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Friday, August 22, 2008
NSG waiver: US hints at changes in text
The United States on Friday indicated for the first time that it might be agreeable to accommodating changes in the NSG waiver proposal but claimed in the same breath tha it was pushing for a clean text.
“I don’t want to lie to you...I can’t really lie. There might be some changes that we could accept. But we are pushing for a clean text,” US assistant secretary of state (South and Central Asian affairs) told reporters in Mumbai.
“We need to listen to countries that have objections,” Boucher said, adding that “we won’t allow anything that will impede (the Indo-US civil nuclear) deal”.
“The US and India will have to sit together and see what we can accommodate and what we can’t. We will have to talk to the other governments involved”, Boucher said. “If you are making an exception... There has to be a certain logic to it,” he said.
Stating that “this deal is a good deal for India, not just in terms of economic growth and energy but also in terms of India’s relations with international community,” he said, “It is a big deal for us and a big deal for India. The ball is in everybody’s court”.
“Most of the countries I talked to and most of the countries we are hearing from Vienna are positive. They understand the sort of importance in having cooperation with India,” he said.
Boucher said that the Bush administration plans to present the deal to the US Congress in September for its endorsement. He said there was no possibility of the deal being scrapped by the next government in New Delhi as the agreement was between two nations and the new government was obliged to honour the international commitments of the earlier regime.
However, the issue of forging a strategic alliance between India and the US will have to wait till new governments are installed in both Washington and New Delhi, Boucher said.
“I don’t want to lie to you...I can’t really lie. There might be some changes that we could accept. But we are pushing for a clean text,” US assistant secretary of state (South and Central Asian affairs) told reporters in Mumbai.
“We need to listen to countries that have objections,” Boucher said, adding that “we won’t allow anything that will impede (the Indo-US civil nuclear) deal”.
“The US and India will have to sit together and see what we can accommodate and what we can’t. We will have to talk to the other governments involved”, Boucher said. “If you are making an exception... There has to be a certain logic to it,” he said.
Stating that “this deal is a good deal for India, not just in terms of economic growth and energy but also in terms of India’s relations with international community,” he said, “It is a big deal for us and a big deal for India. The ball is in everybody’s court”.
“Most of the countries I talked to and most of the countries we are hearing from Vienna are positive. They understand the sort of importance in having cooperation with India,” he said.
Boucher said that the Bush administration plans to present the deal to the US Congress in September for its endorsement. He said there was no possibility of the deal being scrapped by the next government in New Delhi as the agreement was between two nations and the new government was obliged to honour the international commitments of the earlier regime.
However, the issue of forging a strategic alliance between India and the US will have to wait till new governments are installed in both Washington and New Delhi, Boucher said.
Labels: American Politics
Friday, August 1, 2008
Bush ticks off Pak PM: Who controls ISI?
An "annoyed" US president George W Bush has confronted Pakistan prime minister over the leaking of intelligence, shared by Washington, to militants by the ISI and quizzed him on who was controlling the spy agency.
Pakistan, which has reacted angrily to recent calls for direct US military strikes or "hot pursuit" of militants thriving in its tribal areas, has been harping on the need for the American intelligence agencies to share information so that it can carry out operations against the extremists.
However, Bush during his meeting with prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that Washington is reluctant to share intelligence with Islamabad because people in the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) are passing on such information to militants, defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspapers on Thursday.
Bush also expressed "concern and some annoyance" about the ISI's role in Pakistan, the minister told the news daily. Bush told Gilani and his delegation that the US believed the ISI had established deep ties with militants operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, some officials present in the meeting said.
The US president complained that intelligence shared with Pakistan was leaked by "certain elements" in the ISI to terrorists much before they could be attacked by American or Pakistani forces. This was a cause of concern for the US, Bush was quoted as saying by Mukhtar.
Bush was blunt about expressing American reluctance to share intelligence information with Pakistan, an official present at the meeting was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
"President bush also asked who is controlling the ISI," Mukhtar said. This was apparently a reference to the recent controversy over a move to place the spy agency under the interior ministry. The government notification in this regard was withdrawn after the powerful army and the presidency objected to the move.
Pakistan, which has reacted angrily to recent calls for direct US military strikes or "hot pursuit" of militants thriving in its tribal areas, has been harping on the need for the American intelligence agencies to share information so that it can carry out operations against the extremists.
