On September 13, 2001, “Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met with the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Maleeha Lodhi, and the visiting head of Pakistan’s military intelligence service, Mahmud Ahmed. Armitage said that the United States wanted Pakistan to take seven steps:
*to stop al Qaeda operatives at its border and end all logistical support for Bin Ladin; *to give the United States blanket overflight and landing rights for all necessary military and intelligence operations;
*to provide territorial access to U.S. and allied military intelligence and other personnel to conduct operations against al Qaeda;
*to provide the U.S. with intelligence information;
*to continue to publicly condemn the terrorist acts;
*to cut off all shipments of fuel to the Taliban and stop recruits from going to Afghanistan; and,
*if the evidence implicated bin Ladin and al Qaeda and the Taliban continued to harbor them, to break relations with the Taliban government.”
– 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Page 331