India-US Strategic News and Discussion

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Gerard
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Gerard »

From Bangalore, Ms Biswal will travel to New Delhi, where she will meet senior Indian officials to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including shared defence, security, and economic engagement across the Indo-Pacific corridor, the State Department said.
I hope these senior officials are of equivalent rank. Reciprocity should be maintained.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by BSR Murthy »

Who the heck is Lawrence Liang?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

http://www.rediff.com/news/column/rajee ... 140303.htm

The time will come when America can dictate to India, and expect to be obeyed :shock:
' Rajeev Srinivasan
Thus, it is a matter of great concern when Americans want to fix India. Much of the time, India is peripheral to the US foreign policy establishment, except when they are annoyed with it (as in the Nixon-Kissinger days) or they are trying to sell some snake oil to it (as in the much-ballyhooed case of the 'nuclear deal', which was, to digress for a minute, a selling out of India's national security in exchange for virtually nothing).In fact, India does much better when it is not on the radar of America's self-styled do-gooders.Therefore, it is alarming that a group at the University of California, Berkeley's business school is toiling on a project to 'create a policy and protocol framework for protecting people's rights in situations of internal armed conflict and mass violence' in India.Which is amazing, considering that there is less violence and conflict in India than in any of the countries mentioned above, and that, anyway, there has been low-level insurgencies in India for decades.

This leads me to wonder, does the Berkeley group know something that the rest of us don't?
The context, of course, is that there have been persistent rumours that the US has 'assets' high in the Indian government. The long-sustained (but just-lifted) boycott of Narendra Modi (allegedly because a group of leftists and Muslims in the US were upset) is another indication that the US does have an interest in the 2014 Indian election: They do have a dog in this fight.There is also the surprising and widespread white noise in support of the Aam Aadmi Party by such establishment stalwarts as The New York Times and The Economist, among others. It is hard, prima facie, to believe the Americans would genuinely embrace a self-proclaimed anarchist group with far-Left views on almost everything. Nevertheless, there they are, with their front foundations merrily giving away all sorts of awards and money to the AAP.This fits in with an observed tactic on the part of the West to encourage leftist, nihilist dissident groups in other countries. It is rather evident by now that a Narendra Modi-led government would not be particularly easy to bribe or manipulate -- it does appear that he neither forgives nor forgets -- and that it would be, as with Shinzo Abe's administration in Japan, prone to care about the national interest, not America's.
This, of course, is anathema to the American world view based on George Kennan's Cold War views on hegemony.Thus, as a first approximation, a plausible American tactic would be to try and prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi from coming to power by splitting the anti-Congress vote using the AAP, and in case that fails, to follow up with a Plan B to make India ungovernable, to create mass conflict through their agents.This is not theoretical: ..The concern about the Berkeley group is magnified if you look at their Web site. Grandly claiming that an aim of this 'Armed Conflict Resolution and People's Rights Project' is to 'engage with affected communities, and periodically engage with members of the Government of India,' it identifies J&K, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, and specifically Gujarat and Odisha as having been 'impacted by far-reaching violence on minority communities in recent history.'In other words, the usual anti-Modi rhetoric about the Gujarat riots in 2002, with a few other topics thrown in for the sake of camouflage. Old wine in new bottles.

The impression that there is more to this group, attached to the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, than meets the eye, is strengthened by a perusal of the list of principals. One is a notable purveyor of anti-India ideas, who was implicated in the Faigate scandal as an unregistered lobbyist for Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. Another is now out on bail on charges of embezzling funds from victims of violence. Another is attached to the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, which deals with nuclear weapons!Many of the others are old war-horses from the FOIL (Forum of Indian Leftists which transmogrified one fine day into the Forum of Inquilabi Leftists), a group that is reflexively and viscerally opposed to many things in India, especially to right-leaning Hindus.There are enough people with a known history of antipathy to Modi in this group to strengthen the impression that this whole thing is another exercise for Modi's benefit.What is particularly sinister is that there is circumstantial evidence that seems to indicate that people like FOIL have, in the past, 'known' about certain events before they happened. Which, by Occam's Razor, would suggest that these events were not random, but were planned, and that the leftists were in the know.Are they planning to just study conflict, or is there more?Furthermore, if the objective is to study conflict, why does the focus lie entirely on India, with almost all the members of the working group being of Indian origin?
As I pointed out above, there is actual armed conflict in many other places right now, so why India alone?The implication is that this group may well be witting or unwitting participants in a conspiracy to create violence in India.There is an implicit American project going on regarding India anyway: Many American maps show the entire North-East detached from India, in addition to all of Jammu and Kashmir. There has been much pressure on India to give away the Siachen Glacier to Pakistan.And given the fact that India has now become the biggest buyer of American arms, the time will come when America can dictate to an Indian government, and expect to be obeyed.It looks as though the Berkeley group may be planning to add internal pressure as well to the mix to discomfit an Indian government. This is a matter of serious concern, and it is not too far-fetched to consider this a conspiracy to overthrow a future Indian government. In my book, that would be considered seditious, and it should be treated accordingly.
Last edited by Prem on 05 Mar 2014 09:22, edited 1 time in total.
Ashwin B
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Ashwin B »

Quote: "Lawrence Liang is an Indian Chinese legal researcher and lawyer based in the city of Bangalore...."
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Indo-US dialog Yahoo groups has full text of Neha Biswal's speech prior to her trip. Good effort and all the right words but lacks credibility as she has hardly any clout.
Political appointee overseeing hard nosed SD officials in Delhi.
One show of capability would be to transfer the whole crew involved in the Sangeet Richards family trafficking visa case.
To have them lingering in Delhi as walking ghosts does no one any good.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

X-Posted from TSP thread. looks like civilian aid to TSP is being cut to please India. Would be better if military aid is also cut.
SSridhar wrote:US plans $280 mn military aid to Pakistan, cuts civilian aid - The Hindu
Arguing that Pakistan will remain a key player in counter terrorism post-2014, the U.S. has proposed $280 million in military assistance to the country, although it wants to cut civilian aid in an effort to acknowledge India’s concerns about misuse of the funds.

Marred by financial constraints, the Obama administration has proposed to substantially cut civilian aid to Pakistan to $446 million for the next fiscal year as against $703 million in 2013, which among other things the State Department argued aimed at improving ties with India.
Under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) category, the U.S. maintained $280 million in military aid to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2015 beginning in October 2014.

