Musharraf deflects question on alleged US threat

Musharraf deflects question on alleged US threat
By Caroline Daniel in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 22 2006 17:44 | Last updated: September 22 2006 17:44



Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, on Friday transformed a White House news conference into a personal book promotion when he refused to answer a question about whether the US had threatened to bomb Pakistan “into the Stone Age,” citing his book contract.

In an interview with CBS that airs this Sunday to coincide with the publication of his memoirs, Mr Musharraf claims that Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, threatened Pakistan after 9/11 if it refused to help in the war in Afghanistan. “Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,” he recalls Mr Armitage saying.

Setting a new precedent for a non-answer on a question of international diplomacy at a White House press conference, Mr Musharraf said: “I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honor-bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book before that day” That prompted President George W Bush to interject, “In other words, “Buy the book,” is what he’s saying.”

Mr Bush denied he had known of the threat and conceded that was “taken aback by the harshness of the words.” He strongly defended the actions of Mr Musharraf after the attacks of 9/11 noting that he was “one of the first leaders to step up and say that the stakes have changed.”

The laughter, however, underlined continued tension in the relationship between the US and Pakistan, further highlighted by revived concerns about whether the US could strike at Osama Bin Laden in Pakistani territory, and doubts about the peace agreement Mr Musharraf has struck with tribal leaders on the border of Afghanistan, an area allegedly used by Taliban forces.

Although John Abizaid, commander of the US forces in the region, expressed skepticism about that agreement, Mr Bush emphasized his trust in his relationship with Mr Musharaff. “When the president looks me in the eye and says the tribal deal is intended to reject the Talibanization of the people and that there won’t be a Taliban and there won’t be Al Qaida, I believe him.”

Both leaders side-stepped concerns about targeting the al Qaeda leader, with Mr Musharaff dismissing the debate as about “the semantics of the tactics…. We are in the hunt together.”

Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Relations, “Pakistan poses the most complicated a difficult long term foreign policy challenge on the US agenda. They have 110m people, an arsenal of nuclear weapons and are in a position to affect not simply Afghanistan’s future but that of global terrorism.”

Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan will dominate discussions next Wednesday when Mr Musharraf returns to the White House for a joint meeting with Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan.