Musharraf covers US bomb threat with book deal

Washington, Sept 23: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cited a book deal during an appearance with President George W Bush yesterday to avoid repeating a purported US threat to bomb his country ''back to the Stone Age'' after the September 11 attacks.

With his memoirs due for release on Monday, Musharraf used the unusual gambit to smooth diplomatic waters after talks on the US-Pakistan partnership in the war on terrorism and efforts to prevent a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan.

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 told a White House news conference, in which he hailed Musharraf as an important ally, that he knew of no such US threat, and Armitage said today he had 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. ''I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words.'' Musharraf sidestepped repeating his earlier accusation, saying, ''I would like to, 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.'' Amid laughter from the assembled journalists, a smiling Bush quipped: ''In other words, ''Buy the book,'' is what he's saying.'' Musharraf spoke just days ahead of the worldwide publication of his memoir ''In the Line of Fire.'' The White House said earlier it was not US policy to threaten Pakistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, as it sought Islamabad's cooperation against Afghanistan's Taliban, who were sheltering al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

''US policy was not to issue bombing threats. U.S. policy was to say to President Musharraf: 'We need you to make a choice,''' chief Bush spokesman Tony Snow said. He added there may have simply been a failure of communication.

Armitage told CNN yesterday, ''I've never made a threat in a my life that I couldn't back up, and since I wasn't authorized to say such a thing, hence I couldn't back up that threat, I didn't say it.'' Armitage also said, however, he had made clear to the Pakistani intelligence director how strongly the Americans felt.

''I told him that for Americans it was black or white, that Pakistan was either with us fully or not,'' he said.

Praising Musharraf today, Bush said, ''My recollection was that one of the first leaders to step up and say that the stakes had changed, that an attack on America that killed 3,000 citizens needs to be dealt with firmly, was the (Pakistani) president.''

REUTERS

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