign up and verification of their account. Most cursed themselves and went about the business of signing up again and activating their accounts over e-mail. Only this time, the activation DID not have a code entry, but the user had to click a button. It was illegal, but in spy world, there is nothing that is illegal.

Within a couple of days, several gigabytes of data got accumulated from most of the users. Now the task of sifting through them began.After a couple more painstaking days, another list of IP Addresses, this time with extra information, went to Rajeev Mallar.

Finally he was able to locate a couple of IP Addresses. then with pleasure he saw the traceroute entry:

11 219 ms 217 ms 219 ms dist1-local03.napa.bellco.net [68.231.97.23]
12 219 ms 217 ms 217 ms adsl-38-234-85-254.dsl.napa.bellco.net [71.146.95.254]

He e-mailed Sanjeev, called his cell number, and hung up after three rings. It would be 2:00am Pacific Std Time now.

To be Continued

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Spy Story: Cyberhunt

Bellco was a small time ISP of northern california, offering DSL services taking advantage of a federal law requiring telephone companies to provide DSL access openly to competitors. To avoid the logistics problems associated with sharing the same lines for voice with one provider and data with another provider, SBC, who owns the line system, outsourced the last mile operations to Blue Standard Inc., a Vietnamese owned subcontractor. The access co-location system was managed by them locally at the line aggregation centres spread across the region. Bellco has colocation of access at the main line aggregation center at downtown Napa. The non-descript building stood in a typical business zone.

Ivan Lam, the operations manager was among the racks when the phone rang. After the latest reorganization, he was manager, maintenance co-ordinator, technician and a lot other. He was not happy. He just had a couple of guys to help with maintenance, but they could only do low level work. He hated his phone ringing. It only brought trouble. "Oh $hit! It was that Bellco guys again", he thought. This time they got another guy talking. The name was not familiar. Those Indian names are crazy anyway. They had a router problem a few weeks ago, and it seems it crept up again. He hated those guys. Their equipment sucked, but he coul'nt find a good reason to kick them out of his centre. The better part is, they pay!

The guy on phone reported a problem with their DSLAM. Some customers are loosing connection randomly it seems. They would be bringing up the Juniper guys to look at the DSLAM. "You got any slots before noon tomorrow?". Ivan agreed to give them a slot next day 10:30 for half an hour. It seems they may need to swap out a port module. Shouldn't take too much time. That is, assuming they don't need software upgrade. Anyway, half an hour is all they are going to get, because the whole SBC crowd is going to be here at 11.

The next day, sharply at 10:30, the Bellco team of two showed up. Ivan has never met the Bellco guy for sure. The Juniper guy's face looked familiar, but Ivan see a lot of service people everyday. He didn't really care. All he wanted was to remind them to finish the job in half an hour and get the hell out of there. He took them to the Bellco rack, and left. The guys hooked up a console cable and started working fecerishly.

Within 20 minutes, instead of a new Port module, a new software was loaded on the DSLAM/Switch, with the exact datestamp and version id as the previous one. But an alert user would have figured out that the hash signature is different. But no one really looks at them anyway.

From that point on, a copy of whatever the good general sent or received over the internet went to a server somewhere out there on the web. Sanjeev Gupta now have the access he needed. But he still would have to crack the encryption system used by the General.

End Cyberhunt

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Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

Agent Jeff Boger could not relax, even after three Sam Adams. That is one more than his usual fare at this joint. He didn't want those dumbass SFPD or CHP to pull him over and make an FBI Vs Local police scandal, so he got to mind what he have. But the issue of the Indian handler of the Mexican was troubling him. It is his job to keep tabs on them, and he don't know who the hell was that. He thought his briefings contained files every Indian who is even remotely related to that bunch of nerds called RAW.He need to figure it out who set the Mexican up and figure out his next move. All he got is a phone and an untraceable cell number. It has been a couple of weeks, and he had not made any headway yet.

But he have worked with worse. He made a mental "I know that I can do it" routine, paid the tab and started to leave. He hated going back to his home. After his last GF broke up, he was not in any kind of relationship. He didn't have time, and if he had, Karen wouldn't have left him. He got into his car. Hesitated for a moment and then dialled a number that is used by guys in his situation. He then pulled out, merged into the traffic and vanished into the evening.

<==>

In another part of the city, Sanjeev Gupta was also under a similar predicament. He finally got information about Sergio Sanchez. He was in the San Diego county jail. An Indian lawyer who introduced himself belonging to the Spanish American Welfare League visited Sergio in the Jail and had a chat. The Jail authorities did not know Sergio was involved in a spy case in Napa, so they didn't really care who visited him. That evening Sanjeev got a complete account of what happened that night when Sergio was captured. Now, that is troubling information. He was under the impression that the secret service is guarding the General. How the hell FBI came into the picture, and how the hell they came out in the middle of the night to get Sergio. The Secret Service's style is always defensive. They wouldn't allow you to show your head anywhere near their quarry, but they wouldn't come at you beyone the perimeter they set. Now, if FBI is involved and they came after you outside, that means the General is not sitting idle there and the Americans know about it. Sanjeev knew that the whole $hitpot of information would be there with the agent who is responsible. He wanted to know who it is, and try to spook him.

And the night closed in on the city by the bay, with two men who wanted to know who the other was. A strong breeze from the ocean came over the hills and spread over to the east bay. The lights on the Golden gate bridge made a garland in the darkness. The night life of San Francisco began. In the night, Virtues slept and Vices started their prowl.

To be continued

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Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

The USA is a crazy country when it comes to laws and liability. This is the country where someone buys hot coffee, drives off with it, spills it on the lap, gets scalded and then sues the fastfood company for millions. This is also the country where a law enforcement officer forgetting to read the rights of the suspect voiding an otherwise strong case. On one side you have history of people spending years in prison, or even executed, and then proved innocent by DNA tests. On the other side confirmed criminals getting away because of silly legal lapse, or even because they are celebrities.

Sanjeev Gupta was thinking again about Sergio and his arrest. He wondered if the FBI guys did the paperwork properly. He immediately made a phone call to Los Angeles.

That day, the San Diego County District Attorney's office got a visitor. It was the same Lawyer who met Sergio and now he claimed to represent Sergio on behalf of the Spanish American Welfare League. The DA informed him that Sergio is held on felony assault and battery charges in the local jurisdiction, and he can be released if the bail is paid. But the lawyer seemed to be not too keen on that. What he wanted to know is how Sergio was arrested. He didn't make it a secret that what he really wanted to know is whether his "Miranda Rights", as the rights read out by the arresting officer is known, were served correctly. The DA confirmed that the arrest was recorded by sheriff Gonzales of Napa county, and he was delevered to San Diego county by the US Marshall's office at San Francisco. The lawyer thanked the DA and left. Napa is a long way away. He will have to catch a flight the next day.

The Sheriff's office at Napa was not enthusiastic at all, but with a lawyer, you never show that. It took a lot of time to get the records, but the lawyer waited patiently.

"Yes, the guy was arrested here by Deputy Linh, the clerk said. "No, Deputy Linh is not available here right now" She answered with indifference. The meeting being over, the lawyer left. But even before he walked into the corridor, he took his phone and called the public information line of the Sheriff's office. Within minutes, he got the contact information for Deputy David Linh and also an appointment to meet him next day. He left the place and prepared for a nice evening at beautiful Napa, courtesy of Government of India, though the payment comes under different heads. He synced up with Sanjeev. Sanjeev politely declined his invitation to drive up to Napa. He had a lot of things to do.

Deputy David Linh was a pleasant easygoing guy. He had no clue about what was the nature of the case he handled. He was really confused why this lawyer want to specifically know the circumstances of this arrest. But being a law enforcement officer, he was supposed to either give correct information, or do not disclose what is not required. In fact he was not aware of the nature how Sergio ended up with the FBI guys. He also didn't know it involved international spying. Once the lawyer mentioned Miranda Rights violation, he got scared. He was not sure if the FBI guys were supposed to do that, or him, as the arresting officer. He then did what he could think of doing that moment.

Within half an hour, Sanjeev Gupta got all the information about Jeff Boger and his friends. That enabled him to get through the burocracy of his department and obtain access to the files on Boger. It contained a lot of information, including his frequenting the "HayBarn", or even his noctrunal adventures. Finally Sanjeev is in business.

In a weeks time Jeff Boger met a smart sexy woman by name Elina Perez at the HayBarn. She was with a man with a number of tattoos and piercings, but Jeff noticed that her hazel eyes kept coming back to him. She was in a cutoff jeans and tank tops that barely contained herself, and he could see that she herself had piercings at locations not normally visible. He liked plump women with piercings. He smiled and nodded an acknowledgement to her glance.

Next day, she was alone there, and that didn't look accidental. The chemistry seemed to be good, and the conversation, pleasant. She worked as a hairdresser and masseuse at the Bear Creek spa at Half Moon bay, and lived alone at San Mateo.

And at least she proved to be a good masseuse soon after.

To be continued

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Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

Elina Perez was born in the suburbs of Tijuana, Mexico. Her father Jose Perez was murdered in a gang violence when she was only ten. Jose, despite being a good father who took care of the family, was involved in the drug trade. When he was alive, Maria, her mother, and Alberto, her younger brother had a good life compared to the local living standards. After his death, Maria had to work as a carrier of the stuff, and even little Elina had to pitch in sometimes. Their hope was with Alberto. They wanted him to study well, and later migrate to the USA, and settle down there. Maria and Elina did everything to take good care of Alberto,but fate had other intentions.

When Elina was eighteen and Alberto, sixteen, he started to get involved in drugs himself. Maria and Elina did everything they could, but the pull of easy money and use of drugs was too strong for the young man. Alberto stopped coming home, and started living with his buddies of the drug racket. The last thing they heard of him was when the police busted their operation, and arrested everyone. Maria who already suffered from heart disease, couldn't take it well, and she died of heart attack, leaving the pretty young Elina to fend for herself.

Some known member of the drug racket convinced Elina to be involved in a trade better than drugs. That is herself. That brought her closer to a gang that took people across the border to USA. And one night, stuffed behind the rear seat of a car, she arrived in San Diego. She was barely twenty, and the American dream gleamed in her hazel eyes. She got employment in a massage centre, that employed women like her. For the uneducated girl, with practically no english capability, that was the best the place had to offer. The massage centres, though under different ownerships, rotated the girls quite often, so Elina moved around Southern California quite a bit.

Her life turned around when she met a man who ran an underground business of selling fake green cards in Los Angeles. She was working at a place in downtown that time, and his place was close by. They met at a local bar often, and within a short while, they were going steady. Elina dropped out of the massage trade and got trained as a hairdresser instead. Life was looking good for poor Elina, but it took only six months to see the real colours of the man she was with. He was a heavy drinker, and started physically abusing Elina a lot. She took it for a while, but finally one day in the deep of night, hit him back badly on the back of the head and left him unconscious on the floor. She moved into a friend's place that night. Scared to death for the revenge of the man, she took a train out to San Jose the next morning. With her two trades in demand, she had no difficulty fitting in.

There she met a liquor store owner of Indian origin. The store was close to the apartment complex, and she used to use the laundromat next door. While the laundry is being done, she used to drop into the store and buy some chips or hot dogs and strike up a conversation. She found a good listener and a sympathizer in the man in his fourties. For the first time in her life, she met someone who did not think of using her trades. She talked about her life, the difficulties she faced, the everyday problems she face. He listened with empathy. They became good friends.

