|
Pakistani troops pull back from binladen hunt { December 5 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/asia/05pakistan.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/asia/05pakistan.html
December 5, 2004
In Meeting With Musharraf, Bush Praises Pakistani Troops
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 - Despite the recent pullback of Pakistani troops from tribal areas where some believe Osama bin Laden may be hiding, President Bush told Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, on Saturday that the troops have "been incredibly active and very brave" in routing out Al Qaeda terrorists.
The comments came during a stopover by Mr. Musharraf on his way to Britain, in a rare visit to the White House on a Saturday by a foreign leader.
"The president has been a determined leader to bring to justice not only people like Osama bin Laden," Mr. Bush said, "but to bring to justice those who would inflict harm and pain on his own people.
"Remember, this is a man whose life had been threatened by, and still is threatened by, Al Qaeda leadership," he said, a reference to the two assassination attempts on Mr. Musharraf last year.
Mr. Bush's comments were a continuation of the White House's strategy of using visits like this to bolster Mr. Musharraf's leadership and to play down the tensions between the United States and Pakistan.
Those tensions have grown more acute, despite public pronouncements. White House and intelligence agency officials have complained that the flow of information from Pakistan about the nuclear smuggling network built by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, has slowed to a trickle. Mr. Musharraf has refused to allow the United States or the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring body to interview Dr. Khan directly, insisting that the questions be passed through Pakistani officials.
Many American officials believe that is a way of filtering both the questions and the answers, perhaps to make sure that no current government or military officials are implicated in an investigation into the network's role in arming Iran, North Korea and Libya.
"Everyone knows that this reaches well into the Pakistani leadership," a European diplomat involved in the investigation said this week, "and the Pakistanis are being very careful."
But a senior administration official said Saturday that Mr. Bush had raised the issue only obliquely, asking Mr. Musharraf to assure that there is continued cooperation. The official said Mr. Musharraf "didn't seem aware that there was any problem," and promised to look into it.
There was apparently no direct discussion of Mr. Musharraf's decision not to give up his role as leader of the Pakistani military, as he had promised more than a year ago. Mr. Bush used the visit, in fact, to praise the expansion of democracy in the country.
"There are some in the world who do not believe that a Muslim society can self-govern," Mr. Bush said. "Some believe that the only solution for government in parts of the world is for there to be tyranny or despotism. I don't believe that. The Pakistan people have proven that those cynics are wrong."
Mr. Musharraf, according to a senior administration official who sat in on the meeting in the Oval Office, brought his commerce minister, and Mr. Bush made plain that the Pakistanis had complaints about the relationship with the United States, mostly involving trade restrictions.
Mr. Bush also made no announcement of any impending American agreement to sell surveillance airplanes, antitank missiles and other weapons to Pakistan.
The senior official declined to answer any questions about the American position on those sales, which include F-16 fighter jets, saying, "It came up, as it has in past meetings, and probably will in future meetings."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
|
|
