India facing same issues
as US post 9/11: Rice
By Arun Kumar
Washington,
Dec 10 (IANS) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the
Mumbai terror attacks pose before India the same challenge
that the US faced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks - how to
get information to prevent future strikes.
President
George W. Bush was determined after the Sep 11, 2001, terror
attacks to do everything that was within US domestic laws
and international obligations to make sure that a follow-on
attack was prevented, she said in an interview with the National
Public Radio (NPR).
"And
information to prevent an attack is the long pole in the tent
when you're dealing with terrorism. You can't wait until somebody's
committed a crime and then go and punish them," she said,
defending the US treatment of terror suspects.
"The
Indians - I was just in India because of the Mumbai attacks,
and they were going through the same issue of how you prevent
attacks and how do you get the information that you need to
prevent attacks," she said.
"But
a lot has happened since those days. We've been able to know
more about the structure of Al Qaeda. We have other ways to
prevent attacks."
"The
Indian government is working hard to improve its own counter-terrorism
capability, to get the information that you need to stop attacks,
to do what we did in overcoming the kind of stove-piping that
is really so detrimental to using information to become knowledge,
to become actionable," Rice said.
Asked
if after her trip to India and Pakistan last week she was
still worried about a possible conflict between the two countries
over the Mumbai killings, Rice said: "Well, I think we
have to be concerned because it's obviously a time of great
outrage in India."
Rice
said she had emphasised that terrorists were a threat to both
Pakistan and India, and Islamabad needed to act since their
territory had been used for these non-state actors to make
those attacks.
"Also,
Americans were killed, which gave the United States a special
responsibility."
The
top US diplomat said she was "pleased to see that some
steps are being taken, some important steps are being taken
in Pakistan".
"We
are working hard to try and clarify and verify what is actually
happening there, but there seem to be some positive steps
being taken," she added.
The
terrorists also "wanted to abort what has been a positive
direction in Pakistani-Indian relations", Rice said noting
"in 2001-2002, they really were on the brink of war after
the Indian parliament was attacked."
The
relationship between Pakistan and India is very different
now, she said with the Pakistani government, "a legitimate
civilian government that has been reaching out to India, and
vice versa."
Asked
if military officials in Pakistan were going to follow every
lead, Rice said: "Well, they are - they seem to be making
important steps.
"Nobody
wants to escalate this conflict. And to escalate it is simply
going to invite unintended consequences and perhaps circumstances
that are worse than the ones that we face now," she said.
The
Pakistanis also "appear to be working to root out and
to arrest some of these people, and that's very important".
Rice
said she would certainly give her advice to the incoming Obama
team about some things that are under way like relations with
India and China.
"I
think that we've had very good relations with India which
have served us well during this recent crisis, and with China,"
she said.
"In
fact, when people talk about the image of the United States,
I would just note that in the two most populous states, China
and India, the United States is quite well-regarded."
Indo-Asian
News Service
Prabuddha
Bharata>>>
Vedanta
Kesari>>>
Vedanta
Mass Media>>>
|