Table Of Contents

Andrew Bustamante

On 4 December 2025, American ex-CIA clandestine officer Andrew Bustamante sat across from Raj Shamani and dropped a line that made millions of Indians sit up straight:

“India has one of the top two intelligence agencies in the world… RAW and the Intelligence Bureau. Most people do not even realize how good Indian intelligence is, because Indian intelligence is so good at staying quiet.”

In a world that constantly talks about CIA, Mossad, MSS, MI6, and SVR, hearing India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) placed in the absolute elite tier, by a man who spent seven years inside Langley’s Clandestine Service, is rare.

So why does a former American spy rank RAW so highly, and why does almost nobody outside India know it?

1. Silence Is The Ultimate Force Multiplier

Bustamante’s core argument is simple: the louder an agency is, the less respect it usually deserves.

“CIA and Mossad are always in the headlines. That is information warfare; it scares people. But the excellent ones? You never hear about them. RAW falls into that category, very similar to the British MI6. Quiet professionals.”

He points out that RAW operations rarely leak, rarely get attributed, and rarely end up on the front page. That invisibility is not weakness; it is the signature of mastery.

2. Laser Focus On One Primary Adversary

Unlike the CIA, which has to watch 195 countries at once, RAW’s obsession is singular: Pakistan.

“They only have to look at one real enemy, Pakistan. That makes everything simpler, cheaper, and far more effective.”

This narrow focus has enabled RAW to build decades-deep human networks, signals intelligence coverage, and operational experience that no other agency can match on that specific target set.

3. The Western Training Pipeline Nobody Advertises

Bustamante openly admits what Indian officials will never confirm:

“RAW is a very close collaborator with the West, the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Canada. That relationship gives them the best resources, the best training, and access to Western intelligence capabilities.”

Translation: RAW officers train alongside MI6 and CIA, use Western satellite imagery, share terrorist watch-lists in real time, and get early looks at Western tech. Very few countries outside the Five Eyes achieve that level of partnership.

4. The “Snatch 400” Legend (That Bustamante Believes Is Real)

When Raj Shamani mentioned reports that RAW had “snatched” or neutralised around 400 high-value terrorists from Nepal, Bangladesh, Gulf countries, and beyond in a single decade, Bustamante’s reaction was telling:

“That is Mossad-level precision, but there is almost zero chance RAW did it completely alone. They almost certainly did it with American or British help, and the US paid for most of it.”

In other words, when RAW wants a terrorist who is hiding in a third country, it can quietly ask Washington or London to foot the bill for satellites, special forces, safe houses, and exfiltration, and the West usually says yes.

5. The Ultimate Compliment: Underestimated On Purpose

Bustamante ends with the highest praise an intelligence professional can give:

“The world underestimates India’s intelligence capabilities because India wants to be underestimated. That is not a weakness, that is a weapon.”

In a single sentence, he explained why RAW will never have Hollywood movies, never leak its successes, and never appear on global “power rankings”, and why that is precisely the point.

Bottom Line

While the CIA spends billions making sure the world knows it exists, RAW spends its budget making sure the world never finds out what it was there.

Moreover, according to a man who spent years trying to spy on India from the inside, that quiet, ruthless efficiency puts RAW in the same sentence as only one other agency on earth.

As Bustamante put it with a smile:

“If you are not talking about RAW, they are probably doing their job perfectly.”