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Bombing Pakistan -- Armitage "Did Not Say That"
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ShareOctober 04, 2006 10:25 AM
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf got it wrong about a U.S. official threatening to bomb Pakistan if it did not help the United States go after al Qaeda, top Pakistani officials tell ABC News.
Musharraf set off a firestorm with his allegation in a new book that, shortly after 9/11, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had warned that the U.S. would "bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age" if it did not cooperate with Washington. Pakistani officials have conceded to ABC News that Mr. Armitage made no such threat.
The controversy over Armitage's statements was ignited by the publication of President Musharraf's autobiography In the Line of Fire and an accompanying interview on the CBS broadcast "60 Minutes." The book asserts that Mr. Armitage issued his ultimatum in a meeting with Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, then director-general of Pakistan's spy organization, known as the ISI, and other Pakistani officials on Sept. 12, 2001, in Washington.
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President Musharraf stated that his knowledge of Armitage' s threat was based on a conversation with Ahmed, the former spy chief. For his part, Armitage immediately issued strong denials, saying that he had firm words for Pakistan in the days after 9/11 but never threatened military force.
Now several Pakistani officials, who either attended the Armitage meeting, or who saw cables based on notes taken there, are quietly backing up Armitage. "He did not say that," one of them told ABC News. "Those were not his words."
The incident has put a spotlight on the complex, though ultra-secret, contact between Pakistan's military dictator and his spy chief at a time when Musharraf was making profound decisions about Pakistan's future.
Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed was fired by President Musharraf in 2002 and is now tied to a hardline Islamist organization, sources say. Currently serving ISI officials said he could not be located to comment on this story.
October 4, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (6)
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So Musharraf has a Clinton-esque memory it seems. Take the facts, throw them completely out the window and cook up a salacious fantasy that aggrandizes their public persona and hides their ineptitude.
Posted by: boanerges | Oct 4, 2006 12:22:22 PM
This was such an embarassing revelation that those who carried it out on BUSHCO advice can now also threaten those that don't retract it and say it is false. Of course, they undercut Musharraf and throw him under the train in doing so and if this former spy chief overthrows him and brings in islamic fundmentalists then what will we say then...
Posted by: frodaddy | Oct 4, 2006 12:35:28 PM
I don't doubt that Armitage told Musharrfwhat was alleged. If he didn't, he should have.
Posted by: dave | Oct 5, 2006 8:16:35 AM
Is anyone so stupid that they don't realize that U.S. has ordered Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to take it back?
The last thing the U.S. wants the Pakistani population to think is that this is another example that the U.S. is a ruthless modern day Rome. Rome theatened tribes and nations with slavery and destruction if they didn't bow down before it. The U.S. does the same.
Dave's letter is another excellent example!
Posted by: vernon | Oct 10, 2006 4:37:32 PM
i would only say armitage can threaten musharaf there man,not pakistan,if it is then its asking for nukes on newyork,and you know its possible.you are not talking to a afghanistan or iraq's presidient saddam,in pakistan the goverment totaly changes after 8 to 10 years and different people come with different thoughts,but its for sure your asking the worlds sixth biggest population,only muslim nuclear power,missile power and also having airforce,navy and army equiped with your own modersn weapons to come in war,you got to be kidding.
Posted by: waqas | May 15, 2007 1:26:55 PM
Right from the first comment it becomes obvious that at least three of the people commenting haven't actually read the article they are commenting on, or if they have then they are filtering it through their own prejudices. Nowhere in the article does it say that Armitage's comments were to Musharraf.
Posted by: JB | Sep 21, 2007 7:06:27 PM
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