Powell, who agreed that there were similarities between the Mumbai attacks and the attack in December 2001 when the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad had launched attacks on the Indian Parliament, said at the time Islamabad had promised to completely eliminate and dismantle these terrorist networks, and was surprised to find that seven years later they were still very much alive and thriving.
United States Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said the absence of an operational incident manager -- as was developed in the US after the 9/11 attack -- clearly was a major problem during the Mumbai terror attacks, where there was a glaring lack of coordination between various departments and agencies.
Close on the heels of the United States Senate, the US House of Representatives, in a bipartisan resolution, has strongly condemned the 'senseless and barbaric terrorist attacks' in Mumbai. The House also expressed its sympathy for the 'innocent victims from India and around the world'.The House resolution was pproved unanimously, and co-sponsored by over 50 members from both sides of the aisle -- Democrats and Republicans.
The US Senate has unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution introduced by Senators Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat and George Voinovich, Ohio Republican -- both members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- condemning the terrorists attacks in Mumbai and applauding India's restraint so far as it investigates the attacks.
'This is the basic mistake in our methodology of tackling terrorism -- there is no intelligence integration, there is no operational coordination.'
Los Angeles Police Department Counter-Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Commanding Officer Michael P Downing will lead a small delegation, including executive, investigative, and tactical officers to Mumbai, 'to learn, observe, and bring back best practices to LAPD,' and to disseminate to other major cities to help guard against Mumbai-like terrorist attacks on American soft targets.
Notwithstanding Pakistan's claim that its security forces have arrested Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, suspected to be the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, along with several other key LeT terrorists, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Washington and US intelligence are still to confirm the veracity of these claims.
"What I am going to restate is a basic principle. Number one, if a country is attacked, it has the right to defend itself. I think that is universally acknowledged," Obama asserted. "The second thing is that we need a strategic partnership with all the parts in the region -- Pakistan and India and the Afghanistan government -- to stamp out militant, violent, terrorist extremists."
'I don't see any relationship between them and ex-army or ex-ISI as has been happening in the past,' says strategic analyst Shuja Nawaz, who is convinced the Pakistan army and its intelligence wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence, are not complicit in the Mumbai terror attacks.
Noted South Asia expert Stephen P Cohen has asserted that India can do more to rescue Pakistan than any other country even as tensions mount over the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Riedel, who was also the erstwhile director for South Asia in the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration and most recently an adviser on foreign policy to the Obama campaign, said it's difficult to believe the Pakistani government's assertions that its intelligence service has no links to LeT. If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it is finding out the "extent of its ties to the Pakistani intelligence service."
"It is now time for Pakistan to say, we are with you and we will take action because we now face a common threat and that is from radical Islamic militants," said Karl Inderfurth, who is likely to play an important role in the incoming Obama administration.
Robert Hathaway, currently director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, said, "The US calls for patience are not likely to satisfy New Delhi, and when Secretary Rice arrives in India she is likely to face sharp questioning about Washington's continued support for Pakistan."
'Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan,' a report by a high-powered bipartisan commission that was mandated by the United States Congress, that nation's parliament, has said.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, hours before arriving in New Delhi, was circumspect when asked if US intelligence had warned India that a deadly terror attack in Mumbai is likely, as reported by the media, which is quoting unnamed counter-terrorism officials.Rice said that "We've been through that in the United States. It's a tough business, particularly, for a democracy, and so I have to tell you, I have a lot of empathy for what they're going through."
'Three days of terror, beamed live around the world. There's a lot of money in it.'
At a press conference that followed his rolling out his national security team on Monday, Obama when reminded that during the campaign he had said if there was irrefutable evidence of Al Qaeda leaders and training camps in Pakistan, he would go after them with or without Pakistan's permission and asked if India has that same right, replied, "Sovereign nations obviously have a right to protect themselves."
Karl 'Rick' Inderfurth, foreign policy advisor on South Asia for United States President-elect Barack Obama's campaign, who is expected to play an influential role in the Obama administration's policy on the subcontinent, says, "It was said immediately after the 9/11 attack that 'we are all Americans'. Now, in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy, it is right for all of us to say 'we are all Indians.'
Bruce Riedel, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is being talked about as likely to be tapped for a senior position in an Obama Administration that deals with South Asia, said while the LeT's continuing relationship with the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, is much debated and the Pakistani authorities deny any such relationship, "The fact is that the organisation has been tolerated in Pakistan despite the 2002 ban."
Former Central Investigative Agency deputy director John McLaughlin, a 32-year veteran of the agency who has studied the Lashkar-e-Tayiba extensively, believes that while the "Pakistani intelligence was instrumental in helping to create the LeT in the outset, these days it's not at all clear that the Pakistani intelligence has any direct control over this group."He said he was skeptical that even rogue elements in the Inter Services Intelligence today held any sway.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances