Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counter-terrorism at the United States department of state, has made it abundantly clear that his office will not influence law enforcement authorities via any diplomatic lobbying to provide India with direct access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley. Pakistani-American Headley was part of the conspiracy for the horrific terror attacks that shook Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and left 166 people dead.
Benjamin, who recently visited India and Pakistan, told rediff.com, "Let me be quite categorical. These are very complex legal issues at stake here. (And) The issues of access are best handled by the department of justice, which handled the plea agreement, and because of the legal nature of this, it's not really something that's appropriate for me to be lobbying one way or the other."
But he argued, "What is not at stake here is that the Indian government is getting every bit of relevant information from Headley that it requires."
Ever since Headley's plea bargain, when he agreed to plead guilty in return for taking the death penalty and extradition to India or Pakistan off the table, there has been considerable concern in India that this was a deal that US intelligence had engineered because allegedly Headley was a double agent. Indian agencies suspect that the reluctance by American authorities to afford India direct access to him, even in the US, was to protect Pakistani intelligence from embarrassment, in the wake of reports that some agents of the Pakistani military and Inter Services Intelligence were his handlers.
Benjamin told rediff.com, "Counter-terrorism cooperation between our countries continues to deepen and I have to say that this is one of the really positive stories in counter-terrorism in the last few years."
However, he evaded queries regarding allegations of Headley being a double agent who was guided by agents of the Pakistani military or the ISI
"I don't think anyone would have believed that we could have come this far with India in terms of cooperation as we have, and you know that's an inadvertent but nonetheless important consequence of Mumbai (terror attack) and a recognition that this is a shared threat," he argued.
Benjamin also took strong exception when rediff.com questioned him on the perception in India that the US had double standards when it came to the war on terror. Washington had allegedly not put enough pressure on Pakistan to rein in the terrorist groups in its territory. These terror outfits are allegedly supported by the ISI and the Pakistani military and considered strategic assets against India. However, the US administration has reportedly pushed the Pakistan government to tackle terror groups that were directly a threat to America like the Al Qaeda network and its surrogates in the Federally Administered Tribal Area and the North Western Frontier Province.
"I don't think we have one (double standards)," he shot back. "We've made very clear exactly how we feel about groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba."
Benjamin asserted, "The LeT has killed Americans. It is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation, and I did not hesitate to speak about it either in India or in Pakistan."
"Let me tell you, it's a threat that we take very seriously," he added.
