Musharraf’s reversal

In the English-language version of his memoirs, published in the U.S. last month, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf claimed that, since the beginning of the War on Terror, the CIA has paid his government millions of dollars in bounties for capturing members of al Qaeda.

We’ve captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We’ve earned bounties totalling millions of dollars,” Musharraf wrote. “Those who habitually accuse us of ‘not doing enough’ in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan.”

But now Musharraf is saying that the claim was a “mistake” and that Pakistan hasn’t been paid a dime. And in the Urdu version of his memoirs, released over the weekend, the claim has been removed. Musharraf’s spokesman has this to say:

The president in an interview in the United States has already said that it was a mistake. He had said … that thing had been published mistakenly, the government did not get any money.”