Comments on: Our wonderful “intelligence” agencies

by: ck

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

If only the intelligence business were that simple. If the CIA, the NSA and all the US intelligence agencies with their multi-billion dollar budgets and spy satellites and listening devices couldn’t stop Sept 11 where 10 middle-eastern men who didn’t speak English, didn’t have valid id could not be found or stopped, don’t you think that it is virtually impossible in a country like India where they can blend in with the population, speak the language and are aided and abetted by our own citizens.

by: Sameer

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This is in response to the previous comment…

Sept. 11 involved only humans. It is highly difficult for even the best and highly efficient intelligence agencies to keep tabs on people coming into the country.

Mumbai blasts involved humans and explosives. Now, there are two ways of procuring explosives. Either buy it locally from the underworld or other local sources. Or smuggle it into the country via sea (coz thats the easiest). Now in both these cases, a well-maintained informer-network will give the police at least some hints of such activities. After all, the terrorists have to depend on external (local) support in such cases. This is where “intelligence” comes into the picture. And this is exactly what has been found lacking.

The second point is that with so many blasts in Mumbai in the recent months, the intelligence agencies were supposedly in a state of “high alert”. Now, when the terrorists can get away with bomb blasts just a fortnight after the last one, I think its a collossal failure of the intelligence machinery. Contrast this with Sept. 11… where the events came out of the big blue!

by: Ck

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

In response to the comment above:
I wonder why then a country like Israel which has (widely acknowledged by the entire world) one of the best intelligence agencies in the world - The Mossad - is plagued by bomb blasts every few days. Security in Israel is one of the tightest in the world, their intelligence network is one of the best in the world (in fact other intelligence agencies frequently buy information from the Mossad)and is just a few steps removed from a police state (especially if you are Palestenian). But there are bomb blasts every few days. Is that Mossads fault? In fact even when they go to extremes - shelling villages, bulldozing suspected hideouts and state sponsored assassinations, they can barely make a dent in the number of bomb blasts.

In fact Mossad’s intelligence is so good that one of their agents came close to being appointed Defense Minister of Syria but with all that brilliant human (humint) and technological intelligence the bomb blasts continue unabated. Can you explain that?

by: Yazad

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

MadMan’s major grouse seems to be the inane platitudes the intelligence agencies spew out. If they are unable to tell us more than what an ordinary citizen can tell, then they might as well keep shut.

by: Ankh

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I would tend to agree with Ck to the extent that it’s hard for intelligence agencies in India to gather information about purchases of explosives etc,. specially when the type of explosives used are not so high-tech, but can be assembled using stuff you get at a local hardware store.
But yes, Indian Intelligence agencies are nowhere as savvy and efficient as the CIA/FBI. But I don’t underestimate them either, as there have been numerous cases where they have tracked down criminals and culprits for large-scale attacks in a haystack like India.

by: Sameer

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Okay… to all you people who think it’s wrong to blame the intelligence agencies for Monday’s blasts, read this.

by: Jivha

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Would you blame the intelligence agencies or the bureacracy or the government for the blasts?

I think by and far in India, a career in the police services is not something most people look forward to.

‘Cos it pays peanuts. And it’s dangerous to boot. So where’s the motivation in it for the officers?

Btw I’m not condoning the lapse - only trying to guess if the system is indeed so inefficient that future incidents like these will be met with the same excuses.

by: MadMan

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Exactly what Yazad said.

Look, no intelligence agency is perfect, but please don’t give us meaningless bullshit that other strikes could be likely blah blah blah. It doesn’t take an Einstein to say stuff like that.

Take news like this:
Alert in Delhi, Gujarat
High alert in Nashik

What the hell does “high alert” mean? Every time something like this happens, our forces go on “high alert”. What results? Nothing really. But it sure sounds good, doesn’t it?

by: Yazad

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Jivha, The intelligence agencies are part of the bureaucracy; the bureaucracy is a part of the government. They are indistinguishable parts of one whole.

The rest of your comment I agree with.

by: Mahesh Shantaram

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Madman, is your criticism based on the headline or the report itself? I thought that report was fairly informative. The point it made was that Intelligence agencies have discovered a new pattern to terrorist attacks, different from ‘93. Surely you didn’t believe Intelligence agencies go around making statements like “There are going to be more attacks, so watch out.”