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Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Authorities have rounded up opposition activists after President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution and declared a state of emergency. Musharraf blamed rising Islamic extremism for the emergency measures that included replacing the nation's chief judge and blacking out the independent media that refused to support him. Police arrested Javed Hashmi, the acting president of the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, along with 10 aides when he stepped outside his house in the central city of Multan. "Musharraf usurped the independence of judiciary by arresting the country's chief justice and removing other judges just to save his own illegitimate rule, but he cannot survive against the people's outrage," Hashmi told reporters as he was led away. Police also arrested six lawyers, including the secretary of the Multan High Court Bar Association, and Opposition party leader and former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan was put under house arrest. In the capital Islamabad, phone services that had been cut when the state of emergency was declared on Saturday appeared to have been restored. But transmissions by TV news networks remained off the air in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. "General Musharraf's second coup," said the headline in the Dawn daily. "It is martial law," said the Daily Times. Scores of paramilitary troops at barbed-wire barricades blocked access to the Supreme Court and parliament. Otherwise the streets of Islamabad appeared calm. The US-allied leader declared the emergency despite calls from the US, Britain and other Western allies not to take authoritarian measures. Washington expressed deep concern and called for him to restore democracy, but said it would not affect US military support of Pakistan. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who had travelled abroad in the wake of an October 18 suicide attack that narrowly missed her but killed 145 others, immediately flew back to the southern city of Karachi, and declared the emergency was the "blackest day" in Pakistan's history. In a televised address, Musharraf, looking sombre and composed, said Pakistan was at a "dangerous" juncture, its government threatened by Islamic extremists. |
Re: Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Originally posted by _Ocean_Drive_ So I guess Bush won't be too worried about the lack of democracey here... |
Re: Re: Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Originally posted by Fir3start3r So you don't think it has anything to do with the former president coming back? |
Activists detained in Pakistan emergency
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police rounded up hundreds of opposition leaders and rights activists Sunday after Pakistan's military ruler suspended the constitution, ousted the top judge and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism.
In the lawless Afghan border region, militants freed 211 Pakistani soldiers captured two months ago, the army's top spokesman said.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a 1999 coup leader and U.S. ally who had promised to relinquish his army post and become a civilian president this year, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing hopes of a smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.
Musharraf's leadership is threatened by the reemergence of political rival and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, an increasingly defiant Supreme Court set to rule on the validity of his recent presidential election win, and an Islamic militant movement that has spread from border regions to the capital.
South Waziristan, the tribal border region where the government is struggling to assert control, has seen a surge in violence, including the capture of the soldiers two months ago. The group was freed Sunday through the efforts of a jirga or a tribal council of elders in South Waziristan, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) � Police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists Sunday after Pakistan's military ruler suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but had promised to hand over his army fatigues and become a civilian president this year, declared a state of emergency Saturday night, dashing hopes of a smooth transition to democracy for the nuclear-armed nation.
"Gen. Musharraf's second coup," read the headline in the Dawn daily. "It is martial law," said the Daily Times.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the extraordinary measures would remain in place "as long as it is necessary." He also said parliamentary elections could be postponed up to a year, but no such decision had been made.
Aziz also said that up to 500 opposition activists had been arrested in the last 24 hours.
Among those detained were Javed Hashmi, the acting president of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; cricket star-turned politician, Imran Khan; Asma Jehangir, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; and Hamid Gul, former chief of the main intelligence agency and a staunch critic of Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror.
Some 200 armed police stormed the rights commission office in Lahore on Sunday and arrested about 50 activists, said Mehbood Ahmed Khan, a legal officer for the body.
"They dragged us out, including the women," he said from the police station in the eastern city. "It's inhuman, undemocratic and a violation of human rights to enter a room and arrest people gathering peacefully there."
Musharraf's leadership is threatened by an Islamic militant movement that has spread from border regions to the capital, the reemergence of political rival and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and an increasingly defiant Supreme Court, which was expected to rule soon on the validity of his recent presidential election win. Hearings scheduled for next week were postponed, with no new date set.
Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum denied claims by Bhutto and others that Musharraf had imposed martial law � direct rule by the army � under the guise of a state of emergency. He noted the prime minister was still in place and that parliament would complete its term, ending Nov. 15.
In Islamabad, phone service that was cut Saturday evening appeared to have been restored by Sunday morning. But transmissions by television news networks other than state-controlled Pakistan TV remained off the air.
