WikiLeaks on Rahul: Congress suspects conspiracy

NEW DELHI: Congress on Friday suspected a conspiracy behind the release of the WikiLeaks cable which says Rahul Gandhi had told US ambassador Timothy Roemer that growth of "radicalised Hindu groups" could pose a bigger threat to India than activities of groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"Let us verify the truth. May be there is some conspiracy behind the pattern with which this all is being done," party general secretary Janardan Diwedi said when asked about his reaction to the WikiLeaks release.

According to a secret US diplomatic cable from New Delhi released by WikiLeaks, at a luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence in July 2009, the Congress general secretary was asked by the US ambassador about LeT's activities in the region and immediate threat to India.

"Gandhi said there was evidence of some support for the group among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community," the cable notes.

"However, Gandhi warned, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community," it says.

Meanwhile the BJP condemned Rahul Gandhi's remarks and said "in one stroke", he has given a "big leverage" to the propaganda of all terror groups in Pakistan.

Strongly objecting to the remarks made to US ambassador Timothy Roemer, as claimed by a WikiLeaks cable, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said, "It is irresponsible. It is in the public domain and the US government has neither denied nor confirmed it. Therefore, it has sanctity."

"In one stroke, Rahul Gandhi has sought to give a big leverage to the propaganda of all terror groups operating from Pakistan and certain segments of the Pakistan establishment," he told reporters here.

Prasad said such remarks impinge upon India's strategic security and fight against terrorism.

"If he sees a fringe radical Hindu group as the biggest threat in spite of so many terrorist attacks including 26/11 in which involvement of Pakistani groups is confirmed, then it only underscores how ignorant he is about India and its problems," the BJP leader said.

The party also attacked him for making such remarks to a foreign diplomat and not before Parliament and said the opposition would take up the issue in next Parliament session and also before the people.

Prasad said the statement "underscores how little Rahul Gandhi knows about India. The PM has publicly acknowledged that Maoism and terrorist threat from across the border are the biggest challenges before India and Rahul Gandhi says certain lunatic, marginalised Hindu radical groups are the biggest threat?"

Senior opposition leader Prakash Javadekar said the statement shows "crass communalism and jaundiced world view".

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Third woman claims WikiLeaks founder seduced her

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is at the centre of sex assault allegations by two women, is said to have seduced a third right from under her boyfriend's nose in Sweden.

Assange, 39, allegedly walked away with the girl, who had arrived with the American journalist, as they all dined together at a Stockholm restaurant.

An American revealed that he had gone out to dinner at Stockholm's Beirut restaurant with the WikiLeaks Swedish co-ordinator, the co-ordinator's girlfriend, and the journalist and his English girlfriend.

The journalist claims Assange ignored him and instead focused intently on his girlfriend, even following her out for a cigarette.

"When they hadn't come back after 45 minutes I went to see what was happening. They were standing very close together a little way down the street, and Julian was whispering in her ear," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

He later saw the two walking hand in hand, and when he challenged Assange, "he dropped into a classic fighter's pose, with his fists up".

"Assange seemed to take pleasure in humiliating me," he added.

The incident had taken place just two days before he had sex with Miss A, one of his two accusers, and five days before he bedded the second, Miss W.

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WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir - The Guardian

Unrest in Kashmir, where a leaked cable said the Indian government 'condoned torture'. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images

US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight.

The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees.

Other cables show that as recently as 2007 American diplomats were concerned about widespread human rights abuses by Indian security forces, who they said relied on torture for confessions.

The revelations will be intensely embarrassing for Delhi, which takes pride in its status as the world's biggest democracy, and come at a time of heightened sensitivity in Kashmir after renewed protests and violence this year.

Other cables released tonight reveal that:

• The Dalai Lama has told US officials that combating climate change is more urgent than finding a political solution in Tibet, which "can wait five to 10 years".

• Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince of Indian politics, believes Hindu extremists pose a greater threat to his country than Muslim militants, according to the American ambassador to India.

• Five doctors were coerced by the Sri Lankan government to recant on casualty figures they gave to journalists in the last months of island's brutal civil war.

The most highly charged dispatch is likely to be an April 2005 cable from the US embassy in Delhi which reports that the ICRC had become frustrated with the Indian government which, they said, had not acted to halt the "continued ill-treatment of detainees".

The embassy reported the ICRC concluded that India "condones torture" and that the torture victims were civilians as militants were routinely killed.

The ICRC has a long-standing policy of engaging directly with governments and avoiding the media, so the briefing remained secret.

An insurgency pitting separatist and Islamist militants – many supported by Pakistan – against security services raged in Kashmir throughout the 1990s and into the early years of this decade.

It claimed tens of thousands of lives, including large numbers of civilians who were targeted by both militants and security forces.

