US unveils plans to make India ‘major power’

WASHINGTON: The US unveiled plans on Friday to help India become a "major world power in the 21st century" even as it announced moves to beef up the military of Pakistan.

Under the plans, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defence and other security initiatives as well as high-tech cooperation and expanded economic and energy cooperation.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has presented to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the Bush administration’s outline for a "decisively broader strategic relationship" between the world’s oldest and largest democracies, a senior US official said.

"Its goal is to help India become a major world power in the 21st century," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We understand fully the implications, including military implications, of that statement."

He did not elaborate but noted that South Asia was critical, with China on one side, Iran and the Middle East on the other, and a somewhat turbulent Central Asian region to the north.

The US-India plan was announced as Washington decided on Friday to sell an undetermined number of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan under a plan to prop up Pakistan on the political, military and economic fronts.

Rice discussed the US-India plan with Singh during her Asian visit earlier this month but it was not revealed to the public.

"This year the administration made a judgment that the ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership,’ though very important, wasn’t broad enough to really encompass the kind of things we needed to do to take this relationship where it needed to go, and so the president and the secretary (Rice) developed the outline for a decisively broader strategic relationship," the US official said. Bush was inviting Prime Minister Singh to visit him in July in Washington and the US leader would also like to travel to South Asia later this year or early next year, he said. Those presidential meetings, he added, would "be consolidating an enhanced dialogue" on the strategic, energy and economic tracks with India.

The strategic dialogue will include global issues, regional security matters, Indian defence requirements, expanding high-tech cooperation and even working toward US-India defence co-production, the official explained.

The US, he said, was prepared to "respond positively" to an Indian request for information on American initiatives to sell New Delhi the next generation of multi-role combat aircraft. "That’s not just F-16s. It could be F-18s," he said.

Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said US corporations were now "free to talk to India" about whatever aircraft they could offer. "It’ll be up to India to decide what it wants. And then negotiations, if it does decide it wants something from us, based on its needs, would proceed from there," Ereli said.

Beyond possible sale of fighter planes, the US is ready to discuss the more fundamental issue of defence transformation with India, including transformative systems in areas such as command and control, early warning and missile defence, the official said.

"Some of these items may not be as glamorous as combat aircraft, but I think for those of you who follow defence issues you’ll appreciate the significance," he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview published by The Washington Post Saturday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and elaborated on US efforts to build ties with both India and Pakistan at once.

"What we’re trying to do is to solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan at a time when we have good relations with both of them, something that most people didn’t think could be done, and when they have improving relationships with one another," Rice told the Post.

"There is no contradiction between encouraging Pakistan to advance towards democracy and seeking a deeper military relationship with that nation," Rice said. Rice dismissed concerns (of India) that the sale of F-16s to Pakistan would send a contradictory message.

"What we’re trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that’s good for Pakistan has to be bad for India and vice versa."

"What I talked about when I was in India was broadening and deepening our relationship for instance in defence cooperation, broadening and deepening our relationship in energy cooperation," Rice said. Asked if that included nuclear power plants, Rice said "we’re a step from that, certainly, but looking at their energy needs and trying to understand how they can be met."

She defended the decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan. "Pakistan has come a long way, it’s on a better trajectory than it’s ever been, or that it’s been in many, many years," she said. "Our job is to support that trajectory and to help bring that along."

New Purported Video From Al Qaeda in Iraq

Sunday, March 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Al Qaeda in Iraq released a video Sunday claiming to show the murder of an Interior Ministry official, and the debate raged about religion's place in Iraq's much-anticipated new government as lawmakers were summoned to their second-ever session.

Supporters of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi criticized the involvement of the religious authority in politics, while Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Allianc, defended the role of the clergy.

"As long as we're alive and as long as Iraq and the believers are there, we will continue to work according to the directions and the advice of the religious authority," al-Hakim told the U.S.-funded Al-Hurra TV station, according to a transcript provided by his office. "The religious authority does not want to intervene in the details. It just gives direction when it thinks it will be beneficial."

