/ 23 September 2006

Musharraf plugs book to dodge ‘bomb’ spat

Pakistan's leader cited a book deal during an appearance with United States President George Bush on Friday to avoid talking about a purported US threat to bomb his country back to the Stone Age after the September 11 attacks. With his memoir due out on Monday, President Pervez Musharraf managed to plug his book while smoothing diplomatic waters after talks with Bush on their partnership in the war on terrorism.

Pakistan’s leader cited a book deal during an appearance with United States President George Bush on Friday to avoid talking about a purported US threat to bomb his country back to the Stone Age after the September 11 attacks.

With his memoir due out on Monday, President Pervez Musharraf managed to plug his book while smoothing diplomatic waters after talks with Bush on their partnership in the war on terrorism and efforts to combat a Taliban resurgence.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS News magazine show 60 Minutes to air on Sunday, charged that after the September 11 attacks, the United States threatened to strike Pakistan if it did not cooperate in America’s campaign against the Taliban.

Musharraf said Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state, told Pakistan’s intelligence director, ”’Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.”’

Bush, hailing Musharraf as an important ally, insisted on Friday he knew of no such US threat, and Armitage said he never issued such a warning.

”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 White House news conference. ”I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words.”

Musharraf, who told CBS the Stone Age warning was a ”very rude remark, dodged a reporter’s question on the issue, citing a contract with his publisher for his memoir, In the Line of Fire.

”I would like to — I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honour-bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book before that day,” he said.

”In other words, ”Buy the book,” is what he’s saying,” Bush said amid laughter from the assembled journalists.

It was unclear, however, why the book deal would not have stopped Musharraf from airing the complaint earlier to CBS.

Both Simon & Schuster and the CBS network are owned by media giant CBS, formerly part of Viacom.

‘Not US policy’

The White House said it was not US policy to threaten Pakistan after the September 11 2001 attacks, as it sought Islamabad’s cooperation against Afghanistan’s Taliban, who were sheltering al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

”I’ve never made a threat in my life that I couldn’t back up, and since I wasn’t authorised to say such a thing … I didn’t say it,” Armitage told CNN. He said, however, that he made clear that Pakistan ”was either with us fully or not.”

Bush praised Musharraf as one of the first foreign leaders to come out after September 11 to ”help root out the enemy.”

The two presidents also papered over a disagreement touched off by Bush’s statement to CNN on Wednesday that he would order troops into Pakistan if he had firm intelligence on bin Laden.

Musharraf, facing anti-US sentiment at home, had said Pakistan would want to handle such a situation itself.

After Friday’s talks, both leaders stressed their countries’ cooperation in the hunt for al-Qaeda.

Musharraf also insisted a peace deal reached this month with tribes on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan was with tribal elders and that it was aimed at hurting the Taliban.

Critics have said Pakistan’s strategy risks creating a safe haven for Taliban insurgents and their al-Qaeda allies.

Musharraf dismissed that as a ”misperception in the media”, and Bush said he accepted the Pakistani leader’s explanation.

Bush will mediate on Wednesday in three-way talks with Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who have accused each other of not doing enough to crack down on militants.

Tensions between the two neighbours have risen as remnants of Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban have regrouped since their overthrow by US-led forces after the September 11 attacks. Afghanistan has seen its heaviest bout of fighting since 2001. – Reuters