BlackBerry to offer India access from Sept 1: govt source

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will give the Indian government access to encrypted data from Sept. 1, while the Indian home ministry wants BlackBerry, Google and Skype to set up servers in India, a government source familiar with the matter said Monday.

India says it wants to fully track and read BlackBerry’s secure email and instant messaging services that officials fear could be misused by militants.

Indian officials have also expressed concerns over security threats emerging from Internet-based messaging services from providers like Google and Skype.

“They have given some access, which we will operationalise from Sept. 1,” the person said, referring to RIM.

“They will have to provide full access to all communications that go through India. They will have to set up a server in India,” the person said.

‘Ground Zero mosque’ Imam thanks U.S. Jews for support

By: Natasha Mozgovaya

ADL says plan to build mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is ‘counterproductive’; Jstreet collects over 10,000 signatures in support of plan.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the main force behind a plan to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York, thanked on Tuesday the American Jewish supporters who backed the proposed center amid a widespread contoversy.

“I express my heartfelt appreciation for the gestures of goodwill and support from our Jewish friends and colleagues”, he said. “Your support is a reflection of the great history of mutual cooperation and understanding that Jewish and Muslim civilizations have shared in the past, and remains a testament to the enduring success of our continuing dialogue and dedication to upholding religious freedom, tolerance and cooperation among us all as Americans.”

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative

Tempers have been heating up in the New York City area over the plans by the American Society for Muslim Advancement and another Islamic group known as the Cordoba Initiative to build a $100 million, 13-story, Islamic cultural center and mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero.

Other provocative aspects include the fact that the majority of the money will allegedly come from the Saudis and the Ford Foundation, as well as the plan to inaugurate the new center on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

On Saturday, the Anti Defamation League condoned the plan, calling it “counterproductive.”

The Cordoba Initiative N.Y.C project, which became known as the “ground zero mosque”, stirred heated national debate in the US, which shifted since the last Wednesday to the Jewish organizations, following the statement on the controversial project.

The ADL stressed its commitment to the freedom of religion and rejection of bigotry – but, regarding the sensitivity of the site chosen for the new Islamic center, ADL defined the insistence of the Cordoba initiative to build the 13 storey Islamic community center, including the mosque, two blocks away from the 9/11 attacks site as “counterproductive,” adding that “proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam”, said a statement.

Yet, the liberal Jews were quick to slash the ADL on its “hypocrisy” and the harm the latest decision caused to their declared mission. The pro-Israeli lobby JStreet collected over 10,000 signatures in support of the center that were delivered to the Landmarks Preservation Commission ahead of its vote on the Cordoba House (the commission unanimously voted Tuesday to deny landmark designation to the site).

“Appalled by the opposition to plans by American Muslims to build a community center in lower Manhattan modeled after Jewish Community Centers all over the country, J Street is collecting petitions in support of religious freedom and against anti-Muslim bigotry”, J street announced on their website.

Liberal “Tikkun” magazine editor Rabbi Michael Lerner called ADL’s decision a “shame,” adding that “ADL leader Abe Foxman presented the position of this organization that claims to oppose discrimination by reading a formal statement that seemed to be a perfect example of shooting and crying.”

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the founder of The Shalom Center, supported the center along with about 30 rabbis and Jewish leaders, and asked the supporters to contact Foxman’s office to make him change his organization’s position.

AJC also declared Tuesday that the Cordoba Islamic Center “has a right to be built – but urged the founders of the center “to address concerns about funding and support for terrorism”.

The Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman called to impose some conditions on the center construction – basically, to stop the project “until there is further evaluation of its impact on the families and friends of victims of the 9-11 attacks, the intention of the center’s sponsors, and their sources of funding”.

Sharif el-Gamal, lead developer of the Park 51 project and member of the Jewish community center in upper Manhattan told Haaretz he did not expect the attention they have been receiving as he had been trying to buy the building for five years with this intention to build the center. “I’ve been looking for almost 10 years within this vicinity. It’s not easy to find real estate in New-York.”

El-Gamal, who has a Jewish sister-in-law, added that “the mosque will be a small component of a larger facility and it will be run as a separate non-profit. There will be a gym, a pool, restaurant. A spa, multi-use facilities, and also a September 11 memorial space to honor the victims.”

