CIA activities in India
{{Short description|none}}
{{context|date=April 2019}}
Below is a list of speculated CIA activities in India.
1950s
The Cold War was marked by geopolitical tensions between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union. Both superpowers sought to gain the allegiance of newly independent India, as its alignment could significantly influence the global balance of power. The U.S. and the Soviet Union employed their intelligence and espionage networks to win India over to their respective ideologies. In 1949, T.G. Sanjeev, the director of the Indian Intelligence Service, collaborated with the CIA to monitor communist China. Following China's annexation of Tibet, the CIA, under Indian supervision, supported Tibetan resistance fighters in 1950. The CIA facilitated the safe passage of the Dalai Lama to India in 1959. A secret CIA military base was established in Charbatia, Odisha, which was utilized for U-2 spy plane operations over China.{{cite web |last1=Mattoo |first1=Shashank |title=Cold War Espionage: How CIA and KGB fought for influence over India in a Secret Intelligence War in the 1940s |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/global/story/cold-war-espionage-cold-war-spies-battled-for-influence-over-india-in-the-1940s-2578435-2024-08-07 |website=indiatoday}}
In 1955, a chartered Indian airliner, Kashmir Princess, was bombed. There is substantial evidence that the Kuomintang may have planted the bomb, attempting to assassinate Zhou Enlai, who had been expected on it. CIA involvement is much less clear, although some general claims are made.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}
In a 1971 face-to-face meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Zhou directly asked Henry Kissinger about US involvement, whose response included the line "As I told the Prime Minister the last time, he vastly overestimates the competence of the CIA."{{citation
| volume = Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume E-13, Documents on China, 1969-1972
| series = Foreign
| url = https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e13/72454.htm
| title = Memorandum of conversation (Henry Kissinger, Zhou Enlai, and staff)
| date = October 21, 1971
| publisher = United States Department of State
}} Kissinger denied any US policy to kill him, and the two discussed the CIA at some length, in a manner unusual to find in US records.
In 1958, India's nuclear programs were assessed.{{citation
| author = Office of Scientific Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency
| title = Indian Nuclear Energy Program
| date = February 18, 1958
| url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB187/IN01.pdf
}} Speculations are made by the intelligence experts{{By whom|date=October 2022}} that the CIA orchestrated the plane crash in which Homi Jehangir Bhabha, an Indian nuclear scientist, was killed.
During a period of anti-communist protests dubbed the Vimochana Samaram (English: "Liberation Struggle") against the first elected state government in Kerala, India, which was led by E. M. S. Namboodiripad of the Communist Party of India. The protests were largely funded by the CIA.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} Following mass protests in 1959, the Indian government finally bowed to pressure and dismissed Namboodiripad on 31 July 1959.{{Cite web |date=2008-03-02 |title=The Hindu : Kerala / Kottayam News : Fresh light on 'Liberation Struggle' |url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/12/stories/2008021254000400.htm |access-date=2022-01-13 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080302170836/http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/12/stories/2008021254000400.htm |archive-date=2 March 2008 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|title=Sabarimala protest vs Liberation Struggle: What's the link?|url=https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2018/10/13/sabarimala-protest-liberation-struggle.html|access-date=2022-01-13|website=OnManorama}}
1960s
In 1965, Special National Intelligence Estimate 31-1-65 examined India's nuclear weapons policy for the remainder of the 1960s. In doing so, it examines India's technical capabilities, the pressures for a weapons program, and the opposition to a weapons program. A final section, "The Indian Decision," tries to assess India's decision calculus and notes that India might try to represent any underground test as being for peaceful purposes.{{citation
| author = Central Intelligence Agency
| title = SNIE 31-1-65: India's Nuclear Weapons Policy
| date = October 21, 1965
| url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB187/IN09.pdf
}}
