US threatened Pakistan after 9/11

Associated Press, Islamabad

Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf said in his memoir released Monday he had no choice but to switch support from the Taliban to the US-led war on terror or face an American "onslaught" and a possible Washington-backed Indian incursion into Kashmir.

Musharraf, in his book entitled In The Line of Fire, also criticised the American invasion of Iraq for making the world "more dangerous" and heaped scorn on the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program, AQ Khan, for selling atomic equipment and secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Thousands of copies of the books hit the stands in Pakistan as well as in the United States, Britain and India on Monday.

Its release is unique as few heads of state ever publish books while still in power.

Musharraf, who is currently visiting the US, acknowledged Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia created their own militant "monster" by supporting the Islamic jihad against the Soviet Union during its 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan.

"We had assisted in the rise of the Taliban after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, which was then callously abandoned by the United States," Musharraf wrote.

It was within this vacuum that Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terror network went from strength to strength, thanks to the support of the Taliban's one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar, Musharraf recalled.

Pakistan initially saw the Taliban as a means to end Afghanistan's rampant violence, which peaked during the 1992-96 civil war, said Musharraf.

Pakistan also needed the Taliban to offset the pro-Indian Northern Alliance -- the other faction in the Afghan conflict -- who favoured Islamabad's archrival New Delhi.

But after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, Musharraf realised that continued support for the Taliban and ties with militant networks would set Pakistan on a collision course with Washington.

"America was sure to react violently, like a wounded bear," Musharraf wrote. "If the perpetrator turned out to be Al-Qaeda, then that wounded bear would come charging straight toward us."

On Sept 12, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned the Pakistani leader with the ultimatum: "You are either with us or against us," Musharraf recalled.

The next day, Powell's then deputy, Richard Armitage, telephoned the chief of Pakistan's top spy agency, the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, with an even sterner warning.

"In what has to be the most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage ... told the (ISI) director general not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age," Musharraf recounted.

Armitage last week denied threatening to bomb Pakistan, but acknowledged delivering a stern warning to the Pakistani government after the Sept 11 attacks.

Aware Pakistan was in Washington's sights, Musharraf weighed up the options, including trying to counter militarily any US actions.

"I war-gamed the United States as an adversary," he said. But he realised that Pakistan's military, economic and social weaknesses made it impossible to confront an inevitable American "onslaught."

Pakistan was also caught off balance by the threat from nuclear-armed rival India, which Pakistan had fought three wars with since their 1947 independence from Britain, including two over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

"The Indians might have been tempted to undertake a limited offensive there; or more likely they would work with the United States and the United Nations to turn the present situation (of a divided Kashmir) into a permanent status quo," Musharraf wrote.

"The United States would certainly have obliged." "It is no secret that the United States has never been comfortable with a Muslim country acquiring nuclear weapons and the Americans undoubtedly would have taken the opportunity of an invasion to destroy such weapons," he added.

So, left with few options, Musharraf decided to cut Pakistan's support for the Taliban, despite a possible backlash from radical Islamic sectors of his country.

"Why should we put our national interest on the line for a primitive regime that would be defeated?" he asked. "Self-interest and self-preservation were the basis of this decision."

But Musharraf disputed US President George W Bush's claim that the world is safer following the American-led invasion of Iraq, saying he opposed the war because he "feared it would exacerbate extremism, as it has most certainly done. ... The world has become far more dangerous."

Musharraf highlighted Pakistan's efforts to clamp down on extremism, such as the arrests of 670 Al-Qaeda terrorists, including the killers of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

He acknowledged Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants still operate in Pakistan, but said he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of top fugitives, including bin Laden and Omar.

"If I had to guess, I would assume that he (bin Laden) is moving back and forth across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border somewhere," Musharraf wrote.

Regarding Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist, AQ Khan, Musharraf acknowledged that in pursuit of atomic bomb after India's 1974 nuclear tests, Pakistan had tapped an underground network in technology mainly based in Europe.

Khan, who had brought back centrifuge designs from his former job in the Netherlands, was given control over Pakistan's nuclear program and opened an office in Dubai.

Musharraf said the scientist sold equipment to Iran, North Korea and Libya. "Nobody ever imagined how irresponsible and reckless he (Khan) could be," Musharraf wrote.

Khan engaged in a $100 million (euro78million) deal with Libya and shipped it and Iran nearly 18 tons of nuclear materials, Musharraf said.

North Korea received nearly two dozen Pakistani centrifuges -- vital components of the uranium enrichment process, which can be used to generate electricity or to create an atomic weapon.

But Musharraf rejected suggestions that any Pakistani government knew of the proliferation activities by Khan, who admitted to his transgressions in early 2004. He was pardoned by Musharraf but now lives under house arrest.