Let India be seen as having access to Headley, P Chidambaram pleaded

The US government repeatedly warned New Delhi that an Indian company was trying to ship components to help Iran build nuclear facilities, even as home minister P Chidambaram pleaded with America for entry to 26/11 mastermind David Headley’s cell, latest WikiLeaks releases reveal.

“We must be able to say we had access, even if Headley does not speak,” a cable sent from Delhi in February this year quoted home minister Chidambaram as saying.

Chidambaram, who thanked visiting FBI director Robert Mueller for all the information the US had passed on to India on Headley, maintained that it was essential for New Delhi to be seen as having access to Headley.

If not direct access, Chidambaram is said to have argued, Indians should at least be allowed to pass on questions to Headley’s interrogators from another room.

Apparently playing his own game, Mueller told Chidambaram that Headley “has expressed hatred toward India” and may stop talking if he feels he is helping Indians by passing on information about the terror attack. He said the process of Headley leaking information was nearing a “critical stage” and the half-Pakistani US citizen was looking at “a considerably longer sentence” than 2-3 years.

Chidambaram said India would not file formal charges against Headley until the trial Ajmal Kasab, the lone 26/11 accused caught alive, was finished, for fear that he may use the Headley charges as a way to delay conclusion of his trial.

In another similar conversation, this time between foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and David Mulford after the Iranian president’s visit to India in 2008, New Delhi is seen as trying to assuage US fears that it was too close to Iran. “Menon also cautioned the US against telling India what to do, especially in public.

“This government has to be seen following an independent foreign policy, not responding to dictation from the US”, the cable shows Menon as saying. It also shows the lighter side of Indo-Iranian diplomacy, with the foreign secretary admitting he did not expect Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be so “ideological”.

“Menon puzzled about Ahmadinejad’s ‘self-congratulatory, self-referential’ style, which he found particularly odd during an exchange about oil prices, during which Ahmadinejad bragged that the cost of oil would remain high. Ahmadinejad also bad-mouthed other countries, including China, which he claimed had put all its money in US dollars and now had nothing left. As a result, Menon judged, ‘We assume he speaks badly about us to other countries’,” the cable goes on.

The new leaks also throw interesting light on Kashmir, with a 2007 missive directing the US to refuse visa to a Kashmiri legislator with an unsavoury, pro-India reputation.

“Majid [Baramulla] is a leader of the pro-GOI Ikhawan-ul-Musilmeen paramilitary group, which was formed by India’s security forces to combat terrorism in the Kashmir valley,” a 2007 cable reads.

“The group is made up of terrorists who have surrendered to the Indian government and agreed to fight against their former brethren. Ikhawan has a reputation in the Valley for committing brutal human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings of suspected terrorists and their family members, as well as torturing, killing, raping, and extorting Kashmiri civilians suspected of harbouring or facilitating terrorists,” it goes on.

The cables also reveal US concern over an Indian firm, whose name was removed by WikiLeaks, trying to export graphite slabs to Iran, after procuring them from France. “We now want to follow up with Indian officials on this case, and request information concerning the status or whereabouts of the graphite, both which was detained at the airport as well as the graphite that was removed from XXXs warehouse. We also want to share with Indian officials new information identifying the intended end-user of the graphite as Sahand Aluminum Parts Industrial Company (SAPICO), a cover for Iran’s primary liquid-fuelled ballistic missile producer, and to advise GOI that Ward’s efforts to procure this graphite for SAPICO continues,” a worried US embassy cable to Washington reads.