Before the First World War, external threats to national security
mainly arose from other States. The success of the October Revolution in the USSR, the
advent of the Communist International and the birth of Communist China were followed by
aggressive attempts by the Communist International and the Communist States to export
their ideology to the non-Communist countries and to assist the Communist Parties of those
countries achieve power, if possible, by legitimate means and, if necessary, by
illegitimate revolutionary means.
Such assistance was overt as well as covert. The overt assistance
was in the form of propaganda support through the printed and electronic media and the
covert assistance was in the form of clandestine supply of funds, military and
para-military training for the cadres of the Communist parties of other countries and
ideological guidance.
To conceal the role of the Communist States in providing such
covert assistance, the technique of front organisations was used. These front
organisations were non-governmental groups, ostensibly taking interest in seemingly benign
objectives such as promotion of literacy, encouragement of arts and culture, welfare of
the peasants and workers etc.
An international network of such front organisations was formed
under the guidance of the Communist Parties of the USSR and China and clandestine
assistance was funnelled through this network without the Communist States getting
directly involved.
This led to a realisation that threats to national security could
arise not only from other States, but also from ideologically-oriented parties and groups
and their front organisations, acting ostensibly independently, but really at the behest
of other States.
The period of the Cold War saw aggressive attempts by the Western
countries, led by the USA, to prevent the spread of Communism and to counter the attempts
of the USSR and China to export the Communist revolution through their parties and front
organisations.
They adopted the same techniques as the Communist countries. They
clandestinely supplied funds to parties and organisations opposed to the Communist
ideology and promoted a large number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) ostensibly
taking interest in subjects such as environment, child labour, women's welfare etc and
used these organisations for funnelling funds and guidance.
They also set up a vast propaganda network in the form of the
Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC), the Cable News Network (CNN) and Radio Free Asia to counter the
Communist propaganda and to influence public opinion in the non-Communist countries in
favour of the West and to create feelings of alienation in the minds of the people of the
Communist States.
As a result of the new techniques adopted by the Communist and
the Western blocs during the Cold War, threats to national security arose not only from
conventional means such as the direct or indirect use of the armed forces, but also from
non-conventional means such as softening the minds of the population in different
countries, perception management, ideological subversion etc.
The advent of the information technology and the vast information
network in the form of the Internet etc, have placed at the hands of external powers and
groups new, sophisticated non-conventional means of indirectly influencing developments in
other States and in weakening their capability to protect their national security.
Another non-conventional technique, which came into vogue during
the 1970s, was the use of the intelligence agencies of other compliant states as
surrogates by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US for its operations in other
countries. This technique enabled the CIA to circumvent the various restrictions placed on
its operations by the US Congress following the post-Watergate enquiries, which brought to
light large-scale abuses by the CIA.
Amongst such restrictions imposed by the President himself or the
Congress were the ban on the use of American Christian missionaries for intelligence
operations and the requirement of prior approval for covert destabilisation operations in
foreign countries. To circumvent them, the CIA has been using the intelligence agencies of
compliant countries, which are not subject to such restrictions.
Thus, it has been extensively using the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan for its operations in the Islamic countries, the MOSSAD,
the Israeli external intelligence agency, for its operations in West Asia and North Africa
and the Australian intelligence for its operations in South-East Asia.
The Australian Intelligence, at its own initiative as well as at
the alleged behest of the CIA, is reported to be very active in Thailand
(target:Myanmar),Indonesia and Malaysia and there are suspicions that the Australian
Intelligence has been playing an active role in the current campaign against Dr.Mahatir
Mohammad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is not liked by either Australia or the US
because of his intensely independent attitude.
With the discontinuance by China in 1979 of the export of its
revolutionary ideology and with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, threats to national
security from overseas Communist organisations have diminished. However, this has not
resulted in a decrease in the efforts of the Western States, led by the USA, to influence
developments in other States in a direction favourable to their political, economic,
ideological and strategic objectives through the means developed during the Cold War and
continuously perfected since then.
New pretexts are used to justify their pressure on other States
and their attempts to influence developments there. Such pretexts include promotion of
free trade and globalisation, human rights, religious rights, protection of environment,
non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction etc.
