NEWs (december 1, 2008)
Howard: Mumbai attacks a message to Obama
Chantal Abitbol
FORMER Australian prime minister John Howard said he believes terrorists who carried out a wave of coordinated attacks on Mumbai last week had intended to send US president-elect Barack Obama a “message”.
Speaking at a Hebrew University function in Sydney on Sunday night, Howard said: “I have no doubt the terrorists planned it to say to president-elect [Barack] Obama: ‘Don’t you imagine because you’re replacing President Bush who we despise that we’re going to like you … we’re not.’”
He added that the attacks are a “brutal reminder” that the threat of international terrorism is still with us.
The current death toll from the terror attacks in Mumbai has reached 172 and is expected to climb.
“International terrorism is an assault upon commonly held values all around the world,” Howard said.
“The matter in which the attacks were carried out in India … the singling out of nationals from Britain and the US and in the indiscriminate people of all faiths … is a reminder of the terrible reality that the fight against terrorism is going to be with us for a very long time into the future.
“It’s also a reminder that those people with their own vision of freedom, individual liberty and rational thought and proper academic inquiry in common … more than ever must bind with each other and act together against the forces of evil around the world.”
Howard appeared at the gala event held at the Sofitel Wentworth Hotel to receive an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The university said it acknowledged Howard's "outstanding statesmanship and leading role on the world stage in promoting democracy and combating international terrorism" and his "remarkable understanding of, and exceptional support for, the State of Israel and his deep friendship with the Australian Jewish community".
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