Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

In what could mark the start of an accelerating backlash from the administration, the release of sensitive military documents by the WikiLeaks whistleblower website was attacked by senior Department of Defence officials.

The criticism by top DoD staff, such as Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, was also accompanied by an announcement that the military had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help Pentagon authorities investigate the sources of the leak of the classified documents.

Describing the release as a “breach of national security”, Mr. Gates said the use of the FBI would ensure the investigation could go wherever it needed to go.

Regarding the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Admiral Mullen said, “Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

Mr. Gates however expressed the opposite view on the importance of the documents, “These documents represent a mountain of raw data and individual impressions, most several years old, devoid of context or analysis... They do not represent official positions or policy.” He further emphasised that in his view, the documents’ revelations did not fundamentally call into question the efficacy of the allied strategy in Afghanistan and its prospects for success.

However, Secretary Gates noted that the 90,000-plus documents released by WikiLeaks still had battlefield consequences for United States, Afghan troops and civilians, and also may damage U.S. relationships in Central Asia and the Middle East.

In particular, Mr. Gates expressed concern that they might damage the U.S.’ relationships with Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Both nations remember that the U.S. walked away from the region in 1989, and U.S. military and civilian leaders have been trying hard since 2001 to repair those relationships and close the trust deficit,” he said.

Admiral Mullen corroborated this sentiment, noting, “In addition to making sure we understand the tactical risks from these leaks, I think it is incumbent upon us not to let the good relationships we have established and the trust we have worked so hard to build throughout the region also become a casualty.”

Labels: Afghan war, NATO, Robert Gates, Taliban, Wikileaks

From The Hindu

The city of New York on Thursday agreed to pay more than $7 million to settle a civil lawsuit filed by victims of a police brutality case dating back to November 2006.

While two of the victims injured in the incident — Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield — were set to receive $3.25 million and $900,000 respectively, the children of the man killed on his wedding day by police officers — Sean Bell — would get $3 million placed in a trust fund. Mr. Bell’s fiancée Nicole Paultre Bell, however, will not receive any settlement, according to reports.

Speaking after the settlement was announced, Michael Cardozo, New York City attorney, was reported to have said, “The city regrets the loss of life in this tragic case, and we share our deepest condolences with the Bell family,” and he added that the city hoped this settlement would provide all parties with some measure of closure.

The three men were shot by plainclothes detectives outside a nightclub, where Mr. Bell was hosting a party the night before his wedding. While Mr. Bell was killed on the spot, Mr. Guzman was hit by 17 bullets and Mr. Benefield was also seriously injured. Reports said that 50 shots had been fired in the span of a few seconds.

Given differences in the accounts of the police and some witnesses, including the fact that no gun was found on the victims despite police allegations that they had been armed, the incident set off protests on the streets of New York. The fact that the three victims were African-American had also revived allegations of racist attitudes in the city’s police force.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was reported to have described the shooting as “inexplicable” and “unacceptable” and said that excessive force might have been used.

While three police officers involved were indicted on multiple charges in March 2007, the United States Department of Justice said in February this year that it “would not pursue federal civil rights charges against police officers involved”, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

Labels: Joseph Guzman, police brutality, Sean Bell, Trent Benefield

From The Hindu

In a serious setback to the state of Arizona, the unprecedentedly tough immigration laws that its Governor passed earlier this year were blocked by a federal judge. Judge Susan Bolton ruled in favour of a lawsuit filed by the Obama administration as she forbade Arizona authorities from implementing central provisions of the new immigration law until the case was fully heard.

Governor Jan Brewer caused a nationwide furore in April when she signed into law the now-infamous SB 1070 bill, which made the failure to carry immigration documents a punishable offence; it also gave police sweeping powers to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

The ruling by Judge Bolton, while it did not block SB 1070 in its entirety, blocked several key powers granted to law enforcement authorities under the law. Most importantly, this include the stop-and-search power of authorities to “determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is unlawfully present in the U.S., and requiring verification of the immigration status of any person arrested prior to releasing that person”.

In a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in July, Attorney General Eric Holder had challenged the constitutionality of SB 1070, arguing principally that the power to regulate immigration was “vested exclusively in the federal government, and that the provisions of SB 1070 are therefore pre-empted by federal law”.

While those opposing SB 1070 argued that the latest ruling was a warning to other jurisdictions considering a similar law, the judgment also comes at a time when no fewer than 20 states are contemplating harsher immigration rules.

Simultaneously Democratic governors across such states were reported to be putting greater pressure on President Obama as they worried about the political consequences of opposing such laws so close to the Congressional elections of November.

Labels: Arizona immigration law, Judge Susan Bolton, SB 1070 bill

From The Hindu

While the United States has refused to corroborate the suggestion — implied by some of the WikiLeaks documents — that Pakistan’s spy agency colluded with the Taliban against Western forces in Afghanistan, a State Department spokesman however said Pakistan had to do more to prove that it was implementing a “strategic shift against insurgent groups”.

At a briefing, Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley said that even prior to the whistleblower website releasing military and intelligence documents on the war in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said in Islamabad that Pakistan needed to “ensure that insurgent groups are not being supported by elements within Pakistan who continue to follow an old mindset that conflicts with Pakistan’s own security interests”.

Following the WikiLeaks scoop, however, Mr. Crowley suggested that such a shift would have particular salience for India and, “If Pakistan wants to convince India that it has made this kind of fundamental change, bringing to justice those who are responsible for the Mumbai attack would be a very, very constructive and important step.”

He added there was little doubt that India wanted to see Pakistan taking steps to bring to justice those people that threatened neighbouring states, underscoring, “We continue to have conversations with Pakistan on bringing to justice those responsible for the Mumbai attack.”

In terms of the U.S.’ perspective on the matter, Mr. Crowley said there were some indications that Pakistan had fundamentally changed its approach to insurgencies in the past year to two.

Yet he added, “Are we still concerned about this? Absolutely, we are.” Mr. Crowley also reiterated that the Secretary had outlined these concerns to both the Pakistani Government and the Pakistani people in “very direct and very candid” discussions last week.

Labels: India Pakistan relations, Taliban, Wikileaks

From The Hindu

In a bid to save what is left of its reputation, BP announced that its gaffe-prone British CEO, Tony Hayward would step down and be replaced by an American chemical engineer and head of mop-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Robert Dudley.

The company, which has not only come under scathing attacks for its role in the oil spill but also courted controversy relating to the release of convicted Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, said Mr. Hayward would stop functioning as group chief executive with effect from October 1, 2010.

Seeking to project the change in the leadership as a break from its past, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said, "The tragedy of the Macondo well explosion and subsequent environmental damage has been a watershed incident. BP... will be a different company going forward, requiring fresh leadership supported by robust governance and a very engaged board."

The announcement came even as BP admitted that it had made a record "replacement cost" loss during the second quarter of the year, amounting to a staggering $17 billion. The company said it was facing a charge of $32.2 billion, "to reflect the impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including costs to date of $2.9 billion for the response and a charge of $29.3 billion for future costs, including the funding of the $20 billion escrow fund".

Remarking on the financial results, Mr. Hayward said, "We expect we will pay the substantial majority of the remaining direct spill response costs by the end of the year. Other costs are likely to be spread over a number of years, including any fines and penalties, longer-term remediation, compensation and litigation costs."

On stepping into the shoes of Mr. Hayward, Mr. Dudley said that in the change of roles, he particularly wanted the people of the Gulf Coast to know that his commitment to remediation and restitution in the region was not lessened. "I gave a promise to make it right and I will keep that promise," he said.

In a comment that reflected the management’s commitment to those affected by the spill but equally to BP shareholders, Mr. Svanberg said, "We remain confident in our ability to meet our obligations to those on the Gulf Coast of the United States, other impacted parties and all our stakeholders... As we said last month, the Board remains strongly committed to the payment of future dividends and delivering long term value to shareholders."

Labels: BP, BP oil spill, Robert Dudley, Tony Hayward

From The Hindu

A hacker-founded whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, has released close to 75,000 documents, from the battlefront in Afghanistan, which purportedly show the complicity of Pakistani spy agencies and the Taliban in waging a war against Western military forces. The site said it would soon be releasing another 15,000 documents.

