Who is Honey Bee? This is a question that is there is in every body’s mind following a revelation made by the two British authors, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott in their latest book.

Speaking to a cross section of officers in the Intelligence Bureau and also the police force of the country, one does get the impression that this person who was not a Rabinder Singh, the CIA mole who former Research and Analysis Wing officer, Amar Bhushan had spoken about in his book Escape to Nowhere. This was an attack of a major magnitude and had there been a mole by the name Honey Bee in the Intelligence agencies, it would have been known long back.

When David Coleman Headley had come down to India to conduct a recee, he was in touch with a lot of locals. One of them could have been an informer of the Intelligence and the local police, sources point out. Now, informers are not officers and could hail from any background including criminals. Sources tell rediff.com that Headley was handed over information by the ISI through Major Iqbal about an informer for the intelligence who could be easily cracked.

Sources point out that Headley did not name this informer when the National Investigation Agency was questioning him for two reasons- one he did not want to let down a source and secondly he was protecting him due to his religion. Most of the informers are criminals and they have no loyalties. They can be broken easily by luring them with money. Headley appears to have done exactly that.

Officials in India however question the timing of such a revelation. It has been leaked from the intelligence in the United States of America. The US intel has claimed that there was an intercept shared with India in the year 2006. The intelligence of 2006 was vague in nature and hence the question is that despite having intelligence what further the Americans do to stop this attack. It is evident that they were aware of the David Headley operation, but refused to share any of this with us, Indian officials point out. They were extremely vague when it came to his interrogation and they flocked around the National Investigation Agency which had gone to the US to question him. It is clear that they did not want him to speak more than what he already had to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Intelligence Bureau officials say that it is clear that Headley had conducted a recee with a great deal of local support. At the time of going around the city, he was in touch with socialites. He was with these socialites so that he could gain access to big places without being suspected. It appears that he was in touch with the local informer who gave him information on the landing points which was finally used by the terrorists. During the attack the same person could have extended help, sources also point out.

Former officials with the RaW point out that for such a major operation, Pakistan would not have engaged the services of a major officer within the intelligence bureau. Intelligence Agencies across the world do try and set up their moles in the other agencies, but when it comes to such a major operation, they do not take such a huge risk.

Amar Bhushan says in the 26/11 attack, several Americans did lose their lives. The Americans have done nothing really to nail down the culprits who are sitting in Pakistan. This is not the American style of dealing with people who kill their people. This book speaking about the Honey Bee is essentially a book written by the CIA. They are trying to indicate that despite us giving the Indians so much information nothing was done about it. It is basically a way of defending their intelligence and their system to tell their own people that they tried defending them through alerts but nothing really was done about it.

I know for a fact that Americans never or hardly give complete information. Information which affects them directly is what is always shared and in this it really did not affect them at all. All through their manner of dealing with this case has been surprising. They did not allow any major access to Headley. For all you know had the NIA met with Headley individually, he would have revealed more. But the Americans knew that this would embarrass them majorly and hence the limited access. Giving us vague information and then blaming us for it appears to be the intention behind this book. Just remember that our intelligence does not comprise a bunch of fools. Had they been given proper information they would not have sat over it.

With regard to the Honey Bee, I do not believe that an officer of a high level would have been involved. As you pointed out Headley could have been in touch with locals at a lower level and this person actually would not have been aware of the actual account.

Looking at the attack, one thing is clear and that the terrorists did lose control over the operation after 12 hours. They did not have a field day except for a couple of hours at the start of the operation. After a while there was no communication with their masters.

C D Sahay, former chief of RaW asks about the authenticity of the Honey Bee. Anyone can write anything, but I think it would have sounded more authentic had the Honey Bee been named. I do agree that intelligence agencies from across the world do try and plant their moles in other agencies. However in this case, I am sure that it would not have been possible at all.

(Story first published on rediff.com)