U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: ‘ISI agent Fai ran Kashmir propaganda in UK also’!

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zeenews.india.com / Last Updated: Sunday, August 14, 2011, 18:02.

London: Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been charged with being an undeclared agent of ISI in the US, was also a director of a UK-based organisation, promoting Pakistani interest on Kashmir, a media report said.

Fai, who heads the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council (KAC) was arrested by FBI for allegedly collaborating with Pakistan's spy agency by "clandestinely" funnelling hundreds and thousands of dollars to change the view of American lawmakers on Kashmir.

Fai, 62, was also a director of the Justice Foundation based in Bloomsbury, which hosted events for British lawmakers to promote Pakistani interests on Kashmir, using millions of dollars of covert funding, the Daily Telegraph said.

"MPs hosted events in Parliament for an organistation which has been accused of being a front for Pakistani spies, it can be disclosed," it reported.

The Justice Foundation is alleged to have been promoting Pakistani interests over Kashmir, using millions of dollars of covert funding, it said. The executive director of the foundation in London is Nazir Ahmad Shawl.

The scandal follows the arrest last year of Katia Zatuliveter, a House of Commons researcher accused of being a Russian spy.

The Daily Telegraph said that Fai was also a director of the Justice Foundation based in Bloomsbury, central London, alongside three British men and two Indian nationals, one of them based in Saudi Arabia.

US prosecutors claim that three "Kashmir Centers" in Washington, London and Brussels, are run on behalf of "elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan's military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI)."

Full Story at,

http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/isi-agent-fai-ran-kashmir-propaganda-in-uk-also_726194.html

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: Fai case referred to grand jury!

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Press Trust Of India / ibnlive.in.com / Posted on Aug 13, 2011 at 12:08pm IST.

Washington: The case of Kashmiri separatist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been charged by the FBI of being an undeclared agent of Pakistani spy agency ISI in the US, has been referred to a grand jury which will determine if there is enough evidence for a trial.

"The matter has been referred to the grand jury, so no further hearings are scheduled pending action by the grand jury," an official of the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, told PTI.

A grand jury is traditionally larger than and distinguishable from a 'petit' jury or the trial jury, which is used during a trial.

Grand juries carry out their job by examining evidence and issuing indictments, or by investigating alleged crimes and issuing presentments.

The court official said it is the grand jury which will determine if there is enough evidence for trial against Fai, who is currently under house arrest with electronic surveillance at his residence in Fairfax, an effluent suburb of Washington.

Fai heads the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council (KAC).

Meanwhile, following an appeal by the prosecution, the Alexandria court hearing the case ordered that the defence would not make any of the classified information public without the consent of the court.

Assistant United States Attorney, Gordon D Kromberg, had moved a motion for protective order, seeking an order by the court to ensure that secret evidence and information in the case are not disclosed by Fai's attorneys.

Kromberg said Fai has been charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign principal without registering with the Attorney General, and to falsify, conceal, and cover up material by tricks, schemes, and devices, in this matter. By foreign principal, Kromberg meant the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/us-fai-case-referred-to-grand-jury/175407-2.html

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: Alleged Pak lobbyist Ghulam Nabi Fai gets bail!

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NDTV Correspondent, Updated: July 27, 2011 14:34 IST.

Virginia:  Ghulam Nabi Fai, alleged to be an ISI agent and charged with trying to influence the policy of White House and Congress on Kashmir, raised his hand in jubilation after the judge announced that he would be released on bail. 

He then stood there, for a tad longer than necessary, soaking up the moment and eventually had to be taken out of the room by the security officials. His wife did not even wait to step out of the courtroom before she broke out into a triumphant cheer. 

"Dinner is on me. I thank you for your duty. Justice will be done and we hope one day justice will be done for the people of Kashmir," said Chang Ning Ying Q, wife of Ghulam Nabi Fai. 

It seems the Fai family is not seeing his arrest and pending trial as a setback and are determined to use these developments to internationalise the issue of Kashmir here in the US.

 

"I just want to thank god today. Thank you," wife of Mr Fai told NDTV.

As the prosecution and the defence argued it out about whether Mr Fai should be released on bail or not, the FBI officer in charge of this case took the stand. She testified that 80 per cent of Mr Fai's statements come from the ISI and he repeats them verbatim. The prosecutor then told the judge that Mr Fai should not be released because he was an agent of the ISI and that the ISI would look out for one of their guys. With the ISI having similar facilities in the UK and Brussels, Mr Fai would be a flight risk, added the prosecutor.

