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Shakeel Afridi case study: A similar case from India

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Unnikrishnan confessed to high treason. He was kept under preventive detention at Tihar Jail for a year and then dismissed from service. "We didn't have any evidence that would stand in a court of law," a former R&AW chief says. Unnikrishnan is believed to have settled in Chennai and keeps a low profile. Agency officials say 'he has not surfaced in any manner'. They would prefer it stays that way.



Madras Cafe brings back uncomfortable memories of the CIA's honey trap

SANDEEP UNNITHAN NEW DELHI, AUGUST 29, 2013 | UPDATED 09:24 IST



R&AW officials who recently went in to see John Abraham play intrepid spy Major Vikram Singh in Madras Cafe, were in for a rude shock. Abraham's nemesis Bala, superbly essayed by Kannada stage actor Prakash Belawadi, was inspired by a real life R&AW mole. It is a story India's external agency would prefer to forget. KV Unnikrishnan, the agency's station chief in Madras in 1987 was honey trapped by the CIA. The US spy service threatened to reveal Unnikrishnan's compromising photographs with an airhostess (Madras Cafe shows it as a sex tape) to force him to cooperate.


Unnikrishnan, 47, worked for the CIA for nearly two years informing them about what was then an ultra-secret operation: R&AW training and arming Tamil groups including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Indian government's negotiating positions on the peace accord with Sri Lanka. Unnikrishnan's sensational uncovering as a CIA mole, shook India's external intelligence agency. It was the first major high-level penetration of India's external intelligence agency, then only 19 years old.




"It was a very grevious breach of security," says a former R&AW chief. A 1962 batch IPS officer on deputation to the spy agency, the suave Kerala-born Unnikrishnan was earlier posted in Colombo and later in Chennai where he had access to sensitive information. He was finally tracked and trapped by the Intelligence Bureau in Mumbai where he had gone to meet his CIA handler.
From the archives: When a spy was honey trapped

Retired officials say the film's premise that he helped the LTTE is untrue. "He had no such intention," a former official says. "But he did incalculable harm to us by revealing all our plans to his handlers."



Unnikrishnan's betrayal was well before Rajiv Gandhi assassination in 1991. He was led into a honey trap when he was posted in Colombo in the early 1980s. But his handlers, in typical intelligence operations protocol, waited until he was important for them. They then revived contact when he was put in charge of LTTE operations in Chennai in 1985-86.



"Unni could have cut off the damage to him and to us had he alerted us. But he hid it from us and his family," says a former officer familiar with the case. In the 1970s another agent was similarly honey trapped by the East Bloc in Warsaw. He had gone alone for a working lunch with a contact, his drinks were spiked and he was photographed with a woman. That officer behaved according to standing instructions. He took his car to Bonn and phoned R&AW chief RN Kao who told him to fly back to Delhi, assuring him that his family would be flown back to Delhi. "That chap saved himself and us a big problem. Had Unni done that, the humiliation would not have been there. That's why we always insisted that only married officers are posted outside," he says. (The only exception was the late B.Raman).


Unnikrishnan confessed to high treason. (In the movie, Bala shoots himself). He was kept under preventive detention at Tihar Jail for a year and then dismissed from service. "We didn't have any evidence that would stand in a court of law," a former R&AW chief says. Unnikrishnan is believed to have settled in Chennai and keeps a low profile. Agency officials say 'he has not surfaced in any manner'. They would prefer it stays that way



Read more at: Madras Cafe brings back uncomfortable memories of the CIA's honey trap : North, News - India Today
 
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Wow, this is like how ALH Dhruv looks like every other helicopter, with rotor blades, and aerodynamic shape and hence must be a copy kind of logic.

I don't see any similiarity with Shakeel Afridi case, elaborate please @mafiya.

I think he's saying the poor doctor was forced into helping to find OBL and hence should be released and given a medal because his work helped in tracing down terrorist no 1 in the world.

OTOH some people seem to say that an example must be made of him because today he gave away OBL, tomorrow someone might feel emboldened to give away Dawood!!!
 
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A similar case in such a sense, that sometimes you don't have a physical proof to convict people. Yet you have to take care of them somehow.
 
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I don't see any similiarity with Shakeel Afridi case, elaborate please @mafiya.