Critics of the mosque have raised the fact that Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf went on record as telling CNN, right after the 9/11 attacks, “U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We (the U.S.) have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”

Responding to the critics, Abraham Foxman told “Haaretz” that his statement was distorted by “all kinds of groups and people with political agendas.”

“ADL’s position is very clear and simple – it is about location and sensitivity, it is not about religious freedom and prejudice. When the Catholic Church wanted to build a prayer center near Auschwitz, we said no and called the world to confront it,” Foxman said.

“We were labeled anti Christians, until Pope John Paul said they can build their center one mile away. And it’s been there for the last 15 years, without any conflict,” he added.

Indian forces kill 10 Kashmiris

SRINAGAR, India – Indian troops killed nine suspected militants as they tried to cross the de facto border with Pakistan that divides the volatile region of Kashmir, the army said Monday.

An Indian policeman fires a teargas shell towards Kashmiri protestors in Srinigar

Elsewhere in Indian-controlled Kashmir fresh violence left a boy dead and 12 injured when police opened fire on anti-India protesters in separate clashes.

“The army has foiled a major infiltration attempt by killing nine militants who were trying to infiltrate into (Indian) Kashmir from across the Line of Control (LoC),” army spokesman J.S. Brar told AFP.

He said a gun battle erupted late Sunday in western Uri sector and continued throughout the night after troops noticed a group of militants trying to sneak in under the cover of darkness.

“The operation is still continuing in the dense forests,” Brar said, adding army reinforcements had been sent to the scene of the fighting.

India has in the past accused the Pakistani army of providing covering fire for infiltrating militants. Islamabad denies the charge.

India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire along the LoC in 2003 and began a peace process in 2004. Since then there have been sporadic clashes with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce.

A young Muslim boy was killed and four others injured when police opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters during an anti-India demonstration in southern Anantnag town Monday evening, police said.

The death brought more people out on the streets chanting slogans such as “Blood for blood!”

In Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, six people were injured when police opened fire.

Police said the incident occurred when a group of protesters hurled stones at police and shouted slogans. Residents said there were no protests when the shots were fired.

Doctors said one of the injured was in serious condition. Two of the wounded were relatives of senior separatist Yasin Malik.

The policeman who opened fire has been suspended, pending an inquiry, a police statement said.

Two more stone-hurling protesters were injured in southern Pulwama district when police opened fire at violent demonstrators, police said.

Tensions have been threatening to boil over during 11 weeks of demonstrations with 65 protesters and bystanders killed in the Muslim-majority region, where anti-India feelings run deep.

650 Indians put on Interpol’s wanted list

NEW DELHI: The number of Indians or people of Indian origin on Interpol’s ‘wanted’ list is on the rise with 656 of them getting red-alert notices in little over five years.

The global crime monitoring organisation has issued 656 red-alert notices against Indians or people of Indian origin between January 2005 and May 2010, generally for crimes committed in countries other than India.

A highest of 150 red notices were issued last year while the number stood at 75 in the first five months of this year.

Many of these wanted people are involved in acts of terrorism or serious crimes like rape of a minor.

A red alert or red corner notice obliges immigration and police forces of all member countries to arrest the person concerned and inform the authorities in his home country, or the country where the crime was committed.

Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation, with 188 member countries.

A total of 133 notices wee issued in 2007 while the number stood at 119 in 2006.

About 85 such notices were drawn in 2008 and 94 others in 2005, the CBI, which acts as a nodal agency for international policing in India, said in reply to an RTI query.

The countries where the largest number of offences have been reported include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, USA, Hong Kong, Russia, Belarus, Egypt, Australia and Belgium.

The offences include money laundering, tax evasion, sexual harassment, disrupting railway traffic, mail fraud and demanding dowry. At least 25 per cent of the offences relate to overspeeding and road accidents.

Exercising his Right to Information, Ashwini Shrivastava had asked for details of red alert notice issued against people of Indian origin in the past five years including the details of offences.

