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NEW WORLD DISORDER
From Lebanon to Turkey to Sri Lanka to Pakistan
to Iraq to Afghanistan to Iran....
Pakistan's Musharaf Blackmailed by US?
MER - MiddleEast.Org -
Washington - 16 August 2006:
The U.S. is the world's only real superpower at the moment, and
consequently what the U.S. does, and does not do, reverberates far and
wide around the globe.
In Washington the deceitful and war-mongering policies of the Christian
Evangelicals in league with the largely Jewish and Zionist Neocons --
in conjunction with Israeli devastation of the Palestinians in the
occupied territories and now again in Lebanon -- are backfiring far and
wide.
Is this the overall context is which this article about Pakistan may be on target?
None of us in the truly independent sector can know for sure -- such
things are closely held national secrets that few even in the
intelligence services have access to. But there is a great deal of
circumstantial 'evidence' that lends considerable possible veracity to
what is discussed in this article which is written by an enterprising
Pakistani journalist now exiled in Canada.
Moreover, as with so many things, there is quite a history here going
back to another strong-man Pakistani General who was President until he
was killed -- General Zia al-Haq. Rumors of American, and possibly
Israeli involvent, in General Zia's demise still linger. And remember
now, Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation and for many
years was badgered and threatened by the U.S. and Israel -- including
attempts in decades past to attack and destroy Pakistan's nuclear
capabilities, as is now being planned for Iran.
Will America Assassinate
General
Musharraf?
eneral
Musharraf wants to remain president-in-uniform
till 2012. America wants to keep Pakistan occupied by its armed forces for
as long as possible. It seems that with these complimentary objectives,
Musharraf and Washington are getting along well. The reality, however, is
totally different.
The United States
extracted all concessions from General Musharraf through sheer blackmail.
Musharraf would never have surrendered Pakistan’s sovereignty and
independence merely on a phone call from Collin Powell or George W. Bush if
he were not blackmailed for the ISI’s role in Operation 9/11.
Of course, the ISI
was used to frame Arabs for the 9/11 attacks. But in the process,
ISI’s
guilt was established as an agency supporting and financing the so-declared
hijackers. There are ample reasons to believe that evidence about ISI’s
involvement in 9/11 was used to blackmail General Musharraf into the
quickest surrender of our age.
Washington knows
that the general did not concede much by choice. With elections for the next
parliament due in 2007, General Musharraf is desperately building a
political base in the country to get a re-election from the new parliament
for the next term or to get a change in the constitution to a presidential
democracy to be able to shed the uniform and also to retain the political
and executive powers as president. If he succeeds in this plan, this will go
in favour of Washington. But Washington sees some serious problems, which
would derail Musharraf’s bid to remain the most powerful man in Pakistan.
This may lead Washington to settle General Musharraf’s issue the way it
dealt with General Zia. The following factors show that assassinating
Musharraf might become one of the best options for the United States in the
present circumstances.
General Musharraf
has not outlived his utility for Washington as yet. However, it is not
possible for General Musharraf to remain the army chief forever. The best
way Washington believes its interest could be served is to make General
Musharraf’s autocratic rule look more democratic. For that, instead of
crafting new webs and making another leader to fully submit, Washington
would like to see Musharraf become another Hosnie Mubarak in Islamabad.
Washington now wants him to shed his uniform and become a civilian president
in the present setup.
The dilemma before
Washington, however, is that no civilian ruler can use the military in the
service of the United States as effectively as General Musharraf is doing as
the military chief. At the same time, the U.S. efforts to create an
alternate political leadership in the country to increase pressure on
Musharraf also seem to be getting nowhere.
General Musharraf’s present political allies are more of a liability than
asset for him now. The main political allies, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML
Quid-e-Azam group), are most corrupt, inefficient and ineffective, with no
hope of securing required seats in the next elections. There is also serious
internal dissent within the PML (Q).
General Musharraf’s other ally, Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), is also
considered a corrupt, blackmailing, sub-nationalist-minded, mafia-styled
gang, which is fully exploiting the weaknesses of the general. MQM is the
most unreliable, even treacherous, political ally for him.
<>
Musharraf propped up the religious alliance of Muthahida majlis-e-Amal (MMA)
and then used it for constitutional changes in his favour. Musharraf reneged
on public promises to MMA to relinquish the post of chief of army staff as
part of the process of restoring democracy in Pakistan. Islamabad’s
suspension from commonwealth was lifted on the condition that General
Musharraf would give up his military uniform by the end of 2004 as a proof
of his commitment to democratic reform. Now the religious alliance is
sensing his weaknesses and is gearing up its barrage against him.
