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| Unaware of his administration threatening Pak after 9/11, says Bush | | |
Washington, Sep 23 US President President George W Bush has
said he is not aware of any threat held out by his administration
to force Pakistan into joining the US fight against Taliban regime
after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
At a joint press conference after their White House meeting
yesterday, Bush was responding to Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf's reported observation that the then-Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage had threatened to bomb his country if
it did not support the US action against the then-Taliban
government in Afghanistan.
In reply to a question, Bush said he was taken aback by the
harshness of the alleged US remark which he saw only in
yesterday's newspaper. ''I just do not know about it,'' he said.
President Musharraf, in an interview to be aired tomorrow on CBS
television network, said that Armitage told the Pakistani
intelligence chief that the US would bomb his country back to
the Stone Age if it did not join the fight against the Taliban.
It was a ''very rude remark,'' Gen Musharraf remarked.
However, when asked at the joint press conference yesterday
about the remark, Gen Musharraf avoided a direct reply, saying
it was contained in his new book to be launched on September 25
and he was honoured-bound to publisher, Simon and Schuster, not to
make any comment on it in advance.
Media reports here yesterday quoted Armitage saying that an
official document detailing his conversation with the Pakistan
intelligence chief confirmed that he did not threaten that Pakistan
would be bombed back into the Stone Age should the Pakistani
leader refuse to join the US fight against al Qaeda.
He also said Musharraf had fired the intelligence director shortly
after he had relayed the alleged US threat to the Pakistani
president. |
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