One of the Interpol notices names Haji Ibrahim Salim for alleged involvement in a terrorist act, Shaikh Anwar for allegedly waging war against a country, Kochipeedikayil Shabeerkayil, Sabir Kochipeedikayil and Nazir Thadipeedikayil for planting an explosive, Shaja Khan for allegedly planting a bomb and Iqbal Bhatkal for his alleged involvement in unlawful activities, it said.

PPP govt defies SC again in new promotion rules

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has finally notified the rules for the promotion of government servants to BS-22 at a time and in a manner that perfectly suits some of the influential bureaucrats, including the principal secretary to the prime minister.

While the Supreme Court had desired the revival of the promotion rules rescinded in 1998, which set the condition of at least three years service in BS-21 to make an officer eligible for promotion to BS-22, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has reduced it to two-years, ignoring the SC directives.

It is interesting to note that the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Nargis Sethi, who too got demoted to BS-21 after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, completed her two years in BS-21 on Wednesday, August 26, 2010. The new rules were notified on August 16, only 10 days back.

The Supreme Court had handed down its decision in April this year but it took the government quite a few months to frame the new rules.

Initially, the government had given an indication of reviving the 1998 rules containing the condition of minimum three-years of service in BS-21 but later it changed its mind despite the fact that the Federal Public Service Commission chief Justice (retd) Bhagwandas, when consulted, had fully supported the condition of minimum three-years of service in BS-21.

The 2009 promotions of 54 bureaucrats to BS-22 by Prime Minister Gilani were nullified by the Supreme Court as these promotions grossly negated merit and resorted to the policy of pick and choose. While the fact remains that quite a few demoted secretaries were promoted to BS-22 within a few months of their promotion to BS-21, several demoted officers would have been ineligible even today for promotion if the 1998 promotion rules had been revived.

These include Principal Secretary to the prime minister, Nargis Sethi, who was promoted to BS-21 on August 26, 2008; Ahmad Bakhsh Lehri, promoted to BS-21 on 26-06-2008; Ghulam Ali Shah, 26-06-2008; Javed Mahmood, 02-01-2008; Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, 02-01-2008; Sami Saeed, 02-01-2008; Sohail Ahmad, 02-01-2008; Sayyed Jawed Ali Shah Bukhari, 29-05-2009; Azhar Ali Farooqui, 30-04-2008; Ghulam Muhammad Rind, 23-05-2009; Ghulam Rasool Ahpan, 28-02-2009; Ahmad Mahmood Zahid, 18-12-2007; Abdul Shafiq, 16-05-2009; Neelam S Ali, 29-12-2007; Khalid Idrees, 18-12-2007; Inamullah Khan, 18-12-2007; Taweed Akhtar, 17-11-2007; Agha Sarwar Qazilbash, 19-12-2007 and Mansoor Suhail, 15-05-2009.

But the rules notified by the government now suit most of the above officers, many of whom are holding key positions. While nullifying the promotions of 54 officers, who were elevated purely on the whims of the prime minister and in the absence of any promotion rules, the Supreme Court’s decision said: “It would be appreciated that to ensure fairness and justness, the rules rescinded on April 4, 1998 are re-enacted accordingly.”

According to the just notified promotion rules, the conditions setting the eligibility of the officer for his promotion to BS-22 include (i) Twenty-five years service in Basic Scale 17 and above, excluding the period of suspension not counted as duty and extraordinary leave, and has completed at least two years in a post in Basic Scale 21; (ii) at least three “very good” reports during the last six years; (iii) No penalty under Government Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1973 or under the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance, 2000 (since repealed) has been imposed upon him during his tenure in BS-21; and (iv) possesses sufficient variety of experience.

Under these rules, the promotions to BS-22 would be considered by a high powered selection board comprising the prime minister, who would be the chairman of the board, and members including principal secretary to the prime minister, cabinet secretary, secretary establishment and administrative secretary concerned, who would be co-opted member.
The constitution of the board reflects one strange fact that all the permanent members of this high powered selection board are those three top secretaries, who work directly under the prime minister and do not report to any minister.

The principal secretary to the prime minister, secretary establishment and secretary cabinet are considered as the top bureaucratic aides of the chief executive. These rules shall apply to all posts in Basic Scale 22 in the All Pakistan Service or, as the case may be, civil service of the federation or posts in connection with the affairs of the Federation, including the post in BS-22 as secretary in the secretariat group or equivalent in the regularly constituted occupational groups and services.