One day the liquor store owner told Elina that he got a job opportunity for her which is better than she is doing now. On his directions, she drove over to San Francisco, and met this energetic young man introduced himself as Mahendra Vyas. He was a likeable personality, and the liquor store owner had told her that she can trust Mahendra like himself. The job offer he had was strange. She was to work as a hairdresser at a spa in Half Moon bay as a regular job. She also would need to work with people suggested by him. In short, she is being asked to be a spy. For the job, she would get the regular wafes from the spa, and also a salary in cash from him, and the sum was good enough for her to accept immediately. She moved into a cheap apartment in San Mateo, and started her work.

Elina had many advantages of being a spy. She was smart, sexy and very attractive. She knew her trade well, and had very satisfied customers. Though she was very intelligent, she had the remarkable ability to behave dumb, which is very much needed for her trade.

And that, on top of all, became the achilles heel for Jeff Boger.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues

It is not really possible to describe how exactly Elina Perez performed in her assignment. It would suffice to say that she was remarkably successful, and was able to provide Sanjeev Gupta with a lot of information on Jeff's current assignments, which included dealing with the General. But the information mainly dealt with the visitors he has and the activities around the house. That did not make much progress with Sanjeev's investigation. However, he got information on a couple of regular visitors who, according to Boger, were South Asian. That obviously meant Pakistanis. As a matter of routine, he decided to tag them a run a trail. That was given to one of his deputies.

After a couple of months, the utility of Elina's relationship with Jeff Boger hit the diminishing returns. USing her feminine knack to find fault, she craftily broke up with him, and resumed her regular day job.

Spy Story: Vices and Virtues Concludes.

[aditp]

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

Sandhya Patel was busy at the first class lounge of Emirates Airlines at San Francisco International Airport. Check in was in progress for the San Francisco-Dubai non stop flight that started an year ago. The lounge still retained the freshness of a recently opened facility. A few passengers are already there, comfortable in the plush sofas and chairs with Italian leather. Most were business men, with the exception of one hollywood starlet. Plates of hors d'oeuvres prepared by the Emirates signature chef Tony Castelli were laid out is a very pleasing fashion, and some of the passengers were paying due attention to the creations of the world reknowned chef.

A new passenger came in, with the assured steps and the precision gait of a professional soldier. Sandhya turned to him, greeted with the pleasantest manner.Then she felt that the face looks familiar. Maybe a frequent flier, she thought. The tickets were promptly handed over to her. Then she realized who it was. Almost anyone who followed world news in the early years of the century would recognize the name. A quick smile of recognition passed through her face, and the General nodded an acknowledgement.

With the check in formalities over, and the bellboy was sent with the luggage tags, the General settled down into one of the chairs. He looked a little bit tense, and he did not consider the inviting fare of snacks. Sandhya exited the room through the service door behind her desk, moved a few feet down the corridor and dialled a number.

"Hey Sanjeev, guess who is flying to Dubai today?", and after a couple of wrong guesses and teases, she gave out the name. "Your friend His Mushness himself!"

Sanjeev was surprised. How come he didn't know that? With all the snooping he does!!

He thanked his friend on the phone, hung up and called another one half the world away.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

In 1994 Dubai began construction of what they called the first "Seven Star Hotel" in the world. It was built on an artificial island 280 metres away from the beach in the gulf. It was built to resemble the sail of a Dhow boat. On top of the hotel; on one side is a large helipad, and extending from the other side of the hotel over the ocean is a restaurant called Al Muntaha (Arabic meaning Highest or Ultimate) supported by cantilever. A remarkable element of its architecture is the outer beachward wall of the atrium, which is made of a woven, Teflon-coated fiberglass cloth.

It was named Burj Al-Arab (Tower of Arabs) and opened its doors in 1999 for business. It immediately became a huge attraction. It is a suite hotel, comprising of 202 duplex suites. It became the host to a huge number of world leaders and celebrities thereafter.

The General was very happy that a helicopter ride was arranged for him by his hosts, to land directly on top of the Burj. He was received by an aide of the host and escorted to the waiting chopper. After landing on the helipad that is on top of the Burj, he was escorted to his suite.

The General was rather nervous. He was going to meet the very person who tried to kill him, and later got deposed and exiled by him. He tried to convince himself that in his new domain of politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies. The need of the day is for the erstwile sworn enemies to work together for a common goal. Hell, the two major political parties are now working together, and he got to join in as the third one to ensure his place.

The high level summit meeting between the General, the plump bald man from Punjab and the slim fair lady from Sind happened after months of negotiations and planning by the facilitators, mainly rich businessmen of Pakistani origin. They only one common goal, that is to get rid of General Yusuf from power. For almost the entire history of Pakistan before 2008, the country is run by the interests of the rich businessmen, including those in the army. Now General Yusuf has broken out of it, and brought an alignment with the radical Islam. The rich no longer could hog everything in Pakistan. And that made a number of enemies for Gen Yusuf. And obviously brought a number of people united against him, which was not even dreamed of before that.

The meeting happened under closed doors, even without any aides present. The room was thouroughly sanitized for evesdropping devices. No one will ever know what transpired there, ever.

The only fact the snoopers could figure out was that the three persons who ruled Pakistan earlier had an important meeting.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Tower of Arabs

Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq was the chairman of Pakistan Muslim League for a long time. He was considered a coattail hanger of Nawaz Sharif. Born in Rawalpindi in 1935, he became a very successful lawyer before getting close to Gen Zia-ul-haq. He was appointed a federal minister from 1981-85. In 1985, he lost the election to the national assembly, but was made ambassador to Egypt, and later an advisor to the dictator. He came into limelight when Nawas Sharif made him Federal Minister of Religious Affairs and Minorities. After Nawas Sharif was kicked out of the country by Musharraf, Zafar-ul-Haq became the local leader and spokesperson for the PML(N) party.

Zafar-ul-Haq was exiled by General Yusuf as part of his purge operations removing all major political figures in Pakistan. He found a safe haven in Dubai, where his extended family had business operations. From there, he started to work with the other exiled politicians and Pakistani businessmen to bring the various interests together to fight back General Yusuf's government in Pakistan.

Even though he faithfully followed the leader, and now is the chairman of the party, which is the de-jure No 2 position, Zafar-ul-Haq knew that he will be brushed aside for Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawas. The coup by General Yusuf came as kind of a blessing in disguise. If Zafar can pull of a good deal, that will ensure a good position for himself. He being much older than Nawas and Shahbaz, he wanted a good position while they are around. He didn't want to whither away, while the brothers ran the show. With his natural instincts and insights as a lawyer, he began stitching together an alliance that looked impossible initially. He need to bring together two political parties who fought each other bitterly for a long time, and a dictator who kicked the leaders out of the country. But in the face of a common enemy and also a fatal threat to their own aspirations, the parties involved started to come together.

The meeting at the Burj Al-Arab was the culmination of Zafar-ul-Haq's efforts. Most dificult was to get General Musharraf over from USA. He was not at full liberty to travel, and it took some time for him to work with the US State department to get the advance parol and other paperwork. The othet two didn't have much problems. They used to visit Dubai quite often and had business interests in the city.

After all his efforts, Nawaz Sharif managed to piss off his trusted deputy yet again. He was happy about the outcome of the meeting, but he had no intention to share it with Zafar. All he said was. "Pervez said he will get Mahmud removed in a military action". All Zafar could gather from his leader after that was that Nawaz seemed to believe Musharraf's plan, whatever that was.

Nawas should know!. Long time ago, he worked closely with the General, brought him up, and suffered the brunt of the ex-commando's capabilities.

He definitely knew!.

Tower of Arabs concludes.

[aditp]

What is Caesar's

India's involvement in Afghanistan was a little bit controversial from the beginning. After the fall of Taliban, India was one of the first countries to render help to the nation. President Karsai visited India soon after he came into power, and India has promised to help out to rebuild the troubled nation. Even a couple of Air India Airbuses were donated to kickstart the Afghan national airline, Ariana.

As a strategic move, to reduce landlocked Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan for sea access, India offered to build a highway between the town of Delaram on the Kandahar-Herat highway to the city of Zaranj near the Afghan-Iran border. This will provide sea access to the south and southwest parts of Afghanistan, which had the only sea access over the khyber pass and through Pakistan. This will also increase the trade opportunities to India. On top of all, India would get a strategic foothold on the other side of Pakistan. Pakistan, which enjoyed monopoly over the sea access, had abused its position terribly. Containers destined for Afghanistan were delebrately delayed in the name of customs clearance, and the merchandise were pilfered and sold openly in the markets of Peshawar. Even the matrerial for US military didn't escape the abuse. It was also reported that 21 tonnes of newly minted Afghani coins were also stolen. President Karzai has raised the issue with then President Musharraf, but the situation did not improve much.

The Border Roads Organization, the para miliraty organization that builds and maintains the roads in the border regions, were tasked to build the 280 km long road. Iran will build the road between the port of Chabahar and the border crossing near Zaranj. Since Pakistan would not allow the passage of materials, a lot of equipment and materials were either airlifted or trasnported through Iran over land. The Indian engineers and workmen fought the elements of the desert and inched through progress, bringing hope to the troubled nation that is Afghanistan.

But not everyone were happy about it. The remnants of Taliban, with support of Pakistan, was hostile about the project right from the beginning. things took a bad turn when an Indian staff of BRO was abducted and later murdered without even asking ransom. Attacks and ambushes became routine, and India had no other way than to deploy forces to protect the road building crew. In 2006, the Indo Tibetan Border Police units were started deploying in Afghanistan, to protect the road building. As the work progressed, the deployment also had to be increased, because the responsibility to protect and police the roads that are built was also with India. Obviously Afghanistan did not have the forces necessary for that purpose.

Then everything changed with the change of guard in Pakistan. General Yusuf was openly hostile to both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He officially closed all transit to Afghanistan through Pakistan. That action didn not matter much, because the khyber pass is now controlled by the tribal warlords and is no longer a feasible commercial route. That brought tremendous pressure on the Delaram-Zaranj highway, and that became the lifeline of the country. That also meant the Taliban found it to be a lucrative target for ambush and attacks.

In 2009, India also took up developing the Kandahar-Herat and Herat-Chaghcharan roads into modern expressways. There was also plans to build the road from Kandahar to the border with Pakistan at Chaman, to join a highway to Quetta when there is a friendly regime in Balochistan. These actions really annoyed General Yusuf, but he has already got entangled in the wars at Balochistan and Waziristan. The remnants of Taliban were still strong, and as the American forces were re deployed into northern Afghanistan, the Taliban started moving southward to the less defended region.

Now India got into a tight spot. President Hagel of USA made it clear that if India want to participate in the economy of Afghanistan, she also should take care of the security situation. He in fact advised India to assume security responsibilities of the south and southwestern areas. He wanted concentrate in the north, get OBL and get out. Then he quoted Bible, Mark 12:17, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

And after long deleberations and among strong opposition and protests of the Left, the soft spoken Prime Minister of India set his foot down, and the first deployment of Indian Armed forces landed at the newly constructed Delaram Base.

