India-U.S. Counterterrorism Cooperation Bruce Riedel

here has been considerable improvement in Another LeT attack like Mumbai or Herat will pro- India-U .S . counterterrorism cooperation since voke the most serious crisis in years between India Tthe Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) attack on Mum- and —the more that can be done to prevent bai in November 2008 . Senior visits by security offi- such a disaster, the better . Even if an attack cannot cials on both sides have become more frequent as has be foiled, the more information exchanged about information sharing . India and the U .S . cooperated Pakistani involvement with LeT, the more likely the in the capture and interrogation of two of the plan- U .S . will have credibility with New Delhi if a crisis ners of the 26/11 attack . The U .S . placed a bounty occurs . on LeT leader Saeed for information leading to his arrest and this June the U .S . blamed LeT for the The United States should also consider a unilater- attack on India’s consulate in Herat, Afghanistan—an al step: placing Pakistan on the State Department operation intended to upstage Prime Minister Modi’s list of terrorist sponsor states . It certainly meets the swearing-in ceremony . criteria and has for decades . The first Bush adminis- tration seriously considered this step in 1992 . Such There are two areas where cooperation will need to a step would obviously have immense consequenc- be strengthened in the next few years . The first is es for U .S .-Pakistan relations . A more limited step Afghanistan . As NATO forces depart Afghanistan, would be to target specific sanctions against individ- it will be increasingly difficult to maintain intelli- ual Pakistani officials involved in supporting terror- gence capabilities there to collect information on Al ism like members of ISI’s “S” branch that handles Qaeda, LeT and other terror groups operating in liaison with LeT, the , and others . Afghanistan and the border areas of Pakistan . India A targeted counterterrorism sanctions move against is already increasing its capabilities in Afghanistan specific Pakistani government officials would send a and working closely with the Afghan government . strong deterrent message to the Pakistani army and The U .S . should support this cooperation and seek could be a warning shot before putting Pakistan on to work with India and Afghanistan . the terror patron state list .

The second is Pakistan . While Pakistan has taken a Finally, there should be contingency planning be- more robust stand against its own militancy tween Washington and New Delhi about managing this year, the army and the ISI remain closely linked a future India-Pakistan crisis like the Kargil war or to other terrorists groups, especially LeT . Counter- the 2001-2002 crisis . This would be intended to cre- cooperation with India should include ate dialogue about crisis management, not coordi- robust intelligence exchange on Pakistan’s terrorist nation about ganging up on Pakistan . It would be a connections, particularly the ISI-LeT connection . prudent investment in planning for the worst .

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