9/22/06
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060922/ts_nm/bush_pakistan_dc_1
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it was not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan after the September 11 attacks despite Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's complaint that Washington warned it would bomb his country.
The statement came as Bush and Musharraf met at the White House to discuss cooperation in the war on terrorism and efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban.
They were to hold a news conference at 10:10 a.m. EDT (1410 GMT).
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state at the time, had denied warning Musharraf that the United States would bomb his country if it did not cooperate with the U.S. campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, in an interview with CBS News' magazine show "60 Minutes," to air on Sunday, said that after the September 11 attacks, Armitage had told Pakistan's intelligence director, "'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age."'
Snow said he did not know what Musharraf had been told but that U.S. policy was to seek Musharraf's cooperation.
"U.S. policy was not to issue bombing threats. U.S. policy was to say to President Musharraf: 'We need you to make a choice,"' Snow said.
As for what Armitage said to the Pakistanis: "I don't know," Snow said. "This could have been a classic failure to communicate. I just don't know."
Bush says knew of no threat to bomb Pakistan
9/22/06
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060922/ts_nm/bush_musharraf_threat_dc_1
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday he knew of no U.S. threat to bomb Pakistan following the September 11 attacks.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said this week a U.S. official warned his country in 2001 that America would bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" if it did not cooperate with the campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"The first I've heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today," Bush said as he stood next to Musharraf at a news conference. "I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words."
Musharraf sidestepped the issue, saying he could not comment because of a book deal.
The Pakistani leader had told the CBS program "60 Minutes" that the threat came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage but Armitage has since denied making such a warning.
from
South Asia Analysis Group
United States’ Policy Predicaments In Pakistan
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
http://www.saag.org/papers9/paper812.html
07. 10. 2003
... General Musharraf was given an ultimatum to submit without delay to American demands, namely (1) Pakistan to provide bases for United States military forces in the war to liquidate the Taliban in Afghanistan (2) Dismantle all Pak terrorist training camps on Pak-Afghan border and (3) Launch military operations to seal Pak-Afghan border to prevent escape of Osama bin Laden and the hierarchy of Al Qaeda and Taliban.
Genral Musharraf, visibly shaken, complied with the American dictates to a degree, justifying it to his nation on two grounds: (1) Pakistan’s survival was at stake, and (2) The holy Koran sanctioned temporizing commitments under pressure but which could be reneged upon at the first opportune moment.
Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Predicaments Post 9/11: An Analysis
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
http://www.saag.org/papers6/paper564.html
12. 12. 2002
...Within hours of these despicable acts, Pakistan’s strategic delinquencies brought it face to face with a most traumatic imposition by the United States ultimatum...
...become an accomplice in the American military intervention in Afghanistan or else face the consequences...
...Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, buckled under the United States ultimatum and agreed unconditionally to all American demands...
and some more…
9/23/06
9-11 AND THE SMOKING GUN
Part 2: A real smoking gun
By Pepe Escobar
Apr 8, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FD08Aa01.html
[…]
Pakistani intelligence sources told Asia Times Online that on the afternoon of September 11 itself, as well as on September 12 and 13, Armitage met with Mahmoud with a stark choice: either Pakistan would help the US against al-Qaeda, or it would be bombed back to the Stone Age. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented an ultimatum in the form of seven US demands. Pakistan accepted all of them. One of the demands was for Musharraf to send Mahmoud to Kandahar again and force the Taliban to extradite bin Laden. Mahmoud knew in advance Mullah Omar would refuse. But when he went to Kandahar the Taliban leader said he would accept, as long as the Americans proved bin Laden was responsible for September 11. There was no proof, and Afghanistan was bombed anyway, a policy already decided well in advance.
[…]
So, armitage is lying, and so is bush. Which is really no surprise. The big surprise is that anyone believes either one of them ANY time they say anything. As of this morning, the media was still treating this flippantly, and as a he said-he said deal, which it’s not. The CCMA just will not call bullshit on bush.
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