Given the ongoing transition in Afghanistan and continued terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets throughout Pakistan, FMF is essential to Pakistan’s efforts to increase stability in its western border region and ensure overall stability within its own borders, the Department said.

“The $280 million Pakistan requests will enhance the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, Air Force, and Navy’s ability to conduct counter insurgency (COIN) and counter terrorism (CT) operations against militants throughout its borders and will improve Pakistan’s ability to deter threats emanating from those areas, and encourage continued U.S.-Pakistan military-to-military engagement,” the State Department said.

What about the rumored US F-16s from Jordan being passed on to Fizzileya?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by A_Gupta »

Another CIA front
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semp ... work-.html
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a Washington D.C-based quasi-governmental organization funded by the U.S. which boasts that it is "supporting freedom around the world."
and
The NED was the chief pillar of a plan by then President Clinton to get rid of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The plan, developed by the CIA, was intricate and comprehensive. Basically, it was to work through the NED’s two subordinate wings, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as well as the Center for International Private Enterprise, an offshoot of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The IRI would focus on dissident students while the NDI would work closely with different opposition parties. The State department and the U.S. Agency for International Development would play the leading role in channeling funds through commercial contracts and nonprofit groups. Under the authority AID, other money would be funneled to opposition groups and the mayor of opposition cities.

Because of their freedom of travel and their ability to move in closed off areas, the CIA recruited the staff of the NGOs, mainly relief agencies and human rights groups, which produced a great deal of useful intelligence. According to former CIA official, such recruitment was done very selectively. We didn’t want the organization discredited or people killed nor could they be seen as foreign vassals,” said a former official of the agency’s Directorate of Operations. Another agency official said, "There was a lot of reluctance in this area.”

The proposed coup against Milosevic had to be “very tightly controlled from the beginning, middle and end. You had to support one group against another group; you helped people who were going to help you,” one said.

So the Clinton plan was to use covert/overt, insider/outsider elements simultaneously, which meant employing NGOs in coordination with sophisticated espionage.
But talking recently to former CIA and other intelligence officials, they see nothing in the Ukraine that provides any reasonable pretext to whip up ignorant mobs there who talk democracy but who behave like thugs. A former deputy chief of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, once a backer of NED, now sees it with distrust, its ambitions “too imperial,” manifesting the U.S. obsession with meddling with other countries internal affairs. Remember what Helvey said of his program, ““is not ethical. It is not pacifism. It is based on an analysis of power in dictatorship and how to break it by withdrawing the obedience of its citizens and the key institutions of society.”

Were such methods required in the case of the Ukraine? You tell me.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Nandu »

ramana wrote:Indo-US dialog Yahoo groups has full text of Neha Biswal's speech prior to her trip.
Nisha
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by amit »

So the Hon'ble Judge sits on her judgment on the legality of DK's arrest - even after the UN has made a statement that the envoy enjoyed UN-mandated immunity during the time of her arrest and custodial rape. And meanwhile, it's becoming business as usual and the tax fraudsters in the School go scot-free.

It's obvious some behind the scenes deal has been struck. One hopes the Babu's didn't drop the ball at this late hour on pressure from the politicos.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by amit »

After reading all the in depth stuff with respect to the Haas School and its "project" I come to the conclusion that can be summed up with one word: "hubris".

If Amir Khan mandarins think that they can lead a revolution in India with storm troopers like the A**hole "Mary" then they should go and live in Pakistan. BTW do folks here know that one of Mary's best friends in India is the big "bindi" lady who goes by the name of Brinda Karat? I don't have a link right now but pre-2004 Mary when to Orissa to foment some trouble and a group of angry villagers "gheroed" her and her chums. She had to send an SOS to the big bindi lady to rescue her.

I personally think this group can do Jacksh!t apart from writing drivel in some obscure publications which are not read by the vast majority of both the "slave-owning high caste Hindus" and the "slaves" themselves. Meanwhile even the venerable NYT is coming the the "sad" conclusion that a significant section of Muslims will vote for Modi in this election!
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by MurthyB »

The problem with FOIL types is the asymmetry in narrative that the western media is clever enough to engineer. These FOIL types are Marxists who will also denounce US policies, society, and governance. But western media will never cover that, and it will be in some obscure magazine that no one except dissenters read. However, for opinions on India, these worthies will be interviewed and quoted by NYT, WSJ etc. If Indian journalism were independent and had any self-respect, they would do the same. Interview the dissenters like Chomsky (and presumably Shapiro, Mary's partner) for all Bhest-related issues, and interview mainstream Indian thinkers for Indian issues. And they should also remove any off-topic reference the Chomsky's might make about other countries and stay on topic: a general sense of western incompetence and criminality, just as western reporters will do to the FOIL crowd. But since Indian journalism is full of sepoys and chowkidars, they will parrot what NYT and WSJ do, which leads to a lopsided narrative.
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

The Orissa Caper: Red Badge Of Umbrage

I found that on a cached page titled: "Hate Mail and Adverse Responses to the Work of Angana Chatterji"
Hatemail and Adverse Responses to the Works of Angana Chatterji
Websites, Blog, Online Forums

2005: IntelliBriefs: Angana Chatterjee and Uncle Sam's round-tables on proselytization
Anti-Chatterji Blog on Blogspot
Online Petition Against Angana Chatterji
August 2008 UN Letter on Offstumped Blog


Articles

Komerath, Narayanan. 2005. Red Badge of Umbrage. India Varta, July 1. http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050701.htm
Saja, Ari. 2008. CAG Diva wins IMC's Tippu Sultan Genocide Award. India Forum, November 12. http://www.india-forum.com/indian_polit ... award.html

Related Information

Works of Angana Chatterji

Category: Angana Chatterji
Last edited by UlanBatori on 06 Mar 2014 07:10, edited 1 time in total.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

He was truly a ninja. Too bad he doesn't post here anymore.
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Pretty sad for the Comrades if THAT is all they can find as "hate mail". :rotfl:
amit
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by amit »

UlanBatori wrote:The Orissa Caper: Red Badge Of Umbrage

I found that on a cached page titled: "Hate Mail and Adverse Responses to the Work of Angana Chatterji"
Hatemail and Adverse Responses to the Works of Angana Chatterji
Websites, Blog, Online Forums

2005: IntelliBriefs: Angana Chatterjee and Uncle Sam's round-tables on proselytization
Anti-Chatterji Blog on Blogspot
Online Petition Against Angana Chatterji
August 2008 UN Letter on Offstumped Blog


