Washington, Sept. 26 (PTI): Maintaining free and open access to the sea is an important and critical challenge and in this regard the navies of India and the United States are "very closely aligned", Admiral Gary Roughead,the Commander of the American Pacific Fleet, said.
Speaking at the Washington Foreign Press Center, he said: "One of the reasons we have been very effective in operating together and looking to the future is because we see the challenges that we face on the Oceans, on the sea lanes and the importance of keeping those open".
The top American Navy official was recently in India. He said discussions with his counterparts were comprehensive that included future operations, exercises and exchanges. "I remain very impressed with the Indian Navy", he said.
There was a highly personal element to the Admiral's visit to India recently- he wanted to track down the house he lived in as a youngster in Mumbai. "I went to visit my house and I found it. It was wonderful to go back eventhough I was a young boy. Many memories came floating back" Admiral Roughead recalled even while making the point that his former house is no longer in the remote area of Mumbai it once was. "Mumbai has expanded so much. There is so much energy" he commented.
The Commander of the Pacific Fleet was all praise for the fashion in which the Malabar exercises were going and said that this series of exercises will not only continue but also look at the prospect of advancing these. For example this year the Admiral pointed out India and the United States will be doing some expeditionary warfare training which takes on additional significance because the United States is transferring one of its amphibious ships to India-the USS Trenton.
The USS Trenton, the Admiral explained, will give capability to the Indian Navy to move troops and equipment to great distances and having the ability to remaining off shore for a prolonged period of time and in the ability as well of moving smaller boats in and out. The transfer is expected to take place sometime this December.
"Apart from Malabar exercises, we are also looking at exercises at a more short term notice which I think navies that are as capable as the Indian Navy and the US Navy we can do that. In fact we did that with aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan at short notice" Admiral Roughead remarked going on to praise the role of an Indian medical team of about 19 persons getting on board USNS Mercy at very short notice when it was recently in South and South East Asia.
Admiral Roughead also expressed the hope that Indian Navy Observers could come and watch the Rim of the Pacific Exercises off Hawaii. "I am hopeful that the Indian Navy could perhaps join us and conduct an exercise perhaps in 2008", the Pacific Fleet Commander said.
"It is so apparent that our two navies share so many common interests and see the world in much the same way and are committed to maintaining safe and secure sea lanes, and safe and secure oceans so that we can get to enjoy prosperity that is vitally so important", he said.
The Pacific Fleet Commander emphasized the criticality of all navies to be willing to operate and participate in ways to build the "Maritime Demand Awareness" that not only has the ability to share information so that navies in the region have a better sense of ensuring the sea lanes of communications but also the ability of navies to "collectively" gather for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 19:44 ||
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Washington, Sept 26. (PTI): Making it clear that the situations surrounding the nuclear programmes of India and Iran are "simply very different," the US today said that no comparison can be made between the two as New Delhi has been "very good" on proliferation matters "for its entire history."
"The situations are just simply very different. And I think most people believe that India can be as a part of a broad proliferation regime actually helpful to the non-proliferation effort. I don't think there are many people who believe that about Iran," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with the New York Post.
"...I've never been one who believes that in international politics every situation is the same. It's not. And you know, I know people make the argument about precedents and I just have to say to people, look, the situations are simply different," she said.
The top State Department official went on to explain what the Bush administration has been saying all along--that Iran has a "terrible" non proliferation record and among other things had been dealing with the known Pakistani proliferator A.Q.Khan.
"With Iran you have a state that signed onto the NPT, has been violating its obligations, including enriching without telling anybody at Natanz; has a terrible proliferation record; was apparently dealing with A.Q. Khan who, the last time I looked, never was very interested in civil nuclear power; and so doesn't -- and by the way, sits in a very volatile region," Rice said.
"For a variety of reasons, prior to the NPT -- I'm sorry, just after the NPT India became a nuclear power and got left out of the nuclear club. That's really what happened. You know, the five who are so-called grandfathered into the NPT -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain -- it's almost an accident of history that they were in, you got the NPT and you were grandfathered in," Rice said.
