The Times of India
Tackling terror: India takes lessons from US 29 Sep 2008, 0110 hrs IST, Diwakar,TNN
MARSEILLES: Unable to stop terrorists, the Manmohan Singh government has been constrained to look at the anti-terror mechanism in the US which is believed to have ensured that there was no terrorist attack on that country post-9/11.
Official sources said national security advisor M K Narayanan, who was briefed on the working of the Department of Homeland Security, found some of its aspects interesting.
"While many of the things they do are too draconian for us to implement, there are other things that are interesting that we may have to look at, considering that there has been no attack on the US after 2001," said an official familiar with the interaction between India's NSA and Charles Allen, undersecretary, office of national intelligence and analysis under the Department of Homeland Security.
Allen travelled to New York for the briefing that Narayanan had requested for. Department of Homeland Security, a single integrated agency which is tasked with overseeing most of US internal security, was set up in 2003 following the recognition that better coordination between various American agencies could have helped thwart terrorists who rammed planes into the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.
Multiplicity of agencies with little coordination among them has been diagnosed as a major impediment in the fight against terrorism back home. Recent breakthroughs against jihadis banded under SIMI/Indian Mujahideen banner have been attributed to better coordination between Intelligence Bureau and cops in different states, reinforcing the need for institutionalised collaboration — from data sharing to surveillance and joint operations.
Talking to reporters travelling with him, the PM said, "This outrage once again demonstrates that we have to tighten our intelligence gathering and strengthen our investigations, we have to strengthen our prosecution process."
NSA's interaction with the Department of Homeland Security came against the backdrop of a strong and unprecedented convergence of views on the source of India's terror — the jihadi gangs based in Pakistan and supported by ISI.
The PM and President Bush discussed in detail the dire prospect of Pakistan imploding, the ISI becoming the "state within state", and the role of the notorious agency in the ever-worsening situation in Afghanistan, with sources stressing that the "two leaders were on the same wavelength".
Both also agreed on the need to pursue a calibrated approach towards Zardari. Sources indicated that Zardari appreciated the concerns of India and the US in the separate meetings he had with Singh and Bush. But both Singh and Bush doubted whether he had the capacity to deliver on his promises.
In his meeting with Singh, Zardari did not take issue with the Indian PM upon being told that Pakistan's non-fulfilment of its 2004 commitment not to let anti-India terrorists use its soil was a matter of major concern for New Delhi. Nor did he dispute the role of ISI in bombing of Indian embassy in Kabul. But while his promise to work with India to rein in the terrorist outfits and "agencies promoting them" was "music to Indian ears", there were no illusions that Zardari did not have the wherewithal to make good his promises. The Pakistan president himself kept citing that he needed time to settle down.
The growing similarity of views between India and the US was evident on many occasions during the visit when the PM stressed the commonalities with a boldness rarely displayed so far. Addressing NRIs on Saturday in NY, he said, "We face common threats and challenges — of terrorism, energy security, proliferation, maritime security, climate change and environmental degradation. We stand together in safeguarding our pluralistic and democratic polities from attacks that seek to destroy our cohesiveness and prosperity."
The shared outlook found expression when the PM used the formulation "war against terror" while speaking on Saturday's bomb blast. "We cannot give up our fight against terror, our resoluteness which is necessary to deal with this menace," he said.
The phraseology "war against terror" was used by Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. There have been indications on a rethink on this, because of the criticism that it smacked of a religious imagery and could have helped terrorists find recruits.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges