ISLAMABAD: Bucking under US pressure, President Pervez Musharraf allowed a secret CIA base inside Pakistan's tribal areas in January this year to plan missile attacks on militants, a senior Pakistani journalist claimed in his new book.
"On January 9, 2008, Mike McConnell, director of the National intelligence, and Gen Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, visited Islamabad where they discussed a plan to make operational in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), a secret CIA base that could mount attacks on militants by drones armed with missiles," The News has quoted journalist Ahmed Rashid as saying.
Rashid in his book "Descent into Chaos" claimed that Musharraf not only agreed to the deal but also let US special forces train counter-terrorism units in his country.
Following the deal, the Bush administration remained soft on Musharraf despite "his follies" and kept pushing the late PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto, to confirm the accord, he said.
"Two weeks before her death, Benazir Bhutto told me that she was facing enormous pressure from the White House, particularly Vice-President Cheney's office, to confirm, while there was no similar pressure on Musharraf to carry out his side of the bargain," Rashid wrote.
The author said Bhutto, however, chose to strike a deal with Musharraf, calculating that it was the only chance for her to make a comeback, enjoy full support of the international community and cleanse her reputation.
Rashid said after the February elections, the PPP announced an alliance with the PML-N, even though Asif Ali Zardari was pressurised by Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Musharraf to form a coalition with the PML-Q.
The US, he claimed, refused to accept that the deal was dead or that Musharraf was double-crossing them.