Amongst the new techniques brought into play are the so-called
Track II diplomacy (achievement of diplomatic objectives through the moulding of public
opinion) and the floating of new NGOs to create public opinion in the targetted countries
in favour of the US objectives on issues such as nuclear non-proliferation, human rights
etc.
To conceal the hand of the State in the orchestration of the new
NGOs, Western corporate houses and private and other academic foundations are used to fund
them. Thus, the major source of funding of the Human Rights Watch in the US, which is
suspected to be clandestinely helping the US Government in using the weapon of human
rights to achieve its national objectives, is Mr.George Soros, who was accused by
Dr.Mahatir Mohammad in 1997 of adding to the economic difficulties of the ASEAN countries
to punish them for their support to the Government of Myanmar and for admitting it to the
ASEAN.
In the past, the Amnesty International had allegedly worked in
tandem with the MI-6, the British external intelligence agency.
Before 1991, the anti-nuclear movement of the peaceniks of the
Western countries was largely orchestrated by the Committee of State Security (KGB), the
intelligence agency of the USSR, and Stasi, the intelligence agency of former East
Germany.
Now, the anti-nuclear movement in Asia, particularly in South
Asia, is choreographed by the Non-Proliferation Division of the CIA through reputed
academic institutions and think-tanks, which are prepared to collaborate with the CIA.
Through the intermediary of such institutions, funds are allegedly being funnelled to
promote new think-tanks, which would oppose the policies of the regional governments,
which are not in consonance with those of the USA.
Apart from the US intelligence agencies, the US Energy
Department, which co-ordinates the functioning of nuclear research institutions, has also
been active in this field. A non-proliferation expert of the Energy Department is recently
reported to have been posted as Special Assistant to the US Ambassador in New Delhi to
keep in touch with various NGOs and think-tanks, which are against nuclear weaponisation
and encourage their activities. It is believed that she had previously served in the
Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Pentagon and, possibly, also in the
Non-Proliferation Division of the CIA.
After the Second World War, many other groups posing threats to
national security have come into being such as terrorist groups, Islamic extremist
organisations, narcotics-smuggling gangs and organised crime mafia groups.
The sponsorship of such groups by different States, through their
intelligence agencies, to achieve their national objectives against adversary nations
without resorting to a direct war led to the intensification and sophistication of what
are called proxy war techniques. A proxy war is fought not directly, but through the
intermediary of individuals and groups in the adversary nations, which are prepared to
take to violence against the adversary State at the behest of external powers.
The old Communist International has now been replaced by an
Islamic Jihad International, an amorphous group of Islamic extremist organisations and
free-lance terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden of the International Islamic Front for Jihad
against the US and Israel and Al Khattab (suspected real name: Habib Abd al-Rahman),
another Saudi terrorist of Jordanian origin, who is now assisting the Chechen extremists
against the Russian troops.
Components of this Islamic Jihad International, motivated partly
by religious considerations and partly by monetary ones, have been a major source of
threat to the internal security of the Philippines, Myanmar, India,China, the Central
Asian Republics and Russia.
They have had no compunctions in letting themselves be used by
various intelligence agencies for achieving their objectives. Thus, the CIA and other
Western intelligence agencies used them against the USSR in Afghanistan, the ISI against
India and Russia for selling arms and ammunition to India, the Saudi intelligence agency
for its operations against Iraq and Iran, the Iraqi intelligence agencies for their
operations against Saudi Arabia and Iran and the Iranian intelligence agencies for their
operations against Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Since the end of the traditional cold war and the beginning of
what has been described as the "mercantalist cold war", the importance attached
to the collection and analysis of economic and technological intelligence has increased.
This has, however, not resulted in a diminution of the importance hitherto attached to
political and military intelligence.
The priorities in respect of political and military intelligence
are also changing following the disappearance of international communism and the emergence
of international Islam as a potent destabilising element in national as well as
international politics and the increasing concerns of countries over energy security and
the possible threats to energy supplies.
