Wikileaks - India

[ramana]

The rapport with Maria Shriver is due to being a fellow Catholic.

[dhu]

IIRC, Massa has designated Univ of Michigan as the rendezvous point for Bollywood progeny (the pillas of bollywood stars get admission there).

[dhu]

xpost

Leaks show US is India's strategic partner

India cannot "imagine for a moment a Taliban takeover of its extended neighbor" Afghanistan, defence minister A K Antony bluntly told the visiting US national security advisor James Jones in 2009, in what brought out India's fears over the return of Pak-controlled militia and the fear that US may be losing their appetite for a prolonged confrontation in Afghanistan. Antony also frankly said India wants US led "international community's operations there must succeed".

On February 12, 2009, the US ambassador David C Mulford in a detailed briefing note for the late Richard Holbrooke, the US president's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was visiting New Delhi, summed up, "The nuclear deal and a closer strategic relationship with the United States have generated an extraordinary public debate in India during the last year. We have won this debate hands down and, as a result, the U.S.-India relationship has a strong foundation on which to grow over the coming decades."

our recent improvement in relations have made Delhi much more amenable to cooperating on regional issues, as evidenced by our efforts together ranging [color="#FF0000"]from tsunami relief to Nepalese democracy [/color]to anti-piracy in the Gulf and off Somalia. Trend lines suggest the opportunity for even greater cooperation is ripe."

The cable from Mulford is important also in that it illuminates how US's commercial interests have been among the key drivers of search for closer ties." For the United States to fully realize the commercial benefits of civil nuclear cooperation, India must "follow through on its commitment to set aside nuclear reactor park sites for US firms" and address other industry concerns, such as patent protection and adoption of domestic liability protection.



Successful implementation of the nuclear agreement will "provide access to an estimated $150 billion in commercial opportunities for US firms and lead to the creation of up to 30,000 American jobs over the next three decades," the ambassador estimates. "It will also help protect the Congressional bipartisan consensus for India and preserve the unprecedented popularity of the United States among Indians, on which our growing bilateral relationship depends," he argues.

In another cable, the US ambassador quotes Shiv Shankar Menon as saying, "there was no popular resistance to the idea of FBI involvement in the Mumbai investigations. Menon concluded, "We have a huge confluence of interests, and as long as that exists we will work together." Boucher assured Menon that India could rely on the U.S. to keep up the pressure on Pakistan; Menon replied, "And you can count on our pressure on you to help you do it."

Apparently, massa's tentacles are very deep in desh and far beyond anything we have been able to piece together. Above is massa gloating..

[dhu]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/304652/Flawed-teacher-ignorant-pupil.html"]Flawed teacher, ignorant pupil[/url]

Chandan Mitra

Digvijay Singh's aggressive wooing of Muslim hardliners seems to have led Rahul Gandhi down a slippery political slope. Is it time to change the teacher? Or is the pupil beyond redemption?



A child does not decide the school in which he or she will study. This decision, like many others taken before the child reaches adulthood, is left to parents. For a number of reasons Mr Rahul Gandhi received his education mostly at home under the guidance of carefully chosen tutors. In recent years, his mother evidently decided to entrust his political training to the care of the redoubtable Digvijay Singh whose reputation precedes him. We do not know whether Mr Gandhi’s political grooming has been formal or informal, but from all account Mr Singh has been setting the agenda for his celebrity student. In the process, Mr Singh’s clout has increased manifold; most Congressmen hold him in awe, believing he has the ears of the First Family more than anyone else. Others such as the low-profile but clinically efficient Ahmed Patel are also high in the pecking order, but Mr Singh has managed to position himself as the only one who enjoys the blessings of both Ms Sonia Gandhi and her son.



In an earlier era when structured tutorial classes were not so common and school education was supplemented by individual private tutors, parents often monitored a child’s academic progress by way of marks obtained in school examinations. If performance did not show significant improvement, they were quick to dismiss the tutor and experiment with another. Sometimes, the lack of improvement was not the tutor’s fault for disinterested kids defeated the teacher’s effort by being inattentive or playing truant.



