Khakiland: The Kaoboys of R&AW

poker face - first quality of intelligence operative
Robin Raphael created many problems for india - Narsimharao wanted opinion of Raman about her
a state resorts to covert action if it finds its national interests cant be protected via conventional means or they are not feasible
any intell agency worth its salt will have covert action capability ready for action when necessary
Pakistani terrorism against India started in 1956 in nagaland
he does not mention why R&AW was created in 1967 as IB was under HM control & Indira Gandhi wanted her own intelliegene apparatus
Al Badr , Al Shams - Paki supporter in bangladesh
Bihari migrants to bangladesh were biggest supporter of Pakistan - beware of bihari muslims
India pressurised Srilanka to not provide refuelling to Paki planes in 1971
Paki communication security was poor, they will use landline phones even without using scramblers
Charan Singh Panchi - khalistan movement 1971
Jagjit Chouhan - khalistani movement supported by CIA
naga hd direct route to china via kachin state, mizos had to go via bangladesh and hence petered out after 1971
Indian army was caught unprepared in 1962 beacuse Chinese came viaYUnan kachina state
IFS officer in rangoon apporved use of chinese aircraft by myanmaar for indo myanmaar border survey - R&AW did not even raise this with PM
There were KMT people in Myanmaar so chienese also infiltrated kachin and shan state
indian support to separate balochistan would have angered iran as well
misplaced generosity should have no place in our relations with Pakistan
Senior Bush gifted a cowboy statue to RN Kao
Naresh Chandra was close personal friend to RN Kao
He trusted men & women to a fault, little realising that some of those trusted by him were not worthy of it
restrictive security - intell people dont reduce to writing all their thoughts as more you write more chances of leak
kao established historical division which was wound up after kao left in 1984
indira gandhis negotiations with akali were recorded but have been lost
somra tract of cht was used by Nagas
burmese army had no effective presence in the burma naga hills - in return for payment by outlaws burmese army used to close eyes
MC Chagla was very good foreign minister of indira for a short while
burma did not let indian army operate because then chinese would also pressure for same
chinese had one condition - no bilbe plus classes on communism
IB & R&AW gave wrong estimates of number of people who gave gone for training - maneckshaw conclusively demonstrated this
reprots indicating same group at diff places and diff dates was not taken care - analysis of reports is very poor
Laldenga was annoyed by attitude of charan singh to him
in vpsingh cabinet george fernandes was dealing kashmir issue not home minsiter
laldenga wanted a brigadier of R&AW as governor who rose to be no 2 in R&AW and then retired
1971 pointed to two weakness- collection of maritime intelligence in indian ocean,lack of HUMINT & TECHINT about US & itc activities against india
US was hostile to india and also to indira gandhi
CIA spread news that KGB experts were used in operation blue star but truth was MI5 MI6 helped in that
officers of earlier era were cosmpolitan and had inter continental connections and exposure
French agreed to clandestine monnitoring station in mauritios and seycheels which indian mission head opposed
R&AW had many centres inside india..they were not meant to keep an eye on indians but look for possible sources among foreigners who visited india
R&AW was always alleged to have nepotism and favrotisim in recruitment
R&AW lost contacts in non AL bangladeshi circle
Kao advised indira not to shift her family to nepal after loss in election in 1977 when shah of nepal gave the offer
Sanakaran Nair had been selected by Indira to be IB chief but Sanjay refused
Nair was leading expert on pakistan and islamic states
decoders in R&AW HQ worngly read 3 as 1 dece of pak air force attack in 1971
Kao and Nair were perfect team of two
Nair paid commission to shah of iran for soft loans- confirmed from book of shankaran nair
Santook & Murkot Ramunny were good officers of Indian frontier admin service
Morarji sent cab secretary to Kaos office so that he could not destroy papers but charan singh told him sorry later
Suntook prevented witch hunt by morarji but none could prevent witch hunt by indira when she returned back to power
many members of R&AW settled in western nations once their term ended and never returned to india
Suntook wasgujrati parsi hence went along well with morarji
charan singh opposed trimming R&AW if it affects its operational capabiltiy
Vajpayee was mean to Kao ,apparently Kao told indira about his mistress
morarji used to bully officers but would respect those who stood ground
morarji kept on eating nuts and fruits whileothers were served 7 course dinner
very poor joke on mentioning amabssadorswife asks servant to use new glasses alluding to urine drinking habit of morarji
raman claims credit for telling morarji that shah will be toppled - but morarji knew that beforehand based on indian shia opinion- raman gives credit where its due
he praises that indian pm gets good information from otehr sources e.g.
ayotollah had positive words about india negative about pakistan - he says morarji became positive to R&AW afer this
K santanam detected paki nuclear programme
zia used to flatter morarji would ask him which urine should be taken fresh in morning or anytime
invetigative officers should not have strong likes or dislikes that would affect their ovjectivity and distort the investigation
IB officers played as per indira's fancies once she returned to power after 1980
suntook stood for shivbahadur..would seniors of today do so?
