Intelligence & National Security Discussion

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 30 Apr 2010 08:39

arun wrote: I must say I am very surprised that the fact that Madhuri Gupta was a Muslim convert has been allowed to be leaked out. Not something that I would have expected from a Congress party dominated Government.

Boss, IB circles might have kept it a secret. Its quite likely that her facebook profile was leaked out or some inquisitive folk might have figured out. Telegraph refused to even describe that connection, so in all likelihood they had "orders" from IB/RAW not to broach that avenue. But if that is the case, why did they have to describe her email id (email provider info was not provided though)? They also described her likes and dislikes, its anyone's guess to hunt her fellow connections from facebook. It does nt take a logical leap when partial info is provided to hunt for details in this info-dominated world (esp when giggle chacha is at everyone's beck and call).

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 30 Apr 2010 08:45

^^^^^^

Precisely. Such identities which are integral tools to understand the otherside should have been kept under wraps.
This whole episode may affect other people as well who are on the same boat.

In the mean time, "The Spy who drove 600 km ...."
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100430/j ... 397494.jsp

Now the investigators will probe all possible contacts, some of which will lead to dead ends - deliberate
ploy to confuse them.

sum · Post by **sum** » 30 Apr 2010 08:49

“There is no remorse for betraying the country. She believes she has done nothing wrong, may be as she is a recent convert to Sufi philosophy, which does not respect artificial borders,’’ the official explained.

Wow, massive damage will be done to the reputation/trust-worthiness( in the eyes of their peers) of even upright/patriotic IM officers in various cadres if she utters statements like these .

sumeet_s · Post by **sumeet_s** » 30 Apr 2010 15:56

Madhuri Gupta is upright, decent, say friends

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_ma ... ds_1377164

Friends recall Gupta as an “upright and decent” officer who is suffering from diabetes. “What I am hearing in the media is shocking, as I know Madhu. She is not driven by this (greed). I sincerely feel that there is some confusion as she is not that type of person who will do anything anti-national. She will not do it, and I repeat, not at all,” Lata said.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 30 Apr 2010 19:01

Madhuri Houri "upright and decent".So too by this description were Philby,Burgess,Blunt and McLean.How perverse can one get to describe her as such? A traitor to one's country cannot ever be called "upright" by any stretch of the imagination."Decent" in her case too is the opposite of her behaviour.In the case of the Cambridge 4/5 or even more as suspected,ideology was the glue that held them together (apart from gay tendencies).In those early days of the 20th century,the Russian Revolution and communism/socialism attracted many intellectuals in the west especially those fed up with the indgnities of the clas ssystem and unbridled capitalism.In the case of India's houri,there seems to be no such "purity" of motive.She was a rank scorpion that bit the hand that fed her.Her alleged grouses aaginst her superiors real or imagined,were most probably the result of her inferiority complex and inverted egoistical behaviour.Being single brought with it the weakness of being "easy meat" for any experienced seducer.Spooks are trained to discover such chinks in the armour of diplo-staffers and seduce them as she has obviously been too! During the Cold War,bored secretaries were sought out in the diplomatic missions worldwide.From her alleged behaviour and treason,she has displayed a rank amoral mentality.Sexual adventurism and promiscuity are killer characteristics that can be exploited to turn a potential victim.In other cases greed rules.In her case too,there is th hint of large sums of money having been passed onto her.Like "love and marriage",'sex and greed" often go together!

The dismissal of her as having not had access to classified information and therefore her treason not that important by conjecture,is scandalous.Some of the most important traitors worldwide have been the lowly relatively insignificant staffers,with chips on their shoulders and an itch in nether regions! Because they are considered lower rankers and perhaps treated with some contempt,their capacity for duplicity and treason is magnified.As I said before,just "being there",in a foreign mission is an oppportunity beyond imagination to acquire classified information if one is streetwise smart.In Mad-houri's case,she walked many a street in Pak canoodling with her handlers and as I stated earlier and one paper has sugggested, did bug the Indian mission doing untold and perhaps still undiscovered damage to our nation's security.

