Washington: The US on Thursday said that the
information it had on David Headley was "more general and less
specific" before the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, a day after India
expressed disappointment for not being provided specific
inputs on the Pakistani-American LeT operative.
"If we had information that could have helped to
prevent the attacks and pinpoint specific aspects of the
attack, we would have certainly shared that too," Deputy
National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication Ben
Rhodes told reporters.
"The fact of the matter is that the information that
we had before 26/11 was not of that nature. It was just a far
more general and less specific. However, after we picked up
Headley, we did know a lot about 26/11," he said.
His remarks came after Home Secretary G K Pillai said
in New Delhi that India was "disappointed" that specific
inputs on Headley were not provided by the US, which could
have helped it arrest him on his second visit before 26/11.
At a special White House briefing of the Indian
reporters on Obama`s maiden India trip from November 6 to 9,
Rodes also said the US has launched a review of its agencies`
handling of inputs provided by two of the three wives of
Headley about his involvement in the 26/11 strikes.
"The Director of National Intelligence (Admiral (Retd)
James Clapper) has ordered a full review of everything that we
knew related to the Headley case," he said.
"Some of this is vast amount of information within the
US intelligence system and the nature of the kind of
information that we received in this instance from Headley`s
ex-wives, which was of a more general nature.
"But we want to find exactly, given the importance of
this case... whenever we have that information, whenever the
review is completed, we will certainly share that with Indians
as well in the spirit of the co-operation and partnership that
we have," Rhodes said in response to a question.
Rhodes also said that with regard to the inputs that
has come to light recently, the clear understanding of the
Obama Administration is that it shared information that the
government had from Headley before 26/11.
"Not only we shared that information, it is signal of
strength of our counter-terrorism co-operation, we actually
provided access to Headley for the Indian security services so
that they were able to ask him questions directly, which
continue to flesh out and understanding what took place on
26/11," he said.
"From our standpoint there has always been sharing of
information. We share information with India as a partner.
Whenever we have something, we think is directly relevant to
their security we certainly did so in the sense. It has been
even closer in recent years, which is evidenced by the access
being provided to Headley for the Indians," Rhodes said.
PTI
