Plot to kill Pakistani Leader

The Times today is reporting on a plot to kill General Musharraf, the Pakistani leader. He has survived a few assassination attempts over the years, it appears once more to be 'open season' on him.



I can never work out exactly what is going on in Pakistan.

Point 1: Military dictators and coups are generally not a good thing, according to the US and UK. Unless you happy to be Musharraf, who toppled the elected (albeit corrupt) government to come to power

Point 2: ISI, the Pakstani intelligence service apparently ran the Taleban as a pet project, and may or may not still be doing so. Yet Pakistan was a 'key ally' of the US when they invaded Afghanistan

Point 3: Bin Laden may or may not be hiding in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan, may or may not be alive, and may or may not be sheltered by ISI.

So exactly *what* is going on with Musharraf, Pakistan and the ISI?

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IMO Musharraf is the next Saddam. I dont doubt that it is only a matter of time before we see wide scale US military action in Pakistan. Pakistan can only act as a shelter for terrorists for so long before the US and its allies are forced to act. Taking military action in Pakistan would have been a much smarter moved then occupying Iraq.

Originally posted by xpert11
Taking military action in Pakistan would have been a much smarter moved then occupying Iraq.

I will disagree with you on that one, see Pakistan doesn't have oil.

And as for Musharraf he is hanging to power by a string and his power is a very precarious one.

Could this be the beginning of a fundementalist Islamic coup?

I think so. Pakistan is definitely pretty crazy nowadays, even without Musharaf. It supplies 50-70% of the war material and personnel heading to the Taliban. Hell, there's getting to be more foreign Jihadists than locals!

Still, the idea of something Talibanesque with Pakistan's nuclear capabilities is scary as all hell.

DE

I agree DeusEx, but because most of the population favors the taliban and support them that is why Musharraf got himself a nice littler pact with the Taliban.

Because he knows that he is hanging by a string.

Originally posted by marg6043

Originally posted by xpert11
Taking military action in Pakistan would have been a much smarter moved then occupying Iraq.

I will disagree with you on that one,

see Pakistan doesn't have oil.

One thing Pakistan does have however, is nuclear weapons.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that Pakistan has built 24-48 HEU-based nuclear warheads, and Carnegie reports that they have produced 585-800 kg of HEU, enough for 30-55 weapons. Pakistan's nuclear warheads are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core of highly enriched uranium and requires an estimated 15-20 kg of material per warhead. According to Carnegie, Pakistan has also produced a small but unknown quantity of weapons grade plutonium, which is sufficient for an estimated 3-5 nuclear weapons.

Source.

That might not only be a good indicator as to why Pakistan has not suffered the same fate as Afghanistan and Iraq, but also as to why North Korea and Iran are pressing ahead with their own nuclear development.

Mushariff has made several announcements lately, that he is having to win over moderates within the religious community, to prevent the Taliban from becoming a "party of the people" and becoming a threat.

This means that he is having to allow much borderline extremist talk within his country, in order to show that he can be the "nice guy" as well as the military dictator.

He also is having to critisize the USA leadership openly, in order to appear more independant, and free willed...

In short: he is juggling an armed weapon in one hand, and a live grenade in the other...
with a knife held to his throat...

wouldn't want to be him anyday soon.

He was on the daily show recently, and was a rather impressive charachter...
IMHO, he is the only guy who can keep pakistan from slipping to the taliban.

Can anyone imagine, if Pakistan would have been taken over by the taliban during the afghanistan war?

it would be much easier for them to nuke our centrallized troops, that it would be for us to nuke thousands of caves in the mountains.

Let us all pray that he keeps power until the religious fervor has died down...