In a development that could well rock the United States-Pakistan relationship or have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, the WikiLeaks release was said to show that Pakistan had permitted agents of intelligence services to hold secret planning sessions with the Taliban, aimed at agreeing a military strategy against American and other forces in the country. Unconfirmed reports also said that evidence of war crimes and a higher-than-expected civilian casualty rate could be found in the reports.

The White House reacted strongly within hours of the release. National Security Advisor General James Jones said in a statement that the U.S. "strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security".

He especially criticised WikiLeaks for making "no effort to contact us about these documents", complaining that the U.S. government had learned of the release from news organisations. General Jones was also quick to reassure that such "irresponsible" leaks would not impact the U.S.' ongoing commitment to deepen its partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan, to defeat common enemies and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people.

Speaking to The Hindu, Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, said, "The documents underscore what we have known for years — Pakistan has an intimate relationship with the Taliban. The former head of Afghan intelligence has been saying this for the last month. The Obama administration has understood this from its first days in office." He added that the White House did understand there was no viable alternative to a policy of engagement with Pakistan to try to "coerce and entice Islamabad to cut those ties".

Shift in Af-Pak region

General Jones appeared to corroborate this view, noting that there had been a shift in the Af-Pak region under President Obama which entailed a "substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al-Qaeda and Taliban safe-havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years". He further said that while there were still "serious challenges" ahead, the U.S. was focused on breaking the Taliban’s momentum and building Afghan capacity so that the Afghan government could begin to assume responsibility for its future.

Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank and formerly with the State Department’s South Asia Bureau, told The Hindu that some of the challenges the documents pointed to, such as high Afghan civilian casualties, had been rectified in the new counterinsurgency strategy first introduced in August 2009 by General Stanley McChrystal.

She said, "The WikiLeaks expose should not be used to argue that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is doomed to failure... [It was] refined over the last year and... the new counterinsurgency strategy is sound and should be given time to succeed."

Ms. Curtis added, however, that the leaked documents revealed "a level of U.S. frustration with Pakistan's dual policy of fighting some extremists while harbouring others", a view that was not always apparent in official statements praising Pakistan as a steadfast ally in the war on terrorism.

She further noted that given the continuing challenges posed by Pakistan's ambiguous policy toward terrorism in the region, the Obama administration ought to consider carefully whether its current Pakistan policy should be recalibrated in ways that convince the Pakistanis to shift their strategy toward the Taliban more fundamentally.

In a similar vein, addressing those in Pakistan who might have worried about the impact of the leak, General Jones added that especially given the country’s willingness to work with the U.S. since 2009, "counter-terrorism cooperation has led to significant blows against al-Qaeda’s leadership... [and] the Pakistani military has gone on the offensive in Swat and South Waziristan, at great cost to the Pakistani military and people".

However, in what might have been a tacit acknowledgement of the veracity of some of the reports leaked, General Jones cautioned: "Yet the Pakistani government – and Pakistan’s military and intelligence services – must continue their strategic shift against insurgent groups."

Linking actions to annual aid

Implicitly linking such actions to the $1.5 billion annual aid that the U.S. is currently providing Pakistan, the General also said, "The balance must shift decisively against al-Qaeda and its extremist allies. U.S. support for Pakistan will continue to be focused on building Pakistani capacity to root out violent extremist groups, while supporting the aspirations of the Pakistani people."

According to the New York Times, which was said to be in possession of the documents a week ago, much of the information released by WikiLeaks could not be verified and likely comes from sources aligned with Afghan intelligence, which considers Pakistan an enemy, and paid informants.

The newspaper added that however, "many of the reports rely on sources that the military rated as reliable" and current and former American officials interviewed, said the portrait of the Pakistani spy agency’s collaboration with the Afghan insurgency was broadly consistent with other classified intelligence.

The report came close on the heels of a decision by the U.S. Treasury to impose sanctions against three key leaders and financiers for the Haqqani Network and the Taliban, for supporting acts of terrorism linked to the militant groups based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States Department of the Treasury announced this week.

In targeting the three individuals, the Treasury noted last week that the Haqqani Network was a Taliban-affiliated group of militants operating out of North Waziristan Agency, and that "Pakistan has been spearheading insurgent activity in Afghanistan".

Labels: Afghan war, NATO, Taliban, Wikileaks

From The Hindu

What started out as a war of words between President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, even as far back as 2007, has now become an open diplomatic conflict in a multilateral forum and threatens to escalate into something worse.

The most recent round of hostilities between the two countries was sparked off at a meeting of the Organisation of American States in Washington earlier this week, when Colombian Ambassador Luis Hoyos, produced what he alleged was documentary evidence that Venezuela was housing camps of the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on its soil.

In an immediate response, President Chávez severed ties with Colombia describing the Colombian accusations as a “United States-inspired aggression”. Speaking on state television Mr. Chávez said, “We have no other choice but, out of dignity, to totally break our relations with our brother nation of Colombia,” he said on state television.

In a sharp response to the cut-off in diplomatic ties, Mr. Hoyos, called it a “historic mistake”, adding that Venezuela should instead be breaking relations with the “gangs that kidnap and kill and traffic drugs”.

Hinting that there could be a deeper subtext, Mr. Chávez went on to argue that Colombia could be trying to provoke a war, indeed that American officials were “using Colombia to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to justify a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela”. He also reportedly said that the photographs that Mr. Hoyos procured at the OAS meet were not authentic and noted that Venezuela had done everything possible to prevent Colombian rebels from crossing into its territory.

Washington, which has traditionally been critical of the Chávez regime, attacked the Venezuelan President’s actions. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley described them as “unfortunate” and a “petulant response by Venezuela to cut off relations with Colombia”. He added that if Venezuela failed to cooperate in whatever follow-on steps are made, “the U.S. and other countries will obviously take account of that”.

Mr. Crowley further said, Venezuela had “very clear responsibilities” to combat terrorism in the region and to support efforts by the OAS and the United Nations to fight terrorism especially given the U.S.’ “concerns about the links between Venezuela and the FARC” and the fact that Washington had not certified Venezuela in recent years as fully cooperating its antiterrorism efforts.

Indicating the U.S.’ support of President Uribe’s accusations he added, “These were serious fact-based charges that Colombia made yesterday at the OAS and they deserve to be fully investigated.”

Labels: Álvaro Uribe, Colombia, Hugo Chavez, State Department, U.S., Venezuela

From The Hindu

While India has for the most part been careful not to stray into any sensitive areas of the United States’ foreign policy engagements with third parties, its recent overtures to the heads of the military junta in Myanmar could prove to be a stress point in the India-U.S. relationship.

With Senior General Than Shwe, head of the Myanmar regime, arriving in India this weekend for a state visit, the U.S.’ anxiety over India’s growing closeness to the energy rich Asian country was palpable.

When asked about the visit, Philip Crowley, State Department spokesman, said “Others who have relationships with Burma share a responsibility to communicate directly and forcefully to Burma about its responsibilities, whether they’re protecting the region against the risk of proliferation or telling Burma directly that it should more constructively engage its opposition and other ethnic groups within Burma.”

He added, “India is one of those countries. It has a relationship with Burma and we would — as we have [said] to India in the past — encourage India and other countries to send a clear message to Burma that it needs to change its course.”

While Mr. Crowley clarified that nuclear proliferation between India and Myanmar “is not something that concerns us” his comments reflected what is likely to be of deep concern in the State Department that through its engagement with India, the military rulers of Myanmar may be gaining greater legitimacy in the international arena.

In an indication of such concern, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell was reported to have told reporters earlier that India’s “very important role in the international community” should be used to penetrate the tight military clique that runs Myanmar. He was said to have added that New Delhi should “encourage interlocutors inside [Burma] to embrace reform”.

"Look East" policy

While the Indian government had consistently criticised the Myanmar junta prior to the mid-1990s, it distanced itself from such criticism since then in pursuit of a “Look East” policy, focussing on developing stronger economic and political bonds with East and South East Asian countries.