Scores of paramilitary troops blocked access to the Supreme Court and parliament. Otherwise streets in the capital appeared calm, with only a handful of demonstrations. But one, attended by 40 people at the Marriott Hotel, was broken up by baton-wielding police.
"Shame on You! Go Musharraf Go!" the protesters shouted as officers dragged some out of the crowd and forced them to the ground. Eight were taken away in a van.
Western allies had urged Musharraf not to take authoritarian measures despite recent his country's recent turmoil.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a return to democracy, as the American embassy urged citizens in Pakistan to remain at home and defer all nonessential travel. But Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the emergency declaration "does not impact our military support" of the Muslim nation or its efforts in the war on terror.
In his televised address late Saturday, Musharraf, looking somber and composed, said Pakistan was at a "dangerous" juncture, and that its government was threatened by Islamic extremists who were "imposing their obsolete ideas on moderates."
The military ruler, wearing a black button-down tunic rather than his army uniform, also blamed the Supreme Court for tying the hands of the government by postponing the validation of his recent election. The court was expected to rule soon on opponents' claims that Musharraf's Oct. 6 victory was unconstitutional because he contested while army chief. He was elected by a Musharraf-led legislature.
Bhutto, who had traveled abroad following an Oct. 18 suicide bombing that narrowly missed her but killed 145 others, immediately returned to the southern city of Karachi declared Saturday the "blackest day" in Pakistan's history. "Judicial decisions have to be accepted even if they don't suit you," she said.
Musharraf replaced the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who had emerged as the main check on the president. Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer who represented the judge, also was arrested.
Musharraf vowed to go ahead with parliamentary elections, originally due by January, but gave no timeline.
Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said Sunday he hoped the polls would go ahead soon: "But unfortunately everything has been put on the back burner. I can't give you the exact date."
Musharraf's emergency order suspended the 1973 constitution. Seven of the 17 Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the order, and only five agreed to take the oath of office under the new provisional constitution.
The emergency comes as Musharraf's security forces struggle to contain pro-Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who have gained control of large tracts of the volatile northwest, near Afghanistan.
Violence has reached major cities with deadly suicide attacks in Islamabad and Karachi underscoring the failure of Musharraf's administration to combat the threat despite huge financial support from the United States.
Analysts, meanwhile, said the imposition of emergency rule may only postpone Musharraf's political demise.
"He's obviously not very popular, and it's not going to increase his popularity," said Rick Barton, a Pakistan expert at the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies.
Musharraf issued two ordinances toughening media laws, including a ban on live broadcasts of "incidents of violence and conflict." Also, TV operators who "ridicule" the president, armed forces, and other powerful state bodies face up to three years in jail.
Good thing Pakistan was stable enough that Bush helped them get the A bomb. And we were getting all worried over Iran!
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Hiding in plain sight: Pakistan and nuclear proliferation By Chuck Leddy | October 30, 2007 Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons, By Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, Walker & Co., 576 pp., $27.95 With allies like Pakistan, who needs enemies? The authors of "Deception" are award-winning British investigative journalists who make it abundantly clear that Pakistan has done more to spread nuclear weapons to America's enemies than any other nation. They relate how our Middle East ally, while supposedly aiding our war on terror, has sold nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Not only was the United States aware of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and its proliferation, but, the authors say, our taxpayer dollars likely helped to fund the fiasco. In the late 1970s, the United States needed Pakistan to help funnel covert aid to Islamic militants fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Starting with the Carter administration, and continuing since, the authors say the United States has sacrificed principle (i.e., nuclear nonproliferation) for pragmatism (i.e., fighting the Soviets and, later, the Islamic militants we'd helped to fight the Soviets). The authors describe the government's "don't ask, don't tell" approach to Pakistan's nuclear program as "a complex conspiracy, with State Department officials actively obstructing other arms of government which could not help but fall over intelligence about Pakistan's nuclear trade. Evidence was destroyed, criminal files were diverted, Congress was repeatedly lied to and . . . presidential appointees even tipped off the Pakistan government" about ongoing investigations. The level of American willful blindness toward Pakistan, as described by the authors in detail, is the book's most provocative argument. The role of Pakistan's military in propping up the Taliban is well-known, but less known were the discussions between Pakistani