Career CIA Officer To NDTV On Why He's Convinced Indian-Origin Expert Ashley Tellis Is Chinese Spy

Glen Carle, a career Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who has served in the US National Intelligence Council, in an interview to NDTV explained why he is convinced that Indian-American strategic affairs expert Ashley J Tellis was spying for China.

Tellis has been arrested in the US on charges of unlawfully retaining national defence information.

Once known as the key architect of the landmark US-India civil nuclear deal in 2008, US prosecutors alleged Tellis printed sensitive material on US military aircraft capabilities and air force tactics, and then stashed them at his Virginia home.

Court filings allegedly showed he had been meeting Chinese officials in secret since 2022, including dinners where they discussed Iran-China ties and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

"I'm pretty certain that he is [a Chinese spy]. There are two possible explanations. One, that he is a naive fool. Or two, that he is a spy for, it appears, China. It's pretty clear. The rules are explicit. Everybody knows them. One is briefed and has to live with them consciously in one's mind every second of one's, not just work day, but one's life in the intelligence world or dealing with classified information. And at the very least, he has broken rules that are illegal, and make his actions illegal," Carle told NDTV on Wednesday.

He said the Tellis case seems straightforward, and the penalties are quite explicit.

What Could Be The Motivation

On what could have motivated Tellis to spy for China despite the relatively high-profile and successful career he had, the former CIA officer said the reason could be anything because in the world of espionage, explaining and manipulating the motivations of someone so that the person commits espionage is the heart of the job.

"The answers are almost infinite... It could be that he wants to, the excitement, many people are motivated only by that, of breaking the rules and doing something others don't know about. It could be that he wanted money. It could be that he needed a woman or he needed a man or he simply wanted praise, or he wanted to do in his superiors or the institution where he was working for. Often, this is the following, one is the case," Carle said.

"[Or] He's working for a higher ideal. 'America is not getting it right. And if I only could make people understand among their adversaries, then the world would be a better place'. He probably has rationalised that multiple of these motivations can be acting at the same time. The job of the intelligence officer is to identify and then exploit those. And someone seems to have done it well with regard to Tellis," the former CIA officer said.

Was Ashley Tellis A Chinese Spy? Glen Carle, Career CIA Officer answers @vishnundtv pic.twitter.com/RqZvGmdHLp

— NDTV (@ndtv) October 15, 2025

If convicted, Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a $100 special assessment and forfeiture, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served," it said.

Born in Mumbai and educated at the University of Chicago, Tellis has been a prolific writer and adviser on defence and Asia policy. He was closely involved in shaping the landmark India-US civil nuclear agreement during the George W Bush administration which transformed bilateral ties in the mid-2000s.

Previously, he was commissioned into the US Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the US embassy in Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to then-President Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia.

The Tellis case also raises an uncomfortable question for the US: is there a larger pattern of deep-penetration espionage by China?

"Well, no question about it," Carle told NDTV. "One of the frustrations, although not a surprise for me... is that I and my colleagues will say to whomever, 'you have to understand how pervasive Chinese intelligence operations against the United States are, or how pervasive Russian ones are.'

"Or that many of the things we take as private citizens, wherever we come from, as just facts and how the world is functioning, are being manipulated by one intelligence service or another. People look at me as though I'm some sort of paranoid quack. It's shocking how pervasive intelligence is affecting the policies of even the United States and much less powerful countries.

"One statistic, the most active intelligence service against the United States for years has been China. There have been something like 150 indictments in the last five or 10 years by the FBI against either Chinese or Chinese Americans or someone conducting espionage operations in the United States on behalf of China. It's an exponential increase as China has become a global power and more assertive," the career CIA officer said.

'It Is Widespread'

He said the general public simply is unaware, doesn't believe and doesn't understand how widespread these things are.

"One other point on how could this man, so intelligent and so accomplished, have done such incredibly stupid things? One of the basic lessons or issues that we struggle with as intelligence officers in our training and throughout my career, everyone's career, is that an asset, a spy, will invariably do something stupid that will risk his life. They are not professional intelligence officers. They are accomplished, intelligent, sophisticated people in positions of power. They become arrogant. They are unthinking. They will do dumb things. That's what has happened," Carle told NDTV.

He said handlers always tell their assets in every meeting how to protect themselves.

"... 'Don't do the following stupid things'... because you know that they will do it. And so one of the slightly ironic or amusing, in a terrible way from an American perspective, aspect of this whole case is that the Chinese intelligence officers handling this man have egg on their faces because he did grotesquely stupid things and the operation is now blown up," Carle said.