Secular-minded politicians have expressed concern about the influence of religion in the National Assembly. In a letter to the United Iraqi Alliance, politicians who ran under an Allawi coalition warned against allowing religion to play a greater role in Iraq's government, saying it could "lead to instability in the relations between political forces in the Iraqi arena."

Shiite leaders have repeatedly denied they are seeking an Islamic state, saying they plan to include Kurdish and Sunni Arabs in the government.

After meeting Sunday with Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said al-Sistani told him he did not intend to involve himself in any political process, except for expressing his opinion in times of crises. The alliance, which won 140 of the 275 seats in the assembly, came together under al-Sistani's guidance.

Lawmakers were expected to hold their second session on Tuesday to choose a parliament speaker and two deputies, but it was unclear if they would name the country's new president, expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani.

The first session, on March 16, was to swear in the 275-member parliament. But officials have pushed back their second session amid negotiations over Cabinet posts.

In a meeting Sunday, Alliance members named former nuclear scientist Hussain al-Shahristani as their candidate to be a deputy to the parliament speaker, Alliance negotiator Ali al-Dabagh said.

On Monday, Alliance members were expected to vote on their candidate for the president's deputy position, al-Dabagh said. They will choose between SCIRI's Adel Abdul Mahdi and Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, he added.

They were also expected to meet with Sunni Arabs on Monday to discuss the names of Sunni candidates for the parliament speaker post and that of the other president's deputy.

Al-Hakim acknowledged the lack of progress was creating frustration, saying: "We are not comfortable with this delay, and we are sorry about it."

"As long as there is a delay in forming the government, there will be a delay in providing services," he said. "But the process is not easy by nature, especially with the basis that we put: to have everyone participate and to have a national unity government."

In an interview with CNN's "Late Edition," Army Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said there had been progress, but that it was slow, adding: "The more uncertainty, the greater chance for escalated violence."

Violence continued Sunday, with gunmen killing a local official from the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, and two of his relatives. Police discovered their bodies Sunday in an abandoned car north of Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. The motive for the attack was unclear. SCIRI also led by al-Hakim, is one of the main parties in the Alliance.

Militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network also posted a video on the Internet that showed the purported execution of a man identifying himself as Col. Ryadh Gatie Olyway.

There was no way to independently authenticate the video.

The man displayed his Interior Ministry identification card and said he was a liaison officer with the American forces. Behind the men was the black banner of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Dressed in a brown shirt and jacket and beige pants, Olyway said he provided the U.S. military with the names "of officers of the former Iraqi army, who are Sunnis, and their addresses." At the end of the video, Olyway was blindfolded and appeared to be shot once in the head.

An Interior Ministry official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said Olyway worked as a liaison officer between the interior and oil ministries and was kidnapped more than a month ago. He had not seen the video, and could not confirm whether the hostage was Olyway.

In Baghdad, bodyguards for Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar opened fire on a crowd of protesters who had gathered in front of the ministry's offices to demand their full wages, said Hamid Balasem, an engineer at the Science and Technology Ministry.

Balasem said about 50 ministry guards were demonstrating because they said they were paid only part of their wages.

"We didn't carry any weapons or have any intention of shooting, but the minister's body guards started firing on us," said Haithem Jassim, one of three people injured in the melee.

It was unclear why the guards opened fire. No one was immediately available to comment at the ministry.

Also Sunday, insurgents hit a police patrol with a roadside bomb in the southern oil city of Basra, injuring one nearby civilian, Lt. Col. Karim Ali Al-Zaydi said. They also damaged an oil pipeline in northern Iraq, halting exports to Turkey, oil officials said. The pipeline has been targeted often in the past.

The U.S. military said an unmanned aerial vehicle crashed early Sunday near Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. The cause was under investigation.

A roadside bomb also exploded 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baghdad near a U.S. supply convoy, while a car bomb blew up near U.S. soldiers in the northern city of Mosul, witnesses said. U.S. military officials had no information on the blasts.