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U.S. gag order on nuclear deal

Asks Congress to keep even unclassified information ’secret’

Washington: With the India-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement remaining stalled, the State Department has issued a “virtual gag order,” asking Congress to keep even unclassified information “secret,” for fear that public disclosure could “torpedo” the deal.

Lynne Weil, a spokeswoman for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the State Department provided a lot of information on the deal, but the panel agreed not to disclose the answers because “some data might be considered diplomatically sensitive.”

However, The Washington Post said on Friday that the deal was in “such desperate” straits that the State Department had imposed the “unusually strict condition” asking the lawmakers to “keep secret” the answers it had provided.

The State Department made the request to Congress because though the answers were not classified, the officials fear that public disclosure would torpedo the deal, unnamed sources were quoted as saying by The Post.

Nearly 50 questions posed by Congress are highly technical, but they were carefully crafted to get to the heart of the balancing act the administration has performed between adhering to the letter of U.S. non-proliferation law and assuaging Indian concerns that it was not being treated like a true nuclear power, the daily said.

One of the questions, it is said, pertains to whether the U.S. would terminate nuclear trade if India resumes nuclear testing, a sensitive point in New Delhi. Though it is required under U.S. law, the answer is not entirely clear from the text of the U.S.-India agreement.

A group of prominent non-proliferation experts has decried the “virtual gag order,” but so far the answers have not leaked as only a handful of lawmakers have been able to read them.

“The administration’s unwillingness to make their answers more widely available suggests they have something to hide from either U.S. or Indian legislators,” said Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association.

Another series of questions addresses the U.S. commitment to supply India with a “reliable supply of fuel” for its reactors, including a pledge to take steps to “guard against the disruption of fuel supplies.” — PTI

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