Insisting that it had shared with India terror-related inputs it deemed were "potentially credible" to its national security, the US today said it was looking into media reports that FBI had prior knowledge of David Coleman Headley's links with terror groups in Pakistan.
"I can say that it is our policy and practice to share terrorism-related information promptly with our foreign partners, when we deem that information potentially credible and relevant to their national security," US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said in a statement in New Delhi.
"We do exactly that with partners around the world every day, including India," he said.
His statement comes in the wake of reports in The Washington Post and by a non-profit newsroom that US security officials were aware of Headley's links with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"We are looking into published reports about possible information related to David Headley that goes back before the Mumbai attacks and how such information may have been handled," Roemer said, adding that he would be in position to comment in specific claims made in the media reports only after "we have determined exactly what transpired".
The American envoy said that the US took it "counter terrorism cooperation with our Indian partners very seriously".
"Our respective intelligence and law enforcement professionals work very closely together on terrorism issues of mutual concern."
He said the US officials have worked very closely with their Indian counterparts since the Mumbai attacks to provide them with information relevant both to that attack and the subsequent investigation, as well as to potential future attacks and threats to India's security.
"The US and India signed a memorandum of understanding on counter terrorism cooperation in July 2010 that includes new collaboration areas such as maritime security, forensics training, megacity policing and a wide range of other cooperation," Roemer said.
According to Roemer, American authorities had also provided Indian investigators with access to Headley in US custody so that they could put questions directly to him.
