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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:07 pm Post subject: Musharraf Said to Agree to End His Army Role |
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Ny times article
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| SLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 29 � The exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said Wednesday that Pakistan�s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had agreed to resign as army chief as part of a nearly completed deal that would allow him to serve another term as president if he is re-elected and allow her to return to Pakistan to run for prime minister. |
yeah, woo hoo. This isn't going to change anything. Musharraf is still going to hold a lot of power and control the military, but he will just be in the background instead of the foreground.
And bhutto? Please. There is a reason she had to leave Pakistan.
But i guess that is slightly better than keeping the status quo. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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You are taking the cynical approach, Bucheon. Perhaps you are right. But not necessarily so. Pakistan is too strategic to be so rigid that our ally goes down and a Fundamentalist regime seizes power. Better that he might negotiate now, while there is time. And, your impressions notwithstanding, maybe this is what Musharraf is thinking. Dictators rarely do this (I can only think of the case the Sandinistas offer). But there is a first time for everything.
On this...
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| For the United States, a power-sharing deal between General Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto would be the best outcome among several bad options. Bush administration officials want to keep General Musharraf in the presidency, because he is viewed as a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism, an American official said. |
I would take a non-Musharraf govt that remains moderate and -- if not proAmerican, than at least not antiAmerican -- even if it backs away from the war on terror, to the other alternatives that might be looming on the horizon for this nuclear-weapons-armed nation-state with an unstable population.
Best that we use any influence we might have there to save what we can while we are ahead in Pakistan, then.
Cannot say I know too much about Bhutto. Care to follow-up on why she had to leave Pakistan? |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Someone on NPR was pointing out how corrupt the last two regimes are. The people there don't care if they get a dictator as long as he does a good job at providing basic services and doesn't take too many bribes. |
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The Bobster
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| this nuclear-weapons-armed nation-state with an unstable population. |
Pakistan developed nuclear warfare technology under Musharraf, and did worse, helped spread it around to places even more unstable and dangerous. Neither he nor a certain Dr Khan have been brought to answer for this. I doubt they will. It would seem that there are advantages to being seen as "unstable" ... 
The world needs to roll back the number of nations that own these kinds of weapons, and yes, I include the US foremost among that list. To date, only Japan has ever stated clearly that they don't want them, and they are wavering a bit on that, with the recent right-wing govts there, and the perceived threats fro N Korea ... |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:54 am Post subject: |
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| The Bobster wrote: |
| Gopher wrote: |
| this nuclear-weapons-armed nation-state with an unstable population. |
Pakistan developed nuclear warfare technology under Musharraf, and did worse, helped spread it around to places even more unstable and dangerous. Neither he nor a certain Dr Khan have been brought to answer for this. I doubt they will. It would seem that there are advantages to being seen as "unstable" ...
The world needs to roll back the number of nations that own these kinds of weapons, and yes, I include the US foremost among that list. To date, only Japan has ever stated clearly that they don't want them, and they are wavering a bit on that, with the recent right-wing govts there, and the perceived threats fro N Korea ... |
Any idea what the US might replace nuclear weapons with? At any rate the international community ought to be careful about what they demand of the US they might just get it. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:09 am Post subject: |
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Gopher, maybe for these reasons:
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On July 23, 1998, the Switzerland Government handed over documents to the government of Pakistan which relate to corruption allegations against Pakistan's opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari.[10] The documents include a formal charge of money laundering and an indictment by the Swiss authorities against Mr Zardari. The Pakistani government had been conducting wide-ranging inquiry to account for more than $13.7 million frozen by Swiss authorities in 1997 that was allegedly stashed in banks by Bhutto and husband, whom he also asks Pakistan to indict. The Pakistan government recently filed criminal charges against Bhutto in efforts to track down an estimated $1.5 billion she and husband are alleged to have received in kickbacks and commissions in variety of enterprises.[11]
The documents suggest that the money which Zardari is alleged to have laundered was accessible to Benazir Bhutto and had been used to buy a diamond necklace for over $175,000.[12]
However the PPP replied to the assertion that the Swiss authorities have been misled by false evidence provided by Islamabad.
August 6, 2003, Swiss magistrates found Benazir and her husband guilty of money laundering.[13] They were given six-month suspended jail terms, fined $50,000 each and were ordered to pay $11 million to the Pakistani government. The six-year-long case alleged that Benazir and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, deposited in Swiss accounts $10 million given to them by a Swiss company in exchange for a contract in Pakistan. The couple said they would appeal. The Pakistani investigators say Zardari, opened Citbank account in Geneva in Feb 1995 through which they say he passed some $40 million of the $100 million he received from payoffs from foreign companies doing business in Pakistan.[
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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| yes, that's it. Basically Bhutto's administration was corrupt. It isn't clear if she, herself was corrupt but many connected to her were. Either she was complicit by not doing anything about it or incompetent for not knowing about it. |
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