Journalist, conspiracy theorist,{{cite book |last1=Douglas |first1=Gregory |title=Regicide: The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GgMAAAACAAJ |publisher=Castle Hill Pub |language=en |date=2002|isbn=9781591482970 }}{{cite web |last1=Weber |first1=Mark |title=Not Quite the Hitler Diaries - Gestapo Chief (Review) |url=http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v20/v20n2p40_Douglas.html |website=www.ihr.org |access-date=28 January 2023}} and holocaust denier{{cite web |last1=Douglas |first1=Gregory |title=Conversations With The Crow |url=https://archive.org/details/conversations-with-the-crow-pdf/page/n55/mode/2up?q=gas+chambers |access-date=28 January 2023}} Gregory Douglas claimed to have conducted a series of interviews with CIA officer Robert Crowley in 1993. Douglas claims that Crowley implied the CIA was responsible for assassinating Homi J. Bhabha.{{cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/has-a-swiss-climber-traced-mystery-crash-that-killed-homi-bhabha-father-of-indias-atom-bomb-1477249.html|title=Has an Alps Climber Traced Mystery Crash That Killed Homi Bhabha?|website=News18|date=30 July 2017|access-date=9 May 2019}} Douglas wrote that Crowley said that a bomb in the cargo section of the plane exploded mid-air, bringing down the commercial Boeing 707 airliner in Alps with few traces, claiming he described it as "an unfortunate accident".{{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/operative-spoke-of-cia-hand-in-1966-crash-report/articleshow/59826686.cms|title=Homi Bhabha: Operative spoke of CIA hand in 1966 crash: Report |author=Laxman, Srinivas | agency =Times News Network |date= July 30, 2017|website=The Times of India|access-date=9 May 2019}}
When India formed its intelligence agency R&AW in 1968, RAW's first director, R.N. Kao, held meetings with his CIA counterparts in the U.S., as well as the United Kingdom's MI6 and the Soviet Union KGB. Much of the liaison was essentially political in character — what is today known as 'back channel diplomacy' — but R&AW's special operations and SIGINT/IMINT unit, the Aviation Research Centre, received technical assistance from the U.S. in return for information on China.{{citation
| url = http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IH18Df03.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071011030724/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IH18Df03.html
| url-status = unfit
| archive-date = October 11, 2007
| date = August 18, 2007
| title = Book review: India's silent warriors, The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane by B Raman
| first1 = Sreeram | last1 = Chaulia
}}
1970s
India's first nuclear test (codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha) on May 18, 1974 was a surprise to the international intelligence community, although the overall nuclear program and incentives to build a bomb had been discussed.{{citation
| title = U.S. Intelligence and the Indian Bomb: Documents Show U.S. Intelligence Failed to Warn of India's Nuclear Tests Despite Tracking Nuclear Weapons Potential Since 1950s
| volume = Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 187
| editor = Richelson, Jeffrey
| series = National
| date = April 13, 2006
| url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB187/index.htm
}}
India conducted an underground nuclear test at a site in the desert at Pokhran - making it the world's seventh nuclear power. As CIA analysts had previously suggested, India claimed the test was for peaceful purposes. This Top Secret Codeword item in the Central Intelligence Bulletin relays press reporting and public statements by officials of other governments, including Pakistan, and contains analysts assessments of the implications for China.{{citation
| author = Central Intelligence Agency
| title = India [Redacted]
| volume = Intelligence Bulletin
| date = May 20, 1974
| series = Central
| url = http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB187/IN17.pdf
}}
1980s
Sheel Bhadra Yagee claimed that the CIA orchestrated the Sikh uprising which later led to Indira Gandhi assassination by her Sikh body guards.{{citation
| last1 = Yajee | first1 = Sheel Bhadra | authorlink = Sheel Bhadra Yagee
| title =CIA Operations Against the Third World
| publisher = Criterion Publications
| year = 1985
| pages = 120–39
}}
In 1985, according to Frontline magazine, R&AW counter-intelligence obtained a confession, from a field officer in Chennai to admit that he had passed on sensitive information to the CIA and Sri Lankan intelligence. R&AW confronted him with footage showing him making contact with a U.S. national on a beach in Chennai and at a resort in Kerala. R&AW had sought to tighten in-house security after the public fracas that broke out in the wake of the scandal. The Chennai case was a particular embarrassment because it came hot on the heels of another spy scandal involving French and Polish intelligence.
{{citation|author=Swami, Praveen|title=Our Man in New Delhi|date=June 19, 2004|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2113/stories/20040702004403200.htm|journal=Frontline|volume=21|issue=13|df=mdy-all|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329115754/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2113/stories/20040702004403200.htm|publisher=The Hindu|access-date=April 28, 2008|archive-date=March 29, 2008|author-link=Praveen Swami|url-status=usurped}}
In 1987, when the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was in Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan Civil War, Paranthan Rajan came into contact with R&AW officials.{{citation|title=India & the Struggle for Tamil Eelam: RAW aiding paramilitary recruitment in India|date=June 25, 2006|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/intframe/india/060626raw.htm|journal=TamilNet|access-date=April 28, 2008|archive-date=April 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405053720/https://tamilnation.org/intframe/india/060626raw.htm|url-status=dead}} He came to Indian intelligence officials’ attention when he formed a political group, Tamileela Iykkia Viduthalai Munnani. Given his background, observers feel Rajan’s alliance with Karuna{{Who|date=October 2021}} might be R&AW’s handiwork.
