Indian spymaster charged over revealing book

[BATMAN]

AFP: Former Indian spymaster charged over revealing book

Former Indian spymaster charged over revealing book

NEW DELHI (AFP) — Indian police on Friday charged a former top official from the country's external intelligence agency for allegedly disclosing state secrets in a book he wrote after retirement, officials said.

Federal detectives from the Central Bureau of Investigation also raided the home of V.K. Singh after slapping him with charges under India's tough Official Secrets Act, which would carry a minimum prison term of seven years.

"The searches are still continuing and he has been booked under section five of the act," which prohibits publication of classified information, bureau spokesman G. Mohanty said.

"It will be too premature to disclose any more details," he added amid reports the agency initially made a mistake by raiding the home of another man with the same name.

Singh, a retired army general, worked as joint director for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and was widely known as one of the key brains behind upgrading the external arm of India's spy service.

Police sources told AFP that the charges were made on the "advice" of the Cabinet Secretariat, a powerful state organ which takes its orders directly from the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In his recently published book, "India's External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW," the former spymaster blamed the 2005 escape of a renegade RAW agent to the United States on "certain lapses" of the government.

The book also alleged political interference and corruption in the agency, including in a multi-million dollar purchase of communication equipment for use by RAW.

RAW was set up in the early 1980s when Indira Gandhi was premier, and is staffed by hundreds of military and civilian personnel. Its funding or operations cannot even be questioned by parliament.

Singh held a sensitive position in the agency when India and rival Pakistan fought a mini-war in Kashmir in 1999. The RAW played a key role in intercepting Pakistani military communication during the six-week combat, the book said.

Singh in the book criticised India's previous administration for allegedly handing over some of the intercepts to then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the height of the fighting in Kashmir's Kargil peaks.

"These revelations compromise our operations and should never have been put in a book," a RAW official said.

Among the tapes purportedly given to Sharif were conversations between Pervez Musharraf -- then army chief and present Pakistan president -- and a commander directing the attacks on Indian troops in Kargil, it claims.

The publisher of the revealing book, Manas Publications, condemned the charges against Singh.

"The raid on the author is an open exploitation and torture of an honest, brave and bold officer as well as of literary circles," said Manas spokesman Vivek Garg.
"All writers and officers from all the (secret) services must join together to oppose this unfair activity of the government," he added.

 

[Awesome]

And they made the book famous in the process.

 

[Awesome]

Anyone heard those alleged conversations between Musharraf and the officers?

Now Mush has a distinct voice and can easily be distinguished. Those tapes sound like fakes.

 

[acidwolf]

And they made the book famous in the process.

yeh i think they r just making a drama so that people start reading this book

 

[Always Neutral]

Anyone heard those alleged conversations between Musharraf and the officers?

Now Mush has a distinct voice and can easily be distinguished. Those tapes sound like fakes.

I heard the tapes and they seem genuine. Infact no one denies they are not genuine including the then PM Nawaz Sharif.

 

[A.Rahman]

I heard the tapes and they seem genuine. Infact no one denies they are not genuine including the then PM Nawaz Sharif.

what do they say? can you post them?

 

[Always Neutral]

I heard it on BBC so I will need to look for them. However Nawaz Sharif gave an interview before he left for Pakistan to Mr Thapar of CNBC and I am pasting the link for you.

Pakistan Ex-PM Sharif Says 1999 Kargil Conflict Against India "Haunts" Him | World News | Gawwk

After Kargil, the Indian prime minister had said he was let down by the Pakistani prime minister (Sharif). I think he is justified in making the remarks. I accept that," Sharif said.

Insisting that he had no knowledge of Musharraf's plans about Kargil, Sharif said there were tapes to prove it.

 

[Spring Onion]

I heard the tapes and they seem genuine. Infact no one denies they are not genuine including the then PM Nawaz Sharif.

I think you are forgetting that sounding familiar to the voices of Musharraf and Aziz dosnt make it authenic.

Did you ever watch thoes jokes dramatized by showing Musharraf and US President and so as other political leaders of our country with voices over dubbing by actors ? if you did well the voice they had recorded as that of Musharraf sounds realy genuine.

So i think the much talked about tap was fake

 

[amunhotep]

And they made the book famous in the process.

well that's what it is all about , dear

to promote the book

the publishers r laughing all the way to the bank.

as they say , negative publicity is better than no publicity.

 

[BATMAN]

What ever, the point is India is the only known state to me, where the law allow to prosecute and punish its citizens without any prior eveidence and investigation. e.g. TADA
In such circumstances criticizing the state is way beyond crossing the line.

 

[Contrarian]

You dont know anything batman, your here trolling again. Do you know what TADA is for? What Pota was for? This is nothing unusual, its illegal to print classified material in their books even after they retire unless they take explicit permission from the govt.

I am sad to see your back on this forum, the standard of debate and talk here will most definitely go down now.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

I think you are forgetting that sounding familiar to the voices of Musharraf and Aziz dosnt make it authenic.

Did you ever watch thoes jokes dramatized by showing Musharraf and US President and so as other political leaders of our country with voices over dubbing by actors ? if you did well the voice they had recorded as that of Musharraf sounds realy genuine.

So i think the much talked about tap was fake

It was authenticated by the electronic voice signature and that too by the US!

And anyway, the book is not giving away any secrets as such. Merely laundering tales of saleable interest.

Pakistan did better - The Bear Trap!

 

[Bull]

What ever, the point is India is the only known state to me, where the law allow to prosecute and punish its citizens without any prior eveidence and investigation. e.g. TADA

Where are your opposition leaders?!!!

 

[Bull]

It was authenticated by the electronic voice signature and that too by the US!

And anyway, the book is not giving away any secrets as such. Merely laundering tales of saleable interest.

Pakistan did better - The Bear Trap!

Whom are trying to explain... to the 'Citizens of United
State of Denial'

 

[Always Neutral]

I think you are forgetting that sounding familiar to the voices of Musharraf and Aziz dosnt make it authenic.

Did you ever watch thoes jokes dramatized by showing Musharraf and US President and so as other political leaders of our country with voices over dubbing by actors ? if you did well the voice they had recorded as that of Musharraf sounds realy genuine.

So i think the much talked about tap was fake

Yes but with todays technology its easy to verify the frequencies of each persons speech and Nawaz Sharif was the PM then so he would not be easily fooled. Infact yesterday he made some statements about Kargil to the Indian Press which all point out to the fact that the General was behind Kargil (see below). Frankly I don't see why there is so much fire about the tapes except for the fact that the RAW could do it in China. Kargil was a strategic move which did not pay off due to Clintons intervention.

Best Regards

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed that he called for a ceasefire to end the Kargil war in 1999 after Army chief Pervez Musharraf “begged” him to do so. Sharif, in an interview for a book Gaddar Kaun, also scoffed at the “pull-out” by the Pakistani troops from Kargil saying they had “lost everything.” He admitted Pakistan made a “request” to militants to withdraw from Kargil only to “show to the world” that Pakistani troops had not occupied the icy heights in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The fact is that when Musharraf’s misadventure failed miserably, this commando general came to me to get the war ceased at any cost,” Sharif told author Suhail Warraich in an interview for an updated edition of the book which was released in Pakistan on Friday. Sharif said that US General Anthony Zinni’s book “verifies this claim of mine”. “His testimony clearly says that it was the army chief and not the prime minister, who wanted the ceasefire.” Sharif refuted Musharraf’s claims that international pressure over Kargil had demoralised him. “It is an interesting claim. I was not demoralised by the international pressure. First, he begged me for a ceasefire and then bade me farewell at the Chaklala Airport for Washington.”