However, in the end, the judge decided that Mr Fai should be released on bail but under some strict conditions.

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http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/fai-released-on-bond-placed-under-house-arrest-122268?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NdtvNews-TopStories+%28NDTV+News+-+Top+Stories%29

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: Fai’s arrest pains Pak.!

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ANITA JOSHUA / The Hindu / ISLAMABAD, July 22, 2011.

The Foreign Office on Thursday night issued a demarche to the U.S. Embassy here to register Islamabad's concerns over the slander campaign against Pakistan following the arrest of Kashmiri-American Council's (KAC) director Ghulam Nabi Fai by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Breaking its silence two days after his arrest, the Foreign Office also said the Pakistan Embassy in Washington had been asked to ascertain the details. In a late night statement, the Foreign Office recorded Pakistan's appreciation for the contributions made by the KAC and Dr. Fai for the cause of Jammu & Kashmir.

Stating that J&K is one of the oldest disputes on the agenda of the United Nations, the Foreign Office noted that upholding fundamental rights of Kashmiris is the fundamental responsibility of the international community and all conscientious people who value human rights and values.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2282571.ece

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: I was unaware Fai was an undercover agent: Swamy!

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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.”

Dr. Fai has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for receiving millions of dollars in funds from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to influence politicians and opinion makers on Kashmir.

In a statement, Dr. Swamy said he delivered an address on Kashmir in the seminar held in the U.S. Senate Building in Washington in the summer of 2003. At that time, he was teaching economics at the Harvard University. He had checked with the Indian Embassy about the organisers and was told that ‘it was an anti-Indian gathering but not that it was ISI-inspired.”

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2282617.ece

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: 'ISI agent in US donated $250 to Obama'!

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• July 20, 2011 
• IANS 
• Washington / DC.

Indiana Congressman Dan Burton, a strong pro-Pakistan Republican Party member, is the biggest single recipient of funds from a man accused of being a spy for the Pakistani government.

But Barack Obama was also one of the beneficiaries, getting a $250 donation during the 2008 presidential campaign, a media report said Wednesday.

Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested on Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a probe disclosing that Pakistani intelligence services had secretly spent millions of dollars through a front group over the past 20 years to lobby Congress and the White House to tilt their Kashmir opinion against India.

According to the Washington Post, Federal Election Commission records show that Fai and his aide Zaheer Ahmad have donated at least $30,000 to campaigns and political parties, including a $250 donation to Obama two days before the November 2008 election.

An aide for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign said the contribution would be returned, the Post said.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/world/north-america/isi-agent-us-donated-250-obama-915

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: ISI Fai’s Indian links will be probed!

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• July 21, 2011 
• By Namrata Biji Ahuja With Agency Inputs 
• Correspondent 
• New Delhi/Washington / DC.

Top separatist leaders in India, including Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and hardliners like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, have come under the security agencies’ scanner for their links with Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American citizen and director of the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council (KAC), arrested by the FBI on Tuesday on charges of being an agent of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

In documents filed in a US court, the FBI charged that he had funnelled $4 million from the ISI to secretly try and influence US policy on Kashmir. The KAC is a group that lobbies for “self-determination” for Kashmir.
Fai, 62, who was produced in court soon after his arrest at his Fairfax, Virginia home on Tuesday, faces up to five years in prison. His next court hearing is on Thursday. The FBI claimed he had four “handlers” in the ISI and that he had contacted them over 4,000 times since June 2008.

In New Delhi, the Union home ministry expressed happiness at Fai’s arrest and the charges filed by the FBI which had “exposed” the ISI’s activities in the US, of which it claimed to have had prior information. The Indian government plans to seek details from the US authorities on the arrest and court proceedings there.
Indian officials said it might be too early to list Fai’s “suspicious” contacts within this country, but claimed that many top separatist leaders had met him and shared close links “since he acted as their spokesperson in various seminars organised by his NGO”.

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/isi-fai%E2%80%99s-indian-links-will-be-probed-003

U.S. IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: Spy Fai link - prominent Indians face the heat!

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CNN-IBN / Updated Jul 21, 2011 at 09:56pm IST.