In order that we deter future traitors, and we seem to have had quite a list of them in recent times,the GOI/parliament should immediately pass with retrospective effect the death sentence for treason.If for any reason a presidential pardon can be obtained for a guilty party,it should be reduced to life with no release whatsoever.A public execution could further drive home the fear of such a reward for would-be traitors.As Israel does,the GOI should also pusue any traitor/defector who has fled the country.We should find them and then secretly extradite them (as was done with Eichman and other Nazi war criminals) or destroy them depending upon their perfidy.If we continue to just sweep the dirt under the mountain ranges of of files and redtape in babudom,the country will one day be compromised to such an extent that in a future conflict the difference between victory and defeat will depend upon the activities of spies and double agents like

rajkumar · Post by **rajkumar** » 30 Apr 2010 19:20

Philip wrote:Madhuri Houri "upright and decent"...........will depend upon the activities of spies and double agents like

About 15 years ago I adviced a very well known Indian MNC about security aspect relating to IT systems and my simple advice to them was that rather then spending what was huge amounts in those days on bio metric scanners etc. they should watch the secretary to the MD much more closely because I could get all the info that I wanted by simply spending Rs 20,000 per month on the MD's secretary because the 20K would have been a 400% rise in salary for the person concerned.

VinodTK · Post by **VinodTK** » 01 May 2010 22:21

Policy makers need to look at China's track record: Brahma Chellaney

Drawing attention to China's track records, Dr. Brahma Chellaney noted that People's Republic of China began its international debut through wars even when it was weak and poor in 40s and 50s.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 02 May 2010 12:01

MUrkier and murkier,the Mad-Houri story gets even messier!

http://news.in.msn.com/internalsecurity ... 324&page=2

Madhuri visited Jammu in March, picked up packet for Pak handlers
Excerpt:

New Delhi: Arrested diplomat Madhuri Gupta’s story has turned murkier with emerging details indicating that India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), was kept in the dark about the mole in the High Commission in Islamabad.

In another development, Gupta has revealed to interrogators that she picked up a packet for her handlers in Pakistan during a trip to J&K in the last week of March.

Top government sources told The Sunday Express that the Gupta episode has raised questions on the functioning of R&AW, as her boss R K Sharma, Counselor (Press) and agent under official cover, had no clue about the mole operating in his own department since 2008. Sharma was called back to Delhi after his cover was blown following Gupta's arrest.

The spy scandal has come as an embarrassment to the R&AW. The Intelligence Bureau's counter-intelligence wing chose to play its cards very close to its chest, and only informed R&AW after Gupta had been taken into custody and interrogated on her Pakistani links. This was done to ascertain whether Sharma or any other person in the Indian mission was actually in cahoots with Gupta.

sum · Post by **sum** » 02 May 2010 12:08

With so many reports flowing left and right, take this FWIW:
Madhuri visited Jammu in March, picked up packet for Pak handlers

Arrested diplomat Madhuri Gupta’s story has turned murkier with emerging details indicating that India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), was kept in the dark about the mole in the High Commission in Islamabad.

In another development, Gupta has revealed to interrogators that she picked up a packet for her handlers in Pakistan during a trip to J&K in the last week of March.

Top government sources told The Sunday Express that the Gupta episode has raised questions on the functioning of R&AW, as her boss R K Sharma, Counselor (Press) and agent under official cover, had no clue about the mole operating in his own department since 2008. Sharma was called back to Delhi after his cover was blown following Gupta’s arrest.

While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has tried to make light of the entire episode by saying that Gupta had no access to highly sensitive information, the matter definitely has serious connotations as even the R&AW chief, K C Verma, much to his chagrin, was informed by the IB wing after Gupta was arrested on April 22 and interrogated for four days.

Gupta has reportedly told her interrogators that she was fond of John Le Carre’s spy thrillers and whatever she collected in her capacity as Urdu translator during bilateral meetings at the mission, or the buzz within, were communicated to her Pakistani handlers through open, and not coded, e-mails.

The spy scandal has come as an embarrassment to the R&AW. The Intelligence Bureau’s counter-intelligence wing chose to play its cards very close to its chest, and only informed R&AW after Gupta had been taken into custody and interrogated on her Pakistani links. {Matches with the TIME report}This was done to ascertain whether Sharma or any other person in the Indian mission was actually in cahoots with Gupta.

