This Week Transcript: Amb. Haqqani, and Sens. Lugar, Reed

Nov. 30, 2008 — -- ABC'S "THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS"

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOSTDAN HARRIS, ABC NEWSHUSAIN HAQQANI, PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.SEN. RICHARD G. LUGAR, R-IND.SEN. JACK REED, D-R.I.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to "This Week." Mayhem in Mumbai. Teams of gunmen, more than two days of terror.

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UNKNOWN: Right now this hotel has been taken hostage.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: New tension and new risks in the world's most dangerous region.

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PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent. But terror will not have the final word.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: A full report today with Dan Harris in Mumbai, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., and two key senators -- Republican Richard Lugar and Democrat Jack Reed.

Then...

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PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: You got a little lipstick on your cheek.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: The Obamas get ready for Washington. The new team named in record time. That, and all the week's politics on our roundtable, with George Will, Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd and TorieClarke.

And as always, the Sunday Funnies.

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DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: These turkeys that they're going to pardon this year? They're arrogant. They're flying in from Detroit on their private jets. That's how arrogant they are.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again. While we were celebrating Thanksgiving this week, the world's largest democracy was enduring its own 9/11. Officials in India are still accounting for the carnage that unfolded from Wednesday to early Saturday. At least 156 have been killed, almost 300 wounded. Ten of the terrorists have also been killed or captured. Several more may have been involved, but Indiansare wondering how so few could lay siege to the city for so long.

For more on that, we're joined in Mumbai today by ABC's Dan Harris. And Dan, we're getting word today that top officials in the Indian government, including their equivalent of the homeland securitysecretary, are resigning their posts. To what extent are Indians blaming themselves for what happened?

HARRIS: Well, there is an enormous amount of anger here, there's no question about it. We were just at a protest about a couple of hundred yards that way, outside the historic Taj Mahal Hotel, andthere are people carrying signs that said, and I'm paraphrasing here, we wish that the politicians had been killed in these attacks.

The anger seems to run along two tracks. There's anger that the response to the attacks themselves was slow in the eyes of many. There's also anger at the intelligence failure here, a feeling thatpoliticians could have prevented these attacks from happening.

There's a headline in today's newspaper -- pretty sure you can't see this, but it says, "Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die." And it is this anger that produced the resignations that you referenced,George. And we're hearing that there could be more resignations and firings in the not-too-distant future.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about the intelligence failure, yet several government officials are saying now with increasing certainty that they believe the militants did come from Pakistan.

HARRIS: Right, and the main source of that information is a young man, the only terrorist who was captured alive during the 60- hour siege. (inaudible) from Pakistan, and he has reportedly told hisIndian interrogators that he's a member of a group called Lashkar e- Taibi, which means army of the righteous. This is a group that has been trying for years to start a war between India and Pakistan overKashmir, the disputed province up in the Himalayas. This young man, incidentally, is 21 years old, as I said, fourth-grade education, apparently worked as a day laborer of some sort. So probably a footsoldier and not a mastermind of this attack. Therefore, it's unclear how much intelligence value he is, but it does seem to bolster the case that this plot had Pakistani roots.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They are not going so far as to actually accuse the Pakistani government yet of complicity with the terrorists, but one minister said that they're going to now increase security,especially on the borders with Pakistan, to a war level. What exactly does that mean?

HARRIS: Well, you know, it's really not clear. This was said by one Indian government official to Reuters. There had been no reports that the troops have moved to the border, as we've seen in years past.I remember being in Pakistan six or seven years ago after another huge terror attack here in India, with roots in Pakistan, and at that time, the Indians sent their troops to the Pakistani border, and there wasreal fear of a nuclear confrontation. And again, there are fears this time, but no reports of sending troops to the border. There are reports of increased security at sea.

I was talking to an analyst today about this question of whether the Indians are going to feel pressure, given all the anger here to retaliate militarily. And this analyst was saying that, yes, they will feel the pressure, but he doesn't in the end think that the Indians will mount some sort of military action, because the knowthere is a potential of nuclear war on the other side of that decision.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Some reassuring news. Dan Harris, thanks very much.

And for more on this one, I'm joined here in the studio by Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani. And you heard Dan Harris' report there. Some reassurance on the Indian side,but also a lot of anger across the country of India that these militants do come from Pakistan and are at some level being harbored by the Pakistanis.

HAQQANI: George, the first statement may have some roots, but the second part, that they are harbored by Pakistanis, plain wrong.

The point we must remember is that we should not see this heinous act in the context of India-Pakistan relations. We should see it in the context of international terrorism. There are terrorists thathave trained in all countries of the world, secretly. These are non- state actors.

I don't think that this is the time for India or anybody in India to accuse Pakistan. It's time to work with Pakistan.

Pakistan is now a democracy. India is a democracy. And as two democracies, we need to strengthen each other, rather than fall into the trap of the terrorists, who want us to fight with each other sothat they can get greater strength.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Dan cited the one analyst who does not believe that India will move its troops to the border of Pakistan. If they do, what will be the Pakistani response?