Free Republic

The man who oils India's wheels By Ramtanu Maitra No US ambassador since John Kenneth Galbraith massaged the Indian ego more efficiently than Robert D Blackwill. The former envoy to India (2001-2003) is now reportedly cultivating his Indian friends to win a lobbying contract for his firm, Washington-based Barbour, Griffith and Rogers International (BG&R). [1] Blackwill's timing is right. India has terminated its relationship with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Field as a result of its failure to stop US government consideration of the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Blackwill resigned suddenly last November from his position as number two...

If you thought efforts were over to rewrite history on the lead-up to the war in Iraq and to smear the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi, then think again. A remarkable pair of reports released last week by the Senate Select committee on Intelligence re-examine for the umpteenth time the pre-war intelligence on Iraqi WMD programs and Saddam’s alleged ties to al-Qaeda. The reports were produced at the demand of committee Democrats as part of a vast fishing expedition aimed at buttressing their old saw, Bush lied-People died. What’s remarkable about these reports are not the facts...