Three points here:

1. RAW indeed does have a presence in the embassy and is in direct contradiction to what GP etc were saying about no RAW presence in Isloo

2. Goddamn DDM seems to have blown the RAW officer's cover

3. Since IB led the operation by itself, safe to assume that only MHA was in the loop( not the PMO) and seems to validate my theory of MHA releasing the news when PM was in Thimpu to thwart a SeS at Thimpu ( which they eventually couldn't as MMS went ahead and hugged Gilani)

Another point i don't buy is her not having access to vital info. If only being in official position meant having access to "good info", half of BRF and its chaiwallah network wouldn't exist. Im certain that being physically present in the embassy itself would have made her privy to many, many secrets ( divulged during usual informal chit-chat etc)

Sen_K · Post by **Sen_K** » 02 May 2010 12:56

Terror threat to Delhi an attempt to derail 2010 Games?

A day after the US and Australia issued more warnings of 'imminent' terror attacks in India, and Delhi in particular, sources have told NDTV that these threats are aimed at preventing Commonwealth Games from being held in Delhi.
There's credible intelligence that at least three terror modules have been asked to trigger attacks in Delhi.
Sources say terrorists are planning to target Commonwealth Games infrastructure, participants and organisers ahead of the Games.
Sources also add that the terrorists have come in from Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan through Jammu & Kashmir.

Meanwhile, there are reports of websites of sports bodies in UK, Canada and Australia being flooded with threat messages asking them not to participate in Commonwealth Games. Sources say these threat emails have been traced to servers in Pakistan.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 02 May 2010 13:15

^^^^
Kasab's verdict is tomorrow. That cant be ruled out as a motivation.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 02 May 2010 16:29

The spy who spooked India

sum · Post by **sum** » 02 May 2010 18:13

X-post :

sum wrote:More info on the arrest:
Bangladesh hands over NDFB chief to India

Guwahati, May 01: Bangladesh authorities Saturday handed over Ranjan Daimary, chief of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), to India where he is wanted for ordering bomb attacks, officials said.

He is the fifth top separatist leader to be evicted out of Bangladesh in the past four months.

An Indian official said Daimary, along with at least two other NDFB militants, were handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) at a border post in Dawki in Meghalaya early Saturday.

The BSF then handed him over to the Assam Police.

Daimary and the two other NDFB militants have since arrived in Guwahati and were being interrogated by senior Assam Police intelligence officials at a safe house in the city.

According to police sources, the NDFB leader was arrested April 17 in Jinaighati town in Sherpur district of Bangladesh and held in custody before being handed over to Indian authorities Saturday.

'He is a big catch no doubt,' the official said requesting anonymity. The Assam government has, however, refused to confirm Daimary's arrest.

The arrest was made following a tip-off about Daimary's presence in Jinaighati by the Indian military intelligence to the Detective Branch of the Bangladesh police in early April.

Sources said Indian military intelligence officials gave specific information about Daimary's son who is a student at a school in Dhaka. It is through him and subsequent telephone intercepts between the NDFB chairman and his wife that led to the arrest.

Formed in 1986, the NDFB is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo tribes people in Assam.

The NDFB was blamed for the Oct 30, 2008 serials explosions in Assam that killed about 100 people and wounded up to 800 more.

Earlier, the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina handed over four top leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to India - chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, and finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika.

All the top four ULFA leaders are now in Guwahati jail.

'We are committed to fighting terror,' Mohammed Zamir, political advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told IANS over telephone from Dhaka. But he too refused to deny or confirm Daimary's arrest.
Good work once again by the RAW( or NTRO??) SIGINT team and MI.

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 02 May 2010 19:13

^^^^^^^
Initially the lady was recruited for getting inside info from the HC. But later she was used more often to
ship sensitive info about army and equipments movements along the LoC using her diplomatic cover.
Not sure whether this was because she wasn't getting valuable info, or she was collecting only garbage,
but Pakis were not ready to let her go, and hence switched the handling of her.

sum · Post by **sum** » 02 May 2010 21:58

Initially the lady was recruited for getting inside info from the HC. But later she was used more often to
ship sensitive info about army and equipments movements along the LoC using her diplomatic cover

Have the Pakis run out of spotters/HUMINT in the J&K region that they have to get a Indian serving in Pak to do that?

Was under the impression that there are ton loads of Paki spotters all over Desh and they need not struggle to get info on our formations etc!!

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 02 May 2010 23:08

^^^^^^
How do youknow that she didn't volunteer to provide this service under diplomatic cover to keep the
money flowing and ...........

