Washington DC (USA), April 30, 2025 (ANI): While speaking on the Pahalgam terror attack and the Pakistan Defence Minister’s ‘Dirty work’ remark, Republican lawmaker Rich McCormick, Co-chair of the India Caucus in the US House of Representatives warned Pakistan to be ‘very careful.’He said, “It actually makes me angry. Don't tell me that Pakistan is doing anything that's dirty work for the United States. Be specific if you're going to make that sort of assertion, be very specific, and be very careful because now you're screwing with the United States' intentions. You're telling us that we want Pakistan to do dirty work in India. How dare you? That really upsets me. Don't ever infer that the United States has evil intent in India through Pakistan. That is a ridiculous and despicable statement," says Republican lawmaker Rich McCormick, Co-chair of the India Caucus in the US House of Representatives, on being asked about Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif's 'dirty work' remark.”
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00:00Your assessment of what happened in India's Behalgam in Kashmir on April 22nd and what's
00:05your reaction when you first have heard about the heinous attack in terms of the timing,
00:10its location, the method and the casualties? So if you look at the history of Kashmir and
00:16what's happened historically, anybody seen the movie Kashmir Files or understands the history
00:22of that region. When I went over to India many, many years ago in the early 2000s, about 20 years
00:29ago, I remember talking to the defense forces about that area and it was a huge concern back then.
00:36Nothing's changed. There's still Muslim insurgents. There's still instability. There's still
00:41threatening and posturing by Pakistan. This is just more the same of people who would want to
00:49steal that area away from India to destabilize that region, to make people scared to live there.
00:54Right. Now, even to condemn this attack, this act of terror, as the co-chair of the India Caucus,
01:02plan have you co-written to address or respond to this attack? And what steps do you believe
01:07should be taken? And your take on the imminent action from India's side going forward?
01:16So what I'm concerned about is escalations between two major powers. I mean, you have two nuclear powers
01:21involved. You have two major religions involved. You have people that are trapped between. The
01:27president's already taken a hard stance against this sort of violence. It's terrorism. We can't
01:32call it anything else. If Pakistan doesn't condemn it, that tells us where they're at. Pakistan,
01:39the government of Pakistan should be condemning that sort of violence. We should be looking to them
01:43to make a hard statement that that is wrong. We don't ever accept that sort of violence against
01:50innocent people. And instead, what we're seeing is movements of military might towards the border.
01:57That's not a good sign. Right. Now, in the letter, you did stress about U.S.-India intelligence
02:03sharing. You've written that to, you've addressed that to the State Department. Do you believe that U.S.-India
02:09security cooperation is much needed at this point in light of these events?
02:15I think when it comes to fundamental terrorism, wherever it's in the world, we should be helping
02:20people avoid it. Our common enemy are those people who do harm to innocent people. That's
02:27anywhere in the world. But, you know, in India, of course, a burgeoning ally, somebody who's
02:33economically tied to us, somebody who is now militarily tied to us, somebody who looks over a region
02:39and is in the proximity of China and Taiwan and a region that's strategically important
02:44to us. I think it's extra important to make sure that we are sharing intelligence that doesn't
02:49compromise either nation, but actually enhances the security of India as well as the United States
02:54simultaneously. Now, General Asim Munir, the Pakistan's army chief, just days before the attack,
03:02made a controversial speech discussing the Hindu-Muslim divisions and describing Kashmir as Pakistan's
03:09jaguar win. Do you believe these statements reflect the official position of the Pakistani government?
03:15Or was General Munir's speech a warning sign? If so, what indicators point to cross-border
03:22involvement from the Pakistani side? I think it's inflammatory, at least, to basically involve Kashmir as
03:29basically, when you say jugular vein, you're talking about a vascular system to a body.
03:34He's basically inferring that Kashmir belongs to Pakistan. That's inflammatory. He didn't condemn
03:42the violence. He didn't condemn anything that's happening in an aggressive posture towards Kashmir.
03:47I think that should be condemned by his own government.
03:50Now, another absurd comment coming in from Pakistan's defense minister.
