Musharraf: In the Line of Fire

Most heads of state wait until they are comfortably in retirement before sitting down to write their memoirs, but in the case of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf there are no guarantees that he will live long enough to have one.

The book is appropriately called "In the Line of Fire." It presented correspondent Steve Kroft with the opportunity to sit down with Musharraf in Islamabad and talk about things that he has never or rarely spoken about: including threats made by the United States after 9/11 to enlist his support against al Qaeda and the Taliban, and Dr. A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani hero who sold Pakistan's most sensitive nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

There have been half a dozen plots on his life. Why are so many people trying to kill Pakistan's president?

"These people are extremists, terrorists, they believe in forcing their views on others. So, I'm standing in their way, frankly," Musharraf says.

"The suicide attack. You discovered that most of the plotters were from the Pakistani Air Force," Kroft remarks.

"Yes," the president replied.

Asked if that disturbs him, the president acknowledges, "It did. It's all the lower ranks. They are susceptible to such extremist, terrorist tendencies and to be indoctrinated to do these things."

That indoctrination is part of a rising tide of anti-American sentiment, aggravated by Musharraf's cooperation with the United States in the war on terror, an alliance that was forged on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, Pakistan was one of a few countries supporting the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which harbored Osama bin Laden. The U.S. made it clear that that relationship would have to end, and Musharraf says the message was delivered by then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in the most undiplomatic terms.

"The Director of Intelligence told me that he said, 'Be prepared to be bombed.' Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age," Musharraf remembers.

What was his reaction?

"One has to think and take action in the interest of the nation and that's what I did," the president explains, adding that he thought it was a "very rude remark."

Armitage disputes the exact language, but doesn't deny that the message was strong. Musharraf says he believes his director of intelligence and says he took it as a threat.

"It was a threat, certainly," Musharraf says. "I took it that the United States, after having whatever happened to the World Trade Center, would be a wounded country – a wounded sole superpower and they are going to do anything to counter and to punish the perpetrators. Now, if we stand in the way of that, we are going to suffer."

Musharraf, who had seized power in a military coup barely two years earlier, decided that Pakistan could not survive with the U.S. as an adversary and offered his cooperation. But another crisis was already brewing.

There were intelligence reports that highly sophisticated nuclear technology – including centrifuge designs for enriching uranium, a critical step in producing an atomic bomb – were finding their way to North Korea.

"In April 2000, senior officials from the Clinton administration complained to you about the transfer of technology and material to North Korea, do you remember that?" Kroft asks.

"I don't remember the dates exactly but yes these complaints were coming from and my reply used to be, 'Give me evidence. Give me proof,'" Musharraf says.

That proof would be presented to him three years later in what Musharraf calls one of the most embarrassing moments in his career. During a trip to the United States, he was asked by President Bush to meet with CIA Director George Tenet on a very important matter, where he was confronted with sensitive documents that proved someone in Pakistan was selling nuclear secrets.

"He took his briefcase out, passed me some papers, told me to have a look and when I saw that it was a centrifuge design, with all it's numbers and signatures - of Pakistan - it was the most embarrassing moment," he remembers.

What about the blueprint was so incriminating?

Well it was our centrifuge design, it's not supposed to be with the CIA. That was top secret," Musharraf explains.

The president says he didn't ask where the CIA got the design from.

Musharraf says he took the documents and began his own investigation, discovering that highly sophisticated nuclear technology was sent not only to North Korea but also to Iran. The culprit was Dr. A.Q. Khan, the country's most famous scientist. For years, Khan controlled some of Pakistan's most sensitive nuclear facilities, and claimed credit as father of its atomic bomb.

What designs and technology had Dr. Khan given to North Korea and Iran?

"He gave them centrifuge designs, He gave them centrifuge parts. And he gave them centrifuges," Musharraf explains.

To make matters worse, the U.S. and Britain intercepted this shipment of nuclear supplies that Libya had purchased from Pakistan in 2003. The world was demanding harsh punishment for A.Q. Khan but Musharraf says he believed the Pakistani people would not tolerate a long trial and prison sentence.

Because, as Musharraf says, "Today, he's a hero of Pakistan. Because he's given us the atom bomb."

Musharraf had Dr. Khan arrested on charges of on conveying national secrets. "I don't really remember the charges as such," he says.