Then the cat and mouse game and fighting with one hand tied in the back began.

To be continued

[aditp]

The email

From: Anil Nambiar<[email protected]>
To: Sanjeev Gupta<[email protected]>
Content Type: text/plain
IHSP Encryption: Level 4 DHEP. Verified Source
IHSP Decrypt Digest: FukCqsCbf6sKmwQ9yMetJNjbeb/U5E8auOLaSr34DiHFPuUa33NB0klZITdm9QM
Sub: Fw: Chessgames.

Dear Sanjeev,

I got this e-mail from a source I can not disclose right now. But you might recognize him by the writing style which would be familiar to you. All I could say is he was a very active member in this business who seems to be no longer interested in active contribution. His views however, are very much valuable.

Take is FWIW.

Anil

PS. If you guess the source correctly, you got that dinner you wanted, either here in Dubai, or there at the SF bay.

AN.

QUOTED MESSAGE BEGIN

This is one of those things that boils away under the surface and one never even realizes.

Two months ago Hojatoeslam Alizadeh visited Islamabad, his "routine visit" was followed up rapidly by a "routine visit" from Ahmed Mahfouz. Mahfouz's visit was not even covered in the media, I heard about if from a source in the Pakistani ministry of oil. You might recall Alizadeh's cousin is... well that puts Mahfouz's visit in perspective. We are seeing a balancing act here.

There was a decision from the Min. Oil and Pet in Islamabad but the word is that it goes back all the way to the CE's secretariat. Apparently it was one of the first decisions taken by the new COAS. Two firms Hamotter and Deccelerate Systems, both based in Dallas, and both having a toehold in Pakistan have floated a consortium KarGas which has been given the go-ahead to build a large terminal just west of Karachi to dock LNG carriers. Decellerate has the contract to exploit the flaring gas from the South Pars field. One is told that much tooth pulling and armtwisting occured to get that to go through but now that its all finally done, the ships are picking up the gas from the rigs directly and from what I hear they are also docking at Bandar Behesti for reasons only Allah truly knows.

There is talk of a new Natural Gas fired power plant being setup in Karachi by Mian Mansha. Take a guess as to who will purchase the bulk of Mian's electricity?

This will not sit well with Ahmed Mahfouz's uncle. I haven't had a chance to talk to people in Medina but I expect the elder Mahfouz will take up the matter with you-know-who on his next visit to the "palace".

He will meet others at the "palace", because apparently the "White" Prince, was on a houbara hunt in Chagai last month. This never made the news but his entourage was "visited" by a Pakistan Army unit and his hosts, two famous balochi sardars were arrested for drug trafficing by Maj. Gen. Munir (you know - Zafar Abbas's successor at ANF... he was the Quetta director of the ANF until he went to the US and after that he was made Abbas' deputy in Islamabad). After the arrests the "White" Prince's entourage was searched and allowed to return home. Apparently the incident upset the "White" Prince so much that he returned home without houbaras and he has no plans to return to Chagai anytime soon to hunt more houbaras. Normally this sort of thing happens when to many people hunt Houbara in the same area but this was the White Prince himself for god's sake!!!his hunting skills are legendary.

Incidently, about two weeks ago, there was news flash when a unit of the Makran Scouts made a seizure of a processed heroin base (NOT GUM!!!). The size of the seizure was stunning several tons to be exact.. and then very quickly the news disappeared from the Pak airwaves. The Pakistani Major commanding the scouts reported that one of his men had made a mistake and the material was not heroin base but some other chemical bound for Sistan Baluchistan....

The balance is tilting... and it is only a matter of time before the White Prince's father and the elder Mahfouz move their pieces on the Chess board.

END QUOTE

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Anil Nambiar sweated in the summer heat of Dubai. Even the airconditioner in full blast did not do much to the fiery sun. The beach was deserted, and the range rover was the only vehicle around. Muhammad Ali was crazy as usual to ask to meet him at this beach. The guy must be reading too much crime novels and imagines himself as the hero in all those stories. There is no dispute that Ali was a good source, but sometimes he takes himself too seriously. Ali seems to be late today, but the janitorial contractor at a luxury hotel can't expect to leave on time anyway.

The Toyota with markings of Dubai Police glided smoothly on the beach road, turned into the parking lot and stopped a little far. The cop got out, looked around and almost casually strolled towards the range rover. Anil knew the drill. His ID and press acreditation card for the TV channel he worked for satisfied the cop and he went on his way. His press credentials gave him so much freedom and so much access to places, he really couldn't imagine any other career for him. After graduation in journalism, he became a political TV newsman for a local channel. Within a short period of time, he made waves by his investigative reports. He became famous, but Thiruvananthapuram became too hot and too dull for him. Certain political leaders wanted him out of their way very badly. Then the management made him the bureau chief for the channel in Delhi. After masterminding a few stings and busts for the channel, Delhi too became too hot for him. That is when he got an offer to become the middle east correspondent for another channel. He didn't like it, but agreed after he got a visit from certain men in black who made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Anil liked to deal with politics and politicians, but in Dubai, what he got into was dealing with money laundry, drug traffiking and on top of all, terrorism. He was instrumental in busting many an attempt to smuggle arms over the arabian sea into India. When his colleague briefed him about the new assignment, he was surprised and happy at the same time. After a long time he gets to deal with the big boys. Too big in fact.

His phone rang, and he heard Ali's voice on the other end. "Sir, it is too hot to walk today. Can you come and pick me up please?" He said in characteristic Kozhikode Malayalam. Anil almost laughed out. The crazy ******** could have done that originally, and avoided this wait in the sun. Anil agreed, hung up the phone and drove off out of the parking lot. Ali was waiting at the service entrance security cabin, chatting away with the guard. He picked him up and drove off.

And Muhammad Ali had a lot to talk about what happened at Burj Al-Arab today.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

In early eighties, the new found oil wealth of the gulf countries started attracting lot of foreign workers into those countries. MAnpower was needed for the booming construction, oil and commercial fields. Even domestic help opportunities are available for expat workers. A good portion of this labour came from the muslim population of Kerala, owing to both the closeness of the gulf over the arabian sea route as well as due to the trading ties between the arab trading posts like Dubai and Kozhikode in Kerala. Devoid of any major industrialization, the gulf opportunities came as a boon to north Kerala, and a steady stream of people started thronging to the gulf countries. Initially over small sea crafts called "launches" and then later on airplanes. Majority of such expats were muslims, not only because of religious reasons, but also because they were industrious and business minded. This flow of Keralite people resulted in a huge Malayali population is all of the Gulf countries, and it is always claimed that you can live comfortably in the gulf countries knowing only Malayalam. Every public establishment, let it be a shop, hospital or even an office, will have Malayali presence.

Thus it became the primary career path for a large population in Kerala to go get a job in the Gulf. Children grow up with that in mind, and after some education, they look for a chance to go over, often with the help of friends or family members who are already there.

Muhammad Ali had done the same, six years ago. He was twenty, armed with a trade certificate in welding, he ended up at a construction site in a godforsaken outskirt of Dubai, working under the blazing sun at scortching heat. He had enough of it in three months. He wanted to leave and run away, but thoughts about his widowed mother and two sisters back home kept him going. Those were tough times.

He had this exceptional ability to hold pleasant conversations with anyone. His room mates, well there were ten of them, loved his company. So did others whom he met around. Within a short period of time, he developed a huge friend network in the area, mostly Malayalis. He also learnt to converse in other language including Arabic, Tamil, Kannada and even Urdu. Life, for the young Muhammad was tough, but he was trying to get the best out of it.

And that is when he met Musthafa who was manager of a cleaning services company catering to the low end hotels, dormitories and even residences in the area. They met in the video store, and the conversation started with the latest Mammootty flik and ended god knows where. When they parted, Muhammad had a round of snacks, a cool milkshake and a job offer with him. Within a weeks time, he joined Musthafa's unit as helper. It was a very pleasant turn to get out of the terrible life at the construction site. Musthafa helped him to get a UAE drivers license and in a couple of years time, he became a supervisor of sorts, working and co ordinating services at the customers site. There too, he made a lot of friends. Within six years, he married off both of his sisters, brought in both the brothers in laws to Dubai and discharged off most of the debts his family had.

Gulf is a favoured location for film and Tv stars to do stage shows and make money, so as for politicians to collect donations. Every year there will be several shows, some by reknowned stars and some by even starlets who hardly had a hit. The entertainment starved Gulf malayali would pay to see any such shows. But in 2008, a leading sponsor broke a bombshell. He announced a series of shows starring two of the leading superstars on the same show. The whole gulf area went into frenzy about it. Muhammad was a big fan of Mammootty and he wanted to see the superstar closely. He went to the location early and looked around. And that is where he met Anil Nambiar.

Anil didn't really like covering the shows. His mind is always on the investigative journalism, but at bureau chief at Dubai, it was his job to co ordinate the coverage. He was annoyed when he saw the stranger helping the camera crew. But before the event is over and the last of the equipment is packed up. Muhammad was almost like part of the crew. He even got a one on one photo with his favourite star.

Next week, he got something more than that. A part time job as camera assistant on the KOL TV team. In less than a year he was the most trusted field resource for Anil Nambiar. He also practically knew the staff of every hotel in Dubai, such that he could pick and choose which one to work at today.

The assignment at Burj Al-Arab came that way and came to a successful completion. But his job has just started. It was to hunt a needle in a haystack.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The mansion stood towards the rear of the prime location off Al Waleed Road in the posh Jumeirah District of Dubai. It is the area where the ultra rich lived, and the place is filled with such mansions. The flower garden in the front gleamed in the sun, and the well manicured lawn gave a soothing recess from the glare. Small fountains filled the place with tranquil noise. The place was practically deserted, except the poor gardener who was still working with edging the farther end of the lawn. There was no sign on the entrance, but it could be guessed that someone of importance lived there.

The bentley glided silently in, and moved to the front porch. It stopped at the front porch, and the plump bald man who was once the prime minister of Pakistan and the lean aged man who was the chairman of his party got out. A servant got out of the side door and proceeded to open the main door. The lean man said something to the servant in Urdu, but it seems he did not understand. He impatiently repeated to no avail. The third time, using Arabic, the servant bowed and proceeded to pick up a briefcase from the bentley. He carried it inside after the masters.

Everyone in the household liked the new addition to the army of servants. Though appeared a little less bright, Muhammad Ali had a pleasant personality, and was willing to take any chore with a smile. Apparently he understood only Malayalam and Arabic, which gave the others a chance to gossip on him using English, Hindi, Urdu and other languages. Poor Ali would sit at a corner and brood that time.

Servants hide in plain sight at such places. The ones work inside have access anywhere inside the house. Their existence is not acknowledged by the occupants except when giving them instructions. They in turn move around like ghosts, well out of the way of the lords. Muhammad Ali blended into the crowd quite easily, and within weeks gained enough trust of the household manager, that he could access anywhere inside the mansion. He also developed a liking to serve food and beverages to the master. The master used to have a lot of visitors and there used to be lot of discussions.