The ICRC staff told the US diplomats they had made 177 visits to detention centres in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India between 2002 and 2004, and had met 1,491 detainees. They had been able to interview 1,296 privately.

In 852 cases, the detainees reported ill-treatment, the ICRC said. A total of 171 described being beaten and 681 said they had been subjected to one or more of six forms of torture.

These included 498 on which electricity had been used, 381 who had been suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had muscles crushed in their legs by prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose legs had been stretched by being "split 180 degrees", 234 tortured with water and 302 "sexual" cases, the ICRC were reported to have told the Americans.

"Numbers add up to more than 681, as many detainees were subjected to more than one form of IT [ill-treatment]," the cable said.

The ICRC said all branches of the Indian security forces used these forms of ill-treatment and torture, adding: "The abuse always takes place in the presence of officers and ... detainees were rarely militants (they are routinely killed), but persons connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency".

The cable said the situation in Kashmir was "much better" as security forces no longer roused entire villages in the middle of the night and detained inhabitants indiscriminately, and there was "more openness from medical doctors and the police."

Ten years ago, the ICRC said there were some 300 detention centres, but there are now "a lot fewer". The organisation had never however gained access to the "Cargo Building", the most notorious detention centre, in Srinagar.

The abuse continued, they said, because "security forces need promotions," while for militants, "the insurgency has become a business".

In the same cable, American diplomats approvingly quoted media reports that India's army chief, Lieutenant-General Joginder Jaswant Singh, had "put human rights issues at the centre of an [recent] conference of army commanders".

The ICRC said a "bright spot" was that it had been able to conduct 300 sessions sensitising junior officers from the security forces to human rights.

The cables reveal a careful US policy of pressure in Kashmir, while maintaining a strictly neutral stance.

Two years after the cable on torture was sent, US diplomats in India argued strongly against granting a visa request from the government of India on behalf of a member of the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly who was invited to a conference organised by a think-tank in America.

Usman Abdul Majid, a cable marked secret said, "is a leader of the pro-GOI [government of India] Ikhwan-ul-Musilmeen paramilitary group, which ... is notorious for its use of torture, extra-judicial killing, rape, and extortion of Kashmiri civilians suspected of harbouring or facilitating terrorists."

The diplomats admitted that denying Majid's application might have some repercussions with Indian officials, "especially those from India's Intelligence Bureau who have been close to his case" but said it was essential to preserve a balanced approach to the Kashmir issue following the prior refusal of a visa to the leading separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The cable notes that officials are "unable to verify with evidence the claims against Majid".

US diplomats repeatedly refer to human rights abuses by security and law enforcement agencies within India. In a cable from February 2006, officials reported that "terrorism investigations and court cases tend to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not beatings, threats, or, in some cases, torture".

A year later a brief for the visiting acting coordinator for counter-terrorism, Frank Urbancic, described India's police and security forces as "overworked and hampered by bad ... practices, including the widespread use of torture in interrogations.".

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WikiLeaks founder says guards against death threats (Reuters)

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, which has made public about 500,000 classified U.S. files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, holds a news conference at the Geneva Press Club in Geneva, November 4, 2010, the day before the United Nation's Human Rights Council examines the U.S. human rights record in its universal periodic review programme.

Credit: Reuters/Valentin Flauraud

By Keith Weir and Adam Cox

LONDON/STOCKHOLM | Sat Dec 4, 2010 1:54pm EST

LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday he and colleagues were taking steps to protect themselves after death threats following the publication of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables on their website.

One of Assange's lawyers said he would also fight any attempt to extradite his client to face questions over alleged sexual misconduct, adding that he believed foreign powers were influencing Sweden in the matter.

Washington is furious about the leak of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables that have given unvarnished and sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.

Answering questions online from an undisclosed location, the 39-year-old Australian said anyone making threats against his life should be charged with incitement to murder.

"The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower," Assange was quoted as saying on the Guardian website.

Britain's Guardian is one of a number of newspapers around the world with early access to diplomatic cables seen by WikiLeaks.

Assange, who is reported to be somewhere in southern England, has his own legal woes.

Swedish authorities said information missing from a European arrest warrant they had issued against Assange for alleged sex crimes had been handed to British authorities.

"We sent it. They asked for complementary information and now they have it," Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said.

"CONSTANT CONTACT"

Bjorn Hurtig, a lawyer representing Assange, told Reuters he would not say where Assange was right now nor when he last spoke to him, though they were in "constant contact".

But he said an attempt to extradite him from another country, for example from Britain, would be resisted in court.

"If it is in a country where they speak English, I know that my co-counsel Mark Stephens will help me in fighting this extradition order and he will do so vigorously," he said in a telephone interview.