TN kauls relatives were employed by R&AW
Counter intelligence never applied stirict check on senior officers
many officers stayed ther or brought bad name to nation but kao did not act strongly against him
employees striked after 1980
suntook took deep interest in africa and developed good contacts there
there is limit to use of big stick by india against bangladesh due to presence of large number of hindus
soviet intervention in afghanistan was in response to cia incursion andeffort to destabilise its republics
usa made soviet troops heroin addict
ex us intelligence operatives who make money today world over claimming to be qaeda watcher were itsoriginal creator in 1980
sikha went to canada to work in saw mill to us to work in citrus farms
nehru had a hands off policy which pissed nris as opposed to israel which supported jews everywhere
those who took citizenship abroadwere denied indian citizenship
charan singhetc used to testify before us congressional committee ..all those who go now are traitors
ganga singh dhillon was very close to zia ul haq..family terms
Dr Chauhan did not advocate violence
in 1981 a JS from MEA got the background note prepared by Raman & presented it to PVN then foreign minister as his own
sep 29 1981 hijacking was first attributed to JKLF but Raman rightly predicted that it was sikhs
romesh bhandari had very good contacts in UAE & hijackers were led into indian place believing it to be US - pakistan replaced their toy revolver with actual
Indira gandhi also had high goodwill in UAE, Vajpayee neither had contacts nor goodwill so Kandhar hijack could not be terminated
Romesh got a khalsa activist arrested in phillipines informally and flown back to india in ARC plane
Pakistan wanted terrorists to attack bhakra dam and irrigation canals but they desisted
restiriction on sikhs during asian games increased feeling of humiliation
zail singh propped bhindarawale but it backfired
raman says it should have been a police action in golden temple & not army
army was confident that there will be no negative impact on its sikh soldiers this hope proved wrong
he once again accepts that reprots of IB & R&AW regarding presence of paki mercenaries inside golden temple during operation blue star were wrong
He is critical of general sunderji for both op blue star as well as IPKF fiasco
foreign travel of indira gandhi was junket for police officers to smuggle in foreign goods
a permissiveness had crept into VIP security, Kao did not act against officials who behave dishnorably by smuggling in goods
western nations did not help india agaisnt khalistanis till kanishka bombing, once a terrorist even after arrested by germany was released taking plea that cbi team was late
RK dhavan and ML fotedar used to attend R&AW meetings on indira gandhis physical security
US did not deploy blacks, UK catholics from N ireland but in india all such steps are unnecessarily given communal color
R&AW used to send ambassadors cars to europe for bullet proofing - mercedes had vrey good bullet proof cars which could be ordered
kao even got a bullet proof vest made for indira gandhi
raman says no rules of access control were being followed in indira gandhi household
two sikhs were not be together on duty but killers manipulated duty chart
many heads rolled after assasination of indira gandhi
sikh policemen succeeded and not terrorists as being police officers they knew importance of communcation security and avoided use of telephone
Kao was deeply hurt due to murder of indira gandhi who trusted him for her security
in 81-84 as intelligence coordinator kao was not efective due to IB non cooperation
some officers of IB who had worked under Kao cooperated but many others had prejudice of Hooja
even after retirement indira kept on using kao instead of then R&AW chief for sensitive assignments
Suntook trained intelligence operatives of many african countries
PVN raised issue of high standard of living of R&AW officials who had best cars
Gary was last of gentlemen progessional kao ,nair, suntook
he blames IPS for over cautiousness & navy for mental reservation for not agreeing to hire afishing trawler and use it to evasdrop in indian ocean
as south always supported her politically indira gandhi had a soft corner for south & tn in particular
congress had good contacts in pakistani political establishment as opposed to moraji, charan singh or vajpayee
william cassey actually copied hezbollah tactics in afghanistan
ammonium nitrate fuel oil - vehicular explosive
french intelligenc agency penetrated PMO around 1988 - it was shown in a movie also
a promoted IPS was in live in with an autralian woman
in 1987 a distinguished IPS of kerala was head of CIS and did very good role
RAS research and analysis service was constituted in 1981
some of the initial recruits were sons of senior army officers
firction in R&AW - ras vs no ras, ips vs rest, military vs civilian
In IB instances of dog eating dog are less
JIC bifuracted in 1981, unified in 1984, headed by non ipc 1999 onwards
brajesh mishra was both principal secretary to PM and NSA
Manmohan singh offered inteillegence officers to directly approach him when they felt need but people did not dare due to fear of MK narayanan
before operation blue star sikhs used only hand held weapons after wards IEDs
