Fighting Talk in Sub-Continent Is Ignored By America

Here's one you won't have seen, from IndiaDefence.com.

Not satisfied by Pakistan`s offer of cooperation in probe into Mumbai blasts, India on Friday asked Islamabad to hand over Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Emphasising that Pakistan must act on the promises made earlier not to allow the territory under its control for any terrorist activities against India, New Delhi also asked Islamabad to ban Jamaat-ud-Dawa, political outfit of Lashkar-e-Toiba, and arrest its leaders.

Affirming India`s commitment to the dialogue process with Islamabad, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna, however, said this can "be sustained and yield results only if Pakistan acts against terrorist groups operating from its territory and PoK in accordance with its solemn commitment of January 6,2004."

"If they (Pakistan) really want to convince the people of India that they are willing to work together with India against terrorism then they have to take some action immediately and they can," Sarna said reacting to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf`s comments last night.

"For example, the self-styled chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin, who is freely roaming in Pakistan and PoK and has appeared on the same stage as many ministers of the federal government of Pakistan, should be arrested and handed over to India," he said.

"Instead of saying the Jamaat-ul-Dawa outfit is being kept under close watch, the organisation should be banned and its leaders should be arrested," he said.

"Besides, Dawood Ibrahim, who has been listed by the UN Security Council`s 1267 committee as an individual associated with al Qaeda, should be arrested and deported to India," the spokesman said in a strong reaction to comments by Musharraf that his country would cooperate with India in investigations into the Mumbai blasts if New Delhi provides evidence.

Sarna said if Pakistan takes action to implement the "directives" of UN Security Council, "then it will give credibility to its claim that it is willing to fight terror."

Well yes, quite. India says it has provided Pakistan with "substantial evidence" that all these people and groups are involved in terrorism in India and that Pakistan has done exactly nothing about it. The Pakistani response?

Declaring it will retaiiate if India takes unilateral action to strike at terror groups.

'Nobody should have this wishful thinking that Pakistan will bear any kind of adventure inside its territory. No one can take any punitive action against Pakistan as the country's defence is in strong hands,' Musharraf was quoted by The News.

Pakistan has been reacting to Indian media reports advocating 'hot pursuit' of the militants that are supposed to be moving from and to Pakistan after conducting acts of violence in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan's defence, Musharraf said, was 'impregnable'.

Comparing it with the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, he observed that the weakness of Lebanon's defence was the main cause of Israeli aggression against it.

You would think this would be primetime news here in the U.S. Two American allies are ratcheting up the tension, one is being two-faced when it comes to the War on (Some) Terror - oh, and both have nukes!

That the White House and Republicans have had nothing to say about the whole thing casts a massive doubt over the integrity of the Bush administration's claims to be waging a true war on terror and over rightwing concepts of how that war should be fought.

That the Dems have had nothing to say calls into question their claims that they would be more effective at foreign policy than the Republicans.

That the U.S. media have had nothing to say, even when this obviously connects to two of the biggest stories du jour, the current conflict in Lebanon and the House's approval of the India/US nuke deal, is nothing short of an utter failure to do their jobs properly.

And the only possible conclusion, as I've already said, is that they are all deliberately looking the other way.