ISI Sponsored Pakistani Lobbyist Dr. Fai Arrested in the USA

What do you think about the Indians who attended the KAC were


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Parthy

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US busts Kashmir racket: Fai is foul and foul is Fai

In a city where lobbyists represent scores of interests, issues, and causes from across the world, Ghulam Nabi Fai was a familiar figure on Capitol Hill as the principal representative of the Kashmiri separatist movement. A stocky man 62-year old man with a scraggly beard sans mustache, he spoke the language of engagement and claimed to seek a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

But Kashmiris, of whom he claimed to be one, were not who he was serving. An FBI affidavit charging him with "conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign principle," shows that Fai was a frontman for Pakistani – and not Kashmiri – interests in the US. He took dictation from his masters in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and according to the FBI count, was funded to the tune of at least $4 million to manipulate the debate about Kashmir. The FBI recorded 4000 email and telephone exchanges with his Pakistan handlers.


Fai's career as a Pakistani ISI bagman began as far back as 1989, according to a Confidential Witness (identified as CW-2 in the FBI affidavit) who turned US informant. The ISI, CW-2 says, "created the KAC to propagandize on behalf of the government of Pakistan" and selected Fai "because he had no overt ties to Pakistan."

Indeed, Fai did come originally from India. According to community sources, Fai hails from the Kashmir Valley and came to the US in the 1980s after an MA degree from Aligarh Muslim University. He earned a PhD in mass communication from Temple University in Pennsylvania and began working as a Kashmiri and Muslim activist in the late 1980s before the ISI ensnared him.

Soon he was singing the Pakistani tune churning out exaggerated accounts of Indian atrocities in J&K and organizing conferences and seminars bankrolled by the Pakistani government through ISI. Almost contemptuously, CW-s is quoted in the FBI affidavit as saying, "of the statements Fai makes, 80 per cent are provided by the ISI for Fai to repeat and disseminate verbatim. The other 20 per cent of the KAC's messaging consists of Fai's own ideas, which have been pre-approved by the ISI."

Fai was at once clever and stupid in his service to the Pakistani agenda, the affidavit shows. For instance, early in his lobbying stint, one of his backers who turned informant for the FBI said he gave him thousands of dollars in cash from his business in the form of $50 and $100 bills in a brown paper bag. Fai told him that he preferred checks to cash because checks appeared more "legitimate" and "safe."

But Fai also left a massive paper and electronic trail that the FBI diligently collected and intercepted under court-sanctioned surveillance (the FBI had been on to him for many years, the affidavit shows). He made massive cash collections. He was stopped by the police in New York once and found to have $ 35,000 in cash which he tried to explain away as donations for the Kashmir cause from a Brooklyn mosque, but which the FBI determined was slush money from a straw donor in the US. The unnamed straw donor, one of several cited in the FBI affidavit, would eventually be reimbursed by the ISI in Pakistan in what was a state-sponsored hawala transaction.

It wasn't always good going among the pro-Pakistani crowd; they argued, they fell out, and filched money for their personal use. Fai himself used some of the money from straw donors to pay his personal home mortgage. He had regular budgetary and accounting dust-ups with his handlers although they bankrolled him lately to the tune of more than $ 500,000 every year.

Another time, one of his ISI handlers demanded he get a laptop bag and adaptor for his boss. The wrangles finally got to one of his associates, identified as "John" in the FBI affidavit. John had a problem with Nazir Shawl, Fai's counterpart in UK as the ISI bagman, and he threatened to expose "everything and everybody."

"He ended by saying he was prepared to go to the Indian Embassy to beg forgiveness for his previous activities, even of doing so displeased his Pakistani bosses," the FBI affidavit records




US busts Kashmir racket: Fai is foul and foul is Fai - The Times of India
 

thakur_ritesh

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Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder Sachar, and Gautam Navlakha under the scanner, but it is being strongly believed that much the way the radia tapes were down played so will this whole event will because if these people get investigated then a lot of people in the indian media houses will also come under the scanner.

L'affaire Fai: US lawmakers, Indian liberals come under scrutiny - The Times of India

Another group which has come under the lens is Indian liberals and so-called bleeding hearts who accepted Fai's and KAC's hospitality to attend conferences and seminars in US on the Kashmir issue where US authorities say Fai and his ISI handlers plied the Pakistani agenda. Indian hypernationalists and right-wingers have identified journalist-activists Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder Sachar, and Gautam Navlakha among those who attended KAC events organized by Fai which turns out were funded by ISI.
 

sayareakd

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very interesting development, for years, US has closed its eyes, now suddenly they wake up, but the other side of coin is that rift between ISI and CIA is getting wide.
 

