Archive for the ‘Intelligence’ Category
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 |
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) trainers began a week-long program from 16 June to share U.S. expertise in bomb blast investigation with Indian law enforcement authorities. The program will provide world class crime scene training to Indian law enforcement officials based on post-blast techniques developed by investigators in the U.S. and around the world.
Through in-depth case studies, Indian law enforcement officers will learn about the composition and effects of various types of explosives; the proper procedure for processing a post-blast crime scene and collection and preservation of crime scene evidence. The course will culminate in a practical exercise, simulating a terrorist bombing attack.
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Friday, April 11th, 2008 |
Cryostar SAS, formerly known as Cryostar France (”CRYOSTAR”), a French corporation, headquartered
in Hesingue, France, has pleaded guilty in a US court to conspiracy, illegal export, and attempted illegal export of cryogenic submersible pumps to Iran.
The evidence in this case established that CRYOSTAR, with business locations around the world including in the United States, specialized in the design and manufacturing of cryogenic equipment, such as pumps, turbines, compressors and automatic filling stations that were used to transport and process natural gases at extremely cold temperatures. Ebara International Corp., Inc. (”Ebara”) was a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Nevada. Ebara engaged in the business of
designing and manufacturing cryogenic pumps for various uses, including for pumping fluid hydrocarbons that have been cooled to cryogenic temperatures (280 degrees below zero). Ebara specialized in the design and manufacturing of cryogenic equipment, such as pumps, turbines, compressors and automatic filling stations that were used to transport and process natural gases at
extremely cold temperatures. “TN” was a French company with a U.S. subsidiary.
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Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 |
Gregg William Bergersen, age 51, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty yesterday to a one-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, in violation of 18 U.S.C., Sections 793(d) and (g). Bergersen was arrested on February 11, 2008 on a criminal complaint charging this same offense.
According to a Statement of Facts filed in Court with Bergersen’s Plea Agreement, the criminal conduct spanned the time period of March 2007 to February 2008. During this time, Bergersen — a Weapons Systems Policy Analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Defense Security Cooperation Agency, an agency within the Department of Defense — provided national defense information on numerous occasions to Tai Shen Kuo, a New Orleans businessman.
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Posted in Intelligence, Military News - America | No Comments »
Friday, February 15th, 2008 |
Two cases worked by the FBI and its partners and brought to fruition Monday with four arrests on opposite coasts had all the intrigue of a good spy novel. In the first investigation, a former Boeing and Rockwell engineer in California who had access to secret materials for decades was charged with several counts of economic espionage—including stealing U.S. high-tech trade secrets relating to the Space Shuttle and other aerospace and military systems and passing them to China.
The engineer allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of documents, many of which never made it to China. But he did provide China with some two dozen manuals on the B-1 Bomber and traveled to that country under of the guise of giving lectures, while secretly meeting with Chinese government officials and agents.
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] a ten-year, $1 billion contract today to develop and maintain the Bureau’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, a multi-modal, state-of-the-art biometrics system for use by state, local and federal authorities.
The NGI system will expand fingerprint capacity, doubling the size of the current database, and will now also include palm prints, iris and facial recognition capabilities. Additionally, the system requires a significant degree of technical flexibility in order to accommodate other biometric modalities that may mature and become important to law enforcement efforts in the future.
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 |
In the wake of the Indian “peaceful nuclear explosion” on May 17, 1974 and growing concern about the spread of nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.S. intelligence community prepared a Special National Intelligence Assessment, “Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.” It was de-classified by the U.S. National Security Archive on 14th January, 2008.
The 1974 Indian test created shock waves in the U.S. government, not only because of its broader implications, but because the intelligence community had failed to detect that it was imminent.
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Posted in Intelligence, Proliferation and Human Rights | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 |
QinetiQ North America (QNA) announced today that its Missions Solutions Group (MSG) has been awarded a five-year, $30 million contract with the Department of Defense counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA).
QNA’s MSG (formerly Analex) is a leading provider of mission-critical professional services to federal government clients. MSG’s Security and Intelligence Business Unit will provide a wide range of security support services to CIFA primarily in the National Capital Region. Originally
awarded as a predecessor contract in December 2003, this contract award will provide support to CIFA for five more years. Over the past four years, QNA has repeatedly been identified as a pioneer in planning and executing the protection of government personnel, critical infrastructure and sensitive defense programs.
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Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 |
In order to optimize intelligence flow and coordination between multifarious agencies at the Centre and in the States in the field of counter-terrorism and counter- intelligence, a Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) and Joint Task Force on Intelligence (JTFI) have been created in the Intelligence Bureau at Delhi, supported by Subsidiary Multi-Agency Centres (SMACs) at almost all State capitals. Steps have also been taken to strengthen counter-intelligence apparatus in the Intelligence Bureau.
