WikiLeaks: US, Britain decided to play safe after 26/11

WELLINGTON - Diplomats from five countries, including the US and Britain, decided not to get “sucked into the blame game” being played by India and Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The Dec 2008 document released by WikiLeaks is about the international response to a series of deadly bombings and shootings in India’s financial and entertainment capital that killed 166 people, the New Zealand Herald reported Thursday.

It describes a meeting between New Zealand, US, Australian, British and Canadian diplomats in the aftermath of the attack.

All the representatives resolved not to get “sucked into the blame game” being played by Pakistan and India, the cable says.

According to the daily, the representatives decided that any offers of assistance to India should be made “carefully” to avoid being interpreted as politically motivated.

They had earlier agreed to send sympathetic messages to India rather than “pound” it for the “massive intelligence failure” that led to the attack, it says.

In the leaked cable, then US ambassador to India David Mulford speculated on whether the attacks were ordered by Pakistan’s intelligence service.

In a segment titled “The Million Dollar Question”, he noted links between Pakistan intelligence and the Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group that perpetrated the Mumbai attack.

But he said “there is no clear evidence yet to suggest that ISI directed or facilitated the attacks”.