Mr. Campbell was also quoted as saying that while India was “beginning to play perhaps a more active role” in diplomatically pressuring Burma, “they’ve also been very clear that they have strategic interests. And we respect those”.

Reports noted that in addition to Myanmar moving closer to India through, for example, a 26 per cent jump in bilateral trade, China was also “rapidly becoming the Burmese junta’s key economic and political ally, and ... Washington is doubly concerned that its rise is steadily eroding U.S. influence in the region”.

According to a statement, General Shwe will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on economic and military co-operation including the possible signing of a series of trade deals. It was also reported that the discussions would focus on energy, border security and expanding counterterrorism cooperation.

Labels: General Than Shwe, India Myanmar relations, Than Shwe, U.S. foreign policy

From The Hindu

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill response faced a temporary setback heading into the weekend, as operations were halted due to the expected approach of tropical storm Bonnie.

In an update, the Gulf Unified Area Command Centre said it was tracking tropical weather near the Bahamas very closely and was constantly engaged in discussions with the National Hurricane Centre, the National Oceanic and the Atmospheric Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the safety of more than 40,000 people currently assisting in the oil spill response and recovery efforts.

Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander overseeing the disaster response said, "Due to the risk that Tropical Storm Bonnie poses... many of the vessels and rigs will be preparing to move out of harm's way beginning tonight. Some of the vessels may be able to remain on site, but we will err on the side of safety." He added that the rig drilling the relief well — which it is hoped will ultimately kill the well — as well as other vessels needed for containment will also be moved from the areas at risk from the storm.

The Unified Command Centre further noted that boom was being removed from marsh areas where oil was not threatening the shore to prevent damage from the heavy equipment getting pushed into the delicate area by strong winds and high tides.

Underscoring his firm handling of BP’s role in the mop-up, Admiral Allen said that he had directed BP to "continue with the well shut-in procedure while the work to kill the well is temporarily suspended". He added he had insisted that BP take measures to ensure the vessels operating the remotely operated undersea vehicles were the last to leave the site and the first to return in order to maximise monitoring of the well. Monitoring of the site during the well integrity test remained one of the government's highest priorities, he said.

The administration said that while this latest response to avoid Bonnie would delay the effort to kill the well for several days, they were staging skimming vessels and other assets in a manner that would ensure that oil mitigation efforts were promptly re-started as soon as the storm passed and the safety of personnel was assured.

Biden visits again

Meanwhile Vice President Joe Biden made his second trip to the Gulf Coast since the oil spill began, on this occasion, meeting with Admiral Allen and other response personnel, inspecting boom and participating in a roundtable discussion with fishermen and small business owners.

In a statement after his visit, Mr. Biden said, "We’re not going to stop until this area, all the entire Gulf, has recovered; until the economy of the Gulf is revitalised and literally a way of life is restored. Because we’re not just talking about a natural ecosystem that’s in danger down here, we’re talking about an economic ecosystem. We’re also talking about a cultural ecosystem, a whole way of life," he said. "Whatever it takes to make this Gulf right, we’re going to make it right."

As per the administration’s data, to date 123,457 claims have been opened, from Americans who have suffered a financial loss as a result of the BP oil spill. Of this, the administration said, more than $234.9 million has been disbursed and no claims have been denied to date.

Labels: BP oil spill, tropical Storm Bonnie

From The Hindu

Three key leaders and financiers for the Haqqani Network and the Taliban have been “designated” or targeted through sanctions for supporting acts of terrorism linked to the militant groups based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States Department of the Treasury announced this week.

The designation was made pursuant to Executive Order 13224, according to which the Treasury was authorised to target Gul Agha Ishakzai, the head of the Taliban’s financial commission; Amir Abdullah, former treasurer to senior Taliban leader Mullah Berader; and Nasiruddin Haqqani, an emissary for the Haqqani Network.

In targeting these three individuals, the Treasury noted that the Haqqani Network was a Taliban-affiliated group of militants operating out of North Waziristan Agency, and that “Pakistan and has been spearheading insurgent activity in Afghanistan”.

As per the latest Executive Order, the Treasury has effectively frozen all assets that the three individuals hold under U.S. jurisdiction. Further the Treasury may now prohibit any U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with them. Further the three individuals were also added to the United Nations 1267 Consolidated List on July 19, 2010, for being associated with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or the Taliban, the Treasury said in a statement.

Commenting on the designation Adam Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said, “Today’s designation of three senior leaders and financiers for the Taliban and its affiliated Haqqani Network builds upon Treasury’s longstanding efforts to deprive these extremists of the resources they need to execute their violent activities.”

He added that the U.S. would continue to aggressively work to expose and dismantle the financial networks of terrorist groups in support of President Barack Obama’s goal of a stable Afghanistan.

Background details provided

The Treasury also provided background details identifying information on the three individuals targeted.

Regarding Mr. Ishakzai, the Treasury said he was the head of the Taliban’s financial commission and part of a recently-created Taliban council that coordinated the collection of zakat — a tax sanctioned by Islamic law — from Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. The Treasury further noted that Mr. Ishakzai collected money for suicide attacks in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and has been involved in the disbursement of funds for Taliban fighters and their families.

Mr. Abdullah was said to have served as treasurer to senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Berader and was the former deputy to the Taliban governor of Kandahar Province. He was also charged with fundraising for the Taliban from numerous countries in the Middle East and in 2001 Mr. Abdullah reportedly “helped many senior Taliban members who fled Afghanistan settle in Pakistan”.

Finally Mr. Haqqani was regarded as a key leader of the Haqqani Network, being the brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, previously designated by the U.S. in March 2008. Nasiruddin Haqqani was said to function as “an emissary for the Haqqani Network and spends much of his time raising money”.

Labels: Afghanistan, Haqqani network, Taliban

From The Hindu

BP has further added to the tally of public relations disasters following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On Wednesday, allegations yet again emerged that the oil giant had doctored photographs showing a series of vessels working on the sea surface of the ruptured well.

In the third such allegation of photograph-doctoring The Gawker website said it had received a tip-off about a BP photograph taken from inside a helicopter which, while it suggested the helicopter was in the air above the sea, was actually a shot taken from a static, grounded helicopter on the deck of a vessel at the spill site.

The Washington Post reported that BP spokesman Scott Dean had sent it the original photograph, which indicated that the photographer had “pasted in blue sea where the edge of the landing pad was showing”. Mr. Dean was also quoted as saying that the photographer had further adjusted colours and contrast so that the interior of the helicopter was brighter.

Major embarrassment

Reports suggested that while such attempts at doctoring the photographs were minor, “the embarrassment was major” as they came at a time when BP was embarking on a damage-control exercise to persuade the American public that it was being open and transparent.

In an earlier incident, BP had again effectively admitted to wrongdoing when a different blog website reportedly exposed a doctored image from BP’s Houston office. This showed “a technical team in front of a large projection screen [where] the image on the projection screen had been enhanced using Photoshop”.

The Post said in that case too, Mr. Dean also provided it with the original photograph, in which the screen appeared to be entirely white because of the light contrast with the rest of the room. The newspaper reported that Mr. Dean had said the photographer used “the colour saturation tool” to show “a clearer version of the same image on the projection screen”.

He further said that the altered helicopter and headquarters photographs would be “promptly taken down from the BP website”. He added that the original and altered versions would be placed on BP’s Flickr website so people can compare them.

The company is already under enormous pressure for social gaffes after its CEO Tony Hayward participated in a glitzy yacht race in the United Kingdom at a time when thousands along the Gulf coast were struggling to save their livelihoods in the wake of the oil spill.

Further the company received negative press regarding its alleged efforts to lobby for a prisoner transfer agreement between the governments of the U.K. and Libya, efforts that coincided with BP signing a major oil deal with Libya and the subsequent release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, accused in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, from a Scottish jail.