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 03 May 2010 07:19

sum wrote:Have the Pakis run out of spotters/HUMINT in the J&K region that they have to get a Indian serving in Pak to do that?

Was under the impression that there are ton loads of Paki spotters all over Desh and they need not struggle to get info on our formations etc!!

For most Intel agencies, standard SOP is to have a second source to confirm/cross-check stuff. That way they can tell how reliable a source is and also if a source has been turned or not.

sum · Post by **sum** » 03 May 2010 11:43

More info on the saga. The amount of leaks is astounding:
How Pak warmed its way to ‘spy’ who felt out in cold

narmad · Post by **narmad** » 03 May 2010 12:03

The tragedy of our subcontinent is not that we sell ourselves, but that we sell ourselves cheaply.

The fact is that Madhuri Gupta sold out her country, and no matter what the price was, she sold out cheap.
Spying is an ancient craft, practiced even between states that are supposedly friendly. For ‘arch enemies', as India and Pakistan are often described, it’s a fact of life. The fact that it can be done cheaply is a bonus.

“First woman diplomat to be held for spying,” screamed our anchors and headlines as the news broke and then overshadowed the IPL slugfest which had been dominating that slot till then.
But the flurry of reports, all tagged ‘Exclusive!’, must have made the Pakistanis wonder whether they really needed spies after all.
Apart from identifying and naming a senior diplomat posted at the High Commission in Islamabad as a “RAW station head”, the reports randomly speculated on the kind of things she could have done to compromise Indian security.
Though the revelations were attributed to unnamed government officials, some reports narrowed it down to sources in the home ministry.
So, perhaps in the hope of scoring brownie points over their colleagues in the Ministry of External Affairs, or, scary thought, perhaps even without being aware of the possible repercussions, some clowns in the Home Ministry have been briefing journalists, and thus Pakistan, about every little song that our arrested spy is singing. How she had identified someone called 'Rana' as her handler in Pakistan, how she would pass on documents and data to him and other contacts, the works.

And let us not forget that by blowing his cover, they jeopardised the life and career of the RAW officer in Islamabad.
Obviously, it never occurred to these 'sources' that the first thing one does in such cases is to stay quiet, and watch the other party sweat. If we had just done that, instead of turning it into a media circus, Pakistan would have been left wondering about the extent of information that India had extracted from her.

In an article aptly titled The She-mole’s case: Making an ass of ourselves, former senior RAW official and strategic analyst B Raman points out:

"After the serial blasts in Mumbai in March 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US secretly sent a team of its explosive experts to Mumbai to help the investigators of the Mumbai Police. They were put up in a Mumbai hotel under a non-official cover. The leader of the team was surprised to receive a phone call from a journalist of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) then posted in New Delhi, who was aware of their FBI identity. Enquiries revealed that a senior officer of the Mumbai Police had told the journalist about their FBI identity and revealed to him the name of the hotel where they were staying. There was a strong protest from the FBI over the indiscretion of the Mumbai Police officer.”

So, not only do we sell ourselves, we also sell others cheap.

Perhaps expecting our bureaucrats to think before they exploit an opportunity to cut their colleagues to size is naive.

veejey · Post by **veejey** » 03 May 2010 12:43

As a true Nationalist I have been keenly following events after 26/11. It is clear from the approach that the Pakistanis have taken that there is no way that they are going to handover 9-10 Pakistanis that are being tried under Pakistani Court and handing over of Hafiz Saeed and other masterminds is just going to be a day dream.

India is trying its best to make Pakistan fall in line but all our efforts are going in vain. In such a scenario we must secretly strike at such people and eliminate them - just like what Israelis did after Munich Massacre - everyone knew who killed the perpetrators but no one could prove anything. This will be the best revenge and only such action can give peace to the souls of victims.

My question is do we have such covert offensive capabilities and if yes, then why we are not doing it and if no, then why are we not exploring such an option.

p.s. If such an issue is being discussed somewhere else, I request the moderators to move this post there. Thanks.

sunny y · Post by **sunny y** » 03 May 2010 13:00

Lashkar made three attempts to kill Kasab: IB

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/may/ ... sab-ib.htm

Two of the intercepts picked up discussed a plot to kill the lone arrested terrorist Ajmal Kasab, while the other was a plot to set off a blast near the court area where the trial is being conducted.

