Terror, Kashmir top India, Pak dialogue

India and Pakistan agreed on Thursday to narrow their differences and take more confidence-building measures on issues ranging from terrorism, humanitarian matters and Jammu and Kashmir in an effort to bridge the “trust deficit”.

The foreign secretaries, Ms Nirupama Rao and Mr Salman Bashir, in a marked change from the acrimony seen in bilateral encounters since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, held “cordial and constructive” talks here Thursday in a bid to “understand each other’s position and concerns.”

The home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, will travel to Islamabad on Friday on a two-day visit, when he is expected to press for a probe on Lashkar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed, believed to be the mastermind behind the 26/11 attack, and seek voice samples of handlers of the Mumbai attackers. Mr Chidambaram, who is primarily going for the Saarc home ministers’ conference on Saturday, will meet the Pakistan’s interior minister, Mr Rehman Malik, soon after reaching Islamabad.

Ms Nirupama Rao, the first senior Indian official to visit Pakistan since 26/11, said at a joint press conference with Mr Bashir: “Both countries should emphasise on reviving the disrupted dialogue process. We discussed modalities for restoring of trust and agreed that the dialogue process is the only way forward.”

Eight naxals killed in encounter; bodies recovered

Eight naxals including three women were killed in an encounter at Saloboni village in West Bengal’s Midnapore district.

The dead bodies of the naxals have been recovered.

A joint team of CRPF, the special anti-naxal force (SAF) and state police acting on a specific intelligence input which went into the encounter last night also recovered one AK-47, a SLR, one pistol and five single barrel guns, a senior CRPF official said.

“Dead bodies of the eight naxals alongwith three women have been recovered and the encounter may prolong”, the officer added.

The encounter happened in Dhuli forest area under the Saloboni police station of the district.

Some explosives have also been recovered.

The additional reinforcements from the state police and CRPF have been asked for, the officer said.

Threat posed by home-grown terror to be included into strategy

With Al-Qaeda and its affiliates recruiting American citizens to carry out attacks in the country, the U.S. will for the first time include the threat posed by radicalised, home-grown terrorism into its national security strategy.

John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism and homeland security, said the Obama administration would add combating home-grown terrorism to its new strategy, which will be unveiled tomorrow.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of individuals here in the United States become captivated by extremist activities or causes,” Mr. Brennan said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“The president’s national security strategy explicitly recognises the threat to the United States posed by individuals radicalised here at home,” he said.

His comments assume significance in the wake of the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American, for plotting the failed Times Square bombing. He has admitted to attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Waziristan tribal region.

Mr. Brennan said the U.S. has seen a number of people who were inspired by the extremist ideologies or causes.

“(The examples are) Somali Americans from Minnesota travelling to fight in Somalia, the five Virginia men who went to Pakistan seeking terrorist training, David Headley, the Chicago man charged with helping to plan the Mumbai attacks, the Pennsylvania woman, JihadJane, charged with conspiring to murder a Danish cartoonist,” he said.

He also noted that more than 20 individuals in the U.S. have been arrested and charged with terrorism crimes, their plans and plots disrupted since the Obama Administration assumed office in January 2009.

This includes Najibullah Zazi, who planned to attack the New York subway system in what could have been the worst terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11.

Mr. Brennan said the U.S. is at war with Al-Qaeda and its terrorist’s allies, who continue to plot against America and its allies along the border regions and inside of Pakistan.

“The United States of America is at war. We are at war against Al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates...That is why he has refocused our efforts on Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda continues to plot from the tribal regions along the border with Pakistan and inside of Pakistan,” he said.

“We will deny Al-Qaeda and its affiliate’s safe haven. We will secure the world’s most dangerous weapons, especially the nuclear materials that Al-Qaeda seeks and would surely use against us.”

Mr. Brennan said the U.S. was not only delivering severe blows against the leadership of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, but is helping the countries where these organisations have safe havens to build their capacity to provide for their own security and to help them root out the “Al-Qaeda cancer” that has manifested itself within their borders.

He said since the U.S. has made it harder for the terror outfits to recruit they are increasingly relying on recruits with little training.

“We have strengthened our defences against massive, sophisticated attacks on our homeland, so they are attempting attacks with little sophistication, but with very lethal intent,” he argued.

“Knowing that it is harder to penetrate America’s defences, they use the Internet and extremist websites to exhort people already living in the United States to take up arms and launch terrorist attacks from within,” Mr. Brennan said.