However, Bush during his meeting with prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that Washington is reluctant to share intelligence with Islamabad because people in the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) are passing on such information to militants, defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspapers on Thursday.
Bush also expressed "concern and some annoyance" about the ISI's role in Pakistan, the minister told the news daily. Bush told Gilani and his delegation that the US believed the ISI had established deep ties with militants operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, some officials present in the meeting said.
The US president complained that intelligence shared with Pakistan was leaked by "certain elements" in the ISI to terrorists much before they could be attacked by American or Pakistani forces. This was a cause of concern for the US, Bush was quoted as saying by Mukhtar.
Bush was blunt about expressing American reluctance to share intelligence information with Pakistan, an official present at the meeting was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
"President bush also asked who is controlling the ISI," Mukhtar said. This was apparently a reference to the recent controversy over a move to place the spy agency under the interior ministry. The government notification in this regard was withdrawn after the powerful army and the presidency objected to the move.
Labels: American Politics
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Nooyi among business leaders Obama consults
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has met with a bipartisan group of business and economic leaders, including India-born PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi. He intends convening the group periodically in the run-up to the November election.
Obama called the meeting Monday to discuss the “deteriorating” economic situation in the US and went on to lay out his strategy for “short-term relief and long-term growth”. He also voiced his support for “a second round of economic stimulus”, CBS News reported. He said he would be convening the same group periodically over the next few months “because of the dynamic situation and one that the next president will need to be prepared to deal with the moment he takes office”.
The impressive list of those who attended, besides Nooyi, included Warren Buffett who participated by phone, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, former SEC chairman under President Bush, William Donaldson; former treasury secretary under Bush, Paul O’Neill; former treasury secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
Incidentally, Indra Nooyi has also topped the list of the highest paid female chief executives, who have collectively defied the trend of falling CEO pay at the 500 largest US firms. Nooyi took home $12.7 million - including $4.5 million in bonus pay - in 2007 putting her at number 139 out of 500 company chiefs overall, Forbes magazine noted Monday. The 13 female chief executives in the US magazine’s list saw their pay jump an average 27 percent last year. In contrast, after clocking a juicy 38 percent collective pay hike in 2006, CEOs of the 500 companies saw their compensation dwindle an average 15 percent in 2007.
The gap in pay packet of male and the female CEOs does persist, however. The average take, including salary and bonuses, for all 500 CEOs was $12.8 million, double the female average of $6.5 million. Even Nooyi’s total compensation was just one-fourteenth that of the highestpaid man on the list of 500 top CEOs, Oracle’s Larry Ellison. He realised $182 million from the exercise of vested stock options in addition to the modest $1 million salary.
Obama called the meeting Monday to discuss the “deteriorating” economic situation in the US and went on to lay out his strategy for “short-term relief and long-term growth”. He also voiced his support for “a second round of economic stimulus”, CBS News reported. He said he would be convening the same group periodically over the next few months “because of the dynamic situation and one that the next president will need to be prepared to deal with the moment he takes office”.
The impressive list of those who attended, besides Nooyi, included Warren Buffett who participated by phone, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, former SEC chairman under President Bush, William Donaldson; former treasury secretary under Bush, Paul O’Neill; former treasury secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
Incidentally, Indra Nooyi has also topped the list of the highest paid female chief executives, who have collectively defied the trend of falling CEO pay at the 500 largest US firms. Nooyi took home $12.7 million - including $4.5 million in bonus pay - in 2007 putting her at number 139 out of 500 company chiefs overall, Forbes magazine noted Monday. The 13 female chief executives in the US magazine’s list saw their pay jump an average 27 percent last year. In contrast, after clocking a juicy 38 percent collective pay hike in 2006, CEOs of the 500 companies saw their compensation dwindle an average 15 percent in 2007.
The gap in pay packet of male and the female CEOs does persist, however. The average take, including salary and bonuses, for all 500 CEOs was $12.8 million, double the female average of $6.5 million. Even Nooyi’s total compensation was just one-fourteenth that of the highestpaid man on the list of 500 top CEOs, Oracle’s Larry Ellison. He realised $182 million from the exercise of vested stock options in addition to the modest $1 million salary.
Labels: American Politics
Monday, July 21, 2008
Obama meets Afghan president
US presidential contender Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to Afghanistan in talks with its western-backed leader on Sunday and vowed to pursue the war against terror ‘with vigour’ if he is elected, an Afghan official said.
