Author: Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: February 9, 2003
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/feb/08secu.htm
[Note from Hindu Vivek Kendra:
This is yet another instance of the growing recognition of the need to
deal with the problem of terrorism being faced by India. Despite
the huge propaganda being made by the Indian psecs in India and abroad
against India. The last paragraph is particularly revealing.]
An Indo-US-Israel dialogue on terrorism
held in New Delhi on February 6 and 7 concluded that the three governments
must set up "a joint trilateral mechanism to pool resources, capabilities
and experience of the three countries for concerted action against international
terrorism."
A small group of retired officers
and experts from India, Israel and the US have constituted themselves into
a ginger group to push their governments to unite in a common front to
combat international terrorism.
During the close-door dialogue it
was pointed out that the three countries have been at the receiving end
of terrorism for several years and as "sister-democracies" they must unite
to combat this menace.
The conference, organised by the
Manipal Academy of Higher Education in association with the Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs,Washington DC, was attended by a number of
retired intelligence officers and diplomats of the three countries. Prominent
among them were Shabtai Savit, former director-general of the Mossad; Major
General (retired) Uzi Dayan, former director-general of the Israeli Military
Intelligence and former Israel national security advisor; retired US intelligence
officer Steve Pomerantz; A K Verma, former head of the Research and Analysis
Wing, India's external intelligence agency; B Raman, anti-terrorism expert
and former senior intelligence officer; K P S Gill, former director-general
of Punjab police; Harvey J Feldmann, former US ambassador to the UN and
G Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.
The participants expressed their
concern over the efforts of a few terrorist groups to acquire weapons of
mass destruction and over the use of such groups by certain states to achieve
their strategic objectives.
During the discussion on the progress
made so far in the war against terrorism, many experts expressed their
dissatisfaction over "the lack of teeth in the UN Security Council Resolution
No.1373" which did not provide for effective punitive action against states
which did not sincerely comply with the resolution.
They also expressed the view that
neither the security council nor the Interpol would be able to deal effectively
with terrorism and called for the creation of a new international organisation
for counter-terrorism.
But to begin with, the experts believed,
the three countries could set up a trilateral mechanism for counter-terrorism
and if it works satisfactorily they could associate other like-minded democracies
with it.
A permanent non-governmental body
of professional experts would be formed to promote this objective.
The Israeli delegates expressed
their concern over India's close relations with Iran. They alleged that
Iran has been sponsoring the Hizbullah's acts of terrorism against Israel.
Most of the Israeli and American
participants avoided any specific mention of Pakistani state-sponsorship
of terrorism against India and it was left to the Indian experts to draw
attention to the fact that pan-Islamic jihadi terrorism originated in the
Pakistan-Afghanistan region.
There were moments of embarrassment
in the conference when Jairam Ramesh of the Congress, who attended sessions
as a special invitee, asked the US and Israeli delegates whether they agreed
that the Hindu fundamentalists posed a threat to regional peace and stability
as much as the Islamic fundamentalists. To the relief of the organisers,
the delegates replied in the negative.
