Former U.N. Ambassador Bolton on Terror Attacks in India

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," November 26, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Sitting in for Sean Hannity tonight is Rich Lowry. Rich, thanks for being here this evening.

RICH LOWRY, GUEST HOST: Hi, Alan.

COLMES: And joining us now former U.S. ambassador to United Nations, and FOX News contributor, John Bolton.

John, we don't — Ambassador, we don't have a lot of information at this point, but from what we do know, what do you think is the motive and who do you think might be behind this?

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JOHN BOLTON, FMR. U.N. AMBASSADOR: Well, from the group that claims credit, it appears to be Islamic extremists, the Deccan Mujahideen, Deccan referring to the Deccan Plateau, the big triangle part of India that sticks out into the Indian Ocean.

And they've clearly aimed this attack at the center of India's economic success, the financial capital. Many, many foreigner, investors and traders there designed, I think, to gain maximum international attention, so it looks to have been more extensive than earlier terrorist attacks and I think, clearly, intended to get a global audience.

COLMES: And why the timing? Why do you think — at this particular time, Thanksgiving in the United States, certain time of the day, 10:00 at night, their time. Is there anything to that?

BOLTON: I don't think it has any association with us. My guess is it's just the timing of this particular operation, but as you say, there's much that we don't know about this for the moment and probably won't until the hostage situation is cleared up and perhaps some of these terrorists are apprehended and can be questioned.

COLMES: What do you think — what does it take to put together this kind of operation? It seemed very highly coordinates, sophisticated, and probably in the planning stages for quite sometime.

BOLTON: Well, you know, many in India believe that a lot of the terrorist attacks that we've seen across the country really have been financed, organized, directed by extremists in the Pakistani government, particularly the Inner Services Intelligence director or ISI.

The main flashpoint between Pakistan and India over the years has been Kashmir, where a lot of these terrorist attacks have occurred. Obviously, it's premature to conclude anything about where this group may have been supported, but this is the kind of suspicion that can lead to an increase in tensions right there on the subcontinent very quickly if this is not cleared up.

LOWRY: Hey, John. It's Rich Lowery. Thanks so much for being with us.

John, so often in recent years when we've had this kind of horrible news from overseas, it's been Al Qaeda attacks involving suicide bombs and attempts to just create indiscriminate massive casualties.

This — although you've had, you know, some indiscriminate shooting, you've also had this very targeted effort to separate out American and British folks.

What does that portend for you? What do you think that means or tells us about the motives here?

BOLTON: Well, again, based on what we know which is hardly complete I this really had a global audience in mind. They wanted British or American hostages, perhaps other foreigners, to indicate that India in current circumstances was not exactly a safe place to travel, to invest, or — to trade.

And I think that's one reason why we can have some confidence this is Islamic extremists. It seems impossible to believe that Hindu extremists would do this unless it was kind of reverse psychology operation.

And I think that will increase suspicion in India that this was directed from outside the country, whether it was Al Qaeda or other — Islamic extremists, this was not a wholly indigenous operation.

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