The first attempt to kill Kasab was made four months after his arrest, when the Lashkar had decided to use the services of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's gang, the IB sources said.

After this operation failed, the Lashkar made another attempt to kill Kasab using one of its own operatives. The outfit planned to carry out a suicide attack on the court premises with a heavy load of RDX to cause maximum damage.

However, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had reportedly advised the LeT to withdraw this plan due to the immense international pressure that built up after India started sending dossiers to Pakistan.

The third attempt was to set off a series of explosions around the court premises.
This plan almost came through, but the Mumbai police had been quick in busting the attempt with the help of intelligence intercepts.

The LeT had contacted the cadres of the Indian Mujahideen and had also activated a couple of its sleeper cells in Maharashtra to carry out this plan. The terrorists had decided to move RDX from across the border into India for this job. According to the IB, this operation was planned on a very large scale and would have inflicted maximum damage, apart from disrupting the trial.

sunny y · Post by **sunny y** » 03 May 2010 15:23

26/11: Kasab guilty, Fahim, Sabauddin acquitted for lack of evidence

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/may/ ... -india.htm

Vivek Raghuvanshi · Post by **Vivek Raghuvanshi** » 03 May 2010 15:55

Remember SAMBA case!!

Who can you trust?

Who will sell you to the enemy?

Who will NOT sacrifice you to swap another catch ?

The wheels within wheels in the Dirty Works department.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 04 May 2010 02:32

National security compromised by private snooping
By Naresh Minocha

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 May 2010 08:38

Plot to bomb MNC in Hyderabad foiled

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Police have disrupted a Lashkar-e-Taiba plot to bomb the Hyderabad offices of multinational Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu — one of the four largest auditors in the world.

Hyderabad resident Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, held over the weekend in the course of a National Investigation Agency-led operation, was planning to attack Deloitte's Hi-Tech City offices using grenades supplied by the Lashkar, police sources said.

Police believe Zia-ul-Haq, who worked as driver with a taxi firm contracted to Deloitte, carried out extensive reconnaissance at the facility.

Investigators say Zia-ul-Haq planned the attacks with top Lashkar commander Mohammad Rehan, who is believed to have responsibility for the jihadist group's south Indian networks. The Lashkar likely hoped that the attack would undermine international business confidence in India.

NIA led operation?
Is NIA also a intel agency now? I thought it was a prosecution agency.

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 May 2010 08:41

[url=http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/04/stories ... 911200.htm][Hyderabad plot casts light on renewed Lashkar threat /url]

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Early last year, Research and Analysis Wing agents escorted a quiet, bespectacled Kerala resident off a flight from Muscat to Bangalore: the Indian face of a Lashkar-e-Taiba network stretching across the Indian Ocean rim, from Oman and Dubai to Karachi and across southern India into Dhaka.

This weekend's arrest of Hyderabad jihadist Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who is alleged by police to have been preparing to attack top multinational Deloitte's offices, has focussed attention on the renewed offensive intent of the Lashkar's Indian Ocean network. Police believe that Zia-ul-Haq's cell was run by an enigmatic Lashkar operative known to his associates as Mohammad Rehan, Shamim, and Wali Sahib — a man India's intelligence services believe has been responsible for a string of attacks across southern India.

Finding Rehan could help unravel the Lashkar's southern Indian networks, and cast new light on a string of terrorist attacks including the November 2008 carnage in New Delhi — but the fugitive terror commander remains out of reach of Indian law.

Late in 2008, Oman authorities cracked down on the Lashkar's operations in Muscat, after intelligence emerged that local residents linked to the jihadist groups were planning strikes in the city. Key among them was Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, son of an Omani father and an Indian mother. Al-Hooti is said to have recruited Fahim Arshad Ansari — an alleged Lashkar covert operative facing multiple terrorism charges, who was acquitted on Monday by a Mumbai court, of charges related to the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

Oman investigators were, however, unable to locate Rehan himself. Government sources said the United Arab Emirates had been less than cooperative in the hunt for the Dubai-based Lashkar operative, for reasons that are still unclear.

Interestingly, al-Hooti was in Mumbai between November 9, 2008 and November 17, 2008 — returning home to Oman just days before the attacks. The Oman investigators have told India he called Nawaz twice from the city during this time.