Mr. SANDEEP UNNITHAN said so and he also elaborated so why don't you read :)

Mafiya has nothing to do with it
 
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Mr. SANDEEP UNNITHAN said so and he also elaborated so why don't you read :)

Mafiya has nothing to do with it

Oh really? Where exactly? Do point it out for us lesser human beings please, since you are the only here who can read.

A similar case in such a sense, that sometimes you don't have a physical proof to convict people. Yet you have to take care of them somehow.

Thats why he was released after one year ?:lol: And not to forget Unnikrishnan worked for India's intel agency. Shakeel Afridi didn't work for Pakistani agencies, or did he? ;)
 
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Oh really? Where exactly? Do point it out for us lesser human beings please, since you are the only here who can read.



Thats why he was released after one year ?:lol: And not to forget Unnikrishnan worked for India's intel agency. Shakeel Afridi didn't work for Pakistani agencies, or did he? ;)

Well, let's just say, RAW is civilian Intel who tends to have a soft corner :D

There is no physical evidence against shakeel afridi, but every one knows he worked for CIA. Indians in another thread were doubting weather how shakeel afridi is being charged without proof. So I just had to logically tell them about similar cases
 
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Mr. SANDEEP UNNITHAN said so and he also elaborated so why don't you read :)

Mafiya has nothing to do with it

Mr Sandeep Unnithan said nothing of the sort. The OP @mafiya changed the put a misleading title (which is against forum rules) about an article that has no reference to shakil afridi.

Please tell us where sandeep unnithan mentioned any similarity to that case, and if you can't do that, in future be more careful about jumping up to defend the indefensible.
 
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Mr Sandeep Unnithan said nothing of the sort. The OP @mafiya changed the put a misleading title (which is against forum rules) about an article that has no reference to shakil afridi.

Please tell us where sandeep unnithan mentioned any similarity to that case, and if you can't do that, in future be more careful about jumping up to defend the indefensible.

Did you care to read my above post, where I put my explanation? Or did you just jumped in thread full retard?
 
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Well, let's just say, RAW is civilian Intel who tends to have a soft corner :D

There is no physical evidence against shakeel afridi, but every one knows he worked for CIA. Indians in another thread were doubting weather how shakeel afridi is being charged without proof. So I just had to logically tell them about similar cases

There is no similarity anywhere, except that both of them worked for a foreign agency. One voluntarily, the other upon being coerced.

Indians were not doubting shakil afridi's involvement - we were expressing astonishment that his actions, which led to the world's most wanted terrorist being killed, instead of being rewarded, were being penalized. We were wondering at the priorities of the justice system in Pakistan that instead of all the Pakistanis involved in protecting bin laden, it was the person who gave him away who was being punished. It is the illogicality and the hypocrisy that amazes us, not the question of proof. Because most of us don't consider betraying a mass murderer to competent authorities to be a crime.
 
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There is no similarity anywhere, except that both of them worked for a foreign agency. One voluntarily, the other upon being coerced.

Indians were not doubting shakil afridi's involvement - we were expressing astonishment that his actions, which led to the world's most wanted terrorist being killed, instead of being rewarded, were being penalized. We were wondering at the priorities of the justice system in Pakistan that instead of all the Pakistanis involved in protecting bin laden, it was the person who gave him away who was being punished. It is the illogicality and the hypocrisy that amazes us, not the question of proof. Because most of us don't consider betraying a mass murderer to competent authorities to be a crime.

Did Shakeel Afridi at that time knew CIA is using them to find OBL ?
 
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Did you care to read my above post, where I put my explanation? Or did you just jumped in thread full retard?

I read your post, and I was able to give a better "similarity" than the feeble one you gave. It is in my previous post above. You may have more of a chance convincing people of similarity by mentioning that both were arrested for working with a foreign intelligence agency, rather than the tedious, contrived explanation you tried to give. I gave a slightly better similarity for you, so I did you a favor. Cut off the name calling about retardation, since it is rather obvious that I am more incisive than you.

Did Shakeel Afridi at that time knew CIA is using them to find OBL ?

