Posted on 09/21/2006 1:10:50 PM PDT by blogblogginaway
The United States threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it cooperated in the US-led war on terror, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview. Musharraf, whose support for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan was instrumental in the fall of the hardline Taliban regime after the September 11, 2001 attacks, said the threat came from former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age'," Musharraf said in the interview with the 60 minutes investigative news programme to be broadcast Sunday.
Musharraf says the threat was delivered to his intelligence director, according to selected transcripts of the interview released by the CBS television network.
"I think it was a very rude remark," Musharraf says in the interview. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that's what I did."
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Pakistan abandoned its support for the Taliban, which was sheltering Al-Qaeda leaders, and became a front-line ally in the US-led "war on terror."
Pakistan has arrested several senior Al-Qaeda members including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 2001 attacks.
The South Asian country has also deployed around 80,000 troops at the rugged frontier with Afghanistan to hunt pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants who sneaked into the area after fleeing the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The alleged threat also demanded that Pakistan turn over border posts and bases for the US military to use in the war against the Taliban, which ended with the hardline regime's collapse in late 2001.
Other "ludicrous" demands required Pakistan to suppress domestic expressions of support for militant attacks on US targets, according to CBS.
"If somebody's expressing views, we cannot curb the expression of views," it quoted Musharraf as saying.
The United States threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it cooperated in the US-led war on terror
___________________________________________
Iran might want to chat with you.
Well, props to Armitage on that one, then.
Aren't Cheney and Rove supposed to be doing these things? ;^)
Absolutely ludicrous, indeed.
Pakistan would never think of curtailing free speech.
Who knows. We still might.
"If somebody's expressing views, we cannot curb the expression of views," it quoted Musharraf as saying."
They certainly can supress expressions of views they
don't approve of, such as support for Ms Bhutto, or
Christianity..
He would have to bomb them to the Neo-Neolithic Age.
I thought they were already in the stone age.
Mushy wouldn't have liked it much if I'd been President on 9/12/01.
He'd not have been around to feel offended.
Would this not be in line with Bin Laden's wish? Or should we just bomb them back to the year 700?
I'm afraid it's going to happen eventually, whether from us or from India.
That was my thought. A sneeze could have sent them back into the stone age.
(stone age)that is only a week time wise to pakistan.
No, Azoic..
(stone age)that is only a week time wise to pakistan.
_______________________________________________
Thanks for the laugh... :)
The only way to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age is by using nuclear weapons.
I was aware that the Bush administration had threatened Pakistan after 9/11, and of Indian reports that then ISI chief Gul (the one Musharraf refers to in this interview) had funnelled $100,000 to the 9/11 hijackers, and that Gul was in Washington D.C. on 9/11. I suspected that the 9/11 hijackers might have had intelligence, signals and diplomatic pouch support from the ISI in the Pakistani embassy given the Indian reports of the $100,000 financing being traced through accounts controlled by Gul.
I was also aware that ISI people had raced throughout Pakistan afterwards urging local religious leaders and chiefs not to oppose Pakistani govt. acquiesence in the use of Pakistani territory by American forces attacking the Taliban. I thought this was due to American threats. The absence of followup reports, though, led me to suspect that the reports of American threats, and of ISI involvement in 9/11, had been exaggerated.
But I had no idea that the Bush administration had actually threatened to nuke Pakistan. Musharraf is a credible source here. This gives far more credibility to those Indian reports of ISI involvement in 9/11.
I am glad to hear it! More Reaganese tough talk with these A-holes is in order.
I am proud of the liberal punk if he actually did this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.