New Delhi: It's a storm in Washington that's now spread to Delhi and Srinagar. Days after the FBI arrested Ghulam Nabi Fai, a prominent Kashmiri separatist, for funnelling ISI money to lobby for the Kashmir cause in the US, many prominent Indians are facing the heat. The main charge that they attended conferences organised by Fai.

The varied list of invitees includes the government's Kashmir interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar, Janta party president and right-winger Subramanian Swamy, Civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha and several Indian journalists. All of whom are now being asked to explain if they knew Fai was an ISI agent.

FBI officials will bring Fai to court on Friday to discuss his detention making the case that the 62-year-old businessmen channeled four million dollars over two decades to push Pakistan's Kashmir goals in the US and contacting the ISI more than 4000 times in the past three years and paying US congressmen thousands of dollars to lobby for him.

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/spy-fai-link-prominent-indians-face-the-heat/169277-2.html

PAK IMPROPER LOBBYING CASE: Pak military plotted to tilt US policy on Kashmir, says FBI!

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Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, Updated: July 20, 2011 17:12 IST.

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 Kashmir - including funnelling campaign donations to members of Congress and presidential candidates, the F.B.I. claimed in court papers unsealed on Tuesday.

The allegations of a long-running plan to influence American elections and foreign policy come at a time of deep tensions between the United States and Pakistan - and in particular its spy agency - amid the fallout over the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden at a compound deep inside Pakistan on May 2.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation made the allegations in a 43-page affidavit filed in connection with the indictment of two United States citizens on charges that they failed to register with the Justice Department as agents of Pakistan, as required by law. One of the men, Zaheer Ahmad, is in Pakistan, but the other, Syed Fai, lives in Virginia and was arrested on Tuesday.

Mr. Fai is the director of the Kashmiri American Council, a Washington-based group that lobbies for and holds conferences and media events to promote the cause of self-determination for Kashmir. According to the affidavit, the activities by the group, also called the Kashmiri Centre, are largely financed by Pakistan's spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, along with as much as $100,000 a year in related donations to political campaigns in the United States. Foreign governments are prohibited from making donations to American political candidates.

"Mr. Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose - to hide Pakistan's involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government's position on Kashmir," Neil MacBride, the United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, said. "His handlers in Pakistan allegedly funnelled millions through the Kashmir Centre to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington."

A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy denied any connection to matter, saying, "Mr. Fai is not a Pakistani citizen, and the government and embassy of Pakistan have no knowledge of the case."

Law enforcement officials said Pakistan used a network of at least 10 unnamed straw contributors, which Mr. Ahmad helped organize, to make the campaign contributions and donate the bulk of the Kashmiri Centre's annual operating budget. The ISI would reimburse them - or their families in Pakistan - for the donations, the officials said.

Most of the straw donors who made contributions to the Kashmiri Centre and to politicians in the United States were identified only by code in the court document, though the investigation was continuing and eight F.B.I. field offices executed 17 or 18 search warrants related to other suspected donors on Tuesday, an official said.

The 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. 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.

Full Story at,

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/pak-military-plotted-to-tilt-us-policy-on-kashmir-says-fbi-120624

Pakistan funded Washington lobby group, Culprit is in Federal Custody - U.S. says!

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By the CNN Wire Staff / July 19, 2011 -- Updated 2341 GMT (0741 HKT).

Washington (CNN) -- Pakistani intelligence secretly funneled at least $4 million to a Washington front group whose leaders improperly lobbied U.S. officials over the disputed territory of Kashmir, federal agents alleged Tuesday.

A Pakistani-American man who served as director of the Kashmiri American Council is in federal custody, while a second man accused of steering money to the organization is believed to be in Pakistan, the Justice Department said. The KAC director, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, "acted at the direction and with the financial support of the government of Pakistan for more than 20 years," an FBI arrest affidavit states.

One U.S. congressman quickly gave $4,000 donated by the two men charged in the case to charity, while another said he would consider a similar move if the source of the money was in question.

Fai and his co-defendant, Zaheer Ahmad, have been charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists acting on behalf of another nation to register with the U.S. government. The charge carries a possible prison term of up to five years.

Short, balding and bespectacled, Fai made a brief initial appearance in federal court in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday afternoon. He wore a short-sleeved, checked shirt and dark slacks at the hearing, during which no plea was entered.

Full Story at,

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/19/pakistan.lobbying/index.html?hpt=hp_t2