Articles

Komerath, Narayanan. 2005. Red Badge of Umbrage. India Varta, July 1. http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050701.htm
Saja, Ari. 2008. CAG Diva wins IMC's Tippu Sultan Genocide Award. India Forum, November 12. http://www.india-forum.com/indian_polit ... award.html

Related Information

Works of Angana Chatterji

Category: Angana Chatterji
OK the Ninja has got the incident which I was talking about from memory. It was one sure c##kup for the Red Brigade and Mary. BTW I propose whenever we talk about the venerable do-gooder here we should call her Angana Mary Chatterji.
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Note that the Orissa caper was in June 2005. Orissa was pretty peaceful then. By 2008 there were large-scale riots in Orissa. If you check Kashmir, there too the visits by A. Mary C. preceded big violence. Coincidence, no doubt.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

As Goldfinger said "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and thrice is enemy action!"
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

amit wrote:
So the Hon'ble Judge sits on her judgment on the legality of DK's arrest - even after the UN has made a statement that the envoy enjoyed UN-mandated immunity during the time of her arrest and custodial rape. And meanwhile, it's becoming business as usual and the tax fraudsters in the School go scot-free.

It's obvious some behind the scenes deal has been struck. One hopes the Babu's didn't drop the ball at this late hour on pressure from the politicos.
Hon'ble Judge's choice, at this point is either just sit..(if she wants to give some face saving excuse to PB) or dismiss the case (as DK's attorney agrees that's the ONLY thing which Judge has any authority to do)..what's she does is really not that important any more..

Official acts immunity of a diplomat grants immunity from the criminal charge itself, and she cannot ever be charged in future ...even if she cease to be a diplomat.

As to all "non-official acts", a diplomat can be charged (an indictment could be filed) -- but the diplomat cannot be subjected to the jurisdiction of the court ( NO arrest, NO bail arraignment none.), so long as the diplomat remains a diplomat. A diplomat named persona non grata is asked to leave the country. If the then non-diplomat doesn't leave the country by that time, the former diplomat can be subjected to the jurisdiction of the court. (Of course, if the diplomat goes home, and even becomes a non-diplomat, the court in US has no jurisdiction over that person in India)

Important point (PB, imo, goofed up) DK was a diplomat at the UN from August 26-December 31, 2013 and the court had no jurisdiction over her. After 31 Dec, her diplomatic immunity for non-official acts terminated but it was revived on January 8, 2014 when the USG acceded to her appointment as a permanent diplomat at the UN. So, she could have been indicted and then summoned or arrested in the interval of 1 Jan through 7 Jan. But, she wasn't. Even if she had been indicted by 8 Jan, her diplomatic immunity granted on that day would have quashed the court's jurisdiction under that indictment...

Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Meanwhile DSS, and false arrest case will be interesting,,,
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by K Mehta »

National Endowment for Democracy- southasia regional
.American Center for International Labor Solidarity
To strengthen the labor rights of Indian, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi domestic workers in their countries of origin and in destination countries. The Solidarity Center will work with Migrant Forum Asia and South Asian trade union partners to create awareness and promote the ratification of the ILO's domestic work convention and the adoption of legal reforms that implement the convention's standards in South Asia, beginning with a demonstration project in India.
Same players who are working in Eukraine.
Anyone has any idea on this entity - American Center for International Labor Solidarity?
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Probably led by Comrades Biju and Vijay Prashad

Interesting. The grant description says that their only project is going to be in India, but they have no "field office" in India!!
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by shiv »

Old. Don't know if it has been posted..

http://m.timesofindia.com/world/us/ISI- ... 839101.cms
ISI has infiltrated US thinktanks, Pak scholar says
Jun 30, 2013, 05.57AM IST TNN[ Chidanand Rajghatta ]
WASHINGTON: A prominent anti-establishment scholar in Pakistan has caused a flutter in Washington by suggesting that the country's spy outfit Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has infiltrated thinktanks in the US capital.

Ayesha Siddiqa, a political commentator and former bureaucrat, whose expose of Pakistan's military-intelligence's stranglehold on the country was chronicled in her book 'Military Inc', shocked regional experts with a tweet on Thursday, relating how a Pakistani diplomat had confided to an American six years ago that the ISI had set up funds to infiltrate DC (Washington) thinktanks and ''finally did it.''

''The only problem with this approach is they are sending unqualified people (mostly) to compete with Indians in the US,'' Siddiqa continued, adding, ''non-PhDs'' without any publication record will not be taken seriously in the US capital. She also named Moeed Yusuf, a senior Pakistan expert at the US Institute of Peace and Arif Rafique, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute, in her tweets.

Rafique countered her charges by initially saying, "I respect you and your work. Please don't make false insinuations about me.'' But when Siqqiqa shot back with ''False? DC humming with your name,'' he fired back with, ''Sad that an intelligent person like yourself has become a miserable conspiracy theorist. You should be ashamed of your lies.''

Siddiqa maintained that her ''only concern is if they have 2 do it then send ppl with capacity or grow ppl inside the system'' and said the ''current plan is flop.'' For thinktanks, ''the main issue is money, whoever can put down a grant gets the slot,'' she said, explaining how Pakistan was making inroads into think tanks.

There has indeed been a perceptible increase in Pakistani experts in US thinktanks and universities over the past decade, particularly after the country's association with the so-called war on terror, including its reputation as the haven for terrorists. Among the prominent Pakistani scholars in Washington DC are Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at Atlantic Council (who incidentally is the brother of former army chief Asif Nawaz Janjua) and several former Pakistani diplomats who have rotated in an out of the city.

Former Pakistan ambassadors to US such as Hussain Haqqani and Maleeha Lodhi have done stints at thinktanks, as have former generals-turned-diplomats, notably Jehangir Karamat and Mahmud Ali Durrani. Siddiqa herself served as a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University.

In 2009, Pakistanis helped raise money for a Pakistan studies ''chair'' at the University of Texas in Austin, named after a US Congressman who was a great fan and supporter of the country's role in the 1980s Afghan conflict, although he was disillusioned about the whole affair when he died in 2010.


"While Hollywood may profit from valorizing Wilson's role in the Soviet-Afghan war, the concerns of a flagship, state-funded academic institution should be to maintain high scholarly standards and to avoid participating in historical caricature," the scholars wrote, referring to the movie "Charlie Wilson's War," and adding, "Wilson's central involvement in the cold war in South Asia does not warrant the honor of establishing a University chair in his name." Nothing further has been heard about the Chair since then and the University website does not list any incumbent scholar.

