The BBC report Gen. Pervez Musharraf (on the immediate aftermath to the 11th September 2001):

"The [Pakistan] intelligence director told me that Mr [Richard] Armitage said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age'..” [should the Pakistan govt refuse to join the US govt against Al-Qaida.]

Bully-boy and 'standover' tactics as we say here in Oz. Nice.

The report goes on: 'The US envoy also insisted that Pakistan suppress domestic expression of support for attacks on the United States. [Gen Musharraf’s response:] "If somebody's expressing views, we cannot curb the expression of views,"….'

Now that’s a _dictator_ defending free speech. And the chap demanding free speech be _suppressed_ is an official from a country which has been ‘democratic’ for some 400 years (the American colonies had elected legislatures, like all British colonies.)

Clio is indeed an ironic Muse.

Link to BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5369198.stm