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Bodies such as the DGFI, NSI, and others need to get their priorities straight
Forrest Cookson
Publish : 29 Sep 2024,
This article deals with three of the intelligence services of Bangladesh: The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI); the National Security Intelligence (NSI); the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), as well as the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). These organizations have been the principal instruments for the brutal control of Bangladeshi society of the past 16 years. The four have a long record of murder, torture, imprisonment, and violation of basic privacy rights. Together, the list of their crimes is a hideous record of the past government.
These are not financial crimes but criminal activity. The membership amounts to several thousand with one thousand senior officers who led this criminal campaign. The arrest, trial, and punishment of the perpetrators of these crimes is underway and is not the subject of this article. Rather I try to examine what should be done with the organizations.
In the Nuremberg trials of Nazi members and Germany military officers there were claims that it was not a crime to do a terrible thing if one was ordered to do so. This defense for murder, torture, etc was rejected. If you murdered someone and the evidence pointed towards you, then you were guilty regardless of the orders or instructions from senior officers. The officers of RAB, NSI, NTMC, and DGFI who committed these crimes cannot escape by arguing that they were ordered to do these things. The Nuremberg trials set a standard now followed around the world. There are probably 1,000 individuals who should be brought to trial for crimes committed over the past 16 years -- for many the death penalty would not be inappropriate.
The very existence of these organizations is a threat to the freedom of Bangladesh society unless their role is limited, well defined, and carefully supervised by Parliament. We find historically that new governments initially determined to control these types of organizations, soon find that these groups can do things the new prime minister would like. Leaving these four organizations to continue under their present charters would be a very dangerous path to take.
We suggest some actions that should be taken: As is currently going on, all senior officers in these organizations in the past decade should be arrested and investigated, while those found guilty of crimes should be sent for trial. To handle a substantial burden of the legal and judicial work, a set of laws covering procedures, rules of evidence, penalties, and clear rules of jurisdiction should be prepared. These new courts would deal with the cases arising from these four organizations.
Directorate General of Forces Intelligence: The charter of the DGFI should be restricted to gathering intelligence on the military of countries important to Bangladesh. DGFI would be forbidden, with one exception, from carrying out operations within Bangladesh.
Such information includes Order of Battle of prospective opponents; information including assessment of competence and psychological assessments of senior officers. Also warning of intentions of potential enemies to commence armed conflict. For example, there is a report that in the discussion with India to evacuate or protect former prime minister Hasina, the Indian government had deployed air force units to rescue her if it appeared that the Bangladesh military had lost control of her protection. This is the kind of essential information that national leaders need and it is the responsibility of the DGFI to provide.
Other types of information include weapons systems in use or under development; capacity of industrial support for the military; air force planes and capabilities; along with support facilities. Ships in the navy with updated information on capabilities, location, and missions. Also, military budgets and support from other states. Military attaches would usually be under DGFI direction.
The records of the DGFI, from its formation in 1972, should be completely destroyed unless they are directly relevant to the organization’s newly-defined work. Of course, those DGFI staff who committed crimes should be arrested and put on trial. It is urgent to destroy this organization in its present form so that future national leaders are not seduced by its capabilities.
The chief of DGFI would report to Parliament regularly. The one exception to internal operation is counter-intelligence activities to identify and rid the armed forces from spies loyal to foreign governments.
National Security Intelligence: The NSI should be forbidden from any operations within Bangladesh. The NSI should have three objectives: Writing reports on politics, economics, and the overall developments covering countries of importance to Bangladesh. The obvious ones are India, China, Japan, SouthKorea, the US, Russia, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. Staff should have university level and language training. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese language training are particularly important. The NSI should continually train staff in knowledge of target countries.
The second activity is operating stations abroad to recruit and manage intelligence sources as well as in specific cases maintain a liaison operation with the intelligence service of the country where an NSI office is located. The third activity is counter-intelligence to protect Bangladesh and NSI in particular, from foreign intelligence organizations.