Many in India's intelligence services suspect that al-Hooti, who frequently travelled to India, may have knowledge of the surveillance operations that preceded the November 26 attacks on Mumbai. In testimony to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley said he was shown a mock-up of the Taj Mahal Hotel when he was first ordered to conduct a reconnaissance of the building, and asked to prepare a videotape of particular areas. That suggests earlier reconnaissance was conducted — but by whom is still not known.

Finding Rehan — and dismantling the Lashkar's offensive apparatus — has become all the more imperative in the wake of Zia-ul-Haq's arrest.

Shyamd, any reason for UAE playing traunt despite all the bhaichara being projected?

The number of times Rehan is mentioned in this article means he is definitely on the sights of our agencies and huge effort is being put in locating this SOB.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 04 May 2010 08:52

sum wrote:Is NIA also a intel agency now? I thought it was a prosecution agency.

NIA is not an intel agency, it is one with policing powers only. How ever they may have chalked out a plan, staked out the place and picked up the people they wanted in an "operation"

. NIA had organised another similar operation in Nedumbassery Airport when one of the pals of Thadiyan Nazir decided to come back to the Socialist Republic.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 04 May 2010 08:57

sum wrote:Plot to bomb MNC in Hyderabad foiled

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Police have disrupted a Lashkar-e-Taiba plot to bomb the Hyderabad offices of multinational Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu — one of the four largest auditors in the world.

f c u k - my brother works there.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 04 May 2010 16:22

Sum - Not sure. It could be because the guy was D Gang member, it could be that he had actually left so didnt bother replying to the notice. Dubai police chief is not very helpful. It could just be that Dubai doesnt want bad press of a terrorist being arrested - assuming he was there.

If it was in Abu Dhabi, then perhaps we could have got some results.

Craig Alpert · Post by **Craig Alpert** » 05 May 2010 07:56

ISI-backed bombing plot by Khalistan group foiled

NEW DELHI: Security agencies have unearthed yet another ISI-scripted terror plot with the arrest of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) terrorist Nirmal Singh alias Nimma, who was tasked to attack Adampur Air Force station in Punjab and recruit locals from villages along Indo-Pakistan border to set up a terror network.

Nimma was arrested from Raipur district in Chhattisgarh on Sunday. The KCF terrorist, who was holed up abroad returned to India via Greece following instructions from his bosses in Germany and Pakistan to stage some "action". He was seen in Punjab but disappeared after a terror cell of Babbar Khalsa was busted.

Nimma was also tasked to attack the congregation of Dera Sacha Sauda, in what could have inevitably set off clashes between followers of Baba Ram Rahim and those who are incensed by his claim to be a legatee of gurus.

LeT has been itching to target foreigners and multinational establishments in India as part of its plan to project India as an "unsafe" destination ahead of Commonwealth Games. Arrest of the KCF terrorist coincided with busting of three modules of LeT last week. Lashkar had activated its three modules — including one in Nepal — to carry out deadly terror attacks in markets in Delhi, the multinational auditing firm Deloitte in Hyderabad and other cities to create havoc in India's mainland during the last weekend.

The plan came unstuck because of the arrest of Lashkar operative Zia-ul-Haq, thanks to the meticulous use of technical intelligence. Sources in the home ministry said the Nepalese police arrested one man — originally from Jammu & Kashmir and settled there with his wife and children — who was heading the module of LeT.

He was instructed by Lashkar to be part of the outfit's larger plan to carry out attacks on India's mainland, they added. "Indian sleuths are also questioning him in Nepal to find out his exact plan," said a senior official, adding he was the third man arrested on the basis of the Friday's intercepts.

The other two arrested in this connection are Shabir Ahmad Zargar alias Omar who was part of Lashkar's J&K's module and Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq who was a member of LeT's sleeper cell in Hyderabad. Zargar was picked up from Srinagar at the same time when sleuths laid their hand on Haq in Hyderabad and the man in Nepal through a coordinated action involving respective state police and NIA.

The 34-year-old Haq was planning to carry out attacks on Hitec City, a major IT township in Hyderabad and the office of Deloitte there.

sum · Post by **sum** » 05 May 2010 08:41

Lashkar had activated its three modules — including one in Nepal — to carry out deadly terror attacks in markets in Delhi, the multinational auditing firm Deloitte in Hyderabad and other cities to create havoc in India's mainland during the last weekend.