"Now, that then led to a kind of anomaly, which is you have a state then that never joined the NPT but pursued nuclear weapons, therefore not breaking any of its NPT obligations since it was not party to the NPT, has been very good on proliferation matters for its entire history, and has now -- as Mohamed ElBaradei put it, needs to be brought into the broad regime that is controlling proliferation," Rice remarked.
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 17:19 ||
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#1
Can't the same thing be said about Israel?
OTOH China does not have a 'stellar' record in non-prolifieration does it?
#2
.I've never been one who believes that in international politics every situation is the same
There is a fiction in international relations that states are equal.
So India, with a population of 1.1 billion, one sixth of the earth's population has the same say in the UN as a small caribbean island with a population of ten thousand. Actually less, since there are many small states and they each have a vote.
Those who equate the Iranian and Indian programmes also fail to recognise the different technical levels they are at.
India already has developed complete fuel cycle technology - from mining ore to enriching fuel to building its own power, fast breeder and third gen eration reactors, to reprocessing plutonium, to waste vitrification and disposal.
This is quite apart from the actual weapon technology - building and testing both fission and thermonuclear weapons and their delivery systems.
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 17:47 Comments ||
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#3
better response: "I don't recall India threatening the Jooooos, Americans, Europeans, Iraqis.... ad nauseum. Iran is a belligerent punk state with a midget psychotic as President and a kleptocrat mullahcracy in charge. They will get theirs, not likely nuclear, but that's because we have other options available... *smile*"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/26/2006 17:58 Comments ||
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#4
There is also the matter of the law.
Iran signed the NPT and has been busy finding ways to subvert the treaty, violating its commitments.
India simply stayed out of the treaty. It can't break a treaty it has never signed.
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 18:14 Comments ||
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New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) Officials at the country's biggest prison - Tihar Jail - have started drawing plans to hang Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Mohammed Afzal who was involved in the terror attack on India's parliament Dec 13, 2001.
A city court Tuesday set Oct 20 as the date of execution of Afzal.
"Most of the arrangements are in place but we expect that little renovation work would be carried out as it has not been used for more than 17 years," said a senior official of the jail.
The assassinators of former prime minister Indira Gandhi - Beant Singh and Satwant Singh - were the last to be hanged in the jail premises on Jan 6, 1989.
"We have come to know of the development and are keeping a close watch on the court's order. But we have not received any information from the court as yet," said the official.
But according to police sources, though the court has ordered to hang Afzal, the convict still has the option to appeal before higher courts for mercy.
"It's too early to say that Afzal will be hanged. He is eligible to appeal for mercy," said an official.
He added there were over a dozen such cases in which convicts were given orders to be hanged but they applied for mercy petitions which are still pending before the court.
"Most of the convicts who have been given death penalty are still in the jail, waiting for a final decision to be taken on their fate."
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 16:28 ||
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Mr Afzal's lawyer Kamini Jaswal told the BBC his client would file an appeal with the Indian president, his last port of call for a reprieve.
Posted by: john ||
09/26/2006 16:58 Comments ||
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Washington, 26 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had advised his daughter, who lives in London, to disclose Pakistans nuclear secrets to the British media, claims Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in his book In The Line Of Fire, which was officially launched on Monday.
Available from the "60 Minutes Book of the Month Club"
The president says that when in November 2003 the government started investigations into Khans nuclear proliferation activities, Pakistani intelligence agencies intercepted two letters written by him.
Now, pay attention. It helps if you think of the book as the official Pakistani party line
The first, carried by a courier, advised some of Dr A.Q. Khans friends in Iran not to mention his name under any circumstances to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He also advised them to name dead people during investigations, just as he was doing in Pakistan.
Makes it harder to check his story. Nobody said Khan wasn't a smart guy
Naively, he also suggested that the Iranians should put the blame for the contamination found in Iran on IAEA inspectors, who could have spread it surreptitiously. He recommended that Iran renounce the NPT and finally promised more assistance after this event had passed," the book said.
He figured he'd get off like he had before
The second letter, addressed to his daughter, contained detailed instructions for her to go public on Pakistans nuclear secrets through certain British journalists, the president writes.
This was Khan's insurance policy. I believe the daughter is to release the file only if something bad happens to him. It is rumored to contain documents showing Pakistani government involvement in nuclear proliferation.
The president claims that Khan had been involved in nuclear proliferation since 1987, offering to share the technology with whoever was willing to pay.
