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Tag: in the line of fire

  • US threatened to bomb Pakistan ‘again to the Stone Age’ after 9/11 terror assaults: Musharraf in his memoir

    In his memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’, Pervez Musharraf wrote that the US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if it didn’t cooperate with America’s struggle on Afghanistan.

    Islamabad,UPDATED: Feb 5, 2023 23:07 IST

    Former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf (Retd), handed away on Sunday (Photo: Reuters)

    By Press Trust of India: The US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” after the 9/11 terror assaults if then President General Pervez Musharraf didn’t cooperate with America’s struggle on Afghanistan.

    In his memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’, Musharraf wrote that the menace was delivered by the tough-talking assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief who was in Washington on a go to on the time of the 9/11 assault.

    “In what has to be most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage added to what Colin Powell had said to me and told the (ISI) 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,” Musharraf wrote, explaining the state of affairs he confronted after the dual tower assault.

    He stated this was an incredibly barefaced menace, however it was apparent that the United States had determined to hit again, and hit again exhausting.

    Read | Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and his function in Kargil War

    Defending his transfer to hitch the US-led War on Terror in Afghanistan, Musharraf stated that his “decision was based on the well-being of my people and the best interest of my country.”

    “I war-gamed the United States as an adversary. There would be violent and angry reactions if we didn’t support the United States. Thus the question was: if we do not join them, can we confront them and withstand the onslaught? The answer was no, we could not…” he wrote.

    He said, however, the benefits of supporting the United States were many.

    Armitage later disputed the language used, but he did not deny that Pakistan was put on notice to help America’s war effort.

    Gen Musharraf wrote in his book that on September 13, 2001, the US ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, brought him a set of seven demands, including blanket overflight and landing rights.

    Musharraf said that he balked at some of the US demands such as turning over border posts and bases to US forces.

    “How might we permit the United States blanket overflight and touchdown rights with out jeopardizing our strategic belongings? I provided solely a slim flight hall that was removed from any delicate areas,” he wrote.

    Pakistan deserted its assist for the Taliban authorities in Kabul and allowed US overflights of Pakistan.

    Read | Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf passes away aged 79

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    Feb 5, 2023

  • Das Boot director Wolfgang Petersen passes away

    Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic Das Boot propelled him right into a blockbuster Hollywood profession that included the movies In the Line of Fire, Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, has died. He was 81.

    Petersen died Friday at his residence within the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood after a battle with pancreatic most cancers, stated consultant Michelle Bega.

    Wolfgang Petersen, born in Emden, Germany, made two options earlier than his 1982 breakthrough, Das Boot. Then the most costly film in German movie historical past, the 149-minute Das Boot (the unique lower ran 210 minutes) chronicled the extreme claustrophobia of life aboard a doomed German U-boat through the Battle of the Atlantic, with Jürgen Prochnow because the submarine’s commander. Heralded as an antiwar masterpiece, Das Boot was nominated for six Oscars, together with for Petersen’s path and his adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s best-selling 1973 novel.

    To Petersen, who grew up on the northern coast of Germany, the ocean lengthy held his fascination. He would return to it within the 2000 catastrophe movie, The Perfect Storm, a true-life story of a fishing boat misplaced at sea.

    “The power of water is unbelievable,” Petersen stated in a 2009 interview. “I was always impressed as a kid how strong it is, all the damage the water could do when it just turned within a couple of hours, and smashed against the shore.”

    Das Boot launched Wolfgang Petersen as a filmmaker in Hollywood, the place he grew to become one of many prime makers of motion adventures of huge cataclysms that spanned struggle (2004′s Troy, with Brad Pitt), pandemic (the 1995 ebolavirus-inspired Outbreak) and different ocean-set disasters (2006′s Poseidon, in regards to the capsizing of an ocean liner).

    Petersen is survived by second spouse Maria-Antoinette Borgel, a German script supervisor and assistant director whom he wed in 1978, son Daniel Petersen and two grandchildren.