The Quint

The Quint Squints Again

Ensures

When the vision gets too squinted in the hatred for the Government and the Prime Minster, it shows up as shoddy work from people.

Here is the screenshot of Hon’ble Minister Smriti Irani’s tweet in question. Unfortunately neither the Trolls nor the Contents team of “The Quint” nor the Editorial Controls saw that all important Punctuation in the Minister’s tweet. Incidentally, The Quint Article has the same Punctuation (?) in their headline. What hate does to people is amazing!!!

Crowd sourcing and publishing stories based on Tweets are fine, Jbut then Editorial Controls is an art that no serious journalism (even for Neo-Media) can forgo. Quint once again failed miserably there and has the audacity to say “Smriti Irani’s Faux Paus”

At the time of writing this piece : Here is the Text paste version of their Column

Srinagar to Leh in 15 Mins? Twitter Mocks Smriti Irani’s Faux Pas

THE QUINT
SOCIAL BUZZ

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani committed a faux pas on Friday, 5 January, when she posted a tweet that said ‘Srinagar to Leh in 15 minutes: Cabinet approves Zojila Pass tunnel project’.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

The tweet was accompanied by a link to a Times of India article (sourced from PTI), as well as an image of a story, whose headline was the same as her tweet.

Now, a quick glance on the internet reveals that the distance between Srinagar and Leh via NH-1D is more than 400 kms. And what Irani’s tweet seems to be suggesting is that one can go from to Srinagar to Leh in 15 minutes.

400 kms in just 15 minutes? Say, what? The error is all too conspicuous.

Twitter Goes All Scienc-y to Mock Irani’s Faux Pas

The folks on Twitter were quick to mock this faux pas. However, Irani has still not deleted her erroneous tweet.

TOI has fixed the error in its copy, accompanied by a statement reading:

Corrigendum: An earlier version of this agency story wrongly mentioned that the travel time between Srinagar and Leh would be reduced to 15 minutes. The proposed tunnel would reduce the travel time of crossing Zojila Pass from 3.5 hours to 15 minutes. The error is regretted.

The Zojila Pass tunnel, whose construction the Union Cabinet approved on 3 January, is touted to be Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel, and is expected to be constructed in seven years.

So that their Stupidity of Quint is preserved for posterity lest the piece is edited and taken down Here is the Screenshot (re arranged in two columns for readability)

Despite pointing this Gross Error in this piece, those who said, “However, Irani has still not deleted her erroneous tweet” still have their piece published as it is. Something tells me (s)Quint will soon sprint from the scene

Until then! Jain Hind!

 

Squinted view of The Quint

Ensures

When “The Quint” got it all wrong due to their Squinted Vision. They published a totally unverified report which is definitely Seditious and in gross violation of Official Secrets Act too. Attributing to sources (citing confidentiality is just a ruse). After the damage was done, called out very strongly by the Social Media – They retracted the story for Checking. Yes! Gold Standard rule of the Journalism practiced by The Quint – Publish, damage the Country, When called out, retract and then go for checking veracity of what they published.

 

Text Copy/Paste of the @TheQuint Page as it appeared at 20:43:12 on January 5th 2018 (Screenshot at the end of this report)

Two Ex-RAW Chiefs Did Not Want Kulbhushan Jadhav Recruited As Spy

CHANDAN NANDY
POLITICS

Senior RAW Officers Were Not in Favour of Jadhav

Speaking to The Quint, two former RAW senior officers, including one secretary who headed India’s external intelligence agency after 2008, said that the “proposal to recruit Jadhav for operations, whatever it’s worth, was ridiculous.”

In any case, a number of RAW sources, some serving and a few who retired over the past seven to eight years, revealed that Jadhav was “not a high-grade” operative with skills that other operatives recruited by the agency in other theatres had and used effectively to obtain intelligence.

Even as two RAW secretaries refused to hire his services, the proposal to recruit Jadhav for specific assignments was finally acceded to by a chief who headed the intelligence agency a few years ago and was subsequently re-employed (after retirement) in an organisation also involved in collecting intelligence.

This was among a few different attempts to launch renewed efforts to use human sources as “deep penetration” agents in Pakistan, where most intelligence assets, both HUMINT and SIGINT, were wound up during the prime ministership of IK Gujral in the late 1990s.

