Time to reform India's intelligence agency

Ok, so, I'm back after a long hiatus - well actually, I don't feel up to it since I came back from India. It's not that I was sick or something, it's just...

Moving on. Lots of stuff happened since I last wrote in here. Most notably, the world witnessed the inauguration of America's first African American President. Pakistan, through the CIA, obtained the Indian intelligence on the Mumbai attack, more than a million Americans lost their jobs, Congress finally approved Obama's stimulus package, and Pakistan signed a peace treaty with Taliban in the Swat Valley in exchange for an Islamic rule in the region. Nothing remarkable, except for the last bit.

The peace treaty in the Swat Valley was a sure sign that the Pakistanis are either reluctant to take on their prodigal son, the Taliban or are inept to do so. My thinking leans toward the former.

By acquiescing to Taliban's demand for Islamic rule in the Swat Valley and the other Tribal Areas, Pakistan has clearly been playing the double agent card, acting as naive bystander. All this and more while requesting billions in American dollars for military procurement which ends up along the border with India, and not on the other side of the country where the perpetrators of the attacks on New York roams free.

In the eight years since the Taliban and Al-Qeada has been in hiding inside Pakistan, the threat of Taliban (and Al-Qeada) taking over the country is not just a distant possibility, but its an imminent one. God knows if they get their hands on Pakistan's 50 or so nuclear warheads, they would love nothing better than to destroy India. Yet time and time again, Indian intelligence agencies have failed to act, no matter that each failure was followed by a review of the said failure.

So how can India reform its intelligence community?

Well, for starters, let's get rid of all the existing intelligence, counter-intelligence and military intelligence agencies - well, at least the structure in which they are organized into. These various intelligence groups tend to overlap in their responsibilities, yet nothing good comes out of it. What they should not have done is to put all their eggs in one basket.

Here's how they should reform the entire intelligence community. First of all, they should bring back the Research and Analysis Wing, and all other such agencies into the Intelligence Bureau's fold. The reason is simple and logical: RAW should concentrate on task which its name implies, research and analyze the intelligence gathered by the various divisions among the IB. The result could be shared throughout the IB minus the legal and bureaucratic wrangle the traditional Indian government was known for.

Instead of creating a new National Investigation Agency in response to the Mumbai terror attacks, India should have decoupled the Central Bureau of Investigation completely from the police force. CBI should be an independent investigation arm of the government, as such it should shy away from any politicizing whatever responsibility it was created for. CBI's personnel should be recruited through its academy, and not from the ranks of the police force, speaking of which...

The entire police force should be revamped. The government should spend billions of American dollars to modernize it. The should purchase and train its police force in using the latest technology and weapons - which should include modern two-way radio, bullet-proof vests and handgun. It won't suffice for the police force to depend on bloated personnel wielding stick when the modern criminal fraternity utilizes the latest GPS, communication gadgets and weapons. Police personnel should be patrolling the streets in twos or threes instead of the whole lot of them packed like a tuna can in a jeep the whole world associates with the IPS. Thus discard its fleet of dinosaur-aged jeeps and purchasing from local automotive manufacturers cars which can get them to a flash point in a fast and reliable manner, should be a priority.

Ok, I know that it doesn't matter if the entire police force was equipped with Hummers and iPhones, India still needs a police officer who is not another high school graduate. They should start churning out the constables from the academy, trained to respect human rights and uphold the dignity of the people they were supposed to protect. They should not be another set of thugs walking down the street wielding sticks - in fact, India should start promoting professionalism among its security force. And by professionalism, I mean the conduct of an officer should be on par with the modern day police force seen across the globe, and not the same old force established by the British colonists.

What are the conduct of a modern day police officer? Well for starters, they should refrain from using force against those who seek protection in the first place (well, such incidence are a common place in India, where else?). The same could be say when dealing with criminals, regardless of their crime (unless of course they try to inflict bodily harm on the civilians or the police officers). Other than that, officers should conduct investigations or at least attend a complaint with detached emotions. These simple measures would go along way to instill confidence in the public it was tasked to protect in the first place. There are more which can be done, but let's move on, shall we?

Now, let's focus on the Intelligence Bureau. The IB should be a single entity whose responsibility is to carry out the various aspects of intelligence acquisition - human intelligence, counter intelligence, signal intelligence and military intelligence.

The human intelligence should focus on the attempt at infiltration of enemy organisation or territory through recruitment or by employing the latest in eaves dropping technology. As such, there will be a tremendous need for personnel with foreign language skills, and technical specialist such as electronic engineers. Thus, recruitment should focus on intelligent athletic youths from colleges and universities across the country.

The responsibility for counter intelligence operations should be tasked to the CBI. The CBI should be an agency of the government under cabinet level ministry for justice. It should conduct investigations regarding crimes across state boundaries, corruption, organized crimes, counter intelligence activities against foreigners (diplomats included) and locals, and finally counter terrorism operations within the India's borders. It should be the premier investigation agency in India, and it must not succumb to political pressure when pursuing justice when the police force fails. It must develop modern forensic methodology in this regard (which includes criminal profiling, evidence gathering, processing and interpretation), and as such, its academy should provide such course to attract more personnel into the CBI. With such broad ranging jurisdiction, the CBI should in essence, become India's equivalent of the FBI.

In a world where electronic communication methods fast becoming an integral part of our life, a separate agency to handle such issues as electronic communication interception, decryption and encryption is a must if India is to successfully prevent another occurrence of terrorism within its borders. Such an agency should be given as much budget as possible as to hire young mathematicians, computer scientists and electronic engineers. The agency such develop a secure communication protocol that would hinder the ability of hostile nations from hacking into India's military communication system. The agency should also invest in new satellite technology and other electronic interception device that India would be able to use against hostile nations, especially in times of war.

As for military intelligence, it should focus on tactical and strategic deployments of hostile nations and obtain their military capabilities. This would require the development of intelligence gathering assets such as an early warning system (land, sea and air based systems), reconnaissance aircraft and the ability to acquire the latest technological development withing the hostile nations' arsenal.

These are the initial suggestions for a streamlined Indian intelligence community. By herding the various sections of the intelligence community into a single entity, the Indian government could reduce the notorious bureaucracy withing the community, thus ensuring a well oiled intelligence operations for the 21st century.

What is necessary is to establish these agency at separate locations (to ensure the survivability of at least one of these agencies in the event of a nuclear attack on India), yet the heads of these agencies would then be the deputy to the director of IB in the Prime Minister's office. The RAW would analyze and interpret the intelligence gathered through these various agencies and disseminate information to the relevant arm of the government for further actions. This structure would ensure that political bickering would be kept to a minimum in the interest of national security.

Yet, would the politicians be able to set aside their differences in the interest of national security?