There is a very strong perception within the religious parties that the MQM
was behind the Karachi blast in April 2006. Scores of people, including
prominent MMA leader Haji Hanif Billo, were killed when a bomb went off at a
religious gathering in Karachi. Since then, the government has contemplated
no action against the MQM, a factor that will agitate more public anger.
Former prime ministers Nawaz, Sharif and Benazir are now flexing their
muscles to challenge him in the coming days. There are talks of joint
efforts to remove Musharraf and even the MQM is signaling that it is willing
to join such a campaign. If Benazir and Nawaz decided to return before the
elections, even their arrest would make them political heroes, creating more
embarrassment for the general.
The entire governance and economy is in a big mess. Musharraf
relied on Shaukat Aziz, who has miserably failed on all counts. Inflation is
wrecking the life of the common man – the vote bank in any elections. That
vote bank is not impressed with Shaukat Aziz blowing smoke in their face
with economic jargon. For a common man, for example, it is enough to know
that the sugar crisis is still haunting the country. The prices have almost
doubled in recent months to record levels. Still, there are no imports and
all the national demands are being met in abundant supply from local stocks.
The price hike gave windfall profits of billions of rupees to a few select
sugar cartel mafias within a few months. The much-vaunted National
Accountability Bureau was forced to drop the probe immediately after it
started. The common man knows that corruption is at an all-time high within
the state machinery. Abuse of power and authority are daily headlines.
Police and the judiciary system remain most corrupt as well.
Thus, General Musharraf and Washington are now left with extremely limited,
difficult and almost impossible options.
-
Even if the
military is still behind him, it is highly unlikely that he may decide
to confront the Americans, forget about democracy, stop taking
international pressures, and take absolute power in his own hands once
again as he had when he took power in October 1999. It does not seem
possible that Musharraf would once more abolish the assemblies, defer
the constitution, draft his own constitution, and declare a presidential
system or even martial law. In the past, he formed a team of
so-considered honest, selfless and efficient professionals to rectify
the damages done in the past few years and tried to bring back control
in the economy, security, governance, judiciary and social welfare of
the country. He has clearly failed. Of course, the suffering masses are
not interested in democracy or martial law. They want security, dignity,
cheap food and energy, as well as economic development. It does not
matter to them who delivers this. Nevertheless, it will be a huge task
to fool them twice with the same mantra. On the part of General
Musharraf, it would amount to saying, “I am redoing the eight-year
experiment.”
-
Another option
is renegotiating with the Americans. It is not a problem for him to bend
backwards even more. He would send Pakistani forces to Iraq, recognize
Israel, commit more troops to Miranshah, take responsibility for
finishing off the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Madrassas in Pakistan,
and allow more unrestricted access to the United States into Pakistan’s
security and intelligence, as well as nuke apparatus. Nevertheless, for
sustaining all this he has to remain the chief of armed forces. With
these measures, he can immediately become the blue-eyed boy of the
Americans once again and there will be no further chatter in Washington
about democracy. But Musharraf will have a revolt on hand in the home
front and perhaps even a rebellion in the army.
-
The third
option is to contest elections with whatever support base the general
has so far and keep Benazir, Nawaz and Sharif out of the electoral
process to weaken their collective nuisance. Some heavy-duty management
will be required to “arrange” the required results and to neutralize the
MMA and PPP/Nawaz factor. The general has done this with the help of ISI
before and can do the same again. Consequently, MQM will continue to
exploit the situation and basically nothing will improve in the country
in terms of economy and governance or law and order; likewise, the same
team of suspects will reappear to exploit him even further for the next
four years. Things can get mismanaged if Nawaz and Benazir decided to
come back before the elections and launch a street protest calling their
court cases politically motivated. The MMA would also join them and a
bit of “hidden hand” support could start an unexpected but very real
inferno. Even if everything goes well, the general will have to give up
his position as the military chief. Losing his military position will
make the general lose all attractiveness to Washington, which is mainly
concerned with sustaining Pakistan’s occupation with the Pakistani armed
forces and using the Pakistani army in the interest of the United
States.
-
The fourth
option is that the general reads the writing on the wall and decides to
quit, handing over power to the next army chief who would promise the
elections or would decide to stay in power depending upon what he wants
to do. Musharraf will have to leave the country with his family and may
settle in some friendly or neutral country like Turkey or a country in
Europe. This option suits Washington, but General Musharraf is addicted
to power to an extent that it is highly unlikely that he will hang his
boots up so easily.