03:55He made a statement after the attacks about that Pakistan has been performing the dirty work of
04:02the United States while also denying the existence of Lakshkar-e Toiba in Pakistan. What is your response
04:09to that, these claims? Well, I can't speak to the second so much as the first. The first one actually
04:14makes me angry. Don't tell me that Pakistan is doing anything that's dirty work for the United States.
04:23Be specific if you're going to make that sort of assertion. Be very specific and be very careful,
04:29because now you're screwing with the United States intentions. You're telling us that we want Pakistan
04:36to do dirty work in India. How dare you? That really upsets me. Don't ever infer that the United States
04:44has evil intent in India through Pakistan? That is a ridiculous and despicable statement.
04:52Right. Now, speaking about Lakshkar-e Toiba, there are intelligence reports suggesting that
04:58the Lakshkar-e Toiba and Hamas have been in contact over the last few weeks and months. Do you see the
05:06Hamas playbook being put out into action in this terror attack in Kashmir?
05:12It doesn't matter what the name of the organization is. If you're a fundamentalist,
05:16Muslim terrorist, you have one goal. That is defeat everybody else. And it's not even fair to
05:22your thought here on what's true and what's not true. I hate to make assumptions. Time does tell the
05:29story. If you have a government that's trying to work closely with the United States, I don't want to
05:34push Pakistan in the arms of China. I think that would be really bad for India, for the United
05:39States, and for world peace, for a proper economy based on legitimate societies actually competing
05:46fairly. So I want to be careful not to alienate Pakistan. I think it would be wise for India not
05:52to alienate Pakistan or making the assumptions. But we need to encourage peaceful behavior. We need
05:58to encourage de-escalation. We need to encourage the fact that we can actually solve this by everybody
06:05uniting against a common enemy, which is violent terrorism.
06:09Right. Just like the attacks in Israel, the attack in India, in Kashmir, does that
06:18give India the right to defend itself against terror?
06:22It doesn't matter what it is. Every country, every country has the right to defend themselves
06:28against terrorists. You remember when the United States was attacked? We actually went into Pakistan
06:34to take out somebody very bad because we didn't trust that anybody else could do it the way we could.
06:38Now, we happen to be the world preeminent power, and we use that might to do something that we
06:44thought was a legitimate threat to the United States. I think India has to be very careful. I
06:50don't think we want to cross borders and cause something that would escalate in
06:53peer relationships of two nuclear powers. But when it comes to defending yourself inside your own borders,
07:00of course, India has every right to do everything they can to secure their nation, their country,
07:07their territory, and their people against something that is evil and violent.
07:13World leaders, including President Trump, was one of the first to condemn these attacks. How do you
07:18think President Trump should balance relationships with both Pakistan and India, given the ongoing
07:23tensions between the two nuclear powers?
07:26I think, first of all, he says, and this is just my assumption, is he's talking to Pakistan
07:32and their leaders. And I realize we have a lot going on here in the United States right now. Our budget
07:36is far from done. We have a lot of division inside and outside of our parties. We have a lot to get done.
07:44So he's pretty busy. But I'm sure he's in contact with both leaders. I know he's very close to
07:50Prime Minister Modi. And I know he has a good relationship with Pakistan's leaders. And I think
07:57when he reaches out, he should be encouraging peaceful thought, not escalation. He should be talking about
08:03everybody condemning terrorism, which he did himself. And I think this gives Pakistan the ability right
08:10now to, instead of escalating and rattling their saber and blaming things on the United States,
08:16it gives them the opportunity to say, no, we too stand against terrorism. We don't believe in that.
08:21And that's their opportunity to define themselves as a nation. What do they stand for? And by the way,
08:26that will also tell the tale whether they're more scared about terrorists inside of their own countries
08:31and destabilization of their own country, rather than actually standing up against something that's evil.
08:37You talked about the opportunity that Pakistan has. Over the years, have you ever felt that Pakistan
08:43has taken concrete steps to prevent terrorist activities in the region while maintaining
08:48productive relationships with regional governments? Have you seen that happen ever?
