The most famous gang of moles in recent history was of course the one exposed at different periods of time between the 50's
and early 60s. It was the peak of cold war when espionage across sensitive borders was desperate and also well coordinated to unearth vital info. MI5, for long,did not suspect that four of its top diplomats were leaking vital atomic secrets to Soviet Union, though not for
money. It was for ideology. There were many others who traded info for money and future comfort. Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross - the famous five were exposed after painstaking
investigation against stout denials by them. When Moscow conducted its first atomic test in 1951 it was because of the leak of results of atomic research in the U.S. by Maclean. Philby kept defending them and himself and finally followed their flight path to Moscow in 1963.
All this is old hat and yet MI5's suspicions were well-grounded and finally came true. Faced with enormous and documented evidence, the four had no option but to admit their complicity, whatever the motive. Extending the parallel to India and Jaswant's evasive insinuation about the 'mole' in Narasimha Rao regime who leaked info about the intended nuclear test it will be against great odds to fix the person. Jaswant has said he is a senior civil servant "living abroad" and in intelligence circles there should be a fair guess as to who he is. As it is the issue has been muddied further by Thomas Graham's disclaimer of ever writing the letter to Barnes, the U.S.ambassador to India between 1981-85. And CIA has gone a step further by calling the document 'forged.' It appears that the 'mole' can remain safely behind the cloud of dust kicked up by all of them. One does not know whether it is fact or fiction. In the shadowy world of espionage attempts at disinformation are normal and aimed at putting the investigators off the trail. 'Forgery' or claims to that effect are also part of it and the 'mole' remains ensconsed in safe area like the Deep Throat of Watergate. Of course nearly 30 years later the Deep Throat came out into the open when it was clear that he could not be prosecuted. His great advantage was that his role was seen in positive light as having nailed Richard Nixon's move to subvert the law. But moles who trade information for money or other reasons attract the tag of "traitors' and the long arm of law. Jaswant's claim of a 'mole', if true, could have operated in channels where he was sure of the protective cover. He could never be found unless investigators sift through all those civil servants who mattered during the period and corner the culpable individual. Or he must identify himself forced by a crisis of conscience which in majority of the cases is a miracle. The first option involves repeated questioning -lie-detector tests and the works - which could willy nilly undermine the morale and performance profile. It had happened in the CIA in the late 50s when James Jesus Angleton suspected the presence of a Soviet 'mole' and virtually demoralised the set-up with his obsessive enquiries. And Philby was running the Soviet Desk then and had come under Angleton's suspicious scanner. What Angleton feared was that a CIA mole working for Moscow could do irreparable damage. A similar exercise will invite similar problems though there has been no precedence of such an investigation. The one that came nearest to it was Seymour Hersh's charge against Morarji Desai as the source who passed vital information when Indian troops had stormed the then East Pakistan and was rumoured to attack the West too. U.S. had moved its Sixth Fleet strategically to ward off the threat. The allegation did not stick and there was a laundering of a few names too. The needle of suspicion pointed at one senior civil servant named "Desai' who had expired by the time Hersh made the charge. Morarji had a unjustifiably harrowing time on a couple urt where according to the law the onus of defence was on the accused. The Indian government then did not use the opportunity to have a go at Morarji for obvious political repercussions. Here the stakes are different though how long the dust storm raised will take to subside is to be seen. But an investigation is surely needed at least to clear the suspicions.