Committee News

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

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Pakistan Central to Times Square Plot: Royce Reacts

http://royce.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=184403

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, issued the following statement in response to developments in the Times Square car bombing plot.

"This plot once again demonstrates the centrality of Pakistan’s radical religious schools in terrorist plots against our country and across the world. We are seeing the consequences of that country’s failure to control the Deobandi educational infrastructure of hate, which has been putting down roots across Pakistan for decades.

"Simply put, we got lucky. Our counterterrorism tools – everything from intelligence collection on individuals entering the United States to no-fly lists to interrogation procedures and methods – have to be sharp. There can be no room for errors.

"We owe a great deal to the citizens and police officers who helped to discover this plot and place this individual into custody. The attempted attack demonstrates the changing nature of the terrorist threat against our country, which means we have to adapt all the much quicker."

Royce returned this week from a congressional oversight trip to Pakistan, where he met with President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, the former minister of education and religious leaders.