Fact that we tracked and neutralized all three means the agencies deserve a good pat on the back.

The plan came unstuck because of the arrest of Lashkar operative Zia-ul-Haq, thanks to the meticulous use of technical intelligence.

Our TECHINT folks really seem to be ruling the airwaves of Desh

Sudip · Post by **Sudip** » 05 May 2010 10:29

Some interesting tid bits on the way US intelligence tracked the NY foiled bombing suspect

Lapses Allowed Suspect to Board Plane

>>On Sunday night, about 24 hours after the smoking Nissan Pathfinder was left on a bustling Manhattan street, investigators identified Mr. Shahzad as the buyer of the car.

>>F.B.I. agents located Mr. Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., and began to follow him.

>>at about 12:30 p.m. on Monday, more certain that Mr. Shahzad was the suspected terrorist, investigators asked the Department of Homeland Security to put him on the no-fly list. Three minutes later, the department sent airlines, including Emirates, an electronic notification that they should check the no-fly list for an update. At about 4:30 p.m., more information was added to the list, including Mr. Shahzad’s passport number,

>>Workers at Emirates evidently did not check the list, because at 6:30 p.m., Mr. Shahzad called the airline and booked a flight to Pakistan via Dubai, officials said. At 7:35 p.m., he arrived at the airport, paid cash for his ticket and was given a boarding pass.

>>Airlines are not required to report cash purchases, a Homeland Security official said.

>>As is routine, when boarding was completed for the flight, Emirates Flight EK202, the final passenger manifest was sent to the National Targeting Center, operated in Virginia by Customs and Border Protection. There, at about 11 p.m., analysts discovered that Mr. Shahzad was on the no-fly list and had just boarded a plane.

>>The Transportation Security Administration is taking over the job of checking passenger manifests against the no-fly list under its Secure Flight program.Such checks are currently being done by the T.S.A. for domestic flights, and the agency is scheduled to be checking all international flights by the end of the year

I wonder if anything similar exists regarding the airlines in our case

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 May 2010 21:42

after Mumbai 93 blasts, the authorities had the entire list of Memon family flights out of India by the close of business on the desk of the babus.

Later they persuaded most of them to come back leaving only the hardcore criminal Tiger Memon to rot in Islumabad with the arch crook Dawood Ibrahim.

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 05 May 2010 23:25

arunabh wrote:Some interesting tid bits on the way US intelligence tracked the NY foiled bombing suspect

Lapses Allowed Suspect to Board Plane
......................................
>>The Transportation Security Administration is taking over the job of checking passenger manifests against the no-fly list under its Secure Flight program.Such checks are currently being done by the T.S.A. for domestic flights, and the agency is scheduled to be checking all international flights by the end of the year

I wonder if anything similar exists regarding the airlines in our case

Just giving an example. A guy (totally clean) was flying in from an european city to Bharat unannouced to his family to give them a nice surprise. Anyway, at the time of airport check-in the cautious bharatiya airline personnel goes inside the office, away from the counter, telling the guy to wait for a minute. The next thing that happens is that his family in Bharat gets a call from someone wanted to verify the guy's address and other info. The guy was given his boarding pass etc, but after landing in Bharat he finds out that his surprise visit was no longer a surprise to his family.

So.... our folks are doing their best too.

Sudip · Post by **Sudip** » 05 May 2010 23:50

Kati wrote:
arunabh wrote:Some interesting tid bits on the way US intelligence tracked the NY foiled bombing suspect

Lapses Allowed Suspect to Board Plane
......................................
>>The Transportation Security Administration is taking over the job of checking passenger manifests against the no-fly list under its Secure Flight program.Such checks are currently being done by the T.S.A. for domestic flights, and the agency is scheduled to be checking all international flights by the end of the year

I wonder if anything similar exists regarding the airlines in our case
Just giving an example. A guy (totally clean) was flying in from an european city to Bharat unannouced to his family to give them a nice surprise. Anyway, at the time of airport check-in the cautious bharatiya airline personnel goes inside the office, away from the counter, telling the guy to wait for a minute. The next thing that happens is that his family in Bharat gets a call from someone wanted to verify the guy's address and other info. The guy was given his boarding pass etc, but after landing in Bharat he finds out that his surprise visit was no longer a surprise to his family.