nuclear scientists and Osama bin Laden. When CIA Director George Tenet met with Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf in 2003 and presented overwhelming evidence of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, the authors say, Musharraf called upon all his thespian skills to appear duly shocked. Musharraf developed an amazing ruse for the United States and the world, the authors write: "Musharraf began to refashion Pakistan's proliferation from a military prerogative to the act of a small group of renegade scientists." These few money-grubbing scientists, Musharraf contended, had sold billions of dollars worth of nuclear knowhow and equipment to the outside world without Pakistan's military-led government knowing anything about it. In 2004, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, scientist A.Q. Khan, appeared on Pakistan television and apologized (in English) for his "unauthorized proliferation activities." The following day, Musharraf pardoned Khan, who was immediately made unavailable for questioning by Western authorities investigating Pakistan's nuclear proliferation. As for Khan's activities being unauthorized, the authors present overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In 2000, for example, the Pakistani military held an international munitions fair. "The central exhibit," write the authors, "was a large Khan Research Laboratories booth promoting the sale of centrifuges with an after-sale consultancy service." With enough money, anyone could buy, off-the-shelf, parts to a nuclear program. The Bush administration trumpeted Khan's 2004 "confession" as a triumph of US commitment to nonproliferation. Pakistan remained a friend and continued receiving billions of dollars in US aid. Yet nothing has changed after Khan's public scapegoating, say the authors, who "follow the money" to show that Pakistan continues to allow nuclear proliferation. Most galling of all, the authors present evidence of US aid being misdirected toward the Islamic nation's nuclear program, saying that "US taxpayers unwittingly fund[ed] Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme." "Deception" is not an easy read. The amount of detail presented, culled from thousands of documents and interviews, may leave a reader breathless, as will the horrific policy implications of America's evident blindness. Reading "Deception" will likely leave you skeptical of what the US government says and does about Pakistan, and that's likely a good thing. Chuck Leddy is a freelance writer who lives in Dorchester. |
Re: Re: Re: Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Originally posted by Krypton Are you saying Bhutto is responsible for Masharif declaring martial law, against the wishes of Pakistanis? |
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Masharif has few allies inside Pakistan. But he still won't accept that his glory days are over. He should step aside. |
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| Or else extremism will have even more justifications to carry out terrorism. There are PLENTY of moderates in Pakistan, but Mashariff is also suppressing them too. |
Re: Re: Re: Re: Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Yikes, that would be disastrous! Step aside and leave whom in power? Elections are scheduled for January and believe you me, they will be a nervous time in Pakistan. |
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| "Even if I have to sell my soul, this country will have security." -- Mobutu Sese Seko Sometimes a devil is exactly what you need in order to provide basic stability. Sure conditions in Pakistan are not ideal, and this move is deeply troubling, but without a strong head of state, Pakistan would collapse. |
This is one of the best articles I have read on the subject, but it is rather long so I will only excerpt a bit here:
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Even before the dust had settled on 9/11, U.S. policymakers were well aware that Pakistan was at the center of the world's worst Islamist terrorist networks. The Bush administration quickly moved to persuade once-sanctioned Islamabad to become an essential partner in the "global war on terror." But today, nearly six years after Secretary of State Colin Powell first announced that Washington and Islamabad stood "at the beginning of a strengthened relationship," the Taliban are still entrenched in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, al Qaeda's top leaders have found a secure hideout in Pakistan, and terrorist attacks within and beyond Pakistan's borders persist with deadly regularity. Given these failures, it is no surprise that Americans are increasingly frustrated with the slow and uncertain progress in Pakistan. Many, including some members of the U.S. Congress and a number of serious Pakistan watchers, have begun to express fundamental doubts about the U.S. partnership with Islamabad. They question whether President Pervez Musharraf -- a general who took power after a coup in 1999 -- and his military are trustworthy allies willing and able to stand on the frontlines in defense of U.S. security. They allege that recent deals between the Pakistani government and tribal elders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan look suspiciously like capitulation to the Taliban, orchestrated by Pakistani intelligence agencies with ties to known extremists. They charge, in short, that Musharraf and his allies in Islamabad have taken billions of dollars in U.S. aid while doing too little to advance -- and, in many ways, much to undermine -- the fight against terrorism. These critics advocate a new approach to Pakistan. They press for tougher talk from Washington -- including threats of sanctions -- in order to pressure Islamabad into undertaking more aggressive counterterrorism operations. And they argue that the United States should cut off Musharraf and push for a transition to civilian democratic rule. Musharraf's military regime, they suggest, will never be a trustworthy partner capable of effectively fighting militancy and extremist ideologies. It is true that Pakistan's government needs greater popular legitimacy -- won through the ballot box -- in order to advance both long- and short-term counterterrorism goals. But the critics' prescriptions for how to advance these goals risk throwing the United States, Pakistan, and the war on terrorism off course without offering a better alternative. If members of the Pakistani army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) retain ties to militant groups, including Taliban sympathizers, they do so as a hedge against abandonment by Washington. The past six decades of on-again, off-again bilateral cooperation have undermined Pakistani confidence in long-term U.S. partnership. Washington, accordingly, should resist the appeal of the cathartic but counterproductive approach of confronting Islamabad with more sticks and fewer carrots. Any attempt to crack down on Pakistan will exacerbate distrust, resulting in increased Pakistani support for jihadists; coercive threats will undermine confidence without producing better results. Nor is democracy a magic bullet. Pakistan's security services will not easily be cowed, sidelined, or circumvented, and the challenges facing democracy in Pakistan go far beyond rigged elections or exiled politicians. Weak civilian institutions and a history of dysfunctional civil-military relations mean that bringing democracy to Pakistan is less a matter of resuscitation than of reinvention. |
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| By the fall of 2001, the influence of Islamist sympathizers in Pakistan's army, intelligence services, and government had reached a dangerously high level. Pakistan's support for jihadists in Kashmir and Afghanistan, the Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan's nuclear black market, the steady growth of extremist mosques and madrasahs -- all were distressing signs that the country risked slipping into state failure or Islamist rule. After 9/11, Musharraf made a momentous decision to join the war on terrorism. But this did not mean an immediate U-turn on all support to militant groups in Pakistan. As the White House correctly recognized, even if Musharraf was personally committed to this decision, he faced hard-line skeptics within his own army. The skeptics doubted the United States' staying power, lamented the costs of turning against longtime jihadi associates, and questioned the wisdom of picking fights with global terrorist outfits. Accordingly, Musharraf needed to calibrate his actions in order to avoid alienating a powerful and all-important constituency. And he needed U.S. assistance to bolster his political allies and win over the remaining fence sitters. In order to build trust with the Musharraf regime, the Bush administration launched a robust engagement strategy, with total assistance to Pakistan estimated at more than $10 billion since 9/11. (Counting covert assistance, the overall figure could be far higher.) The vast majority of this assistance has gone to Pakistan's military. Washington has also worked through international financial institutions to ease Pakistan's debt burden, opening the door for economic growth of just under six percent for the past four years. And in June 2006, the Pentagon notified Congress of plans to sell up to 36 F-16 jets and associated high-tech weapons systems to Pakistan, a major reversal of U.S. policy dating from 1990, when such transactions fell victim to sanctions over Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. On the diplomatic side, meanwhile, top members of President George W. Bush's national security team have turned Pakistan into a regular destination, and the president himself made an unprecedented overnight stop in Islamabad last year. In 2005, the administration named Pakistan a "major non-NATO ally." Washington's post-9/11 engagement with Islamabad has achieved notable successes. A number of al Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured in Pakistan, including Abu Zubaydah (2002), Ramzi bin al-Shibh (2002), Khalid Sheik Mohammad (2003), Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan (2004), and Abu Faraj al-Libbi (2005). Such achievements would not have been possible without extensive cooperation between Pakistani and U.S. intelligence agencies; they also netted extensive information on al Qaeda's tactics and future plans. The strategy of engagement has also paid dividends on Pakistan's eastern border with India. Following the almost nuclear "Twin Peaks" crisis of 2001-2, Washington's friendly ties with India and Pakistan and steady support for Indo-Pakistani rapprochement have helped ease the way toward dialogue, a cease-fire, and confidence building between the two countries. But such successes must be qualified by the fact that the Taliban are still present in southern Afghanistan and in Pakistani's FATA and Baluchistan region and that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri apparently remain ensconced in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Compounding these problems, Washington has focused too narrowly on Musharraf and his army as the United States' sole partners in Pakistan. So far, the administration has avoided the worst of nightmare scenarios in Pakistan -- state collapse or an Islamist takeover -- but failed to achieve its first-order goals in the war on terrorism or to bolster civilian governance. |