And nobody knew the new servant can in fact understand every word they said, and Anil could see glimpses of the needle appear in the haystack.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Anil Nambiar cursed himself. His attempts to mole the Sharif residence failed miserably. Too bad you can't clone Muhammad Ali, he thought. The moron who tried that place could not even get a job there. Of course Sharif ran a tight ship. He has a lot of stuff to worry about other than politics and conspiracy. Business deals must be made and merchandise must be moved. Not all of it was legal to boot. He was surprised to see that Zafar-ul-Haq was rarely invited there at all. All of their meetings did happen at the latter's residence. That was good for Anil. His best resource is at work there.

Another problem he faced is the way these guys handled communication. Why can't these blokes use Internet like their friend Musharraf does? Sanjeev Gupta is having a field day stateside with Musharraf. The only problem there is that even with support from the crypto guys from Hyderabad, he was not having much luck with the encryption he uses. Why the hell the CIA guys lend their crypto tools to Musharraf? It would seem they too are involved in the game.

"Maybe I should ask 'the ascetic'" he thought. He started feeling that 'the ascetic' knew much more than the guys in active service did. His cryptic e-mail he shared with Sanjeev shown a deep insight into the situation. Too bad he got pissed with the administration and left the org. He was the supersleuth who hardly moved out of his home. Information came in in search of him, and he made deductions approaching intution.

Anil sent an e-mail to 'the ascetic'. But 'the ascetic' insisted on'face time'. Finally he agreed to see Sanjeev instead if he can take a flight to Atlanta the next morning. The conversation can not be recorded, so Sanjeev had to transcribe it from memory.

And he e-mailed it to Anil

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Transcript of a Conversation

Ascetic: Look appearances count and the illusion of defiance is so much more manageable than real defiance.

Gupta: So what are you saying..

Ascetic: I am saying what I cannot say. Think about it - with so much at stake what would you do? would you sit back and let it happen or would you find a way to make it happen precisely as you wanted it to be?

Gupta: So the Islamist takeover was arranged in some way...

Ascetic: your words not mine... I prefer to say that the risks were well managed..

Gupta: But the embassy takeover, the public humiliation of the Ambassador by General Yusuf... all covered by several different news agencies... the bodies of security contractors dragged through the streets and the ritual slaying of several embassy staff by Pakistan Army units..

Ascetic: All risks were kept to manageable levels.

Gupta: This is amazing if it happened.

Ascetic: If?

Gupta: well.. I mean do you know how it happened.

Ascetic: Somewhat... we picked up things here and there, straws in the wind initially but pretty soon we saw the pattern. Finally the boss just asked the sh*t face to face if this was all staged.. he concurred.

Gupta: Why keep this down.. at our end?

Ascetic: The Americans wanted an illusion, we wanted a steady hand on the nuclear trigger at all times during the transition - the details were irrelevant - we accomodated the Americans they accomodated us.

Gupta: This must be a first in human history.

Ascetic: No actually its all very old, they have been doing this a while, do you remember an account of a Punjabi Musalmaan leader in the 1940s? the one where he was asked by his British controller to slap a British District Commissioner in Lahore in public view so as to gain acceptance among anti-British radicals? this was more of the same, stage managed to ensure that there was control... when you read the details of that incident all that we have seen on TV last year is just a rerun.

Gupta: The bodies ... those poor ba*tards..

Ascetic: An acceptable sacrifice... look at it this way, if they hadn't died - who knows how many the disorganized violence would have killed..

Gupta: The Shias.. why were they slaughtered by mobs.

Ascetic: Most likely an uncontrollable factor, sectarian issues deep inside Pakistani society. Anyway it all made the changeover seem very real and put the Iranians on their guard.

Gupta: The Christians too..?

Ascetic:(Laughing).. do you seriously believe that all those holy people so desperate to convert all these poor Pakistanis to Christianity actually give a living shit about them?... cannon fodder.. more excuses to scream from the rooftops about danger to the faith.

Gupta: But thousands were killed in the rioting...

Ascetic: (another laugh)... and whose counting?

Gupta: An acceptable cost..

Ascetic: From our perspective.. (shrugs).. from the American perspective.. yes, most definetely.

Gupta: Our perspective?

Ascetic: Well... if this hadn't worked out... Cold-Start would have to be initiated... and then as they say on that disreputable internet forum... "General Avadesh's Kharga would have begun its march.." I daresay.. now that we are off Siachen... it costs us far less to kill Pakistani Armymen than ever before.. and a wholesale slaughter like the one mandated post Cold-Start, why that would be the most efficient killing on earth after the American bombing of Hiroshima.

Gupta: So we would have had to use nukes...

Ascetic:(laughs) no ... as the Boss says...."No no no.. we would wait until they nuked us first... see we have no first use." (laughs again..)

Gupta: So if this was so much in our favor and so much more efficient why didn't we do it..

Ascetic: Pakistan isn't just a country .. it is a festering sore in the social fabric of India.. nuking them to bits isn't going to make the hole go away, it is just going to make the hole permanent. The idea of Pakistan has to die first... with the Islamists willing to underwrite the creation of yet another illusion called Pakistan, foolishly clinging to the idea that somehow a political elite can be created that is bound to the Clergys' dictat by way of an alleged subservience to Islam... (another cruel laugh)... the nukes would not have helped.

Gupta: So from our point of view this is an entrapment.. that has taken perhaps centuries.

Ascetic: I suppose you could say that. First the clergy were fooled into believing that they could oppose "Hindu India" by siding with the West. Then they were betrayed by the West and now they think they can go it alone, and I suppose tomorrow if that fails too, they will think of some other lies to tell their followers.. but consisely put: this is an exercise in demonstrating that a political contract based on religious loyalty is unsustainable. There are too many people who still feel that such a thing is possible. We have come a long way since the rule of Emperors who declared themselves God. This is about humankind moving forward down the path of enlightenment... but for that to happen the pretenders to the realm of light must be discredited and so to that end we must submit ourselves to this ignominy.

Gupta: How long does this phase last?

Ascetic: The same as the others, a decade... and with each decade the distance between India and Pakistan becomes less and less bridgable.

Gupta: Who came up with this plan?

Ascetic: It wasn't me, though I did see those that created it. My father was a police officer detailed to protect one of the wise men of Hindustan and he was present as a mute spectator at the event where this idea was formulated into an actual policy. I did not know about this event in all the years I was in service. I was about to leave the service in disgust the day that Jalalabad fell to the Pakistanis, and I even wrote my resignation letter. A week later on his deathbed my father told me the story... and I never handed in my resignation letter.

Gupta: Who were these men?..

Ascetic: How does it matter?... they are gone now.. into the pages of history... as you and I will.. nothing remains the same... everything changes.

End Transcript

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Internet has given a whole new dimension to the art and science of intelligence. Previous to that, all communications were done point to point, so it was easier to trace, track and intercept. On the other hand you needed direct access to the channel in order to do those activities. A telephone line for example, gives you guaranteed access to the channel, if you can physically tap into it. You know who calls whom, and what transpired.

The Internet is different. It offers a good deal of anonymity on one hand, but being distributed, allows remote snooping when possible. Governments were very skeptical about it initially. Everyone thought in terms of the telephone network. It is funny to think that the Department of Telecom India initially charged subscribers by volume of traffic, in 64K chunks. The telephone mentality immediately came to demand by the government that there must be access to all communication through the net. But due to the nature of technologies involved, this is proven to be impossible. The only point where you can effectively monitor a source is at the boundary of the network, that is the first switching element that the subscriber connects to. Thereafter, it is impossible to track the communication.

Add to that the anonimity offered by the internet. You can register into any of the free e-mail service with any name, and access that e-mail from anywhere in the world. If you find that a message is sent to a specific e-mail address, there is no way you can find out where is the person who read that e-mail located. Of course, the e-mail provider can know the IP address from which the specified account is accessed, and thence track the location. But the user can use proxy servers available for free to mask his IP address. You can then go to the proxy servers administrator to find out the original IP, assuming he kept logs. Most of them does not, so you have to install tracking software to do that. Then the source can switch proxies.

And of course, in order to access the service provider, you need legal sanction. The american secret agencies have to get a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act special court for monitoring, and that too only for sources outside USA. Other countries have different rules. For example, In India, all it takes is a magistrate's warrant for a police officer to demand information. When you operate in a foreign country, you don't have the luxury of getting warrants, so if you can't get what you want, you steal.

Sanjeev Gupta got access to Musharraf's Internet correspondence after a mammoth effort, with help from a well known internet forum. However, that was only part of the game. Ge now knows who is corresponding to the general. But what they are talking about is another matter altogether. Encryption technologies are now widely available, thanks to the efforts of people like Phil Zimmermann who designed Pretty Good Privacy encryption system. The US government had initially classified encryption systems that it can not crack as "munitions" and forbid exports. Zimmerman ended up with a lot of trouble with his software. Legend is that the source code was exported from the USA in the form of printout (which was legal by loophole) and OCRed back in Europe. At some point of time, there were export versions of browsers like IE with lower strength encryption because of the US laws. Later, either because the secret agencies of USA has learned to crack the higher strength encryption, or they gave up to the technology progress, now there are no specific restrictions to cryptography. It is believed that the PGP suite is not crackable even by the US secret agencies.

In face of the widely available cryptographic software, the job of the spy on Internet is harder. The only viable way to crack cryptography is to snoop the keys and passwords from the sources and then use it to decode messages. That is a complicated affair.

Sanjeev was specifically interested in one address [email protected] to which the good General was sending encrypted messages. The bits and pieces he could gather about this track made it imperative he tag this source, whoever it is. But he had no access to Yahoo to begin with.

He called his good friend Thankavel Natarajan at Singapore.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Tan Meng Chung got the call at a very bad time, and he was concerned. Holding an unknown position in the supposedly non-existant secret service of Singapore, he led a dual life. Though pushing late thirties, his face looked like a schoolboy, showing typical singaporean chinese features with a little mix of Malay blood. Even his girlfriend didn't know about his secret job, but that is the way of things at Singapore. He was a stock analyst at one of the financial companies run by the Lee family, and he lost count of the Girlfreinds he had in the six and odd years he was serving his country. Today he was involved with a suspicious ship in the malacca straits, A fishy business deal at Johor and also taking brief on a suspicious meeting happened at Sentosa. On top of all, here is a request from his contact with the Indians, and that too with a request he may not be able to oblige.

Meng Chung had high regards to Natarajan. He was a good diplomat, and together they handled the liaison between the intelligence communities of the two very friendly countries. Between India and Singapore, there existed a level of trust and cordiality, that they routinely shared intelligence and conducted joint operations against the distruptive elements of the Malacca strait and south china sea. Meng Chung couldn't refuse the request either. It was Natarajan who saved the sorry behind of his deputy who screwedup bigh time at Chennai. He owed him one. But getting a level three access to the SingTel network subscriber can't simply be granted by his office. He need to call Lee Goh Eng, the big boss.

<==>

The city state of Singapore runs a very tight ship. The small island nation was expelled from the Malayan Federation in 1965, and Lee Kwan Yew brought it up from being a developing country to a developed nation. National security of the small island nation was paramount, and efforts were made to have a credible defence force. Mandatory military service is implemented for all youths. Apart from strict laws to maintain the least crime rate, the state also instituted a very good intelligence community in the interest of civic and national security. Criticism also exist for the tight system, but many see that as a necessity. Unlike the USA, it was easy for the government agencies of Singapore to gain access to the internet service.