We were once informed that a chartered aircraft going to North Korea for conventional missiles was also going to carry some irregular cargo on his behalf. ... We organised a discreet raid and searched the aircraft before its departure but unfortunately found nothing. Later, we were told that A.Q.s people had been tipped off and the suspected cargo had not been loaded.
Mahmoud the Rat strikes again!
On another occasion, I was informed that A.Q. had requested clearance of a chartered cargo flight (bringing ammunition) from a third country to Islamabad, including refuelling stops both ways at Zahedan in Iran. ...I disallowed permission to land in Iran. Some days later, I was informed that the aircraft had never come to Pakistan after all. Evidently, the ammunition was probably a cover for something else.
The president recalls that although Washington had been raising suspicions about Dr Khans activities since the Clinton days, in September 2003 at the UN summit, President Bush drew me aside and asked me if I could spare some time the next morning for the CIA director, George Tenet. It is extremely seriously and very important from your point of view, he said. "I agreed."
Tenet arrived at my hotel (Roosevelt in New York) suite the next morning drew out some papers and placed them before me. I immediately recognised them as detailed drawings of Pakistans P-1 centrifuges ... with part numbers, dates, signatures, etc."
That would be the Libyan bust
I did not know what to say. I have seldom found myself at a loss for words, but this time I was. ...I told Tenet that I would like to take the papers and start an investigation. He obliged.
The president took the papers to Khan and placed them before him. He broke down and admitted that he felt extremely guilty. He asked me for an official pardon. I told him that his apology should be to the people of Pakistan and he should seek his pardon from them directly.
In the book, Gen Musharraf describes Khan as a man who had a great talent for self-promotion and publicity and led the public to believe that he was building the bomb almost single-handedly. He was such a self-centred and abrasive man that he could not be a team player. He did not want anyone to excel beyond him or steal the limelight on any occasion or on any subject related to our strategic programme." He had a huge ego, and he knew the art of playing to the gallery and manipulating the media. All this made him a difficult person to deal with.
So the book blames everything on Khan personally and lays the ground work for discrediting any papers Khan's daughter might release later
Khan, 71, is considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. He has lived under virtual house arrest in Islamabad since he confessed in early 2004 to leaking sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Earlier this month he travelled to Karachi to undergo treatment for prostate cancer.
Anyone still think he's going to recover?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/26/2006 09:43 ||
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"I immediately recognised them as detailed drawings of Pakistans P-1 centrifuges"
Anybody else here think it's interesting that Perv would recognize a centrifuge drawing? I'd love to know what his share of the proliferation take was.
Pakistan yesterday denied that the deal it had struck with militants in the troubled North Waziristan was brokered by Taleban leader Mullah Omar. Referring to a report published in the Daily Telegraph of London, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the government reached an agreement with the notables of Waziristan to bring peace to the area. She added that the peace had nothing to do with the Taleban or Mullah Omar.
Tasnim added that the government reached the deal with tribal leaders to oust foreigners from the region who were causing trouble there. She said local leaders had assured the government that they would adhere to the agreement. She said Pakistan has no information on Osama Bin Ladens whereabouts or whether he is dead or alive. We have no information about his coordinates. We have no information whether he is dead or alive, Tasnim said. Her comments came amid recent speculation about Bin Ladens status following a French newspaper report over the weekend.
Bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the rugged region along the Pakistan and Afghan border. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that Bin Laden probably was in Pakistan. Pakistani officials usually say Bin Laden is more likely to be in Afghanistan.
Tasnim said that leaders of the Taleban are present in Afghanistan and denied that Pakistan aided the militia. We believe that the Taleban leadership is inside Afghanistan, Taleban resurgence is in Afghanistan, she said. Afghan officials have repeatedly said that Taleban leaders are also hiding in Pakistan from where they stage attacks against Afghanistans US-backed government. Pakistan has denied the allegations, and sparring between the two countries over the location of the Taleban led to a straining in bilateral relations earlier this year. Much of the insurgency is located deep inside Afghanistan, far from the Pakistan border, Tasnim said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2006 00:00 ||
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She added that the peace had nothing to do with the Taleban or Mullah Omar.