“We have seen individuals, including U.S. citizens, armed with their U.S. passports, travel easily to extremist safe havens and return to America, their deadly plans disrupted by coordinated intelligence and law enforcement,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to thwart Faisal Shahzad, accused of attempting to set off the car bomb in Times Square,” Mr. Brennan said.

He said the U.S. has also seen individuals, including American citizens, apparently inspired by Al-Qaeda’s ideology and take matters into their own hands.

“Again, we have disrupted a number of these plots, including individuals in Texas and Illinois charged with planning to blow up buildings,” he said.

Terrorism is Pak's enemy, not India: Obama

President Barack Obama believes that after years of looking at their main rival India as their only concern, Pakistan has finally come to realise that the cancer of terrorism threatens Pakistan's sovereignty.

"I think there has been in the past a view on the part of Pakistan that their primary rival, India, was their only concern," he said Wednesday at a joint press appearance with the visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in response to a question by an Afghan journalist about Pakistan's unhelpful attitude towards Afghanistan.

"I think what you've seen over the last several months is a growing recognition that they have a cancer in their midst; that the extremist organizations that have been allowed to congregate and use as a base the frontier areas to then go into Afghanistan, that that now threatens Pakistan 's sovereignty."

Obama said he and Karzai had in the past, met with Pakistan President Asif Ali "Zardari, as well as their intelligence officers, their military, their teams, and emphasised to Pakistan the fact that our security is intertwined."

"Our goal is to break down some of the old suspicions and the old bad habits and continue to work with the Pakistani government to see their interest in a stable Afghanistan which is free from foreign meddling," he said.

"Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, the international community, should all be working to reduce the influence of extremists in those regions, Obama said. "And I am actually encouraged by what I've seen from the Pakistani government over the last several months."

"But just as it's going to take some time for Afghanistan's economy, for example, to fully recover from 30 years of war, it's going to take some time for Pakistan, even where there is a will, to find a way in order to effectively deal with these extremists in areas that are fairly loosely governed from Islamabad," Obama said.

Praising recent steps taken by Pakistan to take on militants, he said: "Part of what I've been encouraged by is Pakistan's willingness to start asserting more control over some of these areas.

"But it's not going to happen overnight," he acknowledged. "And they have been taking enormous casualties; the Pakistani military has been going in fairly aggressively. But this will be a ongoing project."

During a 45 minute meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said he and Karzai "both discussed the fact that the only way, ultimately, that Pakistan is secure is if Afghanistan is secure.

"And the only way that Afghanistan is secure is if the sovereignty, the territorial integrity, the Afghan constitution, the Afghan people are respected by their neighbours.

"We think that that message is starting to get through, but it's one that we have to continue to promote," Obama said.

All eyes on Manmohan, Gilani handshake

Among all possible gestural permutations when 47 world leaders gather together in one room, the meeting of hands which everyone seemed to be waiting for was between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani.

The two prime ministers met at the Walter E. Washington convention centre in downtown Washington, venue of the Nuclear Security Summit which got underway Monday evening with a reception hosted by President Barack Obama.

Prime Minister Gilani strode up to Dr. Singh and the two men greeted each other warmly.

According to Vishnu Prakash, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Dr. Singh and Mr. Gilani "exchanged pleasantries". As he was himself not present, he was unable to add any further details, despite being peppered with questions by enthusiastic reporters.

This was Dr. Singh and Mr. Gilani's first encounter since their July 2009 interaction on the sidelines of the Nonaligned Summit at Sharm el-Shaikh in Egypt.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao ruled out the possibility of Prime Minister Singh meeting formally with Mr. Gilani in Washington. But Indian officials say the two leaders are likely to meet each other in Thimphu later this month during the SAARC summit and have a more substantial interaction than today's handshake, warm and effusive though it appears to have been.

Air India security beefed up in Kabul

With Indians and assets in Afghanistan coming under constant attack from Taliban and Al Qaeda, Air India has beefed up security in flights to and from Kabul following information that it was a “sitting duck” for terror groups.

While the airline officials declined to speak on the issue, sources in the national carrier said that a two-tier security mechanism has been put in place which carries out extensive check of all the baggages loaded into the aircraft.

The flag carrier, which is one of the few international airlines that operates to Kabul, six times a week with virtually full load, has been spotted as by international and Indian agencies a “sitting duck” for terror groups like Taliban, Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Finding that screening continued to be “lax”, intelligence agencies have told Indian authorities that extra steps needed to be taken for ensuring safety of passengers as terror groups were planning either to hijack its aircraft or smuggle some explosives in the luggage, if the screening continued to be lax.

The screening of the baggage is being done by a local Afghan agency and now Air India has included another tier of security, where their security staffs carry out screening of the luggage of all the passengers, the sources said.