So.... our folks are doing their best too.

No Fly List

No fly lists in other countries

<The government of Canada has created its own no fly list as part of a program called Passenger Protect.[41] The Canadian list incorporates data from domestic and foreign intelligence sources, including the U.S. No Fly List.[42] It contains between 500 and 2,000 names.[43]>...from wikipedia

Looks like we still dont have a no fly list of our own. I wonder, technically how challenging would it be to create a real time electronic database and atleast start with making all domestic airlines comply with certain rules regarding the database.
To my layman mind, it seems like not too complicated in the land of IT bigwigs.

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 06 May 2010 00:16

In India, people flying out of the country need to complete emigration checks, and this is handled by the police dept. So they don't have to depend on airline personnel for checking the list as in US.

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 06 May 2010 01:43

Looks like we still dont have a no fly list of our own. I wonder, technically how challenging would it be to create a real time electronic database and atleast start with making all domestic airlines comply with certain rules regarding the database.
To my layman mind, it seems like not too complicated in the land of IT bigwigs.

You are kidding. Each and Every time I spend 30 min extra on imm check at Delhi Airport.................because my name resembles to somebody who is not allowed to fly (out of India).

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 06 May 2010 04:04

Army Major caught spying for Pakistan, tip-off came from US

...
For over two weeks now, top Government sources say, an Army Major has been kept in “safe custody” of the Military Intelligence (MI). The officer—posted in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands—is alleged to have passed on classified information to Pakistan.
...
...
Suspicious internet traffic first came to the notice of American intelligence agencies when intercepts showed a user in Andaman and Nicobar Islands had dispatched a picture of a serving Indian Brigadier, who was attending a training programme in the US, to Pakistan.
...
...
However, suspicion persisted since the Major’s computer had been recently formatted and cleaned of all contents. An early forensic examination done in New Delhi revealed the dispatch of classsified military information, some of which should not have been in the officer’s possession. The hard disk of the officer’s computer has since been sent by military authorities to a Hyderabad laboratory for accessing the erased contents.
...

shyams · Post by **shyams** » 06 May 2010 04:17

A few observations, both good and bad on this article (assuming that this news is 100% acurate)

The good news first

1. We have caught this traitor.
2. We have managed so far (2 weeks) to keep this under the wraps.
3. We still don't have a full biography of this officer in the media, and an hour by hour leak from the concerned authorities.
4. The US is still giving us some useful info.

All in all, seems like a job well handled in trying to keep this confidential enough to do the investigation.

The bad news

1. The tip off/initial discovery did not happen due to a routine counter-intel check/monitoring of people holding sensitive positions using the internet.
2. How the heck did the US get to tip off the Indian authorities? It appears like the unkill is keeping tabs on us. It not new. But something that a so call "super-power in making" should take note of.
3. Our govt is still in its infancy stage when it comes to IT security and measure to monitor online activities.

putnanja wrote:Army Major caught spying for Pakistan, tip-off came from US

...
For over two weeks now, top Government sources say, an Army Major has been kept in “safe custody” of the Military Intelligence (MI). The officer—posted in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands—is alleged to have passed on classified information to Pakistan.
...
...
Suspicious internet traffic first came to the notice of American intelligence agencies when intercepts showed a user in Andaman and Nicobar Islands had dispatched a picture of a serving Indian Brigadier, who was attending a training programme in the US, to Pakistan.
...
...
However, suspicion persisted since the Major’s computer had been recently formatted and cleaned of all contents. An early forensic examination done in New Delhi revealed the dispatch of classsified military information, some of which should not have been in the officer’s possession. The hard disk of the officer’s computer has since been sent by military authorities to a Hyderabad laboratory for accessing the erased contents.
...

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 06 May 2010 04:24

There are three possible explanations, either or all of them below.

1. US was monitoring the traffic to the paki org/handler that the IA major was contacting
2. US was monitoring all traffic from the tri-service command in A&N.

If the IA major was sending out unencrypted message over internet to his paki handlers, then it is easy to intercept, especially if it is satellite based internet.

I hope the communications between defence installations are much more secure and is encrypted. Internet may be open if it is used only for browsing etc. However, official communications need to be more secure!