By R. Jeffrey Smith

- Wednesday, May 13, 1998; Page A01 -- A U.S. spy satellite clearly depicted activity last week at India's remote desert nuclear test site, but U.S. intelligence officials scrutinizing the images failed to discern that India was preparing to conduct the three nuclear blasts it set off on Monday, several sources said yesterday.
Even when "clear-cut" evidence of the nuclear test preparations was recorded by a satellite at midnight in Washington on Sunday, six hours before the tests, no CIA warning was issued because the U.S. analysts responsible for tracking the Indian nuclear program had not expected the tests and were not on alert, several officials said.
They were, according to one senior official, asleep at their homes and did not see the pictures until they arrived at work in the morning. As a result, President Clinton and other White House officials did not learn of the preparations until after the blasts had occurred, when news services carried accounts of a public acknowledgment by India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
When the White House subsequently asked the CIA for details, the agency's top officials had none to offer, several sources said. ( Full text at The Washington Post)

India's Nuclear Adventure, CIA's Stumble,
Education by Arun Kumar
- If the US spy satellite that monitors Pokharan is in a polar orbit, it cannot observe Pokharan all the time, and it is possible that the Indians worked around its observation times. Abha and I have long planned a school for little children based on some principles such as these. (Full text)

New Indian N-tests as US bungle
- By JAMES WOODFORD, Foreign Affairs and Defence Correspondent and agencies India conducted two more underground nuclear tests yesterday as the United States was still trying to ascertain why its spy satellites analysts had failed to detect the warning signs before the first test on Monday. The revelation came as theUS said it would impose economic sanctions on India and as Japan announced it.
(Sydney Morning Herald - Daily News)

Tim Weiner and James Risen,
"Policy Makers, Diplomats, Intelligence Officers
All Missed India's Intentions,"
- On May 14, when frustrated senators interrogated senior intelligence officials behind closed doors about the U.S. failure to foresee the tests, it was already apparent that the failure was a team effort by the most senior policy makers, diplomats and intelligence officials. His investigation is finding evidence that the American policy makers' misplaced trust, the intelligence analysts'.

New York Times, May 25, 1998


Special Page on Nuclear Testing
in South Asia
The Times of India,


"India and Pakistan: An Asian Nuclear Peace?"
by Armando F. Mastrapa, Department of Government and Politics,
St. John's University, Jamaica, New York

Yahoo's Coverage of the Indian Nuclear Tests

Henry Sokolski , "A Blast of Reality,"
New York Times, May 13, 1998

William J. Broad, "Monitors Picked Up
Only 1 of 5 India Blasts,"
New York Times, May 15, 1998

Indian Nuclear Test - Articles/Polls/Media Coverage

Indian   Nuclear  Testing -  The News and the Views


Hagerty, Devin T. "Nuclear Deterrence in South Asia:
the 1990 Indo-Pakistani Crisis,"
International Security, (v20 n3), Winter 1995

U.S. Department of State:
Testimony: R. Raphel on U.S. Policy Towards South Asia
Bureau for South Asian Affairs
U.S. Department of State 95/03/07

The Clinton Administration's Policy toward South Asia,
Hearing before the Subcommitte on Asia and the Pacific
of the Committe on International Relations, house of Representatives,
One hundred Fifth Congress, First Session, Oct. 22, 1997

Compilation of Documents
Concerning South Asian
Nuclear Issues
United States Information Service

Mario's INDIA page