A report emanating from the war-ravaged country shows terror groups were attempting to penetrate into the ground handling agency of Air India, an information which has been shared with the Afghan Civil Aviation Authorities as well.

The Air India aircraft also carry air marshals on board and have a special contingent for the security of the plane while on tarmac at the Kabul International airport.

Air India has the distinction of carrying all the United Nations staff to Kabul. Besides the Indian carrier, Pakistan International Airlines and a private afghan airline operate from the Kabul International Airport.

Seven Indians, including three major-rank Army officers, were killed when Taliban suicide bombers carried out a string of attacks in the heart of Kabul on February 26, in yet another incident targeting Indian interests in Afghanistan.

The Indian assets in Afghanistan have been a constant cause of worry and efforts were set afoot to provide security to its nationals prompting the government to rework the security plan for its citizens working there.

The government has already augmented presence of security personnel by pooling in 40 additional ITBP commandos to secure its people and installations in the war-hit country.

They will be deployed in the Indian missions, a few others would be stationed in guest houses frequently used by Indians involved in development work.

About 4,000 Indians are engaged in reconstruction projects in health, power, roads and social sector across Afghanistan under the $1.3 billion assistance programme.

India has already halted operations of its medical mission in Kabul because of lack of adequate personnel as one of its 11 members was killed and four others injured.

"ISI maintaining links with Lashkar"

The ISI continues to maintain links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terrorist outfit responsible for 26/11, and Islamabad is reluctant to take action against its leaders and its network, several eminent U.S. scholars and experts of South Asia have categorically told U.S. lawmakers.

Attending a special Congressional hearing on Thursday on “Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Growing ambition of Islamic Militancy in Pakistan”, Congressmen unanimously expressed concern that despite best of the efforts by the Obama Administration, the ISI continues to maintain links with LeT and that Pakistan is not taking decisive action against the terrorist outfit.

"The LeT is a deadly serious group of fanatics. They are well financed, ambitious, and most disturbingly, both tolerated by, and connected to, the Pakistani military," said Gary L. Ackerman, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the House Committee on International Relations.

And it is the same Pakistani military, to which the Obama Administration is selling advanced arms, he pointed out.

Testifying before the Congressional committee, Marvin G Weinbaum, from the Middle East Institute –- a Washington-based think tank, said despite the government official ban of LeT, ISI continued to consider the organisation as an asset.

The ISI is believed to continue to share intelligence and provide protection to LeT, he said.

"It is a measure of the impunity with which LeT is allowed to operate in Pakistan that the authorities have been unwilling to contain LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.

His inflammatory remarks would be expected to land him among the hundreds of disappeared political activists in the country. Although he has been periodically arrested, his house detentions have been cosmetic," Mr. Weinbaum said.

Noting that LeT poses a threat to the U.S. national security interests, Lisa Curtis from the Heritage Foundation said the appearance of LeT leader Hafez Muhammed Sayeed at a recent public rally casts grave doubts about Pakistan’s commitment to reining in the group’s activities.

Policy failure

Ms. Curtis said it has been a failure of U.S. policy to not insist Pakistan shut down the LeT long ago. U.S. officials have shied away from pressuring Pakistan on the LeT in the interest of garnering Pakistani cooperation against targets the U.S. believed were more critical to immediate U.S. objectives, that is Al-Qaeda shortly after 9/11 and the Afghan Taliban more recently.

“To degrade the overall international terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan, the US must convince Islamabad to confront those groups it has supported against India," Ms. Curtis said.

The Mumbai attacks and subsequent Headley investigations reveal that the LeT has the international capabilities and ideological inclination to attack western targets whether they are located in South Asia or elsewhere.

Eminent Pakistani scholar Shuja Nawaz too conceded that the relationship between the ISI and LeT has stayed overtime.

Ms. Nawaz is currently the director, South Asia Center, The Atlantic Council of the United States.

"The LeT's emerging role as a trans regional force that has broadened its aim to include India and perhaps even Afghanistan, by linking with the Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI and the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami or HUJI of Bangladesh poses a serious threat to regional stability," Mr. Nawaz said.

"Another Mumbai-type attack involving the LeT might bring India and Pakistan into conflict, a prospect that should keep us awake at night. In Pakistan, both the civil and the military now appear to recognise the existential threat from home grown militancy.

"The army appears to have dislocated the Tehreek e Taliban of Pakistan. Yet, it faces a huge and, to my mind, greater threat in the hinterland, in the form of the LeT," he said.