We can safely assume that Mr Rahul Gandhi is neither. He is keen to learn, often travelling to the interiors to rub shoulders with the great unwashed masses in a contemporary re-enactment of his great-grandfather’s discovery of India nearly a century ago. Mr Gandhi is also rather forthcoming in his interactions with young people in particular. He drops in at hang-outs crowded with 20-somethings in metros, small towns and even roadside dhabas, pleasantly surprising them by his freewheeling comments on everything under the sun. Sometimes he provokes a controversy by arrogant assertions such as “If my family had been at the helm at that time, the Babri Masjid would not have fallen,” or by proudly, even if undiplomatically, asserting that the break-up of Pakistan was his family’s great achievement.



Probably because some of these remarks were unrehearsed and led to storms of protest, the advisory council at 10 Janpath decided to bar him from interacting with the pesky regional media. Throughout his frenetic election campaign in Bihar earlier this year, in which he addressed as many as 19 public meetings, he carefully stayed away from speaking to the media. When the much-hyped revival of the Congress ended in unmitigated disaster with the party winning a laughable four seats out of 243, Mr Gandhi simply went underground — whether on account of depression or embarrassment we do not know. And that’s where he would probably have stayed at least till the Burari AICC session this weekend, but for the unfortunately timed (for him) WikiLeaks revelations.



Much has already been said and written on the Gandhi scion’s stupefying observations, made to the US Ambassador during an official luncheon hosted by the Prime Minister in July 2009. To summarise, the remarks demonstrated (a) humungous knowledge deficit; (<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> pathological hatred of pro-Hindu opinion and organisations; © dangerous disregard of India’s national security concerns with regard to Pakistan-sponsored jihadi terror; (d) callous unconcern for the magnitude of the terrorist threat to India; and, (e) ineligibility to be considered for a responsible position in Government, leave alone be projected as a potential Prime Minister. Incidentally, it must be also pointed out that despite his deceptively boyish looks, Mr Gandhi is not exactly young. At 40, many of his contemporaries are heading big MNCs and his father was already Prime Minister at that age.



Stung by the heir-apparent’s dangerously ignorant streak, Congress leaders have been busy rubbishing WikiLeaks, accusing the BJP of basing its offensive on unsubstantiated and questionable ‘leaks’, whose timing they claim is suspect. But this is not the first time that Mr Gandhi has revealed this trait. A few months ago at Bhopal, he got sufficiently carried away at a meeting to claim that the banned extremist outfit Students’ Islamic Movement of India was as dangerous as the RSS! He later modified this to assert that he only meant that persons who adhered to hardline ideologies were not welcome to join NSUI, the Congress’s students’ wing.



Similarly, his unconvincing clarification on the WikiLeaks revelation merely reiterates the homily that all forms of terror and communal ideologies are dangerous, which, in fact is not what he reportedly told the US Ambassador. Mr Gandhi clearly enunciated that Hindu groups posed a “greater threat”. Significantly, this observation was made in August 2009, less than eight months after 26/11, when the Indian Establishment was busy pressuring Islamabad to accept guilt for the horrendous Mumbai carnage and crack down on the LeT and related organisations such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa’h. Also, this was the time that the apparently senile Congress leader AR Antulay levelled a fanciful charge against Hindu outfits for the death of celebrated policeman Hemant Karkare.



Over the last few years, Mr Gandhi’s tutor Mr Singh has been on a Hindu-bashing spree, questioning the Batla House encounter, visiting families of suspected terror merchants in Azamgarh and repeatedly claiming that so-called Hindu terrorist groups enjoy RSS patronage. Much of this has been outrightly rejected by public opinion because it is well known that, even assuming some misguided Hindu freelancers were involved in a few bomb blasts (though nothing has yet been proved against anyone), the RSS has nothing to do with such people.