The ISI has already gotten into trouble before for subverting U.S political process when it was accused of funding Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri separatist in Washington who was eventually convicted of illegal lobbying after receiving slush funds from Pakistani intelligence agency. The Obama administration cut some slack to the notorious outfit that is often said to work against U.S interests because it thinks it needs its cooperation on various fronts.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

shiv wrote:
The ISI has already gotten into trouble before for subverting U.S political process when it was accused of funding Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri separatist in Washington who was eventually convicted of illegal lobbying after receiving slush funds from Pakistani intelligence agency. The Obama administration cut some slack to the notorious outfit that is often said to work against U.S interests because it thinks it needs its cooperation on various fronts.
ISI has been invited inside US for a long time since the 50s and later in the 70s. They have been encouraged by Uncle to keep lobby for Kashmir and the lawmakers group to support Kashmir. Fai cannot do anything unless supported by the establishment and SD
When SD took policy for supporting Kashmir it wanted it so but for the outside world it was shown that Pak has a big lobby

Once there was fallout after 2011 the Fai was ousted but the network is still present.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by A_Gupta »

Professor Balagangadhara's response to Wendy Doniger's New York Times OpEd. The NYT apparently does not publish replies to their OpEds, so this they turned back. Balu posted this on TheHeathenInHisBlindness yahoo egroup. He writes: "Note though that this piece merely expresses my irritation…"
I am from Bangalore, India, but work as a professor in Belgium, Europe. My name is not Batra but am known as ‘Balu’. I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of either the BJP or of any of the organizations collectively known as the ‘Sangh Parivar’. Even though I am born a ‘Hindu’, some of my ‘liberal’ associates are convinced that I am a ‘crypto-Christian’. So much about my credentials, which are required to make two points of some importance about some sections of the American academia.

These thoughts arise in the context of Wendy Doniger’s op-ed piece in the NYT. This American ‘expert’ on Indian culture and ‘Hinduism’ epitomizes very accurately the state of the American academia when it talks about other peoples and cultures: filled with ignorance and pompousness.

Ignorance: she does not even know that the article 295A of the Indian Penal Code (which she refers to) is not about ‘blasphemy’. (Does she know the meaning of the word, I wonder.) Yet, this inconvenient fact does not faze her from holding forth on the issue. Neither does the fact that being a ‘Jew’ is irrelevant to whether one has a ‘Christian’ missionary zeal or not. (Does she know that Judaism also ‘proselytized’ during the Antiquity?) After all, the so-called ‘Hindu fundamentalists’ have been repeatedly accused of exhibiting precisely that zeal which Wendy claims is inappropriate to describe her because of her Jewish birth. This nonchalant attitude towards others is typical not only of her but also of most academics doing India and Hinduism studies in America. Ignorance might not prevent the American academia from sermonizing to the world but, when coupled with pompousness, it damages what many good Americans hold very dear to their hearts: ‘the American national interests’.

Pompousness: Wendy Doniger suggests that the voice of a “narrow band of narrow-minded Hindus” drowned out the voices of “the broader, more liberal parts of Indian society”. This suggests that the latter must have been ‘speaking’ too; how otherwise could their voices be ‘drowned out’? Two questions that even an ordinary child would ask are of relevance here. The first: how could a narrow band ‘drown out’ the voice of a broader band? A possible answer would attempt to identify those in power. One of the things that everyone, especially such intellectual experts, should know about India is that the entire media in India has been under the hegemony of liberal and left-thinking intellectuals ever since independence. Nehru was a socialist; he encouraged leftist intellectuals. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, consciously pursued this strategy: almost all academic institutions and funding agencies are completely in the hands of progressive and left-leaning people. How then, and this is the second question of the kid, could a small number of people (without institutional power or control of the media) outshout the majority especially when it is in power? Surely, this does not jell. But this imperviousness to reason is the required stepping stone for the pomposity, which she exhibits when she says that “the dormant liberal conscience of India” was awakened by the “stunning blow to the freedom of speech”. Let us leave aside the question of logical consistency (an inappropriate term to describe Wendy’s thinking) about the “broader band” that ‘speaks’ and yet is alleged to be dormant. The real issue is far more important.

That consists of some questions. If we know history, we know too that ‘liberalism’ (as we understand the term today) is a product of the extraordinary culture that the West is. We need to acknowledge the contributions of such people like John Locke or John Stuart Mill, if and when we speak about this wonderful political doctrine. We know too that Indians are indebted to the British for this gift to their thinking. Yet, there are questions here: did the Indian culture go around banning books before the British came to India? Was the Indian culture a prey to systematic campaigns against intellectual productions before the emergence of a liberal conscience? Are we to suppose that if the westernized “liberal conscience” does not wake up, Indian culture will fall victim to the “narrow-minded Hindus”? If, indeed, India burnt and banned books before ‘liberalism’ made its advent into India, Wendy’s thought carries credibility.

Actually, that would be a sheer nonsensical claim because it is the other way round: western culture banned and burnt books before the advent of ‘liberalism’; it banned and burnt books also after the advent of ‘liberalism’. Protestants burnt the books of Catholics, Catholics banned and burnt Protestant writings; the Germans, amongst other things, burnt down the entire library of the University of Louvain. The Americans, for their part, unlike the French colonizer, simply bombed away the libraries in Vietnam and elsewhere. In fact, as our history books tell us, it was an enlightenment thinker like David Hume who called upon people to burn libraries, if they housed books that say nothing about “matters of fact” or speak about logic since they can “contain nothing but sophistry and illusion”. He was, of course, referring to books on theology, among other things. (Thus, his logic would have burnt Wendy’s books, seeing that they lack both!) Hence, it is unvarnished pomposity to think that only the western culture embodies freedom of thought and expression, while other cultures are not only primitive but also barbaric and authoritarian.

This implicit attitude towards others (which cannot be effaced by any number of explicit pronouncements, if one intends to remain consistent) characterizes not Wendy alone but also most of the American academia that writes about India and Hinduism. It is this stance that informs the relationship of America with other peoples and nations as well. It is this posture that damages the ‘American national interests’. The incident of Wendy is one of the many warning shots from other parts of the world to all serious, well-intentioned American academics: wake up and listen to what others are saying before it is too late. Do not keep repeating inanities and indulging in table-thumping and breast-beating. Do some serious thinking for a change. That would help us all.

