WASHINGTON, Feb 16: The White House has strongly rejected a suggestion that Pakistan may have faked terrorist attacks on President Pervez Musharraf to win America’s sympathy, urging the journalist who asked the question not to concoct theories.

The White House also defended President Musharraf as “a valuable asset” in the war against terror, hours after US President George W. Bush vowed to back the Pakistani leader’s efforts to fight terrorism.

The issue of Al Qaeda’s failed attempts on President Musharraf’s life came up for discussion when an Indian journalist suggested that Islamabad might have faked those attacks “to get US sympathy and money”.

“Goyal, you have just given a sermon against President Musharraf,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow, naming the journalist. Generally, the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon are all sympathetic to Raghubir Goyal who has forced the US media to coin a new term “goyal foil” to describe his rantings against Pakistan. The use of foils involves the careful selection of questioners to steer the briefing in a direction the press secretary desires.

But after President Bush’s Thursday speech at the American Enterprise Institute where he strongly defended President Musharraf as a trustworthy ally in the war against terror, Mr Snow did not allow Mr Goyal to indulge once again in mud-slinging against Pakistan.