India slow off the block or ..? China likely to bag Israeli rail project

India is set to potentially lose yet another infrastructure project of interest to it,

to China, due to a combination of diplomatic lethargy and inertia in decision-making.

Recently, the Israeli government approved a railway line linking its Red Sea port of Eilat

and Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. The "Med - Red" railway line linking the

Mediterranean and the Red seas offers an alternative to the Suez Canal for

transcontinental trade between Europe and Asia. Also, it could facilitate exports of gas

from Israel to India and beyond. Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is bullish on the

project, saying that "it has created very great interest in among the emerging powers,

China and India, and others."

The Israeli transport ministry has indicated a preference for a government-to-government

agreement with China for tapping the professional capability of the Chinese companies

in the construction of railway systems and transport networks.

Already, the Asian Development Bank, which is financing the TAPI (an acronym for

Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India) gas pipeline project, has indicated that

Chinese companies could be roped in to build the trans-national gas pipeline that will

deliver Turkmen gas to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Indian government is not

particularly amused by the prospect of a Chinese involvement in the construction of the

TAPI pipeline.

There is a sliver of hope yet for the Indian state enterprises such as RITES (Rail India

Technical and Economic Services) Limited and IRCON (Indian Railway Construction)

International Limited -- both of which are public sector undertakings under the railway

ministry. One of the options Israel could look at is international tendering, and, if it opts

for it, then Indian agencies stand a chance of becoming involved with the railway project.

The IRCON has completed several landmark infrastructure projects across the globe in

21 countries, including Israel. Similarly, RITES' operational experience spans over 50

countries in Africa, South East Asia, West Asia and South America; most of its foreign

assignments are for national governments.

However, an Indian government source explained away the inertia of decision-making by

saying that the project has come up in conversations only recently, and, there is no

information yet of any likely interest from a PSU or private entity.

US declassified documents say Pakistan funded and armed Taliban

New Delhi

15 August 2007

A collection of newly-declassified documents of the United States

Government has revealed that the Taliban was directly funded, armed and advised by

Pakistan. The documents also link Harkat ul-Ansar, a terrorist group funded directly by

the Government of Pakistan, to terrorist training camps shared by Osama bin Laden in

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The documents conclude that there has been an extensive and consistent history of both

military and financial assistance to the Taliban by Islamabad before and after the

Taliban takeover of Kabul in 1996.

A relevant paragraph from the documents confirms the sentiments of the Indian security

establishment. It reads: "Consistent reporting indicates Pakistan provides both military

and financial assistance to the Taliban. Pakistan's primary goals are to achieve strategic

depth with regard to India, and securing access to Central Asian trade routes. Cultural

ties also exist between the Taliban leadership and Pakistan, where several Taliban

leaders lived for many years".

The declassified US documents were published on Tuesday by the National Security

Archive at George Washington University. The publication of the documents comes just

days after Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf admitted that the Taliban were

being sheltered in the lawless frontier border regions. Assistant US Secretary of State for

South Asia and Central Asia Richard Boucher is currently on a two-day visit to Islamabd.

On Wednesday he met with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

The documents dwell at some length on the unsettling triangle between Harkat ul-Ansar,

Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. The Harkat ul-Ansar's threat of hijacking an airliner,

based on information generated in August 1996, finds particular mention. "HUA contacts

of Embassy New Delhi have hinted that they might undertake terrorist actions against

civilian airliners," the documents suggest. The CIA describes the Harkat ul-Ansar "as

Islamic extremist organisation that Pakistan supports in its proxy war against Indian

forces in Kashmir." The declassified US Department of State cables and US intelligence

reports go on to describe the use of Taliban terrorist training areas in Afghanistan by

Pakistani-supported militants in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the use of Pakistani

troops to train and fight alongside the Taliban inside Afghanistan.

According to the documents, the US learnt about Pakistan's intelligence agency's hand in

reaching food supplies from Pakistan to the Taliban in October 1996. The munitions

convoys, in turn, departed Pakistan late in the evening hours and were concealed to

reveal their true contents. In November that year, Pakistan's Pashtun-based Frontier

Corps elements were used alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. The reports cite a

November 7, 1996 Intelligence Information Report about how Pakistan's ISI is heavily

involved in Afghanistan and details the different roles various ISI officers played in

Afghanistan.

In March 1998, it became known that the Al-Qaeda and the "Pakistan Government-

funded" Harkat ul-Ansar have been sharing terrorist training camps in Taliban-controlled

Afghanistan. By September 2000, Pakistan's aid to the Taliban had reached

"unprecedented" levels. Islamabad had possibly allowed the Taliban to use territory in

Pakistan for military operations and was providing the Taliban with material, fuel,

funding, technical assistance and military advisers.

The documents support the findings of a recently-released CIA Intelligence Estimate that

Pakistan's tribal areas were a safe haven for Al-Qaeda terrorists. They detail US concern

over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban during the seven-year-period leading up to

the September 11, 2001 World Trade Centre attacks in New York and also provide new

details about the close relationship between Islamabad and the Taliban in the years

prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Russia wants India in "united front" against terrorism

Moscow

27 December 2005

Making a distinction from the the war on terror

unleashed by the United States, Russia has called for creating a "new

united front" to combat terrorists "irrespective of their motives".

"No one country can fight terrorism, [so] a new united front for fighting

against terrorists must be created," the deputy minister in the Russian

foreign ministry, Mr Alexander Alekseyev, told this newspaper.

Observing that Osama bin Laden was still alive, he said India and Russia

recognised the need to "intensify interaction in opposing new challenges

and threats to international peace in both bilateral and multilateral

formats".

Echoing similar sentiments, the Russian military establishment

appreciated New Delhi's "attitude" to terrorism and said that both

countries were united in combating the threats emanating from Chechnya

and Jammu and Kashmir alike.

"We know what happens in Jammu and Kashmir, [it is] similar to the

terrorist threats from the Caucuses," a top military official observed. He

said there was a convergence of opinion on meeting the challenges

posed by terrorism.

Dwelling on the "possibility of appearance of new threats," Mr Alekseyev

said terrorism has acquired an international dimension and cited the

presence of "terrorists with foreign passports" in Chechnya to underline

Moscow's concerns.

He said India and Russia have "reaffirmed their strong commitment to

strengthening their [ties] and expressed their firm conviction that their

strategic partnership plays a role of an important stability factor in the

international affairs."

"Osama [bin Laden] is still alive and under his orders, terrorist acts [are

carried out] across the world," he said. "Terrorists do not have

nationalities, they do not obey national borders," he added for good

measure.

Sources said the call for a united front against terrorism flows from

concerns over reports the US freed bandits after capturing them in

Afghanistan, which posed threats to countries in the region.

Russia's lower House of Parliament recently approved a Bill that imposes

strict curbs on NGOs. The Kremlin's publicly stated rationale for the new

law is to combat money-laundering for the war on terrorism.