1990s
2000s
{{Overly detailed|section|date=October 2021}}
India's ballistic missile capabilities were addressed in a National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that New Delhi believes that a nuclear-capable missile delivery option is necessary to deter Pakistani first use of nuclear weapons and thereby preserve the option to wage limited conventional war in response to Pakistani provocations in Kashmir or elsewhere. Nuclear weapons also serve as a hedge against a confrontation with China. New Delhi views the development, not just the possession, of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles as the symbols of a world power and an important component of self-reliance.{{citation
| title = Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threat Through 2015; Unclassified Summary of a National Intelligence Estimate
| author = Central Intelligence Agency
| url = http://www.fas.org/irp/nic/bmthreat-2015.htm
|date=December 2001}}
Until recently, only R&AW was authorised to have contacts with foreign intelligence agencies — and the job was restricted to a select few within its ranks. Under the National Democratic Alliance coalition government, R&AW, IB, and DIA could interact with counterpart organizations in other countries. Former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, for example, met the heads of the CIA and Israel's Mossad along with Intelligence Bureau staff.{{citation
| url = http://www.indiaabroad.com/news/2004/sep/07guest.htm
| journal = Rediff India Abroad
| title = For the US: India's untrustworthy
| date = September 7, 2004
| author = Bennett, Richard M
| access-date = April 28, 2008
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080928184457/http://www.indiaabroad.com/news/2004/sep/07guest.htm
| archive-date = September 28, 2008
| url-status = dead
}}{{Citation needed|reason=Citation does not support previous statement.|date=July 2008}} Brajesh Mishra, former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is known to have had direct contact with the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence as well. While meetings in themselves are not inappropriate, they can lead to the breakdown of protocols - for example, that intelligence officers will meet a foreign contact only in teams of two - and eventual penetration.{{citation
| url = http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2113/stories/20040702004403200.htm
| first1 =Praveen | last1 = Swami
| title = Our Man in New Delhi
| volume=21
| issue=13
| date = June 19, 2004
| journal = Frontline
| publisher = The Hindu
}}
There is little oversight of this process, which has had the unexpected consequence that "hundreds of Indian agents have been exposed, the term professionals use to describe individuals whose real jobs are known to foreign intelligence organisations.
Rabinder Singh has been described, in Indian media, as a CIA asset inside the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the national intelligence service. It is not clear if he is a member of a larger clandestine HUMINT network.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} The suggestion has already been made by a number of well-placed observers{{by whom|date=October 2022}} that he had acted as a conduit or cutout for a number of highly placed US 'assets' operating deep within the Indian intelligence community, the military and scientific centres working on nuclear and missile development, and others{{by whom|date=October 2022}} inside the political establishment.
The issue also involved problems with the Intelligence Bureau, the domestic security agency, and an overall concern with trust of security officers.
In 2002, Singh visited the US under a liaison initiative based on counter-terror, teaching skills for hostage negotiation and dealing with hijackers. Singh, however, is a Southeast Asia analyst not working on terror issues.{{citation
|url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/06/14/stories/2004061408020100.htm
|journal = The Hindu
|title = Open doors for mole recruitment
|date = June 14, 2004
|first1 = Praveen
|last1 = Swami
|access-date = April 28, 2008
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081010184027/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/06/14/stories/2004061408020100.htm
|archive-date = October 10, 2008
|url-status = usurped
}}
In 2002, the last year for which figures are available, the U.S. hosted 80 courses for officers from India, along with 17 other countries in Asia and Africa. "Intelligence cooperation and liaison have always been chaotic," says former R&AW officer and analyst B. Raman, "but we cannot afford complacency any more."
Singh disappeared from India in May 2004, and applied for asylum in the US.Rediff2004-09-07 Frontline, an Indian newsmagazine, described him as "Joint Secretary handling South-East Asia" for R&AW.Hindu2004-06-14 He came to R&AW as an Indian Army major, who had "served with distinction in Amritsar during Operation Bluestar, the counter-terrorist assault on the Golden Temple in 1984. At some point after this, he again attracted the attention of his superiors, this time by procuring classified U.S. government documentation.
"Rabinder Singh's source seems to have been one of his relatives, a U.S. citizen who has worked for over two decades with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Rabinder Singh's relative is alleged to have visited India regularly on official work, sometimes staying at his residence. This relationship, RAW investigators claim, enabled Rabinder Singh to pass on documents with only a minimal risk of exposure.
"In the early 1980s, the son of then R&AW chief N. Narasimhan left the U.S. after efforts were made to approach the spy chief through him. Narasimhan's son had been denied a visa extension, and was offered its renewal in return for his cooperation with the U.S.' intelligence services. "Not all," says a senior R&AW officer, "would respond with such probity."Frontline2004-06-19
Charges against Singh were filed in 2006. The RAW charges said that they had located Singh in New Jersey and the process should start to seek his extradition. “Now, we will be moving to extradite Singh from the US,” stated the complaint. The Home Ministry had earlier invoked the National Security Act and issued orders to attach Singh’s property.{{citation|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/story/15865.html |title=Rabinder in US, we want him back: RAW in court |author=Tripathi, Rahul |website=IndianExpress.com |date=November 2, 2006 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307091854/http://www.indianexpress.com/story/15865.html |archive-date=March 7, 2008 }}
After losing a first petition for asylum in the US, Singh won on appeal.{{cite court
|litigants=Surender Jeet Singh vs. John Ashcroft
|court=United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit
|date=November 1, 2004
|url= http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/1979AF53DE5277E988256F7200806B72/$file/0371868.pdf?openelement}}
References
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{{CIA activities in the Near East, North Africa, South and Southwest Asia}}
{{Central Intelligence Agency}}
Category:Activities of foreign intelligence agencies in India