Building a new NSI is a task that will take many years but it is essential for the security of Bangladesh. There are no nice guys out there. NSI leaders should report regularly to Parliament and the organization should avoid engaging in covert operations (assassinations, meddling in elections, etc).
Challenges to the sovereignty of Bangladesh are threatened from Myanmar and India and the nation must prepare to defend itself. The DGFI and the NSI are essential, but both must avoid collecting information or taking action on domestic matters.
National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre: This organization is responsible for electronic-communication intercepts of email, telephone, VOIP services, etc. This covers both within Bangladesh and elsewhere particularly in neighbouring states. These organizations are very dangerous due to the type and sensitivity of the information that they collect. National leaders find use of these intercept operations fascinating, but the NTMC is far too important to eliminate and instead must be carefully controlled.
There are three objectives: To collect information on Bangladeshi citizens for whom formal approval has been established. Second, to carry out intercept operations on foreign persons who are concerned with collecting information on Bangladesh. Third, to protect Bangladesh from any attacks on infrastructure, and thwarting any cyber security threats to our financial and administrative arms.
A clearance process is needed that would receive requests to intercept communications and approve or disapprove them according to the rules. Any request to the telephone companies for intercepts must be accompanied by legal approval. Journalists should never be targeted unless the authorities suspect that the journalist is in the employment of a foreign government. The work product of the NTMC must be strictly controlled and access limited to the responsible analysts.
Rapid Action Battalion: RAB was founded by the BNP with the assistance of the United States to take action against terrorist organizations -- however, the organization has become an instrument of murder and oppression over the decades, which has resulted in RAB and many of its senior officers having been sanctioned by the United States. There are no two ways about it: RAB should be closed down. The senior officers, once cleared of crimes, can be returned to their home organizations.
The record of these four organizations is a stain on the reputation of the military whose members carried out most of these horrible crimes. It is urgent to act to prevent any continuation of these organizations in their current state so that they will not in the future commit such terrible crimes against the people of Bangladesh, their own countrymen.
Forrest Cookson
Publish : 29 Sep 2024,
This article deals with three of the intelligence services of Bangladesh: The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI); the National Security Intelligence (NSI); the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), as well as the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). These organizations have been the principal instruments for the brutal control of Bangladeshi society of the past 16 years. The four have a long record of murder, torture, imprisonment, and violation of basic privacy rights. Together, the list of their crimes is a hideous record of the past government.
These are not financial crimes but criminal activity. The membership amounts to several thousand with one thousand senior officers who led this criminal campaign. The arrest, trial, and punishment of the perpetrators of these crimes is underway and is not the subject of this article. Rather I try to examine what should be done with the organizations.
In the Nuremberg trials of Nazi members and Germany military officers there were claims that it was not a crime to do a terrible thing if one was ordered to do so. This defense for murder, torture, etc was rejected. If you murdered someone and the evidence pointed towards you, then you were guilty regardless of the orders or instructions from senior officers. The officers of RAB, NSI, NTMC, and DGFI who committed these crimes cannot escape by arguing that they were ordered to do these things. The Nuremberg trials set a standard now followed around the world. There are probably 1,000 individuals who should be brought to trial for crimes committed over the past 16 years -- for many the death penalty would not be inappropriate.
The very existence of these organizations is a threat to the freedom of Bangladesh society unless their role is limited, well defined, and carefully supervised by Parliament. We find historically that new governments initially determined to control these types of organizations, soon find that these groups can do things the new prime minister would like. Leaving these four organizations to continue under their present charters would be a very dangerous path to take.
We suggest some actions that should be taken: As is currently going on, all senior officers in these organizations in the past decade should be arrested and investigated, while those found guilty of crimes should be sent for trial. To handle a substantial burden of the legal and judicial work, a set of laws covering procedures, rules of evidence, penalties, and clear rules of jurisdiction should be prepared. These new courts would deal with the cases arising from these four organizations.