Dr S Subramaniam became head of SPG a no nonsense officer
Rajiv Gandhi wanted initial SPG officers to be trained by italian but they were not good and bad behaved so plan terminated
movies like mr india capture transistor radio bomb of 1980s
rajeev gandhi even used to attend meetings of inconsequential bodies like ILO
talks about a sikh officer he removed form security detail of rajeev in geneva and when he pointed this in farewell speech how bad raman felt
single source reports are not reliable
many people started fabricating reports
ASL teams had a bulky book very general in nature regarding threat and were ridiculed in pakistan , thailand & malaysia..for long this nonsense was allowed to go on
CP delhi once blasted at IB for naming almost all areas of delhi as potential terrorist strike spot
AN vermahisprinicipalsecretary to PVN pointed threat book for USA was exact copy of threat book for thailand
play it safe attitude of intelligence operative - raman offers feeble defence of same
in 1987 incidence of a khalistani attempting on rajiv gandhi with a pistol at rajghat was not properly communicated and tn sheshan killed career of an officer
S subramaniam stood his ground over local security arrangements in geneva
vip security arrangement are difficult due to official with no background in security interfering
officers change security drill to suit the convenience or ego of somebody close to VVIP
some sikhs celebrated killing of indira gandhi in front of indian embassy and distributed champagne
thatcher cooperated after wards & will never excise name of pakistan or ISI from reports shared by them
MI 5 has more gurumukhi experts than R&AW or IB
they refused requests to freeze bank accounts asking for direct correlation
CIA would cooperate but for state department which did not want to act against pakistan
pashtun truck drivers & bangaldeshi dock workers created toruble in karachi
baloch leaders had been given shelter by najibullah and used to visit india
tv and radio stations in rajasthan to telecast in sindhi or baloch language were planned but never took off
ojhri camp blast was by ISI to block probe in how stingers missiles were used by them
zia ul haqs death was celebrated in sindh
it was believed a shia airman from gilgit caused the crash
benajir wanted to stop disruption in punjab to which ISI said it means two divisions at no cost
ISI did cooperate with R&AW to get custody of four sikh soldiers who had crossed over
Benazir could become PM only after agreeing to let army & isi chief continue and give army control of nuclear programme
Najibullah sent messages that kashmiris were visitng afghan training camps but rajiv trusted benazir blindly
operation black thunder was much better than blue star & Gill was architect of same & ved marwah
he hopes that NPA will undertake recording of experiences of punjab episode
hindujas were indian by heart & mind, helped govt of india & held good contacts in UK & Iran
HKL Bhagat was hypocrite in not attending hinduja dinner while farooq abdullah was forthcoming
senior officials of CBI always partook hospitality of Hindujas
only narsimharao and vp sing stayed away from hindujas for perhaps they knew his involvement in bofors
rajivs personal habits were simple & austere & he deposited all gift received from abroad to president's house
CBI team met only people with little or no knowledge while leaving crucial people non examined
VP singh hired a pvt detective firefax to investigate bofors
AK verma did not let subbiah being transferred on complaint of chitra
geneva post was meant to liasion with Mossad
cover used by Mossad while coming to india was businessman from a south american nation
geneva was listening point on tibet, xinjiang, srilanka
IB helped Ghana in establishing its intelligence agencies kao & nair went there mentioned in book of Nair
R&AW has not built record of its role in Africa
LITTE kept ppl of its human rights organisations out of violent activities while khalistani did not take this precaution
People should be allowed to let steam else they will revolt
Natwar singh was reputed to be abrasive & uppish but had good reputation in africa & was loyal to indira gandhi
Raman did not share his source with Indian ambassador but he did not take it personally
worst threat to a R&AW officer posted abroad comes from wives of IFS officers
R&AW officers abroad only collect HUMINT not TECHINT
sankaran nair & verma were held in awe & respect in pakistan
if verma had continued as R&AW chief under rajiv gandhi for 2-3 more years they would have broken pakistan
R&AW was useufel in solving punjab issue by making pakistan realise their support will have domestic cost
indira did not like zia as he was friend to morarji
inder gujral destroyed india's covert capability in 1997
Rajiv gandhi took great interest in modernisation and computerisation of R&AW
R&AWs monopoly in TECHINT was broken in rajiv era when both Army & IB got their own capabiltiy
both IB & R&AW have started posting their officers aborad
bumper to bumper suveillance -india pakistan
there was rumour that NawazSharif was in love with sister of a bollywood actor
chinese let Rajiv meet Deng as son of indira but not narsimharao
chinese offered to supply oil to india during gulf war
R&AW was wrong about chinese military presence in tibet & MI was right
