Burnt Orange Report

Back to Normal: Bush Politicizing the War on Terror

By Andrew Dobbs

Phew... well after my rather conservative screed below, I imagine I'd better do a story about how freaking awful this administration is. From the New Republic:

This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. (...)

This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar. "Our attitude and actions have been the same since September 11 in terms of getting high-value targets off the street, and that doesn't change because of an election," says National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack. But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections." (...) the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt. Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, "The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections." (These sources insisted on remaining anonymous. Under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, an official leaking information to the press can be imprisoned for up to ten years.)

A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Holy shit. I really hope the SCLM doesn't try and bury this one- this is big stuff. For 3 years nearly we have dicked around on catching bin Laden- Bush didn't want to risk the casualties a concerted effort to capture him would have certainly incurred- and now he's putting the thumbscrews on Pakistan to make sure they make a good little ad for him. This is hideous, infuriating and awful.

The story goes on:

During his March visit to Islamabad, Powell designated Pakistan a major non-nato ally, a status that allows its military to purchase a wider array of U.S. weaponry. Powell pointedly refused to criticize Musharraf for pardoning nuclear physicist A.Q. Khan--who, the previous month, had admitted exporting nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya--declaring Khan's transgressions an "internal" Pakistani issue. In addition, the administration is pushing a five-year, $3 billion aid package for Pakistan through Congress over Democratic concerns about the country's proliferation of nuclear technology and lack of democratic reform.

Gee, is this the same administration that sent us into a war against a country with no WMDs because they might put them into the hands of terrorsts that is now coddling a country that has admitted to giving WMDs to enemies of the United States? I mean, what if Eisenhower had pardoned the Rosenburgs? We would have had anarchy in the streets. Well this Khan guy makes the Rosenburgs look like the Partridge Family because unlike the Soviets the people Khan sold the secrets to don't have any sense of self-preservation or caution towards the use of nukes. Now we are helping to strengthen the military of a country with a very weak and embattled dictatorship and a large undercurrent of Islamic extremism that also happens to be the sworn enemy of the world's largest democracy (India). Call me in 10 years, if we are still around, so I can say "I told you so" after an Islamic cabal in Pakistan nukes Israel or India or the United States.

While I disagree with Moore's way of stating his criticisms, he makes a few good points in his movie (even a stopped clock is right twice a day) and among them is that this administration's foreign policy is about promoting their own power more than promoting stability. This is a despicable case of it and Bush ought to be kicked out whether we catch UBL or not.