Directorate General of Forces Intelligence: The charter of the DGFI should be restricted to gathering intelligence on the military of countries important to Bangladesh. DGFI would be forbidden, with one exception, from carrying out operations within Bangladesh.
Such information includes Order of Battle of prospective opponents; information including assessment of competence and psychological assessments of senior officers. Also warning of intentions of potential enemies to commence armed conflict. For example, there is a report that in the discussion with India to evacuate or protect former prime minister Hasina, the Indian government had deployed air force units to rescue her if it appeared that the Bangladesh military had lost control of her protection. This is the kind of essential information that national leaders need and it is the responsibility of the DGFI to provide.
Other types of information include weapons systems in use or under development; capacity of industrial support for the military; air force planes and capabilities; along with support facilities. Ships in the navy with updated information on capabilities, location, and missions. Also, military budgets and support from other states. Military attaches would usually be under DGFI direction.
The records of the DGFI, from its formation in 1972, should be completely destroyed unless they are directly relevant to the organization’s newly-defined work. Of course, those DGFI staff who committed crimes should be arrested and put on trial. It is urgent to destroy this organization in its present form so that future national leaders are not seduced by its capabilities.
The chief of DGFI would report to Parliament regularly. The one exception to internal operation is counter-intelligence activities to identify and rid the armed forces from spies loyal to foreign governments.
National Security Intelligence: The NSI should be forbidden from any operations within Bangladesh. The NSI should have three objectives: Writing reports on politics, economics, and the overall developments covering countries of importance to Bangladesh. The obvious ones are India, China, Japan, SouthKorea, the US, Russia, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. Staff should have university level and language training. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese language training are particularly important. The NSI should continually train staff in knowledge of target countries.
The second activity is operating stations abroad to recruit and manage intelligence sources as well as in specific cases maintain a liaison operation with the intelligence service of the country where an NSI office is located. The third activity is counter-intelligence to protect Bangladesh and NSI in particular, from foreign intelligence organizations.
Building a new NSI is a task that will take many years but it is essential for the security of Bangladesh. There are no nice guys out there. NSI leaders should report regularly to Parliament and the organization should avoid engaging in covert operations (assassinations, meddling in elections, etc).
Challenges to the sovereignty of Bangladesh are threatened from Myanmar and India and the nation must prepare to defend itself. The DGFI and the NSI are essential, but both must avoid collecting information or taking action on domestic matters.
National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre: This organization is responsible for electronic-communication intercepts of email, telephone, VOIP services, etc. This covers both within Bangladesh and elsewhere particularly in neighbouring states. These organizations are very dangerous due to the type and sensitivity of the information that they collect. National leaders find use of these intercept operations fascinating, but the NTMC is far too important to eliminate and instead must be carefully controlled.
There are three objectives: To collect information on Bangladeshi citizens for whom formal approval has been established. Second, to carry out intercept operations on foreign persons who are concerned with collecting information on Bangladesh. Third, to protect Bangladesh from any attacks on infrastructure, and thwarting any cyber security threats to our financial and administrative arms.
A clearance process is needed that would receive requests to intercept communications and approve or disapprove them according to the rules. Any request to the telephone companies for intercepts must be accompanied by legal approval. Journalists should never be targeted unless the authorities suspect that the journalist is in the employment of a foreign government. The work product of the NTMC must be strictly controlled and access limited to the responsible analysts.
Rapid Action Battalion: RAB was founded by the BNP with the assistance of the United States to take action against terrorist organizations -- however, the organization has become an instrument of murder and oppression over the decades, which has resulted in RAB and many of its senior officers having been sanctioned by the United States. There are no two ways about it: RAB should be closed down. The senior officers, once cleared of crimes, can be returned to their home organizations.
The record of these four organizations is a stain on the reputation of the military whose members carried out most of these horrible crimes. It is urgent to act to prevent any continuation of these organizations in their current state so that they will not in the future commit such terrible crimes against the people of Bangladesh, their own countrymen.
