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Jun 14, 2003:
As Real As A Handshake |
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At the end of his meeting with the Indian delegation on
Monday, Ashcroft realized that India has been far more successful than the
United States of America in fighting terrorism, although most Indians may not
appreciate this success or may even be oblivious to it.
……..
Ashcroft has been unable to show any worthwhile results in his crackdown on
terrorists. The US has so far been able to charge only one man in connection
with the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
The irony is that the man was already in jail when the attacks took place.
……..
Earlier, such information (from India) was dismissed by the Americans as
products of India’s "obsession" with Pakistan. Today such dossiers are being
taken for their real worth in the fight against terrorism.
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As Real As A Handshake
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030614/asp/opinion/story_2065146.asp
The Telegraph, June 14, 2003
John Ashcroft is not someone who is easily impressed.
George W. Bush’s attorney-general would easily bond with those in the
Bharatiya Janata Party, including some personal friends of the prime
minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who rightly argue that terrorists have no
human rights. This week, Ashcroft sat riveted as the deputy prime minister,
L.K. Advani, with the aid of the Intelligence Bureau director, K.P. Singh,
and the Union home secretary, N. Gopalaswami, detailed India’s record in
fighting terrorism. Ashcroft was taken by surprise when the Indian delegation
briefed him in detail how 183 terrorist cells across India had been broken up
by the BJP-led government.
Ashcroft must have resisted the temptation to reach for
the dictionary when Advani told him that India had successfully put an end to
the "exfiltration" of subversives. The deputy prime minister explained that
until a few years ago, Indian citizens used to be recruited in a big way to
be trained in religious fundamentalist camps in Pakistan and along Pakistan’s
border with taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Not any more. More than 90 per
cent of the armed subversives in Kashmir today are the so-called
"Afghan-Arabs" — the trained mujahids from Arab countries who have
been stranded in south Asia by Afghanistan’s history of jihad. Or
Pakistanis sent across the border. There was a time when Kashmiri separatists
were largely indigenous people, those who took up arms for the cause of
self-determination in their state. No more.
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Last year, Advani’s meeting with Cheney had a fictional ring to it. The
vice-president was being held in an undisclosed secure location as part of
anti-terrorist precautions and talked to Advani using video-conferencing
facilities. This time the meeting was as real as their firm handshake.
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