Headley alert probe discussed
US president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the results of an ongoing probe into why American intelligence agencies failed to alert India about 26/11 plotter David Coleman Headley’s activities.
In this meeting at the Hyderabad House here, Obama broached the topic of Headley and explained to the Prime Minister some details of the probe.
“The president shared some of the results of that review with Prime Minister Singh... What I think we found is the United States had pieces of information that came in about David Headley,” US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told the American media here after the meeting.
“They were not the kinds of information we were able to connect, for instance, to the plotting in Mumbai,” he said.
David Coleman Headley had pleaded guilty to plotting the Mumbai attacks under a deal with the US investigators that will allow him to escape death penalty.
There had been widespread criticism in India that the US did not share any specific input about Headley’s plans.
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Tit-for-tat fails, US press secy has his way
New Delhi, Nov. 8: There was high drama on Monday as Mr Obama sat down for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Mr Obama’s chief spokesman threatened to pull the president out of the meeting after Indian officials cut the previously agreed upon number of White House reporters who would be allowed in from eight to five. US officials had lobbied unsuccessfully for the “White House 8,” as the group came to be known, until press secretary Robert Gibbs stepped in. He took to the steps of Hyderabad House, the sprawling palace that India uses for some major events, and kept repeating loudly that he would pull Mr Obama from the meeting to protest India’s exclusion of some US reporters. At one point, Mr Gibbs lodged his foot in the front door and asked the Indian security officials who were shoving it closed whether they were going to break his foot. More conflict and angry words followed, but the Indians eventually took his threat seriously. All eight reporters were allowed inside the meeting — for all of about one minute. Local reporters said their White House counterparts were being treated that way because Indian journalists suffered through similar treatment when Dr Singh visited the White House last year. —AP
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