‘Pak a safe haven’

Ashley J Tellis, senior associate at the prestigious Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told lawmakers that today LeT relies on the ISI primarily for safe haven and political protection for its leadership, intelligence on selected targets and threats, campaign guidance when necessary, and infiltration assistance, particularly in regard to long distance operations involving transits through third countries.

"Although the interrogation of David Headley has now established that there were clearly some shadowy ISI connections with the Bombay (Mumbai) attacks, the management of the LeT detainees by the Pakistani state and the tortured progress of their trial demonstrates that, whatever the outcome of this charade, the ISI has simply no intention of eviscerating LeT (or any other anti-Indian jihadi groups) because of their perceived utility to Pakistan’s national strategy vis-à-vis India," Mr. Tellis said.

"So long as the Pakistani Army and the security establishment more generally conclude that their private interests (and their conception of the national interest) are undermined by a permanent reconciliation between India and Pakistan, they will not rid themselves of the terrorist groups they have begotten and which serve their purposes-irrespective of what New Delhi or Kabul or Washington may desire," he said.

"This fact ought to be understood clearly by the Obama administration. Once it is, it may push the United

States to either compel Pakistan to initiate action against LeT or hold Pakistan responsible for the actions of its proxies.

If these efforts do not bear fruit, the United States will have to contemplate unilateral actions (or cooperative actions with other allies) to neutralize the most dangerous of the terrorist groups now resident in Pakistan.

Doing so may be increasingly necessary not simply to prevent a future Indo-Pakistani crisis, but more importantly to protect the United States, its citizens, its interests, and its allies," Mr. Tellis said.

Cyber attacks worry firms more than terrorism

When it comes to threats, natural or man-made, Indian companies have rated cyber security as a major concern. In the light of increased cyber attacks, over 42 per cent of enterprises perceive cyber crime as a bigger threat than terrorism, crime and natural disasters.

This was one of the findings of ‘2010 State of Enterprise Security Study,' a global study carried out by Symantec Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., where Indian companies from sectors such as telecom, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and technology participated.

“Indian enterprises are experiencing frequent cyber attacks and the losses incurred due to them are escalating. In the past 12 months, 66 per cent of the companies experienced cyber intrusions and 51 per cent of them reported repeated attacks, while 34 per cent have experienced high number of malicious hits. On the other hand, 31 per cent said there were internal attacks as well,” said Vishal Dhupar, managing director, Symantec Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Also, each cyber attack had a financial impact, as organisations reported loss of revenue. “Apart from financial loss, companies will have to put up with damaged brand reputation, loss of customer trust. The average revenue lost by companies due to the virtual attacks was recorded at Rs. 58.59 lakh in 2009.” Interestingly, with IT security becoming a daunting issue for enterprises, the study pointed out that implementation of enterprise security is turning into a difficult task.

“Enterprise security is understaffed and the most affected areas in organisations are network security, web security and data-loss prevention. To tackle the issue, companies need to secure their messaging and web environments and defending critical internal servers. They should also have the ability to back up and recover data and respond to threats rapidly.”

To overcome such threats, companies should develop and enforce IT policies to secure data breach in anyway possible. “By prioritising risks and defining policies, companies will not only be able to identify threats but also come up with remedies. Also, they should know the location of sensitive information and how it's coming or leaving the organisation. Companies should be able to monitor and report their systems status and be ready for any kind of threat.”

Air India terrorist bombing perjury trial halted

The perjury trial of a man who gave key testimony at the trial of the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings that killed 331 people has been delayed because the jury has been dismissed.

Inderjit Singh Reyat is charged with lying 27 times under oath in the trial against his alleged co-conspirators in the plot.

The charges stem from Reyat’s testimony in the trial of Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik. They were acquitted of first-degree murder and conspiracy March 16, 2005, after a trial lasting almost two years.

Flight 182 from Montreal, Quebec, to Heathrow, London, disappeared from radar off the Irish coast June 23, 1985, when a bomb exploded killing all 331 people on board.

'Pak should take effective action against anti-India groups'

Ahead of the Indo-Pak talks this week, India made it clear that process of normalisation of ties with Pakistan can be sustained only by "effective action" against groups there calling for jihad against India.

"...calls of jihad, hostility and aggression continue to be made openly against India. This reflects the real and tangible difficulties that we face in dealing with Pakistan," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said, delivering the key note address at the 3rd International Institute of Strategic Studies-MEA Dialogue here on Monday.

She also emphasised that "effective action against such groups" by Pakistan is an "absolute must" if the process of normalisation that India desires with Pakistan was to happen.