Labels: BP oil spill, photograph-doctoring

From The Hindu

The Obama administration’s appetite to nominate persons of Indian origin to senior roles in government shows no sign of abating. This week, United States Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced that Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, entrepreneur, philanthropist and Chairman of Tejas Networks, A123 and Akshaya Patra, USA, had been appointed Co-Chairman of the U.S. National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE).

Making the announcement at the Innovation Forum of the University of Michigan, Mr. Locke said, “The National Advisory Council will help the administration develop a broader strategy to spur innovation and enable entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough technologies and dynamic companies, and to create jobs all across America.”

In an interview with The Hindu, Dr. Deshpande said that many Indians based in the U.S. today are involved in innovation and entrepreneurship and, “the future of the world depends on this”. He said the key learning that emerged from the work he had been engaged in, particularly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was, “You need not only innovation, but also to connect innovative ideas to markets, to create impact by getting thinkers involved with relevant ideas.”

In terms of some of his recent work, Dr. Deshpande said to The Hindu that while he focussed on technological innovation at MIT, his work with programmes such as the Akshaya Patra Foundation, the Public Health Foundation of India and the Social Entrepreneurship Sandbox in Hubli, Karnataka, was all about social entrepreneurship.

Yet, he argued, once innovative concepts emerged through social entrepreneurship, it was vital to deploy corporate and market-driven means to make them relevant and scale them up. In terms of his future role he said the U.S. spent approximately $60-70 billion a year on research, and he would be looking at ways to “to get more out of that”.

NACIE, a “key component”

Reflecting on the importance of NACIE, Mr. Locke said, “America’s innovation engine is not as efficient or as effective as it needs to be, and we are not creating as many jobs as we should... We must get better at connecting the great ideas to the great company builders.” He added that he wanted to extend his gratitude to the leaders appointed to the NACIE and that their work would be a “key component” of America’s economic recovery.

According to a press release, Dr. Deshpande is one of 26 members of the Council, which counts serial entrepreneurs, university presidents, investors and non-profit leaders among its members. Dr. Deshpande is said to be the only Indian co-chairing the Council, with the other Co-Chairs being Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution and co-founder of AOL , and Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan.

As a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dr. Deshpande currently serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, where he has helped finance the creation of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. He has also set up the Deshpande Foundation, a leading philanthropic foundation in the innovation, entrepreneurship and international development. Dr. Deshpande is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras. He has an engineering degree from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and a Ph.D. from Queens University, Canada.

Labels: A123, Akshaya Patra, Gururaj Deshpande, NACIE, Tejas Networks

From The Hindu

President Barack Obama finally made sweeping reform of Wall Street institutions a reality on Wednesday, by signing into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

In a celebrity-laden ceremony Mr. Obama said “Ultimately, there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street... So these reforms will help lift our economy and lead all of us to a stronger, more prosperous future, and I am honoured to sign them into law.”

As chairmen of the committees shaping and driving the Bill forward through Congress Representative Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd received praise from President Obama for working “day and night to bring about reform.”

Others present included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and numerous dignitaries from the government and from industry and consumer protection groups.

Explaining why America needed this reform package desperately Mr. Obama said it would help crack down on abusive practices in the mortgage industry, provide students taking out college loans with clear and concise information about their obligations and supply more information to ordinary investors about the costs and risks of mutual funds and other investment products.

Mr. Obama said, “All told, these reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history. And these protections will be enforced by a new consumer watchdog with just one job: looking out for people — not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses — in the financial system.”

However seeking to dispel any notion that the financial services industry would be impeded by the reform he said, “The financial industry is central to our nation’s ability to grow, prosper, compete, and innovate... This reform will help foster innovation, not hamper it.” Yet he emphasised that the overhauls proposed in the Dodd-Frank Act were designed to ensure that everyone followed the same set of rules and firms could compete on price and quality, not “tricks and traps.”

The President also highlighted the structural reforms that would be game-changing and create greater accountability on Wall Street: “Reform will also rein in the abuse and excess that nearly brought down our financial system. It will finally bring transparency to the kinds of complex, risky transactions that helped trigger the financial crisis. And shareholders will also have a greater say on the pay of CEOs and other executives, so that they can reward success instead of failure.”

Most importantly, he added, the new laws would ensure that the American people “will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes... There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.”

In closing Mr. Obama stressed that there was still much work to be done, because for these new rules to be effective, regulators would have to be vigilant and adjustments may be required the U.S. financial system adapted to these changes.

Labels: Barack Obama, financial overhaul, recession, Wall Street reforms

From The Hindu

BP’s role in capping and paying for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be separated from the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron said, at joint press conference with President Barack Obama.

He further emphasised that Mr. Megrahi’s release was a decision made by the Scottish government when Labour was in power in the U.K. and although it was “a decision which I wholly disagree with... [it] was taken in an appropriate way.”

Mr. Cameron also underscored his reluctance to hold any further investigations into Mr. Megrahi’s release, saying, “I'm not currently minded that we need to have a U.K.-based inquiry on this -- partly for this reason: I don't need an inquiry to tell me what was a bad decision. It was a bad decision."

He added that what made it an even worse decision was the fact that “Megrahi is still free, at liberty, in Libya, rather than serving the prison sentence in Scotland, as he should be doing.”

President Obama, who adopted a softer approach than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a few days ago, simply said, “I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed, and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber... We’ve got a British Prime Minister who shares our anger over the decision, who also objects to how it played out.”

Earlier this week Ms. Clinton, reacting to pressure from a group of Senators demanding a British review of the case, had clearly said that she would press the U.K. government to hold such a review. However Mr. Obama stopped short of reiterating that demand, saying, “We should have all the facts; they should be laid out there. And I have confidence that Prime Minister Cameron’s government will be cooperative in making sure that the facts are there.”

He added that once the facts had all come out, he expected that “we're going to be back to where we are right now, which it was a decision that should not have been made.”

At the joint briefing Mr. Cameron was nevertheless firm in insisting that BP did not play a role in influencing the Scottish government to release Mr. Megrahi. He said, “I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the Scottish government were in any way swayed by BP. They were swayed by their considerations about the need to release him on compassionate grounds – grounds that I think were completely wrong.”

He added that Mr. Megrahi was “the biggest mass murderer in British history and there was no business in letting him out of prison.”

Labels: BP role, David Cameron, Megrahi issue, oil spill

From The Hindu

President Barack Obama said that terrorists trained “in Afghanistan and the tribal regions along the Pakistani border” were responsible for killing innocent civilians in the United States and the United Kingdom. He added that with the support he continued receive from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron he would prevent “an even wider insurgency in Afghanistan [that] would mean an even larger safe haven for the al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates to plan their next attack.”

Speaking at a joint press conference at the White House with Mr. Cameron, Mr. Obama said that although the fight in Afghanistan was not easy, it was “a necessary one.” However he expressed confidence that they had the right strategy, arguing, “We’re going to break the Taliban’s momentum. We’re going to build Afghan capacity so Afghans can take responsibility for their future. And we’re going to deepen regional cooperation, including with Pakistan.”

Mr. Cameron echoed the President’s sentiment on Afghanistan, arguing that “there is no clearer, no more tangible illustration of Britain and America standing shoulder to shoulder in our national interest than this mission that we are engaged in together.” Illustrating the division of responsibility between the two nations he add, that British troops were working to an American commander in Helmand and American troops working to a British commander in Kandahar.

Both leaders hailed the ongoing Kabul Conference as “historic” and “another major step forward,” adding that the Afghan government had concrete plans to implement President Karzai’s commitments to improve security, economic growth, governance, and the delivery of basic services.

Mr. Obama further affirmed that “the U.S. firmly supports,” the Afghan government’s peace and reconciliation plan and also lavished praise on the recently inked Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement which would “increase economic opportunity for people on both sides of the border.”

On the wider question of drawing down U.S. and U.K. troops in Afghanistan, the President said “Over the coming year, Afghans will begin to take the lead in security, and in July of next year... we will begin the transfer some of our forces out of Afghanistan.

