US ally Musharraf doubts bin Laden behind terror attacks

5 Aug, 2002 12:08 AM3 mins to read

12.00pm

NEW YORK - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in America's so-called 'war against terrorism', is not convinced Osama bin Laden was the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, according to a report on Sunday.

"I didn't think it possible that Osama sitting up there in the mountains could do it," Musharraf said in an interview in the August 12 edition of the New Yorker magazine, nearly a year after hijacked planes killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington and in Pennsylvania.

"He was perhaps the sponsor, the financier, the motivating force. But those who executed it were much more modern. They knew the US, they knew aviation. I don't think he has the intelligence or the minute planning. The planner was someone else," Musharraf said about the Saudi-born militant.

The United States blames bin Laden and his al Qaeda movement for the September 11 airplane attacks that destroyed New York's World Trade Centre and damaged the Pentagon in Washington.

After the attacks, Washington turned to Pakistan for help in its bid to crush the al Qaeda network and sees Musharraf, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, as a key ally in its war on terrorism.

Musharraf, who extended his tenure for five years in an April referendum boycotted by most mainstream parties, told the New Yorker that the controversial constitutional amendments he has proposed would make sure Pakistan is well governed.

"In our political setup, if you give a free ticket to the Prime Minister and the government and the Cabinet are looting and plundering. So you have to contain it. Elected governments played merry hell here," Musharraf said.

The amendments, which would allow Musharraf to sack the prime minister, dismiss the cabinet and dissolve an elected parliament, have been widely criticised within Pakistan, where they are seen running counter to Musharraf's promise to hand over power to a civilian government.

But the United States has refrained from criticising Musharraf. Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell, in South Asia to defuse tensions between nuclear-capable Pakistan and its nuclear-ready neighbor India, said merely he had discussed the amendments with Musharraf.

Powell also refused to answer questions about whether former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto should be allowed to take part in October's parliamentary elections.

Musharraf, who has barred Bhutto from the country and accused her of looting the country when she was in power, said he would have Bhutto jailed if she were to return.

Bhutto has promised to return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile in Britain to contest the poll. But if Bhutto's party, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) wins, Musharraf said he will not stop them from governing Pakistan.

"If they win the elections, they govern...And I will insure they govern honestly," he said.

- REUTERS

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