BREAKING -'Martial law declared in Pakistan'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW Govt. sources: State of emergency declared by president
NEW Reports: Constitution suspended, martial law declared
NEW CNN: Troops enter Supreme Court, court declares emergency illegal
Reports: Most media channels off air due to an apparent media blackout

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Faced with increasing violence and unrest, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday declared a state of emergency, government sources told CNN.

The nation's constitution has been suspended, government sources said, and martial law has been declared.

In Islamabad, troops entered the Supreme Court and were surrounding the judges' homes, according to CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi.

The Supreme Court has declared the state of emergency illegal, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry told CNN. He said he and an eight-member panel of judges decided the declaration was unconstitutional, and that Musharraf has no power to make it.

more -

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/03/pakistan.emergency/index.html

Even worser than bombing Iran

BIG lie that people of different cultures, beliefs and economic and political situations are somehow "nuts". There are radicals everywhere.

many of them live here in america. many of them don't.

This elitist neo-colonialist thinking makes it easy to force democracy on countries by invading them and to shrug off the resulting chaos and death.

American culture is superior to Pakistani culture, and way superior to the North African cultures that still practice female genital mutilation. Atheism, agnosticism and lukewarm pseudo-Christianity are superior to fundamentalist Christianity and Islam. And representative democracy is far superior to the "political situation" of military dictatorship.

This may not fit into your hearts-and-flowers worldview, but people who believe in irrationalities like Sharia law, the divine right of kings, creationism, the Rapture and so forth are inherently lesser than people who do not. Someone whose mind is so poisoned does not have a normal level of reasoning ability and cannot be trusted.

North African cultures practice genital mutilation.
North American cultures paractice state executions.
Go figure.

... since no such comparison can be made without benchmarks, and the benchmarks themselves would be culturally biased. Call it Heisenberg's Cultural Uncertainty Principle.

And guess which one?

The USSR used nuclear explosions for canal building.

!

Using the word 'nuts' as an epithet, as though it's a Bad Thing™, is insensitive to the keen feelings and heightened sensibilities of many good folks, some of whom are DUers. I'm a loud and proud Nut!

:silly:

* This is a public service posting on behalf of the International Association of Fruits & Nuts, Ad Hoc DU Chapter.


My apologies to possible dissent from 1plain1peanut, AcadamiaNut, aquanut, B3Nut, blackwalnut, bozosleftnut, bulugnut, butternut, Canadiangunnut, Carnut, CA_liberal_nut, conspiracy-nut, darlademnut, donut, econut, elvisthenut, fordnut, gaygunnut, GnomesLeftNut, graphixnut, hazelnut, HealthNut, Historynut, Jacknut, JaneDoughnut, konominut, leftwingnut, LeftyWingNut, Lefty_WingNut, Letters From A Nut, liberalgunnut, lilpnut, Lugnut, MilsurpNut, monolithic_juggernut, Mr Peanut, Mr. Peanut, mrpeanut, numinut, Nutboy, nutcase, nutgrass, nuthatch, Nutmeg, NutMeg021576, Nutmeg1576, Nutmeg61, Nutmegger, NutmegJenny, NutmegYankee, Nutniks, nuton2wheels, nutone, Nuts, nuts101, nutsco101, NutterFluffer, NuttinBut, NuttyFluffers, nuttywoody, oaknut, Opera Nut, ornanut, peanut, peanut57, peanutz, PoliSciNut, PolitiNut, PublicHealthNut, publichealthnut1, Racenut20, somenut, Soynut, spacenut, superbeachnut, the wingnuttiest, tofunut, videonut, weenut1, Wingnut19, Wingnutblogger, Wingnutsawry, wwwalnut, and yoganut.

:scared:

And who do we have at the helm? Idiot-Boy. *sigh*

with the judges inside.

OMG! :rofl:

classic

Your honor, if it pleases the court, we respectfully ask that you hide in your closet and if you say anything else we'll blow up your house.

posted earlier this morning:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2196689&mesg_id=2196689

that's tightening around Cheney's filthy neck.

Musharaf is his boy...and if he's ousted, so goes crashcart's influence. Bhutto is a wild card, but not in the pocket anywhere Musharaf is. Musharaf is caught in a vice...if he's too repressive, he plants the seeds for greater unrest, if he's too "soft", he'll get sacked by his army buddies. If the Judges prevail, the clergy wlil erupt...this is a real fuckin' mess.

The only thing that holds that country together is its kleptocracy...money seems to settle a lot of disputes. I wouldn't be surprised there's a lot of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing...but we know who the ultimate victor will be...The military. It's just what type of military will this be.

It'll be an interesting weekend...

nothing could be less surprising than this.