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| Trying to force a rapid democratic transition in Pakistan would prove similarly counterproductive. The problem with betting on democracy in Pakistan is not, as the popular myth has it, that Islamists would win. The specter of an Islamist takeover is often invoked to defend Musharraf's resistance to democratic reform, but in fact, Musharraf's undemocratic rule has obscured the lack of widespread support for Islamist parties. Only ISI manipulation of the 2002 elections permitted the Muttahida Majilis-e-Amal, or MMA -- Pakistan's major Islamist coalition -- to win the votes it needed to become a significant factor in national politics. No Islamist group or political party currently possesses the organizational capacity or popular support necessary to seize power in Islamabad, and in legitimate elections the MMA would likely win only a small percentage of the vote (probably around five percent, the historical norm). A truly free and fair vote would more likely return power to the mainstream civilian parties -- with power being held by some combination of Bhutto's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. The real problem with pushing for a rapid democratic transition is that genuine civilian democracy in Pakistan is an unrealistic aspiration in the near term. If the United States wants to work with Pakistan, one way or another it will have to work with the army -- Pakistan's strongest government institution and the only one that can possibly deal with immediate threats of violent militancy and terrorism. Almost all of Pakistan's other institutions have either fallen victim to neglect (the primary-education system, for example, has yielded a literacy rate of 30-50 percent -- and still, roughly 40 percent of the education budget goes unused because the bureaucracy is incapable of spending it) or been incorporated into the army's expanding sphere of influence. Even if a civilian regime gained power in Islamabad, it would make critical decisions only after considering the army's interests and depend on the army to get things done -- and so, by extension, would Washington. Pakistan's postindependence history makes clear that even during periods of civilian rule, the army has usually called the shots. Throughout the 1990s, a period of nominal democracy, the army still held sway over critical national security and foreign policy portfolios, including the direction of Pakistan's nuclear program and the management of relations with jihadi outfits in Afghanistan and Kashmir. By most accounts, Bhutto was, for example, largely in the dark about the development of Pakistan's nuclear program until informed by U.S. officials. A decade of wrangling between civilian politicians and the army fueled instability and demonstrated that elections and constitutional provisions are inadequate guarantors of genuine civilian democracy in the face of a concerted military challenge. Dislodging the army from the driver's seat in Islamabad would therefore require a civilian leader who was either extremely strong or sensitive to the army's institutional interests. By either measure, Pakistan's most prominent party leaders -- Bhutto and Sharif -- would be likely to fail. Both have been weakened by extended exiles and yet still generate a deep level of mistrust within the army. Neither can return to Islamabad without negotiating terms with Musharraf, and it is hard to imagine those terms would include stripping the army chief of his authority. Like it or not, Musharraf -- or a successor general -- will retain the lion's share of power in the near term, even if national elections install a new government in Islamabad this fall. |
Re: Re: Pakistan - 'Emergency Rule'
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| Originally posted by Fir3start3r So you don't think it has anything to do with the former president coming back? |
cival war is going to erupt in pakistan. i give the pres one month.
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| Originally posted by Spacey Orange cival war is going to erupt in pakistan. i give the pres one month. |
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| Originally posted by Krypton Islamist Pashtuns vs. moderate Pakis What happens to the army? Disintegrates and joins sides? This is just the worst case scenario.. |
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| Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov And more importantly, who gains control of the nukes and does India make a move on Kashmir? |
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| Originally posted by Krypton Then, the US or Israel bombs Iran.. Iran is like, aw hell naw fuck yall, and they bomb Israel, and step up proxy asymmetric warfare or support on the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. How deep will the rabbit hole go alice? |
president Musharraf is trying to put out a fire by dousing it with a bucket of gasoline.
does any not agree that he should step down and restore democracy, allowing participation by religious parties?
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| Originally posted by Spacey Orange president Musharraf is trying to put out a fire by dousing it with a bucket of gasoline. does any not agree that he should step down and restore democracy, allowing participation by religious parties? |
Rudy Giuliani said last week that Senator Joe Biden doesn't have any credible foreign policy experience. Joe Biden responded by giving his resume and adding that foreign policy experience doesn't really count when the only interaction with foreign policy you have is when it happens to you.
Anyway, here's Biden's foreign policy prowess on display:
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| Joe Biden We Need a Pakistan Policy Posted November 6, 2007 | 02:22 PM (EST) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The international community is deeply concerned about the stability of Pakistan this week after General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday, suspending the country's constitution and cracking down on political opposition by arresting thousands of dissenters, journalists, and activists. The pictures and video coming out of the country paint a distressing portrait of a country in crisis. I've been saying for some time that Pakistan is probably the most dangerous and complex country we deal with. If I were president today, I would be on the phone with Musharraf myself and make clear to him the risk to Pakistani-US relations if he does not restore the constitution, permit free and fair elections and take off his uniform as promised. Unfortunately, I have heard nothing in my briefings from current administration officials to suggest that George Bush has any notion as to our next step in addressing this crisis. We have been told that this state of martial law will last only a few days, but let's not kid ourselves. Going forward, we need to keep three things in mind: First, we have a huge stake in making sure Pakistan's moderate majority has a voice and an outlet with elections. If they don't, they may make common cause with the fundamentalists, just like the Shah's opponents did in Iran. But if the fundamentalists wind up in power, it will be much worse than Iran, because Pakistan already has nuclear weapons and the missile delivery systems to put our allies and security interests in the region in harm's way. Second, we should move from a Musharraf policy to a Pakistan policy. We need to build a new relationship with the Pakistani people, with more non-military aid, sustained over a long period of time, so that the moderate majority has a chance to succeed. I'm going to be speaking in detail to this on Thursday in New Hampshire at Saint Anselm College. Third, connect the dots: Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all linked. Far from operating in a vacuum, what we do in one place profoundly affects the others. For example, because we shifted our resources away from Afghanistan to Iraq, Musharraf concluded the Taliban would rebound and he would be better off cutting a deal with them. Now, we're so tied down in Iraq we can't take the pressure off him in Afghanistan. And all this talk of war with Iran only makes it harder for moderates in Pakistan and Afghanistan to cooperate with us. We are in a very tough spot, and our policy options have been limited by this administration's refusal to accept the complexity of our situation in the Middle East. While the burden is on Musharraf today to restore Pakistan's constitution, we must also act and bring this war in Iraq to a responsible conclusion. It is the only way to restore our place in the world and regain our ability to respond to the many challenges we face as a nation here at home and abroad. |
Where is Qecho and Latinlover to defend Bush's support of the military dictatorship?? According to their neocon filth, we should be invading Pakistan.
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| Originally posted by Krypton Where is Qecho and Latinlover to defend Bush's support of the military dictatorship?? According to their neocon filth, we should be invading Pakistan. |
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| Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Whoa, where have you read that? As far as I knew, the neocons are just nodding their head and supporting whatever Musharref does at this point. Have you read something more heinous? |
I really am dumbfounded at how the moderate pakistanis (Bhutto supporters, lawyers, judges) are the ones being targeted by Masharaf while the militants gain ground in places like Swat, recently a relatively moderate region. Masharaf's focus is not fighting militants, it's holding onto power.
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US worries rise over Pakistan crackdown
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan quickly ended house arrest for opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Friday as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf came under new U.S. pressure to end a crackdown that Washington fears is hurting the fight against Islamic extremism.
Earlier in the day, police threw up barbed wire around Bhutto's house to keep her from speaking at a rally to protest Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, and security forces rounded up thousands of her supporters to block any mass demonstrations.
The action was a new blow to hopes the two U.S.-friendly leaders could form an alliance against militants � a rising threat underlined by a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan that targeted the home of a Cabinet minister, who escaped without injury.
Bhutto twice tried to evade authorities in her car, telling police who surrounded her villa: "Do not raise hands on women. You are Muslims. This is un-Islamic." Officers blocked the former prime minister's way with an armored vehicle.
In Rawalpindi, the nearby garrison town where she had hoped to stage the rally, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Bhutto loyalists who staged wildcat protests and hurled stones. More than 100 were arrested.
The Bush administration called for the restrictions on Bhutto to be lifted, and Pakistan's government said late Friday that she was again free to move about, although police barriers remained outside her house. Her supporters said she would try to leave Saturday morning.
In Washington, where some lawmakers are calling for aid to Pakistan to be curtailed, U.S. officials again criticized Musharraf's crackdown.
"We remain concerned about the continued state of emergency and curtailment of basic freedoms, and urge Pakistani authorities to quickly return to constitutional order and democratic norms," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.
As Musharraf's chief international backer, the Bush administration is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 160 million people that is on the front lines of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorist groups.
