03 India – Page 9 – Public Intelligence Blog

China-Sri Lanka: On 16 September, China and Sri Lanka agreed to enhance bilateral military cooperation. The announcement came during a meeting between General Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army of China, and Sri Lankan Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The terms and value of the agreement are not yet known. Nevertheless, any new Chinese defense cooperation initiative with any South Asian country will draw the attention of the Indians. This reinforces China's defense connections with the country immediately south of India and in which India has strategic interests, albeit badly managed most of the time.

Following the near trebling of the armed forces to achieve victory over the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan Army requires a major overhaul, downsizing, retraining and re-equipment. It is significant about Sri Lankan leadership views of India that they turned to China. India, China and Pakistan all have helped Sri Lanka in fighting the Tigers.

For India, this will reinforce suspicions that China plans and intends to encircle India with client states.

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2010/08/302010/08/30

NIGHTWATCH Extract: Indian Ocean Chinese Lake

02 China, 03 India

China-Burma (Myanmar): Xinhua reported two Chinese navy ships from the 5th Escort Task Group — the Caohu and Guanhzhou – called at Myanmar's Thilawa Port on 29 August. The visit is to last five days to promote good relations.

Comment: This is the first time Chinese naval ships have called at a port in Burma. It also is a direct challenge to Indian naval dominance of the Indian Ocean region.

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2010/08/162011/01/03

Dept of Homeland Sec Dogs for “Bed Bugs?”

03 Economy, 03 India, 07 Health, 08 Immigration

Cimex lectularius

Bed Bug Infestation Is Scaring Millions Of Americans

By Anneli Rufus

Outbreaks of bed bugs, soaring in the most unexpected places — like CNN's headquarters — stoke some of our deepest fears. Virtually eradicated nationwide sixty years ago thanks to superpowered pesticides such as DDT, bedbugs are back — largely because those chemicals are now banned, but also thanks to what experts quoted in news reports call “increased foreign travel.” (Claims a rise in bed bugs of 80% since year 2000).
Comment: This article at times rises into exaggeration but is useful overall. In the comments section after the article, solutions to get rid of bedbugs mentioned were Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth and Borax.|

A Wake-Up Call on Bedbugs

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2010/08/05

NIGHTWATCH Extract: India Wrong Force On Maoists

03 India, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Civil Society, Law Enforcement

India: In eastern India, the Maoist insurgents have neutralized yet another large police contingent. About 70 police personnel are missing on 4 August in the Chhattisgarh forests following a gunfight between heavily-armed Maoists and police in Dantewada area, India, The Times of India reported. Maoists reportedly attacked a search party of the state police in a heavily forested region of Gumiapal, near Kirandul.

The key point of the item is that the India state police forces seem incapable of learning. The location of the attack is the same set of forests where hundreds of police have been killed this year, almost in defiance of central government warnings and advisories. Counterinsurgency means something entirely different in India than it does at Fort Leavenworth.

The Indians continue to rely on policemen and law enforcement forces to handle people who break the law. They consider Army forces and other armed services not appropriate or trained for handling law breakers.

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Phi Beta Iota: No government has achieved “whole of government” intelligence, which is a precursor to whole of government planning, programming, and budgeting, and of course to whole of government policy, acquisition, and operations. See the Graphics, especially on Intelligence (Im)Maturity and Whole of Government. Collated graphics at Information Sharing and at Connecting the Dots.

2010/07/23

Crises of Capitalism Audio + Animation

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 03 India, 08 Wild Cards, Audio, Civil Society, Commerce, Government, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

This is an audio presentation by David Harvey accompanied by an animation that shows an interesting series of recent historical and geographical connections in the global financial system. The speaker admits to not having any solutions, but only providing the overview of what has happened.

test

2010/07/222010/07/22

NIGHTWATCH Extracts: US Foreign Policy Confused

02 China, 03 India, 08 Wild Cards

Koreas Comment:

The White House statement presented the exercises in the context of routine behavior among Allies, timid and defensive. The Defense Department and UN Command statements indicated the exercises are pointed, aggressive and intended to be intimidating. The two statements neutralize each other because reassurance always trumps vigilance.

Undermining both statements is the fact that the US did not respond in a timely fashion to the defense of South Korea, which was attacked on 26 March. The response lag time erodes the cogency of all the lofty American words. The bottom line is that South Korea was attacked, but the US response took four months. That is not “strategic reassurance.”

As noted yesterday, in four months, a healthy North Korean army could overrun the Peninsula. Fortunately, it is not all that healthy. Somewhere in Washington the strategic thinking is muddled, timid and misguided in dealing with the Far East.

The Korean peninsula has now become an acute hotspot where an accidental clash can escalate into a full-scale war.

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2010/07/152010/07/15

NIGHTWATCH Extract: Pakistani Intelligence Service Planned Mumbai “End to End”–NSA and CIA Either Missed It, Or Blessed It…Either is Grounds for Shut-Down

03 India, 08 Wild Cards

India-Pakistan: Today, on the eve of the first talks between foreign ministers since 2008, the Indian Home Affairs Ministry announced that India has obtained evidence that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate played a more significant role in the planning and execution of the November 2008 Mumbai attack than had previously been thought, according to Indian Home Secretary G. K. Pillai, Indian Express reported 14 July.

Pillai said information gathered from interrogations of David Headley, a U.S. citizen accused of helping plan the attack, indicated the ISI had planned the attack with Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Hafiz Saeed “from beginning to end.” He added that the ISI was not a peripheral player, but was controlling and coordinating the attack, and that Saeed also knew everything about the attack.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The Indians have sprung a trap on the Pakistanis. It will be noteworthy if the talks are held at all. Every Indian acceptance of talks with Pakistan since November 2008 has been predicated on a discussion of terrorism first, specifically anti-Indian terrorism from Pakistan. Pakistan has argued for broader talks. Today, India narrowed the focus once again, while seeming to accept the Pakistani terms for more general discussions.

The Indian trap appears to be New Delhi's response to last week's Pakistani ministry of foreign affairs statement denouncing Indian “occupation” of Kashmir. The talks will go nowhere unless Pakistan agrees to deal effectively with ISI support to Pakistan-based terrorists, which is now almost beyond dispute. For India, Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.

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Phi Beta Iota: The incapacity of both NSA and CIA merit emphasis. For decades the Pakistanis have assured the USG and CIA participarly that the “radical” wing of the ISI was a “loose cannon” when it was in fact the centerpiece of Pakistani policy toward both India and the US. They did this to keep the billion a year going, from which they skimmed half to two thirds. CIA and NSA either did not get this, or blessed it, just as they either did not get or blessed the deliberate terrorist attack in Mumbai planned, funded, and executed by the Pakistani government.

Category: 03 India

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China-Sri Lanka