Friendly greetings,
Balu
I've also published this on dailykos.com
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/0 ... s-NYT-OpEd
svinayak
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

A blog referred in the comment section
Very interesting. Look out for all western elite to start illogical argument


http://sunnysinghonline.blogspot.co.uk/ ... ongst.html

Let me explain what I mean by just one example: a few weeks ago, I was at dinner with friends and was seated next to a Scandinavian journalist, with usual impeccable leftist credentials. We discussed events in the Middle East and North Africa, economic development in BRIC nations, Indian foreign policy and of course, European politics. I disagreed with much of what he said and was clear in my disagreement, backing each point with relevant information and reasoning. As the dessert course came around, this journalist had run out of convincing arguments for his stance. So he chose to pull out the final WMD: he pointed out that my views were obviously wrong because I was part of India's elite! Then, with classic European panache, he backed this statement by asking me my caste.

Fortunately, by this moment, the dinner had come to an end and I left; sadly without tipping the coffee pot over his head.
Now this was not a particularly isolated event. This sort of conversation happens every few weeks, in various countries, with people of varying European nationalities. In fact, I got into a very similar conversation yesterday which led to a furious rant on twitter (scroll down my TL, if you really must). In fact some gems from yesterday included: a reminder that as Hindu I obviously didn't quite understand the purpose of reincarnation the way a Buddhist would (yes I know!); that I should learn from some well recognised Indian authors (ironically all from extremely privileged backgrounds that I could never even dream of equalling) about the reality of Indian poverty; and finally, my 'elite' situation in India prevents me from understanding the true horror of gender inequality faced by Indian women. Never mind that all these gems originated from members of London's white, economically comfortable, politically powerful, cultural establishment!

As the Indian population increases in the west we need to start dealing with this
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Some data on magnitude of human slavery in 2014
But slavery and bondage still persist in the 21st century. An estimated 27 million people around the globe suffer in situations of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Trafficking in people has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. After illegal drug sales and arms trafficking, human trafficking is today the third most profitable criminal activity in the world, generating $31 billion annually. And as many as half of all those trafficked worldwide for sex and domestic slavery are children under 18 years of age.
And its basic foundation for the entire criminal network.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

Great Intellectual, Laughtist, FOSA Maussa, Famous Bischu Mithhu Ka Kya Hogga, Move To Barkley Haassi School?
It is an honor to be nominated to serve as Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of the Taxi and Limousine Commission,” said Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer nominee Meera Joshi. “I am committed to the de Blasio administration’s agenda of providing equitable taxi and for-hire transportation services and safe streets for all New Yorkers.”
“On behalf of the thousands of yellow taxi and livery drivers we represent, the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers commends Mayor de Blasio on the appointment of Meera Joshi as Chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission,” said Fernando Mateo, president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. “We are confident that we will be able to work with Ms. Joshi in ensuring the city’s thousands of drivers are treated fairly and that the taxi industry continues to be a beacon of economic opportunity for New Yorkers and their families.”“Meera Joshi’s sense of justice was evident in everything the TLC did to protect drivers from financial predators,” saidNew York Taxi Workers Alliance Organizer Bhairavi Desai. “She’s tough, she’s fair, and she truly understands that drivers are the heart of the taxi industry.”“Meera Joshi is a consensus builder,” said Cira Angeles, spokesperson for the Livery Base Owners Association. “In the time I have known and worked with her, her professionalism in making sure that every voice was heard – while adhering to the factual bottom-line – has been a critical factor in getting important things done. In this Women’s History Month, I am so proud to see Mayor de Blasio make such inspiring choices for his administration.”
“The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade applauds Mayor de Blasio for appointing Meera Joshi as Chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission,” said Ron Sherman, President of The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade. “We look forward to working with her on Vision Zero and other initiatives that make taxis safer for drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Biju's protege?
chaanakya
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by chaanakya »

Not sure if it is true, unnamed Official sources.
US envoy Nancy Powell still without airport access pass
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7
India is strictly adhering to the principle of parity in the matter of privileges and immunities for American diplomats in the wake of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade arrest by US authorities in an alleged visa fraud case in December.

Official sources said US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell remained without airport access pass, which was withdrawn following the Devyani episode. “Since our ambassador (in the US) does not enjoy that privilege, the same treatment is being awarded here.”

Asked why New Delhi had been extending to American diplomats certain privileges which were not available to diplomats of other nations before the Devyani incident, sources said in diplomatic relations, one always followed the process of ‘give and take’.

“There might have been situations where we might have asked for something and got it. Similarly, they might have asked for something which they got. What we have now done is to invoke the principle of parity in the case of the US too,” they said.

Sources said India had also invoked the principle of reciprocity in the case of ambassadors of those countries where Indian envoys were being frisked at airports.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

X-Posting to bring the thread back to topic....
anmol wrote:
STRATEGIC MISCALCULATIONS
telegraphindia.com | Nov 30th -0001

The United States of America is, once again, not managing its relations with India well. Gains made during George W. Bush’s presidency in building strategic trust between the two countries are being steadily frittered away by wrong steps taken by the Obama administration, which seems to have taken its eyes off the India ball. Blame for this is being laid at India’s door, with the argument that India has not lived up to American expectations, that we have been sitting on the fence, unwilling to grasp firmly the hand extended by the US because of our non-aligned obsessions resurfacing as “strategic autonomy”.

Such talk assumes that India has to meet certain benchmarks set by the US in order to be a valuable partner — that is, to earn favour by behaving according to the US script. In this equation, the US is not required to live up to India’s expectations. In reality, if the two countries have to build a meaningful strategic partnership, it cannot be a one-sided affair, with one side under pressure to give and the other expecting to take.

Indian and American critics of India’s lack of strategic initiative believe that the US’s role in lifting nuclear sanctions on India obliges us to continually offer rewards to the Americans in our defence and nuclear sectors, carry out economic reforms in accordance with US wishes and priorities, and make our foreign and security policies increasingly congruent with those of the US. Such thinking misses the important point that, apart from extracting major Indian concessions with regard to India’s nuclear autonomy, the larger US objective was to win India to its side in the face of the new strategic challenges facing US power in Asia with the rise of China, the need for burden-sharing in upholding the post-1945 international system because of the depletion of its military and economic strength caused by wars and financial mismanagement.

