Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 27, 2002
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=23440173
Even while asking India to observe
restraint despite Pakistan continuing cross-border terrorism, the US on
Friday said any sovereign state can resort to pre-emptive or preventive
strikes to avert an imminent danger.
"The right to resort to pre-emptive
or preventive strikes is inherent in the sovereignty of a nation to protect
itself," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said speaking before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
"The concept of pre-emptive strikes
has been included in this year's Strategy Report to alert the public to
the fact that terrorist threat is different from other threats. It could
be applied to terrorists or to a country", Powell said.
Powell, Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and others also asserted
that recent disclosures by captured Al-Qaeda prisoners show that the terror
network was active in Baghdad.
Powell said that this statement
is based on "credible evidence." Rice said that Iraq has provided some
training to Al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development.
Powell assured the Committee that
the US goal after Saddam's ouster is a united Iraq and said US is opposed
to a separate Kurdish State.
