INDIA
BUGGED BLAIR'S HOTEL ROOM
Extensions of Remarks
HON. EDOLPHUS
TOWNS
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007
Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker,
on August 3, India-West reported that during former British Prime Minister Tony
Blair's visit to India shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the Indian regime bugged
Prime Minister Blair's hotel room. According to the article, they didn't do
a very good job of it, either.
India-West reported that Prime Minister Blair's associate, Alistair Campbell,
wrote in his book that Blair's people found the bugs but decided not to make
a fuss about them. According to India-West, Campbell writes that ''On his way
to the hotel, Blair asked the then British High Commissioner in India if the
car was bugged only to receive a 'kind of noncommittal no.' '' Campbell also
describes the discovery of two listening devices in Prime Minister Blair's hotel
room. Campbell reported that the bugs couldn't be removed ''without drilling
the wall,'' so Mr. Blair simply used a different room. He also writes about
a valet named Sunil who was there wherever Campbell went. ''I was beginning
to wonder whether he had been put there either by spooks or by a paper,'' Campbell
wrote.
Madam Speaker, this is an outrage. The fact that India feels the need to spy
on a democratic leader who is fighting the same war on terror that India claims
to support shows that India's sympathies do not lie on the side of the Free
World. It also shows that India's claims to be a democracy ring hollow. Perhaps
they can hear their claims ring hollow in one of their listening devices.
Those claims are further belied by India's ongoing repression against Sikhs,
Christians, Muslims, and other minorities. We all know that India has murdered
more than a quarter of a million Sikhs, over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland,
more than 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat, and
tens of thousands of other minorities such as manipuris, Tamils, Bodos, Assamese,
Bengalis, Dalits, et cetera. We all know of the tens of thousands of political
prisoners. Harassment and false arrest are common. Some Sikh activists were
arrested for making speeches and raising a flag! Does that sound like democracy
to you, Madam Speaker?
Why do we accept this? America is founded on the idea of freedom for all. There
is something we can do about the tyranny in India. We owe it to the oppressed
people there to stop our aid and trade with India (especially since more than
836 million people there live on less than 40 cents per day) and we should demand
self-determination for the people of Punjab, Khalsitan, Nagalim, Kashmir, and
all people seeking their freedom. Self-determination is the essence of democracy.
Our actions can help bring real freedom and prosperity to all the people of
the subcontinent. Let us do whatever we can.
[From the Times of India, Aug. 3, 2007]
DELHI
CLUMSILY BUGGED TONY BLAIR'S ROOM DURING 2001 VISIT
(By Rashmee Roshan
Lall)
LONDON -- Indian intelligence clumsily bugged Tony Blair's
hotel room in Delhi during the British prime minister's visit to India one month
after the 9/11 attacks, his chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell has said.
In his newly published diaries released in India July 25. Campbell said Blair's entourage found the bugs but decided not to make a fuss. On his way to the hotel, Blair asked the then British High Commissioner in Delhi if the car was bugged, only to receive a ''kind of noncommittal no.'' Campbell writes about Blair's passage to India on Oct. 5, 2001.
Later, he describes an ''incriminating'' discovery of two bugs in the British prime minister's hotel room.
''At the hotel, our security service guys had found two bugs in TB's bedroom and said they wouldn't be able to move them without drilling the wall, so TB used a different room,'' he wrote.
Campbell's revelations are probably the first time someone within the innermost circle of a British prime minister has openly accused the Indian authorities of bugging and dirty tricks. Campbell also claims in the diaries, titled ''The Blair Years,'' that he too was probably spied upon by Indian intelligence, via the services of a ''valet'' named Sunil.
The ''valet,'' says Campbell drove him ''bananas everywhere I went, he was there. I was beginning to wonder whether he had been put there either by the spooks or a paper.''
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