Has the US, as part of an equitable strategic bargain, adjusted its options in dealing with issues that are sensitive for India? It has not entirely given up balancing its relationships with India and Pakistan, even though India does not support ideologies and actors that oppose US values and interests and take the lives of its citizens. The US continues to provide military support to Pakistan. It is reaching out to the Taliban with the assistance of the Pakistani military, whose only instrument of political influence in Afghanistan is the former. Legitimizing the Taliban’s political role in Afghanistan, even as the Pakistani Taliban are threatening Pakistan’s internal peace, is to leave behind acute problems for India, already the victim of jihadi terrorism.

A positive feature of India-US ties in recent years is the better alignment of their policies towards South Asian countries (barring Pakistan). However, the US, in furtherance of its democracy and human rights agenda, has lately taken a divergent course. Any strategic partnership has to show particular sensitivity to the regional interests of partner countries. The US has targeted Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council at Geneva, leaving India little choice but to go along as the US initiative opened the doors to pressures by regional lobbies within India on the Central government to support international moves to condemn Sri Lanka.

More recently, the US’s criticism of the election process in Bangladesh — which gives comfort to Begum Khaleda Zia and her extremist allies and undermines politically the secular-minded Sheikh Hasina — is not in tune with India’s interests. That the US should be politically protective of forces in Bangladesh that are unfriendly towards India betrays a failure of strategic understanding on developments in Bangladesh that are in the interest of the region. The US has, surprisingly, lauded Begum Zia and her Jamaat allies in the past as representing “moderate Islam”. Now that Sheikh Hasina is seeking to exorcise Islamist elements and build a truly moderate polity in the country, the US is disapproving of her politics, faulty though it may be in some respects.

The US ignores China’s strategic links with Pakistan, including their nuclear cooperation, even as it expects India to be the lynchpin of its re-balancing towards Asia. This essentially means that the western Pacific region, where American power is being challenged by China. We have come under enormous pressure from the US to dilute our already limited relationship with Iran in a bid to further isolate that country, disregarding our genuine strategic interests in that country, both in terms of long-term energy security and transit routes to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Another instance of the US assaulting India’s dignity, without control mechanisms being triggered from the top, has been the Devyani Khobragade case. The US is unwilling to bring a closure to this issue even now, despite the huge set-back administered to bilateral ties. On the economic side, from a political position that the several India-US economic dialogues were strategic in nature as building Indian capacities in various fields was intended, we have now the US corporate lobby targeting India on patents and compulsory licensing issues related to intellectual property rights as well as those of market access. The US Chamber of Commerce is demanding that the US trade representative classify India as a “priority foreign country”, a status reserved for the worst IPR offenders, which can lead potentially to trade sanctions. The US international trade commission is undertaking a year-long investigation into the effect on the US economy and IPR protection of India’s trade, investment and industrial policies — an unjustifiable case of arm-twisting from the Indian point of view, given that Indian decisions are compliant with the agreement on trade-related aspects of IPR, and the US remains unresponsive to many Indian complaints on trade and services issues. On patent and compulsory licensing, the US that swears by due process is questioning the legitimacy of our Supreme Court’s judgments.

The treatment of Narendra Modi by the US also shows the ineptitude of American diplomacy on a domestic Indian political issue it could have stayed away from. Rather than dealing pragmatically with the visa issue, the US has taken a doggedly ideological position; even intensive investigative and legal processes have failed to incriminate Modi. The belated good sense shown by the Europeans in ending their ostracism of Modi has been emulated by the Americans with diplomatic clumsiness. Even as the US ambassador to India met Modi, the state department announced that there was no change in the US position on the visa question. The statement from the US embassy, that the ambassador also discussed human-rights issues with Modi, was intended to signal that this subject continues to weigh with the US while dealing with Modi — an unnecessary befuddlement if the idea is to make up with him. It seems that the US wants to hedge its bets on Modi, making the gesture of reaching out to him in case he might win, but keeping the visa-denial issue alive in case he loses. This is hardly serious diplomacy.

If the US had judged the importance of India in its strategic calculus during Bush Junior’s presidency, and if President Obama’s rhetoric about the relationship with India being a defining one for the 21st century was meant, then the current inattention towards India shows the strategic fitfulness of the Americans, who emphasize quick gains over patience in obtaining returns from a key investment in a longer-term perspective.
Decoding Modi’s Foreign Policy
by Deep Pal, southasia.foreignpolicy.com
March 6th 2014
View from a distant shore
by Tanvi Madan, indianexpress.com
March 6th 2014

Presidential cast of India’s poll campaign has generated interest in the US.

[..]


There’s little doubt that the Modi factor has added to the interest, if not caused it in some instances. First, elections with big personalities get more attention and Narendra Modi fits the bill. Add Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal to the mix and the election seems more presidential. Second, Modi has been a subject of US Congressional attention and will remain one in the near term, with his supporters and detractors active on Capitol Hill and beyond. Third, there is curiosity about Modi. He has been much discussed, but little is known about him. If he leads his party to victory, there are questions not just about whether Modi can deliver on his promises of good growth and governance, but also about what kind of PM he will be: for example, realistic reformer or ultranationalist strongman, tolerant or intolerant, US-sceptic or pragmatic US partner?

[..]

There are questions about the attitude of the future PM towards the US. This is not just the case if that PM is Modi (though that might require special handling, particularly on Capitol Hill). Indeed some have noted that his stated goals of greater economic growth and a stronger India (especially vis-à-vis China) will necessitate a good working relationship with the US, even if not a warm one. Others are not so sanguine about the possibility. The prospect of a Third Front government or a weak and unstable BJP- or Congress-led coalition is perhaps most unsettling to observers. Having said that, the breadth and depth of the India-US relationship, its importance for India and the nature of the Indian foreign policymaking process limits the broader concern. Overall, the general uncertainty is tinged with the hope that having a new government in place in Delhi will give fresh momentum to the India-US relationship.

[..]

The writer is director of the India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC
express@expressindia.com
vishvak
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by vishvak »

"US envoy Nancy Powell still without airport access pass"

Considering that Indians are for principle of reciprocity; the heading should be "Americans not ready yet for granting Airport access pass to Indian diplomats". Lack of affinity for international diplomatic principles and treaties should also be mentioned.
Varoon Shekhar
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

Question: Why do we only read of American dislike/opposition toward certain Indian economic policies? Surely, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea are not thrilled with every single Indian economic stance regarding investments and imports.

