Musharraf denies ‘US secret deal’ reports
May 10, 2011Via his Facebook page, General Pervez Musharraf has denied that he had agreed in 2001 for America to conduct a unilateral operation in Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden if the terrorist was located in Pakistan.
The Guardian newspaper reported this morning that after bin Laden managed to escape from the Tora Bora mountains, the General, who was then President of Pakistan, had struck a secret deal with then US President George Bush.
Mr Musharraf said today, “The accusation of my having allowed intrusion into Pakistan by US forces chasing Osama Bin Laden is absolutely baseless. Never has this subject even been discussed between myself and President Bush leave aside allowing such freedom of action that would violate our sovereignty.”
The Guardian cited a former senior US counter-terrorism official as declaring, “Both sides also agreed that Islamabad would vociferously protest the incursion afterwards in keeping with public sensitivities.”
The Guardian said a senior Pakistani official confirmed that the deal had been struck originally by Mr Musharraf and renewed by the army during the “transition to democracy” – a six-month period from February 2008 when Mr Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.
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