New Delhi: The FBI's investigation of suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana is throwing up more questions than answers. The questions range from not just whether Headley and Rana knew about and planned the Mumbai attacks, but how much US officials knew about the men and also, were they rogue CIA agents?
The FBI has now alleged that Rana met a retired Pakistani army brigadier, Abdur Rahman Hashim Syed, who is known as "Pasha" in Dubai. Pasha was Headley's direct link to one of Pakistan's most wanted terrorists, Ilyas Kashmiri, and a direct link to al-Qaeda as well.
The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's Talking Point was: Is Pakistan's ISI-LeT link now out in the open? To try and answer the question on the panel of experts were Pakistan High Commissioner to UK, Wajid Shamshul Hasan; Associate Editor The Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan; and strategic affairs expert, B Raman.
...CNN-IBN: Siddharth Varadarajan, is it just Pakistan which has much to answer for or is it now the US - keeping in mind the fact that Headley was in fact an agent of a US agency who turned rogue?
ROGUE??? Hey, how about turning it another 90 degrees and just asking if they were working for the CIA. WHAT IS THIS "ROGUE" THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT?? CIA IS ROGUE BY DEFINITION. - ED.
read more @ ibnlive
2. Scarlett accused of misleading inquiry
Britain's former spy chief has misled the Iraq inquiry by exaggerating the reliability of crucial claims about Saddam Hussein's ability to launch weapons of mass destruction, according to the leading Ministry of Defence expert who assessed the intelligence behind the decision to go to war.
Sir John Scarlett, who was responsible for drafting the Government's controversial 2002 dossier outlining the case for invading Iraq, claimed last week that intelligence indicating Iraq possessed missiles that could be launched within 45 minutes was "reliable and authoritative". But Scarlett's evidence is contradicted by the most senior WMD analyst who saw the original intelligence. Brian Jones said that it was vague, inconclusive and unreliable.
Dr Jones, who was head of the nuclear, chemical and biological branch of the Defence Intelligence Staff in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, told The Independent that it was "absolutely clear" that the intelligence the Government relied upon was coming from untried sources. The 45-minute claim was one of the key assertions that convinced MPs to take Britain to war.
read more @ independent3. missing Bush emails 'found' but you can't see them until 2014
BEIJING, December 15 (Xinhuanet) -- E-mails belonging to the Bush administration have reportedly been found, according to media reports Tuesday.
Two groups, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive (NSA), say the e-mails had been mislabeled and effectively lost. They say the 22 million e-mails were found or reconstructed from disaster recovery backup tapes....The e-mail, covering a period of 94 days during the Bush administration, will gradually be restored, but it will be 2014 at the earliest before the public sees any of the messages because they must go through the National Archives’ process for releasing presidential and agency records.
read more @ chinaview4. spokesman dismisses 'unfounded' media reports on Iran's nuclear program
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast on Tuesday rejected a report carried by the Times of London which claimed that Tehran had sought nuclear activity for military purposes. | | |
"These claims are unfounded," Mehman-Parast told reporters in his weekly press conference here in Tehran. "It seems that this approach has been used for running psychological pressures and propaganda war," he added.
He also rejected reports that the Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri who disappeared in Saudi Arabia met the IAEA inspectors.
"The basis of the issue is unfounded and it can be inferred that the US and European intelligence services are aware of his situation, they know that where he is and that the US security forces are involved in the issue," the spokesman reiterated.
read more @ fars news agency
5. Singapore: unnamed embassy car in hit and run
A CAR believed to be from a foreign embassy was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Bukit Panjang Road early on Tuesday, hitting three people at two different traffic junctions.
Police said that the car first hit two pedestrians who were crossing the junction of Bukit Panjang Road and Bangkit Road at about 3am.
Mr Tong Kok Wai, 30, and Mr Bong Hwee Haw, 24, suffered head injuries and were taken to the National University Hospital (NUH). Mr Tong is in the intensive care unit while Mr Bong is in a surgical high dependency ward.
Instead of stopping, the car continued on its path of destruction. Witnesses said it beat another red light 100m ahead at the cross-junction of Bukit Panjang Road and Pending Road.
There, it hit another pedestrian, Mr Muhamad Haris Abu Talib, 18, before speeding off.
Mr Haris was also taken to NUH with leg pain.
source: straits times
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