On the third day of an international tour deigned to burnish his foreign policy credentials, Obama and other American senators held two hours of talks with president Hamid Karzai at his residential palace in the Afghan capital.
Obama has chided Karzai for not doing more to build confidence in the Afghan government, whose grip remains weak eight years after the ouster of the Taliban. US embassy spokesman Mark Sroh said the senators discussed the painstaking rebuilding of the country’s government and economy, the security situation and corruption with Karzai. The Afghan president said Obama’s message was positive.
“Senator Obama conveyed ... that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continue the war against terrorism with vigour,” said Humayun Hamidzada, Karzai’s spokesman.
Both Democrats and Republicans ‘are friends of Afghanistan and no matter who wins the US elections, Afghanistan will have a very strong partner in the United States,” Hamidzada said.
Obama, the presumed Democratic candidate for the US election in November, has made Afghanistan a centrepiece of his proposed strategy for dealing with terrorism threats.
He said the war in Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants are resurgent, deserves more troops and more attention as opposed to the conflict in Iraq.
While officially part of a congressional delegation on a factfinding tour also expected to take him to Iraq, Obama was travelling in Afghanistan amid the security accorded to a likely Democratic nominee for president rather than a senator from Illinois.
Earlier in the day, he praised US troops while eating breakfast with soldiers at Camp Eggers, a heavily fortified military base in the city. “To see young people like this who are doing such excellent work, with so much dedication ... It makes you feel good about the country,” Obama said.
On the third day of an international tour deigned to burnish his foreign policy credentials, Obama and other American senators held two hours of talks with president Hamid Karzai at his residential palace in the Afghan capital.
Obama has chided Karzai for not doing more to build confidence in the Afghan government, whose grip remains weak eight years after the ouster of the Taliban. US embassy spokesman Mark Sroh said the senators discussed the painstaking rebuilding of the country’s government and economy, the security situation and corruption with Karzai. The Afghan president said Obama’s message was positive.
“Senator Obama conveyed ... that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continue the war against terrorism with vigour,” said Humayun Hamidzada, Karzai’s spokesman.
Both Democrats and Republicans ‘are friends of Afghanistan and no matter who wins the US elections, Afghanistan will have a very strong partner in the United States,” Hamidzada said.
Obama, the presumed Democratic candidate for the US election in November, has made Afghanistan a centrepiece of his proposed strategy for dealing with terrorism threats.
He said the war in Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants are resurgent, deserves more troops and more attention as opposed to the conflict in Iraq.
While officially part of a congressional delegation on a factfinding tour also expected to take him to Iraq, Obama was travelling in Afghanistan amid the security accorded to a likely Democratic nominee for president rather than a senator from Illinois.
Earlier in the day, he praised US troops while eating breakfast with soldiers at Camp Eggers, a heavily fortified military base in the city. “To see young people like this who are doing such excellent work, with so much dedication ... It makes you feel good about the country,” Obama said.
Labels: American Politics
Friday, July 18, 2008
Bill Clinton willing to campaign for Obama
Former US p re s i - dent Bill Clinton has said he was willing to camp a i g n f o r W h i t e H o u s e hopeful Barack Obama, who defeated his wife Hillary in a sometimes bitter democratic nomination race.
Asked by reporters if he would campaign for Obama, who aims to become America’s first Black president, Clinton said: “Whenever he asks.”
“He’s busier than I am on politics anyway,” he said.
Clinton told reporters on Thursday that he had a ‘good talk’ with Obama following the marathon nomination battle, during which the former two-term president’s wife jousted repeatedly with the Illinois senator’s campaign.
Clinton and Obama spoke by telephone on June 30 in an effort to mend fences, three days after Hillary Clinton and the presumptive Democratic nominee appeared publicly for the first time in a show of party unity.
Reports last month said that despite his wife’s vow to do whatever she could to make Obama the next president, Bill Clinton was still nursing anger over the campaign, in which he was accused of playing the race card to boost Hillary’s chances.
The former president remains a hero to many grassroots Democrats, and could possibly help Obama in his quest to win over working class whites in key swing states that backed Hillary Clinton in the primary race.
Asked by reporters if he would campaign for Obama, who aims to become America’s first Black president, Clinton said: “Whenever he asks.”
“He’s busier than I am on politics anyway,” he said.
