Proceed with Caution - Nukes Ahead, US Warns India (with a wink) Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit "Proceed with Caution, Nukes Ahead!" US Warns India (with a wink) [So, will the Pakistani dictatorship live to spend its $200 million payoff for abandoning its Taliban allies under US pressure? ] The Times of India - Dec 18, 2001 US TO INDIA: BEWARE, NUKES AHEAD by Chidanand Rajghatta, Times News Network WASHINGTON, Dec 18--The United States is advising New Delhi to proceed with caution - as against the earlier counsel of restraint - in punishing Pakistan for its relentless patronage of terrorism against India. The subtle but significant change in the lexicon - from restraint to caution - stems from fears that an Indian strike could spiral into a nuclear exchange. Washington's main concern, unstated but implied, is that any Indian action could provoke Pakistan into using nuclear weapons. Although every war-gaming scenario by U.S experts sees Pakistan being decimated in an Indian retaliation, the administration does not want either side to even consider the unthinkable. There are also suggestions that since the U.S itself is keen to "circumscribe" the Pakistani nuclear program given its latent threat to American interests, it would be a poor call on India's part to provoke its use. Washington's preferred route to resolve the tense stand-off is for India to share the evidence it has of the Pakistani role with the Musharraf regime, forcing it to act, and consider any retaliatory strikes only if it does not comply. Secretary of State Colin Powell spelt out the administration line in an NBC interview in which he acknowledged "the Indian government clearly has the legitimate right of self-defence," but added "Washington was encouraging both sides to share information with each other and to come together in this campaign against terrorism." Powell, himself a former general who is now patron-in-chief of Musharraf within the Bush establishment, believes the military ruler is capable of doing U.S and India's bidding i.e defanging the terrorist network that both believe are equally dangerous for Pakistan itself. Washington also believes that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is infested with rogue elements who might be defying the Musharraf regime to keep up the pressure on India. Powell pointed out in the interview that Musharraf had immediately condemned the attacks. He also revealed that Musharraf had said "he is taking action against the two organizations that have been tentatively identified as terrorist organizations and might have been responsible for this," - something that must be news to New Delhi. Virtually pleading Musharraf's case, Powell said Prime Minister Vajpayee had "made it clear that he was allowing some time to pass in order to get a reaction from the Pakistani government," and "the Pakistani government is taking some steps now." But as far as India is concerned, the initial response from the Musharraf regime has not been propitious. Musharraf has declined to act against the two groups without adequate proof and belligerently threatened a forceful response to an Indian strike against terrorist camps. Pakistan's official spokesman has also naively asserted that Pakistan has never been a base for terrorist activity, a claim that is liable to be met with disbelieving smirks in every corridor of power from Washington to even Beijing. Such disclaimers carry little credibility in the US, fed on a rich diet of unconvincing denials and fanciful conspiracy theories in the Islamic world - from the refusal to believe an Egypt Air pilot crashed his own airliner, to pointing to Jews for the World Trade Center catastrophe, to routinely alleging that Indian forces perpetrate atrocities on their own people to blame terrorists. The question before officials here is what is the threshold of proof required to force Musharraf to act decisively against terrorism. Indian diplomats say besides the rapidly unfolding results of the ongoing investigation into the parliament attack, there is voluminous evidence to show that leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have publicly advocated and initiated terrorism against India, not just in Jammu and Kashmir but even in the Indian heartland. Unfortunately for the Pakistani establishment which failed to act against these fundamentalist leaders, their public rantings of death and destruction were also aimed at the United States, besides, of course, Israel. "I don't see how he cannot act against the outfits. There is too much on public record," one official said. Powell's remarks also indicated that despite brazening it out with India to present a tough domestic phase, Musharraf is being made to do the U.S bidding. At the same time, the official said the US will also publicly increase pressure on Islamabad to act against terrorists and their mentors, including outlawing Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The ban could come within the next few days, and although it will be largely symbolic in nature, it will send a tough message from Washington and force the Pakistan government to act against the outfits. India has repeatedly cautioned the Bush administration that Pakistan is an unreliable partner and liable to act as a "policeman by day and thief by night." Although the Indian warning has been borne out by incidents like the now-established Pakistani support to the Taliban well after September 11, the U.S, publicly at least, has preferred to recognise Pakistan's cooperation. But there is an increasing awareness here that almost every major terrorist attack on India has turned out to be dress rehearsal for similar attacks on the United States. For all its perceived indifference and apathy to India's trouble with terrorism, Washington is acting against Pakistan out of its self-interest. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-12.18.01-07:24:40-2208