Musharraf denies he ever agreed to let US forces enter Pakistan to kill bin Laden

The former president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf denies reports that he ever entered into agreement with the U.S. to allow American special forces to capture and assassinate Osama bin Laden within Pakistan’s borders.

According to Dawn, an English language Pakistani newspaper, Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesman for Musharraf, said media reports which allege that the former Pakistani leader and the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush had such an agreement are “baseless.”

In fact, Chaudhry said that Musharraf consistently rejected requests by the U.S. to launch raids in Pakistan.

A report in yesterday’s U.K. Guardian newspaper claimed that Musharraf and Bush entered into some sort of understanding ten years ago that would allow US military personnel to unilaterally go after the top three leaders of al-Qaeda within Pakistan.

At that time, in late 2001, it was believed that bin Laden was hiding out in the Tora Bora Mountains which lie between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Moreover, a senior Pakistani official said the deal was renewed in 2008 when the country was moving from military to civilian rule, according to the report.

As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement, the official said in reference to last week's commando raid of bin Laden’s compound in northern Pakistan.