Clinton told reporters on Thursday that he had a ‘good talk’ with Obama following the marathon nomination battle, during which the former two-term president’s wife jousted repeatedly with the Illinois senator’s campaign.
Clinton and Obama spoke by telephone on June 30 in an effort to mend fences, three days after Hillary Clinton and the presumptive Democratic nominee appeared publicly for the first time in a show of party unity.
Reports last month said that despite his wife’s vow to do whatever she could to make Obama the next president, Bill Clinton was still nursing anger over the campaign, in which he was accused of playing the race card to boost Hillary’s chances.
The former president remains a hero to many grassroots Democrats, and could possibly help Obama in his quest to win over working class whites in key swing states that backed Hillary Clinton in the primary race.
Labels: American Politics
Plot to assassinate Bush foiled: Israel
Israel accused six Arabs on Friday of trying to set up an al-Qaida cell in Israel and said one of them had proposed attacking helicopters used during a visit by President George Bush.
Israel’s Shin Bet counter-intelligence agency said one of the suspects had used his mobile phone to film helicopters at a sports stadium in Jerusalem that was used as a landing site for Bush’s delegation.
The suspect then posted queries on websites frequented by al-Qaida operatives, asking for guidance on how to shoot down the helicopters, the agency said in a statement.
Bush visited Israel in January and again in May. Lawyers representing the six suspects could not immediately be reached for comment.
Two of the arrested men are students of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement released by Shin Bet. The other four are Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem.
It said the men had met several times at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, seeking to organize a local al-Qaida network.
The agency said bomb-making instructions on the personal computers of several of the six new suspects, the Shin Bet said. But the statement gave no indication that their activities ever moved be yond the planning stage.
None face charges of active involvement in any attacks. The men were arrested in June and July, the statement said. But the information was only approved for publication on Friday, the day the men were to be indicted in a Jerusalem court.
Earlier this month, Israel indicted two of its Bedouin Arab citizens for links to al-Qaida and for planning attacks inside the Jewish state.
The two men gave al-Qaida operatives information about strategic sites like army bases, skyscrapers and Israel's international airport that could serve as targets, a statement released by Shin Bet said
Israel’s Shin Bet counter-intelligence agency said one of the suspects had used his mobile phone to film helicopters at a sports stadium in Jerusalem that was used as a landing site for Bush’s delegation.
The suspect then posted queries on websites frequented by al-Qaida operatives, asking for guidance on how to shoot down the helicopters, the agency said in a statement.
Bush visited Israel in January and again in May. Lawyers representing the six suspects could not immediately be reached for comment.
Two of the arrested men are students of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement released by Shin Bet. The other four are Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem.
It said the men had met several times at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, seeking to organize a local al-Qaida network.
The agency said bomb-making instructions on the personal computers of several of the six new suspects, the Shin Bet said. But the statement gave no indication that their activities ever moved be yond the planning stage.
None face charges of active involvement in any attacks. The men were arrested in June and July, the statement said. But the information was only approved for publication on Friday, the day the men were to be indicted in a Jerusalem court.
Earlier this month, Israel indicted two of its Bedouin Arab citizens for links to al-Qaida and for planning attacks inside the Jewish state.
The two men gave al-Qaida operatives information about strategic sites like army bases, skyscrapers and Israel's international airport that could serve as targets, a statement released by Shin Bet said
Labels: American Politics
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Through the Elections, Brokaw Will Do M.T.P.
Our sib-blog, TV Decoder, has just posted an item about Tom Brokaw taking on “Meet the Press” duties in the wake of Tim Russert’s death earlier this month. Mr. Brokaw will assume the role through the November elections.
He said in a statement:
“I’ve been appearing on ‘Meet the Press’ since the days of Watergate when it was moderated by Lawrence E. Spivak right through the distinguished tenure of my great friend, Tim Russert, so I feel right at home.
“Tim made ‘Meet the Press’ the center of the universe for informative and lively discussions of public affairs, particularly the exciting 2008 campaign for president, and I intend to continue that commitment to our viewers.”
He said in a statement:
“I’ve been appearing on ‘Meet the Press’ since the days of Watergate when it was moderated by Lawrence E. Spivak right through the distinguished tenure of my great friend, Tim Russert, so I feel right at home.
“Tim made ‘Meet the Press’ the center of the universe for informative and lively discussions of public affairs, particularly the exciting 2008 campaign for president, and I intend to continue that commitment to our viewers.”
Labels: American Politics
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