[NYTr] China Hand: Pakistan Newswire - Nov 19, 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

China Matters - Nov 19, 2007
http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/2007/11/pakistan-newswire.html

Pakistan Newswire

by China Hand

First a news flash: Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon are idiots

via Antiwar.com, Pakistan Daily reports:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C11%5C19%5Cstory_19-11-2007_pg7_9

Frederick Kagan of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and
Michael O’Hanlon of the more liberal Brookings Institution argue in an
article published in the New York Times on Sunday that the US simply
cannot stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the
abyss. ... 

"Possible plan: One possible plan would be a Special Forces
operation with the limited goal of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear
materials and warheads from getting into the wrong hands. Given the
degree to which Pakistani nationalists cherish these assets, it is
unlikely the United States would get permission to destroy them.
Somehow, American forces would have to team with Pakistanis to secure
critical sites and possibly to move the material to a safer place. For
the United States, the safest bet would be shipping the material to
someplace like New Mexico, but even pro-American Pakistanis would be
unlikely to cooperate. It would be better for the US to settle for
establishing a remote redoubt within Pakistan, with the nuclear
technology guarded by elite Pakistani forces backed up and watched over
by crack international troops."

That’s not just jumping the shark. That’s jumping on the shark,
tap-dancing on its nose, and using a secret brain ray to force it to
type the plays of Shakespeare on a vintage Underwood.

And that’s before they come up with the idea of abducting Pakistan’s
nuclear arsenal to a secret location in New Mexico.

I actually had to check the New York Times website to make sure this
wasn’t a spoof or some piece of anti-American psyops by the Pakistani
media. And yes, they really said it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/opinion/18kagan.html

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezus

Second, via Antiwar.com, The Australian gets it...

with the headline "Bhutto's backflip as poll is called"
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071119/071755.html

The lede:

PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf yesterday nailed down January 8
for elections while opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, in yet another
political backflip, appeared to lay the groundwork for resuming
power-sharing negotiations with the military ruler.

Recall that Bhutto’s attorney also chose not to argue the suit against
Musharraf’s election as president; another sign that the PPP is party
to a new U.S-brokered deal to let Musharraf have the presidency in
return for “taking off the uniform” and governing as a civilian and
smoothing the path to January parliamentary elections.

So everybody’s priority (except the hapless Pakistani lawyers’) for
Pakistan is not democracy; it’s to prevent democracy from screwing up a
power-sharing deal that the U.S., Bhutto, and Musharraf all want to see
go ahead—even though they all hate and mistrust each other.

Finally, the great game continues...

Bhutto, in an effort to maintain her street cred and to keep the threat
of a legal challenge to Musharraf’s presidency alive, had, while
refusing to argue the election case, also refused to confirm the
legality of Musharraf’s presidency.

Well, if Benazir wants to keep Mush in legal limbo, well, he'll return
the favor.

In a tit-for-tat move, Musharraf’s attorney general announces that the
amnesty that Musharraf granted Bhutto on graft charges as part of the
original power-sharing deal maybe has a bit of a problem:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\11\19\story_19-11-2007_pg7_6

Former premier Benazir Bhutto may soon face the same corruption cases
that forced her into exile for eight years as the amnesty [National
Reconciliation Order] lifting the charges was likely to be overturned,
said Attorney General (AG) Malik Qayyum.

Five writs have been issued against the amnesty in the Supreme Court
and it would not survive the challenge, Qayyum told The Sunday
Times.President Pervez Musharraf had granted the amnesty to Bhutto by
promulgating the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) ahead of her
return to the country on October 18.

NRO not ‘happily worded’: “I don’t think it [amnesty] will survive the
challenge,” Qayyum said. “Whoever drafted it, it was not happily
worded. Only the courts can decide to throw charges out, not
governments.”

Take that!

And on with the games!