WikiLeaks: India alleges 43 militant camps operating in Pakistan

Leaked cables reveal Indian Defence Minister AK Antony told the US that little had been done to shut down the camps. PHOTO: EPA

The latest set of?leaked US diplomatic cables showed that India alleged that there were 43 militant camps in Pakistan, including 22 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and that little had been done to permanently shut them down.

The allegation was made during a conversation in June last year between then US National Security Adviser General Jim Jones and Indian Defence Minister AK Antony, according to the cables released by WikiLeaks and published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

Indian army chief General Deepak Kapoor, who attended the meeting, said that Pakistan had raided the camps following the Mumbai attacks in 2008 but some of them had since resumed operations. Kapoor also told the US delegation that militants continued to infiltrate into Indian-administered Kashmir across the Line of Control and that it would not be possible without “some kind of assistance, and or/degree of support that is institutional”, the cable said.

He said India had improved its preparedness on the borders and estimated that about 15 to 20 per cent of those trying to cross the border succeeded. “If we can catch them, why can’t the Pakistani military,” he asked.

Jones, according to the read-out of the meeting, said he would take up the issue of militant training camps with Islamabad. At one stage during the meeting, he asked the Indian army chief about the prospects of upgrading India-Pakistan military talks to discuss Indian concerns. But the Indian defence minister Antony interjected, saying dialogue with Pakistan was difficult until it had acted against those responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan has rejected Indian accusations that it continues to support militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and instead sought talks to resolve the long-running dispute over the Himalayan region. It has, however, acknowledged that the Mumbai attacks was plotted and partly launched from its soil and put seven suspects linked to the Laskar-e-Taiba group on trial.

India says it is not satisfied with the pace of the Pakistani investigation. Jones said the worst thing for the region would be another Mumbai-style attack and that “we cannot let the terrorists play us off against each other”.

The two sides also discussed Afghanistan, where New Delhi said it had a vital stake and the international operation must succeed “because India cannot imagine for a moment a Taliban takeover of its extended neighbour”. India, along with Russia and Iran, supported the Northern Alliance faction during the civil war in Afghanistan is deeply suspicious of any dialogue with the Taliban, which it sees as closely tied to Pakistan.

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What WikiLeaks Tells You About China’s Economic Numbers

Dec. 7 2010 - 5:42 pm | 2,653 views | 0 recommendations |

Beijing

We’re starting to like this Julian Assange character, trumped-up rape charges in Sweden notwithstanding. Thanks to the diplomatic cables made public by Assange’s WikiLeaks, we’re getting a better look at GDP numbers published by China.

One of the cables tells of a dinner between the U.S. ambassador to China and the head of the Communist Party. Li Keqiang is his name, and he’s widely expected to become the new premier in a little over two years.Li says if he really wants the pulse of the economy, he needs to know just three things.

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Li must be reading from our playbook: We check in from time to time on rail volume and other real-world economic indicators that can’t be massaged by government statisticians.

“By looking at these three figures,” the cable says, “Li said he can measure with relative accuracy the speed of economic growth. All other figures, especially GDP statistics, are ‘for reference only,’ he said smiling,”

Just like the Bureau of Labor Statistics!

Three Things You Need to Know About the Chinese Economy by Addison Wiggin originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning.

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What WikiLeaks Should Say About Regulators Who Knew Shady Deals Were Going On

While I can-not pre-dict what Wik-iLeaks will leak about some major banks, I have a hunch that one of the rev-e-la-tions might be from a spe-cial New Con-structs report pro-vided to the Sen-ate Bank-ing Committee’s Sub-com-mit-tee on Secu-ri-ties, Insur-ance, and Invest-ment in late Octo-ber?2009.

In that report, we revealed that reg-u-la-tors, if they were pay-ing atten-tion, would have seen that many Wall Street firms were engag-ing in alarm-ing lev-els of credit deriv-a-tives trading (credit default swaps or CDS).

For exam-ple, the notional value of Bank of America’s (BAC) credit deriv-a-tives con-tracts at the end of 2007 was over $3 tril-lion and 5328% greater than the $57 bil-lion at the end of 2001. For Amer-i-can Inter-na-tional Group (AIG) the notional value of its credit deriv-a-tives con-tracts at the end of 2007 was $562 bil-lion and 447% greater than the $126 mil-lion at the end of 2001.

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It is a won-der that Bank of Amer-ica was able to sur-vive the finan-cial cri-sis with-out the same level of bailout/takeover by the U.S. gov-ern-ment expe-ri-enced by AIG given that BAC’s credit deriv-a-tive expo-sure was so much greater. Per-haps, Wik-iLeaks will offer some insight into how that happened?

