Indian Army Chief Taken For A Ride By His Own Staff
This story shows how India is a large country with the mindset of a mouse. It demonstrates how Indian spy agents spend hours dissecting a public website of the Pakistan Army. In this case, an Indian intelligence officer analyzing the names of Pakistani martyrs posted on Pakistan Armys official website thought he discovered something. He shared it with Indian Army chief. Now all major Indian newspapers are celebrating this discovery. Amazingly, one of the official websites of President Zardaris PPPP is also joining Indian celebrations. Here, a Pakistani website, Brasstacks.pk, shows how the Indian military might have been taken for a ride by incompetent intelligence officers.
SPECIAL REPORT | Thursday | 16 December 2010
ISLAMABAD, PakistanIndian Army chief General V. K. Singh is still smarting from several recent hits. Apart from
land scams, there are corruption cases
personally involving the army chief, and an internal power tussle involving him and supporters of his predecessor Gen. Deepak Kapoor. The latest hit came from an unexpected quarter: United States.
A recently leaked cable from US embassy in New Delhi has ridiculed Indian armys Cold Start doctrine as a mix between myth and reality and described Indian soldiers as slow and slumbering, not a good assessment for the next superpower.
To top it off, the website of Indias premier domestic intelligence agency, CBI, remains inaccessible almost two weeks after
a hit by Pakistani cyber activists responding to an unprovoked Indian cyber attack, possibly by Indian intelligence, that defaced almost forty websites belonging to the Government of Pakistan.
So how does Asias next military power react to all this and pull up the troops sagging morale?
Answer: the way Gen. Singh did this week. He picked up a Pakistani army soldiers name, a man who worked for the Pakistani mission in New Delhi and died three years ago from kidney failure, and claimed the man was on a suicide mission in India.
You would think a statement from Indias highest army officer would be based on serious reporting and analysis. But as we have explained in earlier reports, Indias foreign and military policies often have a lot in common with the countrys racy musicals of the Indian film industry: they are noisy, tacky and exaggerated.
What prompted the Indian army chief to step in and personally comment on this dangerous disclosure? The answer, believe it or not, is a data-entry error.
This is how they were duped
Indian intelligences cyber watchers were carefully studying the website of the Pakistan Army
www.PakistanArmy.gov.pk and particularly a page on the site called Martyrs Corner, where the names of Pakistani martyrs on the Afghan border are regularly updated.
According to official documents released by Brasstacks.pk, a Pakistani think tank focused on defense-related issues, Naik [or Corporal] Zulfiqar Ahmed was assigned to guarding duties at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. He was duly accredited by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He developed a kidney problem in November 2007 and died at the Ganga Ram Hospital in the Indian capital. Eight Indian doctors examined his condition and endorsed the cause of death. He was embalmed and then handed over to the Pakistan mission for burial back home.
That was November 2007.
Fast forward to December 2010. A Pakistani data-entry officer mistakenly added Nk Zulfiqars name to the Martyrs Corner at the official Pakistan Army website. A screen shot of the wrong entry shows how the mistake was made. The entry form is standard and most deaths have been a result of suicide attacks by terrorists. So suicide attack is often written in the Operation column. The data entry officer did not pay attention to a glaring contradiction a couple of lines below where Nk Zulfiqars cause of death is clearly written as Neptrotic Syndrome at Ganga Ram Hospital N/Delhi.
But apparently one of Indian intelligences analysts who analyzed the Pakistani data twisted the material to conclude the dead corporal was on a suicide mission in India.
A junior Indian military intelligence officer got excited over this discovery. What is not clear is how someone as senior as the Indian army chief was misled into believing this was such a credible piece of intelligence information that warranted a personal comment from Indias army commander.
This is how Gen. Singh commented on this news:
I have nothing to say on what they (the Pakistan Army) has put up on its website. But if it has, then it clearly show what their intentions and ways are and what their next move will be, Singh told reporters here when asked about the Pakistan Armys website posting. All I can say is we have to be more alert and only then we can protect the people and our troops.
Even more scandalous is how Indias major news organizations are hand in glove with the Indian intelligence. Not a single Indian newspaper or TV news channel has deviated from the official story script. Pakistani analysts know in detail about India medias impressive unanimity in toeing the official line without double checking, but this realization escapes American and British media.
Big names in the India media ran the same report produced by the Indian intelligence without independent verification. Here are some of the headlines:
-
Hindustan Times: Pak owning bomber makes its intentions clear: army chief
-
Rediff News: Pak honors ISI agent on suicide mission in India
-
Times of India: ISI suicide agent is Pak army man
- Even MSNs Indian office didnt escape publishing Indian military propaganda, heres
MSN News: ISI man on Delhi suicide op is martyr on Pak Armys website
-
Indian Express: Delhi hospital confirms ISI agents death, details vanish from Pak site
Et tu, PPPP?
The stunning part is how a Pakistani website that is part of ruling PPPPs network of online propaganda promptly in endorsed the Indian intelligence reports and supported the reports published by the Indian media. The site runs propaganda material for President Asif Zardari and other PPPP stalwarts. Senior journalist Hamid Mir
accused this site of being run from Washington by Mr. Zardaris close aide and envoy in Washington Husain Haqqani.
The PPPP site, called LUBP, in a post titled,
Pakistan army owns up the ISI man on a suicide attack mission in India, said:
Online factories of suicide bombers: An ISI production: LUBP has been boldly stating for the last many years that Pakistan Armys continued policy of jihadi and sectarian suicide attacks [] Now it has been once again proven without doubt that jihadi and sectarian suicide attacks are an integral element of the Pakistan Armys military strategy
The link shows this PPPP site relying heavily on India propaganda. It did not verify if the Indian news is correct and posted two links, both of Indian TV channels, to prove the Indian allegations.
The Indian army chief is nincompoop who is willing to buy a junior intelligence analysts ridiculous story based on a minor data entry error. But what is PPPPs excuse for endorsing Indian propaganda? And does President Zardaris media adviser Mrs. Farahnaz Isphahani know what the partys media cells kids are doing online?