Stephens said he thought any arrest was not imminent.

"The Swedes have done their homework again and it's been resubmitted to teacher and we will see whether they have managed to get it right this time," he told Reuters.

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LeT planned to kill Narendra Modi: WikiLeaks

NEW DELHI: Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba had made elaborate plans in June last year to assassinate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, according to one of the American diplomatic cables made public by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

The cable identifies a Pakistani Lashkar member, Shafiq, as the mastermind of the plot that was to be executed by a module led by an Indian Lashkar operative, Hussein.

The hit job was to be carried out by one Sameer, an India-based Lashkar terrorist.

The timing of the plot is significant. It was hatched seven months after Lashkar's attack on Mumbai in November 2008. The cable underlines that the pressure on Pakistan post-26/11 did not deter Lashkar from planning fresh terror attacks.

Modi has been on the hit list of jihadi terror groups who have cited the Gujarat riots during his tenure to find recruits and to radicalise sections of Indian Muslims.

The module, possibly led by Hussein in India, was tasked with two other jobs -- including establishment of a training camp and an "unspecified work" involving a car. Details were, however, not mentioned in the leaked US embassy cable which claimed to derive these information from "multiple sources".

The leaked cable, part of the `Diplomatic Security Daily' sent to Washington from different US missions, was despatched on June 19 last year. "LeT member Shafiq Khafa, possibly preparing for operation, and Hussein -- an India-based Lashkar-e-Taiba member -- continued operational planning on three tasks in early June. The tasks were associated with a possible operation against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the establishment of a training camp and unspecified work involving a car. Hussein would coordinate his activities with an India-based colleague identified as Sameer," the cable said.

The cable on the plot against Modi is part of the category called "key concerns" of the US embassy messages. Another leaked cable on India has mentioned about hindrance posed by disagreements within various agencies over Indian cyber security programmes.

It says, "The government of India continues efforts to advance its computer security programmes -- particularly in the light of increased concerns over Chinese computer network exploitation efforts -- but the progress is hampered by significant disagreements within its departments."

Referring to key Indian organisations like department of telecommunication (DoT) and Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), which are involved in developing and implementing security policies, the US cable said, "Although the Indian Army is primarily responsible for the security of military networks, Indian officials acknowledge Army representatives have been largely left out of the discussion."

It also mentioned that some other key organisations like National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Defence Intelligence Agency have reportedly failed to offer significant contributions.

The leaked cable also referred to the concerns expressed by private security companies. It said, "Private security companies are concerned that the lack of input from the private sector may lead to unfair regulations regarding telecommunications monitoring."

vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

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U.S. targets Assange, says media not accountable

 On a case-by-case part, several media outlets withheld the publication of covert statesmanlike cables provided to them by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, the Province Division has said.

At the equal abstraction, it conceded that any new media outlets could publish these cables, so the U.S. puts the onus of these unauthorised leaks on General Assange, the miscarry and Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks.

"On a case-by-case base, many outlets score withheld notice of cables at our letter. Evidently, it's a complicated state because one activity may deduct a telecommunicate then only to see another receptacle promulgation it," Commonwealth Section spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters on Weekday.

"That's the quill conclude why we put the orbit squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Assange. Based on the actions that he's assumed, there is, in all probability, no organized way of protecting grouping who are catalogued in these cables and who we conceive are now at greater chance. That's why we titled on him over the weekend to refuse the documents and to give them to us, and he's unsuccessful to do that," he said.

Unfortunately, Mr. Crowley said, it is the tidings organisations that shape the redactions. "We hold prefab a limit of requests. In some cases, broadcast organisations score responded to us. In some cases, they hit not. As we've prefab pay, we do judge that in the exudate of these cables lives are state put at chance," he said.

"We do believe that vituperative soldierly and word transaction are state put at danger. We do reckon that our person interests are put at probability because of what's beingness done here. We've prefab that definite to - in any conversation that we've had with any intelligence organisation," Mr. Crowley said.

No one in the Integrated States Governing with a brain in his theme sought to see this encounter. "Unluckily, as we've made unsubtle, at least one someone in the Federate States Regime is obligated for this. This was not finished by contract," he said.

The business of categorized entropy is catastrophic to the person involvement, Mr. Crowley said. "We've prefabricated that pass.

But your counterparts in broadcast organisations somebody a contrasting mark of scope," he intercalary.

The Country Section spokesman said that he is not informed that the U.S. authorities is in advert with the internet patron.

"I colligate what we are doing is we are pursuit where these documents are nascent from, meet to stronghold cross of what is beingness released and, as we bonk been doing for any indication, trying to assess fight. So we are monitoring where documents are aborning from. But at this punctuation, I'm not alert that we've had any conversations," he said.