Green Energy
Indian Express:
Posted online: Friday , Jan 29, 2010 at 0836 hrs
New Delhi : India is at greatest danger from being the target of the next attack from al-Qaeda or one of its several splinter groups, particularly those operating from Pakistan, the head of a prominent US think-tank has said.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and now president of the New America Foundation Steve Coll said that India-focused terrorist organisations operating from Pakistan had been successful in recruiting “talented operatives from educated classes and urban centres” and were much more powerful than their sister organisations fighting on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
“India-focused groups such as Lashkar, having enjoyed collaborative support from the Pakistani state for so many years, are larger... (its) ranks include scores of volunteer doctors and other post-graduate professionals,” Coll said.
Coll, a former managing editor of The Washington Post, was speaking on al-Qaeda and the US Policy.
“If one of these sub-networks (of al-Qaeda) did carry out a spectacular attack, the overwhelming likelihood is that it would be directed against India, which would again raise the spectre of disruptive military conflict, undermining US efforts in Afghanistan,” he said.
Coll incidentally had expressed similar fears about India in a recent interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta for NDTV’s Walk the Talk.
“The potential of these India-focused groups, with or without clandestine collaboration by Pakistani security forces or AQ (al-Qaeda) central, to repeat or exceed the scale of the provocative attack carried out in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, presents, in my judgment, one of the most serious current threats to the US interests in the complex of risks and dangers posed by al-Qaeda,” he told the US lawmakers.
Put 26/11 accused on trial: PC to Pakistan
New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said India would have no option but to conclude that Pakistan was “dragging its feet” on bringing perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice if it failed to put the accused in the case on trial. Meanwhile, Chidambaram could visit Islamabad next month to attend the SAARC Home Ministers’ conference. “An invitation has been received, but no decision has been taken yet,” a Home Ministry official said. Sources said a final call on whether Chidambaram visits Pakistan to attend the three-day conference, which begins on February 20, will be taken “with the concurrence of the External Affairs Ministry”. ENS
-
Fox: Police search Mumbai for 4 in alleged terror plot MUMBAI, India – Police searched India's financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said. Authorities...
- Pakistan's/isi Involvement In Mumbai
Times of India Pakistan Navy frogmen trained Kasab, other terrorists: Headley NEW DELHI: In yet another indication of the involvement of Pakistani establishment in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, LeT operative David Headley has corroborated the statement of...
- Rice Getting A Snootful Of Reality
DEBKAfile's military sources report that in their talks in New Delhi and Islamabad Wednesday, Dec. 3, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and top US soldier, Adm. Mike Mullen, failed to tamp down the rising military tensions between India and Pakistan....
- India Has Proof Pakistan's Isi Authorized Mumbai Attacks?
According to NDTV, it is so: More than a week after the Mumbai attack, sources have told NDTV that India has proof that the ISI mastermined the Mumbai attack. Sources in fact say that they are 100% certain that the attack was authorised by Pakistan's...
- Islamist Assault On India
A reader of Instapundit writes about the Mumbai attacks: This was not an Al Qaeda operation. This was planned and conducted by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency.Initially I thought that such an attack would be too explicit for the ISI. But...
Green Energy
Steve Coll: India facing high risk of Qaeda attack
Indian Express:
Posted online: Friday , Jan 29, 2010 at 0836 hrs
New Delhi : India is at greatest danger from being the target of the next attack from al-Qaeda or one of its several splinter groups, particularly those operating from Pakistan, the head of a prominent US think-tank has said.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and now president of the New America Foundation Steve Coll said that India-focused terrorist organisations operating from Pakistan had been successful in recruiting “talented operatives from educated classes and urban centres” and were much more powerful than their sister organisations fighting on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
“India-focused groups such as Lashkar, having enjoyed collaborative support from the Pakistani state for so many years, are larger... (its) ranks include scores of volunteer doctors and other post-graduate professionals,” Coll said.
Coll, a former managing editor of The Washington Post, was speaking on al-Qaeda and the US Policy.
“If one of these sub-networks (of al-Qaeda) did carry out a spectacular attack, the overwhelming likelihood is that it would be directed against India, which would again raise the spectre of disruptive military conflict, undermining US efforts in Afghanistan,” he said.
Coll incidentally had expressed similar fears about India in a recent interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta for NDTV’s Walk the Talk.
“The potential of these India-focused groups, with or without clandestine collaboration by Pakistani security forces or AQ (al-Qaeda) central, to repeat or exceed the scale of the provocative attack carried out in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, presents, in my judgment, one of the most serious current threats to the US interests in the complex of risks and dangers posed by al-Qaeda,” he told the US lawmakers.
Put 26/11 accused on trial: PC to Pakistan
New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said India would have no option but to conclude that Pakistan was “dragging its feet” on bringing perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice if it failed to put the accused in the case on trial. Meanwhile, Chidambaram could visit Islamabad next month to attend the SAARC Home Ministers’ conference. “An invitation has been received, but no decision has been taken yet,” a Home Ministry official said. Sources said a final call on whether Chidambaram visits Pakistan to attend the three-day conference, which begins on February 20, will be taken “with the concurrence of the External Affairs Ministry”. ENS
-
Fox: Police search Mumbai for 4 in alleged terror plot MUMBAI, India – Police searched India's financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said. Authorities...
- Pakistan's/isi Involvement In Mumbai
Times of India Pakistan Navy frogmen trained Kasab, other terrorists: Headley NEW DELHI: In yet another indication of the involvement of Pakistani establishment in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, LeT operative David Headley has corroborated the statement of...
- Rice Getting A Snootful Of Reality
DEBKAfile's military sources report that in their talks in New Delhi and Islamabad Wednesday, Dec. 3, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and top US soldier, Adm. Mike Mullen, failed to tamp down the rising military tensions between India and Pakistan....
- India Has Proof Pakistan's Isi Authorized Mumbai Attacks?
According to NDTV, it is so: More than a week after the Mumbai attack, sources have told NDTV that India has proof that the ISI mastermined the Mumbai attack. Sources in fact say that they are 100% certain that the attack was authorised by Pakistan's...
- Islamist Assault On India
A reader of Instapundit writes about the Mumbai attacks: This was not an Al Qaeda operation. This was planned and conducted by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency.Initially I thought that such an attack would be too explicit for the ISI. But...