US shares info with India on Headley’s ISI links
By Manish Chand, IANSSaturday, November 21, 2009
GENEVA - The US Saturday disclosed to India new information linking the anti-terror plot hatched by expatriates David Coleman Headley and Tahawuur Rana with some elements in the ISI and said it will reveal the name of a key Pakistani national linked to the Mumbai carnage in a week’s time.
The disclosure came when National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan held talks with CIA chief Leon Panetta in New Delhi Saturday, reliable sources said.
The new information given by the US reinforces Indian investigations that have pointed to links between Headley and Rana, who were arrested by the FBI in Chicago last month in connection with a Laskhar-e-Taiba terror plot against India, with the Mumbai carnage.
The latest disclosures nearly coincide with the first anniversary of the Mumbai carnage.
Two key suspects in the Headley-Rana case have been arrested by Pakistan, the sources said.
The two officials also discussed finer details of a counter-terror plot that is expected to be signed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with US President Barack Obama in the White House Tuesday.
The counter-terror pact seeks to take existing cooperation in this area between India and the US to a new level by focusing on closer coordination of intelligence agencies and the US sharing the latest surveillance and interdiction technologies with India.
The two also discussed the volatile situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan that will also figure prominently in discussions between Manmohan Singh and Obama. Increasingly, there is a convergence of views of India and the US on the AfPak situation.
The US shares Indias perception that Pakistan is not keen to act against anti-India militants even as it continues its crackdown on Taliban militia in South Waziristan, sources said.
The US was not very optimistic whether Pakistan will act against anti-India terror infrastructure, sources said.
The CIA chief also indicated that Obama will announce a major troops surge in Afghanistan. The US is hoping to see some concrete results in Afghanistan in the next 12-18 months, the sources added.
India has made it clear that it has stakes in the success of the US AfPak strategy. But New Delhi is opposed to any distinction between good Taliban and bad Taliban. The consequences of the Taliban victory are not good for India, the US, the region and the world, the sources said.
The official, however, ruled out any military involvement of India in Afghanistan and added that there was no request from the US side on this front.