India points to rise of Hindu ‘saffron terror’ risk

NEW DELHI – India’s home minister warned on Wednesday that Hindu extremists posed an increasing risk to national security, dubbing the threat as “saffron terror”.

Chidambaram also warned that the government faced a lengthy battle to defeat India’s worsening Maoist insurgency

The colour saffron is associated with Hindu nationalism in India, and some right-wing groups have been linked to militant attacks in the north and west of the country.

However, most major recent attacks, including those in Mumbai in 2008 during which 166 people died, have been blamed on Islamists.

“We have recently uncovered a new phenomenon of ‘saffron terror’ and I ask you to be vigilant,” P. Chidambaram told an annual meeting of police chiefs in New Delhi.

Hardline regional parties like the Shiv Sena, which is based in Mumbai, vow to defend Hindu rights in India, but deny they are behind any violent militant activity.

Chidambaram also warned that the government faced a lengthy battle to defeat India’s worsening Maoist insurgency in eastern and central states.

Maoist attacks have risen with scores of police and soldiers killed in ambushes since Chidambaram launched a nationwide security offensive last year.

“The people of India understand that the conflict will be a long-drawn one, that patience is the key, that mistakes will be made and that the security forces need material and moral support,” he said.

India has almost doubled its homeland security budget to 405 billion rupees (nine billion dollars) since 2008-2009, he added.

The Maoist rebels say they fight against federal and state authorities on behalf of landless tribal groups and poor farmers who have been left behind by economic development.

Indian sub-continent in danger of regular floods: British weather expert

LONDON, A British academician thinks the danger is that Pakistan, and the Indian subcontinent in general, will become the focus of much more regular catastrophic flooding with the problems this would bring for a state at the centre of the campaign against terrorism.Writing in ‘The Guardian’ Lord Julian Hunt, a visiting professor at Delft University, the largest and oldest public technical university of the Netherlands and established in 1852, and former head of the British Meteorological Office, said this is not just therefore a question of better protecting against natural hazards, but also one with profound implications for geopolitics and international security.

He wrote: “Heavy monsoon precipitation has increased in frequency in Pakistan and western India in recent years. In July 2005, Mumbai was deluged by almost 950mm of rain in just one day, and more than 1,000 people were killed in floods in the state of Maharashtra. Last year, deadly flash floods hit north-western Pakistan, and Karachi was also flooded.

This trend is fuelled both by global warming (which means extremes of rainfall are a growing worldwide trend) and potentially by any intensification and alteration of the El Niño/La Niño cycle. To understand the reasons why global warming is playing a role, one needs to look at the main climatic trends in South Asia. In addition to more extreme rainfall, there is also a reduction of ice over the Tibetan plateau and changing precipitation patterns, with less snow at higher levels, plus more rapid run-off from mountains.

How does climate change help explain this? First, the warming in temperatures leads to less snow. Second, the less stable atmosphere causes deeper convection and intense rainfall. The less stable atmosphere also leads to more airflow over mountains and less lateral deviation ­ so that the monsoon winds and precipitation can be higher in north-west India and Pakistan and weaker in the north-east.

In 2006 there was an unusually intense drought in Assam and rain in north-west India. This year with the strong rainfall in the north-west, there is no pronounced decrease in the north-east.

Recent US studies have also concluded that the mountain meteorology is changing, but as a result of the aerosols emitted from urban areas of south Asia.
The biggest question is whether the El Niño southern oscillation (Enso), that determines the 10-year oscillations of weather across the Pacific basin and into South Asia and Africa, will change.

Although there is no scientific consensus, it seems likely that if the Amazon rainforest continues to disappear, and snow/ice melt significantly increases over the Tibetan plateau, there will be significant changes in Enso climatic fluctuations as rises in temperature over land become comparable with the areas of the Pacific where the temperature fluctuates over a few degrees, which is now better monitored and computer modelled.

The reason for concern about changing Enso is that depending on its periodic strength, it greatly affects magnitudes and locations of floods, droughts and hurricanes. Until about 2020-2030, these natural fluctuations are expected to be greater than man-made changes as was pointed out by many scientists in the 1990s.

Lord Hunt said given the massive stakes, not least because of the sizable proportion of the world population affected, these issues need urgent study and also preparations on the ground by the affected countries.

Unless this happens, including better flood warning systems and water management infrastructure put in place, societies and governments in the region will be unable to respond to the devastating combination of changing environmental stresses, growing population and geopolitical instability.

Key Karzai Aide in Graft Inquiry Is Linked to C.I.A.

KABUL, Afghanistan – The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American officials.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts met last Saturday in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai. Mr. Kerry said he believed that he had won a commitment from the Afghan president to allow an American-backed anticorruption unit to work unhindered.

Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the payroll for many years, according to officials in Kabul and Washington. It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace, or both.

Mr. Salehi’s relationship with the C.I.A. underscores deep contradictions at the heart of the Obama administration’s policy in Afghanistan, with American officials simultaneously demanding that Mr. Karzai root out the corruption that pervades his government while sometimes subsidizing the very people suspected of perpetrating it.

Mr. Salehi was arrested in July and released after Mr. Karzai intervened. There has been no suggestion that Mr. Salehi’s ties to the C.I.A. played a role in his release; rather, officials say, it is the fear that Mr. Salehi knows about corrupt dealings inside the Karzai administration.

The ties underscore doubts about how seriously the Obama administration intends to fight corruption here. The anticorruption drive, though strongly backed by the United States, is still vigorously debated inside the administration. Some argue it should be a centerpiece of American strategy, and others say that attacking corrupt officials who are crucial to the war effort could destabilize the Karzai government.

The Obama administration is also racing to show progress in Afghanistan by December, when the White House will evaluate its mission there. Some administration officials argue that any comprehensive campaign to fight corruption inside Afghanistan is overly ambitious, with less than a year to go before the American military is set to begin withdrawing troops.

“Fighting corruption is the very definition of mission creep,” one Obama administration official said.

Others in the administration view public corruption as the single greatest threat to the Afghan government and the American mission; it is the corrupt nature of the Karzai government, these officials say, that drives ordinary Afghans into the arms of the Taliban. Other prominent Afghans who American officials have said were on the C.I.A.’s payroll include the president’s half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, suspected by investigators of playing a role in Afghanistan’s booming opium trade. Earlier this year, American officials did not press Mr. Karzai to remove his brother from his post as the chairman of the Kandahar provincial council. Mr. Karzai denies any monetary relationship with the C.I.A. and any links to the drug trade.

Mr. Salehi was arrested by the Afghan police after, investigators say, they wiretapped him soliciting a bribe – in the form of a car for his son – in exchange for impeding an American-backed investigation into a company suspected of shipping billions of dollars out of the country for Afghan officials, drug smugglers and insurgents.

Mr. Salehi was released seven hours later, after telephoning Mr. Karzai from his jail cell to demand help, officials said, and after Mr. Karzai forcefully intervened on his behalf.

The president sent aides to get him and has since threatened to limit the power of the anticorruption unit that carried out the arrest. Mr. Salehi could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. A spokesman for President Karzai did not respond to a list of questions sent to his office, including whether Mr. Karzai knew that Mr. Salehi was a C.I.A. informant.

A spokesman for the C.I.A. declined to comment on any relationship with Mr. Salehi.

“The C.I.A. works hard to advance the full range of U.S. policy objectives in Afghanistan,” said Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the agency. “Reckless allegations from anonymous sources don’t change that reality in the slightest.”

An American official said the practice of paying government officials was sensible, even if they turn out to be corrupt or unsavory.

“If we decide as a country that we’ll never deal with anyone in Afghanistan who might down the road – and certainly not at our behest – put his hand in the till, we can all come home right now,” the American official said. “If you want intelligence in a war zone, you’re not going to get it from Mother Teresa or Mary Poppins.”

Last week, Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, flew to Kabul in part to discuss the Salehi case with Mr. Karzai. In an interview afterward, Mr. Kerry expressed concern about Mr. Salehi’s ties to the American government. Mr. Kerry appeared to allude to the C.I.A., though he did not mention it.

“We are going to have to examine that relationship,” Mr. Kerry said. “We are going to have to look at that very carefully.”

