In the Line of Fire: A Memoir

In the Line of Fire: A Memoir is a book written by Pervez Musharraf, first published on 25 September 2006. The book contains a collection of memories of Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan’s president says in his memoir that he had no choice after the Sept. 11 attacks but to switch from supporting the Taliban to backing the U.S.-led war on terror groups or face an American “onslaught.” Fearing another return to the stone age, Pervez Musharraf agreed to back the US led war against terror. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in his book “In the Line of Fire,” also criticizes the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying it has made the world “more dangerous.”

Unusual in publishing a memoir while still in power, Musharraf says Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia created an extremist "monster" by supporting Islamic groups fighting the Soviet Union's 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan. "We had assisted in the rise of the Taliban after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, which was then callously abandoned by the United States," Musharraf says. It was within this vacuum that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network strengthened, thanks to the support of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, he adds.Pakistan saw the Taliban as a means to end years of chaos in Afghanistan, which peaked during the 1992-96 civil war, says Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup. He says Islamabad also saw the Taliban as a counter to Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which favoured Pakistan's rival, India.

But after the Sept. 11 attacks, Musharraf says, he realized continuing to support the Taliban and have ties with militant groups would set Pakistan on a collision course with Washington. "America was sure to react violently, like a wounded bear," Musharraf writes. "If the perpetrator turned out to be al-Qaida, then that wounded bear would come charging straight toward us." The day after the suicide plane attacks, Musharraf says, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned with an ultimatum: "You are either with us or against us." The next day, he says, Powell's then deputy, Richard Armitage, telephoned the chief of Pakistan's top spy agency, the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, with an even sterner warning. "In what has to be the most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage . . . told the director general not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age,"

He also worried about nuclear-armed India, with which Pakistan has fought three wars since their 1947 independence from Britain, including two over the disputed Himalayan region of now divided Kashmir. "The Indians might have been tempted to undertake a limited offensive there (Kashmir); or more likely they would work with the United States and the United Nations to turn the present situation into a permanent status quo," Musharraf writes. "The United States would certainly have obliged." He adds: "It is no secret that the United States has never been comfortable with a Muslim country acquiring nuclear weapons and the Americans undoubtedly would have taken the opportunity of an invasion to destroy such weapons." Musharraf says he thus cut Pakistan's support for the Taliban, despite a possible backlash from radical Islamic groups in his country.

Why should we put our national interest on the line for a primitive regime that would be defeated?" he asks. "Self-interest and self-preservation were the basis of this decision." But Musharraf disputes Bush's argument that the world is safer following the invasion of Iraq, saying he opposed the war because he "feared it would exacerbate extremism, as it has most certainly done. . . . The world has become far more dangerous." Musharraf details some of the 670 arrests of al-Qaida suspects in Pakistan, including the killers of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. But he also concedes al-Qaida and Taliban militants still operate in his country, while repeating his insistence that he has no knowledge of the whereabouts of top fugitives, including bin Laden and Omar. "If I had to guess, I would assume that he (bin Laden) is moving back and forth across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border somewhere," Musharraf writes.

External links

• [1] All eyes on Musharraf's book, An article on the book by Royden D'Souza, NDTV

• [2] Mush panned for book plug , News item about the book launch in Times of India by Chidanand Rajghatta

• [3] Book makes waves in India, Dawn's report on the reactions to the book release in India.

• [4] 'Script for a PTV docudrama' by Wilson John in 'The Pioneer', writes that Musharraf didn't tell some important things in this book.