By the end of the day, Natarajan got the access details for the yahoo account [email protected]. It was from neighbouring Indonesia, precisely from the city of Banjarmasin in the Kalimantan Selatan province.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Banjarmasin is a port city on the delta of the Barito and Martapura rivers which flows south and join the Java sea. It is a major commercial centre of the rich Barito region. It has a thriving boat building and fishing industry. It also happen to be one of the major Islamic centres of Indonesia. It is often called the River city and is the largest city of the Borneo island of the Indonesian archipelago.

Banjarmasin had attracted some attention of the intelligence communities after suspicious activities related to Islamic terrorism was traced to that city in 2008. Suddenly the intelligensia mainly focussing on the Sumatra and Java regions, especially the capital region of Jakarta had to widen their scope to Borneo region as well. However, neither Indian or Singaporean secret service had any traction at Banjarmasin to track an Internet user. However, Sanjeev Gupta needed to tag the contact, because the good general is communicating to him almost daily.

The Indonesian security agencies were always wary of the extra attention they are getting. To call them non-co operative wouldn't do justice even to polished diplomatese. Natarajan had very bitter experience with them, when they framed one of his guys who tried to setup shop at Banjarmasin. He had to work overtime to avoid a diplomatic incident and get the poor man out of the fix. He didn't think it is prudent to have either his or the Singaporean resources to risk exposure there. He was stuck. He needed help.

Then Tan Meng Chung came up with a bright idea, and earned a dinner at the Royal China of Raffles from Natarajan.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Ahmed Faruq had finished his breakfast of fried rice. He was expecting a busy day ahead. Running a boat building business and also some trading in timber was both satisfying and financially very profitable. But it took a lot of effort from his side. On top of it he also had to attend to his other commitments that were not publicly known. Son of parents who moved from Malaysia, Faruq inherited the small timber business his father started near the river Barito, and grown it into an international operation through hard work. Now at early fourties, he had the foresight to anticipate the decline to the timber business, and he diversified into boat building. Through his contacts developed all the way from the middle east to the philipines by means of his timber export business, he was able to get a good export market for his quality seaworthy boats. After the decline of the seagoing wooden boat building business at Beypore in Kerala, Faruq have reinvigorated the business and now regularly supplied large wooden boats especially to the Arabs. He also started building sailing yachts for the wealthy Americans and Europeans. Fitted with all modern conveniences and navigation equipment, these super luxury yachts could travel the oceans by the sails, using the stored fuel and the engine only for emergencies. He has delivered a number of them to the USA, mostly to the rich people at Florida. He also made deliveries to the Pacific cost, including some hollywood stars.

And these international contacts and the booming business made him rich, and powerful. It also meant that he was to be involved in politics and religion. During his many trips to the middle east, he made aquaintance to the sheikh families of the emirates. He also made friends with the big businessmen of Dubai, and that included Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz needed boats to run his merchandise, and Faruq became a reliable supplier. Though he was not involved in the trade itself, he pretty well knew the nature of the trade his boats are being used for. He didn't care much, as long as he just sold the boats.

His phone rang, and a panicked voice gave him bad news. The federal police of Indonesia is preparing for a raid on him. The news was leaked from the headquarters in Jakarta. The contact did not know what the raid is for. All he knew was the information was not local. It apparently based on a tip off from the Malaysian authorities. Faruq thanked his contact and fell into deep thought.

He was a decent businessman, but of course he did his share of accounting adjustments to save some tax rupaiahs. Otherwise he did not see any reason for a federal raid on him. And if it is accounting, the treasury department is the one that should do it. And what the hell Malaysia got to do with it? He just have some suppliers there who sell him timber. Maybe some of them got into trouble and he is being investigated. But a Raid? How can that be possible? Unless...

Unless... Now that thought made him shiver. But no way Malaysia can be involved with that. If it was American, Pakistani or Indian involvement, he should have been scared. He shouldn't worry about Malaysia.

Anyway, he can't run. So, he decided to face the ordeal. As if nothing happened, he prepared to go to work. He shut down his laptop, disconnected the internet access cable, and packed the briefcase for the short drive to his office near the port office.

The raid party came promptly on time. Surprisingly, their questions were about the province of Bali which is in turmoil of seperatist violence. They took extra care to check his computers, bringing in experts. Faruq didn't have any trade dealing with Bali. Finally, after wasting the entire day, the federal police officer made a formal dry appology, mumbled something about a misunderstanding and left. Faruq was surprised to see TV cameras covering the raid. They also seemed to be disappointed on the outcome of the raid. He turned on the TV and saw the reporter also quoting a misunderstanding.

In a pub in Downtown Singapore, Natarajan laughed heartily. He got his man without even stepping out of the city. He raised a toast to Tan Meng Chung silently, and emptied the mug. Tan was able to plant the e-mail address into certain sources in the Malaysian intelligence as someone who conspire with the Balinese seperatists. He knew very well that it will be shared with the Indonesians who will pounce on it.

To be continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The name of Ahmed Faruq was not unknown in Dubai. Anil Nambiar didn't find it too difficult to trace his footprints there, given his line of business of building boats. Even the little office at Kozhikode chipped in with information on a local agent who hired a few boat building carpenters for Mr. Faruq's company in Indonesia an year ago. That gave Anil an idea. Instruction was given to trace those carpenters, and find out if they are still with Mr. Faruq's company. Also the agent was to be contacted to see if he needed more people.

The puzzle got a big chunk in place with the inclusion of Faruq. Boats are wonderful tools to do all kinds of bad things. But what is Musharraf trying to do with a boat from Indonesia. Obviously he is not trying to buy a pleasure yacht for himself. Hell, he is not trying to buy a boat at all. Why do you need encrypted communication to buy a boat? Musharraf is trying to smuggle something around on a boat. Now the question is, what? People? Explosives? This business seem to become serious. It needs attention from the other end too. What has it to do with Dubai, and specifically, Zafar-ul-Haq and Nawas Sharif?

Anil was surprised that absolutely no information was forthcoming from the Zafar-ul-Haq residence about the Faruq connection. He even wondered if there was a disconnect between the two tracks. But Sanjeev was confident that they are connected. Otherwise the good general would not have a hot chatter with Faruq, the same time deals with Sharif. The Sharif empire was still impervious, and all efforts to penetrate it was futile.

But, boats do not come in courier packages. They sail into the harbour, need piers to dock into, need sailors to run, and on top of all, some paperwork is needed for them, even for vessels used in shady deals as Sharif does. Snooping around the harbour area, that incidently have a good percentage of Indian population might give an alternate path. So, after very careful thought and analysis, the Zafar-ul-Haq residence lost a good servant, while a food outlent near the fishing harbour got a good cook's assistant, and he too started making friends pretty fast.

Within no time, Muhammad Ali started giving information about the boats plying the trade there. It was very difficult to trace any boat to Sharif. Hell, it was difficult to trace any boat to anybody. But as grapewine grows, the picture slowly became clearer and Anil's database started filling in with Boat names and details.

That might help with his other priorities, but he need to know what has Faruq got to do with it. Till now, no information has come forth.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Usman Faruq Industries Sdn Bhd stood at the waterfront property on Jalan Depen Jaram where Usman, Ahmed Faruq's father bought the land and established his timber business. Instead of the smelly decayed timber yard, the place now houses a boat building yard which is heavily mechanized. Most of the heavy wood work is performed by machines, but the hull assembly still needs expert carpenters. Most of the labour comes from the locals, but a good number of chinese are also employed. Not long ago, a few carpenters who are experts in building arabian wooden crafts were hired from Beypore. This opportunity was a windfall for the poor craftsmen, whose livelyhood was threatened by the decline of the boat building business at Beypore. They had a reasonably decent life as per the local standards. There were four of them, who shared a small house provided by the company. They also shared a cell phone so their beloved ones back home could keep in touch with them. Life was not bad, considering the decent pay they got and the savings potential.

Sulaiman, the senior most of the four, whom others called usthaad was their leader. He was surprised to get a call from someone he didn't expect. It was Sainuddin, a policeman from his village. After the chit-chat, Sainuddin asked their whereabouts. It seems one of his relatives who is in Jakarta is visiting Banjarmasin, and wanted to meet them. Sulaiman was glad to meet anyone from back home, especially someone from his home area. The only regret he had was the unavailability of traditional grocery to make a good Biriyani feast.

Rashid, the guy introduced by Sainuddin showed up one morning, taking the ferry from Surabaya. He was a pleasant mannered young man, he claimed that he is looking for a job around, and upon repeated questioning by Sulaiman, gave out a story that he was a store assistant in Jakarta, and he got in trouble with his employer because he fell in love with his daughter. He had to run away from there according to him. Sulaiman was concerned when he asked if he can share the quarters there, thinking that he might be a burden. But it is not in the nature of their community to refuse such requests, especially coming from a muslim from their place itself. Sulaiman was relieved when Rashid made an upfront payment for boarding and lodging, which he accepted after a lot of convincing.

Next day onwards, Rashid started wandering around the town, apparently looking for jobs. In the evenings they sat and chitchated or watched the local TV they hardly understood. Rashid shown great interest in the business of boat building and started asking a lot of questions about the business. Even Sulaiman, who is by any standards is a talkative person, was almost fed up with Rashid. But he, being a very nice guy otherwise had to be tolerated on that point. Also Rashid sat outside in the backyard and chatted away on the cell phone most days. It was understood that he was talking to his girlfriend.

And soon enough the talk of the house was about a launch being made for a customer in Gulf referred to as Mian. Mian, apparently is a preferred repeat customer. Its launch was being expedited by the management and the master carpenters are required to help out with other sundry jobs like rigging. Obviously they didn't like it at all. Rashid asked about the launch date, time route etc in great detail. Then, after everyone had supper, he walked out and started his chat on the cellphone in the faint voice, interspersed with giggles.

His "girlfriend", not in Jakarta, but in Singapore also knew it is a breakthrough. He dialed a number in Dubai and patched the call into conference.

<======>

Rashid's sudden enthusiasm about the boat was surprising to his friends. Suddenly he seemed to be possessed and facinated by the boat. Apparently he couldn't have enough information about it. He cajoled Sulaiman to take him inside to see it. And it almost took calling the security to get him away from there.

And things took a nasty turn when he asked if he could join the crew for the delivery voyage. The office manager kind of laughed it away, but when he mentioned it casually to Faruq, he was surprised to see the boss go red in his face. Faruq calmed himself and asked the whereabouts of the youth in detail, and finally dismissed the matter with "of course, we can't take anyone aboard, can we?". The matter appeared to be settled there.

Early next morning, the small house was visited by the Kalimantan police. They took Rashid into custody and moved him to the station. A good dose of bad words and threats were offered in lieu of answers to Sulaiman's queries. Rashid, was surprisingly calm about the situation, and calmly told Sulaiman that it is the doing of his girlfriend's father. Sulaiman never saw Rashid again. He tried to check with his people back home, but the only information he got from Sainuddin was a casual dismissal and a proverb. "If you do the crime, you do the time".