Mr. Cameron also underscored the importance of a political strategy for Afghanistan given that “Insurgencies tend not to be defeated by military means alone.” In a reference to U.K. support for Afghan plan for reconciliation and reintegration of the Taliban and other groups, he said, “To those people currently fighting, if they give up violence, if they cut themselves off from al-Qaeda, if they accept the basic tenets of the Afghan constitution, they can have a future in a peaceful Afghanistan.”

Labels: AfPak policy, Barack Obama, James Cameron

From The Hindu

In a sign that one of the areas at the heart of the financial markets meltdown might be recuperating, the Board of the Federal Reserve announced that it had agreed with the United States Treasury Department that the Treasury could reduce the credit protection it provided for the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Agreeing a reduction in the protection from $20 billion to $4.3 billion, the Fed Board noted that it had earlier authorised up to $200 billion in TALF loans, but when the program closed on June 30, 2010, there were $43 billion in loans outstanding.

The Fed added that under the TALF its New York branch had extended loans to investors in highly rated asset-backed securities (ABS) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). “By encouraging issuance of ABS and CMBS, the TALF was designed to increase credit availability and support economic activity,” the central bank said in a statement.

It added that although the TALF extended $70 billion in loans, many TALF loans, which have initial maturities of three or five years, had been repaid early and, to date, “the TALF program has experienced no losses and all outstanding TALF loans are well collateralised”.

The Fed Board further said it viewed as highly likely the possibility that that the accumulated excess interest spread under the programme would cover any loan losses that may occur “without recourse to the dedicated TARP funds”.

Labels: TALF loans, TALF protection, TARP

From The Hindu

Imprisoned media boss Conrad Black could be freed on bail, a United States Appellate Court has said this week. Mr. Black, former head of media giant Hollinger International Inc., had been jailed to 78 months after a jury found him guilty of three counts of fraud relating to the sale of the assets of his company and one count of obstruction of justice.

In June, prosecutors in the case suffered a setback when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the law under which Mr. Black was convicted. As a result, reports said, Mr. Black had been able to set up an appeal and request release on bail while the appeal was being heard.

However, Mr. Black may not be able to leave U.S. soil, according to media reports, which quoted Eric Sussman, former lead prosecutor in Mr. Black’s saying, “I’d be very surprised to see the judge let him leave the United States, particularly given the conditions of his prior bail.” Mr. Sussman told the CBC News channel that he expected that Mr. Black’s passport would remain in the court's possession and he could also be ordered to post a hefty bond.

Mr. Black has however, has not yet been released and remains incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida.

Experts said that while he may have avoided jail in the short term, he would continue to face numerous charges as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service was “seeking $71 million in back taxes” from Mr. Black. He also faces several civil suits from disgruntled shareholders of Hollinger International, reports said.

Mr. Black gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to become a member of Britain's House of Lords and is now also known as Baron Black of Crossharbour.

Labels: assets sale fraud, Conrad Black, Hollinger International Inc

From The Hindu

Toyota Motor Corporation, the Japanese car manufacturer, has been issued a subpoena by a federal Grand Jury in New York, bringing the company back into the spotlight for possible steering defects and its handling of a 2005 recall.

Media reports quoted the filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in which Toyota was reported to have said that the subpoena was received by its subsidiaries in the United States on June 29, and “had demanded documents about steering relay rod defects in the company’s cars.”

The automobiles giant has already been served with two subpoenas during 2010, with one related to sudden acceleration and braking, and another from the Michigan attorney general in March for information on recalls, reports said.

In a response sent to The Hindu Toyota said, “On June 29... a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York issued a subpoena requesting certain subsidiaries of Toyota Motor Corporation (“TMC”) to produce certain documents related to defective, broken and/or fractured steering relay rods of Toyota-produced vehicles. TMC and its subsidiaries intend to cooperate with the investigation, and are currently preparing their response thereto.”

In the response the company further said, “Toyota intends to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s office with regard to the subpoena and its requests... The issuance of a subpoena is only an indication that the DOJ has initiated an investigation. It does not mean that the government has concluded that Toyota has violated the law.”

In March Toyota came under scrutiny after incidents involving possible system malfunction, where the accelerator of a Prius hybrid hatchback jammed on an interstate highway in California causing it to race out of control at 94 miles an hour.

While the 2008 Prius model was covered by a November 2009 voluntary recall by Toyota, to address the risk that out-of-position floor mats could jam accelerator pedals, there were other incidents of unintended acceleration at the time, such as one involving a 2005 Toyota Prius in a New York City suburb.

Toyota’s legal woes mounted rapidly from that point as car owners claimed that the safety recalls caused the value of their vehicles to plummet and filed numerous class-action lawsuits, amounting to $3 billion or more, across the United States.

In April Toyota was ordered to pay a $16.4 million fine for delaying a January recall over accelerator pedals that did not spring back as designed, reports said. To date Toyota has recalled close to 8.5 million vehicles, of which over 6 million were in the U.S. Toyota President Akio Toyoda in February repeatedly apologised during an appearance before the U.S. Congress, saying that great strides were being taken by his company to put "safety first".

A probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in May this year had also questioned whether Toyota notified the agency of a steering rod defect within five business days, as required by U.S. law.

Labels: Japanese car manufacturer, steering defects, Toyota

From The Hindu

Feeling the heat of the United States Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stepped up the pressure on Scottish authorities to review the case of convicted Pan Am 103 bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.

In a written response to letters sent by a group of Senators to the State Department, Ms. Clinton today said, “I and other senior U.S. officials strongly and consistently expressed to Scottish authorities and the then-British government our longstanding position that Mr. Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland for his role in the bombing of Pan Am 103.”

Regarding the future course of this case, Ms. Clinton said the U.S. would continue to maintain in its exchanges with Scottish officials its “unshakable conviction” that Mr. Megrahi should not be a free man. She also said, “To that end, we are encouraging the Scottish and British authorities to review again the underlying facts and circumstances leading to the release of Mr. Megrahi and to consider any new information that has come to light since his release.”

Megrahi, oil spill to dominate talks in Washington

It is expected that BP — in the context of both the Megrahi case and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — will dominate the talks that United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron will hold in Washington this week with President Barack Obama. Reports said Mr. Cameron would be meeting with the Senators who had written to Secretary Clinton.

Mr. Megrahi, charged with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight to the United States, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, was transferred from jail to his native Tripoli, Libya, in August 2009. He had served a little more than eight years of a 20-year minimum jail sentence, but was released after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he had three months to live. Nearly one year on from his release, he is still alive.

In a statement that reflected the State Department’s awareness of the role of oil major BP in lobbying for a Prisoner Transfer Agreement between the United Kingdom and Libya, Ms. Clinton said, “We are aware of media reports suggesting a link between BP’s commercial interests in Libya and Mr. Megrahi’s deeply regrettable release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds last year.”

Ms. Clinton also said the new U.K. government had expressed its view that Mr. Megrahi’s release and return to Libya was “wrong” and “a mistake”, and that it was an affront to the victims’ families, the memories of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing, and to all of those who worked tirelessly to ensure justice was served.

In her letter to the Senators, she further underscored that BP’s position favouring a PTA between the U.K. and Libya was a matter of public record. “The then-British government undertook to conclude the PTA in 2007-2008 as part of its broader reengagement with Libya. In 2009, the decision of whether to release Mr. Megrahi from prison fell exclusively to the Scottish government under local law, and specifically, to the Scottish Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill,” Ms. Clinton said in the statement.

Noting that ultimately, while Mr. Megrahi had petitioned for release on compassionate grounds, as permitted under Scottish law, Ms. Clinton said he was in fact released based on the medical prognosis of the Scottish Prison Service and a range of medical specialists.

In a separate press briefing, Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley said that Mr. Hague had however noted in a letter to the Secretary over the weekend that he had found no basis to the suggestion that BP, in any way, influenced the Megrahi decision. “Whatever lobbying that they did was within the context of the prisoner transfer agreement,” he was reported to have said.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Lockerbie bombing, Megrahi case

From The Hindu

She may be the most powerful woman on earth, but like every mother the prospect of her daughter’s upcoming wedding has made her – and her husband – “nervous wrecks.”

In an interview with the NBC Channel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the wedding of her daughter, Chelsea Clinton (30), to investment banker Mark Mezvinsky on July 31 in the small town of Rhinebeck, 100 miles north of New York City.

The former first lady said of her husband Bill Clinton, “You should assume that if he makes it down the aisle in one piece it's going to be a major accomplishment.” She admitted that they were both “going to be so emotional.”

Ms. Clinton however refused to share any more details about the wedding, saying, “My lips are sealed. I am under very strict orders not to talk about it.”

Ms. Chelsea and Mr. Mezvinsky – also from a political background as the son of former House Representatives Ed Mezvinsky and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinksy – met while in Washington attended Stanford University together.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Chelsea wedding, Hillary Clinton

From The Hindu

The conservative Tea Party movement in the United States is facing the classic dilemma of an early bloomer. Undergoing an explosive growth phase shortly after it surprised mainstream political America with its arrival in 2009, the party now appears to be stumbling, perhaps against its own better judgment, down the path of chaotic radicalism.

While insiders have known of divisions within the party for a while, the froth spilled over into the public domain this weekend when the Tea Party expelled one of its key leaders, Mark Williams, and the sub-group that he led within the party called the Tea Party Express, for a writing a satirical letter purportedly from “the Coloured People” to President Abraham Lincoln praising slavery.

The party's spokesman, David Webb, said: “We have expelled Tea Party Express and Mark Williams from the National Tea Party Federation because of the letter that he wrote”.

His letter was said to be a response to earlier events, when the Tea Party found itself blinking in the spotlight after the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) passed a resolution labelling the party racist.

Some argue that at the heart of the party's problems is the lack of coherent leadership. Though it succeeded in “adopting” the former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, who sprang to the party's defence after the NAACP resolution, and made inroads into some of the primary elections this year, many in the mainstream regard that move to have edged the party even closer to the fringes of the political spectrum.

Labels: conservatives, party in-fights, racism, Tea Party

From The Hindu

Leaking methane and a seep near the well of the damaged Deepwater Horizon rig will not come in the way of continued testing of the capping stack installed by BP last week, according to Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander in charge of the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In a statement, Admiral Allen said, “Yesterday I sent BP a letter stating that there were a number of unanswered questions about the monitoring systems they committed to as a condition of the United States government extending the well integrity test.” He added that over the weekend, a conference call between the federal science team and BP representatives was convened to discuss the “detection of a seep near the well and the possible observation of methane over the well.”

Noting that the federal science team had received the answers they were seeking and BP reiterated its commitment to monitoring and notification obligations., Admiral Allen said, “I authorised BP to continue the integrity test for another 24 hours and I restated our firm position that this test will only continue if they continue to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation.”

Seeking to allay fears that the testing period could force oil to seep into the rock surrounding the well, the Admiral said the federal science team had the ability to return to the safe containment of the oil “at any moment” on the surface. He noted that the team would continue closely monitoring the BP well until such time as the relief wells were completed and the main well was permanently killed.

According to reports, the initial closing of the containment cap’s valves was supposed to last 48 hours as a test to determine if the well was leaking elsewhere. However it has lasted four days.

Letter to Dudley

In yet another sternly-worded letter sent on Sunday to Robert Dudley, Chief Managing Director of BP, Admiral Allen said, “Given the current observations from the test, including the detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head, monitoring of the seabed is of paramount importance during the test period.”

He added that as a continued condition of the test, BP was required to provide as a top priority access and coordination for the monitoring systems, which included seismic and sonar surface ships and subsea ROV and acoustic systems.

Labels: Admiral Thad Allen, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon rig, methane

From The Hindu

Everyone knows that the United States government considers as top priority the two big Cs — climate change and counterterrorism. Well now there is a “killer” product in the market that brings both together such that President Obama must be salivating with anticipation – solar powered drones.

British firm QinetiQ on Friday announced that its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Zephyr, a leading solar powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft, has been “smashing a number of long-standing world records”, particularly for its record non-stop flight time of over seven days.

According to a statement by the UAV’s producer, the drone is currently flying high above the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, where the Zephyr has already passed the seven day (168 hour) mark. QinetiQ noted that this doubled the unofficial world record for the longest duration unmanned flight of 82 hours, 37 minutes set in 2008 — also held by Zephyr — and was “well in excess of the current official world record of 30 hours 24 minutes set by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A Global Hawk on 22 March 2001”.

The Obama administration has extensively used drone strikes against suspected terror outfits, particularly along the lawless tribal and border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Endurance flying of this sort, the company said, would be useful for an aircraft that was required to provide a low-cost, persistent surveillance capability over months rather than days. “Potential applications include earth observation and communications relay in support of a range of defence, security and commercial requirements,” QinetiQ said in a press release.

The latest “green” model is around 50 per cent larger than the previous Zephyr, its producer said, and unlike conventional manned or unmanned aircraft now being operated, “Zephyr does not need to return to base at regular intervals for re-fuelling or servicing which also helps minimise the logistical supply chain and extend its operational capability.”

Labels: QinetiQ, solar powered drone, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

From The Hindu

The story evokes an eerie feeling of déjà vu, in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The case of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the so-called “Lockerbie bomber” released from a Scottish jail last year, resurrects the spectre corporate greed corrupting the course of justice. Even worse, it has firmly returned to the spotlight the unethical and potentially illegal actions taken by the very same corporate giant held responsible for the spill — BP.

With the case rapidly spilling across the Atlantic and threatening to spark a diplomatic row, this week saw United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling British Foreign Secretary William Hague to impress upon him the deep concern in the U.S. Congress over the role of BP in lobbying for the release of Mr. Megrahi last year.

Mr. Megrahi, charged with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight to the United States, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, was transferred from jail to his native Tripoli, Libya, in August 2009. He had served a little more than eight years of a 20-year minimum jail sentence, but was released after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he had three months to live. Nearly one year on from his release he is still alive.

Yet with four Democratic Senators urging Ms. Clinton to look into his release further, she “signalled to the Foreign Secretary’s ongoing Congressional interest in this matter”, said Philip Crowley of the State Department, on Friday evening. He added that both the Secretary and the Foreign Secretary “agreed that in our mutual views, the release of Mr. Megrahi last year was a mistake”.

What prompted this rare admission of guilt by the U.K. government was the revelation that a major prisoner transfer agreement with Libya was signed by the former Labour government in 2007 in the very same year that BP inked a $900 million oil exploration agreement with Libya. Further, BP admitted to lobbying the erstwhile U.K. government to get the prisoner deal signed.

Questioning medical advice

Outlining some of the key concerns on the U.S. side prior to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Washington next week, Mr. Crowley said in a press briefing that there were questions regarding the medical advice — “who gave it, how was it considered, how did the Scottish authorities reach a judgment that on humanitarian grounds, based on an understanding that Mr. Megrahi had a relatively short time to live?”

Mr. Crowley added, “And clearly, some questions have been raised about the fidelity of the medical information that entered into the Scottish authorities’ thinking… On the other hand, there are questions about BP and its contacts with the U.K. government… in an earlier timeframe regarding the negotiation of a prisoner transfer agreement between the U.K. and Libya."

Labels: Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, Lockerbie bomber, Pan Am flight crash

From The Hindu

After months of Congressional wrangling and a relentless siege of lobbying by Wall Street banks, the United States Senate finally passed an unprecedented and game-changing package of financial reforms on Thursday.

The reform bill passed by 60-39 margin, with three crucial Republican “aye” votes handing President Barack Obama his first major policy victory since the passage of the healthcare bill earlier this year.

Speaking after the passage of the bill Mr. Obama said, “Congress has now passed a Wall Street reform bill that will bring greater economic security to families and businesses across the country.”

The President touched upon what this meant for the common man, saying, it would bring greater security to people on Main Street including families looking to buy their first home or send their kids to college; to taxpayers who should not have to pay for somebody else’s irresponsibility; to small businesses, community banks and credit unions who played by the rules; and to shareholders and investors who wanted to see their companies grow and thrive.