Referring to the talks in New Delhi on Thursday with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, Ms. Rao said India is making "another sincere attempt" to initiate dialogue with Pakistan.

"We hope we can build, in a graduated manner, better communication and a serious and responsive dialogue to address issues of concern between our two countries," she said.

Describing terrorism as the pivotal security challenge for India, Ms. Rao said terror groups implacably opposed to India continue to recruit, train and plot attacks "from safe havens across our borders."

Terming Pakistan's steps against terrorism as "selective," Ms. Rao demanded that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror strikes are brought to justice expeditiously and act decisively to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its territory.

"Under pressure and faced with the threat of terrorism in its own country, Pakistan has initiated some steps to fight this scourge. But these steps are selective," the Foreign Secretary said, adding that distinctions between Taliban, Al Qaeda and terrorist outfits such as LeT were now meaningless.

"...they are now in effect fused both operationally and ideologically. We have consistently maintained that Pakistan should bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice and in a transparent manner," she said.

Ms. Rao also noted that terror groups implacably opposed to India continue to recruit, train and plot attacks from "safe havens across our borders."

"The greatest threat to peace and stability in our region emanates from the shelter terrorists find in the border of Afghanistan-Pakistan and in Pakistan itself," she said.

To a question on what she expected from the talks, Ms. Rao said: "I think, I should leave any comment, till after the meeting."

Asked whether Kashmir would figure at the talks, she said "the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is something we must discuss bi-laterally and resolve peacefully. But at the talks our core concern is terrorism and it is essential to focus on it. We will move in a manner, slow and deliberately."

On Afghanistan

On Afghanistan, Ms. Rao said India's focus is on development activity with the aim to build indigenous Afghan capacities and institutions.

"This will enable an effective State system to improve the delivery of goods and services to Afghan people. Our assistance, now over US$ 1.3 billion, is spread over a large number of provinces in Afghanistan," she said.

To a question on clandestine activities in the neighbourhood in respect of "nuclear terrorism", Ms. Rao said India would tackle it through the U.N. process.

"India has initiated on the issue in cooperation with Russia. The matter has been moved to the US and US President Barack Obama is expected to endorse the initiative this year," she said.

On China

She said there is both competition and collaboration in the dynamic equilibrium of India's relationship with Beijing.

Key elements in the India-China relationship like imbalances in bilateral trade, the unresolved boundary question, our dialogue on water resources with regard to the trans-border rivers like the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej point to the complex and evolving nature of our dialogue, she said.

"In our own region, which remains geo-politically unstable, China has an enduring strategic relationship with Pakistan, and a growing presence in other neighbouring countries.

Ms. Rao said: "We are conscious of these leverages that China has developed in our region and realize fully that our relations with China cannot be uni-dimensional, or seen through a narrow prism."

Sri Lanka

Ms. Rao said India's political relations are close, trade and investment have increased exponentially, and there is broad-based engagement across all sectors of bilateral cooperation.

"We view the conclusion of the military operations against the LTTE as providing an opportunity to finally achieve a lasting political settlement acceptable to all communities, including the Tamils, within a united Sri Lanka," she said.

Bangladesh

"India's relations with Bangladesh have acquired further substance and scope in recent months, particularly after the very successful visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January this year," Ms. Rao said.

"Our security related cooperation has developed positively as also our cooperation in infrastructural development in Bangladesh, for which we have announced a USD 1 billion concessional Line of Credit," she said.

Terrorism focus of talks with Pakistan: Nirupama Rao

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Monday said India’s concern about terrorism would be its main focus at the forthcoming talks with Pakistan this week.

“Our core concerns about terrorism will find essential focus (at the Feb 25 talks),” Ms. Rao told reporters here at a conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Ms. Rao is set to meet with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in New Delhi on Thursday. This will be the first significant stand-alone official level interaction between the neighbours since India suspended the composite dialogue process after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

India has been asking Pakistan to take action against the masterminds of the Mumbai terror attack and also to dismantle the infrastructure of terror groups operating on its soil.

“Effective action against such groups by the government of Pakistan is an absolute must,” Ms. Rao said.

While India has only one item on its agenda, Pakistan has said it will raise all issues at the meeting, including Kashmir.

“Obviously, we would like to keep the door to dialogue open,” Ms. Rao said, adding that both countries should move forward in a “slow and deliberate” manner.

Dark forces in Pak won't succeed: PC

Terming militant groups in Pakistan as "dark forces", Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday said New Delhi was watching the activities of terror outfits in Pakistani Kashmir but stressed they won't succeed in their anti-India designs.