:scared:

have yet to be completely illuminated

:)

kabuki theater, people. maybe musharaf is not behaving, and uncle dick is setting him up for a replacement. maybe he just needed more cover. but i got a crisp 20 here for anyone who wants to bet me that the "violence" is of our making- special ops, probably.

there.

Everyone needs a test case, right?

paramilitary troops have taken over the television and radio stations...the EU has condemned the suspension of the Constitution by Musharraf.


Leading Pakistani lawyer detained in emergency

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL207751.htm

ISLAMABAD, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A leading Pakistani lawyer and opposition figure, Aitzaz Ahsan, said he had been detained after President Pervez Musharraf invoked emergency powers on Saturday.

"They have served me a detention order for 30 days," Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told reporters outside his home in the capital. "One man has taken entire nation hostage... Time has come for General Musharraf to go."

Fellow lawyers shouted "Go Musharraf Go" as Ahsan was taken away by police, waving a victory sign to his supporters.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03126471.htm

"In London, a spokesman for former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said; 'We feel it's a desperate attempt of a defeated dictator who has been exposed for what he is in the eyes of the world.'

'He (Musharraf) feels the Supreme Court will not allow him to remain the president. That's why he has taken the decision,' spokesman Nadir Chaudhri said."

always one of the first acts in a coup or military takeover. You can't control a country unless you control its news media, something those who constantly push to deregulate media ownership never acknowledge.

And it's awful, just awful, but Musharraf hasn't been in control of much there.

they are failing and will fail

The declaration came days before the Supreme Court was expected to rule on the constitutionality of General Musharraf's re-election as president last month and of his ability to serve as both the country's president and military leader.

Just after 5 p.m. signs that a state of emergency would be declared started to emerge. All television stations were blocked as news media were reporting a meeting of General Musharraf and his top aides in the president's office.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/world/asia/04pakistan.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

I was seeing Mushareff and Bush not getting along maybe he is being replaced by another

I hope Bush gets the checkbook ready
he's going to need more money

Scum bag Benazir will be doing Washington's bidding shortly.

120 soldiers/police were taken hostage. Their weapons were stolen. This incident after the shoot out at the Madrassa accused of teaching jihad (and the library standoff by women in burkas...which, afaik, are not worn by muslim women who are not part of far right religious/military political ideologies.) The madrassa was built illegally on govt. property, fwiw... this was definitely the excuse to go after the cleric there.

The ISI (Pakistan's secret service) is infiltrated with "Al Q" (for lack of a better description) supporters. These same nations who are condemning Musharraf are probably privately supporting him because they don't want another Islamic govt in the region.

The whole situation is a massive clusterfuck (my favorite description this morning, it seems) because, once again, the U.S. helped to create the problems it now faces. Not only did the U.S. (Bush I sold nuclear components to Pakistan via BCCI) give them nuclear capacity - to offset "communist-leaning" India (yes, what a joke, huh?). But the U.S. govt also, as everyone knows, supported the Taliban and armed them and the militant Islamists from all over the region who fought against the USSR... and the border area of Pakistan is basically another "sovereignty" for these groups.

So, faced with such unrest, I don't know what the govt there can do. The way things look now, they're headed for a Shah/Ayatollah moment.

Looking back over recent history, it appears the U.S. would have made itself more secure if it had kept the fuck out of entanglements (as the founders called them) with foreign wars that did not concern their own land/borders. Honestly, U.S. republicans/conservatives are too freaking stupid to be a military power. These same conservatives (the neocons, in fact) were adamant that Ronnie Raygun should not talk to Gorbachev.

Maybe the U.S. govt should keep the neocons around in a govt. "think tank" (with a nice yard for exercise and heavy security) to get their take on foreign affairs. Then the U.S. can do just the opposite of what they think is the thing to do. Considering their track record, it's not that crazy of an idea.

"massive clusterfuck" is the only way to describe it in two words.

I like your idea of 'camp neocon'. We could place them on an island equipped with virtual reality, sort of like 'The Prisoner' or 'The Truman Show'. The neocons would think they are really running things from there (because we all know they have no interest in going where the rubber meets the road, so to speak).

And when their idiotic policies end with the virtual world getting nuked, we just reboot and start over.


They would be happy. All of us normal humans would be happy.

Deposed and in prison

Supreme Courts don't have much power in Martial Law and dictatorships

not only computer but my credit card queries and who's gonna make all those telimaketing calls?

Dammit.

Juan knows his stuff :hi:

:kick:

The country is suffering from daily suicide bombings. How the hell can a democracy exist when people's lives are at risk walking down the street. Musharraf is the strongest link to keep the Pakistani chain unbroken.

I'll be very interested to hear from them how their lives are affected by this.

THANKS, NEOCONS!!! thanks for the new world order, probably won't last too long though, kaboom!

:spank: