Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

A resolution to cut most of the United States' funding to Pakistan has been quietly tabled in the U.S. House of Representatives, even as the two countries' relationship continued to totter dangerously in a furore over the alleged terror links of Pakistan's intelligence agency.


The wobble in bilateral ties began last week after scathing remarks by Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who openly spoke of the links between the ISI and the Haqqani network terror outfit in a congressional hearing.


On the very same evening Congressman Ted Poe, Republican of Texas, tabled H.R. 3013, also known as the Pakistan Accountability Act, a piece of legislation which, if passed by Congress, will freeze all U.S. aid to Pakistan with the exception of funds that are designated to help secure nuclear weapons.


In a blunt statement to the House following the introduction of the Act, Mr. Poe said, “Since the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan has proven to be disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the U.S.”


Support for militants


He added that the “so-called ally continues to take billions in U.S. aid while at the same time supports the militants who attack us”.


A series of harsh exchanges between U.S. and Pakistan followed. Most recently Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said in New York City the Haqqani network was the CIA “blue-eyed boy”.


Mr. Poe said by continuing to provide aid to Pakistan, the U.S. was funding the enemy, endangering Americans and undermining U.S. efforts in the region all together. In a strong speech on the floor of the House Mr. Poe argued, “We pay them to hate us, now we pay them to bomb us. Let's not pay them at all.”


If passed by Congress and signed into law by the White House, the Act would apply to any funds allocated for assistance to Pakistan that were not spent on or after such date, as per the text of the Bill.

From The Hindu


Sending best wishes on behalf of U.S. President Barack Obama and the people of the U.S. as India celebrates its sixty-fourth anniversary of Independence on August 15, Ms. Clinton said, “At this time of profound change and hope for millions of people, India’s story stands as a powerful example of what people can achieve through the peaceful pursuit of inalienable rights.”

Recalling her visit to India last month the Secretary said that she that experiencing India’s beauty, vitality, and dynamism, the U.S. believed that its partnership with India will be “one of the defining partnerships of this century.” This partnership was based on people-to-people ties and shared values of democracy, liberty, and respect for religious and cultural diversity, she added.

In a statement Ms. Clinton sent out a message to all Indians saying, “As you celebrate this special day with family, friends and loved ones, in Chennai, New Delhi or anywhere in between, know that the U.S. stands with you as a committed partner and friend.”

Pakistan has viewed successive partnerships between India and the United States as a “zero-sum game” and always asked, “So are you our friend or are you their friend?” according to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made rare, candid comments on Pakistan’s India-centric perspectives on possible outcomes in Afghanistan.

Addressing probing questions from Senators during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Ms. Clinton said the U.S. had to recognise that the overriding strategic framework in which Pakistan thinks of itself was its relationship with India.

“Every time we make a move toward improving our relationship with India, which we started in [with] a great commitment to back in the ‘90s — and it has been bipartisan with both President Clinton and President Obama and President Bush — the Pakistanis find that creates a lot of cognitive dissonance,” she said.

Her comments came even as there was less than a month to go before the second round of the India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi.

The Secretary was especially pressed by the Committee Chairman John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, to explain why, despite $2.8 billion being channelled into Pakistan last year, “there is clear evidence that their intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, is assisting and funding a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba; and that is inconsistent with our laws.”

Ms. Clinton responded by painting a picture of the complex web of inter-relationships between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

On the Pakistan-Afghanistan equation she argued that Pakistan desired “strategic depth” in Afghanistan, by which it meant a regime in Kabul and a border that were not going to challenge its interests.

With its focus on the Durand Line, Ms. Clinton said, Pakistan “has in the past invested in a certain amount of instability in Afghanistan,” and it also feared Afghanistan might become a “satellite of India,” given that India and Afghanistan had a historical affinity.


Yet Indian interests in this relationship could not also be denied, and the Secretary admitted that if the U.S. sought to assure Pakistan “that what would be left [behind in Afghanistan after U.S. troops withdraw] would be favourable to and even, in their view, subservient to Pakistani interests... the Indians aren't going to sit around and accept that.”

Noting that other groups such as the Uzbeks and the Tajiks would also be unwilling to accept such an arrangement, Ms. Clinton made a strong push for a strategy that focused on building up capacity within Afghanistan so that it was “strong enough to defend itself against all comers, but without falling back into civil war, because particularly the Northern Alliance constituents believe that they are threatened by Pakistan and the Pashtuns.”

Touching upon the U.S.’ engagement with India in this regard, the Secretary said that the State Department was “working very hard on our strategic partnership,” and it was “fair to say” that India believed that Pakistan’s continuing support for elements of insurgency against India in Kashmir made it very difficult for Indians to know which path of engagement to choose.

Nevertheless, she expressed some optimism for peace between the two nuclear-armed nations especially in the wake of recent cricket diplomacy between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

“I have been encouraged by the resumption of talks that had broken off in 2008, and we have certainly urged both sides to go as far as they could to build more confidence and to try to be able to develop an atmosphere of greater cooperation,” she said.

From The Hindu

Pakistan is planning a military offensive of unknown strength in its restive North Waziristan region, home to numerous militant groups including the fearsome Haqqani network, United States Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has said.

Admiral Mullen spoke of the planned operation to television networks on Monday. “It is a very important fight and a very important operation,” he said.

He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met senior Pakistani leaders a few days earlier to “show the strength in terms of our commitment [because] we're going through a difficult patch right now after the bin Laden operation”, said Admiral Mullen.

Barring the general reiteration of commitment to eliminating terrorist havens on its soil, there was no official word from either the Pakistani government or the military about launching an operation in North Waziristan.

However, the armed services were reportedly preparing for a two-pronged action in the tribal agency — using air power to “soften up” targets before ground troops move in. Apparently aid agencies have also been alerted to prepare for an internal displacement situation.

While Admiral Mullen said in Washington that he “did hear from the [Pakistani] military leadership their continued commitment to look ahead and work with us and we think that's important”, all indications were that Islamabad was yet to decide on a full-scale operation that would include action against groups like the Haqqani network.

While the terror outfit has repeatedly targeted U.S. troops in Afghanistan from its hideout in North Waziristan, it has never struck within Pakistan.

Taking on the Haqqani network has been a long-standing demand of the U.S. It was repeated again last week during Secretary of State Ms. Clinton's seven-hour visit to Islamabad, where she acknowledged Pakistan's role in the Afghan reconciliation process but underscored Islamabad's responsibility toward stopping insurgency west of the Durand Line.

Yet, on Monday, Admiral Mullen sought to downplay the impression of tensions arising in those discussions, arguing media reports were “overstated”. “We had a very good, frank, open discussion that touched on a wide range of issues,” he said.

Strategic assets

Apart from the reluctance to give up “strategic assets” — as networks like the Haqqani group are described within the community of security analysts — capacity constraints are also being cited as reason for a selective operation.

The Army is still not in a position to withdraw from areas it wrested from terrorists and is apprehensive of over-stretching itself in case of a full-scale operation.

Admiral Mullen conceded that in the U.S. “one of the things that does not get enough focus is the sacrifices that the Pakistani military has made over the course of the last several years”. They have lost thousands of soldiers in this fight while “10-plus thousand” were wounded, he said.

From The Hindu

A top Washington think tank has argued that recent examples of nuclear industry goods being smuggled from the United States to Pakistan highlight the need for closer monitoring and raise questions about how an ostensible “ally” of the U.S. could be involved in this illicit trade.

Speaking to The Hindu David Albright, President and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the “U.S. government and the nuclear industry need to be working closer together” if such smuggling rings were to be detected.

Reflecting upon an ISIS paper that examined the case of Pakistani Nadeem Akhtar, Mr. Albright said, “The U.S. government should simply ask Pakistan to stop this trade, if they want to be our allies,” adding that the recent cases in which smuggling rings were caught they ultimately lead back to supply orders originating in Pakistan.

Akhtar's case made news last month when U.S. prosecutors charged him with “running a smuggling operation that shipped materials and equipment to the agencies operating Pakistan's nuclear program,” according to media reports.

Akhtar (45) was said to have operated an export firm in Maryland, which obtained items such as radiation-detection devices, calibration equipment and nuclear-grade resins from a company based in North Dakota and passed them on to “agencies that are on a U.S. Commerce Department blacklist.” The orders made to the U.S. company dated back to 2005 and 2006.

Specifically the two Pakistani entities that received goods through Akhtar's alleged illicit procurement operation were the Chashma nuclear power plant and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. ISIS reported that in 2006 and 2008 Akhtar purchased equipment from a Massachusetts company used to control electrical circuits in nuclear power and fuel reprocessing plants and shipped them to the Chashma plant.

