Bush adminstration threatened Pakistan with attacks if they didn't cooperate in Afghan war

From:   http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/22/bush.musharraf/index.html

Bush 'taken aback' about alleged threat to Pakistan

Story Highlights

*NEW: Musharraf vows treaty with tribes on Afghan border "is to fight the Taliban"
*Bush, Musharraf say they're in the hunt together for Osama bin Laden
*Bush surprised by reported U.S. threat to bomb Pakistan after 9/11
*Ex-deputy secretary of state denies making such a threat

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday said he was "taken aback" by a report that a U.S. official threatened the United States would attack Pakistan if it did not help immediately after 9/11.

Bush made the remarks at a White House news conference with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, thanking the U.S. ally for his role in the war on terror.

The Pakistan president has told CBS News that -- immediately following the September 11, 2001, attacks -- the Bush administration threatened to bomb his country "back to the Stone Age" if Pakistan did not help in the U.S. war on terrorism.

Bush said he first heard of the alleged threat "in the newspaper today." ( Watch as Bush says he's unaware of any such conversation -- 1:56)

"I was taken aback by the harshness of the words," he said.

"All I can tell you is that shortly after 9/11, Secretary [of State] Colin Powell came in and said President Musharraf understands the stakes, and he wants to join and help route out an enemy that has come and killed 3,000 of our citizens."

Richard Armitage, then U.S. deputy secretary of state, is the official whom Musharraf identified in the CBS report. In an interview Friday with CNN, Armitage denied the allegation.

"Never did I threaten to use military force," he said. "I was not authorized to." ( Watch as Armitage says he had a strong, straightforward talk with Pakistan -- 3:52)

Armitage acknowledged he was part of a group who met with Pakistan's intelligence chief to convey strong U.S. determination. He said the message was that "we absolutely need their help if we were going to prosecute the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

"We wanted to make sure they understood both the opportunities and the downside, but there was no threat," he said.

Musharraf was asked Friday about the CBS report, but he said he couldn't talk about it because of a legal agreement with his publisher before the release of his new memoir next week. "I am honor bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book" before it's published, he said.

In the CBS report, Musharraf said, "The intelligence director told me that [Armitage] said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.' "

"I think it was a very rude remark," Musharraf told reporter Steve Kroft, the AP said. But Musharraf said he reacted in a responsible way. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation and that is what I did," he said, according to the AP.

Hunt for bin Laden

Friday's White House meeting occurred just days after Bush said he would send U.S. troops into Pakistan to capture Osama bin Laden if he received good intelligence on the al Qaeda leader's location.

Asked Friday by reporters if the U.S. needs permission to strike inside Pakistan if bin Laden is located there, Bush said, "All I can tell you is that when Osama bin Laden is found, he will be brought to justice. And that's what we've continually discussed. I think, as the president said, we are in the hunt together against these people."

Musharraf said he was puzzled that people seem concerned about "the semantics of the tactics of how to deal with the situation. We will deal with it. We are in the hunt together."

Bush told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good information on the fugitive al Qaeda leader's location. "Absolutely," the president said.

Pakistani authorities recently signed a peace agreement with pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the country's restive northwest after two years of clashes with the traditionally autonomous tribes that left more than 600 Pakistani troops dead.

Musharraf said he and Bush discussed the pact, asserting that the treaty is against the Taliban, the former Afghan regime that harbored al Qaeda and that was ousted by U.S.-led forces after 9/11.

"It is actually to fight the Taliban," Musharraf said. "The misperception in the media, I did clarify to the president ... that this is a holistic approach that we are taking to fighting terrorism in Pakistan, in the tribal agencies of Pakistan."

He said the deal states "there will be no al Qaeda activity in our tribal agencies or across the border in Afghanistan."

Bush said he appreciated Musharraf's briefing. "When the president looks me in the eye and says the tribal deal is intended to reject the Talibanization of the people and that there won't be a Taliban and there won't be al Qaeda, I believe him," Bush said.

He also told Musharraf that "I admire your leadership. I admire your courage and I thank you very much for working on common strategies to protect our respective peoples."

Bush said Musharraf again promised to hold free elections in 2007.

"He understands that the best way to defeat radicalism and extremism is to give people a chance to participate in the political process of a nation," Bush said.

The Pakistani leader is scheduled to see Bush again next week in a three-way meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai's government is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since the Taliban's fall in 2001.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

                                                                                                                               
       

                                       

                                                Find this article at:  
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