Evidence That Links Jadhav With RAW

While the sources were – understandably – wary about disclosing full details about Jadhav’s recruitment. The proposal to hire him on a temporary basis was prepared by his case officer (of the rank of deputy secretary, who is way below in the hierarchy) on the Pakistan desk. One former RAW officer, however, said that “it could be that the desk handling Iran and Afghanistan” was instrumental in recruiting Jadhav.

In any case, the recruitment was approved by a joint secretary as the supervisory officer. The RAW has a special unit which also undertakes parallel operations in certain crucial target countries for which it seeks out its own recruits.

The clearest evidence that Jadhav operated for the RAW came to the fore only after his cover – as a businessman who would frequent Iran, especially Chabahar – was blown and he was captured by the Pakistan, following which a former RAW chief, besides at least two other senior officers, called his Mumbai-based parents to “advise” them to not speak about their son’s case to anyone.

The other evidence was the second passport, with the name Hussein Mubarak Patel, that he carried, which shows that it was originally issued in 2003 and was renewed in 2014. The second passport (no L9630722) was issued in Thane on 12 May 2014 and was due to expire on 11 May 2024.

While one passport (no E6934766) is in his name, the second one raises more questions, especially the date of its issue and why he signed as Hussein Mubarak Patel to enter into a property deal (with his mother) in Mumbai where he lived with his parents, wife, and children before he was nabbed by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Born in August 1968, Jadhav did work for the navy but prematurely retired and took to business, which would often take him to Iran. He was spotted as a potential recruit by an undercover RAW officer posted in Iran, who then subsequently shared this with a colleague at the agency’s headquarters. This second officer subsequently moved to send overtures to Jadhav, who accepted the terms and conditions.

How Was Jadhav Caught?

The nabbing of Jadhav, on 3 March 2016, itself throws up several questions, especially because Pakistan has maintained a degree of secrecy, if not ambiguity, about it. While the Pakistani intelligence had initially claimed that he was trapped in Saravan on the Iran-Pakistan border, a Baloch leader by the name Sarfaraz Bugti had disclosed at the time that Jadhav was held near Chaman in Balochistan.

The RAW sources, both former and serving, said that Jadhav would “go on assignments off and on” and he would undergo the mandatory “debriefing” each time he returned to India from his “visits to Balochistan” or when he volunteered to share information. He also went through a three-month training programme when he learned methods and means to transmit and/or send information.

However, sources said, Jadhav’s undoing was based partly on his unprofessionalism and partly because he was not a “career spy.” He did the unthinkable – instead of waiting to communicate with his case officer face-to-face, Jadhav would sometimes use “means over the air waves.” The ISI intercepted some of the communications and were also able to pinpoint his location, making it relatively easy for them to track and then nab him, sources said.

Standard Operating Procedure Skipped

“The botch-up was the result of unprofessionalism not only on the part of Jadhav but also his case officer,” one former special secretary, who conducted operations in some parts of West Asia, said. In this context, a former special secretary who handled the Pakistan desk till a few years ago, besides special operations in India’s neighbourhood, said that “Jadhav was no good” as he was “never in the thick of things, although he would claim he knew a lot of things and had sources in Pakistan.”

However, the former special secretary said that while RAW has many flaws, as a “matter of rule and unstated policy” no case officer should attempt to hire the services of an agent whose background in “tradecraft is not sound enough” and who is given to “bragging.”

In Jadhav’s case, while standard operating procedures may have been relaxed while recruiting him, sources said that his incarceration and the ambiguity surrounding his “work” does “have a lot of benefits.”

Several seasoned RAW hands said that while Jadhav’s case officer (deputy secretary) and the latter’s supervisory officer (joint secretary) recruited him for “reasons best known to them,” the standard practice in spycraft would have been to “have a Baloch or a Pakistani national” do the “intelligence gathering job for us.” He added that it was “foolish for to set an Indian the task to obtain intelligence from a country as hostile as Pakistan.”

Sources said that soon after Jadhav was trapped and caught in March 2016, a few records relating to payments made to him were destroyed, leaving “no trace” of his existence as far the RAW is concerned. But a former agency chief, who retired in the closing years of the previous decade, said, “No professional agency should have recruited him. I cannot even imagine that Jadhav was because it has been a disaster.”

He asked pointedly: “Every operation should have an objective. What huge intelligence or foreign policy objective was to be achieved by tasking Jadhav to operate in Balochitan?”

 

Also Read: Will India’s Raking up of the Shoes Episode Harm Jadhav’s Case?

 

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Screenshot of the Webpage as it appeared at the same time

Rearranged for better readability into two Columns