Dual-use goods

According to ISIS, among the tactics that Akhtar allegedly used to obtain the dual-use goods were “using a U.S. company to buy goods from another U.S. company on his behalf, using a contractor of a U.S. company to buy goods, doing business with a U.S. company that knowingly or accidentally violated the U.S. ban on nuclear dual-use exports to Pakistan, and even lying to a Commerce Department official when asked about an end-user.”

As a result of these activities and also falsifying shipping documents and illegally routing goods to Pakistan via another Dubai-based company, Akhtar was said to be facing trial and up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit export violations, 20 years for unlawfully exporting U.S. goods, and 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, .

Mr. Albright told The Hindu, said the U.S. probably did not expect Pakistan to extradite the procurement agents implicated, yet given that the orders originated from the nuclear plants in Pakistan, official involvement in the smuggling ring was likely.

Mr. Albright said the recent events had echoes of the Asher Karni case of 2004, in which Karni, a Hungarian-born Israeli citizen was charged by U.S. authorities for involvement in the A.Q. Khan network of nuclear smugglers associated with the clandestine nuclear policy of Pakistan.

India faces a burgeoning inflow of high-quality counterfeit currency that is primarily produced in Pakistan and then smuggled to India through multiple international routes, according to a report by the United States State Department.

In the 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the State Department said criminal networks exchanged counterfeit currency for genuine notes and this facilitated money-laundering on a scale that “represents a threat to the Indian economy.”

While a key focus of the INCSR was the drug and chemical control, a significant section of the report considered the impact of money-laundering and financial crimes in the context of narcotics production and distribution.

Significant target

In that regard, the report argued that India's economic and demographic expansion made the country an “increasingly significant target for money-launderers and terrorist groups,” adding that India's extensive informal economy and remittance systems, porous borders, strategic location, persistent corruption, and historically onerous tax administration contributed to its vulnerability to financial and terrorist-related crimes.

On the subject of the counterfeit currency flows from Pakistan, officials noted that most terrorist activities were conducted by international terrorist groups and entities linked to the global jihad, with the support of both state and non-state external actors, all of whom “often use counterfeit currency and hawaladars, as well as physical cross-border currency smuggling, to move funds from external sources to finance their activities in India.”

‘Particularly prone'

India was particularly vulnerable to such illicit currency flows given its location between heroin producing countries in the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent, the INCSR explained.

The report also pointed out that India was itself a major producer of licit acetic anhydride, a precursor chemical required to convert morphine base into heroin, and this made producers susceptible to abuse by illicit networks. In any case, India was “a significant target for terrorist groups, both external and domestic,” the State Department said.

Annual report

The INCSR is an annual report supplied to the U.S. Congress and its purpose is to describe the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade during 2010.

Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, is travelling to India during March 17-30, the State Department announced today. He will also visit Afghanistan and Pakistan for the first time in his role as Assistant Secretary.

Focusing on U.S.-India business relations, Mr. Blake is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Asia Society Corporate Conference in New Delhi on March 20 and hold consultations with Indian and American business representatives.

He will also use the visit to conduct discussions with his counterparts in the Ministry of External Affairs “to prepare for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue in Washington in early summer,” according to a statement.

Mr. Blake’s visit to Afghanistan will revolve around meetings with embassy officials in Kabul, local officials in Kunduz and discussions with the Provincial Reconstruction Team. In Pakistan he would plan to speak with federal and provincial officials, civil society representatives, religious leaders and business representatives in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore, the State Department added.

From The Hindu

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has concluded her visit to Washington, during which she impressed upon U.S. officials the importance of India’s continued commitment to its developmental work in Afghanistan. Her trip also saw a sharp focus on high-tech trade and the Strategic Dialogue that was initiated last July when Secretary Clinton visited India.

In a brief to U.S. interlocutors earlier this week Ms. Rao drew attention to several key regional issues according to Rahul Chhabra of the Indian Embassy, including her talks with the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan in February. She also touched upon the recent developments in Afghanistan and stressed “that Afghanistan presented the foremost security related challenge in the region,” Mr. Chhabra said. In that context, Ms. Rao emphasised the need “for the international community to stay the present course in Afghanistan for as long as it is necessary.” U.S. officials reportedly conveyed their appreciation of the important developmental work being done by India in Afghanistan.

Further Ms. Rao also co-chaired the 7th meeting of the India-United States High Technology Cooperation Group. Addressing the officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce, she used the platform to push for a favourable review of U.S. export controls applicable to India, to bring them in line with “the changed political realities that contextualise India-U.S. strategic partnership today.”