She said local leaders had assured the government that they would adhere to the agreement.
She said Pakistan has no information on Osama Bin Ladens whereabouts or whether he is dead or alive.
Tasnim said that leaders of the Taleban are present in Afghanistan and denied that Pakistan aided the militia.
Much of the insurgency is located deep inside Afghanistan, far from the Pakistan border, Tasnim said.
A special anti-terror court trying accused in the Bombay blasts case of 1993 yesterday found two close aides to Tiger Memon, the prime accused, guilty of conspiracy and carrying out terrorists acts. Another 11 people have been convicted in the 11-year trial for their roles in the bombings. The March 12, 1993 serial blasts killed 257 people in the country's financial and entertainment hub. Judge Pramod Kode found Mohammed Shaikh, 33, guilty of conspiracy, involvement in arms training, transporting grenades and planting a bomb. He faces life imprisonment. Another defendant, Nasim Barmare, 33, was found guilty of committing a terrorist act for throwing hand grenades into Bombay's international airport. He could face the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2006 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR: Seven people including a policewoman were killed by suspected militants in Indian Kashmir in a deadly start to Ramazan, police said on Monday. Kashmir traditionally sees a rise in violence during Ramazan, which began on Monday in the scenic Himalayan state. The policewoman was killed when militants threw a grenade at a police jeep and wounded another woman constable, two policemen and a civilian, a police spokesman said. Militants also killed four Muslims, including a 55-year-old woman, in the south late on Sunday and early Monday, the spokesman said.
Two more Muslim men were shot dead on Monday by militants in the Pulwama and Anantnag district, about 50 kilometres south of Srinagar, the spokesman said. None of the dozen or so militant groups in Kashmir claimed responsibility for the killings. Residents of held Kashmir had hoped militant attacks would abate during the holy month of Ramazan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2006 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: Cinema owners in the NWFP have refused to comply with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government's order to close cinemas during Ramazan, saying that the cinema business would not affect prayers. The cinema owners refused to comply with government orders during a meeting chaired by NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq on Monday.
A cinema owner, asking not to be named, told Daily Times that the provincial government had offered to withdraw taxes on cinemas if the owners closed during Ramazan. He said the cinema owners rejected the government's offer saying that movies would not affect prayers. "We told the provincial government that the demand is unnecessary," he said.
Daily Times found most cinemas open on Monday and their schedules displayed prominently. People were seen buying tickets despite a threat of action against moviegoers by MMA MPA Dr Zakir Shah's Amar Bil Maroof Wanahi Anil-Munkar organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2006 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR, India - A policewoman was killed and two of her women colleagues wounded in Indian Kashmir on Monday when suspected Muslim militants threw a grenade at their vehicle, police said. No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a market area in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmirs summer capital, in which a civilian was also wounded.
The violence came on the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan during which separatist militants in the disputed, Muslim-majority region have traditionally stepped up attacks on Indian forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/26/2006 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Pakistan yesterday denied that the deal it had struck with militants in the troubled North Waziristan was brokered by Taleban leader Mullah Omar. Referring to a report published in the Daily Telegraph of London, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the government reached an agreement with the notables of Waziristan to bring peace to the area. She added that the peace had nothing to do with the Taleban or Mullah Omar.
SRINAGAR: Seven people including a policewoman were killed by suspected militants in Indian Kashmir in a deadly start to Ramazan, police said on Monday. Kashmir traditionally sees a rise in violence during Ramazan, which began on Monday in the scenic Himalayan state. The policewoman was killed when militants threw a grenade at a police jeep and wounded another woman constable, two policemen and a civilian, a police spokesman said. Militants also killed four Muslims, including a 55-year-old woman, in the south late on Sunday and early Monday, the spokesman said.
PESHAWAR: Cinema owners in the NWFP have refused to comply with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government's order to close cinemas during Ramazan, saying that the cinema business would not affect prayers. The cinema owners refused to comply with government orders during a meeting chaired by NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq on Monday. 
SRINAGAR, India - A policewoman was killed and two of her women colleagues wounded in Indian Kashmir on Monday when suspected Muslim militants threw a grenade at their vehicle, police said. No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a market area in the heart of Srinagar, Kashmirs summer capital, in which a civilian was also wounded.
