Nancy Powell is new US envoy to India .

[Zebra]

HT Correspondent , Hindustan Times
Washington, December 17, 2011

The Obama administration on Friday nominated Nancy J Powell as the next ambassador to India. She is a career diplomat with several postings in South Asia, one of them as ambassador to Pakistan.

If confirmed by the US senate, as is the procedure, she will take over from Tim Roemer who left some months ago. Peter Burleigh has been the officiating ambassador since then as charges d'affaires.

Powell's last posting in the region was as ambassador to Nepal at a critical juncture for that country as it transitioned to democracy. The ambassador-designate has been posted to India before. She headed the US consulate in Kolkata.

Her appointment to India, if confirmed, will be her fifth ambassadorial assignment -- previous four being to Pakistan, Nepal, Uganda and Ghana.

Roemer, the previous ambassador, had announced his resignation the day after it became known that US companies Boeing and Lockheed were not on the short-list for India's multi-billion dollars purchase order for multi-role combat fighters better known by the acronym MMRCA.

It had then seemed to many that Roemer resigned in protest. He had, in fact, asked to be relieved of the position much before, the MMRCA announcement was just a coincidence.

His replacement, many in India had hoped, would be of the same political stature as the US ambassador to China Gary Locke, former Washington governor and commerce secretary.

A political appointee is often someone with a hotline right to the top, as opposed to the bureaucratic process preferred by careerists. But Powell, said people with insight into US foreign policy establishment, has both clout and seniority to matter.

Nancy Powell is new US envoy to India - Hindustan Times

 

[Zebra]

New US ambassador Nancy J Powell not new to India

Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi December 18, 2011, 0:20 IST

Chatter doesn't interest Nancy J Powell, the new US ambassador to India. She's quiet, prefers to listen rather than talk. And judging by that oracle that helps us all make up our own minds about the US — Wikileaks — she is adept at taking interlocutors by surprise with the depth of her knowledge.

Powell, who has been ambassador in Islamabad and Kathmandu (in addition to Ghana and Uganda earlier), reports her first encounter with Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist Prime Minister of Nepal in May 2008. Remember, her predecessor has been the somewhat shrill James Moriarty who has been exceedingly critical of the Maoists. Powell does not raise the past but suggests to Dahal that in his own interest it would help if he were to immediately address the activities of the Young Communist League.

The issue Powell flags is not extortion by the organisation, kidnapping or use of arms. She says it is imperative for YCL to immediately stop detaining Nepali drug users in so-called YCL "rehabilitation centres" in Kathmandu and torturing them. "The Ambassador noted that she had spoken to one of the victims who had testified to her mistreatment. The Ambassador informed the Prime Minister that this issue would be raised during any meetings Dahal had with senior US government officials in New York during the UN General Assembly, and he should be prepared to have answers" the WikiLeaks cable says.

Prachanda was speechless. He seemed to have expected many things but not this. The cable records: "The Prime Minister expressed surprise and concern at the news and asked for details. He stated — referring to the YCL — that his government was trying to control all these illegal activities. He also assured the Ambassador that these "remaining" activities would be dealt with."

The WikiLeaks cable abounds with similar nuggets of information that suggests the management style of the new US Ambassador to India: in a word, 'different'.

The last few US envoys in New Delhi have been political appointees rather than career diplomats. Robert Blackwill (2001-2003) was a towering intellectual but not a particularly good administrator. David Mulford (2004-2009), a retired banker, worked hard on economic issues. Timothy Roemer (2009-2011) was a civil servant with a marked political tilt but was adjudged by the Wall Street Journal as an ambassador who tried and failed (the US was cut out from the contract for 126 fighter jets worth $10 billion, although it did get a smaller contract for transport aircraft, and civil nuclear liability rules were not framed the way the US wanted them).

Nancy Powell is a career diplomat and more importantly a South Asia hand. She was known to do pretty plain talking to Pakistan — she was ambassador in Islamabad from 2002 to 2004, the most difficult years in the relationship between India and Pakistan. She complained publicly that Pakistani militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban had reconstituted themselves under different names. Pervez Musharraf, the then Pakistani president, re-banned the groups.

Powell's Delhi posting will not be her first. She has served in the consulate in Kolkata and in the US Embassy in Delhi. She is currently Director General of Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources at the Department of State. She was also the National Intelligence Officer for South Asia at the US National Intelligence Council.

Before she joined the foreign service (in 1977) she taught social studies in a high school in Iowa. No one knows what will happen in 2012 when President Barack Obama seeks re-election. That he has named an ambassador before then (though her appointment is yet to be confirmed by the Senate) suggests he has some plans for the somewhat sterile patch that Indo-US relations have fallen into.

 

[Virendra]

hmmm .. would want to know more on how she is disposed towards India

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Previous Positions

Ambassador to Nepal, July 16, 2007 – 2009
National Intelligence Officer for South Asia, National Intelligence Council, 2006–2007
Senior Coordinator for Avian Influenza and Infectious Diseases, 2006 (?)
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, March 14 – November 25, 2005[2]
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, November 2004 – March 2005
Ambassador to Pakistan, August 9, 2002 – October 2004
Ambassador to Ghana, August 14, 2001 – May 2002
Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, January 2001 – June 2001
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, July 1999 – January 2001
Ambassador to Uganda, 1997–1999
Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1995–1997
Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, 1993–1995
Consul General in Calcutta, India, 1992–1993
Deputy Chief of Mission in Lome, Togo, 1990–1992
Other overseas assignments have included Islamabad, Pakistan; Katmandu, Nepal; and Ottawa, Canada; and previous Washington assignments were those of Nepal Desk Officer and Refugee Assistance Officer

 

[Nagraj]

Hmmmm she hasn't got a chance ......
against this pakistani bomb

 

[Singh]

Hmmmm she hasn't got a chance ......
against this pakistani bomb

Hina Rabbani Khar is not a bomb and she has a very manly voice which is a total KLPD.
She is loaded though, her polo club in Lahore is quite decadent by Pakistani standards, and each of her outfits costs several thousand dollars.

 

[agentperry]

hina is lady gaga... moreover nancy is quite experienced one as she had been in pakistan and nepal where India's interests are present. she knows how to deal with India as she knows pakistan and nepal inside out( supposedly). her nepal experience will give china related dealing capability and pakistan is after all pakistan.
best of luck to her and lets hope for the best

 

[The Messiah]

Hina Rabbani Khar is not a bomb and she has a very manly voice which is a total KLPD.
She is loaded though, her polo club in Lahore is quite decadent by Pakistani standards, and each of her outfits costs several thousand dollars.

i have been spouting the same thing for months...some people still live in caves and dont know what beauty is.

 

[debasree]

dont know about her attitude about india or indian ,hope she will not like mrs albright or christina roca who are known anti india persons

 

[Nagraj]

well dunno about the voice. in the pic well she looks naughty

Hina Rabbani Khar is not a bomb and she has a very manly voice which is a total KLPD.
She is loaded though, her polo club in Lahore is quite decadent by Pakistani standards, and each of her outfits costs several thousand dollars.

 

[Nagraj]

beauty lies in the eyes of beholder.or rather .........

i have been spouting the same thing for months...some people still live in caves and dont know what beauty is.

 

[Param]

Hina Rabbani Khar is not a bomb and she has a very manly voice which is a total KLPD.
She is loaded though, her polo club in Lahore is quite decadent by Pakistani standards, and each of her outfits costs several thousand dollars.

That,s not a problem.A simple tape is enough.

 

[hitesh]

don't call dignitaries a bomb shell etc you all are gentlemen are't you ?