Spies rue the day when one got away

The intelligence agencies of three countries are still kicking themselves for not connecting the dots and piecing together the big scenario which may have helped avert one of the worst terror attacks on India by terrorists sponsored by Pakistan’s ISI.

The computer driven world is vastly different from the feet-on-the-ground and ears everywhere scenario of John le Carre novels. Today, geeks sit trawling the Internet while eavesdroppers stay glued to their equipment, hoping to catch the kind of Internet text and phone chatter that terror conspirators tend to give themselves away with. The sophistication of the spying and eavesdropping electronics not withstanding, counter-terrorism remains a complex mélange of human and technical resources. Chillingly, it was human error that was responsible for the spies of the US, the UK and India missing the warning signals of 26/11.

In the final analysis, the blame must rest on the multiple agencies (16 in total) that make up US intelligence. It is a moot point whether it was his status as a double agent for the Drug Enforcement Agency that was instrumental in the agencies missing as big a clue as David Coleman Headley. They knew about most key conspirators, including Mir and Lakhvi and the technical wingman Shah, yet they seemed to deliberately overlook clues about Headley.

Countries who value their freedom must spend enormous sums defending themselves from the threat of planned terrorist acts. But not all nations are equipped like the US to spend $80 billion annually on intelligence. Even a treasure trove of data gathered painstakingly by several US agencies and backed by information from the UK’s MI5 and MI6 was not useful in fending off the biggest terror strike since the infamous 9/11 of Manhattan.

It is heartening that in the six years since 26/11, cooperation among the UK, the US and Indian agencies has become far more open with India, as a hapless victim of imported terrorism, allowed into the tightest intelligence sharing circles. The counter-terrorism game is such the agencies — India has at least four major ones: RAW, NSA, MI and IB — cannot publicise their several successes achieved from thorough and professional work, while they have to publicly share the blame for the failures.

In the hit-and-miss business of spying, countries of the free world have to invest time, money and personnel as only constant vigil can help spot terror conspiracies in time. Indian intelligence agencies are also extremely well funded and the sky is the limit when it comes to buying the most sophisticated computers and programs for spying. Hopefully, they have learnt from the Mumbai experience that every lead has to be hunted down and none ignored if we are to avert terror.