Lindaland
  Global Unity
  Musharraf: U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Musharraf: U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11
DayDreamer
unregistered
posted September 21, 2006 03:45 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Musharraf: U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11

Who's the terrorist?


President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the September 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America's war campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" that will air Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf's intelligence director.

"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,"' Musharraf said.

"I think it was a very rude remark."

The Pakistani leader, whose remarks were distributed to the media by CBS, said he reacted to the threat in a responsible way.

"One has to think and take actions in the interest of the nation, and that's what I did," Musharraf said about the cooperation extended by Pakistan.

Musharraf said some demands made by the United States were "ludicrous," including one insisting he suppress domestic expression of support for terrorism against the United States.

"If somebody's expressing views, we cannot curb the expression of views," Musharraf said.


Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

IP: Logged

and
unregistered
posted September 21, 2006 04:05 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
why am i not surprised? only thing im wondering is how is this interview gonna affect the relationship between the us and pakistan....

------------------
"WHATEVER the soul longs for, WILL be attained by the spirit"

"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

-Khalil Gibran

IP: Logged

DayDreamer
unregistered
posted September 21, 2006 04:23 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not surprised either.

Looks like the relationship had already begun to dissolve...


US troops may enter Pakistan to hunt Laden

Chidanand Rajghatta
[ 22 Sep, 2006 0030hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


WASHINGTON: President George Bush has dropped a bombshell ahead of his Friday meeting at the White House with Gen. Pervez Musharraf by declaring that US troops would not hesitate to enter Pakistan in their hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Asked on CNN if he would order military action inside Pakistan if intelligence indicated bin Laden and other top terrorists were hiding there, Bush asserted: "Absolutely...absolutely."

"We would take the action necessary to bring them to justice," Bush said.

The US President's assertion is a sharp departure from his remarks only last week that Pakistan is a "sovereign nation" and American troops could not enter the country without invitation.

But in the days since those remarks, the US media and strategic community has relentlessly questioned Pakistan's bonafides in the war on terrorism, topped by critical remarks by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Gen. Musharraf and Afghanistan's elected President Hamid Karzai clashed bitterly at the United Nations this week with each leader asking the other to "do more" to contain the resurgence of Taliban.

On Wednesday, Karzai virtually urged US to invade and punish Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, saying the war on terrorism could not be won without hitting the root source of the violence, which he clearly indicated was Pakistan.

"We must destroy terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan, dismantle the elaborate networks in the region that recruit, indoctrinate, train, finance, arm and deploy terrorists," Karzai told the UN General Assembly without naming Pakistan, but clearly implicating his neighbour.

Following the Bush-Musharraf meeting on September 22, Karzai is to meet the US President separately on September 24, before a trilateral meeting next week with Bush and Musharraf on September 27.

Bush's remarks on CNN came as a virtual public rebuke to Musharraf, who only hours before had insisted to the media in New York that Pakistan will not allow foreign troops on it territory and would conduct the hunt for bin Laden itself.


But US analysts have questioned Pakistan's commitment in this regard. The considered opinion in the intelligence community is that bin Laden is Pakistan's insurance for continued US aid and pandering, and Islamabad has no compelling reason to capture or kill him.

Bush though frequently chooses to give Musharraf the benefit of doubt in public. The CNN interview was no exception - even amid the latest gauntlet he threw about possible incursions into Pakistan.

"I view President Musharraf as somebody who would like to bring al-Qaida to justice," Bush told CNN 's Wolf Blitzer. "There's no question there is a kind of a hostile territory in the remote regions of Pakistan that makes it easier for somebody to hide."

It is possible that Bush might have meant a short surgical strike when he spoke of a US hunt for bin Laden in Pakistan while previously rejecting the idea of stationing troops on a longer term basis in the country.

Despite Pakistan's protestations to the contrary, the US military has frequently crossed the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan in hot pursuit of terrorists.

However, Bush's public disclosure of a no-holds-barred US policy has put Musharraf in a spot given his public insistence that Pakistan has the sovereign right to decline foreign intervention in the hunt for bin Laden and do the job on its own.

For that slight alone, Bush is expected to praise the Pakistani dictator even more during his Friday call at the White House despite urging from many analysts that he has to hold the general's feet to the fire.

"America's staunchest ally presides over the breeding grounds of the very people who seek to kill as many Americans as they can, while US taxpayers foot the bill," Pakistani-American analyst Manzoor Ijaz wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday in an op-ed piece titled "Musharrafstan," pointing out that the general was in cahoots with radicals despite his protestations to enlightened moderation.

Pakistan, he said, needed innovative solutions to move away from its radical path, and Musharraf was not the man to deliver them.

The Times of India Online
Copyright ©2006Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2015515.cms

IP: Logged

DayDreamer
unregistered
posted September 21, 2006 04:32 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"No entry for foreign troops into Pakistan"

Islamabad, Sept. 22 (PTI): Pakistan on Thursday pledged not to let foreign troops enter its territory a day after US President, George W Bush, said he would order American military action inside the country if Osama bin Laden was found hiding there.

Bush told CNN that he would authorize military action inside Pakistan if intelligence indicated that the al-Qaida leader bin Laden or other top terrorist were hiding here.

"....inside Pakistan if there is any counter-terrorism action to be taken, it would be taken by the government of Pakistan solely and alone," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, said reacting to Bush's remarks.

She said President Pervez Musharraf has already spoken on the issue and has made "our position absolutely clear" in this regard.

She said it was also "very speculative" that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. "He is not and nobody knows where he is."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200609220325.htm

IP: Logged

All times are Eastern Standard Time

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | Linda-Goodman.com

Copyright © 2011

Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com © 2000
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a