Luckily for Natarajan, all the relevant information was transferred to him by Rashid before the cover was blown, and he knew exactly when and where to look to check out the boat.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

INS Sujata has just sighted the lighthouse at Tanjong Balai, signalling the end of her escort run in the malacca straits. She was providing protection for a convoy of ships led by the super tanker Exxon Lay and super carruer Hanjin Orion. Piracy was still a problem in the malacca straits, and a multinational force consisting of American, Indian and Malaysian ships constantly patrol the straits and provide escort to high value vessels like the Exxon Lay. INS Sujata's current run was from the Andaman sea till the point of Tanjong Balai, whereafter the ships bound to Singapore turned north and those continued onward northeast to South China sea to Hong Kong and Osaka went straight to join up the next patrol ship beyond the island of Bintan.

The XO Lt Cmdr Srinivas Rao had the bridge. He was glad the patrol was uneventful. Captain Madan Lal had briefed him about some reports of pirate presence around the Medang point. The previous escort by the Royal Malaysian Navy craft KD Perkasa had actually chased a boat away that was suspected of pirates. Thankfully, nothing notesworthy happened during the run. Srinivas was looking forward to docking at Singapore and having a shore leave for a day. After a week and a half turn running back and forth the deadly malacca strait, this was really something to look forward to.

When he reported at Captain Lal's cabin, he almost casually mentioned that "some intelligence guy from Singapore" wanted to board the ship and talk to them. "Got the buzz from Delhi. Maybe the bugger want to bust some drug runners or something". The captain obviously was trying to hide his own displeasure. The son of sea never liked anyone who did not smell like salt, especially the self important types in the intelligence. "Probably they wouldn't take too long" Srinivas hoped.

He was mistaken. Two guys, named Natarajan and Ramanathan showed up toting laptop bags and an LCD projector. And the next two hours outlined the detailed plan for a search and intercept mission. Srinivas could almost hear his Captain screaming "Cut the chase and come to the point" inside his brain. These MBA types can be a big pain in the ass. They think they know everything, show up with a bunch of gadgets, and tell us how to do a S&I in great detail, as if we are a bunch of cadets under training. The problem is, after two hours, they have not mentioned whom or what they are going to S&I! As if reading his thought, the Captain broke in between two slides.

"I'd appreciate if you would cut all the BS and tell us WHAT you want done, NOT HOW to do it".

Now Captain Madan Lal, to put it mildly, can be very convincing! He normally have a very pleasant personality with a good sense of humour. A very sociably and accommodative person, more respected and loved than feared by his crew. But everyone who ever worked with him knows it is time to be careful when his face changes. Srinivas curiously looked on to see what is going to happen.

The darker guy, named Natarajan, who was sitting silently watching the presentation by the other lifted his hand to hold his colleague. "I apologize sir. We are looking for a boat". He said with a tinge of understatement with the "boat". "I would guess as much", said the captain. "But why? And why do you need US to do that?".

Natarajan took a deep breath. "Sir, allow me to use the cliche, I am not at liberty to tell you. All I COULD tell you is that we are looking for a boat named Mehnaz sailing from Banjarmasin. It is an arabian Bakhla class vessel, 85 feet, 64 tonnes, with twin diesels. Estimated top speed 18 knots. We can only intercept them in international waters, and yours is the only vessel we have around that can do it."

During the next hour the LCD projector was off, nav-charts were apread on the table, and a plan was created that was totally different from that was originally presented. The day ended with Natarajan sipping a full glass with the Captain and Srinivas, while the other guy, stiff as a statue, brooded over his fruit punch.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The small fishing boat painted in bright green and white lingered around the mouth of the Barito river. Anyone who is familiar to the area would have wondered what a fishing boat is doing there, because it was not a place with a lot of fish around. The three men who were aboard seemed to laze around, after casting a few lines. It looked like they are there to kill time rather than do fishing. One of the men abroad, and Indian, was repeatedly scanning the incoming river channel. Obviously he was waiting for the Mehnaz to show up. After loosing the insider contact at the Usman Faruq boatyard, the only information available was from the outside observation. It was not prudent to show up anywhere near Jalan Depen Jaram, so someone had to make many boat trips up and down the river Barito to get updates. So, they saw the boat being launched from the yard, and being finished outfitting at the jetty. It looked like they would meet the maiden voyage date as informed by Rashid. So, they decided to wait at the mouth of the river, while the Sujata lingered around Surabaya, around 200 miles to the south, ready to turn either east or west according to where the Mehanaz turned. Captain Lal had left the bridge to Srinivas and retired to his cabin. He couldn't tolerate the presence of Ramanathan on his bridge.

It was a long wait. The men in the boat cursed themselves. It is a pity there is nobody to alert them the start of the boat from the jetty. So, they must keep in position and watch. The boat didn't have a radar either, so all they could use was the pair of binoculars.

The wait came to an end finally. The gleaming Mehnaz came into view, with her Green and Red sides shining in the bright sun. The first spontaneous response was "Wow! isn't she beautiful" and the next was "Darn! she is fast!"

Hitting the open stretch of the sea, and finally free from the restrictions of the Barito channel, the Mehnaz put on speed, and majestically turned eastword. Setting course around the island of Java.

200 miles away, Sujata woke up from her sleep and set course ENE, to get in range to track the Mehnaz. Ramanathan, sitting on an uncomfortable chair in a corner of the bridge, didn't move an eyelid when the order for full ahead was given. He just sat there looking at infinity. Srinivas didn't know what to do with this guy after all.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Stopping a sailing vessel and searching it is not like the police pulling over a car and searching it on probable cause. There are international conventions under UN called United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to article 110 of the convention, a warship can stop a vessel only if there is suspicion of piracy, slave trade, illegal broadcasting, or if the ship is not flying any nationality flag. And if the suspicion is proved negative, the vessel must be compensated. Otherwise, a warship can stop a vessel of the same nationality. The USA has tried hard to add Weapons of Mass Destruction to the list, and an amendment is approved in 2007 that included carriage of WMD in the list.

The Mehnaz was flying yemeni flag. So, for INS Sujata to stop it, she would have to assert piracy or WMD charges. The problem is, no one, even the guys who actually intercept the correspondence, knows what is going to be on board the craft. All they knew was there is SOMETHING or SOMEONE that has interest of the exiled Pakistani leadership coalition, and those people did not exactly fit the definition of terrorists or pirates.

It was still not clear how they are going to board the craft. One idea was to risk it. What are they going to do? The government of yemen is in good terms with India. They wouldn't care about a silly boat. The future owner would not be in any of the paperwork of the boat, so he can't do anything publicly. So, it is percieved as a low risk issue. That was the general consensus on board. But what exactly he was going to do is known only by the reclusive Ramanathan.

Ramanathan didn't care a damn about the navy folk. In the business of Intelligence, this maverick operative is considered to be the top maritime ops expert in the region. The local agencies like Natarajan's didn't know where exactly he is placed in the structure. No one knew whom he reported to. He was his own office, and normally found at any of the port cities in the region, from Tuticorin to Osaka. You wouldn't be sure if he is really part of the organization, except he answered an e-mail id of domain rhstech.net, and your boss knew he is. He is called upon for any sea based ops by the landlubbers like Natarajan. He could get the job done, attitude notwithstanding.

The experience with Captain Lal was not new to Ramanathan. Most of the masters didn't think his tactics practical. But what they forget is that they are NOT fighting a war. In the end mostly they will end up doing what Ramanathan tells them to do.

INS Sujata was sailing full steam ENE in the Java sea, expecting to see the Mehnaz on her radar in around six hours. Of course she will have to visually verify her, because the shipborne transponder may not be available on board. Ramanathan listened with a sneer in the corner of his lips, and walked back to his cabin, leaving the bridge crew to assume he would be back by that time.

Ramanathan sure was planning to return to the bridge that time. Only thing he didn't expect to see the Mehnaz on the console there.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The Java sea is a tricky place. Either side of the sea is bound by the Indonesian islands of Java and Borneo, making the entire sea within Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone. An Indian warship has limitations in lingering around there. The questions by the Indonesian navy would become more and more uncomfortable. There was no way the Sujata could approach Banjarmasin without risking the Mehnaz dropping her plans. The only way to get something out of it was to let her sail into the high seas, where the only authority over a vessel would be its flag country.

Perhaps Faruq made a mistake by transferring the registry to the owners under Yemeni flag. If the Mehnaz was flying Indonesian flag, any warship would think thrice before messing with her anywhere in the area. You would wait her to pass at least the Andamans to be safely away from the Indonesian navy. The Yemeni flag makes Indonesia powerless beyond the 12 nm limit of its territorial waters.

Or perhaps, Faruq just saved his behind by transferring the responsibility. He might know what or who is being carried on board.

Starting from Banjarmasin, there are two possible paths for the Mehnaz. One is to turn west and go via the malacca straits. This is the shorter path. But the path is filled with heavy shipping traffic and also infested by pirates. If you are carrying any sensitive thing, this would be a lesser choice. The other one is to go around Bali into the Indian Ocean. This is a safer route. Once you leave the Indonesian area and turn west, there is a big playground to dodge a pursuer.

Once the look-outs reported the Mehnaz turning east, and confirmed the course by following her as far as they could, the crew of Sujata has assumed that she will take the standard WSW course and turn south to get past Bali. By the current course of Sujata, she will be within 10 nm of the Mehnaz in around five hours. Then the chetak can fly around and find her. After that Sujata will follow her into the Indian Ocean at a safe distance.

At least that was the plan made by Captain Lal. But when it was time, the Mehnaz was nowhere to be seen. The Chetak went around much farther than the expected area, but no indication of the Mehnaz was there.

Ramanathan kept his sneer ready to be flashed, waiting for the Captain to come out, apologize and ask his advice.

Srinivas Rao went back to the Captain's cabin, and announced the failure to find the Mehnaz. "Oh, and what did the Grumpy say"? the captain asked with a wink. "Nothing, as usual Sir". The captain took a step towards the map chart table, and bent over it, looking around the marked area. He drew some lines and finally said "OK. Set course ENE and start next search after fourty nm".

When the order was given at the bridge, Ramanathan made a puzzled look, but said nothing.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Almost a day was wasted by Sujata running around the Java sea, contributing to the search for a needle in haystack. Captain Madan Lal and his XO knew that they lost it, but they didn't want to admit defeat yet, at least in front of the arrogant "Grumpy", as they called Ramanathan. They didn't know what exactly is at stake, so there was an evident lack of seriousness. Ramanathan was very much concerned now, because time is running out. Finally he decided to swallow his pride and confront the Captain. Taking Srinivas Rao along, he knocked on the captain's room, and entered it when invited.

The tone was not apologetic, but Captain Lal understood that he will have to heed to the trained professional this time. "I know you hate these gizmos, captain, but I got to show you something". Ramanathan flipped his Laptop open and turned the swivel screen to the Captain. A grid map of the Java sea came to life on the screen. A red spot was visible at Banjarmasin and a green dot at northwest of Surabaya. A date/time counter shown the moment of departure of Mehnaz. "I guess I don't have to explain what you see captain. This simulator will plot the possible movements of the bogey and ourselves and provide a statistical envelope to look at". What he didn't say was that the original plan he presented to the captain was based on this analysis. He obviously didn't want to piss the captain off again.

The simulation started running. The spots moved, plotting lines on the screen. Dim curcles around the green dot plotted the search range over radar and for the chetak. The plots created a color density graded image that predicted where the Mehnaz could be as time progressed.

