India stand on sharing seismic data criticised by UN

India said yesterday it would not share information on earthquakes below the magnitude of six on the Richter scale due to security concerns, drawing criticism from the United Nations.

Indian seismologists at a UN tsunami conference said sharing seismic data had security implications as seabed terrain could be mapped, possibly helping others learn about the nation’s submarines and warships.

And Indian seismologists said providing information on earthquakes below a magnitude of six was unnecessary in seeking to prevent a tsunami.

“Only an earthquake with a magnitude of more than seven has the potential to generate a tsunami,” said G D Gupta, head of the seismology division in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

“That’s why we’re willing to provide data on quakes above the magnitude of six.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of the UN conference which aims to set up a tsunami early warning system for Indian Ocean countries by next year. Sharing seismology data was considered a crucial part of developing the system.

The conference in this southern city comes on the eve of the first anniversary of last year’s devastating tsunami.

Patricio Bernal, assistant director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), rejected India’s argument saying the organisation wanted a free flow of data.

“India is the only country which has put up such a request (to refuse to share such data),” he said.

Most of the 29 Indian Ocean nations did not have an adequate warning system when a massive undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26 unleashed giant waves, killing 217,000 people in 11 countries.

Since then, Indian Ocean nations have pledged to rapidly upgrade tsunami detection systems with a deep-sea sensor network so those at risk can be warned faster.

“Essentially, after the tsunami and the many other disasters, the UN is facing a challenge of certain universal standards,” Bernal said.

“When the security of people is concerned, when the stability of the ... planet is concerned, every nation should be, on an ethical principle, bound by a convention to share technical data,” Bernal said.

“We can’t afford to let a nation’s interest interfere with the protection of life support on the planet,” he said.

“This is something which is emerging more and more. We can’t afford not to have all the data which is necessary to protect not just one country or one continent but the whole planet,” he said.

Dieter Schiessl, director of World Weather Watch which is part of the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, said Indian Ocean nations should build cost-effective early warning systems that include forecasting for tropical storms and not just rare tsunamis.

He said a system purely forecasting tsunamis would not be financially sustainable in the long run.

“If we have to establish a warning infrastructure that will only be tested in very rare occurrences such as tsunamis it is simply inviting operational problems,” Schiessl said.

“We need to have a system that is more frequently used and that means the system should address several natural hazards and the most frequent ones such as tropical storms and flooding,” he said.

P S Goel, the top bureaucrat at India’s Department of Ocean Development, said the country had already integrated storm forecasts into its interim tsunami early warning system.

“Currently we are focusing on 20 special fishing zones to issue storm and tsunami warnings. It will be increased to 200 shortly,” Goel said.

Top scientists and government officials from over 25 nations attended the three-day session held by the UN’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission that ended yesterday. – AFP

Interesting. Here's an old article:

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9805/12/india.cia/

CIA caught off guard on India nuclear test

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence alleged Tuesday that U.S. intelligence gathering suffered a "colossal failure" in not detecting India's intention to set off three nuclear blasts this week.

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said the U.S. intelligence community was caught completely off guard.

"This colossal failure of our nation's intelligence gathering could set off a nuclear arms race in Southeast Asia," Shelby said in a statement.

"Our failure to detect this shows that India did a good job of concealing their intentions, while we did a dreadfully inadequate job of detecting those intentions," Shelby said.

Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana agreed. "When we have had notice of preparation, we could talk to the Indians and persuade them not to do it. Here we didn't have notice and we lost the chance."

CIA announces assessment effort
Within hours of Shelby's statement, the CIA announced it was launching a blue-ribbon assessment of U.S. intelligence performance on the India nuclear issue, to report to CIA Director George Tenet within 10 days.

The assessment team will be headed by retired Navy Adm. David Jeremiah, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Tenet said he will share the results of the assessment with the White House and Congress.

After India announced Monday it had conducted the nuclear tests, recent satellite and other intelligence observations of India's nuclear testing site were checked, U.S. government sources told CNN.

It was determined that nothing unusual had been picked up, the sources said.

But the sources also said the intelligence community is reviewing its data to see if anything was missed.

Sources: CIA stepping up focus on region
U.S. intelligence sources said the CIA and other agencies are also stepping up observation of India and Pakistan in the wake of the nuclear tests.

"We're focusing on the region intently," said one official, who acknowledged that additional satellite overpasses and other information-gathering devices are being adjusted to "tweak up our capabilities."

"The potential for possible Indian nuclear tests has been known for many years," the CIA said in announcing its assessment effort.

The CIA said the issue was given "close scrutiny" in 1995 and again in recent weeks after the firing of a Pakistani medium-range missile.

"It is apparent that the Indians went to some lengths to conceal their activities and intentions," the CIA said in an attempt to explain the intelligence community's apparent failure to forecast the Indian nuclear tests.

Indian potential was well known
U.S. officials have told CNN that although they picked up no concrete signs of an imminent underground nuclear test, the United States was well aware of the Indian government's repeated warnings of its intentions to proceed with nuclear testing.

Several high-ranking U.S. officials have visited India in recent months to attempt to persuade India not to conduct further tests and to sign a global ban on nuclear testing.

Shelby said he plans to schedule closed-door Senate hearings on the intelligence issue as early as Thursday. "We simply cannot and must not tolerate such failure on the part of the intelligence community," he said.

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