Yet, these countries rarely raise a ruckus over it, the way the US does, to the extent of threatening some kind of punitive action. Why don't we read, "Japan, miffed by Indian auto policies, may restrict imports of Indian auto parts", or "Denmark, critical of Indian policies in fertilisers and wind generation equipment, may retaliate against the same Indian industries" or "Brazil, citing Indian stonewalling on engineering goods imports, may raise tariffs on Indian engineering goods".

Or is it that, these events do occur, but their reportage is very muted for whatever reason, one being the high profile character of the US?
abhishek_sharma
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by abhishek_sharma »

We have often been told that a country like US would never engage in a swap like this:

From Robert Gates' memoir "Duty"
One issue that caused a dispute within the administration in the fall of 2007 was what to do with five Iranian Quds Force officers we had captured in Iraq the preceding March. The Quds Force is a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards responsible for “extraterritorial operations.” It reports directly to Ayatollah Khamenei. The leader of the group we captured, Qais Khazali, was a particularly bad guy who had been responsible for smuggling the lethal “explosively formed projectiles” and other arms into Iraq, training extremist Shia militias, forming death squads, fomenting sectarian violence, and carrying out kidnappings and assassinations. He also planned the attack in Karbala, Iraq, on January 20, 2007, in which five U.S. soldiers were murdered in cold blood. The Iranians obviously wanted these five Quds Force officers back very badly. They put great pressure on the Iraqi government, and within the Bush administration, some supported returning them. Among that group, much to my surprise, was Admiral Fallon, who told me he thought we ought to let the “Iranian hostages” go if we could get something for their release. I told him we had been approached by the Swiss to negotiate a deal, but that “I am not for it.”

I told Petraeus in one of our regular videoconferences that the issue of release was being hotly debated in Washington. The Iranians apparently had made some sort of commitment to stem the tide of “illicit arms” flowing across the border, and Hadley and Lute were planning to take the question of releasing the Quds Force officers to the president. I told Petraeus there was a divide in the administration: Rice and Hadley wanted to “wring them dry” of information and then release them; Cheney and I wanted to keep them indefinitely. The issue would continue to come up from time to time, and while three of the five were released during the Bush administration, Qais Khazali was not released until January 2010, when he was exchanged for Peter Moore, a British computer consultant in Iraq kidnapped by the Quds Force. After what Khazali did to our soldiers at Karbala, I would never have let him go.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by rohitvats »

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... divorce/2/

Devyani Khobragade’s help, husband cite ‘differences’, file for divorce
n a new twist to the India-US row involving Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the domestic help, who was at the centre of the controversy, and her husband have filed for divorce citing differences between them.

Philip Richard, the husband of Khobragade’s help Sangeeta, and their children were flown to New York by the US Embassy in Delhi on trafficking visas days before Khobragade was arrested on charges of visa fraud in December.

Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Richard said he was disappointed with what he called the way his wife started to lie to him and the couple decided to part ways. They filed for divorce in January, he said, but added that he would continue to defend his wife against Khobragade’s allegations.

“She stopped telling me where she is going and with whom. She started to lie. She said something and did just the opposite. But I still support her in the case against Devyani as I know she is not at fault there,” Richard said.

The Public Affairs Specialist at the US Attorney’s Office, Jennifer Queliz, refused to comment when asked if the separation would impact the case against Khobragade and if the attorney’s office was aware of the development.

Breaking the silence of his family since the controversy broke and damaged ties between New Delhi and Washington, Richard repeated the allegations that Sangeeta was ill-treated by the diplomat and that she was forced to approach the immigration office in the US for help after the IFS officer refused to let her return to India.

He claimed Sangeeta’s grouse was never with her salary but with the way she was being treated. “Sangeeta often called me complaining about it. It was not the money that she was upset about, but the treatment she got there. Devyani made her work overtime, did not give her enough time to sleep and never let her out of the house,” he alleged.

Richard also denied claims that Sangeeta had gone missing from Khobragade’s house in New York and surfaced a month later seeking a compromise.

“She did not go missing. She just went to the immigration office to seek assistance. Sangeeta, who spoke to me a night before she went to the immigration office, told me she wants to come back to her family but Devyani is not letting her go. Devyani told Sangeeta that she is bound by the three-year contract that she signed before coming here and cannot go anywhere till that expires. Sangeeta felt suffocated there and had no choice but to sneak out from the house,” he said. “Money was never the issue. She could have earned that much even working at a diplomat’s house in Delhi.”

Richard said he was breaking his family’s silence as he was hurt by the way the case had been portrayed in the media. He could not come out with his version earlier as he was a witness and was directed to not interact with the media.

“So much had been written showing Sangeeta in a bad light, about her fabricating the entire story just to extort money out of the Khobragades, but no one knows of how we have suffered as a family. We left our place overnight under threat from the Khobragades,” he claimed.
amit
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by amit »

^^^^^

Aha interesting development. The joker wants to part ways from his flighty wife but does not want to lose his T2 visa status. And hence he talks in plural when talking about "suffering". I suppose he used to stay up and stand in a corner to express solidarity with his wifey when she was being made to work 40 hours a day in NYC.

He suspects his wife is having an affair but he's going to valiantly defend her in her fight for "justice". Why do I get a feeling this is just more gooey matter on the face of the great Perry Mason of this era, our very own Preet bhaiya.

He contradicts facts when he says his wife did not go "missing" and contradicts witness accounts that his wife was offered a ticket to get back to India but refused. Does he still remain a credible witness? Pity this did not go to trial.

Added later: Interesting data point. They filed for divorce in January but it is only in March that this joker is opening up to the media. I wonder why? And does anyone know, if US jurisdiction is applicable to a marriage between two Indians which has been registered in India? Or is it that they have already been given citizenship on a super fasttrack basis and hence now are parting ways without fear of deportation?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

The CIA on the rampage in the US.

Feinstein accuses CIA of 'intimidating' Senate staff over torture report
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... ure-report
The chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, on Tuesday accused the Central Intelligence Agency of a catalogue of cover-ups, intimidation and smears aimed at investigators probing its role in an “un-American and brutal” programme of post-9/11 detention and interrogation.

In a bombshell statement on the floor of the US Senate, Feinstein, normally an administration loyalist, accused the CIA of potentially violating the US constitution and of criminal activity in its attempts to obstruct her committee’s investigations into the agency’s use of torture. She described the crisis as a “defining moment” for political oversight of the US intelligence service.