Clearly, by repeating lies ad nauseum, Mr Singh hopes to attract fulsome Muslim support for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Not only is he the senior party leader in-charge of the State, but Mr Singh also knows how crucial the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly results are for Mr Gandhi’s political future. It appears he has convinced his pupil that unless Muslims vote for Congress en bloc, other groups such as upper castes would not consider the party to be a potential winner and thus continue to stay their ‘hand’. So, Mr Gandhi is parroting his teacher’s line and hoping the first set of examiners, namely voters of Uttar Pradesh, will give him high marks.



There is no evidence that appeasement of Muslim hardliners will yield the community’s votes. Bihar certainly didn’t; in fact, more Muslims voted for JD(U)-BJP than Congress. But in the process, Mr Gandhi is steadily acquiring the image of an unabashed Hindu-basher. Most Hindus may have no sympathy for the community’s radical fringe, but to suggest that SIMI is as dangerous as the well-regarded RSS or that Hindu groups are a greater threat to India than Pakistan-sponsored terrorists is bound to offend even the most avowedly ‘secular’ Hindu. Has the time then come to change Mr Gandhi’s tutor lest his flawed teaching sends the pupil to his doom? Or is the pupil beyond redemption anyway?

[dhu]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/304795/Emperor-to-be-has-no-clothes.html"]Uncle Sam would love this nephew[/url]



Kanchan Gupta

Contrary to media reports and popular perception, the ‘secret’ cable despatched from the US Embassy in New Delhi on August 3, 2009 was not only about Mr Rahul Gandhi’s views on Hindu terror. A close reading of the cable, marked for the State Department and signed by US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer, would show that it was a report on efforts by the American mission aimed at “reaching out to Rahul Gandhi and other young parliamentarians”. The cable’s summary says: “In a review of the career and potential of Rahul Gandhi, 40-year-old heir apparent to the leadership of India’s ruling Congress party, the US Ambassador reports conversations with the young politician, speaking appreciatively of recent statements and potential for the future.” The key words, lest you miss them, are “reaching out”, “career and potential”, “heir apparent”, “appreciatively” and “future”. The man who represents American interests in India was keen on establishing ‘contact’ with the second most important person in the current, US-friendly dispensation in New Delhi; and it’s a hurrah! note to headquarters from him after having established that contact. As Mr Roemer highlights in his cable, “(Rahul) Gandhi… could become a key interlocutor… as we pursue a strategic dialogue with India.” Diplomats know who matters how much in which regime and which ‘key interlocutor’ can help push their country’s agenda. In this case, the agenda of the US, as it would like to see implemented in its newly discovered outpost in South Asia.



The cable mentions that Mr Roemer met Mr Gandhi at a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister “in honour of the Secretary” — his reference is to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “Among the invitees was Indian Congress Party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, as well as other prominent figures from politics, business and civil society.” But notwithstanding their ‘prominence’, these worthies do not merit mention by name in the cable. Mr Gandhi does — he “was seated next to the Ambassador” and “shared his views on a range of political topics, social challenges and electoral issues for the Congress in the next five years”. Since the discussion took place three months after the UPA won a second term in office, we can assume that Mr Gandhi had by then worked out everything for the Congress till 2014; he had charted the course for the party, so to say, to a third, and spectacular, victory in a row, thus enabling his transition from heir apparent to ruler. In between pointing out that the Congress, or the UPA if you wish, had a rather short honeymoon in its second term and detailing his plans to “find younger party members who would not carry some of the baggage of older Congress candidates” to contest and win elections, he commented on “the tensions created by some of the more polarising figures in the BJP such as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi” (these words have been used by Mr Roemer, we can’t be sure whether Mr Gandhi used them in his conversation). It is in this context that Mr Roemer asked Mr Gandhi about the “Lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s activities in the region and immediate threat to India”. It would be in order to mention here that another US Embassy cable that the LeT’s threat to India is real, has not diminished since 26/11 and the Pakistan-based group is planning high profile strikes, including a plot to assassinate Mr Narendra Modi.



