Rice Demands Robust Response From Pakistan

Rice Demands Robust Response from Pakistan (NSI News Source Info) December 4, 2008: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is increasing pressure on Pakistan’s government to help get to the bottom of the terror bombings in next-door India. After expressing US condolences for the more than 170 deaths in India, Rice is in Pakistan for meetings with civilian and military leaders.

The US wants Pakistan to do more to go after terror cells rooted in Pakistan. Rice traded places with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, who was pushing the same message in Pakistan on Wednesday. He’s now in the Indian capital.

On the plane ride to Islamabad, Rice told reporters Pakistan must provide a robust and effective response to the attacks in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Wednesday to refocus India and Pakistan on a common fight against terrorism and away from their mutual suspicions of one another, but neither country seemed willing to go along.

Rice made an emergency condolence visit to India a week after a coordinated terror assault on Western or financial targets in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai.

The attackers targeted symbols of the city’s wealth, tourist appeal and Western outlook. Six Americans were among the 171 people who died.

Rice spent the day urging cooperation between the nuclear rivals, but the rhetoric in both countries only grew hotter. The US wants broader sharing of intelligence and a commitment by Pakistan to root out terror groups that have found a comfortable perch in the Muslim country.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, right, shakes hands with U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008. Rice said the Pakistani government must mount a "robust response" to the terror shooting in India, which blames the carnage on terrorists operating from neighboring Pakistan

"I informed Dr. Rice that there is no doubt that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan," Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

That left Rice to say Pakistan bears a ‘’special responsibility” to help get to the bottom of the attacks while awkwardly declining to finger Pakistani militants outright. Mukherjee said the view that the Mumbai attacks were based in Pakistan is broadly shared around the world, putting Rice on the spot.

She said she would not prejudge an investigation into the attacks. While Rice was assuring India of US help in fighting terrorism the top US military officer was next door in Pakistan for closed-door talks. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was meeting civilian and military officials of both India and Pakistan during the trip, a senior defense official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The official declined to give details and spoke privately because the meetings were still under way, saying only ”It’s all about a cooperative approach to regional security.” Pakistan’s president Asif Zardari indicated on Wednesday he would not hand over 20 suspects wanted by India and said they would be tried in Pakistan if there were evidence of wrongdoing.

Indian muslims marched in the streets of Mumbai Wednesday Dec. 3, 2008 to protest against the recent attacks on their city and to condemn Pakistan. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Islamabad has a "special responsibility" to cooperate with the investigation into the attacks, which Indian and U.S. officials have blamed on militant groups based in Pakistan

Thousands of Indians — many calling for war with Pakistan — gathered in Mumbai for a vigil to mark one week since the beginning of the deadly rampage. More than 2,000 students marched through Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, shouting anti-US and anti-Indian slogans. The Bush administration has had varying success in reframing its relationship with both countries, which have fought three wars with one another.

In Pakistan’s case, a new civilian government has replaced a military government that was a strong ally of President George W. Bush in fighting terrorism. In India, a troubled nuclear cooperation deal finally came through this fall and both nations have said it signaled a fresh start after years of lingering Cold war distance.

Additional Info

Outside View: Pakistan's Mumbai alibi

(NSI) December 4, 2008: Since the terror attacks on Mumbai five days ago, Indian security sources have promoted evidence that the attackers were trained by elements of the Pakistani military. While the field training took place at a camp run by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, fluency in the handling of ordnance was taught at another ISI safe house on the outskirts of Karachi. Pakistan has done little to create deniability about these connections or earlier links discovered by U.S. intelligence agencies between the ISI and the July 7 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Many analysts see the top priority of Pakistani intelligence as reversing India's path toward social stability and economic growth. Still, why were so many telltale clues left behind in these attacks that enraged the Indian public and made the world aware that India is among the softest terrorist targets of the major democracies? The hope of those who planned last week's attack was that India would respond to the attacks the way it did to the attack on its Parliament in 2001 -- by mobilizing troops on the Pakistan border and creating an expectation that a full-scale, conventional India-Pakistan war was imminent. At that time Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's unwise decision to "bluff" the Pakistanis into cooperating with India by the threat of war boomeranged on New Delhi. Foreign missions evacuated their nationals in a panic and business confidence plunged. Even at that time, it was known to policymakers in most major capitals that India was bluffing, and that the genial Vajpayee would never actually go to war. Yet they participated in the hysteria, especially the United States, where there is a thriving industry of so-called conflict-resolution specialists whose declared mission is to stop India and Pakistan from going to war with each other. Both countries are aware that a war would be suicidal for Pakistan and severely damaging for India. So the specialists will be able to toast their imagined success in keeping the peace, thereby securing more funding from their less-informed patrons. Those within the military establishment in Pakistan who enabled the Mumbai operation are now waiting for the government of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to go the way of Vajpayee and send additional Indian troops to the border. In anticipation of such a move, they already have frozen selected deployments of reinforcements to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas -- the frontier region of Pakistan that has become the new home of al-Qaida -- and issued provisional orders for sending additional forces and equipment to the border with India. The reason is simple: Having no desire to eliminate al-Qaida, these military commanders are seeking to use the "threat from India" as an excuse for inaction on the western frontier. They will seek to explain their patent unwillingness to engage the terrorists by pointing to the need to bolster defenses against an Indian attack. Unfortunately for them, this time around there is zero chance of India repeating the mistake of 2001, which was to mobilize when it was clear that war was never going to be an option. Also, intelligence agencies worldwide have better reach into the Pakistan military than previously. In reality, the next war involving Indian and Pakistani troops is likely to be both sides acting together to take out the jihadis. But this will have to await a cleansing of the pro-jihadi elements from the officer corps of the Pakistani army, a necessary process that the present army chief is resisting. Those Western commentators and analysts cultivated by the Pakistani army have begun churning out analyses speaking of "heightened tensions" between India and Pakistan. Foolishly, U.S. President George W. Bush has fanned the flames of such inspired speculation by inserting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice into the region, rather than adopting an attitude of "business as usual." Rice, in desperate need of some -- any -- perceived diplomatic success, can be expected to follow the playbook of the South Asia crisis management specialists by hinting at substantive tensions that do not in fact exist, at least on the Indian side. Aware that both Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani are blameless with regard to the Mumbai attacks, the Indian government of Manmohan Singh has been careful not to place any blame on the civilian leadership in Pakistan. The Mumbai attack was a Pakistani military operation, in which even the navy was involved, as reported by India Today. The civilian government had no role in it, nor was it informed of the planning and execution of the attack. By continuing to regard the present Pakistani military as part of the solution to the problem of global terrorism rather than as a principal target, the United States and its NATO allies are creating the conditions that will allow jihadis to breed in the region in sufficient numbers to be able to launch attacks against targets in the United States and Europe. The civilian administration in Pakistan, led by Zardari, needs assistance to secure control over the military. Next the jihadi elements must be purged from the Pakistan officer corps if the country is to be rescued from the jihadist nightmare into which it has fallen, undoubtedly due to major policy errors of the Western powers since the 1980s. Recent statements by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama reveal a dangerous incomprehension about ground realities in the region. No solution is possible over Kashmir or other pending India-Pakistan issues until the Pakistani military comes under civilian control and is cleansed of the jihadi elements that control much of its officer corps. Those who planned the Mumbai attacks to create an alibi for their refusal to take out al-Qaida in the tribal regions will be disappointed. This time India will not fall into the trap laid by the Pakistani military by sending additional troops to the border and creating war hysteria that would divert attention away from the ongoing campaign against al-Qaida. (Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO peace chair and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University.) (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)