"Let me draw your attention to the Feb 4 meeting of militant groups in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, which was attended by the Laskhar-e-Taiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen. It is clear that these groups are anti-India and want annexation of Jammu and Kashmir... These dark forces will not succeed," said Mr Chidambaram.

He was giving his opening remarks at the internal security conclave for state chief ministers held here.

The home minister was referring to the Muzaffarabad rally organised by the Lashkar jehadi outfit through its banned frontal organisation the Jama'at-ud-Dawaah on Thursday.

Attended by the Hizbul Mujahideen chief, the jehadi meeting vowed to revert to the "Kashmir freedom cause" and continue supporting a separatist campaign in the insurgency-riven state of India.

Chidambaram said infiltration attempts from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir had gone up.

Another LeT strike on India to undermine US efforts in Pak

Amidst reports that terror outfit LeT might be planning a major attack in India, the CIA chief on Wednesday told US lawmakers that another such strike would undermine US efforts in Pakistan by raising tensions between the two neighbours.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said at a Congressional hearing that besides al Qaeda the US now faces a series of threats from terror groups like al-Shabaab, Hezbollah and Hamas.

“A particular concern is Lashkar-e-Taiba which, if they should conduct an attack against India, could very well undermine our efforts in Pakistan,” Mr. Panetta said expressing his apprehension of the impact that attack could have on relationship between India and Pakistan.

Mr. Panetta said this in his appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which held a hearing on ’Current Projected Threats to the United States’

A US-based security think tank in its yearly forecast had recently said that Pakistan-based terror groups have a .

“strategic intent” to launch major new attacks on the Indian soil to trigger a conflict between the two countries.

Mr. Panetta said one of the greatest concerns was of an al Qaeda attack on the United States, and the threat was a prime reason why the US has undertaken the task of dismantling terror infrastructure.

He said the greatest threat comes from the fact that al Qaeda, which had launched the 9/11 attacks, had adapted its methods making them difficult to detect.

“We have done a very effective job at disrupting their operations in FATA,” forcing them to move to other regional nodes like Yemen and Somalia, the Maghreb and others, Mr. Panetta said.

“I think intelligence confirms that they are finding it difficult to be able to engage in planning and command --and -- control operations to put together a large attack,” he said.

He said the terrorists were now pursuing an effort to try to strike at the US in three ways, including deploying individuals like Zazi and Headley in the country and by using terrorists who have hitherto had “clean credentials” like Abdulmutallab.

“And the third is the loner, an individual like Hasan (Texas military base shooter) who, out of self-radicalisation, decides that the moment has come to engage in an attack by himself,” Mr. Panetta said.

The bottom line here, he said, is that the war on terrorism is against a series of groups confronting the US.

Appearing before the same committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said al-Qaeda trainers see Pakistan’s tribal areas as less secure and this had led al Qaeda to franchise into regional components in places such as North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

“This evolution has been most rapid with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which has changed from a regional group with links to al-Qaeda to a global threat with reach into American cities such as Detroit,” he said.

Al Qaeda biggest killer of innocent muslims: Obama

Al Qaeda is the biggest killer of innocent muslims in the world, US President Barack Obama has said.

"I think it's important to understand that we are at war against a very specific group -- al Qaeda and its extremist allies that have metastasised around the globe, that would attack us, attack our allies, attack bases and embassies around the world, and most sadly, attack innocent people regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their religions," Obama said yesterday in an interview to YouTube.

"Al Qaeda is probably the biggest killer of innocent muslims of any entity out there," said Mr Obama in his first ever interview to the YouTube as the US President.

"So that is our target and that is our focus. Now, they employ terrorist tactics, but we need to be clear about who our target is," he argued.

The US President said United States is having to fight terrorism on all fronts.

"We have to fight them in very concrete ways in Afghanistan and along the border regions of Pakistan where they are still holed up.

They have spread to places like Yemen and Somalia, and we are working internationally with partners to try to limit their scope of operations and dismantle them in those regions," he said

Terrorism, insurgency need to be tackled with firm hand: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday emphasised that “terrorism, insurgency and extremism need to be tackled with a firm and yet sensitive hand” as a requirement for rapid economic growth.

“It is one of the primary responsibilities of any government to ensure the rule of law. In addition, an atmosphere of peace and communal harmony is also a pre-requisite for rapid economic growth,” the Prime Minister said while inaugurating a two-day conference of state chief secretaries here.

The first of a kind conference aimed at formalising the process of interaction with states and union territories is expected to serve as a standing forum for exchange of views and provide an occasion for interaction on internal matters.