The growth in expo-sure to credit deriv-a-tives was so high that any-one pay-ing atten-tion would have noticed. So, either the reg-u-la-tors knew and chose to do noth-ing about it (i.e. Bernie Mad-off) or they sim-ply were not pay-ing atten-tion (i.e. Enron, World-Comm?etc).

The point is not that reg-u-la-tors missed or ignored clear and obvi-ous early warn-ing sig-nals of the impend-ing finan-cial fall-out that occurred years later. The point is that they seem to miss these sig-nals quite?often.

None of this sur-prises me given my expe-ri-ence work-ing with the SEC, Sen-ate Bank-ing Com-mit-tee, FDIC, Sen-a-tor Corker, and the Con-gres-sional Over-sight Panel. My pre-sen-ta-tions to them focused how to improve the integrity of the cap-i-tal mar-kets most effi-ciently by imme-di-ately fill-ing holes in the cor-po-rate finan-cial report-ing sys-tem. I high-lighted sev-eral major breaches of finan-cial dis-clo-sures that had gone unde-tected and remain uncor-rected by the SEC. For exam-ple, over the last 5 years we found 10 com-pa-nies whose income state-ments do not add up cor-rectly and 20 com-pa-nies in the last 11 years whose bal-ance sheets do not bal-ance. For more exam-ples, see the Cor-po-rate Finan-cial Dis-clo-sure Trans-gres-sions report I sub-mit-ted to the SEC and the Sen-ate Bank-ing Com-mit-tee. What you read in that report will surprise?you.

In my hum-ble opin-ion, our reg-u-la-tory frame-work (before and after over-haul) is woe-fully ill-equipped to find, track and address the finan-cial machi-na-tions con-stantly invented on Wall Street and in cor-po-rate America.

As I stated in Pri-vate Sec-tor to the Res-cue, “Given that our abil-ity to trust polit-i-cal lead-ers is low, we must rely more than ever on pri-vate enter-prise to lead our society.”

There is no sub-sti-tute for “doing the dili-gence.” Watch your back when investing in this mar-ket because no one else is watch-ing it for?you.

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WikiLeaks: Zardari and the ‘backup plan’

File photo President Asif Ali Zardari speaking with Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani during a meeting in Islamabad. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON:?Fearing an assassination attempt, President Asif Ali Zardari has made extensive arrangements, revealed a new WikiLeaks cable release.

Zardari had spoken to former US ambassador Anne Patterson in 2009, saying that he had instructed his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to name his sister Faryal Talpur as President if he is assassinated, reported The Guardian.

In another cable quoted by the newspaper, US Vice President Joe Biden recounted to Britain’s then Prime Minister Gordon Brown a conversation with Zardari last year. Zardari told him that Kayani and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency “will take me out,” according to the cable.

Another memo cited in The New York Times quotes General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of the military, telling the US ambassador during a March 2009 meeting that he “might, however reluctantly,” pressure Zardari to resign.

Kayani was quoted as saying that he might support Asfandyar Wali Khan, leader of the Awami National League Party, as the new president — not Zardari’s arch-nemesis Nawaz Sharif.

The cables also laid bare US frustrations at what officials see as Pakistan’s refusal to cut off ties with extremists such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for carrying out the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai.

“There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support for these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India,” Ambassador Anne Patterson said in a cable quoted by the Times.

The cables also touch on allegations of extrajudicial killings by Pakistani forces, according to the Times.

A cable last year suggested there was credible evidence that the or paramilitary forces killed some detainees after an offensive against Taliban insurgents in the northwestern regions.

The embassy said that news of killings should not be leaked to the press, for fear of offending the Pakistani army. However, this year the United States said it would cut off support for some Pakistani units following the release of a video that appeared to show extrajudicial killings.

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WikiLeaks: Pakistan dismisses nuclear fears in leaked cables

"It is time they part with their historical biases against Pakistan," Basit said, referring to Britain and the United States. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD:?Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit on Wednesday dismissed American and British fears that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme could fall into hands of terrorists as laid bare in leaked American diplomatic cables.

Memos obtained by whistleblower site WikiLeaks and reported by the Guardian and The New York Times suggested that the United States was more concerned than it let on publicly about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“Their fears are misplaced and doubtless fall in the realm of condescension,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP.

“There has not been a single incident involving our fissile material, which clearly reflects how strong our controls and mechanisms are,” he said.

“It is time they part with their historical biases against Pakistan,” Basit said, referring to Britain and the United States.

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WikiLeaks: Gilani open to drone strikes on 'right people'

Documents reveal that Gilani said the government would protest the attacks in National Assembly, then ignore them. PHOTO: EPA

More cables released by WikiLeaks reveal that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani allowed drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan, saying they would protest the attacks in the National Assembly and then ignore them.

