Did Indian at CIA supply info to New Delhi?

Vaishali Honawar in Washington

Did the Central Intelligence Agency fire an Indian employee suspected of leaking important information to India?

According to the latest issue of Newsweek (May 25, 1998), the CIA fired a naturalised Indian employee about two years ago for "mishandling classified documents and possible espionage".

The report quoted a "knowledgeable source" as saying that the employee, a computer specialist, was "sucking the Near East Division's computers dry".

"He got everything there was on India, and there was a real fear that he went to the Indians with it," the source said. The report did not name the employee.

When contacted, a spokesperson at the CIA's Langley, Virginia, headquarters refused to comment without denying the story outright. Another spokesperson said, "I am sure that is not true," but said she did not have any additional information on the matter.

Porter J Goss, Republican representative from Florida and chairman of the House committee probing the CIA intelligence lapse in the Indian nuclear tests, and ranking minority member Norman D Dicks, a Democratic representative from Washington, said last week that leaks of classified information had harmed US intelligence efforts and that the House committee was planning to investigate them further.

Goss said it was too early to tell if "heads should roll" because of the intelligence failure, adding that it appeared that policymakers were as responsible as intelligence collectors or analysts.

Analysing the reasons for the CIA failure, Newsweek said the United States lacks on-the-ground spies -- HUMINT or human intelligence -- despite a large CIA station in Delhi. "HUMINT that's reliable just doesn't exist," said a top State Department official.

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