Is Bush taking
credit for the death of bin Laden?
The thread name is a little disingenuous. Bush isn't taking or trying to take credit.
But the "secret deal" rang a bell. I think it's in reference to this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/21/60minutes/main2030165.shtmlHome60 Minutes .NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2006
Musharraf: In the Line of Fire
Pakistan's President Tells Steve Kroft U.S. Threatened His Country
That indoctrination is part of a rising tide of anti-American sentiment, aggravated by Musharraf’s cooperation with the United States in the war on terror, an alliance that was forged on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, Pakistan was one of a few countries supporting the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which harbored Osama bin Laden. The U.S. made it clear that that relationship would have to end, and Musharraf says the message was delivered by then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in the most undiplomatic terms.
"The Director of Intelligence told me that he said, 'Be prepared to be bombed.' Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age," Musharraf remembers.
What was his reaction?
"One has to think and take action in the interest of the nation and that's what I did," the president explains, adding that he thought it was a "very rude remark."
Armitage disputes the exact language, but doesn’t deny that the message was strong. Musharraf says he believes his director of intelligence and says he took it as a threat.
"It was a threat, certainly," Musharraf says. "I took it that the United States, after having whatever happened to the World Trade Center, would be a wounded country – a wounded sole superpower and they are going to do anything to counter and to punish the perpetrators. Now, if we stand in the way of that, we are going to suffer."
Musharraf, who had seized power in a military coup barely two years earlier, decided that Pakistan could not survive with the U.S. as an adversary and offered his cooperation.
Clearly we were not going to let Pakistan stand in our way if we had a bead on Bin Ladin. Really it was less an agreement and more of a statement of intent.
Interestingly, the Indian press has been going crazy since the death of Bin Ladin. I've never seen so many references and links to Indian news sources. Bin Ladin dead represents a real opportunity for them, and they would like to peel the US away from Pakistan.