Further, the States have been asked to revamp the Special Branches by way of filling up of vacancies; posting of competent officers in Special Branches; mandatory tenure preferably of 5 years for personnel in Special Branches and linkage of this requirement with promotion; system of incentives/disincentives; dedicated staff for intelligence work right up to the police stations level and re-activating beat constable system; making available modern equipment and gadgets for interception; special training for personnel posted in Special Branches and earmarking of up to 5% of their annual allocations under the Scheme for Modernisation of State Police Forces for strengthening of Special Branches.
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Thursday, September 27th, 2007 |
The CBI raided the author and publisher of the book “India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW,” invoking official secrets act. Major General (retired) V K Singh, a former Joint Secretary in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — India’s premier external intelligence agency, who published the book earlier this year is highly critical of RAW’s functioning.
The book blows whistle on several cases of corruption, indiscipline, lack of leadership and negligence, where the names of the persons involved have been mentioned.
Key among them are:
• The SPG purchased communication equipment of doubtful security from a foreign company, without obtaining clearance from the Systems Analysis Group. Why has no action been initiated against the officers involved?
• The Telecom Division of RAW purchased VHF/UHF antenna from a foreign company at prices much higher that what was paid by other agencies, such as signal intelligence and electronic warfare units of the Army. Why has no action been initiated against the officers involved?
• RAW has a CSD canteen which sells items that are authorized only for defence personnel. Why have the Sales Tax and Excise departments not taken cognizance of this?
• The present chief of RAW did not attend office for eight months when he was superceded for promotion from additional secretary to special secretary. Why has no action been initiated against the officers involved?
• Mr. Amar Bhushan continued to occupy his office in RAW even after he was posted out. Why did this happen? Why has no action been initiated against the officers involved?
• Rabinder Singh’s escape to USA was facilitated by several senior officers in RAW. Why has no action been initiated against them?
Its is not just Major General (retired) V K Singh, B. Raman’s book “Kaoboy’s of the RAW” laments of the bad apples in the organisation. He writes about RAW officials amassing illegitimate wealth, not returning back from the country of posting and other such incidents. However, he has not named anyone.
The Indian Government has charged Vivek Garg, owner of Manas Publication, the publisher of the book, on the ground’s that book reveals secrets that can harm national security.
Vivek Garg has raised several valid points,”this is not the only book about intelligence agencies in India. Several other authors such as Ashok Raina and B. Raman, have written about RAW. Books have also been written about the IB. Why has only my book been targeted?”
On the question of equipment purchase by RAW Vivek Garg say’s, “equipment whose details have been given in the book was purchased from foreign countries. These details are known not only to the country from which the equipment was bought but to several others to whom tenders inquiries were sent. If the details are known to foreigners, how can their disclosure to the Indian public be considered harmful to national security?”
On the issue of names of several officers have been mentioned in the book, the publisher say’s “They were all posted in India, and not in cover appointments abroad. How can the disclosure of their names affect national security?”
In addition the publisher said, ” the charter of RAW is external intelligence. Any secrets it has pertain to foreign countries. RAW does not possess any information regarding India’s defence capability, war plans, nuclear potential, space facilities, missile technology etc. Disclosure of information held by RAW can harm the national security of foreign countries, not India. In addition the details of RAW and ARC are available on the Internet. The Wikipedia even gives a photograph of RAW headquarters and its map coordinates (latitude and longitude). It also gives the location of ARC bases, with map coordinates, and the type of aircraft held.”
In 2006, the second Administrative Reforms Commission has recommended that the Official Secrets Act, 1923, be repealed.
Declassification of past records has started becoming an issue in India. With the advent of RTI Act, the government is under increasing pressure to declassify past records. Past records of US and Russia have been declassified, there is nothing new about it.
Another issue is RAW’s accountability to parliament. B. Raman’s book shows that barring South Asia, RAW has very few successes to show.
A lot of intelligence books have been written all over the world with startling disclosures. Major General (retired) V K Singh’s book is nowhere near it.
On 26 September, the CBI failed to move forward in the case against Major General (retired) V K Singh, as the agency told a local court it was yet to ascertain whether there was any violation of the Official Secrets Act.
V K Singh’s counsel, Kunal Khullar, argued for his client, and provided a copy of the book in the court and claimed that Singh had not violated any provisions of the Official Secrets Act(OSA).
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Friday, August 17th, 2007 |
I put the book down in disgust. Not disgusted with the book or With B Raman. I had read B Raman’s articles on Chinese; I expectantly purchased the book in order to find what Raman and R&AW managed to get on Chinese. Instead what I found that R&AW is unimportant, they just did what normally IB could have done. Nothing on US, nothing on China, nothing on Russia,…. All that Raman writes is the R&AW and its whine stories.