But then he pardoned him, keeping him under house arrest.

"Living a life in splendor, correct?" Kroft asks.

"Well, he's comfortable all right," the president admits. "But otherwise now he doesn't even speak on telephone."

Why does Musharraf think Khan leaked the secrets?

"Ego, satisfaction and money," the president replies.

Musharraf describes Khan as a self-promoter obsessed with fame and power, a lone wolf who exerted personal control over key aspects of Pakistan's nuclear operations and was able to transfer top secret technology with no official help.

"By your own account in the book, A.Q. Khan shipped two dozen centrifuges to North Korea and 18 tons of material and centrifuges to Libya and Iran. How was all of this material moved without someone in the government or the army finding out about it?" Kroft asks.

"First of all, bringing these centrifuges or their parts, these are not huge elements. They can be put into your car and moved," Musharraf replies.

"You think he moved 18 tons worth of material in his car?" Kroft asks.

Musharraf says the materials, heading to Libya and Iran " must have been transported many times."

"But we've been to your nuclear facilities enough to know that they're very heavily guarded and the military is all around them," Kroft remarks.

How did all this material get out and get sent to Libya?

"What is the military meant for?" asks Musharraf. "That is to safe guard them from outside attack."

"So obviously your internal controls were a little weak," Kroft states.

"No, they were not weak," the president disagreed. "They were very strong."

"Except for the man who was running the operation," Kroft remarks.

"Yes of course. He tells his security man this vehicle has to move, okay, to the airport. Okay. Put it in a C-130 and send it," Musharraf says.

"I think because no one from the outside world has been allowed to talk to him, there are suspicions that perhaps the reason is because Dr. Kahn might say something about army participation in the sale of nuclear technology," Kroft asks.

"That is absolutely not the case. The President or Mr. George Tenet, they are very satisfied and they are quite comfortable with what we have done," Musharraf argues.

President Musharraf has been praised by both the United States and Britain for rounding up more than 600 Al Qaeda members, including some of its top leadership. But there is also frustration and disappointment. Some of the suicide bombers who blew up the London subways a year ago July, had connections to Pakistan and traveled there shortly before the attacks, and so did some of those accused of planning the foiled attack on ten commercial airliners this past summer.

"Seven of the accused people involved in that plot are Pakistani. Does that bother you or surprise you?" Kroft asks.

"It disappoints me, yes. But at the same time, it annoys us also. They are not Pakistanis. They are born and bred in Britain, and they are British," Musharraf points out.

But seven of them had dual citizenship.

"Well, yes, dual citizenship. That is what really disappoints me as I said. I do get disappointed that they have linkages with Pakistan and also some of them may have traveled here, yes. That is disappointing," the president acknowledges.

"I mean the British terrorists seem to feel it necessary to come to Pakistan and talk to somebody," Kroft points out. "To get their blessing."

"Yes. This is because of whatever has happened for 26 years. So this place becomes a boiling pot," Musharraf says.

He is talking about the mujahadeen, the Islamic warriors that Pakistan and the United States and Saudi Arabia recruited, armed, and sent off to Afghanistan in 1979 to drive off the Russian infidels. Musharraf says they and their children are still in cities like Peshawar and in the no man's land along the Afghanistan border, a Frankenstein monster that now goes by the name al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Recruiting tapes, which show young men being trained to make IEDs, are being edited and sold in Pakistan. One man is believed to have passed on explosives training to some of the London subway bombers. The skills and tactics once used against the Soviets are now being employed in Afghanistan against American and NATO convoys.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai believes Musharraf is complicit.

"President Karzai has complained for a long time that the Taliban has been getting help from inside Pakistan," Kroft asks. "Is that going to end?"

"Yes indeed people could be coming here. People could be training and going back on their own. And we will act against them. We are trying to do our best," the president pledges.

After years of Pakistan support for the Taliban, open and covert, Musharraf now says its radical brand of Islamic fundamentalism represents a greater threat than a weakened al Qaeda.
"It's a totally shifted environment," Musharraf says. He believes the Taliban must be defeated.

It's not a popular position with most Pakistanis. But then Musharraf knows his future is not likely to be decided by popular opinion. His immediate predecessors have been exiled, imprisoned or died under mysterious circumstances, which is a very strong motivation to survive.