Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, under pressure from his colleagues to "reduce" ties with the United States following the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is said to be "fighting to survive".
The Barack Obama administration's Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State Daniel Benjamin, in an interaction with rediff.com on Wednesday, has admitted that the social services the Lashkar-e-Tayiba delivers through its front organisations like Jamat-ud-Dawah make the terror outfit even more insidious and dangerous.
Ashley Tellis, a former official in the George W Bush administration and key foreign policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, had initially been a sceptic of the (United States President Barack) Obama administration's policy toward South Asia and specifically India.
U.S. authorities have identified Sajid Mir as one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166, including Gavriel Holtzberg, a young American rabbi, and his wife, Rivka.
The report contains a significant Hindu American perspective, including the community's seva efforts across the country.
The Barack Obama administration's decision to improve the nation's immigration detention system including ending family detention at the T Don Hutto Residential Centre -- an erstwhile state penitentiary in Taylor, Texas -- was a major victory for Indian American attorney Vanita Gupta.Gupta led the lawsuit against Hutto over two years ago, and exposed the inhumane conditions under which immigrant detainees, especially children of mostly asylum seekers, were incarcerated.
Slamming China for its 'poor' human rights record, the Barack Obama administration has accused it of harassing activists and lawyers, repressing Tibetans and censoring e-mails.In China, the government's human rights record 'remains poor and is worsening' in some areas, including increased cultural and religious repression of ethnic minorities, claimed Assistant Secretary for Democracy (Human Rights and Labour) Michael Posner.Posner specifically highlighted two cases.
Defence Minister A K Antony arrived in Washington on Monday to hold a wide-range of bilateral talks with top Barack Obama administration officials, which would include strengthening military-to-military ties, regional security and purchase of United States defence equipments. Security issues -- both regional and global --- are likely to come up prominently during Antony's talks with top officials including his US counterpart Robert Gates, spread over the next two days.
Experts in Washington, DC warn about the potential hazards of a State Department official's recent assertion on a greater Chinese role in South Asia.
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the highest ranking Indian American in the Barack Obama administration, while speaking on the devastating floods in Pakistan, said, "The scale and scope of this natural disaster is astronomical."
US lawmakers have questioned the Barack Obama administration's move to give billions in dollars in aid to Pakistan and said Islamabad continues to build on its nuclear stockpile and support the Taliban.
Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to the Congress on Wednesday that the administration had determined that the Defence of Marriage Act, which was passed by Congress in 1996, discriminated against gays and therefore could no longer be accepted as reasonable, the Guardian reports.
A report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has reinforced the Obama administration's campaign to lobby the Indian government to award the $11 billion contract for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft to US manufacturers.
The first high-level meeting between the two countries after the November visit of US President Barack Obama to India, Menon's Washington trip is considered as a preparatory one for the next round of India-US Strategic Dialogue to be held in New Delhi in April.
India this week made operational its new consulate in Atlanta, the fifth in the US, but the original plan was to have a new consulate each in Atlanta and Seattle.
President Obama had been justifiably angered by McChrystal's irreverent remarks which appeared in Rolling Stone. His irreverent remarks caused considerable embarrassment in the Pentagon and the White House. His dismissal was inevitable.
Dr Rajiv Shah, the senior-most Indian American in the Barack Obama administration, has been nominated as the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development -- the country's top foreign assistance programme.In nominating Shah, Obama said, "The mission of USAID is to advance America's interests by strengthening our relationships abroad. Rajiv brings fresh ideas and the dedication and impressive background necessary to help guide USAID."
The United States wants India and Pakistan to reduce tensions between them, the White House has said, insisting that the Barack Obama administration would continue to encourage the two countries to improve their ties. "The tensions between the two countries are something that the President discusses with each country when he has visited leaders in India or called leaders in Pakistan. And he will continue to address that and take steps to ease any of that tension," said US.
Following the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, criticism of Pakistan Army Chief inside the country has grown. His close ties with the Barack Obama administration has not gone down with the army. But will Pakistan's most powerful man be overthrown? B Raman analyses
A top Barack Obama administration official on Wednesday asked Pakistan to prosecute those responsible for the terror attacks on Mumbai and make concerted efforts to stop militant infiltrations across the Indo-Pak border. "Both the countries must now undertake a sequenced series of actions to rebuild confidence and cooperation. Such actions must include progress by Pakistan to prosecute those responsible for the Mumbai attacks," said Robert Blake.
Outgoing Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Monday alleged that Pakistan's attempt to modify the Harpoon missile posed a danger to India's interests. As per media reports, the Barack Obama administration has lodged a protest with the Pakistan government for illegally modifying United States-made missiles to expand its ability to hit land-based targets. Mehta said that US authorities are constantly being told that their aid to Pakistan is not used for self-defence.