"Of course we assume the bogey is not maneuvering to evade us. That will complicate things a bit". Ramanathan said. After several minutes of running, the simulation ended, with the current position of Sujata marked, with something like a cloud of colors spread over the east end of Java sea as a probabilistic density plot for Mehnaz.

"Now, we got to assume that the bogey should converge to the Denpasar channel or the Lombok channel. Anything east would be risky because that area is no longer safe. Ramanathan made a few clicks and the cloud changed into a funnel shape, with two prongs pointing to gap between the Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa islands.The cloud looked denser to the bottom. "If the bogey kept going, it should be somewhere closer to the channel. If they took the max speed.." Another click and the cloud appeared to push through the gaps in the landmass. "Or if they slowed down". Another click and the funnel tip became blunt.

"We wouldn't be able to reach the area in time now". At top speed, this is what we would see." The cloud pushed through and dispersed out of the gaps. "So, I took the liberty to ask some favours from the Australians at East Timor to take a look around there. I would request you to consider moving closer so we would be prepared".

Captain Lal was in fact impressed by the show. Though he had an elemental distrust for the gadgets, he didn't want to contradict what appeared to be sound reasoning and screw up the mission. "XO, set course as Mr. Ramanathan says". And then like an afterthought, he nodded to Ramanathan and simply said. "Pretty impressive."

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The democratic Republic of East Timor is the newest country in the world. They were originally a colony of Portugal. In 1975, Indonesia invaded and occupied the island. Being majority catholic in contrast to the majority Islamic Indonesia, there was a big struggle for independence, and after years of bloodshed, a UN sponsored act of self determination, the country became independent. The democratic republic is established on May 20, 2002. East Timor had the distinction of the lowest per capita GDP of the world initially, but with help from UN, efforts of reconstruction were undergone and the situation improved a lot thereafter.

East Timor did not have established maritime boundaries. Efforts were made to negotiate territorial waters and exclusive economy zones with the neighbouring Indonesia and Australia. While Australia was very supportive of the Timorese from the beginning and the demark lines were finalized sooner than Indonesia. The dispute with Indonesia did continue till now, with minimal concessions on passage from the capital and port of Dili into the Indian ocean. Even that was at risk of Indonesian aggression.

Australia had commercial interest in East Timor from the beginning, and the security of the port of Dili and the waterways became of the interest. After the shift in Indonesian attitude, it became clearer that the Australian interests in Timor are in peril. That prompted australia to establish a division of their Volunteer Coast Guard based at Dili. Though officially it was only there to help the Timorese to establish their own coast guard, and also part of the all volunteer coast guard of Australia, everyone knew that the facility is in fact run by the australian Navy. The air arm of the detachment operated from the airport of Dili. Thy had to fly south over to the southern side of the country as there was no air corridor agreement with Indonesia.

Ramanathan had friends at this detachment. He was deputed by the Indian authorities to help the Australians in the covert operations in and around Dili. During the course, he had acumulated goodwill and favour credits with the Australians, so when it was time to get a favour in return, the Australians were glad to oblige. After all, they ran an independent show. The Timorese government had not much control on them, and the Aussies didn't care much about the daily ops. So, they gassed up their Cessna 210, and was in the air in no time. They had to fly south over the Island to reach the southern coast and then turn west, keeping just outside of Indonesian terriroty, and undet FL10 to avoid un necessary quabble by the Indonesian ARTC. A VFR flightplan was filed for arrival at Denpasar. They will have around three hours loiter time around there before they will have to land, re-fuel and return.

And they had all the info they could possibly get to identify the Mehnaz now. And they were experts in what they did.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Soon after the Cessna took off from Dili airport, the status and ETA at the Bali area were relayed to Ramanathan on board the Sujata over Satellite phone. The information was updated in the simulator program and it predicted that the Mehnaz on full steam will be around 100nm beyond Denpasar. At minimum, she would be just entering the channel. That information went back to the Cessna, so that they knew where to look.

Sujata steamed full ahead WBS aiming at the channel between Bali and Lombok Islands. This was a dangerous territory, plied mainly by fishing traffic. Only Indonesian ferries and freighters going to Denpasar from Surabaya and Banjarmasin traversed those waters. It lies within the terrirotial waters of Indonesia, so INS Sujata needed permission from the Indonesians for what is called "innocent passage". Though their mission was hardly innocent, such requests were never turned down. However, the Indonesian navy "offered" escort by one of their patrol vessels, and also the harbour patrol of Denpasar would make a "friendly visit" on board. The pretext was the Balinese "terrorists" presence, which was equally absurd as the "calling on the Australians" pretext offered by Sujata. However, according to maritime conventions, neither request could be denied, so, the show had to go on.

Surprisingly, the Cessna didn't find it too difficult to spot the Mehnaz. She was found sailing at 70nm SSW. They took some nice aerial photos of the boat before turning north for Denpasar. They decided to use the internet facility at the International terminal to send off the pictures to Ramanathan. He would be able to get download it when Sujata comes closer to land to hook up to the Cell network at Denpasar. The Satellite terminal on board did not have broadband facility beyond the satellite footprint that ended somewhere around Jakarta.

It took around six more hours for Sujata to pass Denpasar. That would be almost twilight. So, the Cessna crew decided to laze around the beautiful city of Denpasar and take another flight before they left back, to make sure that the Mehnaz is on the same cource. They are in the Indian Ocean now, so there was no need to change course, unless they suspect anything. They guessed if they did a sweeping turn, they woudl be able to check her out and still reach back Dili.

At around 5:30pm, they took off from Denpasar and set a VFR course southeast. After around 45 minutes, they took a slow sweep southword, and sure enough, the MEhnaz was spotted on the set course. That would give Sujata enough confidence to sail in the night and catch up with her towards dawn. The exact bearing of the Mehnaz was calculated, but they will have to wait till they get back to Dili to communicate with Sujata. That would be OK, since it would take hardly four hours to reach home.

At around 9:00pm, Ramanathan got a call over the cell network. His friends in Dili gave him the final piece of information needed to find the Mehnaz the next morning.

Now, what to do after finding her, was a big question.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Asked Captain Lal, with the attempt to contain his excitement barely successful. Ramanathan simply smiled, and continued to tie down the outboard motor onto the inflatable lifeboat. It was a Sea Eagle SRS-10 auto-inflator, normally used on board sailing ships as a life boat. It could carry four people easily, and can survive 15 feet waves. The normal equipment is a pair of carbon fiber oars, but it has hookup points for an outboard motor. A Honda 8HP outboard was the perfect fit for that boat. A flexo gas tank was already hooked up on the outside for extended range service. Ramanathan tied the gas tank to the motor using several feet of nylon rope. He also attached a plastic box that looked like a toolkit to the rope and threw it into the boat. Another box, ornage in color, was lying around that is a standard emergency kit. That contained an emergency radio set, some medications and water.

There was also a bundle of old wood planks with broken jagged edges. this was also tied up to the boat.

Finally, Ramanathan tied the lifeline rope onto himself and prepared to disembark. The Sujata was cruising at an idly 3 knots, just about 15 nm away and ahead of from Mehnaz. Earlier the Chetak had taken a look around to make sure that the Mehnaz is on the same course. It had also made sure that there are no vessels around in the vicinity. Ramanathan turned and walked to the railing on the deck. A Sailor helped to hook up the boat to the winch.

"Good luck, Mr. Ramanathan" Captain Lal said. Ramanathan gave a rare smile and thanked him. The captain nodded to the boatswain's mate who manned the winch, and the winch slowly lowered the boat and the man down, sliding around over the railing and the launch ramp. Once it hit water, Ramanathan untied the lifeline, waved to the Captain on the deck, drifted away. He then started his tiny engine and steered off onto the open ocean.

<==>

"Mayday... Mayday.. Mayday.." squeaked the speaker on the comm console. Captain Lal and Lt. Cmdr Srinivas Rao was standing behind the signalman who sat on the console. The Captain smiled and watched on.

Several seconds passed, and there was no response on the Channel 16 distress channel of the VHF set.

The distress call repeated. Still no response was heard. Then after another brief duration, it repeated the third time. Now the voice also added a plea "we are sinking, please respond".

The captain nodded to the signalman and he keyed the mic and said "This is INS Sujata. What is your stat? OVer"

"This is MV Anack Agoong. We had an explosion on board and we are sinking. I am on a life boat. OVer" Said the panicky voice on radio.

"MV Anack Agoong, do you know your position? OVer"

"Position one three sierra one six and one zero niner echo three zero over"

"MV Anack Agoong, we are ETA four zero minutes away. What is your stat? Over"

"Negative. My lifeboat is leaking. Ten minutes tops OVer"

"MV Anack Agoong, Hold on, let us see if anyone else is closer."

"Calling all vessels, calling all vessels. Vessel in distress. Are you close to Position one three sierra one six and one zero niner echo three zero? OVer"

A pause of a few seconds, but no answer. The call is repeated one more time.

"Come on you ********, this is a distress call for cripes sakes!" Gnarled Srinivas.

Then the radio came alive with background engine noise. A voice with heavy arabic accent came online.

"This is MV Mehnaz. We are fifteen minutes away, but we are outbound. OVer"

The captain broke into a broad smile. Srinivas threw a fist in the air and said "YeSSS."

"MV Mehnaz, this is INS Sujata. Could you respond to the emergency please? We will join and pick up the lot ASAP. OVer"

"This is Mehnaz. We are on our way over."

"MV Anack Agoong, did you copy? Over"

"Roger that. MV Mehnaz on the way. Thank you very much for the help. Over"

And Sujata continued her lazy stroll. After all, she have 40 odd minutes to reach the location she could in a quarter of that.


To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack
Ramanathan watched the green spot in the horizon. He put down the oars and drew his knife from the sheath. Leaning over the edge, he slashed open the flexi fuel tank that floated beside the boat. fuel spilled out and spread with amazing speed. He then threw out the big undle of planks and slashed the rope that tied them together. with a push with the oar, the planks started floating around. He then proceeded to slash open a big trash bag and dumped the contents into the water. Finally, he removed the outboard motor, tied the things that did not belong to a boat wreck scene and threw it overboard. It readily sank down. with the oil slick and planks floating around, it made a passable resemblance of a boat wreck site. However, you could call the fake if you looked hard enough. Ramanathan hoped the crew of Mehnaz wouldn't care to do that.

After several minus the Mehnaz came closer. Ramanathan rowed frantically towards her, and caught hold of the lifeline. LEaving everything back on the boat, passed the lop on the lifeline around his chest and spread his arms. The crew of the Mehnaz started hauling him up. Once over the railing, he collapsed unconscious. the crew inspected him, and was a little bit surpirsed to see him uninjured.

Ramanathan came around in a few minutes and saw that the crew, consisting up of a few Arabs, a pakistani and a couple of Indonesians, watching him. He looked around, taking in the details.

The Mehnaz was a Bakhla class vessel with one deck. The body of the boat is made of wood planks stiched together with ropes. The gaps are sealed using fibers dipped in bitumen. Ahmed Faruq has implemented improvements in building them. He started using synthetic resins as sealant and kevlar ropes for binding. Below the deck, there was an enormous hold that occupied the area beyond the engine room. the hold can be configured into cabins or can be used as cargo hold. Above deck there was a two floor superstructure that contained living quarters for the captain and crew as well as the bridge. The single mast went up from midship. It was rigged sloop style, with two conical sails, rigged aft and forward. The bow curved upward and the stern was square, flush with the superstructure. The sail rigging had power drive, so that it can be changed from the bridge. This reduced the number of crew needed to run the ship.

Ramanathan was very impressed about the boat. He had been aboard all kinds of ships, from supertankers to aircraft cariers, to small fishing boats. But his experience with Bakhlas were limited. He looked around with interest. The man who looked to be in-charge barked an order to the crewmen and they dispersed at once. He was an arab who looked like in his fourties. He then turned to Ramanathan and said in heavily accented english "Waath haappenedh?". Ramanathan had his story ready. How MV Anack Agoong, of Denpasar, Bali, was on a ferry trip to Christmas Island, and how they had engine trouble, and how the engine blew up and injured the crew and how he was the only likely survivor, and how the anack Agoong sank, and how he grabbed the lifeboat and emergency radio and escaped etc. It was a good story, and the captain swallowed it readily. Ramanathan was invited inside while they waited for INS Sujata came over to pick him up. Captain Al Thameem looked somewhat grumpy, but typical to the Arab culture, had to show hospitality. Ramanathan also noted that the Pakistani crewman having some influence on the Captain. While the captain barked orders to the other crewmen, the Pakistani didn't have anything much to do, and the Captain spoke somewhat respectfully to him. Obviously he was a representative of the owners.

Ramanathan's casual questions about the ship and its destination was met with sidesteps, and he knew better than to push it. He was informed that Sujata was on the way, and as they are going around Denpasar, he will be transferred to Indonesian coast guard there. Ramanthan faked rejoice and went back to his tea that was offered to him. The Pakistani sat around and scowled at him.

In half an hour, the profile of INS Sujata was visible in the horizon. The crew of Mehnaz was glad to get rid of the uninvited guest

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

Captain Al Thameem of the Mehnaz was mildly surprised to see the rescue party being disembarked from INS Sujata. Instead of a couple of sailors, the infla-boat carried more than eight sailors, and by the look of them, they were not medicos either. He reluctantly ordered to lower the ladder and one by one the Indians came overboard. The leader of the group came forward, shook hands with Al Thameem and introduced himself as Lt. Shah. The Pakistani pushed himself forward, but Shah ignored him. The Captain pointed to Ramanathan. Shah nodded. "Thanks for the help Captain, but we would like another favour from you please". "Whaath that wouldh bee"? asked Al Thameem. "We need your permission to take a look around your nice ship".

Al Thameem was really dumbfounded by this direct approach. He didn't know what to say for a moment. Then drawing him up together, he asked "On what authority, if I may ask?". "No authority, Captain, we simply would be glad to accept your invitation to take a look around your nice ship. That is all"

"What if we don't "invite" you?"

"Well, I don't think you would be foolish enough to be that rude Captain". The Captain suddenly realized that during their conversation, the Indians spread over the deck, and one of them could be seen in the bridge that was left unmanned.

"This is a violation of international laws. I don't think you can get away with this" Said the Pakistani.

"Not if the Captain "invites" us"

"The Captain will not!"

"How are you so sure?"

"I represent the owners of this ship, and I say you can't search this ship. We will go to the internationa court if needed. We will make a diplomatic incident. You will be sorry!" The Pakistani panted with excitment.

"Come to think of it.." Shah looked around and noted with satisfaction that his sailors have now taken position around the deck. "I would think that the ship of that guy was a pirate ship that we sunk, and you just gave him a getaway. And maybe he is going to fight us, and there is a possibility we might end up in a firefight."

But, of course you wouldn't want that to happen on board right?"

He let his words sink in for a few seconds.

"What do you say Captain?"

Al Thameem looked around. Now a couple of the sailors had the fearsome Tavors in their hands. That was enough to drive anyone to terms.

"OK, you got your way."

"Thank you very much for the invitation, Captain. We accept it with pleasure. No, we wouldn't trouble any of your crew to escort us, thanks."

While the gun totting sailors took a leisurely guard over the men on deck, the rest spread around the ship. Ramanathan joined them, while Lt. Shah strolled around the deck, taking in the beauty of the brand new Bakhla.

He noticed that the Anchor, now pulled up into its cage, looked too big for this ship and is oddly shaped. He didn't think much of it. Neither did Ramanathan, which was surprising.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack
The IP Phone conference went into hours. Connected over the Internet using a security entryption system, it allowed users of the inconspicuous rhstech.net domain to hook up into the internet from anywhere in the world and establish a level 4 secure communication channel. Things were not working out properly for Sanjeev, Anil and Natarajan. Now they got to scramble and decide what to do. Natarajan had a guest with him. Ramanathan was at his best in grumpyness. His ego is bruised by the complete failure of the mission of searching the Mehnaz.

Though himself and the navymen from INS Sujata have searched The Mehnaz thouroughly, they couldn't find anything suspicious with it. She was configured for cargo in her hold, and it was empty, except some concrete and brick blocks for ballast. A handheld echogram didn't show anything unusual with them. The scanner was the standard issue device for Singapore customs to scan boxes. They didn't have better equipment like the scatter X-Ray or radiation counters at hand. Ramanathan didn't feel good about the concrete blocks, because they didn't look exactly like the ballast used in Bakhlas. They were too big. But there was no evidence to suspect them. Finally, they had to thank the Captain of The Mehnaz and leave. The only good thing is that apparently they did not complain about the infraction, at least, as yet.

Anil Nambiar was positive that The Mehnaz is an important part. Muhammad Ali is feeding him daily reports about the chatter at the harbour. It could not be written off as excitement of receiving a new boat. She has already completed four of the thirteen day voyage already. Anil didn't like leaving her out of signt, but the Navy wouldn't deploy their Bears based on the hunches of a middle level intelligence officer. Not that he didn't try! Hell, he even pleaded for the Sujata to do some shadowing, at least till she goes around Andamans. But Rear Admiral Sudhir wouldn't hear none of it. They had commitments with the joint patrol, and that must be honoured.

Sanjeev Gupta indicated that there was no contact to Ahmed Faruq from the Good General after the sail of the Mehnaz. Looking at the chatter pattern, it was evident that the sail of The Mehnaz was an important event. Right after that, several messages had gone from the general to various places, some of them known CIA locations. Sanjeev also got a voice mail from "The Ascetic" which quoted Sherlock Holmes."Watson! The game is afoot". That was good enough proof for both him and Anil to convince them.

They had tried to get a flight from Car Nicobar to go around to take a look. The airforce liaison guy laughed on Natarajan's suggestion. Ramanathan even tried to get a favour from the Aussies again, but they didn't have the equipment to reach the area.

So, right now, The Mehnaz is having a free run in the Indian Ocean. The discussion right now was on what to do when she approaches closer to the Indian mainland.

To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack
The change in Pakistani politics have naturally affected the Pakistani interests in India too. It is well known that ISI operate a vast underground network of operatives in India. It is more than a traditional spy network. Apart from the regular intelligence duties, ISI also actively pursues disruptive actions, including communal rift, sabotage and terrorism. The Indian authorities very well know about this. The intelligence field is always like that. you can't eliminate the enemies operations. You can only defend and contain it. So, India had to support its own vast network of counter ops within the country, just to fend off the ISI operations. This cat and mouse game had been continuing for a very long time.

When Gen Yusuf took power in Pakistan, the ISI stood with him. In fact the converse is true. A general wouldn't be able to make a coup without active support of ISI. Yusuf, having been the boss of the organization had a lot of loyal following in the ranks. So, the ISI was too glad to let Gen Musharraf go and get Gen. Yusuf take the seat. The ISI operations in India did not get affected. They were still attached to the same chain of command. Nothing changed in terms of the rule of the game.

But that created a problem for Anil Nambiar in the present. His organization had been doing a good job of following the ISI operatives very closely for a long time. It worked very well that the field operatives could very easily co-relate two ends of a chatter and take action. but that worked only for ISI. Anil had no idea what standing the Nawaz empire had in India. He knew about a trade route to Karwar that he busted a couple of years ago that very positively linked to the empire. The problem is, they were focussing on the merchandise, not the company that did the traffic. It was very difficult to identify the Nawaz empire from the available data.

After certain terror attacks in India were traced to explosives smuggled by sea over non conventional routes, India had established a very strong network of operatives at the west cost. This resulted in drastic reduction is the threat, and also in the smuggling of drugs. Stuff still got through, but there was a good amount of control. Posts were established from Vizhinjam in the Southernmost tip to the cost of Gujarat, mostly among fishing communities and also among the harbours. They knew the ISI very well.

Anil had been in touch with the costal operatives ever since he tagged Nawaz empire. But no progress was made. However, these constant followups kept the operatives on a sharper lookout

As luck would have it, he got a call from Sainuddin, the policeman from Beypore.
To be Continued

[aditp]

Spy Story: Needle in a HayStack

The Karippur airport of Kozhikode is situated in fact in the neighbouring district of Malappuram. It became the second international airport in Kerala after Trivandrum, with services to the Gulf. That time the major city of Cochin was still a small airport operating in a civil enclave of the naval station. Even after the brand new greenfield airport at Nedumbassery came into being for Cochin, the importance of Karippur did not fade. Instead, it also was expanded and developed into a full fledged international airport.

The airport was the primary means for the Gulf bound passengers of north Kerala. Kozhikode had trade links with the Arabs for millenia. They had almost exclusive trading rights with the kingdom of the Samuthiri, till the portugese came in early 1500s. As the arabs embraced Islam, its effect came also to Kozhikode, and a population of converted local muslims came into being through a non violent way. It was one of the rare occurence of the Islam spreading not through the sword, but through the "Dinars". Slowly, Islam majority areas came into being in and around the city. Typical to the Kerala culture, the muslims lived peacefully among the mainly hindu majority.

As centuried went by, Tipu Sultan conquered north Kerala and aquired soverignity over the lands. This caused a huge population of hindu landowners to flee the area to the south. The ensuing rule of Tipu resulted in the muslims becoming majority in several areas. After defeat of Tipu by the british, north Kerala, of which Kozhikode was the capital, became part of british india.

Upon independence of India, Pakistan had made claims for the muslim majority areas around Kozhikode. But it made no real impact in the muslim population. Pakistan also tried to incide a movement for an independent country by name "Mappilasthan" for that area, but that too didn't get much traction. Of course, the region was part of british india, so it automatically became part of the new dominion of india upon independence. A miniscule number of people did choose to migrate to Pakistan, but most came back within the six month grace period. There are still some families in Karachi who originally migrated to Pakistan.

Pakistan, however, did not sit idle. They had always tried to create problems in that area. ISI activity in the state of Kerala had been focussing in the area for a long time. They did have some sucess in this regard. This made a requirement that the indian counter intelligence also had to focus in the area. So, the biggest operational unit was in Kozhikode, with branch ops at various satellite areas like Ponnani, Manjeri, Beypore, Malappuram etc. The strength of the force in that area was more than the total strength in the rest of Kerala.

Muhammad Faizal was an LIC agent with a small office at Palayam. He also ran the newspaper agency at a couple of places. He was surprised to get a visit from the young man who introduced himself as Sainuddin, the police constable from Beypore station. The surprise became bewilderment when Sainuddin said he was sent there by Anil Nambiar from Dubai.

To be Continued