P Chidambaram must now walk the talk, and execute K Subrahmanyam’s vision of creating a ministry of internal security.
Although the complete text of 22nd Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture on A New Architecture of India’s Security by P Chidambaram should be mandatory reading for all students of internal (and national) security, here is an [...]
Some essential readings on the first anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks.
Amidst the plethora of articles, blogposts, columns and news-items written in the print and the electronic media on the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, here is my selection of eminently read-worthy material from the lot.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express and Nitin [...]
If it plans to melt into anonymity, the fleeing Maoist leadership can only be neutralised by intelligence from the local police.
Sankarshan Thakur warns the Indian government of one of the fall-outs of their voluble anti-Maoist strategy.
Intelligence inputs reaching here from parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand suggest that large numbers of cadres may leave their [...]
Metrics to measure progress essential, but nearly impossible to design.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. ~Samuel Clemens
Home minister’s strategy to take on the LWE threat is much in the media spotlight now. While it is great to lay out a strategy and provide resources to execute it, it is equally [...]
Riedel’s description of ISI.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA man, and most recently the architect of Obama’s AfPak policy has his views about the ISI. Well, as a fellow sleuth, he sounds charitable and full of praise for Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency. But as a country, that has been the prime target of ISI and its [...]
For an IT superpower, India’s armed forces aren’t focussed on this emergent threat.
Today’s NYT reveals the story of the cyberwar competition held among various services training academies in the US. It also explains how each unit and formation in the US armed forces is taking this threat very seriously and preparing for a catastrophic eventuality.
These [...]
A journalist catches an IB operative tailing him.
Saikat Datta, a well-respected defence journalist with the Outlook magazine, has done many noteworthy stories in his career — HDW deal, navy war room leaks, special forces — and on virtually every topic that concerns India’s national security. A couple of issues ago, he did an exclusive story [...]
Drone strikes without Pakistani approval not an affront to its sovereignty.
LAT reports that the US drone attacks have become more intense, successful and effective once the US administration abandoned the policy of seeking Pakistan’s approval before launching the strikes.
Even so, officials said that the surge in strikes has less to do with expanded capabilities than [...]
Five steps backwards, half a step forward.
What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the dammed fools said would happen has come to pass. ~Lord Melbourne
What is so much hullabaloo about? Pakistan has accepted that the Mumbai terror attacks were partially planned on their soil. Great! If Islamabad didn’t say so, [...]
The Pakistan army spokesman in Swat issued a statement on the eve of General Kayani’s unscheduled visit to the region.
“The militants who are sponsored by foreign spy agencies would be completely crushed and their strongholds would be destroyed or captured,” he said.[Tribune]
One never knew that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence was considered a foreign spy [...]
How Viagra helps CIA win friends by enticing Afghan Chieftains.
From the WaPo –
According to the retired operative who was there, the man was a clan leader in southern Afghanistan who had been wary of Americans — neither supportive nor actively opposed. The man had extensive knowledge of the region and his village controlled key passages [...]
India needs to amalgamate all its Special Forces assets under a single strategic control.
When the NSG was raised as a crack counter-terrorist force in the 1980s, it used to operate directly under the PMO. Then it was transferred under the Home ministry. In the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks, there is a clamour for raising [...]
This quote from Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Thomas Schelling’s foreword to Roberta Wohlstetter’s superb book, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision captures the essence of what has been witnessed before, during and after the Mumbai terror attacks. [Thanks BeeCee]
Surprise, when it happens to a government, is likely to be a complicated diffuse bureaucratic thing. [...]
The PM should at least get the Supreme Court order on police reforms implemented by all the states in the all-party meeting tomorrow.
You may not be interested in war but war is interested in you. ~Leon Trotsky
The Prime Minister has called for an all-party meeting tomorrow in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. [...]
The electronic media is going to town with stories about the palpable anger brewing among the Mumbaikars and the nation at large. What is this anger about? Who are they angry at?
Most of the people are outraged because their lives are not secure. That is perfectly understandable. It is the answer to the second question [...]
Here are certain observations on the few facts that have emerged so far on the terrorists’ attacks in Mumbai.
Fountainhead of jehadi terrorism is still Afghanistan-Pakistan
It was evidently done by terrorists who were from Pakistan. It had all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack in its scale, planning, execution and targeting of western tourists. The [...]
…to these innumerable stories on Lieutenant Colonel Purohit and Malegaon blasts in the media.
Truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that. ~Edward R. Murrow
The Malegaon blasts, [...]
..it is the victory of self-negation over self-realisation in the Indian military.
This is not about the Malegaon blasts or Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit. This is not about the declining secular values in the Indian defence services or the “dented” public image of the Indian army either. This is about the Indian military as an institution [...]
…of US strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Obama Kashmir Thesis continues to ruffle feathers in India. It has now drawn a sharp rebuke from another renowned Indian commentator, K Subrahmanyam. He warns Obama to Lay off Kashmir, as the Obama theory allows Pakistan to get away with mischief on both the fronts — Afghanistan and [...]
…is not related to the Indian Army as an institution.
Immediately after the arrest of the ex-Major comes the news that the Anti-Terrorist Squad is set to question a serving officer of the Indian Army in connection with the Malegaon blasts. Myriad newsreports claim that most of the accused have been associated with the Bhonsala Military [...]
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