“The law and order machinery has to be sensitized to the key security concerns that affect us. Terrorism, insurgency and extremism need to be tackled with a firm and yet sensitive hand,” said the prime minister.

“You have to be aware not only of local and regional happenings but also of pan-India and trans-border developments.”

Over the next two days, issues relating to the latest trends in technology, emerging global challenges and opportunities and key security concerns and the role of state governments would be discussed. Global developments that have a bearing on the country would also be deliberated upon.

Obama pledges to create jobs in key speech

An embattled President Barack Obama vowed in his first State of the Union address on Wednesday to make job growth his topmost priority, as he looked to reignite his stalling presidency.

Speaking to a before a politician-packed House of Representatives chamber and a television audience of millions, Mr. Obama urged lawmakers to come together around new stimulus spending and short-term economic relief.

Defiant despite stinging setbacks, he said he would not abandon ambitious plans for longer-term fixes to health care, energy, education and more.

“Change has not come fast enough,” Mr. Obama said.

He compared the United States to other nations: “Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China’s not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany’s not waiting. India’s not waiting.”

Mr. Obama looked to use the high-profile speech to change America’s conversation from how his presidency is troubled -- over the messy health care debate, a limping economy and the missteps that led to Christmas Day’s barely averted terrorist attack -- to how he is seizing the reins on the economic worries foremost on Americans’ minds. He spoke to a nation gloomy over double-digit unemployment and federal deficits soaring to a record $1.4 trillion, and to fellow Democrats dispirited about the fallen standing of a president they hoped would carry them through this fall’s midterm congressional elections.

Democrats fear that the fallen standing of the president could hurt them in November’s congressional and gubernatorial elections. Just last week, Republicans scored a stunning victory by winning the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Republicans applauded the president when he entered the chamber, and even craned their necks and welcomed Michelle Obama when she took her seat. But the warm feelings of bipartisanship disappeared early.

Democrats jumped to their feet and roared when Obama said he wanted to impose a new fee on banks, while Republicans sat stone-faced. Democrats stood and applauded when Mr. Obama mentioned the economic stimulus package passed last February. Republicans sat and stared.

The president devoted about two-thirds of his speech to the economy, emphasizing his ideas for restoring job growth, taming budget deficits and changing a polarized Washington “where every day is Election Day.” These concerns are at the roots of voter emotions that drove supporters to Obama but now are turning on him as he governs.

He looked to rescue the health care plan, his top domestic priority. The plan was on the verge of passage, then got derailed after opposition Republicans captured the Massachusetts seat. The United States lacks universal health care.

“Do not walk away from reform,” he implored. “Not now. Not when we are so close.”

In a remarkable shift from past addresses, and notable for a president whose candidacy caught fire over his opposition to the Iraq war, foreign policy was taking a relative back seat.

On national security, Mr. Obama proclaimed some success, saying that “far more” al-Qaeda terrorists were killed under his watch last year in the U.S.-led global fight than in 2008.

Also, hoping to salve growing disappointment in a key constituency, Mr. Obama said he would work with Congress to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. But in a concession to concern among Republicans and in his own party’s right flank, Obama neither made a commitment to suspend the practice in the interim nor issued a firm deadline.

Throughout the speech, Mr. Obama aimed to show he understands Americans’ struggles to pay bills while big banks get bailouts and bonuses. Trying to position himself as a fighter for regular people, he urged Congress to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court decision last week handing corporations greater influence over elections.

“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities,” he said.

Declaring that “I know the anxieties” of Americans’ struggling to pay the bills while big banks get bailouts and bonuses, Mr. Obama prodded Congress to enact a second stimulus package “without delay,” specifying that it should contain a range of measures to help small businesses and funding for infrastructure projects.

Also, Mr. Obama said he will initiate a $30 billion program to provide money to community banks at low rates. The money would come from balances left in the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund -- a program “about as popular as a root canal” that he made of point of saying “I hated.”

Even before Mr. Obama spoke, many of the proposals the White House revealed in advance were being dismissed -- on the right or the left {mdash} as poorly targeted or too modest to make a difference.

Republicans sought to capitalize on the Democrats’ tough straits with their choice for the traditional Republican response: Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, who took his state from Democratic hands two months ago.

Mr. McDonnell, in excerpts of his speech released in advance, said Democratic policies are resulting in an unsustainable level of debt. He said Americans want affordable health care, but they don’t want the government to run it.

“Top-down, one-size-fits-all decision-making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market,” Mr. McDonnell said.