out of 16 R&AW chiefs till 2008 only 1 was china expert
officer who was caught hobnobbing with CIA station chief in chennai had cancelled a wedding for dowry
ravinder singh fooled R&AW by giving some non papers from his sister working in CIA
once before KPS gill visited somepne planted an IED without charrge in R&AW office
in 2006 at manmohans time NSCS was penetrated by CIA
opposition of IAS officers mean Rajiv could not do much to make life of R&AW officers comfortable
VP singh curried cheap popularity with extremists in kashmir & punjab
VC of srinagar univeristy was killed & captured people did not let george fernandes attend his funeral
Advani wanted R&AW to train RSS cadres of jammu in weapon handling
Jethmalani & Arun Nehru complained to VP singh that R&AW spied on them
During PVN R&AW started copying its reports to principal secretary & cabinet secretary
Jaswant singh suggested a parliamentary oversight committee during VP era
R&AW supports parliamentary oversight in non operational matters
resistance to parliamentary oversight comes more from political class than intelligence officers
every country gets the intelligence it deserves
Bajpai &Daulat improved man management in R&AW
During VP singhs time forces fought militancy without guidance from PM
subramanyam swamy when chandrashekhar was PM claimed to get oil for india from saddam but failed
western agencies used to meet opponents of najibullah in delhi without informing india
gul was professional & confident Durrani lacked both
cooperation between india paksitan on terrorism is impossible as even friendly nations cant cooperate on it
though they can both have a liaison relationship
JSverma commission did its job but not LC jain - planted many needles of suspicion without removing any of them
Raman praises CBI for uncoering the plan of killing rajiv gandhi
VP singh offered to depute official of SPG wanted by Rajiv to his security
German intelligence had reported about frequent visit of a tamil explosive expert to chennai
R&AW was not monitoring LITTEs communication whose security was poor
VVIP can be protected through effective anti explosive check and access control
JS Verma asked for an introspection session after rajiv murder but it turned out to be self justification
external affairs ministry used to think R&AW operatives would just provide public information by collating it
PVN was a born skeptic , he took himself also with a pinch of salt
JN dixit was jeolous of R&AW as high commissioner in srilanka
R&AW immersed ship of weapons for LITTE by pakistan..cabinet sec put a note to PVN what a pity details of this operation could not be revealed to media
R&AW had role in succesful visit of Rajiv to china in 1988 & in strengthening india's relation with russia post 1991
indira was very afraid of intelligence cooperation with western agencies without her knowledge
IB is responsible for counter intelligence
CIA penetrated IB at very high level in 1990
after indira gandhi our counter penetration architecture has weakened
R&AW failed to cultivate mirpuri muslims who had been actually displaced by pakistan
kidnap & killing of israeli tourists in kashmir turned american jews against pakistan & then CIA started helping india
benazir was friend with peter galbrith & got pakistan removed from list of states sponsoring terror
after 1993 pakistan stopped helping indigenous kashmiri militants
Benazir was angry with PVN for poor treatment when she came for Rajiv's funeral
Salman Khursheed & Farooq Abdullah fought resolution in 1994 but vajpayee took credit
Amitabh Chakrvarthi of Indian information service led PSYCH WAR against pakistan
HUssain Haqqani was close to ISI at one point of time
India today acted responsibly in not publishing alleged indian help to sindhis and baloch
Haqqani was out to badmouth Benazir & he was made US amb by Zardari..irony
SIMI members got trained in pakistan but did not do any disruptive activity after returning to india
Rao invited all officers of addnl sec & above level to explain his conduct during babri demolition & implied it was in karma of nation
Rao Pilot & Sharad pawar prevented riots after bombay blasts
Raman gives dues to IAS where due
R&AW made itself look like fool in advice given to PVN on meeting dalai lama & informing china about it
use of ARC planes by officers for personal travel
in bombay blast investigation R&AW & IB cooperated brilliantly
Kalpnath Rai had given shelter to bomb blast accused in guest house unknowingly
travel advisories during bombay blast issued by western nations were ridiculous but in those days we could tick off western nations
Kao said one should never trust US in matters concenring pakistan
JN Dixit felt IB officers were more transparent to him then R&AW
bombay blast were a case of failureo f integrity not intelligence as customs were aware of landing
9/11 is karma of USA
never make a tall claim they have nasty habit of coming back to haunt you
dont be shy of admitting oyur inadequacies & failures
be strict with yourself & generous with others
give credit where its due avoid credit grabbing it makes you look cheap
a national intelligence advisor is necessary to coordinate work of all intelligence agencies

Khakiland

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The Kaoboys of R&AW

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