FBI lectured by NIA : Attack on consulate in San Francisco, Terrorist criminal network conspiring against India and other issues
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on 19 March 23 by a group of American terrorists who committed criminal trespass, damaged public property, and attacked officials of the Consulate. Before this attack, on the same day, a few terrorists had attempted to set the Consulate building on fire by sprinkling inflammable substances early in the morning.
The famed FBI either took no action or remained totally clueless …..bad for India but hugely dangerous for USA itself, unless those terrorists had candid support of the Administration.
Subsequently, on July 2, at midnight, a few persons attempted to set the Consulate building on fire.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday made the FBI Chief, now visiting New Delhi, look into his own mirror. He was made to go through a list of host of issues, including the acts and activities of terrorist-organised criminal networks, ongoing investigations in the US into the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, and the investigation of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds. The memory of the visiting FBI Director Christopher A Wray here in the national capital was thus refreshed once again.
Wray then gave his explanations to the NIA that the FBI was aggressively investigating the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco. Various issues were also discussed with the FBI Director who is leading a high-level FBI delegation. Wray visited the NIA headquarters earlier in the day. He held extensive discussions with NIA Director General Dinkar Gupta and senior officials of the agency.
As per the NIA, candid and wide-ranging discussions were held during the meeting, with the NIA chief highlighting the active nexus between the terrorist outfits and terrorist elements with members of organised criminal syndicates, which were spreading to the US as well.
During the meeting, the NIA DG pointed out that threats in the cyber domain were increasing. The digital space was also being effectively exploited by terrorists and extremists for propagating radical views and recruitment, he said, adding that the NIA was also seeing the use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing.
The difficulties encountered by law enforcement agencies across the world in obtaining data from encryption apps also came up for discussion during the meeting, as mentioned in the NIA statement.
The two sides noted that with the advent of newer technologies at a fast pace, tracing, tracking, and investigating crypto transactions is turning out to be a huge challenge. Both agencies recognised the challenges posed by organised crime networks, terror-related crimes, cyber-enabled terror attacks, ransomware threats, economic crimes, and transnational terror crimes.
Wray was told that as part of its continuing investigations into the attacks on the Consulate General of India, San Francisco, the NIA on November 22 raided 14 places spread across the districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala in Punjab, and Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar in Haryana. The crackdown led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to the accused persons, along with other incriminating documents.
The move was a bid to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the March 19, 2023, and July 2, 2023 attacks involving criminal trespass, vandalism, damage to public property and attempts to cause hurt to the officials of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco and set the Consulate building on fire through acts of arson.
The NIA has been probing the case with the aim of identifying and prosecuting the attackers and the assailants of the attacks and sending a strong message to such anti-Indian elements. A team of the NIA visited San Francisco in August 2023 to investigate the incidents of attacks on the Consulate through violent acts of arson and vandalism, leading to fear among the Consulate staff and the community.
According to the NIA, Wray informed the agency that the FBI was aggressively investigating the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco. Both agencies agreed to explore increasing their future interactions and collaborative initiatives on the training track.
Wray remarked that newer challenges mean that there are new opportunities for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) to cooperate in newer ways. He also thanked the NIA for the enduring cooperation between the two agencies and looked forward to exploring new opportunities to collaborate further. Director Wray’s visit signifies a step towards deepening cooperation and a shared commitment between the national agencies of the US and India to combat terror in all its manifestations around the globe.
Wray said that both agencies have a lot in common and the similarities are far greater than the differences, said the NIA in a statement, adding, “On the nexus between terror actors and organised crime syndicates, Wray said that a blending of lines between terrorists and criminals was now visible in cyberspace as well.”
Terror incidents like 9/11 and the Mumbai attacks have changed the way in which nations respond to terror threats. The FBI Director, emphasized the need to take the partnership and “cooperation between the FBI and the NIA to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism.”
