Obama Administration Asks Congress to Double Anti-terrorism Budget to India
After receiving from India a request for higher-level training following Mumbai terror attacks, the Obama Administration has urged the Congress to increase two times, that is, USD 4.5 million, its anti-terrorism budget to New Delhi for the fiscal 2011, said media reports.
Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator for Counter-terrorism in the Department of States, testified before a Congressional committee yesterday that the Obama Administration took such a decision after a request from India in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in which over 166 people, six of whom Americans, were killed, reports said.
“Under our FY 2011 request, India’s ATA bilateral budget would almost double, to USD 4.5 million, to meet the increasing political will on the part of the Indian government, which has requested more and higher-level training in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack,” Benjamin was quoted as saying.
He said that anti-terrorism assistance or ATA remains America’s flagship counter-terrorism law enforcement capacity-building programme with its partner countries having registered many solid successes over the last year, said reports.
He said that request for Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capacity Fund (PCCF) by the Obama Administration is USD 1.2 billion for the fiscal 2011 and that it would be the first year that the Department of State assumed full management of this fund, reports said.
He said that these funds would continually be aimed at building the capability of Pakistan’s security forces carrying out counter-insurgency operations in contested areas throughout the northwest frontier province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, said reports.
“A more capable Pakistani military will diminish extremist access to safe havens from which attacks on Pakistan and on US international forces operating in Afghanistan are planned and executed,” he was quoted as saying.
Benjamin said that well trained and well equipped Pakistani security personnel would facilitate efforts to execute its USD 7.5 billion five-year US civilian assistance strategy, which includes efforts to improve basic government services in areas vulnerable to extremists, reports said.
(Based on internet reports)
