Guest Column - Mahesh Jethmalani ---- "Satellites don’t tell you who is in which room at what time ...... :: Israel has no luxury of being lazy at intelligence"

(From 2007 to 2012 Israel reportedly carried out at least five covert assassinations, nearly all in Tehran, through remote-controlled bombings.) 

Donald Trump said the conflict with Iran may last about four weeks. He described the campaign as unfolding as planned. 

Mahesh Jethmalani says --

"One detail from this Iran war should make every serious state sit up: credible reporting says Israeli leaders were shown an image of Khamenei’s body after it was recovered by Mossad agents - and that Israel had visibility on his fate faster than Iran could even confirm the death of it's supreme leader and shape the narrative. 

That’s not “tech”. 

That’s HUMINT + penetration. 

In a lengthy post on X; former Rajya Sabha MP points out:

"Satellites don’t tell you who is in which room at what time. Signals don’t always survive encryption and discipline. What wins you wars and prevents surprises is human access  so-urces, moles, defectors, recruited assets - the messy, thankless work of being inside the enemy’s bloodstream."

He also says

-- "Israel has no luxury of being lazy at intelligence. It sits in a hostile neighbourhood with actors who openly want it erased. 

So it builds networks that aren’t “near the border.” They’re near the decision-makers. That’s what survival looks like when geography is unforgiving."

"Now bring that lens to India. When you live next to Pakistan’s terror ecosystem and a Bangladesh theatre that keeps throwing up radical modules, you don’t get to be sentimental about “soft power” as a substitute for hard intelligence. 

You need early warning, deep penetration, counter-infiltration, and ruthless disruption - before the plot becomes a headline.

And this is exactly where the armchair moralists fail India. 

They love questioning operations after the fact. They hate the boring investments before the fact: intel budgets, source protection, language capability, field tradecraft, inter-agency fusion, and the political spine to back covert work without leaking it for TRPs.

"Pop culture and superhit movies like Dhurandhar tells the story really well but makes it look stylish - one hero, one mission, one punchline. 

Real HUMINT though is the opposite: years of patience, ugly risks, zero credit, and often no medal because the best outcome is “nothing happened.”

May 12, 2025 -- PM Modi at a high-level meeting with top functionaries, including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Dr S Jaishankar, and NSA Ajit Doval

"This is not about chest-thumping. This is about statecraft. The world is moving into an age where wars are decided by who sees first, knows first, and shapes first. Israel gets that. 

India must get that - permanently. 

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our intelligence apparatus, NEW INDIA definitely gets it.

Because 'terrorist harbouring neighbours' don’t send calendar invites before they strike. They send handlers, money, propaganda, and sleepers. The only answer is being inside that machinery early enough to break it.

"If you want deterrence, stop thinking intelligence is an accessory. It’s the foundation," Jethmalani added.

Israel PM and planners 

Blogger adds :

The assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the culmination of decades of painstaking intelligence gathering by Israeli secret services, with crucial technological resources.

The efforts also included 'manpower provided' over the last six months by the CIA and other US intelligence services. All of it culminated in a single concentrated burst of lethal violence to decapitate the Iranian regime, according to experts, veteran spies and officials in Israel and the US.  

Abu Dhabi // AFP (Times of Israel) snap 

Khamenei was killed along with seven “members of the top Iranian security leadership who had gathered at several locations in Tehran” and around a dozen members of his family and close entourage.

There was a near-simultaneous strike and within 60 seconds, the mission was accomplished.

Forty other senior Iranian leaders also died in the attack.

ends