Lisa Curtis, erstwhile Central Intelligence Agency South Asia analyst and ex-senior Congressional staffer on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said that the arrest and findings from the investigation of Chicago-based Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative John Coleman Headley, has awakened US officials to the gravity of the threat of the LeT and other Pakistan-based terrorist groups.
Claiming that China is the origin of malicious cyber activities targeting the US, a noted American security expert on Thursay said the government should vigorously monitor and defend its computer and critical infrastructure networks.
Indian-American Raj Goyle has won a primary from Kansas State to bag Democratic Party's nomination for the November Congressional elections, becoming the latest candidate from the community to join the race for the House of Representatives.
Twenty-Four year old Ricky Gill, if elected will be the youngest and first Indian-American to represent the San Joaquin County that falls under the California 11th Congressional District.
The debate over Prime Minister Modi's nixed Congressional address continues. Aziz Haniffa has the scoop
US Attorney General William Barr, to whom the report was delivered on Friday, told Congressional leaders that he may submit to them its summary 'as soon as this weekend'.
As weary Americans cast their ballots in the most expensive US Congressional elections, a 'Poll of Polls' has forecast bad news for India-bound President Barack Obama, saying his Democratic party would be trailing behind the Republicans.
American Congressman Ed Royce, a ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the senior-most minority member on the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation, who was part of the Congressional leadership that met with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his recent visit to Washington, is disappointed that the United States-India civilian nuclear deal wasn't completed to make it the signature highlight of the Obama-Singh summit.
Observing that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are still committed to striking the United States, a top American intelligence official has told US lawmakers that lone-wolf and homegrown extremist now poses an equally serious threat to the country.
In 2003, Jindal, a Republican, ran and won from the 1st District after the incumbent Congressman David Vitter vacated the seat to run for the Senate. Sangisetty, an attorney, is running from the nearby 3rd District in the surrounding area of New Orleans, as the Democratic incumbent Charlie Melancon is leaving to challenge Senator Vitter in the Senate race.
'The diplomat's arrest has led to a major diplomatic spat, the likes of which I have not seen in my nearly three decades of covering the US-India relationship, says Aziz Haniffa. 'The knee-jerk reaction by the powers-that-be in Delhi was myopic to say the least.'
Influential United States Senator John Kerry who heads the congressional committee responsible for the American foreign policy has said that Pakistan's president, army chief and the Inter-Services Intelligence are showing encouraging signs of transformation and taking the terrorists head on.
'The resolution is the first time that any state, nation or investigative body has declared that the Indian government was responsible for the 1984 genocide of Sikhs.'
Pompeo, during a Congressional hearing on Thursday, told the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that 'the actions are entirely consistent with what they have been signalling to the world for decades you might even argue since 1989, but certainly since General Secretary Xi came to power'.
According to political pundits, the Democrats have a good chance of winning the House, while the Republicans are likely to retain the Senate.
Rumsfeld's apology comes a day after his boss, US President George W Bush, offered an apology for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Amid concerns by certain quarters in Pakistan over the "strings" attached to US aid, a key Congressional bill that triples American financial support to Islamabad to USD 7.5 billion (nearly Rs 349 billion) in next five years has been challenged in the Pakistan Supreme Court.
This provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6-year limit.
Republican Party leaders have denied extending an invitation to Narendra Modi to address Congressional leaders and Indian-Americans via video link next week.
Indian Intelligence agencies have drawn much flak for their glaring lack in communication that failed to preempt the 26/11 terror attacks last year. American intelligence agencies operating in South Asia also don't share information with each other, Massachusetts Democrat and Senator John F Kerry, who recently visited Indian, Pakistan and Afghanistan, revealed during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Pakistani-origin American David Coleman Headley, charged by FBI of being involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, was using US as a base to plan future attacks outside the country, a top Senator said on Thursday. "I understand he was able to use the US as a base of (terror) operations," Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland and Security and Governmental Affairs who has received a classified briefing on the issue, said at a Congressional hearing.
More than a year after Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was signed, a Congressional report has said that several steps, including submission of required certifications by President Barack Obama, remain to be taken by both the countries before American companies can begin nuclear trade with New Delhi.
"India is one of our most important allies and creating an exchange program between members of the US Congress and Representatives of India's Parliament will only deepen our ties and lead to greater understanding between our countries," McDermott said.
Virtually supporting India's precondition for any peace talks with Pakistan, a top United States diplomat on Thursday said Islamabad needs to do more to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed over 170 lives including six Americans. Robert Blake, now tipped to become the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, told a powerful Congressional Committee that Pakistan needs to do more on 26/11.
Lobbying on the Hill is time consuming and cumbersome, but very effective to influence US government policies, asserts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC after the 1998 nuclear tests and during the Kargil War.
The lawsuit accuses Trump of "an unconstitutional and unlawful scheme".
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, went ballistic at a forum in Washington DC, slamming Congressional critics, the media and leading analysts who have predicted that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state and bound to implode, and those who have accused the ISI of colluding with al Qaeda and the Taliban while Islamabad rakes in the massive largesse of American economic and security assistance.
'This is such a dynamic time for our entire community.' Ami Bera tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com what his selection means for desis in America.
Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC's Morning Joe that the President-elect is setting a tone for Congressional Republicans by refraining from calling for more investigations.
Though the Indian caucus in the Obama administration is concerned over the recent reports concerning Pakistan's funds being used against India, it may be unable to bring any changes in the Kerry-Lugar bill that has assured Pakistan of USD 1.5 billion on an annual basis for five years.
It would be a huge achievement if the new administration manages a successful transition to some sense of domestic and international normalcy in these frantic times marked by the pandemic and rise of illiberal regimes across the world, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers comprising erstwhile and current co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans have circulated a letter among their colleagues expressing their strong support for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and included in their 'Dear Colleague' letter a copy of the September 12 Washington Post editorial titled 'Yes for an Answer: Why Congress should expedite approval of the US-India nuclear accord."
The Mexican government said on Monday it would slap tariffs on 90 US industrial and agricultural products in retaliation of a Congressional action which ended the programme giving Mexican trucks access to US highways. The 2009 Omnibus appropriations Bill, passed by the Congress, terminated the project between the two countries.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Wednesday asked the Joe Biden Administration to designate four nations, including India, as "countries of particular concern", alleging that religious freedom conditions there in 2020 continued their negative trajectory.
American Vice President-elect Joseph Biden will travel to Pakistan this week to defuse regional tensions in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, according to a media report.
American auto industry's Big Three appear close to securing a bailout, with Wall Street Journal reporting that the White House and top Democrats have agreed in-principle for a $15 billion rescue plan -- less than half the amount sought by GM, Ford and Chrysler.
Congressman Joseph Crowley, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives and the former chair of the Caucus on India and Indian Americans, has condemned the terror attack on Mumbai.
Once the most sought after H-1B American work visa is still having nearly 20,000 slots open seven weeks after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started receiving applications for the financial year 2010 beginning October this year.
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