Another dimension to the changing priorities has been added by
the increase not only in the number of nuclear and nuclear and missile capable States, but
also in the number of terrorist and religious groups suspected to be looking for a
capability in nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Consequently, the political, religious and violence-prone
activities of trans-national Islamic organisations are receiving the same priority as
internal political and economic developments in neighbouring and regional States. Covert,
deniable actions to achieve national security objectives, when the use of normal
diplomatic means or conventional military power for the purpose is not feasible, were
resorted to even before the Second World War, but now such actions have been increasing in
frequency, intensity and sophistication, thanks to modern technologies.
Past covert actions were essentially of a psychological (psywar)
or para-military dimension. The same dimensions, while still valid, have now assumed added
nuances. To the concept of political psywar has been added that of economic psywar to
damage the economy and competitiveness of a target-nation or a target-industrial or
trading group. The increasing dependence of the business world on electronic networks has,
on the one hand, led to a tremendous economic growth, but, on the other, made the economy
unconsciously vulnerable to attempts at electronic sabotage. The new media technologies
and perception-management techniques have placed in the hands of external forces means of
making people distrust the claims of their own leaders and experts regarding the state of
the economy and thereby creating market turbulence.
Past para-military covert actions led to large casualties of
innocent civilians, thereby, not infrequently, shocking public opinion even in the country
resorting to such actions and creating a backlash against them. Electronic covert actions
through the use of malicious software and other means could achieve the same objective
without human casualties and thus make covert actions acceptable to the public.
Consequently, any intelligence community, to be effective, has to
keep itself abreast of technologies susceptible to being used in covert actions, and build
up for itself not only a defensive, counter-capability, but also an offensive capability,
for possible use, if required.
The advent of modern technologies and the mercantalist cold war
have markedly changed the concept of counter-intelligence (CI). CI experts have now to
contend with not only human moles acquired or planted in a sensitive establishment by a
foreign agency, but also microchip moles designed and planted in the information,
telecommunication and media systems acquired from abroad. How to detect and neutralise
such microchip moles designed to carry out the wishes of their maker without the knowledge
of their user is a subject, which has to receive increasing attention
The post-1991 globalised world has given rise to new elements,
susceptible to being exploited as surrogates of foreign intelligence agencies for
intelligence collection and covert actions. These are the foreign multinationals and other
business houses whose ultimate loyalty is to the country of their origin and not to that
where they operate. The use of business houses for intelligence collection and covert
actions is a technique already used by the West, China and Japan and even Pakistan has
made a start with it. The identification of such business houses and the monitoring of
their activities have to be a new priority of any intelligence community.
The Indian intelligence community essentially consists of the
Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the Directorate-General
of Security, the Directorates-General of Intelligence of the three services of the Armed
Forces and the intelligence wings of the para-military forces and the State Governments.
At present, there is no system of co-ordination of their
activities, allocation of budgetary resources, assignment of tasks and monitoring of their
performance. There is no official who can take an over-all, co-ordinated view of the
functioning of the intelligence community as a whole in order to advise the Prime Minister
on their performance and ensure that the intelligence produced is relevant to changing
national security needs and is cost-effective.
In the US, there is a post of Director, Central Intelligence,
whose function is such co-ordination. He also acts as the principal Adviser to the
President on all intelligence matters. Till now, this post is being held by the Director
of the CIA, who thus functions as the administrative and operational head of the CIA and,
simultaneously, as the co-ordinator of the functioning of the intelligence community as a
whole.
There have periodically been suggestions for the separation of
these two posts and to appoint a separate officer to act as the Adviser and Co-ordinator
on all intelligence matters, without any responsibility for the day-to-day running of any
single intelligence agency. Germany, France and some other Western countries already have
such a functionary.
Keeping in view the past examples of ineffective co-ordination as
seen in the case of the Mumbai blasts of March 1993 and the Purulia arms drop of 1995 and
in the light of the Kargil experience and the changing complexity of the role of
intelligence, it would be necessary for the newly-elected Government of India to create a
post of National Intelligence Adviser to supervise and guide the working of all the
agencies of the intelligence community and act as the principal Adviser to the Prime
Minister on all intelligence matters.
B.RAMAN
(4-10-99)
