Washington, Dec 03: Declining to get into the
specifics of reports that the US had provided advance warning
to New Delhi about the Mumbai terror attacks, the Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice has said the primary goal of her visit
to India on Wednesday is to "express solidarity".
Speaking in Brussels at the NATO headquarters, Rice said
that expressing solidarity with the people of the country will
be the focus of her visit to India.
"...I am going to, of course, express solidarity with the
Indian people. This was a horrible attack. It was, of course,
also an attack that killed American citizens. And it is
therefore of very great concern to the United States," Rice
said.
"It underscores the importance of getting to the bottom
of what happened, both to bring those who perpetrated this
terrible crime to justice and to try and prevent further
attacks of this kind. And in that regard, I want to consult
with the Indian government further about what we can do to
help," she said in response to a query.
Noting that everyone, including Pakistan, needs to
cooperate fully and transparently in the investigations of the
audacious attacks in India's financial capital, the top US
official said, "I was pleased to see the statements of the
Pakistani government that they intend to do so, but that is
the nature of my trip to India".
In response to another query related to any advance
warning the United States may have passed on to India before
the Mumbai attacks, Rice was reluctant to comment on the
issue.
"As to the reports that I have seen, as you have, I don't
really know the source of them, and I'm always reluctant to
speak to unnamed sources who are speaking on background,
because one never knows what they're talking about," she said.
"That's one of the problems with the unnamed source
issue. But we obviously try to pass information to countries
all around the world if we pick up information. But I'll tell
you, having been on the receiving end of information sometimes
which one could constitute as 'warnings', they are often
difficult to act on, sometimes not very concrete," Rice added.
"So the real problem we have with terrorism is that
terrorists can be right once and we have to be right 100 percent of the time. And in that regard, I have some not just
sympathy, but empathy for what the Indian government has gone
through," she added, according to a transcript released by the
State Department here.
Rice was pressed on whether the United States passed on
specific information that there was increased chatter as you
(America) had before 9/11.
"...I don’t know who this source is, and so I don't know
what they're referring to. As I said to you, I've been on the
other side of this, and I'm not going to respond to whether
there are chatter or whatever," she said.
"And I know that the Indian government is looking hard at
how it might have more effective counterterrorism responses,
how it might better use information. We've been through in
that United States; it is 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," Rice replied.
Bureau Report