When Interior Minister Rehman Malik advised the US to hold off “alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation”, Gilani brushed off the remarks saying:

“I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.”

The statements were reportedly made during meetings with unnamed US officials in August 2008. The cables also show bureaucrats supporting drones viewing them as a viable solution to loosening Taliban’s grip over the Tribal belt.

US forces inside Pakistan

In another shocking revelation, embassy cables reported that small teams of US special forces have been secretly embedded with Pakistani military forces in the tribal belt helping to coordinate drone attacks and to hunt down Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

One memo quoted by the Times said that 12 US Special Operations soldiers had deployed with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border.

A report in the Guardian quoted the job of the special forces to be “to provide ‘intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance’ support – ISR in military jargon – ‘general operational advice’ and to help set up a live satellite feed from American drones flying overhead, presumably CIA-operated Predator and Reaper aircraft. The memo said that the forces had been deployed since 2008 but were limited to a training role. It said that the permission for the active combat deployment “almost certainly” came with the personal consent of the army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.

US presence in the country has been a sensitive issue in Pakistan. Earlier, reports of US military presence in areas around Quetta had drawn?condemnations from opposition parties and the public. The Pakistani government and the United States embassy however had denied reports about the presence of US forces in Quetta.

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Friends and foes condemn WikiLeaks

World leaders say leaks will weaken diplomacy; Pentagon warns there is no guarantee against another leak. PHOTO: AFP

Friend and foes alike of the United States turned on WikiLeaks Monday over its release of secret US diplomatic cables, saying the revelations undermined diplomacy and made the world less secure.

“This will weaken diplomacy around the world. It will weaken diplomacy in general, but first and foremost American diplomacy,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said after the mass release.

“I see this rather as something that is making the world less safe,” he said.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, object of much of the diplomatic discussion revealed by the WikiLeaks website, dismissed the documents as “worthless mischief” which would not affect relations with its Arab neighbours, exposed as having pressed for a US military strike on its nuclear sites.

Afghanistan said its ties with Washington would not be shaken by portrayals of President Hamid Karzai as an “extremely weak” and paranoid leader and his brother as a corrupt drugs baron.

“We don’t see anything substantive in the document that will strain the relationship,” Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer told reporters.

Global concern about Iran

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said the content of the massive US document leak by WikiLeaks underlines broad world concern over Iran’s nuclear program.

“Any of the comments that are being reported on allegedly from the cables confirm the fact that Iran poses a very serious threat in the eyes of many of her neighbors and a serious concern far beyond her region,” Clinton said.

The chief US diplomat told a press briefing that widespread global unease about Iran was reflected in Washington’s ability last June to garner international support for a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran.

People reading the cables will conclude “that the concern about Iran is well-founded (and) widely-shared,” said Clinton, who said Washington would continue to pursue policies “with like-minded nations to try to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

No guarantee against another leak

The Pentagon has taken steps to prevent more disclosures but there is no guarantee against more damaging leaks after Wikileaks published a huge trove of classified diplomatic cables, a spokesman said on Monday.

Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters that the Defense Department had tightened procedures for handling sensitive information but he did not expect changes to rules on who is permitted access to secret documents. The WikiLeaks website, which posted more than 250,000 classified documents on Sunday full of embarrassing details of diplomatic exchanges, has never revealed its source in a series of document dumps but suspicion has focused on a US Army private working in military intelligence, Bradley Manning, who is now under detention.

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Wikileaks: Pakistan condemns 'irresponsible disclosure'

FO spokesperson Abdul Basit said the documents were being examined.

ISLAMABAD:?Pakistan, on Monday, condemned the release of what the New York Times called a quarter of a million confidential American diplomatic cables?released by whistleblower WikiLeaks, as an “irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents”.

The foreign office said it had been offically informed of the leaks by the US government in advance.

“At this stage we are examining the relevant documents and their contents,” ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP when asked about the Times report.

The leaked cables revealed that the US has led top secret efforts to remove highly enriched uranium from Pakistan for years, worried it could be used to make an “illicit” nuclear device.

In May 2009, it quoted then US ambassador Anne Patterson as saying that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts. The Times attributed the reason to a nameless Pakistani official who said: “If the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons’”. Islamabad has been adamant that its nuclear weapons are in safe hands and US President Barack Obama has publicly concurred. But the Times said the leaked documents showed the United States trying to remove the uranium from a research reactor, fearing it could be diverted for use in an “illicit nuclear device”.?The newspaper did not elaborate on how the United States had sought to remove the uranium or the nature of any such device. Experts estimate that Pakistan already has up to 100 nuclear weapons.

The United States has longstanding concerns about proliferation from Pakistan and is reported to have set up an elite squad that could fly into the country and attempt to secure its weapons should the government disintegrate.

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