Energon

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Reality Check: All governments funnel money into organizations based primarily in the USA and Western Europe to support their stances in matters of conflict. This is clearly a projection of soft power given the influence organizations have in the West. It's just that the Pakistanis were exposed due to the tit for tat games played by the ISI and the CIA in light of the worsening relationship.
 

thakur_ritesh

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Reality Check: All governments funnel money into organizations based primarily in the USA and Western Europe to support their stances in matters of conflict. This is clearly a projection of soft power given the influence organizations have in the West. It's just that the Pakistanis were exposed due to the tit for tat games played by the ISI and the CIA in light of the worsening relationship.
yeah, which is what is on play here.

fact remains these people have been doing this for over twenty years and no one then in the US raised any alarm. its a definite tit for tat, ISI has now been doing it for quite sometime to the CIA but now CIA is taking them head on, though a little more subdued but still from an indian PoV its a welcome change from the past where very conveniently a blind eye was to be turned.

what is of importance to note is how the international media took to it in a flash and its a definite muscle flexing tact on display, and the americans have started hitting the paks the hardest where it hurts them the most, on the kashmir issue. lets see how this one plays out and when the ceasefire gets called.

also of interest is how this coincides with hillary being in india and when in india she takes a rather unusual hard stand in public, a tone and discourse that was otherwise meant to be spoken only in closed doors, of course this was to be preceded by obama's take on the matter but hillary in her remarks had a pretty strong message for the paks, unlike any in the past.

wonder how the americans are selling this story to the indian politicians and diplomats alike, and what would be the indian response to it? will the indian response be, we have been pointing this out for years now!
 

Kunal Biswas

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FBI: Pakistan's Military Plotted to Tilt U.S. Policy

FBI: Pakistan's Military Plotted to Tilt U.S. Policy

NY TIMES - By CHARLIE SAVAGE and ERIC SCHMITT - Published: July 19, 2011

WASHINGTON — Pakistan's military, including its powerful spy agency, has spent $4 million over two decades in a covert attempt to tilt American policy against India's control of much of Kashmirincluding funneling campaign donations to members of Congress and presidential candidates, the F.B.I. claimed in court papers unsealed Tuesday.
he goal of the group, according to internal documents cited by the F.B.I., was to persuade the United States government that it was in its interest to push India to allow a vote in Kashmir to decide its future. :thumb: The group's strategy was to offset the Indian lobby by targeting members of the Congressional committees that focus on foreign affairs with private briefings and events, staging activities that would draw media attention and otherwise to elevate the issue of Kashmir — the disputed region between India and Pakistan that each country controls in part but claims entirely — in Washington.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us..._r=1&ref=world
 

ganesh177

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Wats more disturbing is there were few indians who consistently flashed in such seminar to preach exactly what ISI wanted to hear, in return of some moolah.

Also, i believe that US knew about it from a long time, but its only now that they thought its necessary to blow this operation of ISI. Just goes to show the ever deteriorating relation between US and pakistan. There is no repairing now.
 

nitesh

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This is a tube light moment for US or what? I think this is deliberately done to show to pakistan, that who is the master. There is no love lost for India here, the only benefit we can look from this move is that, we will come to know the true faces of the so called "liberal" Indians.
 

Parthy

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Pakistan protests arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai

The Pakistani government has lodged a protest with the US over the arrest of Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai and accused Washington of running a "slander campaign" against Islamabad.

"A demarche was made to the US Embassy in Islamabad to register our concerns, in particular the slander campaign against Pakistan. Our Embassy in Washington has also been asked to ascertain details," said a statement issued by the foreign office here on Thursday night.

The foreign office statement lauded the role of Fai, who was arrested in Virginia earlier this week for allegedly funnelling at least four million dollars from Pakistan's spy agency into American political activities with the aim of influencing American policy on the Kashmir issue.

"We appreciate the contributions made by the Kashmiri American Council and Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir," the statement said.

It contended that the Kashmir issue is "one of the oldest disputes on the agenda of the UN" and that there were "several UN Security Council Resolutions on the subject that affirm the inalienable right of the Kashmiris to self-determination".

The foreign office claimed that "upholding fundamental rights of Kashmiris is the fundamental responsibility of the international community and all conscientious people who value human rights and values".

It contended that 62-year-old Fai's Kashmiri American Council "has been working towards this end and Kashmiris appreciate and applaud its services".