Two days of deliberations — between the industry representatives of both countries followed by the government-to-government meetings to consider the recommendations of the industry — led to a consolidation of the progress made in the last five years and identified the next steps for further expanding high technology trade. The dialogue particularly focused on the areas of defence and strategic trade, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, with agreement on the need to create new groups on health, IT and civil aviation.

India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue

Ms. Rao also met with a number of senior administration officials to further the India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, William Burns, National Security Advisor, James Jones, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Robert Hormats, and Under Secretary of State for Democracy Global Affairs, Maria Otero. Further, she interacted with Congressman Gary Ackerman — who headed up the recent Congressional hearing on Lashkar-e-Taiba — and Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Mr. Chhabra said at these bilateral meetings, the Foreign Secretary had the opportunity to review the progress “on various pillars of India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue agenda including cooperation in defence, nuclear energy, counter-terrorism, agriculture, education, energy, space and cyber-security.”

In an unmistakable sign of rising concern in the United States over the expansive reach of the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Congressional hearing on Thursday emphasised the urgent need to “crush” the group.

Gary Ackerman, Chairman of the hearing, “Bad Company: Lashkar e-Taiba and the Growing Ambition of Islamist Militancy in Pakistan”, said that in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, investigation of computer records and email accounts revealed 320 locations worldwide deemed to be possible targets of LeT attacks, of which only 20 targets were located in India.

Highlighting the relationship between the LeT and the Pakistani military, Mr. Ackerman said the LeT was a deadly group of “fanatics” and the U.S. ought to take this threat “very, very seriously.”

Ms. Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and expert witness testifying at the hearing, said, “It has been a failure of U.S. policy to not insist Pakistan shut down the LeT long ago. U.S. officials have shied away from pressuring Pakistan on the LeT in the interest of garnering Pakistani cooperation against targets the U.S. believed were more critical to immediate U.S. objectives, i.e., al-Qaeda shortly after 9/11 and the Afghan Taliban more recently.”

However, overlooking the activities of LeT in Pakistan is the equivalent of standing next to a ticking time bomb waiting for it to explode, Ms. Curtis warned. Furthermore, given that the LeT has cooperated with Al-Qaeda and shares a similar anti-west Islamist ideology, Al-Qaeda cannot be dismantled without also shutting down the operations of the LeT, she said.

'Delicate dance with a Frankenstein’s monster'

Mr. Ackerman pointed out that today LeT were well-financed, ambitious, and, most disturbingly, both tolerated by and connected to, the Pakistani military. This is the same Pakistani military to which we are selling advanced arms, Mr. Ackerman added. There was agreement at the Committee that “Pakistan was in a delicate dance with a Frankenstein’s monster of its own making... which was now going global.”

Mr. Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, concurred on LeT’s deep links to the establishment in Pakistan. He said, “LeT… uses Pakistani territory as its main base of operation, and continues to be supported extensively by the Pakistani state, especially the Army and Inter-Services Intelligence. [However] it does not need constant operational support from the ISI for its effectiveness today.”

'Not just India's problem'

The Chairman’s report at the hearing described the LeT’s substantial global network, stating that it stretched from the Philippines to the United Kingdom. His comments further emphasised that the LeT was not just India’s problem and while it was historically been in the Kashmir valley and the Jammu region, it has also undertaken repeated and numerous mass casualty attacks throughout India, directed at the Indian government.

Touching upon LeT’s broader global agenda Mr. Tellis said, “The organisation’s close ties with al-Qaeda in Pakistan and its support for the Afghan Taliban’s military operations pose a direct threat to U.S. citizens, soldiers, and interests.”

The Chairman categorically stated, “The idea that this group can be appeased on the subject of Kashmir is dangerous nonsense.” He further added that the LeT has not been shy about announcing its intention to establish an Islamic state in all of South Asia, and has been attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan almost from day one.

During his testimony Mr. Tellis called for greater candidness by the U.S., saying it should stop pretending that LeT is an independent actor. “A candid recognition that the organisation receives protection and support from the Pakistani state would go a long way toward solving the problem”, Mr. Tellis said. He further exhorted the U.S. to be prepared to take action if Pakistan did not move decisively against the LeT.

In his final remarks Mr. Ackerman made a strong statement calling for action, saying, “This group of savages needs to be crushed. Not in a month. Not in a year. Not when the situation stabilises in Afghanistan. Not when things are under control in Pakistan. Now.” If the U.S. did not effectively lead a global effort to do so, Mr. Ackerman added, they would regret it bitterly.