We can only speculate on whether Mr Roemer’s query was in the context of that cable or he was subtly provoking a political response to a security issue to gauge any shift in the Government’s policy. It would be absurd to believe that the American Ambassador was unaware of hostilities between the Congress Dynasty and the Congress Destroyer in Gujarat. Be that as it may, Mr Gandhi’s response provides a glimpse into the intellectual abilities of the Prince who would be King one day. “(Rahul) Gandhi said there was evidence of some support for the group among certain elements in India’s indigenous Muslim community. However, Gandhi warned, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community… The risk of a ‘home-grown’ extremist front, reacting to terror attacks coming from Pakistan or from Islamist groups in India, was a growing concern and one that demanded constant attention.” (The emphasis is that of Mr Roemer’s and not this writer’s.)



The US Ambassador’s conclusion, based on the lunch table conversation, tells its own story: “Over the last four years, he was an elusive contact, but he could be interested in reaching out to the United States, given a thoughtful, politically sensitive and strategic approach on our part. We will seek other opportunities to engage with him…” It’s natural that there should be some amount of concern in Washington, DC about policy after the Regent vacates the masnad of Delhi for the Prince. If there’s one thing the American establishment is mindful of, it is that continuity is of the essence to promote and push national interest in foreign lands; regime change can have disastrous consequences. As for what the US mission really (emphasis added by this writer) thinks of Mr Gandhi, readers should look up the ‘secret’ cable tagged ‘Delhi Diary, January 30-February 19, 2010’, in which “A US diplomat romps through three weeks of Indian politics, from the chauvinism of the Shiv Sena to a new law allowing gay couples to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”



In keeping with the style of the cables that have been ‘leaked’ into the public domain, here’s a summary: Outrage over Mr Gandhi’s frivolous analysis of the internal security scenario of India and his ill-informed commentary on terrorism is fine, but only up to a point. What is of greater import is the ease with which the proverbial ‘Quiet American’ can co-opt those who desire to rule India through “a thoughtful, politically sensitive and strategic approach”. Somewhere out there, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s soul would be most distressed following the disclosure of this particular cable, but then, when alive she carried the “baggage of older Congress candidates” as her grandson disparagingly describes those who have served the party (and presumably the country) for decades.

[dhu]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/304795/Emperor-to-be-has-no-clothes.html"]Emperor-to-be has no clothes[/url]

December 22, 2010 8:53:51 PM



Swapan Dasgupta

When the second volume of the Mitrokhin Archive was published in 2005, there was understandable nervousness in Whitehall over its possible impact on bilateral relations with India. The contents of Vasili Mitrokhin’s notes of KGB’s worldwide operations, as gleamed from the agency’s own archives, were hugely sensitive. This was particularly true of the sections on India, where the KGB had managed to penetrate deep into the political establishment. Having carefully vetted and sanitised the papers to negate any possible damage to reputations of the great and good and facilitated its publication, the British Government was nevertheless worried that that the erstwhile ‘friends of the Soviet Union’ would direct their ire at the messenger, if only to divert attention from the explosive details of how India was systematically compromised.



Whitehall’s apprehensions turned out to be completely unfounded. The Mitrokhin Archive attracted some editorial comment but didn’t create even a political ripple. The attempts by some concerned Opposition MPs to raise the subject was peremptorily disallowed on the astonishing ground that it was not the job of Parliament to deliberate on books of ‘fiction’.



Compared to the indifference that greeted the Mitrokhin Archive, the WikiLeaks files emanating from the US Embassy in New Delhi have created a political storm. Some of the excitement is understandable: Mitrokhin’s revelations centred on events that were regarded as history while the WikiLeaks disclosures have a contemporary resonance.



Moreover, those who vetted Mitrokhin’s notes were meticulous in ensuring that names of politicians and officials who served as KGB ‘assets’ were not divulged. The WikiLeaks releases aren’t CIA reports; they are Embassy cables concerned with either political assessments or conversations with ‘open’ sources, sometimes in structured meetings. As such, the cables aren’t squeamish about the identities of politicians and officials.