You should ask him. I'm not shakil afridi's spokesperson. Anyway this thread is about the RAW guy, not shakil afridi, since the parallel you have tried to draw has not been sufficiently justified. I suppose deep down you are embarrassed about your country arresting just one person after the OBL fisco, and that too the man who helped to nab the mass murderer, rather than the people who lodged and boarded and shielded him. So you are trying desperately to find such a case from India, and hence this silly attempt at a comparison.
 
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I read your post, and I was able to give a better "similarity" than the feeble one you gave. It is in my previous post above. You may have more of a chance convincing people of similarity by mentioning that both were arrested for working with a foreign intelligence agency, rather than the tedious, contrived explanation you tried to give. I gave a slightly better similarity for you, so I did you a favor. Cut off the name calling about retardation, since it is rather obvious that I am more incisive than you.



You should ask him. I'm not shakil afridi's spokesperson. Anyway this thread is about the RAW guy, not shakil afridi, since the parallel you have tried to draw has not been sufficiently justified. I suppose deep down you are embarrassed about your country arresting just one person after the OBL fisco, and that too the man who helped to nab the mass murderer, rather than the people who lodged and boarded and shielded him. So you are trying desperately to find such a case from India, and hence this silly attempt at a comparison.

A logical fallacy in your argument, A man who acted on behalf of Intel agency, without knowing what he is doing. Than how come you indians are justifying his arrest is a shocking matter?

Yes I'm deep down embarrassed, Our agency failed in finding OBL and the moles hired by CIA.

Similarly CIA hired an Indian national because he had the means to provide them info which would have exposed Indian helping terrorists in Srilanka? Wasn't that a good cause?

So at one side, you defend a person for his help in a good cause despite that person didn't know for what he was hired and he could have used to spy something more dangerous and controverisal

And on the other side, a person who offered his services so to give info about indian creating problem other countries , yet he is condemned by indians!

Isn't it hypocrisy on part of you and other indians you shamelessly support shakeel afridi yet agrees with the notion what Indian national did was totally wrong!
 
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A logical fallacy in your argument, A man who acted on behalf of Intel agency, without knowing what he is doing. Than how come you indians are justifying his arrest is a shocking matter?

Yes I'm deep down embarrassed, Our agency failed in finding OBL and the moles hired by CIA.

Similarly CIA hired an Indian national because he had the means to provide them info which would have exposed Indian helping terrorists in Srilanka? Wasn't that a good cause?

So at one side, you defend a person for his help in a good cause despite that person didn't know for what he was hired and he could have used to spy something more dangerous and controverisal

And on the other side, a person who offered his services so to give info about indian creating problem other countries , yet he is condemned by indians!

Isn't it hypocrisy on part of you and other indians you shamelessly support shakeel afridi yet agrees with the notion what Indian national did was totally wrong!

I did not say he didn't know. I said "you should ask him" - which is supposed to mean that I don't know whether he knew or not. So no logical contradiction there. (BTW it would have been a contradiction, not a fallacy. As it so happens, it is neither.)

About the LTTE issue - at that time, we did not consider the LTTE a terrorist group. Neither did most of the world. India was training and arming tamils because of the persecution they were suffering at the hands of the Sinhalese, and the pogroms that took place. Later on India was asked to keep the peace between the two sides, after the other side had acquired some military capability thanks to India. It was even later that they devolved into a terrorist group, and since then, India has actively opposed them, and helped the sri Lankan military to crush them. Anyway all that is too long to go into here.

In short, the answer to your point is this - that when India was secretly creating an armed force among the marginalized tamils, they (the tamil resistance group) was not considered a terrorist organization like al Qaeda was. Bin laden was wanted all over the world, heck even "officially" by Pakistan. Was that how it was with India and prabhakaran at that time? No.

And that is why the attempt at drawing parallels still fails.

(As for the RAW officer in question - he was arrested because he allowed himself to be honeytrapped on duty, and after that, he did not follow proper procedure. He should have reported to RAW that he was being blackmailed. Instead, he allowed himself to be coerced into leaking official secrets to a foreign agency. Hence the arrest. It's not like he was arrested for revealing the details of the world's most wanted man to the authorities who were competent enough to take him out. If shakil afridi had an affair with a CIA planted woman while he working for ISI, and then gave away national secrets to cover that up, then your parallel may have made sense.)
 
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