Mr. Kerry said he pressed Mr. Karzai to allow the anticorruption unit pursuing Mr. Salehi and others to move forward unhindered, and said he believed he had secured a commitment from him to do so.

“Corruption matters to us,” a senior Obama administration official said. “The fact that Salehi may have been on our payroll does not necessarily change any of the basic issues here.”

Mr. Salehi is a political survivor, who, like many Afghans, navigated shifting alliances through 31 years of war. He is a former interpreter for Abdul Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek with perhaps the most ruthless reputation among all Afghan warlords.

Mr. Dostum, a Karzai ally, was one of the C.I.A.’s leading allies on the ground in Afghanistan in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The agency employed his militia to help rout the Taliban from northern Afghanistan.

Over the course of the nine-year-old war, the C.I.A. has enmeshed itself in the inner workings of Afghanistan’s national security establishment. From 2002 until just last year, the C.I.A. paid the entire budget of Afghanistan’s spy service, the National Directorate of Security.

Mr. Salehi often acts as a courier of money to other Afghans, according to an Afghan politician who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation.

Among the targets of the continuing Afghan anticorruption investigation is a secret fund of cash from which payments were made to various individuals, officials here said.

Despite Mr. Salehi’s status as a low-level functionary, the Afghan politician predicted that Mr. Karzai would never allow his prosecution to go forward, whatever the pressure from the United States. Mr. Salehi knows too much about the inner workings of the palace, he said.

“Karzai will protect him,” the politician said, “because by going after him, you are opening the gates.”

Mr. Salehi is a confidant of some of the most powerful people in the Afghan government, including Engineer Ibrahim, who until recently was the deputy chief of the Afghan intelligence service. Earlier this year, Mr. Salehi accompanied Mr. Ibrahim to Dubai to meet leaders of the Taliban to explore prospects for peace, according to a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting.

Mr. Salehi was arrested last month in the course of a sprawling investigation into New Ansari, a money transfer firm that relies on couriers and other rudimentary means to move cash in and out of Afghanistan.

New Ansari was founded in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan. In the years since 2001, New Ansari grew into one of the most important financial hubs in Afghanistan, transferring billions of dollars in cash for prominent Afghans out of the country, most of it to Dubai.

New Ansari’s offices were raided by Afghan agents, with American backing, in January. An American official familiar with the investigation said New Ansari appeared to have been transferring money for wealthy Afghans of every sort, including politicians, insurgents and drug traffickers.

“They were moving money for everybody,” the American official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The flow of capital out of Afghanistan is so large that it makes up a substantial portion of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. In an interview, a United Arab Emirates customs official said it received about $1 billion from Afghanistan in 2009. But the American official said the amount might be closer to $2.5 billion – about a quarter of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product.

Much of the New Ansari cash was carried by couriers flying from Kabul and Kandahar, usually to Dubai, where many Afghan officials maintain second homes and live in splendorous wealth.

An American official familiar with the investigation said the examination of New Ansari’s books was providing rich insights into the culture of Afghan corruption.

“It’s a gold mine,” the official said.

Following the arrest, Mr. Salehi called Mr. Karzai directly from his cell to demand that he be freed. Mr. Karzai twice sent delegations to the detention center where Mr. Salehi was held. After seven hours, Mr. Salehi was let go.

Afterward, Gen. Nazar Mohammed Nikzad, the head of the Afghan unit investigating Mr. Salehi, was summoned to the Presidential Palace and asked by Mr. Karzai to explain his actions.

“Everything is lawful and by the book,” a Western official said of the Afghan anticorruption investigators. “They gather the evidence, they get the warrant signed off – and then the plug gets pulled every time.”

This is not the first time that Afghan prosecutors have run into resistance when they have tried to pursue an Afghan official on corruption charges related to New Ansari.

Sediq Chekari, the minister for Hajj and Religious Affairs, was allowed to flee the country as investigators prepared to charge him with accepting bribes in exchange for steering business to tour operators who ferry people to Saudi Arabia each year. Mr. Chekari fled to Britain, officials said. Afghanistan’s attorney general issued an arrest warrant through Interpol.