In his speech, Mr. Obama hoped to rekindle the energy of his historic election. Though aides worked up until the last minute to whittle it down, it still ran to an hour and nine minutes, with applause, longer than any State of the Union since the Clinton era and surely taxed viewers’ patience.

‘India faces threat of another 26/11’

Facing the “undeniable” threat of another Mumbai-type attack by Pakistan-based terror groups which may act under al-Qaeda’s direction, India is most likely to retaliate militarily in such a scenario, according to a prominent US think tank.

“The threat of another Mumbai-type attack is undeniable, numerous Pakistan-based groups remain motivated and able to strike Indian targets,” said Daniel Markey, of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in his latest paper ’Terrorism and Indo-Pakistani Escalation.’

Many of these Pakistan-based terror groups have incentives to act as spoilers, whether to disrupt efforts to improve Indo-Pak ties or to distract Islamabad from counter-terror crackdown at home, said Markey, a well known South Asia expert.

“Thus the immediate risk of terrorism may actually increase if New Delhi and Islamabad make progress on resolving their differences or if Pakistan-based terrorists are effectively backed into a corner,” he said in his 11-page contingency planning memorandum of the CFR.

While traditionally Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are the two terror groups that have proven themselves the most capable and motivated to carry out attacks in India, this time al-Qaeda could don the mantle, he said.

“Al-Qaeda has historically focussed its efforts outside India, but if the group’s leadership feels threatened in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas, it might direct and assist regional proxies to attack India as a way to ignite a distracting Indo-Pakistani confrontation.”

Other regional terrorist groups, including those based in India, are improving their capacity to inflict mass-casualty violence, but because these outfits lack clear-cut connections to Pakistan-based organisations, their attacks are far less likely to spark another crisis between India and Pakistan, Markey said.

He said the more clearly a terrorist attack can be identified as having originated in Pakistan, the more likely India is to retaliate militarily.

He said groups that India perceives to have closer links with Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment - especially LeT - are more likely to “inspire retaliation against official Pakistani state targets” than those that are perceived as more autonomous, such as al-Qaeda.

The perception in India that Islamabad has responded inadequately to the Mumbai attacks - trials of accused plotters are moving slowly and LeT ideologue Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is not in custody - strengthens Indian advocates for unilateral military retaliation, Markey said.

Should multiple attacks occur in quick succession, the cumulative effect would further diminish India’s inclination for restraint, he said.

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been a strong voice against Indian military retaliation, but his voice could be silenced by a future attack or otherwise drowned out by domestic political pressures,” Markey said.

Markey, an American, said if New Delhi determines that its assailants acted with little or indirect assistance from Pakistan’s military or intelligence agencies, its most likely response would be to conduct air strikes against suspected terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

“During these operations, India would attempt to limit civilian casualties and direct combat with the Pakistani military to reduce the prospects for escalation. Such an attack would not significantly curtail the terrorist threat, but it might satisfy India’s domestic compulsions to punish the perpetrators,” he said.

Markey said the more egregious the terrorist attack and the more India’s leadership is convinced that members of the Pakistani state sponsored it, the more it will be treated as an act of war.

“Under these conditions, New Delhi would consider a wider range of options, including, for instance, a large ground-force mobilisation of the sort India conducted in 2001-2002 in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament or a naval blockade.”

“Unless the initial terrorist attack is nuclear - which is implausible for now because Pakistani terrorists do not appear to have access to nuclear materials or the capacity to utilise them - India would refrain from using its nuclear weapons in retaliation,” Markey said.

He said Pakistan’s leaders would come under tremendous domestic pressure - and for the most part would be inclined - to counter nearly any sort of Indian military retaliation.

Even the least invasive of India’s possible military options, “such as a resumption of artillery shelling across the Line of Control,” Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership would be consumed by the crisis and distracted from other issues, Markey said.

“Pakistan’s military response could be intentionally disproportionate to the initial Indian attack so as to compel the international community to force a ceasefire.”

“That said, Pakistan’s present government and military command also have meaningful incentives to calibrate their actions from the start, not least the desire to limit international pressure and to retain ties with partners in Beijing, Riyadh and Washington,” he said.

However, Markey said a military exchange between India and Pakistan sparked by a terrorist attack in India is not likely to cross the nuclear threshold.

Several conceivable circumstances could alter this conclusion, but two stand out: “(1) India suffers additional catastrophic terrorist attacks in the midst of the crisis, driving it to intensify the conflict to a point where Pakistan’s army determines it cannot defend the state by conventional means, and (2) Pakistan’s nuclear command, as yet untested by major conventional attacks, is blinded or confused to the point that it authorises a first strike.”