WE BRING HELL TO LIFE
Posted on 06/14/2002 9:01:55 AM PDT by TBP
Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] The Cabinet Secretariat Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] is India's foreign intelligence agency. RAW has become an effective instrument of Indian national power, and has assumed a significant role in formulating India's domestic and foreign policies. RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
In 1968 India established this special branch of its intelligence service specifically targeted on Pakistan. The formation of RAW was based on the belief that Pakistan was supplying weapons to Sikh terrorists, and providing shelter and training to the guerrillas in Pakistan. Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab. Published reports allege that as many as 35,000 RAW agents entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5000 in Balochistan.
The Government of Pakistan frequently assigns responsibility for terrorist activity to the Indian Government, even when no supporting evidence can be verified. It is evidently in the interest of the Pakistani government to blame terrorist actions on external rather than internal sources, just as it would be in the interest of Indian services to obscure their hand in such actions.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW promoted dissatisfaction against Pakistan in East Pakistan, including funding Mujibur Rahmanh's general election in 1970 and providing training and arming the Mukti Bahini.
During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence Bureau established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centers were also established at the high-security military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi. This clandestine support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of whom were on the payroll of RAW, was later suspended. Starting in late 1986 the Research and Analysis Wing focused surveillance on the LTTE which was expanding ties with Tamil Nadu separatist groups. Rajiv Gandhi sought to establish good relations with the LTTE, even after the Indian Peace Keeping Force [IPKF] experience in Sri Lanka. But the Indian intelligence community failed to accurately assess the character of the LTTE and its orientation India and its political leaders. The LTTE assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was apparently motivated by fears of a possible re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka and a crackdown on the LTTE network in Tamil Nadu.
The RAW and the Ministry of External Affairs are provided Rs 25 crore annually as "discretionary grants" for foreign influence operations. These funds have supported organisations fighting Sikh and Kashmiri separatists in the UK, Canada and the US. An extensive network of Indian operatives is reportedly controlled by the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. In 1996 an Indian diplomat was implicated in a scandal over illegal funding of political candidates in the US. Under US law foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to federal elections. The US District Court in Baltimore sentenced Lalit H Gadhia, a naturalised US citizen of Indian origin, to three months imprisonment. Gadhia had confessed that he worked as a conduit between the Indian Embassy and various Indian-American organisations for funnelling campaign contributions to influence US lawmakers. Over $46,000 from the Indian Embassy was distributed among 20 Congressional candidates. The source of the cash used by Gadhia was Devendra Singh, a RAW official assigned to the Indian Embassy in Washington. Illicit campaign money received in 1995 went to Democratic candidates including Sens. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), Paul S. Sarbanes (D -Md.) and Reps. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).
WE BRING HELL TO LIFE
This article confirms no such thing. I need some more concrete proof than the wild-eyed accusations of this article to convince me that India is so terrible, and interfering in US elections.
Has everyone forgotten the suspicious contributions to Cynthia McKinney dated 9/11?
Then again, this info comes from an organization that includes Hazel "Clintonoid" O'Leary on its Board of Directors and Paul "Malthusian" Erlich on its Board of Sponsors. I don't know much about the other Directors and Sponsors of FAS.
'Course, the allegations need to be judged on their own merits, but ya gotta be skeptical about pronouncements from an organization of scientists who make it their business to speak out on political issues. Next thing you know, the American Dental Association will be filing amicus briefs in the DOJ-v-Microsoft case.
What do you call this? This is not the only source. The story was originally reported in the Baltimore Sun, which reprinted the delivery slip Devendra Singh of the Embassy used to ship money to Lalit Gadhia for these illegal contributions. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) talked about it on the House floor.
So these allegations are your proof? And if this is true, then what are we supposed to do, throw our collective hat completely behind Pakistan, and a government that is unstable at best?
I still cannot accept these as gospel, even though I would love to see Chuck Robb and Paul Sarbanes both twist in the wind a bit while they try to explain away something awry. I need something more substantive than this, however.
Btw, I've visited the FAS web-site. TBP cuts what he chooses...FWIW
Now this report comes along and simply confirms what the Sun and other papers reported.
Let's suppose that you are right (I'm not conceeding that you are, but I'll play along for supposition's sake). Are you now saying that the US should drop India like a hot potato and throw in with the Pakistanis (who, of course, from your implication, are not involved in any sort of terrorist activity)?
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