Roemer meets NSA; offers help to probe Varanasi attack

US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer made the offer during a meeting with National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon here this morning."The US offers whatever assistance the Indian government would be willing to accept in this difficult ocassion," Roemer told reporters after meeting Menon.

He said the US can help Indian investigators in forensic examination and spot detection efforts in the aftermath of the blast."We are willing to do whatever we can," Roemer said.

Recalling his recent visit to Varanasi, the American envoy offered his heartfelt condolences to the people of India and to the victims of the "deplorable and cowardly attack".

"I can visualise what exactly happened there last night," he said, recalling his participation in one of the 'aartis' on the banks of river Ganga."The brutal terrorist attacks accomplish nothing, the message of death and destruction accomplish nothing and the US stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of India and the people of Varanasi, who we knowm, will show the spirit of tolerance ... and quickly resolve to find who attacked them and who did it," he said.

Roemer recalled that President Barack Obama had assured his support whether the attacks emanate from some place within India or any place around the world.

"The President has indicated that the strategic partnership between the US and India will only get deeper, broader and better on the months and the years ahead ... whether it is a sanctuary some place, the President has said those need to be eliminated wherever they might be," he said.

He pointed out that Obama had assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that intelligence sharing between the US and India "will continue to get better and better"."We continue to share intelligence on a daily, hourly and minute-to-minute basis with the Government of India," he said.

He said the intelligence sharing between the two countries has improved in the last two years and it was not specific to Presidential visits of events like Commonwealth Games.
"This is what the Indian and the American govenrment has been doing on a weekly, daily and hourly basis to prevent the kind of things that happened last night or another Mumbai type attack," Roemer said.

"We have our 9/11, the people of India have their 26/11. We are trying to prevent those and other kinds of activities from happening with the people in India, in the US and across the world," he said.