- WASHINGTON (PTI) -- Even
while asking India to observe restraint despite Pakistan continuing cross
border terrorism, US today said any sovereign state can resort to pre-emptive
or preventive strikes to avert an imminent danger.
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- "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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Powell assured the Committee that the US goal after Saddam's
ouster is a united Iraq and said U.S. is opposed to a separate Kurdish
State.
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