-
The last
option is assassination. He may be assassinated either by his army men,
any local resistance groups, Baluchistan Liberation army assassins, or
someone sent by the Americans to blame “religious extremists” and pave
the way for another general to take over and continue Pakistan’s
occupation for another decade or so. Being in charge of the general’s
personal security in many ways, it is only the Americans who can
successfully carry out the assassination operation against him. His
departure in a violent manner will serve many of the U.S.’s
objectives.
In the next few weeks or months, events would basically unfold in one of the
many options discussed above. Right now, both Musharraf and Washington are
confused and have not clearly decided on any of the options.
The assassination option carries the most weight. We know from experience
that leaders in the Muslim world who associated themselves with Washington
unconditionally are doomed. The Shah of Iran, General Zia and Saddam Hussein
are prominent examples. General Musharraf may continue to rule by force and
power, but would not have any grassroots support and hence would remain on
shaky ground within his own country.
Washington is now giving General Musharraf a very tough time. He is not
finding the courage to stand up to Washington or to face the nation. He has
gone silent these days and is not defending U.S. actions, nor is he making
supportive statements about the U.S. strategy in the Muslim world. He was
under the misconception that Washington would appreciate his concessions,
which it was obtaining from the general through blackmail, as his favors.
This, however, was not the case. Washington didn’t appreciate the
“sincerity” and “sacrifice” of the entrapped general. Now, the disillusioned
general is annoyed and offended by the American rebuffs to his demands and
is feeling ditched and betrayed. That is a sick feeling for a man who had
put all his eggs in one big American basket and is now left alone and
abandoned to be replaced with another strongman, who could keep himself in
uniform for a longer period than the burnt out General Musharraf. A more
docile and cooperative political leadership would be the last option
considered in Washington.
<>
General Musharraf is in the middle of nowhere at the moment. His only option
is to come out clean on his relations with the Americans and to give voice
to what he has been hiding from his people and the whole world. He might be
portrayed as insane as a result,
but to save Pakistan and the world from the scourge of a greater war,
he must tell the truth and the whole story of his entrapment to grab
the initiative back and restore the confidence of his nation in his
words and deeds. Unless General Musharraf restores the confidence of
his people in his policies at home by telling the whole truth about the
way the ISI was used in 9/11 and how Pakistan has been blackmailed, he
is doomed.
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August 2006
BUSH = CRAP - So Says Tony Blair's Deputy Prime Minister! (August 17, 2006)
BUSH = CRAP Did You Say? OK, apparently the "Crap" reference had specifically to do with the so-called U.S. "Roadmap" and promises to the Brits and others regarding the disastrous Iraqi War. But you'll pardon us for expanding the context and suggesting it applies quite generally across the board. We think the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, would agree, if he could.
Pakistan's Musharaf Blackmailed by US? (August 16, 2006)
Target Musharraf after years of blackmail? None of us can know for sure -- such things are closely held national secrets that few even in the intelligence services have access to. But there is a great deal of circumstantial 'evidence' that lends considerable possible veracity to what is discussed in this article which is written by an enterprising Pakistani journalist now exiled in Canada. And some years ago there was the demise of another strong-man Pakistani General, Zia al-Haq.
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Just look at opinion polls around the world where even ordinary people are asked about the policies of the U.S. and Israel -- never ever so dangerously off the charts. Here is the origin of the disgust, the hatred, and the desire for revenge that is propelling so many to decide that they must themselves find ways to fight, to defend, to revenge. This substantial cover story comes from India, from the well-known magazine Frontline published by The Hindu.
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"...the neoconservative dream of making George W. Bush a modern-day Alexander conquering the major cities of the Middle East, one after another."
Hezbollah's al-Manar (August 6, 2006)
Meanwhile the battle for Iran is still in the early phases, the war in Iraq is going very badly for the Americans, Lebanon has been destroyed again, the Palestinians are suffering far worse than apartheid, the credibility and resources of the American Empire are draining away at an accelerating pace, and the hatred for Israel is bubbling over.
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And so the largely Jewish cabal of Neocons who so dominate Washington affairs in coordination with the Jewish/Israel Lobby -- and the new Evangelical/Israel Lobby which the Jewish one has greatly encouraged and helped -- now have the big target in sight: IRAN!
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Now the Christian Evangelical President, in tandem with the Zionist Neocon 'cabal' and the Israel Lobby in Washington, is actually attempting to manipulate the U.N. to send an armed 'multinational' force -- NOT a blue-helmet 'peace keeper' force mind you --' to take over the area of southern Lebanon nearest to Israel's northern border!
ON THE BRINK... At The Root... (August 1, 2006)
The Neocons and the Israeli Lobby have been working for years now in crusading fashion to bring the world to the verge of what is now a potential slow-burn world war. That is what they have been planning for some time largely because it fits the Israeli geopolitical design for the Middle East region.
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