Armitage to Musharraf after 9/11:"Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age"

[dajoki]

Reuters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14943975/

Musharraf: U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan
Leader says he was pressured to cooperate after 9/11 for safety of country

Updated: 54 minutes ago
NEW YORK - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the Sept. 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America’s 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.”

Armitage was not immediately available to comment, and a Bush administration official said there would be no comment on a “reported conversation between Mr. Armitage and a Pakistani official.”

<<snip>>

Musharraf “saw the wisdom in the decision he took,” Powell said.

[TomInTib]

1. Is that Rove's "Mr Middle of the Road" Armitage?

You know, the guy with the cooler head who would never have maliciously leaked Ms Plame's name?

[Bozita]

2. When A Q Khan was exposed as the one-stop-shop for nuclear arms, ...

... the US said NOTHING.

[Kutjara]

3. I think Musharraf is positioning himself...

...for having to deal with a resurgent Taliban, and wants to distance himself from US policies of rapidly dwindling credibility. By claiming (truly or falsely) that he was pressured into helping the US and complied for the good of the Pakistani people, he can appear to be a caring leader and an unwilling ally of 'The Great Satan.' He may be gambling that this tactic will cool some of the extremist unrest Pakistan has been experiencing since the invasion of Afghanistan.

[varun]

4. Shows that Pakistan was never as sincere "ally"

Pakistan was coerced into taking America's side in the "War on Terrorism". And Pakistan has benefitted tremendously since then (with billions of dollars of US aid). However, Musharraf is still speaking with a forked tongue. He does not want to find Bin Laden. It is not in his interest to hand Bin Laden to US.