Foreign policy circles in New Delhi and Washington were “shocked” by the news of the arrest of Indian-born American strategic analyst Ashley J. Tellis on the charge of possessing more than 1,000 pages of US top secret documents and frequently meeting Chinese government officials.
A statement issued by the US department of justice on Tuesday said: “Ashley Tellis, 64, of Vienna, VA (Virginia), was arrested over the weekend and charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national defence information.” The statement also clarified that “a criminal complaint is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty”.
According to a Reuters report, the FBI affidavit accompanying the charge document stated that in September and October of this year, Tellis entered defence and state department buildings and was observed accessing and printing classified documents, including information on military aircraft capabilities, and leaving in a car with a leather briefcase or bag.
The affidavit said a search of Tellis’s residence in Vienna, Virginia, on Saturday uncovered over a thousand pages of classified documents with "top secret" and "secret" markings.
The affidavit also said Tellis had met Chinese government officials on multiple occasions over the past several years. The meetings included a September 15 dinner at a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, at which it said Tellis arrived with a manila envelope, which he did not appear to have when he left, the Reuters report said.
“The affidavit said that due to his employment with the state department and Pentagon, Tellis possessed a top secret security clearance with access to sensitive compartmented information.”
Tellis is the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specialising in international security and US foreign and defence policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Carnegie profile on him says “while on assignment to the US Department of State as senior adviser to the undersecretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India”.
Commissioned into the US Foreign Service, he has served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the US embassy in New Delhi and also on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia.
Born in Mumbai, Tellis moved to the US for higher studies after his post-graduation from the University of Bombay. He is a familiar face in India owing to his participation in various television discussions on India and the US. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment, up to a $2,50,000 fine.