Despite these obvious differences, it is worth noting that throughout last Friday the Congress spokespersons fell back on a variant of the ‘fiction’ argument that killed the debate on Mitrokhin in 2005. Although the authenticity of the cables wasn’t questioned (except by the gentleman who whiffed a “conspiracy”), it was argued that there was nothing “official” about WikiLeaks. Therefore, the disclosures weren’t worthy of being dignified. They were, Congress spokespersons claimed insouciantly, at best, individual assessments peppered with reports of conversations torn out of context. There was, predictably, no mention of the fact that just prior to the first instalment of WikiLeaks, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had alerted world capitals of the possible embarrassment from their disclosures.



It is possible the Congress wouldn’t have bothered with WikiLeaks had Rahul Gandhi’s conversation with the US Ambassador at a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister on July 20, 2009, not featured in the disclosures. The earlier release of a report on the Congress trying to play identity politics with the 26/11 Mumbai attacks hadn’t resulted in a flurry of clarifications and explanations. And rightly so since the US Embassy cable was an assessment based on public statements.



Nor was there excitement over the unflattering assessment of Sonia Gandhi’s leadership during the stalemate on the nuclear debate. The colourful charge that the Congress president doesn’t miss any opportunity to miss an opportunity was the Ambassador’s assessment. Envoys are expected to provide such blunt reports to headquarters in confidence. Just because WikiLeaks breached that confidentiality doesn’t undermine the validity of the exercise. Nor does it suggest that any US desire to be implacably hostile to the lady. Diplomacy is rarely conducted on such black and white terms, not even by the US.



The importance of Rahul Gandhi’s conversation with the US Ambassador won’t be found within the framework of India-US bilateral ties. Rahul’s suggestion that “radicalised Hindu groups” posed a “bigger threat” to India than the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba didn’t lead to the US immediately discounting all that India had said about the 26/11 attack. The US has its own counter-terrorism establishment that does its own assessments, and it is highly unlikely that any of its functionaries had reason to conclude that Abhinav Bharat was the new Hindu Al Qaeda. The conversation was important not for what it reveals about the Government’s approach to internal security, but for its insights into the mind of India’s “elusive” heir designate.



Rahul is not merely “elusive” for American diplomats; he has also eluded all meaningful interrogation of his views by Indians. Apart from his template speech on the two India’s, Indians know precious little or nothing about the heir designate’s views on subjects of crucial importance to the country. What does he think of Jammu & Kashmir, apart from his friendship with Omar Abdullah? What has he to say on foreign policy, economic strategies and education? Indians are as clueless about the man tipped to succeed Manmohan Singh. Rahul has kept his views severely rationed.



Unfortunately for Rahul, this non-scripted account of his view on internal security doesn’t suggest a grasp of the subject. If Rahul thinks that the terror version of the kachchha-baniyan gang that worked the badlands of Uttar Pradesh is a “greater threat” to India than the LeT — and that too just eight months after 26/11 — it calls into question his understanding of issues. Worse, by revealing his zany views to the Ambassador of a country whose assistance has been sought to tame Pakistan, he has shown an incredible lack of judgement.



Some people have greatness thrust on them. This Emperor-to-be, it now emerges, has no clothes.

[dhu]

[url="http://hindu.com/2010/12/23/stories/2010122364831400.htm"]‘WikiLeaks gives an insight into U.S. pressure' [/url]

On the nuclear deal issue — on which the Left withdrew support to the first United Progressive Alliance government — Mr. Karat said it might be true that the U.S. had not been able to get billions of dollars worth of contracts as a result of the agreement, but “it was a quid pro quo” for a close “strategic alliance partnership in defence.” The 10-year India-U.S. defence framework agreement was signed before the nuclear deal.

[dhu]

Quote:

11. © The GOI does not focus on Naxalite or Northeast terrorism with the intensity it devotes to jihadi terrorists, probably for a combination of the following reasons:



-- Attacks by Naxalites and Northeast groups remain confined to rural areas far from New Delhi.



-- The Naxals generally target security forces vice civilians.



-- The Naxals lack external support, which makes them a purely Indian problem, something the GOI cannot blame on other countries; the GOI blames Pakistan and Bangladesh as instigators/supporters of jihadi terrorism, and Bangladesh for also allowing Northeast terrorists support or, at minimum, safe haven. The GOI can and does exploit these links to attract international sympathy (and partial absolution) for its own domestic governance and border security short-comings.



