Message From John Brindle at Dabhol

Rebecca, Wade, and Steve,

We arrived in Mumbai Tuesday evening and have been at Dabhol since Wednesday
evaluating the situation here. At this time, we believe the most prudent
course of action is for Wade to meet with the American Ambassador and
ministerial-level officials in New Delhi in order to convince the Indian
Government to deploy specialized security units within the Home Ministry to
Dabhol as soon as possible. At the same time, DPC and contractors should
continue the measured drawn down of dependents and begin assessing a drawdown
in both nonessential expat personnel and Indian national personnel. Ken
Lambert and the other members of the executive management team on site concur
with these recommendations.

The size and terrain of the Dabhol site make it completely indefensible. The
local guard force working for DPC is not allowed to use force and is
incapable of handling anything more than checking identification badges. On
the other hand, the Maharashtra state paramilitary forces (SRP) currently at
Dabhol are poorly disciplined and have a history of human rights abuses.
Moreover, as they are controlled by the politicians of this state, they
cannot be trusted to react or not deliberately overreact. While we are
continuing to evaluate numerous short notice mass evacuation options, this
remains highly problematic and possibly dangerous for a number of reasons
relating to current and upcoming seasonal weather conditions, the size and
remoteness of this facility, and the large number of expats currently on
site. We are convinced that the best course of action to ensure the safety
of personnel at Dabhol is to obtain the cooperation of the Indian Government
at the federal level and draw down personnel in the manner described above.
This would obviate the need to execute a risky evacuation of large numbers of
personnel under hostile conditions and would also provide a credible
deterrent those seeking to incite violence.

We hope to discuss the above issues in greater detail with Wade on Monday
morning and will brief Rebecca and Steve upon our return to Houston. As we
are travelling with only one laptop for security reasons, please address any
responses to Gabriella Cigarroa.
John