Giving credit to his colleagues in the Democratic Party, Mr. Obama praised the “tireless efforts” of Senators Chris Dodd and Harry Reid and Representatives Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi. He said, “I am extraordinarily grateful for their determination in the face of a massive lobbying effort from the financial industry, and I’m also grateful for all of the members of Congress who stood on the side of reform — including three Republican senators who put politics and partisanship aside today to vote for this bill.”

Reform to foster innovation

However, Mr. Obama was quick to dispel any notion of a zero-sum game with negative consequences for banks and other financial institutions, noting that the financial industry was central to the U.S.’s ability to grow, to prosper, to compete and to innovate and that the reform would foster that innovation, not hamper it.

Yet, he said, it was designed “to make sure that everyone follows the same set of rules, so that firms compete on price and quality, not on tricks and traps”. It demanded accountability and responsibility from everybody, he added, arguing that “unless your business model depends on cutting corners or bilking your customers, you have nothing to fear from this reform”.

Touching on some of the key overhaul measures proposed by the bill, Mr. Obama noted that there would be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts and there would be new rules to end the perception that any firm is “too big to fail… so that we don’t have another Lehman Brothers or AIG.”

He further said that complex, backroom deals that had helped trigger the financial crisis in the first place would be brought into the light of day and shareholders and other executives can know that it would be shareholders who had a greater say on the pay of CEOs.

Republicans criticised

After the passage of the bill, both the President and senior Democrats criticised the Republican Party for opposing the reform. President Obama said, “Already, the Republican leader in the House has called for repeal of this reform. I would suggest that America can’t afford to go backwards, and I think that’s how most Americans feel as well.”

Similarly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “The ink hasn’t even dried yet on our bill that takes away big banks’ ability to gamble away our jobs, savings and houses, and Republicans already want to give it back.”

In a sharply-worded statement he added that this was the Republican job-killing agenda in full effect and that party wanted to go back to the system that cost 8 million Americans their jobs “because that is what [the Republicans’] friends on Wall Street want, and that’s who they’re looking out for”.

Others however welcomed the reform including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said, “The financial reform legislation approved by the Congress today represents a welcome and far-reaching step toward preventing a replay of the recent financial crisis.”

He explained that the reform strengthened the consolidated supervision of systemically important financial institutions, gave the government an important additional tool to safely wind down failing financial firms, created an interagency council to detect and deter emerging threats to the financial system, and enhanced the transparency of the Federal Reserve while preserving the political independence that is crucial to monetary policymaking.

According to a statement by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the President was hoping to sign the bill as soon as possible, possibly towards the latter half of next week.

Labels: healthcare Bill, U.S. Financial Bill, Wall Street reform

From The Hindu

In a relatively rare Gulf of Mexico oil spill update coming directly from the White House, President Obama said “the new cap is good news” — a reference to the “capping stack” installed earlier this week, which has thus far improved the odds of a total mop-up.

In a statement, the President explained that scientists and external experts who “met through the night and continue this morning to analyse the data from the well integrity test” were seeking to determine whether they could safely shut in the well using the new cap without creating new problems, including further oil leaks in the sea floor.

Mr. Obama noted, “Either we will be able to stop the flow, or we will be able to use it to capture almost all of the oil until the relief well is done. But we’re not going to know for certain which approach makes sense until additional data is in.”

Touching upon the positive aspect of the latest development, the President added that even if a shut-in were not possible, the new cap and the additional equipment being placed in the Gulf would be able to contain up to 80,000 barrels a day “which should allow us to capture nearly all the oil until the well is killed”.

However, Mr. Obama also cautioned that “when the oil stops gushing, everybody feels like we’re done — and we’re not”. He said that the final solution to the problem was going to be the relief wells and getting that completed “but there’s no doubt that we have made progress as a consequence of this new cap fitting on, and that even if it turns out that we can’t keep the containment cap on to completely stop the oil, it’s going to allow us to capture much more oil and we’ll see less oil flowing into the Gulf”.

He added that there was still “a big job to do” in terms of skimming surface oil and better coordination on the ground along the shorelines. “There’s still going to be an enormous cleanup job to do, and there’s still going to be the whole set of issues surrounding making sure people are compensated properly, that the $20 billion fund is set up and is acting expeditiously,” Mr. Obama said.

Labels: BP oil spill, Gulf oil spill, Obama

From The Hindu

Kartik (22) and Pratik (19) Kalaichelvan, two brothers from Bangalore, were killed on Tuesday night when their single-engine plane nose dived into a hayfield in Hood County, Texas.

Local news media reported that the brothers along with their friend Casey Brinegar (26), to whom the aircraft was registered, were on a “a fun trip to Stephenville for a barbeque — a Texas treat for a college student from India visiting his brother in Arlington.”

The three youngsters were said to have been returning to Arlington airport when, at about 9:30 p.m., an eyewitness heard the engine spluttering and cutting out near the town of Tolar. Reports quoted Kyle Fortenberry saying, “I [saw] him circle overhead,… heard his engine stalling, watched him circle back around and nose-dive into the pasture.”

The right wing of the 1964 Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft smashed into the ground, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said, and the aircraft tumbled. Dub Gillum of the Texas Department of Public Safety said, “The young pilot was looking for a place to land, I assume… He did a fabulous job not crashing into a house.” Mr. Gillum added that he believed the pilot might have landed it if he had had just a bit more daylight.

Mr. Brinegar and Kartik Kalaichelvan were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, according to Mr. Gillum, while Pratik Kalaichelvan was taken by helicopter to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Friends of the victims said the younger Mr. Kalaichelvan was days away from returning to India. They added that Mr. Brinegar was a superb pilot and instructor at the Skymates flight school in Arlington, although Tuesday’s flight was strictly for pleasure in Mr. Brinegar’s personal plane.

Those who knew Kartik Kalaichelvan said he had learned to fly from Mr. Brinegar, and was “accumulating flight time before returning to India to be a commercial pilot like his dad”. The Indian victims’ father, Alangiam P. Kalaichelvan, reportedly works as a pilot for King Fisher Airlines in Bangalore.

Texas media reported that investigators had not yet determined who was piloting the plane, although as per the norm, flight instructors are always in command of an aircraft when a student is aboard.

Local media also reported that authorities were trying to determine what caused the crash 45 miles southwest of Fort Worth, Texas. An NTSB investigator said a preliminary report on the crash will be issued next week. The NTSB, along with the Federal Aviation Administration, will be investigating the cause of the crash.

Reports noted that Pratik Kalaichelvan, a dentistry student in Chennai, came to visit his brother who, along with Mr. Brinegar, was showing Pratik Texas from the sky. Parents of Kartik and Pratik were said to be en route to Dallas and are expected to reach on Friday morning. A team of volunteers was said to be making arrangements to get all the necessary documents and transfer the bodies to a local funeral home.

“We express our deepest condolences to the Kalaichelvan family on the loss of two young men,” said Prasad Thotakura, General Secretary of the Indian American Friendship Council.

Labels: aviation accident, plane crash, Texas

From The Hindu

Even attacks by suicide bombers in Afghanistan did not deter women working with the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) from continuing their transformative work at the grass roots in that country, said Reema Nanavaty, Director of SEWA, at a discussion on “Women's empowerment in India” at the Indian embassy here.

Ms. Nanavaty, who outlined the economic activities of SEWA, from anti-desertification programmes to coordinating employment for salt farmers and rural women's saving and credit programmes, said its motto was “women, water and work.”

In particular, Ms. Nanavaty said women were at the forefront of green jobs as most of their livelihood strategies were anyway about environmental conservation.

With a membership of over 1.2 million, SEWA worked towards “strengthening women's leadership, their confidence, their bargaining power within and outside their homes and their representation in policymaking and decision-making fora.”

Ms. Nanavaty also touched upon the extensive work SEWA had been doing in Afghanistan recently, where, she said, around 500 women participated in their programmes. In that regard and in the context of SEWA's broader, transformative role, Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, said SEWA was often mentioned during the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue recently held in Washington. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was an admirer of SEWA's work, she said.

