Musharraf: `Pakistan was threatened into the war on terror'. Is he lying?

Pakistan's President Musharraf, someone President Bush has always touted as a firm ally in what he still calls `the war on terror' went public today, revealing that after the 9/11 attacks Richard Armitage, then Deputy Secretary of State threatened that if Pakistan did not help the US against al Qaeda and the Taliban that they would be `bombed back to the stone age'. The message was reportedly delivered to General Musharraf's intelligence director with the infamous ISI and relayed to Musharraf.

"The intelligence director told me that (Mr Armitage) said: 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,"' he told CBS-TV's 60 Minutes in an interview to be screened this weekend.

It was insulting, General Musharraf said. "I think it was a very rude remark."

But General Musharraf said he reacted responsibly. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did."

Woooo-ie!

Armitage went on CNN and denied that he said anything like that, and President Bush claims that he was unaware of any threat.

"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 refused to comment further on the issue, saying he could not comment because of a book deal..believe it or not!

So, who's lying? And why? And why make an issue of it at this point?

Musharraf may be telling the truth, or he may not, but he has a vested interest in saying this now. Musharraf is getting it from all sides.

First of all Pakistan is under increasing pressure by the US because of a recent deal Musharraf made with tribal chiefs in Wazirastan that essentially guarantees that
Pakistan is not going to try to oust the Taliban or al Qaeda. Musharraf is insisting that Pakistan will not allow foreign forces to enter its territory in search of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leaders.

Asked in a CNN interview this week whether he would send troops into Pakistan if he received good intelligence on Osama bin-Laden's whereabouts, US President George W. Bush said: "Absolutely, we would take action necessary to bring him to justice."

India is also ramping up the pressure on General Musharraf ; reports began circulating in New Delhi yesterday that investigators probing the July 11 terror bomb blasts in Mumbai have clearly linked the attack to al-Qa'ida and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. And Indian intelligence has already established that the bombers trained in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

And to add to the mix, Pakistan is under pressure because of the resurgent Talibanin Afghanistan...who have bases and sanctuaries in the very areas that Musharraf has placed off limits to any intervention.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who is onrecord as saying that Pakistan is soft on terrorism and not doing enough.

Karzai has said coalition forces in Afghanistan could not end the Taliban onslaught unless "terrorist sanctuaries" outside the country were destroyed - a clear reference to Pakistan.

Karzai said "outsiders", whom he did not name, were behind the Taliban attacks, adding: "Military action in Afghanistan alone, therefore, will not deliver our shared goal of eliminating terrorism."

And the top US commander overseeing military operations in Afghanistan, General John Abizaid, was quoted yesterday as saying Taliban military activity was being organised from and supported by Pakistan.

I read Musharraf's statements to day as both a way of hitting back at this pressure and warning Bush that Pakistan can only be pushed so far and as trying to finesse a position more acceptable to the hardline jihadist elements in his government. Pakistan does provide a lot of support to Islamic terrorism, on a sort of `don't ask, don't tell' basis, and it amazes me that Musharraf has managed to walk this particular line for as long as he has.

I wouldn't count on him doing it much longer. Maybe the book deal he mentioned is his retirement money. Pakistan is NOT a US ally, whatever the Bush Administration would have you believe. And this will become more and more evident as time goes on.

As for Armitage, well, as we've seen, he's hardly the most reputable person in the world. Maybe he said this, maybe he didn't..or maybe something just got garbled in translation by the head of the Al Qaeda and Taliban friendly ISI.

If he DID say it, I guarantee you that President Bush was fully aware of it. Regardless of what the President might want us to believe now.