Soft Target (book)

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Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada
Cover page.
Author	Zuhair Kashmeri & Brian McAndrew
Country	Canada
Language	English
Genre(s)	Investigative Journalism, Espionage, Canadian Sikhs, Canadian History
Publisher	James Lorimer & Company
Publication date	1989 and reprint in 2005
Media type	Print Paperback & Cloth
Pages	162
ISBN	1-55028-221-1 (Paperback 1989) & 1550289047 (2005)
Followed by	Reprint in 2005

Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada is an investigative journalism work in the form of a book written by two Canadian reporters Zuhair Kashmeri (from Globe and Mail) & Brian McAndrew (from Toronto Star). The authors define Soft Target as "an espionage term used for any country, institution or group of people very easy to penetrate and manipulate for subversive purposes "^[1] and argue that the Canadian Sikh community was a "Soft Target" of a covert operation by the Indian government during the 1980s. The book also makes a bold claim that Indian intelligence agencies not only penetrated the Sikh community in order to discredit them world wide and halt the momentum of the demand of an independent Sikhs state, but also manipulated the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)^[1].

Contents 1 Book organization 2 Reprint of 2005 3 Reviews, criticism and praises 4 References to the book 5 References 6 See Also

[edit] Book organization

The 1989 edition is partitioned into 10 chapters. The authors claim that though the book is written in the form of a spy-thriller, and that all the facts and documentation is real.^[1]

[edit] Reprint of 2005

The book was republished in the acquittal year of the 2 accused in the case due to absence of evidence although a third accomplice, Inderjit Singh Reyat pleaded guilty^[2] with the authors claim of predicting the outcome of the trial 15 years ago. The Google Book Search entry for the book reads:

"A provocative look at one of Canada's biggest tragedies" On March 16, 2005, almost twenty years after one of the biggest mass murders in Canadian Aviation history, the Air-India Case concluded with a verdict that authors Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew predicted sixteen years ago when "Soft Target" was first published: not guilty.In this second edition, the two offer a detailed foreword that brings readers up-to-date with some startling new information surrounding the twin bombings on June 23, 1985 in the air over the Atlantic, and on the ground in Japan, which left 331 people dead. They offer key details from the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri that took place in a specially-built Vancouver courtroom, leads that were not followed up, and more details of India's intelligence service's clandestine interference in Canada. They explain how their own prediction that justice would not be found because of a botched investigation came true, and that only a public inquiry will offer closure to the families of the victims.

[edit] Reviews, criticism and praises

I.J. Singh from the editorial advisory board of 'The Sikh Review', Calcutta and 'The Encyclopedia of Sikhism', Punjabi University, Patiala reviews the book as "A gripping tale, cleverly told with clarity and brevity, Soft Target, delves into areas where solid proof is often elusive and evidence rarely follows a straight path". There are many other critics mostly from Canada and India points out that this book is a well written propaganda of Sikh terrorism. Indian government have banned the book.

[edit] References to the book

• International Bibliography of Sikh Studies By Rajwant Singh Chilana pp 455
• Assessing Canadian Intelligence Literature: 1980-2000 GEOFFREY R WELLER - 2001 - International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence

[edit] References

[edit] See Also

1. Inderjit Singh Reyat