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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, DEC 19: Intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies should be headed by the armed forces, according to a paper prepared for internal circulation within the services.
The problem with police officers heading such organisations is that their mindset is more attuned to investigations and not gathering intelligence, the report says. “All their lives they (police officers) are chasing criminals and gathering evidence about murderers, rapists and dacoits. And suddenly they are posted as heads of intelligence agencies. Their entire service careers have been spent in investigating criminal cases. Intelligence and counter-intelligence are altogether a different ball game,” sources quoting from the paper said.
Prepared post-Kargil, the paper stresses upon the need to raise intelligence cadre officers to the post of chiefs of intelligence and counter intelligence outfits and the need to raise, develop and nurture dedicated cadres of intelligence officers, sources said. “The paper says the chiefs ofintelligence gathering agency, especially for external intelligence should only be from the armed forces. The three services could get the post by rotation,” he added. On little tangible results from interaction between civil and military intelligence outfits, sources said that the paper suggests percolation of armed forces officers at different levels in the counter-intelligence agency and an increased frequency of interaction between officers at all levels. “The police and armed forces officers need to interact more often and exchange notes. The problem just now is that they work in near air-tight compartments,” he said.
“The paper is only for internal circulation and has nothing to do with the Subramanyam committee inquiring into the Kargil intelligence failure,” he added.
