Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Amidst the massive debris of confidential, secret and unclassified information contained within United States diplomatic cables across the world and exposed by WikiLeaks, notable comments on India have begun to emerge, including the U.S. viewing India as a “self-appointed frontrunner” in the race for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The whistleblower website headed by Australian Julian Assange had, by Monday evening, put out over 240 out of a quarter of a million communications between State Department officials in Washington and in numerous U.S. diplomatic outposts.

In addition to the reported comment on India’s bid for the UNSC seat, the dispatches published thus far also described a conversation between Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, and visiting National Defence University President Lieutenant General Michael Dunn.

In the discussion, classified as secret by United Arab Emirates Ambassador Michele Sison, the Crown Prince, dubbed “MbZ,” was described as hinting about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s interest in the UAE obtaining Predator drones from the U.S..

These drones are “hunter-killers,” often armed with Hellfire missiles, as opposed to mere reconnaissance drones, and India has expressed concern in the past that any Pakistani access to such drones could inflame tensions on the border.

According to the cable, during the conversation the Ambassador “asked about MbZ’s visit the week before to Lahore to meet with Pakistani President Musharraf. MbZ chuckled and asked why the U.S. government “always” convinced the Pakistanis to delay news of the capture of senior al-Qaeda operatives such as Abu Faraj al Libbi.”

The cable went on to add that the Crown Prince congratulated Washington for its decision to allow U.S. firms to bid for contracts to provide F-16 combat aircraft and other defence technology to Pakistan, adding that even if “the Indians had and would continue to balk at the decision, the region needed Musharraf to stay strong.”

Further the cable quoted the Crown Prince as saying that the F-16 decision would not tip the military balance between India and Pakistan. “Even if it had, India's strength as a stable democracy would ensure that it would not ever be in as risky a situation as its neighbour,” he said.

The cable then said that “MbZ slapped his knee and said “You will never guess what Musharraf asked me...he asked me whether the UAE had received approval for the Predator!”

At this point the cable cautioned, that the U.S. government’s “inability to meet the UAE’s request for an armed Predator remains a sore point for MbZ, although he has not directly raised the issue with us.”

Labels: cablegate, Hillary Clinton, India's UNSC bid, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks cable view

From The Hindu

The saga of WikiLeaks continued over the weekend with revelations that a military officer suspected of supplying the whistleblower website with confidential documents had been aided by several graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Boston Globe newspaper reported that a 23-year-old recent MIT graduate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Defence Department investigators had interviewed him to determine whether he and others in the local computer hacker community had helped army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, a key suspect in the leaks according to Pentagon officials.

Other media reports noted that Adrian Lamo, a California-based computer hacker responsible for turning in Mr. Bradley to the authorities in May, had claimed that he had “firsthand knowledge that someone helped Manning set up encryption software to send classified information to WikiLeaks.”

Mr. Lamo, said to be cooperating with the investigation, reportedly refused to name the person. However he added that Mr. Manning’s associate was part of a group in Boston that had worked with WikiLeaks. The Associated Press quoted Mr. Lamo as saying that the software had enabled Mr. Manning to send classified data in small bits so that it would seem innocuous: “It wouldn’t look too much different from your average guy doing his banking on line.”

Meanwhile the MIT graduate who spoke to the Boston Globe said that he categorically denied that he had any role in helping Mr. Manning leak the documents, saying, “I did not help him or know about it before it happened.”

Legal, moral areas of culpability

In related developments, Defence Secretary Robert Gates turned up the heat on WikiLeaks saying in an interview over the weekend that that he was “mortified, appalled... and angry”. He further warned that there were two areas of culpability — legal and moral. He added that while legal culpability was “up to the Justice Department and others [and] not my arena” on moral culpability, “the verdict is guilty on WikiLeaks”.

In discussing the impact of the leaks on the U.S.’ Afghanistan strategy, Secretary Gates said, “We are not leaving Afghanistan in July 2011.” Instead, he said that was when U.S. forces hoped to begin a transition process and a thinning of U.S. army ranks.

On timelines, Mr. Gates sought to deflect criticism that the announced drawdown might strengthen the hand of the Taliban later in 2011. He said, “The pace will depend on the conditions on the ground... The President has been very clear about that. And if the Taliban are waiting for the 19th month, I welcome that, because we will be there in the 19th month, and we will be there with a lot of troops.”

Labels: Julian Assange, MIT grads, Robert Gates, Wikileaks