It's Bush vs. Mush

Musharraf hawks book - and stuns W

BY KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf meets with President Bush yesterday amid storm over charge U.S. threatened Pakistan.

WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf turned an appearance yesterday with President Bush into a cheesy attempt to hawk his memoirs - although the White House denied a key selling point of the new book.

Musharraf claims in the book that the Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age in the days after 9/11 unless it dropped support for the Afghan Taliban regime.

The accusation has enraged Pakistanis, and it has surprised the White House.

Bush was standing next to Musharraf in the White House yesterday when he was asked about the accusation.

After a moment of silence, the President said, "The first I've heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today. I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words."

Musharraf said he couldn't discuss the charge because of a book deal.

The threat - "Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age" - was supposedly delivered by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to a top Pakistani intelligence officer.

Armitage denied that yesterday, saying "There was no military threat and I was not authorized to do so. ... It did not happen."

But, as Armitage told "60 Minutes," "It was a strong, straightforward conversation."

Armitage had a State Department cable of his conversation with the Pakistani intel officer read to him, "and there was, in no way, that threat," he said.

A State Department source said, "When world leaders make comments like that on the world stage it's posturing so he doesn't look like a lackey to the people back home. ... He'll probably be more critical of the U.S. in the future, but will still cooperate with us."

A Bush official, meanwhile, claimed to not understand why it would be a surprise for strong language in the days immediately after the 9/11 attacks. "Right after 9/11 I would have said, 'You're either with us or we'll kick your a--.'"

Bush and Musharraf insisted they were strong allies in the war on terror and the search for Osama Bin Laden.

"We are on the hunt together," Musharraf said, echoing Bush's words.

Bush's meeting with Musharraf in part was meant to help solve a problem between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremism.

Bush will follow his meeting with Musharraf with one next Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Then the three will have a sitdown and working dinner at the White House on Wednesday.