US President George W. Bush shakes hands with his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday. (EPA)

WASHINGTON, 23 September 2006 — President George W. Bush met at the White House yesterday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has claimed that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks a former State Department official pressured his Muslim nation into cooperating with the US in combating terrorism.

Bush said yesterday he was “taken aback” by a purported US threat “to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age” if it did not cooperate in the fight against terrorism, and said he knew nothing of it until he read it in the newspapers yesterday morning.

He praised Musharraf for being one of the first foreign leaders to come out after the Sept. 11 attacks to stand with the US to “help root out an enemy.” Musharraf then told journalists that the two leaders had “reinforced our trust with each other. I have total confidence that President Bush desires the best for Pakistan and our region. We reinforced the need for a long-time friendship, and strategic relationship.”

The meeting and press conference was also aimed at US efforts to try to settle troubles that have come between Pakistan and Afghanistan — two US allies who accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremists. “Why beat up on Musharraf? He’s probably the only friend we’ve got in the region, and without him in power — what would happen to all those nuclear bombs in Pakistan?” a State Department official told Arab News anonymously. The US president is working to find a way to defuse the dispute between Pakistan, which is helping the United States track Osama Bin Laden and restrain Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization, and the struggling democratic government in Afghanistan.

Musharraf yesterday strongly defended a truce he recently signed with Taleban-linked militants in the tribal North West Frontier Province where his government has little control. Under the terms of that deal, Pakistani troops agreed to end their military campaign against fighters in North Waziristan.

For their part, the militants said they would halt their attacks on Pakistani forces and stop crossing into Afghanistan to launch ambushes.

Coinciding with the Bush-Musharraf meeting was a news report alleging that after the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States used threats to persuade Pakistan to become a partner in the US-led war on terror. In an interview to air tomorrow, Musharraf said that after terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Pakistan’s intelligence director the United States would bomb his country if it didn’t help. “The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,’” Musharraf told “60 Minutes.” Armitage told CNN on Thursday that he never threatened to bomb Pakistan, wouldn’t say such a thing and didn’t have the authority to do it.

Armitage said he did have a tough message for Pakistan, telling the Muslim nation that it was either “with us or against us,” according to CNN. Armitage said he didn’t know how his message was recounted so differently to Musharraf. At yesterday’s White House press conference, Musharraf said he couldn’t talk about the Armitage conversation because he has a book deal that requires him to remain silent for several more days. “Buy the book,” Bush joked. But pundits did not find Musharraf’s response funny.

“’I’m a head of state, but I can’t talk about it because I’m launching my book deal on Sept. 25 with Simon and Schuster?’ How serious is that?” one pundit on MSNBC asked. Significantly, both men used the opportunity at the White House briefing to speak about the Israeli-Palestinian Mideast peace talks.

“We also discussed the core issue of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, which needs to be resolved, and I am extremely glad that the president has a desire and a will to resolve this issue, as it lies at the heart of terrorism and extremism,” said Musharraf.

A journalist asked Bush about Musharraf’s call to build bridges in Islamic world with the US, adding: “Your comments about Islamic Fascists and now the comments by the pope” have not been helpful.

Bush was quick to respond, and used the opportunity to swing from South Asian politics to the Mideast. “There is unbelievable propaganda in the Middle East that is trying to inflame passion, the propagandist are trying to create conditions where terrorism is justified,” said Bush. “I said at the United Nations that America respects Islam, and we do. But we don’t respect extremists that exploit religions in order to justify their behavior.” Focusing on Muslim-Americans, Bush said: “It’s important that Muslims around the world understand there are Muslims here in the US who are very successful and who are respected for their religion.” Bush noted the problem is not only against extremists against the West. “I’m the only US president who has called for a state for Palestine,” Bush reminded journalists. “And to have this state, people have to recognize Israel’s right to exist.” Bush then called on people in the Middle East “to reject extremist propaganda. They love to say this is a war against Islam, I can’t think of anything more false than this.”