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.
As tensions ratcheted up with India pointing an accusing finger at Pakistan for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, US President Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a second time to offer him all assistance in investigating this tragedy, even as he instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to go to New Delhi to offer his and the United States' condolences and to tone down India's angry rhetoric against Islamabad which could spill over to a military conflict.
It was both a defiant and defensive Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, who in appearing on the Sunday news talk shows on television, and asked to explain India's accusing finger at Pakistan for the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, began pointing to the 9/11 terrorist coming from countries that couldn't be held responsible for the attacks and also terrorist training camps in the United States itself.
United States President-elect Barack Obama, in a statement condoling the deaths of two American citizens in the Mumbai terror attack, declared that these terrorists 'will not defeat India's great democracy'.Obama asserted that "these terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them." "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been touched by this terrible tragedy," he said.
United States President George W Bush, who continues to be briefed on the terror attack in Mumbai by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as he spends the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at the presidential retreat in Camp David, has condoled the deaths of two Americans in the attack."Laura and I are deeply saddened that at least two Americans were killed and others injured in Wednesday's horrific attacks in Mumbai," said a statement by the President.
The spectacular terrorist attacks in Mumbai that caught everyone by surprise by the level of coordination and implementation highlights that the Indian security forces lack the depth of intelligence needed to counter such sophistication, a specialist in counter-terrorism and homeland security with Jane's Strategic Advisory Services in London, has said
Walter Andersen, associate director of the South Asia Program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, told rediff.com, "I am surprised that after several terrorist incidents, the government hasn't moved faster to get something much more effectively in place. You have a totally incompetent home minister, and why he isn't removed is beyond me."
United States President-elect Barack Obama called up Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again on the morning of Thanksgiving Day, to get the latest update on the Mumbai terror attacks.A spokesman for the President-elect said, "This morning, President-elect Obama spoke with Secretary Rice by phone to get an update on the situation in Mumbai."The President-elect also called Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen to condole the loss of innocent lives and to convey his deepest sympathies.
Professor Deepa Ollapally said, "The way in which this was carried out, it does suggest that they needed some fairly sophisticated, coordinated planning. And, if the reports are true about their rounding up Americans and British, then it sounds like there is an Al Qaeda hand possibly, which again would be the most obvious difference between every other terrorist attack that has gone on before (in India)."
He then immediately called Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen to offer his condolences at the loss of innocent lives at the hands of this wanton violence perpetrated by the terrorists.
On the president's directive, officials have also kept President-elect Barack Obama's national security team posted with all the latest information to make sure "they are in the loop."
India's Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs Vayalar Ravi, keynoting the 15th biannual convention of the National Federation of Indian Associations, said the election of Senator Barack Obama as the new President of the United States had rewritten not just the history of America, but the history of the world.
Inderfurth, currently professor of international relations at George Washington University and, according to insiders, either the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the next administration or the next United States ambassador to India, says too much is being read into Obama's recent remarks on Kashmir.
Concerned over reports of United States President-elect Barack Obama's transition team member Sonal Shah's links with right-wing Hindu groups, some Indian-Americans have expressed fear that it might possibly influence the US policies towards India
Yet another young Indian American Democratic Party activist has been named for United States President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.Parag Mehta, 31, has been named the deputy director of inter-governmental affairs and public liaison of the Obama-Biden transition team, charged with outreach to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other minority groups.His appointment follows close on the heels of the appointments of two Indian Americans.
Sonal Shah, currently director for Global Development at google.org in promoting the firm's philanthropy will serve on President-elect Barack Obama's official 15-member transition board to be announced on Wednesday. Preeta Bansal, partner at the international law firm of Skadden Arps and a senior adviser on the Obama campaign is also expected to play a significant role.
They said of Thomas Moore that nothing became his life as much as his manner of leaving it. Replace 'life' with 'cricket', and that is equally poignantly true of Anil Kumble, writes Prem Panicker.
Congressman Mike Honda of California, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, believes the ability of the Indian-American community to mobilize is an increasingly potent indication of its clout, and that it can translate into an effective weapon in the coming presidential elections.
A coalition of community organisations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area accorded a rousing farewell to the deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy, Ambassador Raminder Singh Jassal, who will now take charge as India's new ambassador to Turkey.
US President George W Bush on Thursday signed into law the legislation to implement the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal paving the way for the two countries to formally ink the 123 agreement on Friday.
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