A tough warning

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

“Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.” That, says Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, was the warning delivered to one of his aides by then–Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage after the 9/11 terror attacks. Musharraf recounts the story in his new memoir, In the Line of Fire, which he is promoting this week during a visit to the U.S. Shortly after 9/11, Musharraf writes, Armitage sought Pakistan’s help in destroying al Qaida forces and rooting out the Taliban, which Pakistan had supported before 9/11. When Pakistan intelligence director Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad resisted some of Armitage’s demands, Musharraf writes, Armitage made his bomb threat. Armitage says that while he told Ahmad that “Pakistan would need to be for us or against us,” he made no threats.