'This is the first State visit in the Obama administration which is a signal of the importance we attach to our relations with India,' Robert Blake, US Assistant Secretary of South Asian Affairs, tells Aziz Haniffa.
The Barack Obama administration did not get off to a very good start with India, a former US Ambassador to India has said, but asserted that during the forthcoming presidential visit there will be enough aggregated forward movement that can put this perception behind.
In a volte-face, the Barack Obama administration on Tuesday said that the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and his four co-conspirators would now be tried in a military country instead of a civilian court.
The Barack Obama administration has launched a concerted and aggressive campaign on behalf of United States's fighter aircraft manufacturers to push for the 'mother of all deals'-- the $11 billion medium multi-role combat aircraft deal for 126 fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The deal could give the ailing US economy a major boost in terms of both exports and thousands of jobs.
Experts believe that despite recent events, elements within the Pakistan army and the Inter Services Intelligence remain attached to the strategy of using the Afghan Taliban for strategic depth against India.One such is David Kilcullen, who has served as senior adviser for counterinsurgency to former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commander of the Central Command General David Petraeus, and continues to be called on for advice by the US military brass.
Strongly recommending the case of continued peace talks between India and Pakistan, the Barack Obama administration has said that a stable Indo-Pak relationship would benefit the world and the United States in particular and reiterated that Islamabad should address New Delhi's concern with regard to the 26/11 attacks."It is important for Pakistan and India to have a stable relationship," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said.
Stressing on the need for resumption of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said extremists could try to provoke a war between the two countries if such issues are not resolved."We've encouraged both Pakistan and India to resume dialogue and talk about everything, including Kashmir, because now the security of both countries is threatened by forces of extremism,"she said
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday virtually accused the Asif Ali Zardari-led Pakistan government of surrendering to terrorists.Mincing no words over the Barack Obama administration's anger over the Zardari government's striking a deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists."
Osama bin Laden's former cook, Ibrahim al Qosi, has pleaded guilty at a trial in Guantanamo Bay to conspiracy and providing support for terrorism, representing the first conviction of the Barack Obama administration at the controversial war crimes court. According to the BBC, the 50-year-old man from Sudan has admitted that he had worked as bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan and helped him avoid capture by US forces. Qosi was detained in Afghanistan in 2001.
Experts have said that the deal appears to be violating international guidelines forbidding nuclear exports to countries that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or do not have international safeguards on reactors.
Facing a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the Barack Obama administration seems to believe in a 'buyout' formula, which involves paying the militants to leave the outfit and reintegrate into mainstream society. President Barack Obama signed a $680 billion defence appropriations bill, which will pay for military operations in the 2010 fiscal year. The bill includes a Taliban reintegration provision under the Commander's Emergency Response Programme.
Amid controversy generated by the release of secret cables by WikiLeaks, including those from United States embassy in New Delhi, the Barack Obama administration has said that American diplomats in India are doing their job just like their counterparts in the US. "Our diplomats do what diplomats do, and what we do in a country like India is no different than what Indian diplomats do in our country," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said at his daily news conference.
In an interaction that followed his keynote speech at a conference on US-India Relations, Barack Obama administration's point man for South Asia, Robert Blake was asked how he saw the Indo-US partnership playing out in the UN Security Council in the wake of the US endorsement.
On the eve of US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke's visit to the South Asia, The Guardian newspaper has said Pakistan is the greatest foreign policy challenge for the Barack Obama administration.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake was asked pointedly by rediff.com to respond to a growing perception that Pakistan was hedging on punishing the terrorists behind the Mumbai terror attack and the US was backing off from applying too much pressure on Islamabad because of its strategic interests. Blake said, "First of all, let me say these are really a very complicated set of issues that are for India and Pakistan to resolve."
The Barack Obama administration has announced the appointment of a prosecutor to investigate prison abuse cases that were carried out as part of the torture programme during the eight years of the George W Bush era. The announcement in this regard was made by Attorney General Eric H Holder soon after the Justice Department released a long-secret report on Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation techniques during the Bush administration's tenure, post-9/11.
The extent to which the Barack Obama administration will go to humour Pakistan is highlighted by the fact that its envoy to United Kingdom drove four hours to Manchester to ensure that a zealous American airline security does not body-scan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi ahead of his arrival in Washington.When Qureshi's commercial flight to the US stopped in Manchester this week, American Ambassador in London Louis B Susman drove four hours to be there.
"There's nothing we see that indicates that Mullah Omar will, in fact, change his stripes; as a result, we don't see that he qualifies to play a constructive role in Afghanistan's future," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told media persons.
The apparent consensus among South Asia watchers and experts in United States is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's three-day visit to Mumbai and New Delhi was a slam dunk in effectively quashing the contention of naysayers, both in India and the US, that the Barack Obama administration was less committed to the India-US strategic partnership than its predecessor George W Bush administration.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances