The Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" after the September 11 attacks if the country did not cooperate with America's war on Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday.
In an interview to be aired on CBS television this weekend Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, said the threat was delivered by the assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan's intelligence director.
"The intelligence director told me that (Mr Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age'," Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying. The revelation that the US used extreme pressure to secure Pakistan's cooperation in the war on terror arrived at a time of renewed unease in the US about its frontline ally.
Gen Musharraf told CBS he was stunned at the bluntness of the US approach in the aftermath of the attacks. "I think it was a very rude remark," he said. But he yielded to the request.
Mr Armitage disputes the language used, CBS said, but he did not deny that Pakistan was put on notice to help America's war effort.
Gen Musharraf told CBS he balked at some of the US demands such as turning over border posts and bases to US forces. Pakistan abandoned its support for the Taliban government in Kabul and allowed US overflights of Pakistan. In the past five years, Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in the border areas with Afghanistan in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and has cooperated with US intelligence services.
It has also arrested a number of al-Qaida figures, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the September 11 attacks.
"One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that's what I did," the general told CBS.
Other US demands, which Gen Musharraf described as "ludicrous" such as barring anti-US demonstrations, were also refused. "If somebody's expressing views, we cannot curb the expression of views," he said.
Gen Musharraf is to visit the White House today where discussions are expected to focus on his recent decision to pull Pakistani troops out of North Waziristan, ceding checkpoints to tribal militias. US officials fear the withdrawal will be viewed as a sign of weakness, and will allow the Taliban a safe haven at a time of increased attacks against Nato forces in the south of Afghanistan.