CIA WTF.

[Matthew X]

CIA no big deal in India anymore
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2002 11:57:38 PM ]
WASHINGTON: India is in the grip of the CIA! So what, did you say? 
Precisely. The once-dreaded three-letter acronym, not long ago a byword for 
sinister shenanigans, hardly creates a ripple in India these days.
How else do you account for the fact that several South Asia hands in the 
US administration who have visited India in recent times come from the CIA, 
and there is nary a squeak in New Delhi?
The latest visitor to New Delhi who has CIA pedigree is Lisa Curtis, 
advisor to Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca. 
Curtis, a former CIA analyst who has dealt extensively with South Asia, 
held talks with Hurriyat leaders last week in a bid to persuade them to 
take part in the Assembly election.
Although a former CIA staffer, Curtis is a political appointee in the state 
department brought in as aide to Ms Rocca, who herself was a CIA operative 
before she moved to the Hill to work with Senator Sam Brownback, who 
propelled her into the administration.
Another familiar South Asia hand who came from the Agency was Bruce Riedel, 
former Senior Director and adviser to the President on South Asia in the 
Clinton administration. Riedel went out with the Democratic administration 
and is now on a sabbatical at King's College, England.
One reason why the CIA has lost is menacing overtones is perhaps because 
its actions of late have tended to be supportive of India, probably 
recognising greater dangers.
After all, former US ambassador to India Daniel P Moynihan, records that 
the CIA bankrolled even Mrs Gandhi's Congress Party against the Communists 
in Kerala, despite her perpetual rant about foreign hands and destabilisation.
While Curtis has been working on the Hurriyat, Riedel played a key role in 
the landmark change of US policy that resulted in Washington backing India 
during the Kargil flare-up.
Such reassuring gestures and change in attitude is perhaps what emboldened 
Home Minister L K Advani to step into the portals of the CIA headquarters 
in Langley, Virginia, during his visit here in January.
Subsequent to the visit, Indian officials say, there has been plenty of 
cooperation between the two sides, including in the law enforcement front.
One result of that was evident earlier this week, when the American FBI -- 
which now has an office in New Delhi -- and the Indian CBI staged an 
unprecedented joint sting operation to net an Indian software engineer who 
was trying to peddle source code purloined from a US company over the 
Internet.
Such a joint action, let alone three CIA analysts coming to India, would 
have been unthinkable a decade or two back.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=20800121
CIA track record 50 years back?
Noticed as early as 1950,the new york herald tribune reported listed five 
events that the 'company' failed to predict.The North Korean attack that 
year,the fall of Checkoslovakia,the Tito-Soviet split and the Communist 
victory in China.
p34-'Oyster,the story of ASIS.'Toohey-Pinwell.89.