08:53I have. Well, at least in rhetoric. I don't know about the fine tuning of what they actually
09:00accomplish, but I've talked to their ambassador and the verbiage seems to be good. In other words,
09:06what they've tried to accomplish and how they've tried to root out some of the terrorist organizations
09:10in their own country. And by the way, they're not immune to their own terrorists. They're not immune to
09:17Muslim fundamentalism. They're not immune to destabilization from terrorists within their own country.
09:23And realize they have some tribal areas that are very difficult to penetrate. They're insulated by
09:28several layers of tradition and history. So they have their own issues to deal with. So I don't
09:33want to demonize the entire country. I don't want to demonize the entire people. There are peaceful
09:40people that live there and people who want to live in harmony with others. But there's also some very
09:45violent people when it comes to the current government and their history of recent jailings of
09:52former leaders. They have some issues they need to deal with, but they're trying to work through
09:57those things. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Like you said, it doesn't help us to push
10:01them in the arms of China or Russia in an effort to divide. I think we need to continue to bring them
10:06to the table so we can solve some real problems. Right. Do you believe that there will be some progress
10:13from the US diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions between Pakistan and India? And you did talk about your
10:20meetings with the ambassador here outside of your faith. It's people inside your faith to subdue
10:26them, to make sure that your sect of violent Muslim faith rules over other sects of their own faith.
10:34This is the problem with that fundamentalist terrorist organization. It doesn't matter if there's Hezbollah,
10:40Hamas, the Houthis. It doesn't matter who it is. It's always violence and they always pick on the
10:47most innocent people. They are not people who are good. They don't have a good cause. They think
10:53they're godly people. They are evil people. They are serving an evil cause. Everybody who's been born
10:59in this world and can grow up without being polluted in that sense understands that this is evil and there
11:06should never be a justification for it. And of course they're going to coordinate with each other
11:09because evil loves evil. Birds of a feather flock together and these people are all evil.
11:14Right. Now, talking about something that has moved India and the people who follow a certain faith,
11:22follow Hinduism in India, is that experts are drawing parallels between Lashkar-e-Toheba and Hamas,
11:28you know, and their tactic of targeting a specific religion and this time being the Hindus in India.
11:38How do you react to that? They're going to target whoever's in that region that doesn't agree exactly
11:43with them. If you're not subdued and submissive to that sect of religion, it doesn't matter what
11:50religion you are. You can be Hindu, you can be Christian, you can be a subset of Islam that doesn't
11:55agree with them and they're going to be violent towards you. They're going to kill you if they
11:59can. They're going to chase you out if they can. We've seen the same playbook in Africa, in India,
12:06and all over the world. Wherever they can go, where they can propagate their hateful and dominant message,
12:12they're going to do that and they're going to coordinate with whoever will give them arms.
12:15And this is why I say Iran is a major problem because they harbor the worst of them and they supply
12:20weapons to these folks. Iran is an evil regime that wants to undermine
12:25all legitimate governments unless you agree with their subset of Muslim identity. And this is
12:31the big problem we face, is that these people are well-funded and well-armed and well-organized and
12:36it starts with basically a theocracy that hates all others. Now you've seen South Asia for years and
12:44decades now. How do you view the regional implications of this attack? You know, what happens next?
12:50Ah, that's the question. What happens next? That will affect how I view this because Pakistan has
12:56a big choice to make. Are they going to mask their troops to the border and pretend like it's somehow
13:01India's fault for reacting to a terrorist attack? Or are they going to say, that should have never
13:06happened. How can we help? That will tell us exactly where they're coming from, what their intentions are,
13:13what kind of country they are and how they define themselves going forward. Do you want to be
13:18associated with a terrorist cell or do you want to be associated with a legitimate government that's
13:24looking for peaceful solutions between two nuclear powers? Now, could this attack's timing relate to
13:33Pakistan's recent removal from the FATF graylist? Do you see any, you know, any paths crossing here?