The suspension of the constitution last weekend has intensified the anger of moderate and secular Pakistanis who have become increasingly frustrated with military rule. At the same time, Islamic militants with ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida are stepping up violence, including suicide bombings and fighting in the northwest along the border with Afghanistan.
Musharraf cited the gains by extremists in the frontier region as one of the main reasons for his emergency decree, saying political unrest was undermining the fight against militants.
On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the home of Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Muqam was unhurt but four people died.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the turmoil could undermine the battle against Pakistani insurgents.
"The concern I have is that the longer the internal problems continue, the more distracted the Pakistani army and security services will be in terms of the internal situation rather than focusing on the terrorist threat in the frontier area," Gates told reporters while flying home from a weeklong visit to Asia.
Despite the government's attempt to squelch Pakistani news coverage of the unrest, some independent TV channels are finding ways to broadcast reports. Geo TV, for instance, transmits by satellite from a backup facility in the Persian Gulf and it streams video on the Internet.
Most of the thousands of people rounded up this week have been moderates � lawyers and activists from secular opposition parties, such as Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. The detentions have fueled popular suspicions the embattled Musharraf declared the emergency to maintain his grip on power, which he has held since leading a coup in 1999.
Bhutto's detention, if only for a day, showed Musharraf has no intention of easing the crackdown despite saying Thursday that parliamentary elections would be held by mid-February, just a month later than originally planned. The announcement came after intense pressure from the U.S.
The move against Bhutto further harmed prospects for a Bhutto-Musharraf alliance that Washington has been pushing for.
"I worked out a road map with Gen. Musharraf for a peaceful transition to democracy and I'm very disappointed that though there is a peaceful way, he chose the nonpolitical path," Bhutto told a few dozen supporters after her second foiled attempt to get out of her villa.
Police kept a wary eye on her supporters, who repeatedly tried to remove the barbed wire and steel and concrete barriers ringing Bhutto's house. At least 30 of her loyalists were arrested, including a woman carrying flowers.
Dressed in a blue tunic and her trademark white head scarf, Bhutto twice tried to leave for Rawalpindi inside a white Landcruiser with tinted windows, surrounded by about 50 supporters, including several lawmakers.
After being turned back the second time, her way blocked by an armored vehicle, she got out of the car and joined her supporters, who chanted "Go, Musharraf, go!"
"I want to tell you to have courage because this battle is against dictatorship and it will be won by the people," Bhutto said as police stood guard nearby.
Her supporters said they would only be further emboldened by Friday's clampdown.
"We will not go away. Our party activists have been mobilized to move out and take to the streets," said Abida Hussain, a former ambassador to the United States.
Here's a real statement on the popularity of this Administration even in key ally countries like Pakistan:
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Musharraf and Bhutto turn to Sen. Biden before talking to Bush November 11, 2007 BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist President Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto each placed telephone calls from Pakistan to Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to discuss the country's crisis before either talked to President George W. Bush. On Saturday, Bhutto emphasized to Biden the need for parliamentary elections in January with Gen. Musharraf remaining as president but leaving the army. Musharraf called Biden on Tuesday and asked that their conversation be kept confidential. Biden got the impression Musharraf could accept January elections although he had triggered the crisis by suspending the constitution. Biden, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, wants the Bush administration to get actively involved in resolving the situation. He wants development now of a post-election power-sharing agreement between Musharraf and Bhutto |
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| Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Here's a real statement on the popularity of this Administration even in key ally countries like Pakistan: http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/...NOVAK11.article |
This sure isn't good...
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| US aid to Pakistan diverted, squandered: report Mon Dec 24, 2:53 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than five billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan has often never reached the military units it was intended for to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was instead diverted to other programs, the New York Times reported Monday. Much of the money meant to reimburse frontline Pakistani units was channeled to weapons systems aimed at India and to pay inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs, unnamed US government and military officials told the daily. Pakistanis critical of President Pervez Musharraf said he used the reimbursements to prop up his government, and one European diplomat said the United States should have been more careful with its money. "I wonder if the Americans have been taken for a ride," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Money intended to repay Pakistan for maintaining 100,000 troops in the restive tribal areas apparently does not reach the troops who need it, officials said. "It is not making its way, for certain, we know, to the broader part of the armed forces which is carrying out the brunt of the operations on the border" with Afghanistan, a senior US military official told the Times. |
It's okay. We'll just have the FED generate another 5 billion out of thin air and send it again to Pakistan. It'll be alright, even if it will devalue our dollar further. 
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