The United States has a secret "retribution" plan to bomb every known al-Qaeda compound or training camp in the event of another 9/11-like attack on American soil by terrorists based in Pakistan, according to a new book.
Under this plan, the US would bomb or attack every known al-Qaeda compound or training camp in the US intelligence database, according to the book Obama's War written by investigative American journalist Bob Woodward.
"Some locations might be outdated, but there would be no concern, under the plan, for who might be living there now. The attribution plan called for a brutal punishing attack on at least 150 or more associated camps," Woodward says.
Earlier US media reports had identified most of these camps to be located in tribal areas of Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
Woodward said the plan came to light when then President George W Bush likened the Mumbai carnage to attacks on the US in September 2001.
The former Washington Post journalist said on hearing about the Mumbai attacks, Bush called his national security team into the Oval Office and told his advisers,"You guys get planning and do what you have to do to prevent a war between Pakistan and India."
"This is like 9/11, he (Bush) said," Woodward wrote. "The United States military did not have "war" plans for an invasion of Pakistan. Instead, it had and continues to have one of the most sensitive and secret of all military contingencies, what military officials call a "retribution" plan in the event of another 9/11-like attack on the US by terrorists based in Pakistan," the book says.
The disclosures in the book come in the backdrop of recent stern warnings sounded by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there would be severe consequences, if another 9/11 type terrorist attack was traced back to plots in Pakistan.