Pakistan protests arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai - The Times of India
 

nrj

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Pakistan protests arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai

"We appreciate the contributions made by the Kashmiri American Council and Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir," the statement said.

It contended that 62-year-old Fai's Kashmiri American Council "has been working towards this end and Kashmiris appreciate and applaud its services".
There there. Pakistan accepting Fai & making the arrest more credible. LOL :lol:

Try deporting another US official in Pak & you'll be served even better.
 

KS

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Reality Check: All governments funnel money into organizations based primarily in the USA and Western Europe to support their stances in matters of conflict. This is clearly a projection of soft power given the influence organizations have in the West. It's just that the Pakistanis were exposed due to the tit for tat games played by the ISI and the CIA in light of the worsening relationship.
Wrong.

Fai was not arrested for lobbying for Kashmir or for paying the senators.

He was arrested for the source of his funds which he had declared as coming from Kashmiri diaspora and other concerned citizens and concealing that fact that it was ISI that was bankrolling him.
 

nrj

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:pound: After FBI, now its Scotland Yard. UK in action....



ISI-backed Kashmir lobby group under probe in UK

LONDON/NEW DELHI: The Scotland Yard on Thursday initiated a probe into the activities and financing of London-based Kashmir lobby group, Justice Foundation, suspected to be a front of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, according to a source in the agency.

The revelation comes a day after the Kashmiri American Council director in Washington DC, Ghulam Nabi Fai, was arrested by the FBI. India will soon write to UK and Belgium to initiate similar action against "Kashmir Centres" in London and Brussels.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told TOI, "We can confirm we are liaising with US authorities."

The British home ministry said it was probably not an offence under UK laws for lobbyists to be under-written by a foreign government or any of its agencies. "To the best of our knowledge, it is not," said a spokesman. This means police and the Crown Prosecution Service will have to take recourse to some other legislation if they proceed against Justice Foundation.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai (62) and Zaheer Khan (63), both US citizens, were charged with conspiring to act as agents of a foreign power in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of US.

In the US, it's a crime to lobby by using money from an overseas regime.

ISI-backed Kashmir lobby group under probe in UK - The Times of India
 
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nrj

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I was unaware Fai was an undercover agent: Swamy
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday clarified that when he participated in a seminar in 2003 on Kashmir, organised by an organisation run by U.S.-based Kashmir activist Ghulam Nabi Fai, he was unaware that Dr. Fai was an "undercover agent of a foreign power."


ISI agent in US donated $250 to Barack Obama: Report

US President Barack Obama received funds from a man accused of being a spy for the Pakistani government, getting a $250 donation during the 2008 presidential campaign, a media report said on Wednesday. Indiana Congressman Dan Burton, a strong pro-Pakistan Republican Party member, is the Fai arrest could add to US-Pak tension Orissa Police rescues youths from being trafficked FBI arrests US man running Kashmir outfit funded by ISI Kashmir separatists to protest against Fai's arrest by FBI biggest single recipient of funds from the man.


BJP slams Fai's Indian 'guests', says nobody was gullible

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said "senior-most journalists" like Padgoankar and Nayar should come clean. "The whole world knew about his (Fai's) activities and his connections, but they did not know. It is surprising."
 

Yusuf

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Wrong.

Fai was not arrested for lobbying for Kashmir or for paying the senators.

He was arrested for the source of his funds which he had declared as coming from Kashmiri diaspora and other concerned citizens and concealing that fact that it was ISI that was bankrolling him.
Yes that is right. If he had actually registered KAC as a lobbying body, he would not have been arrested.
 

KS

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Also many 'self-declared' intellectuals from India have been attending this ISI-sponsored anti-India slanderinf campaign knowing fully well Fai was taking an overt pro-Pak stand in the meetings and seminars.

Some people include Angana Chatterji, Jitender Baksh and Rajinder Sachar (of the Sachar committee fame)..Bloody effing' traitors.

And that fool Sachar was defending his attending the seminar seen though he himself said he was aware that Fai was not neutral. Arnab Goswami was so visibly agitated even at the sight of them and asked Sachar a simple question - How can we trust you ?.
 
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Arunpillai

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The best thing to come out of this episode is that the credibility of seperatist kashmiri movement has been severely eroded... The western society readily sympathise with such "subjugated" people and provide monetary and material assistance to such Action Councils.. After this episode the people will tend to associate seperatist kashmiri movement with terror groups operating within pakistan and its infamous spy organisation.. So the world support to this seperatist movement is expected to go down.
 

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