Threats to national security
could be external and internal, overt and covert, direct and indirect and conventional and
non-conventional. 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, womens 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 Abdal-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 & 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
transnational 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, then 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, economic psywar has been added 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 the 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 the
country 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.