Her unprecedented public assault on the CIA represented an intensification of the row between the committee and the agency over a still-secret report on the torture of terrorist suspects after 9/11.

Feinstein, who said she was making her statement “reluctantly”, confirmed recent reports that CIA officials had been accused of monitoring computer networks used by Senate staff investigators. Going further than previously, she referred openly to recent attempts by the CIA to remove documents from the network detailing evidence of torture that would incriminate intelligence officers.

She also alleged that anonymous CIA officials were effectively conducting a smear campaign in the media to discredit and “intimidate” Senate staff by suggesting they had hacked into the agency’s computers to obtain a separate, critical internal report on the detention and interrogation programme.

Staff working on the Senate investigation have been reported to the Department of Justice for possible criminal charges by a lawyer at the CIA who himself features heavily in the alleged interrogation abuses. The CIA’s inspector general has another inquiry open into the issue. John Brennan, the CIA director, rejected Feinstein’s claims that the agency had monitored the Senate committee’s computer networks, which were set up specifically for it to access confidential CIA documents.

Feinstein said the two investigations, launched at the behest of the CIA, amounted to an attempt at “intimidation”. She revealed that CIA officials had also been reported to the Department of Justice for alleged violations of the fourth amendment and laws preventing them from domestic spying.

“This is a defining moment for the oversight role of our intelligence committee ... and whether we can be thwarted by those we oversee,” said Feinstein in a special address on the floor of the the US Senate.

“There is no legitimate reason to allege to the Justice Department that Senate staff may have committed a crime... this is plainly an attempt to intimidate these staff and I am not taking it lightly.”

Feinstein said that she would immediately appeal to the White House to declassify the report’s major findings. The White House is formally on record as supporting the declassification, which the president has the power to order.

Last week, CIA director John Brennan, a former counterterrorism aide to President Obama, issued a rare scathing public statement on the deepening crisis, suggesting that unspecified “wrongdoing” had occurred in “either the executive branch or legislative branch.” Brennan, who withdrew from consideration as CIA director in 2008 out of allegations he did not consider torture to be a serious offence, is a year into his tenure after being nominated by Obama .

At a previously scheduled event reflecting on the first year on Tuesday, Brennan rejected the accusation that the CIA had thwarted the Senate investigation, and denied the agency had inappropriately accessed Senate computers. “Nothing could be further from the truth. We wouldn’t do that,” he said. Brennan pointed out that he had referred the matter to the CIA inspector general, who was investigating, and would defer to his conclusions.
CIA director John Brennan addresses accusations that it thwarted a Senate investigation into its torture programme. CIA director John Brennan addresses accusations that it thwarted a Senate investigation into its torture programme. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters

He also acknowledged there was a Justice Department investigation that encompassed the Senate committee staff members. “There are appropriate authorities are looking at what CIA officers and SSCI staff members did – and I defer to them as to whether there was any violation,” he said.

Brennan said the CIA wanted to put the issue of the torture programme, which he described by its agency nomenclature as “rendition, detention and interrogation”, behind it. “Even as we have learned from the past, we must also try to put the past behind us.” he said.

The White House said Obama was aware of the Senate claims but refused to say whether the president was concerned or pass comment on the substance of the allegations. “This is a matter involving protocols established for the interaction between committee staff and the CIA,” said spokesman Jay Carney. “There are periodic disputes about this process and it is under two separate investigations so I am not going to provide an analysis of it.”

He also criticised reporters who questioned the independence of the review led by the CIA inspector general, accusing one of “impugning the integrity” of inspectors general across Washington by suggesting such a review was insufficient response to allegations of this magnitude. The White House has “great confidence” in CIA director John Brennan, added Carney.

On the Senate floor earlier, Patrick Leahy, chairman of the judiciary committee and the longest serving US senator, described Feinstein’s speech at the most important he had witnessed in his time in Congress.

“I cannot think of any speech by any member of any party as important as the one the senator from California just gave,” Leahy said.

Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, an intelligence committee member, said in a statement he applauded Feinstein for “setting the record straight today on the Senate floor about the CIA’s actions to subvert congressional oversight”.

Udall said: “The actions the chairman outlined are the latest events that illustrate why I directly pushed CIA director Brennan to acknowledge the flaws in and misrepresentations about the CIA’s brutal and ineffective detention and interrogation program.

“Unfortunately, the CIA responded by trying to hide the truth from the American people about this program and undermine the Senate intelligence committee’s oversight role by illegally searching committee computers.”

In her speech, Feinstein described repeated attempts by the CIA to frustrate the work of Senate investigators, including providing the committee staff with a “document dump” of millions of non-indexed pages, requiring years of work to sort through – a necessity, Feinstein said, after former senior CIA official Jose Rodriguez destroyed nearly 100 videotapes showing brutal interrogations of detainees in CIA custody.

“We are not going to stop our investigation and have sent our report to the president in the hope it can be declassified and published for the American people to see,” Feinstein said on the Senate floor.

She said the goal of declassifying the report, exposing the “horrible details of a CIA programme that never, never should have existed,” was to prevent torture from ever again becoming American policy.

Zeke Johnson of Amnesty International called on the White House to publish the committee’s report. “President Obama, who has claimed to have the most transparent administration in history, should move immediately to declassify and release the report. Otherwise, the legacy of torture he inherited will become his own,” he said.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Philip. Dont fall for dramabazi. The Senator has been accused of being too soft in her oversight all these years. Now its re-election time in liberal California. Hence the dramabazi of being hard on her wards.
I see a pattern of having Hispanic names as fall guys in agencies for destorying evidence and other actions.
Philip
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

Has there been a building collapse after an explosion in Harlem?
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

So SR/DUI scam is showing some fractures, hain? What is the explanation for HerrOnner's silence on Petition to Dismiss? Why is Arshack silent? GOI of course I understand, must have their thumbs up their musharrafs as usual waiting for Bhavitavyam Bhaveteva.

All courts seem to have gone on vacation. Indian court was supposed to come out with decision on Petition by Mrs. Jafri, months back, then 2 weeks back, then 1 week back, latest was March 9. Seen anything?
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Also Mr. Richards testimony that his wife is evasive and gave incorrect statements leading to their filing for divorce can be used in the DK case.
How can one be sure Mrs Richards is telling truth in one case of her employer when she has been telling lies to her husband leading to filing for divorce!


I guess they are no Catholics. Also how valid is the divorce?
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