Congress Calls for Increased Counter-Terrorism Efforts

In legislative actions taken Wednesday, both houses of Congress condemned in separate resolutions the targeting last month of the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Mumbai, India, and several other tourist sites by Islamist terrorists.

In the Senate, a resolution cosponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich and North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad called on the government of India to conduct a thorough investigation into the attacks that killed more than 170 people, including six Jewish victims at the Chabad House: its directors, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg; kosher supervisors Rabbi Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Rabbi Benzion Kruman; Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz; and Mexican national Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich.

The resolution, which was agreed to without objection shortly before the Senate recessed for the night, further encouraged President-elect Barack Obama to bolster counter-terrorism cooperation with India, and urged increased U.S. efforts to combat all forms of religious extremism, "in order to deter the type of targeted attacks like that waged against the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Mumbai."

In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, members approved a resolution introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York and cosponsored by 80 other legislators condemning "in strongest terms the senseless and barbaric" attacks. …