“Mixed picture”

Indian ambassador Meera Shankar said though the “picture was mixed” in terms of progress with the Indian women's struggle for economic and social equality with men, recent steps such as reservation of local-level political posts for women made a significant difference. Notably a greater proportion of women now held office in village panchayats than was mandated by reservation, and this reflected their growing political empowerment.

Labels: SEWA mission, social service, suicide attacks

From The Hindu

Green t-shirts flooded the State Department yesterday, during an event that celebrated the graduation of teenage “Peace Ambassadors” from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, out of a programme aimed at promoting cross-border understanding in the leaders of the future.

Indian graduates of the ‘Seeds of Peace’ programme who spoke to The Hindu said that the three weeks they had spent at a camp in Otisfield, Maine, provided some critical foundations for the empowerment of young people through deeply personal interactions with their counterparts from “the other side”.

Karan Mantri (14) said that in “dialogue groups” of around 20 people, delegates from all three countries would discuss issues such as the border dispute in Kashmir, water disputes between India and Pakistan and “after sometime, we started looking at the solutions to these problems”.

Kashmir was the most intensely discussed issue between Indian and Pakistani delegates, Mr. Mantri noted, while the Durand line and Pakistan’s post-Cold War role in Afghanistan was the hot topic between Pakistani and Afghan delegates.

And the discussions resulted in a genuine paradigm shift in the minds of delegates on both sides, Mr. Mantri added, saying, “We think that Pakistan attacked Kashmir and we helped them; but according to Pakistani students we sent our troops in and annexed Kashmir.”

Home Stay scheme

Another experience in the ‘Seeds of Peace’ programme that truly transformed attitudes across borders is the Home Stay scheme, according to Rayan Modi (17). Under this scheme, Mr. Modi spent time in the Lahore home of one of his Pakistani friends from the programme, and then his friend visited him in Mumbai and stayed in Mr. Modi’s home there.

Mr. Modi said to The Hindu, “The whole idea is for each member of the organisation to go across to the other side, live with the families of fellow [delegates], to be in their lives, to experience their culture for a week. And this helps in understanding similarities and differences between our cultures.” He added that sometimes “we even forget that they exist, that they are leading their own lives [across the border].. but it is only when you live there that you understand that their point of view is so important”.

The ‘Seeds of Peace’ programme is clearly orientated towards impressing upon future leaders the importance of peace and tolerance born of greater empathy. Ronita Bhattacharya (17), said there was a clear focus on effective leadership, for example on “listening, and on how to express things in a way that is acceptable to others. When you say something you can either say it bluntly and make it a controversy or state it in a way that people may find they agree with more easily”.

Labels: Robert Blake, Seeds of Peace

From The Hindu

BP has announced that a critical test on the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico will proceed as planned after a hydraulic leak that had delayed the tests was fixed on Thursday.

Tests of the integrity of the well were said to be vital to establishing a total mop-up mechanism until the permanent solution — relief wells — are put in place. These tests were initially scheduled for July 13 following the installation of the latest cap — called a “capping stack” — on the Deepwater Horizon well. Yet they were postponed because of the leak and also due to the need for further checks on the testing procedure.

In particular, Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander in charge of the spill response, said in a briefing on July 14 that the test was rescheduled to start after a day’s delay during which time the procedure had been reviewed by a team of scientists from BP, other companies and the government.

“We sat long and hard about delaying this test,” he said, adding that it was in the interest of the American people, the safety of the environment and of the project to take a 24-hour break “to make sure we were getting this absolutely right.”

Reports quoted Kent Wells, Senior Vice President of BP as saying that overnight, engineers using remotely operated submersibles replaced equipment on the tight-sealing cap at the top of well, 5,000 feet under water. The reports added that with the repair made Mr. Wells said, “We’re looking to start this test as soon as we possibly can.”

Meanwhile, commenting on the temporarily elevated rate of flow of oil into the Gulf, Admiral Allen said, “As you know our current flow rate projections are 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. We had intended by about this time to have 53,000 barrel a day capacity by bringing the Helix Producer online.”

“Robust containment strategy”

The Admiral added that he did not want to lose track of the fact that his team was following “a very robust containment strategy that was actually started in early June where we directed BP to come up with alternatives to increase redundancy and capacity related to the new flow rate numbers”.

He also said he would put in writing to BP the revised steps within the testing procedure, as decided through the multi-party consultations. He added, “Two of the very positive aspects that can come out of this… are an assessment of whether or not we can just cap the well at this point and the pressures can be maintained without damaging the wellbore or the casings.”

Labels: BP oil spill, capping stack, Deepwater Horizon, Thad Allen

From The Hindu

In the latest twist to the intrigue-laden saga of Shahram Amiri, media reports have cited unnamed officials in the Obama administration as saying that the Iranian nuclear scientist — said to have either defected to the United States or been kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency — received $5 million from the spy agency to reveal Iran’s nuclear secrets.

The Washington Post said in a news report on Thursday, “Shahram Amiri is not obligated to return the money but might be unable to access it after breaking off what U.S. officials described as significant cooperation with the CIA and abruptly returning to Iran.”

It further quoted unnamed official sources as saying, “Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran… He’s gone, but his money’s not. We have his information, and the Iranians have him.”

Mr. Amiri, who used to work at Iran’s Malek Ashtar University of Defence Technology disappeared during a visit to Saudi Arabia in June 2009, making a dramatic reappearance in the Iran Interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington earlier this week.

Alleges American conspiracy

After a brief stay there, Mr. Amiri returned to Tehran early on Thursday morning, where he was given a hero’s welcome. Mr. Amiri also spoke to journalists after his arrival at Imam Khomeini Airport, reportedly saying that he had no connection with Iran’s nuclear program and that he was the victim of an American conspiracy to wage “psychological warfare” against Iran.

Media reports also quoted Mr. Amiri as saying at that press conference that he had been offered $10 million to say on CNN that he had arrived in the U.S. to seek asylum. He added that just before his departure for Iran, he was offered $50 million and the option of residing in a European country of his choosing.

Mr. Amiri’s case generated renewed media interest in early 2010 when, initially, reports said that he had provided the U.S. with intelligence on Iran’s purported nuclear programme, and then three videos allegedly of Mr. Amiri appeared on the You Tube website.

Two of the videos, which appeared on June 8, presented contradictory explanations for Mr. Amiri’s disappearance, with one suggesting that he was captured, taken to a house in Saudi Arabia and given an injection, after which he awoke on a plane bound for the U.S.. The individual in the second video, also thought to be Mr. Amiri, said he was free and safe in the U.S., working on a Ph.D. and located in Arizona.

In a third video that emerged at the end of June, a man was observed saying, “I, Shahram Amiri, am a national of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a few minutes ago, I succeeded in escaping U.S. security agents in Virginia.”

Labels: CIA, Iranian scientist, Shahram Amiri

From The Hindu

On a two-day visit to New Delhi, United States National Security Advisor General James Jones met with his Indian counterpart, Shiv Shankar Menon and discussed preparations for the upcoming visit in November by President Barack Obama.

In a statement, Deputy Spokesman of the National Security Council Ben Chang said General Jones hoped “the visit will be a demonstration of the strong cooperation and enduring partnership between the U.S. and India”.

During his stay in New Delhi through July 14 and 15 General Jones was said to have met with Mr. Menon and other senior Indian officials to discuss the full range of key bilateral issues facing the two countries, “including regional security, cooperation in Afghanistan, and trade and economic relations”.

Mr. Chang added that General Jones’ “successful” visit had reinforced the strategic partnership between India and the U.S., a partnership defined by “a foundation of common principles and values. He also said that while in India, General Jones had helped map out further areas in which mutual cooperation could lead to greater prosperity, security, and progress for countries and the world.

In addition to Mr. Menon, General Jones was said to have met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Minister for Home Affairs P. Chidambaram, Minister for Defence A.K. Antony, Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee P.V. Naik, and Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley.

Mr. Chang said General Jones had expressed his appreciation for the hospitality and warmth of his interlocutors and the people of India.

Labels: Barack Obama India visit, James Jones, Shiv Shankar Menon