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."
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.
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
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