13:42I'm not sure. I really don't have the inner working of that. And I'm not affiliated with
13:47that. So I don't want to comment on something outside of my own purview. But the more they support
13:53something that's illegitimate, something that's violent, the tougher it's going to be on them
13:57internationally. Right. Is Pakistan using this incident to deflect from, you know, its numerous
14:05domestic problems, whether it's the economy, whether it's the disasters there? Are they trying to derail from
14:11the actual issues that are in Pakistan? I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, it's hard to say. I hope the
14:18government's trying to do a lot of good things and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt,
14:22but time will tell. If you're focused on something that India is doing in reaction to something that
14:27was very harmful and violent in their own borders, instead of focusing on the things that they need
14:33to correct and their own legitimacy, then that will tell the story. My hope is that they'll get this
14:39messaging straight and that they'll come clean and they'll make sure that they are on the side of
14:44righteousness and defending the innocent and undefined borders and working things out peacefully.
14:51But yes, of course, if you're having problems, governments always try to tend to deflect because
14:55that's what governments do. Let's just take you back in time where after Osama bin Laden was found in
15:02Pakistan and now this attack, is India's neighbor really returning to its terrorism epicenter
15:09reputation, which it has been doing for so many years now? I hope not. I've talked to their ambassador.
15:17I've talked to people who are refugees from there and I'll show you that there's a huge
15:21difference in the United States, the Pakistani ambassador. Could you just talk about what he had to say
15:28after this event happened? Sure. First of all, we wrote the letter to the Secretary Rubio and I do
15:36believe he's going to be involved in this peace process, that he will be leveraging the United
15:40States position both economically and militarily to solve some real problems and hopefully we'll be
15:44peace brokers in that region. When it comes to the ambassador, what they inferred to me, and this is prior to
15:51this of course, as a matter of fact it was prior to being sworn in this time around, before President
15:56Trump was even the president, he talked about what kind of steps they've taken to de-escalate tensions
16:03and what they've done to de-escalate, even inside their own country, some of the radical Muslim terrorists
16:10and how they've tried to crack down on that. It is a challenging thing for them because some people,
16:16whenever you start to crack down on that, of course you're going to have people who get angry about
16:19because they're going to think that you're actually turning on your own religion. So they have to be
16:23very careful and tread that lightly, but at the same time they have to take a hard stance against
16:28anybody who would do harm to innocent people. And they seem to say the right thing, so I'm hoping
16:34that over time they'll get a better control of those sort of cells that exist in Pakistan
16:40historically. I hope they'll do a good job of working with the United States. Traditionally we had a
16:45pretty good working relationship with them, but they've had a lot of leadership turnover.
16:49And time will tell where they're going to go with this. And I think if they start going the wrong way,
16:52I think that's when the Secretary of State should really lean on them to do the right things to
16:58correct course. All right. Your closing remarks.
17:02I think it's really, everybody understands why I'm involved in the India Caucus, why I'm co-chair,
17:08why India is so important to us as a rising power. In the near future, they'll be the third largest
17:15economy in the world and they'll be growing faster than any other of the large countries
17:20in the nation when it comes to an economy. Prime Minister Modi has done a very good job of keeping
17:26pace economically, while at the same time expanding the relationships with very important people. I think
17:32that they need to be careful about buying Russian oil. I don't think that's a good thing. I'm going to speak very
17:37strongly about this because it funds a war against Ukraine. Plain and simple. I'm not going to thank
17:42you for that. I'm going to condemn that. I mean, you're up for buying the oil back. But by and large,
17:48we need a strong relationship with Prime Minister Modi, with India, with his people. We have a large
17:54Indian constituency that's very successful in the United States, which is only going to continue to grow.
18:00As you know, we have 14% Indian diaspora in my district. My son is now engaged to somebody from
18:07the diaspora and really excited to carry on those relationships that I think is going to be
18:13essential to stabilizing that region, to Taiwan, to Pakistan, to China. India is 1.47 billion
18:22people that will have extreme economic impact on that region, will affect the future technologies,
18:29our space exploration, our military expansion, all the things we need to do to keep peace through
18:35strength in that region. So I continue to push for those things that make sense, not to ramp up the
18:42rhetoric, but to actually ramp up great relationships that benefit all of us into the future.