[NYTr] Bush: Musharraf "Believes in Democracy"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Washington Post - Nov 21, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/20/AR2007112002304.html?nav=rss_politics

Bush More Emphatic In Backing Musharraf

He Says Leader 'Believes in Democracy'

By Michael Abramowitz and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers

President Bush yesterday offered his strongest support of embattled
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general "hasn't
crossed the line" and "truly is somebody who believes in democracy."

Bush spoke nearly three weeks after Musharraf declared emergency rule,
sacked members of the Supreme Court and began a roundup of journalists,
lawyers and human rights activists. Musharraf's government yesterday
released about 3,000 political prisoners, although 2,000 remain in
custody, according to the Interior Ministry.

The comments, delivered in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles
Gibson, contrasted with previous administration statements -- including
by Bush himself -- expressing grave concern over Musharraf's actions.
In his first public comments on the crisis two weeks ago, Bush said his
aides bluntly warned Musharraf that his emergency measures "would
undermine democracy."

The shift yesterday appeared part of a broader strategy to ease the
crisis in Pakistan. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte
carried a terse message to Musharraf during talks last weekend, urging
the general to step down as chief of the army. Now, after this strong
personal show of support from the president, the Bush administration
expects the general to shed his military uniform before the end of the
month, an administration official said. ad_icon

Several outside analysts and a key Democratic lawmaker expressed
incredulity over Bush's comments and called them a sign of how
personally invested the president has become in the U.S. relationship
with Musharraf.

"What exactly would it take for the president to conclude Musharraf has
crossed the line? Suspend the constitution? Impose emergency law? Beat
and jail his political opponents and human rights activists?" asked
Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and a presidential candidate. "He's already done all that. If
the president sees Musharraf as a democrat, he must be wearing the same
glasses he had on when he looked in Vladimir Putin's soul."

Bush was asked in the interview if there is any line Musharraf should
not cross. "He hasn't crossed the line. As a matter of fact, I don't
think that he will cross any lines," Bush replied, according to an ABC
transcript. ". . . We didn't necessarily agree with his decision to
impose emergency rule, and . . . hopefully he'll get . . . rid of the
rule. Today, I thought, was a pretty good signal, that he released
thousands of people from jail."

Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said that
"it's hard to imagine how the administration will be able to achieve
anything in Pakistan if the president is so disconnected from reality."

"Almost everyone in Pakistan who believes in George Bush's vision of
democracy is in prison today," Malinowski said. "Calling the man who
put them in prison a great democrat will only discredit America among
moderate Pakistanis and give Musharraf confidence that he can continue
to defy the United States because Bush will forgive anything he does."

Bush has closely linked his administration to Musharraf since the weeks
after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when the Pakistani president sided
with the United States in its drive to oust the Taliban from power in
Afghanistan. Although the current crisis has prompted the
administration to launch a review of its aid to Pakistan, officials
said yesterday that they are looking favorably at continuing most
economic and military aid, which has surpassed $10 billion since 2001.

Musharraf has provided extensive assistance to the United States in its
efforts to seize high-profile al-Qaeda suspects, but his devotion to
the fight has been increasingly questioned by some U.S. officials and
outside experts. Musharraf "is not only not indispensable; he is a
serious liability" to U.S. policy, a new report by the International
Crisis Group said.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said in an e-mail message that
the president was sincere in his comments to ABC. "He does believe that
President Musharraf believes in democracy, and there is evidence to
that fact based on the reforms he'd put in place over the last several
years," she said. "Musharraf has made a mistake and took a detour -- we
are hopeful that he will restore the constitution and get the country
back to that path to democracy."

Some officials indicated that the view among many in the administration
is that Musharraf may be able to survive the crisis and remain in power.

"Unless the opposition parties can mount some kind of street campaign,
it looks like Musharraf will stay in power for the near future," said
Stephen P. Cohen, a Brookings Institution scholar and an authority on
South Asia. "It is now up to the generals. When you have no effective
state, no rule of law, it's only people with guns who can remove a
leader -- and that means the generals."

Husain Haqqani, a longtime adviser to former prime minister Benazir
Bhutto who now teaches at Boston University, said Bush's comments
yesterday suggest that "the president of the United States does not
grasp the situation in Pakistan correctly," adding: "Musharraf's
support and significance to the United States is overestimated by a
White House that is bogged down by other concerns."

Biden said the onus is on the Pakistani leader: "Right now, it matters
less what President Bush thinks and more what Musharraf does to put
Pakistan on a democratic path."

In the interview with ABC News, conducted at Camp David, Bush disputed
the suggestion that he has put too much faith in Musharraf, who seized
power in a 1999 coup.

"He's been a loyal ally in fighting terrorists. He's also advanced
democracy in Pakistan," Bush said. "He has said he's going to take off
his uniform. He's said there will be elections. Today he released
prisoners, and so far I've found him to be a man of his word."