American officials say a key player in the scandal is Hajji Rafi Azimi, the vice chairman of Afghan United Bank. The bank’s chairman, Hajji Mohammed Jan, is a founder of New Ansari. According to American officials, Afghan prosecutors would like to arrest Mr. Azimi but so far have run into political interference they did not specify. He has not been formally charged.

In the past, some Western officials have expressed frustration at the political resistance that Afghan prosecutors have encountered when they have tried to investigate Afghan officials. Earlier this year, the American official said that the Obama administration was considering extraordinary measures to bring corrupt Afghan officials to justice, including extradition.

“We are pushing some high-level public corruption cases right now, and they are just constantly stalling and stalling and stalling,” the American official said of the Karzai administration.

Another Western official said he was growing increasingly concerned about the morale – and safety – of the Afghan anticorruption prosecutors.

So far, the Afghan prosecutors have not folded. The Salehi case is likely to resurface – and very soon. Under Afghan law, prosecutors have a maximum of 33 days to indict a person after his arrest. Mr. Salehi was arrested in late July.

That means Afghan prosecutors may soon come before the Afghan attorney general, Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, to seek an indictment. It will be up to Mr. Aloko, who owes his job to Mr. Karzai, to sign it.

“They are all just doing their jobs,” the Western official said. “They are scared for their lives. They are scared for their families. If it continues, they will eventually give up the fight.”

Prudently handle Tibet issue: China tells India

The Times of India

BEIJING: China on Tuesday said it hopes India would abide by its commitment of not letting Tibetans to engage in anti-China activities and “prudently handle” the issue so as not to “disrupt” the overall bilateral ties.

Commenting for the first time on the recent meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Dalai Lama, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that Beijing’s opposition to any foreign leaders meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader has been conveyed to India.

“China opposes foreign political leaders meeting the Dalai Lama and we have made our position clear to the Indian side,” the spokesperson office said replying to a query on the recent meeting between Singh and the exiled Tibetan leader.

“The Indian government has on many occasions expressed that it recognised Tibet Autonomous Region as part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China and it will not allow Tibetans to engage in anti-China political activities in India,” it said.

“China hopes that the Indian side observes its commitments to Tibet related issues and prudently handle relevant issues so as to refrain from (causing) any disruption to the overall relationship between China and India,” it said.

The spokesperson’s reactions made no direct reference to external affairs minister S M Krishna’s clarification on the issue stating that India considers the Tibetan leader an “honoured guest” but it does not “encourage” him to engage in political activities.

Seeking to downplay the issue, Krishna said India considers Tibetan Autonomous Region as part of China and his clarification “should bring down curtains on any controversy”.

Krishna said, “India’s position (on Tibet and the Dalai Lama) has been stated repeatedly, unequivocally and categorically”, that the Nobel Laureate is an “honoured guest” of India and a “spiritual leader” respected by millions of people in the country.

China’s reaction to Singh’s meeting with the Dalai Lama was in sharp contrast to that of the last month’s meeting of Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao with the Tibetan leader.

Beijing did not directly react to that meeting and commented on it only when the question was asked in a press briefing, where in the spokesperson hoped India would abide by its comments to not to allow its soil to be used by Tibetans to carry out anti-China political activities.

Rao’s meeting with the Dalai Lama took place in the immediate aftermath of the visit of National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon who held talks with the Chinese leaders as Singh’s Special Envoy.

China considers the 75-year-old Dalai Lama as a separatist who is trying to split Tibet from China.

300 tons of explosives go missing in central India

NEW DELHI: Some 61 trucks loaded with over 300 tons of explosives have gone missing in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a senior police official said on Friday.

“The trucks were sent from a state-owned factory, Rajasthan Explosives and Chemicals Limited, in Dholpur to a private company called Ganesh Explosives in the state’s Sagar district. But it never reached there,” the official said.

A massive search is on to track down the trucks as fear is mounting that if the explosives, including detonators and gelatin sticks, reach the wrong hands, it could be devastating, he added.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan Explosives and Chemicals Limited has claimed that it can’t be blamed for this disappearance as it sent explosives only in trucks authorised by the company.

We hand over the explosives to those who have the license. And they then dispatch it on their truck. Now, whatever happens to that explosive thereafter, we are not responsible for that,” YC Upadhyay of the company said.