US calms India on David Headley

The United States and India will not allow Mumbai terror plotter David Coleman Headley to unsettle ties, certainly not ahead of Barack Obama’s visit to the country.

The White House on Wednesday announced that the US director of National Intelligence has ordered a full review of everything American agencies knew about Headley, based on tips provided by his wives, and the way the matter was handled by US investigators.

The investigation is a calculated move to contain the brouhaha surrounding Headley during the presidential visit.

“Let’s get all the facts together and when the review is completed, we will share it with India in the spirit of cooperation,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor, told reporters ahead of American president Barack Obama’s visit to India.

India’s home secretary GK Pillai has complained that US agencies may have withheld information about Headley even after his wives  exposed his ties to the Lashkar. Pillai indicated Headley’s name was not shared with India either before or after 26/11.

This allowed the LeT operative to make reconnaissance trips to Mumbai even though Washington had him in plain sight. US officials have used the explanation that they shared “regular and consistent” threat warnings with India prior to the Mumbai attacks.     
They claim there was no willful withholding of information.
To assuage Mumbai, Obama’s first stop on the trip will be to visit a memorial to the 2008 attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. He will take a leaf out of secretary Hillary Clinton’s playbook and stay at the hotel. Obama will open his India visit by signing the guest book at the Taj and making brief remarks to the families of the victims on November 6.

The US welcomed India’s signing of the multilateral Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) in Vienna on Wednesday and said it would help promote trade.

“It is a very positive step to assure that international standards apply, and US companies will have a level playing field to compete,” undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns told a White House briefing.

Still, the entry of US firms like General Electric and Westinghouse is seen as uncertain unless India provides more clarity on compensation liability for private operators. US firms are uncomfortable that India’s nuclear liability law also gives the right to seek damages from plant suppliers if there is an accident. India is the only country to have such a provision.

The White House projected Obama’s India swing as an “opportunity” for creating US jobs. “This really is one of the most important emerging economic relationships for the US,” said White House deputy national security adviser Mike Froman. “A key part of the message is going to be that we want to make sure there’s opportunities for US jobs, US exports, and that’s a big part of his mission there,” said Froman.

The White House said it expected several commercial deals between US and Indian companies to be finalized during the visit. Obama will ride into Mumbai with a jumbo-sized business delegation. GE, Boeing, PepsiCo, Honeywell and other iconic US companies have their eyes on India which boasts the fifth-largest economy in the world, with an annual gross domestic product of $3.56 trillion, growing at a rate of 8.5% annually.

Indian business leaders say any enlarged scope for US companies in India’s large retail, finance or insurance sectors should be linked to India getting unrestricted access to the US markets for onshore and offshore software services, including visas for Indian professionals.