Raman is politically correct on all subjects.
The Kaboys of R&AW – Down the Memory lane
Often P V Narasimha Rao, ex Indian Prime Minister, is criticized about China policy. When Narasimha Rao had invited the Tibetan Head Dalai Lama, R&AW faxed a permission letter from China. How can a leader conduct a foreign policy when its instruments of foreign policy like R&AW have nothing to show on China? This subject will be dealt in a paragraphs below. In spite of Raman’s political correctness, P V Narasimha Rao and Indira Gandhi seem to be only prime ministers who ran foreign policy as a strategy; using the instruments in a manner it should be used.
R&AW seem to be has misplaced priorities. CIA did not give cooperation on Pakistan. CIA was all for joint operations with India on China, North Korea and countries of same region. R&AW decided to not bite it. R&AW missed significant opportunity for utilizing the CIA resources to penetrate these countries. This is relevant especially today when North Korea has supplied long range missile technology to Pakistan.
Raman description of R&AW’s cooperation with the Chinese intelligence agency called Ministry of State Security (MSS) is disturbing. R&AW dutifully reminded them that China was supplying weapons to Pakistan and when MSS told them that Chinese were supplying weapons that would not harm India, R&AW dutifully reported back. R&AW had nothing substantial to report on China. Bulk of it was from open source. As Raman mentions it, that R&AW was asked not to report on China any more. R&AW couldn’t even estimate the total deployments of China against India. Local Army commanders did better job on assessing the realistic China scenario. R&AW should have considered CIA offer on South East and Eastern Asia. One wonders what would be the cooperation with the Chinese agency Raman talks about. Chinese are all over the neighborhood and internationally trying to contain India. What has R&AW achieved with cooperating with MSS? While China has direct and indirect destabilization activities in India, there is no evidence that India has similar activities for Chinese mainland. A little bit what R&AW does in Tibet and Xingjian region has only irritating value to Beijing with no direct threat to the Chinese Mainland.
Not withstanding Raman’s clouded emotional claims on the relevance of R&AW, R&AW is effectively a south Asian intelligence agency with a marginal role of liaison and listening post in other countries. By Raman’s writing, there is a clear need for a external intelligence agency which has far reach, whether R&AW should be merged with IB or retained as South Asian agency is political decision, based on the budgets. Another point is R&AW takes research and analysis too seriously but lacks on action. 1971 is more of IB influence on R&AW.
“The Kaboys of R&AW – Down the Memory lane” by B. Raman is a good read. It does manage to capture most of events of its time in Raman’s perspective. Most of it is generally know, just that we get to know about R&AW’s role in it.
An area of disappointment in the book is the Sri Lankan description. The 1971, Indian intervention in the island state needed to be better expanded. Raman has clearly avoided mentioning if R&AW aided LTTE against IPKF or why the IPKF was supplied with poor intelligence. Or was it the colossal failure of R&AW. Another important area where Raman has avoided is fate of Netaji Subash chandra Bose or Raman does not know about it.
The book gives good insight of the life of a field agent of R&AW.
The book is intended to bring out Raman’s experiences in R&AW or a clever way to bring to notice of R&AW’s maladies to open debate or justification of existence of R&AW, only B Raman can tell.
However the book is highly recommended for reading.
Posted in Intelligence, Military and Strategic Book Review | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 |
Intelligence Bureau has got a boost in its anti-terror capabilities. In order to optimize intelligence flow and co-ordination between multifarious agencies at the Centre and in the States in the field of counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence, a Multi-Agency Centre and Joint Task Force on Intelligence have been created in the Intelligence Bureau at Delhi, supported by Subsidiary Multi-Agency Centres at almost all State capitals. For strengthening counter intelligence apparatus in the Intelligence Bureau, additional manpower has been given. The states have been advised to earmark up to 5% of the annual total allocations under the Modernization of State Police Forces Scheme towards strengthening training and technical capabilities of Special Branches.
During 2006-07, a total amount of Rs.1065.25 crore was released to various State Governments under the Modernization of State Police Forces (MPF) Scheme. This includes release of an additional amount of Rs.100 crore for purchase of equipment for fighting naxalism against the proposals received from the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh (Rs.15 crore), Bihar (Rs.15 crore), Chhatisgarh (Rs.24.75 crore), Jharkhand (Rs.15 crore), Maharashtra (Rs.6.75 crore), Orissa (Rs.15 crore) and West Bengal (Rs.8.50 crore).
Under the MPF Scheme, the States have been categorized into “A” and “B” Categories with 100% and 75% Central funding respectively. J&K and seven North Eastern States viz., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have been classified as “A” category States in view of problems of insurgency, militancy and terrorism faced by these states.
Posted in Counter Terrorism, Intelligence, Para Military and Coast Guard News | No Comments »
