W.House: Not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22145767.htm

W.House: Not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it was not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks despite Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's complaint that Washington warned it would bomb his country.

The statement came as Bush and Musharraf met at the White House to discuss cooperation in the war on terrorism and efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban.

They were to hold a news conference at 10:10 a.m. EDT (1410 GMT).

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state at the time, had denied warning Musharraf that the United States would bomb his country if it did not cooperate with the U.S. campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS News' magazine show "60 Minutes," to air on Sunday, said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, Armitage had told Pakistan's intelligence director, "'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.'"

[Supersedeas]

1. was Armitage another Bushist hatchman??

[Freedom_from_Chains]

10. Well it's either be his hatchet man or get bombed

Take your pick.

[arewenotdemo]

2. wonder if 60 Minutes asked Musharraf about the alleged

Mahmoud/Atta connection. No mention of that obvious question.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. I thought the Mohamoud Atta connection was suppose to be with

Iraq.

[htuttle]

8. No, that was the meeting in Prague that never happened

The other poster is referring to the accounts that the Pakistani ISI funneled $100K or so to Atta via ISI General Mahmoud Ahmed.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

11. Thanks for the clarification. It just gets so confusing to keep all of

the lies in the correct order.

[arewenotdemo]

14. here's a link

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html

[Copperred]

4. US continued support of Pakistan FOSTERS Terrorism.

Every Amreican should understand that Pakistan is ruled by its 50% Punjabi majority who is constantly having to pay off corrupt officials of the other three ethnic groups in the country.

This now very old trodden path has become untenable even for the corrupt as the masses of the three other groups (the Balochi, Sindhi and Afghan(Pashtun) want out. The US needs to support these secular nationalists in seceeding free of the parasite that is Islamabad.

The idea that Islamabad is going to nuke its own people is mute.....not gonna happen. Nor are they going to nuke India as India has nothing to do with this internal struggle for freedom.

The longer the US waits, the more advantage the Islamic radicals get. IT MUST BE NOTED that since the killing of Bugti the MMA party (islamic fundamentalists) who ordinarily would support Musharraf, because hei s the one who set them up, had to oppose him as the common people themselves shifted against the state.

Pakistan is going to fall apart becuse ISLAM is not able to unite these very different people. We need to be in there to support what is right (democracy and secularism) and gain the good will....if we do not....radicals will come in with their support of secession but with a very darker spin.

That's the facts.........

It's upsetting to see how, still, the US media refuses to talk about the long history of secular democratic oppression in Pakistan often with the tactical ok of the US.

A independent Balochistan and Greater Afgahnistan will be the most ardent pro-US countries we have ever seen, they will have the ability to stop the madrasas, destablize Iran if we really need....all this and more if we give them the assurance we will not support their oppressors...that we will not help Islamabad once again crush their secular democratic aspirations. What would the founding fathers say?

[cliss]

13. I have always felt the same way.

The US policy of the War on Terror is nothing but a war of terror, of their own choosing.

Thanks for the info.

[coalition_unwilling]

19. There is no War on Terror. There is a War for Empire that uses

Madison Avenue branding techniques to sell its oily wares to blissfully ignorant American rubes.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

5. Bush claiming ignorance on the Armitage threat to Pakistan.

[bushisanidiot]

6. Playing Dumb Comes Easy to El Diablo

what an idiot.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

9. Apparently you haven't got the latest word.

The National Association of Evangelicals have conclusively determined that Bush is not, I repeat, is not, the devil.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2194474

[VegasWolf]

16. El Diablo or El Loco or EL Diablo Loco? nt

[coalition_unwilling]

20. I prefer "El Pollo Loco" (the crazy chicken)-n/t

[Freedom_from_Chains]

23. What movie was it I saw recently which he was in? n/t

[rrasile]

12. Armitage

What's next. Well I believe I know. Do you know that small area that our slimy Pakistan friends have allowed insurgents to live in peace. Just before the Presidential election we're going bomb it back to the stone ages then Bush and company will convince the world that the big Goat Herder was killed.

[Karenina]

22. Bidness as usual

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. Musharraf claiming he can't comment or it would affect his book deal

how pathetic.

[yellowcanine]

15. Well we know Armitage has loose lips and doesn't always "remember"

what he has said so why should we believe him now? To be more specific, why should we believe what Tony Snow says Armitage said?

Also note - no actual denial, just that it was "not U.S. Policy to threaten Pakistan"....

[daleo]

17. I have read a number of "non-denial denials"

So, I am inclined to believe Musharraf.

Here is a good example:
"As for what Armitage said to the Pakistanis: "I don't know," Snow said. "This could have been a classic failure to communicate. I just don't know.""

[lumpy]

18. Everything is OK. Bush checked out Musharraf's

eyes and sure enough Mooshie is to be trusted. Bush is such a patsy. Who could think for one moment that Musharaff wasn't threatened by military action. He has enough sense to play along with Bushco' political war games and you can be damned sure Mooshie will play any game to stay in power.

[pinto]

21. The Administration threatens everyone else, don't see why Pakistan

would be exempt. No comment on the veracity of the report, Musharraf obviously plays both sides of the fence, but I wouldn't put some pointed "arm twisting" beyond Bushco, by any means.

[agincourt]

24. Armitage wasn't let in on the joke,

"Tim" does an attack, we get the liberals and democrats, get boots on the ground in Iraq, get our patriot act, scare the sheeple into tolerating a GOPig police state. It's all good. Keep Ricky Army out of it though, he might spill too much.

[samsingh]

25. yeah, they would never lie - sarcasm off

[Dem2theMax]

26. Hey, the White House wasn't lying.

"The White House said on Friday it was not U.S. policy" ...

You notice they said it was not "U.S. policy." Of course not.

It was Bush's policy. :evilgrin: