Beware, Uncle Sam's watching you

NEW DELHI: Two recently "declassified"documents of America''s premier espionage organisation - National Security Agency(NSA) - clearly show how the US intelligence community has for long been keepinga close watch on India''s nuclear and space establishmentsRecently,over a dozen NSA documents were declassified, though in an edited form. Two ofthem deal with the intelligence collected before 1982 on India''s nuclearprogramme through the interception of telephone conversations. Both were earlierclassified as "Top Secret Umbra" - highest security rating.Despiteall this, the US was taken by surprise by the Pokhran-I (1974) and Pokhran-II(1998) nuclear tests.The NSA collects data mainly through signalsintelligence (SIGINT) from space (space telephone call monitoring). It dependsheavily on the CIA, American radio networks and academic institutions for "humanresources".Dated August 31, 1972, the firstfour-page document titled "Capital Projects Planned in India" is based on twotelephone conversations between the Banque National de Paris'' headquarters inParis and its New Delhi office on June 22, 1972, on the financing of an Indiannuclear project worth about $6,939,000 under the French-Indian Protocol of March20, 1972, and between an official of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC)in Mumbai and a French company on July 12, 1972, regarding the shipping ofSwedish material for a project worth $1,367,000 for the Madras Atomic PowerProject. The bank''s client, Les Pompes Cuinard, was asked by the Department ofAtomic Energy to supply nuclear Swedish pumps.The second document,dated October 1982, analyses the intelligence collected through intercepts since1980 on the difficulties faced by the IAEC in the production of heavywater.Portions of each document that discuss or reveal the contentsof the intercepts have been "deleted." The second document refers to 24 reportssubmitted by NSA.Indian intelligence agencies believe that thesedocuments are only the tip of the iceberg. This, they say, only shows that theNSA has in its records many other intercepts of SIGINT from India''s nuclear andspace establishments.In a recent report, noted analysist B Ramansaid that in the early 1980s India was strongly opposed to Colombo''s decision toallow the Voice of America to expand its facilities in Sri Lanka. New Delhisuspected that it was partly meant to provide NSA with a strong presence in SriLanka to intercept communications of the nuclear and space establishments insouthern India. Many countries, says Raman, additional secretary (retd), CabinetSecretariat, covertly collaborate with NSA to set up monitoringstations.