-- Because Naxalites and Northeast groups are treated as domestic issues, they are largely handled by the individual states in which these groups operate. The GOI over the past year has tried to tie together the anti-Naxal efforts of the “Naxal-affected states,” but to no discernible effect thus far, and the states lack the capacity to mount an effective response to the problem.



-- The most likely solutions to the problems posed by the Naxal and Northeast groups involve improving local/state governance and economic opportunity, a difficult and long-term solution for New Delhi and the affected states to effect.





http://cablesearch.org/cable/view.php?id=06NEWDELHI2587

Intriguing how the known western-sponsored missionary groups in the NE are treated as India's domestic problem both by GOI and the western govt., and Naxals are seen as a strictly equivalent case.

[ramana]

I think the Paki threat has more probability to damage Indian civil society than the naxal threat or the NE threat. Its very crucial to India.

[dhu]

Looks like Vatican has been marked as Massa's intercessor with the Developing world.



[url="http://www.truth-out.org/us-vatican-genetically-modified-food-is-a-moral-imperative66369"]US to Vatican: Genetically Modified Food Is a "Moral Imperative"[/url]

Secret United States diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks detail efforts to promote genetically modified (GM) crops and biotechnology across the globe, including the Vatican, where US diplomats pushed the Roman Catholic Church to support biotech food in developing nations.

[dhu]

Latest salvo in the civilizing mission



[url="http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/09214402/Using-wealth-to-transform-dest.html?h=D"]Using wealth to transform destinies [/url]

Philanthropy in our country rarely goes beyond helping family members, donations to temples, ashrams and religious institutions, or sponsorship of sports and cultural events that receive prominent publicity in the media

by Sonia Maino

[Guest]

Wikileak is losing money big time. What happened to rich liberals world wide?

Interesting phenomenon to watch?

[Guest]

[url="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/12/wikileaked_china_s_next_president_lashed_out_in_mexico_against_well_fed_foreigners"]WikiLeaked: China's next president lashed out in Mexico against 'well fed foreigners'[/url]

"There are some well fed foreigners who have nothing better to do than point fingers at our affairs," Xi blurted out at a lunch meeting, appropriately. "China does not, first, export revolution; second, export poverty and hunger; third, cause troubles for you."



Xi showed up with representatives of 20 Chinese companies in tow and made the case that China and Mexico have common cause to cooperate economically, as both are developing countries facing the consequences of a global financial crisis they didn't cause. The embassy cable noted that Xi's outburst seemed to reveal the Xi's true feelings about America despite a more diplomatic message during the rest of his visit.



"It should be noted that his criticism of ‘well-fed foreigners' sharply contrasted from the overarching cooperation theme of his visit and were delivered on the first leg of his trip in a country with strong ties to the United States," the cable said.

[dhu]

It is impossible one of our kangressi sepoys saying the same about well-feds in amerika.



If only China can be re-transformed into heathen and taking up advanced heathen studies. A lot of western effort has been invested into breaking heathen alliance between China and India.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunisia-president-2011-1"]Tunisia In Chaos As President Flees Country[/url]

Protests may have been exacerbated by the WikiLeaks release on the country's President and his family. Those leaks accused the ruling family of being mafia like.

Thousands flooded the streets today. President Ben Ali attempted to calm things by announcing elections in the next 6 months. E

[Guest]

Tomorrow, Wikileaks Will Gets Tons Of Data On Millionaires Who Evade Taxes Using Offshore Accounts

[dhu]

[url="http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1097640.ece"]Coming soon: Swiss bank account details on WikiLeaks [/url]



Sonia Maino about to get exposed

[ramana]

Please post once the details are patent.

[dhu]

Not sure of the source...



SwissBank's-Ind$1,456bln, Rus$470bln, UK$390bln, Ukr$100bln, Chi$96bln. India has more in Swiss than rest of the world combined.

[Guest]

I am waiting for Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi name in list.



Today they have released lot of Embassy cable, none are related to Indians Swiss bank wealth (stole or otherwise)