Bush Covered up Musharraf Ties with Qaeda, Khan

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43605

Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (IPS) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests.

It is well known that Bush repeatedly praised Musharraf as the most loyal ally of the United States against terrorism, even though the Pakistani military was deeply compromised by its relationship with the Taliban and Pakistani Islamic militants.

What has not been reported is that the Bush administration covered up the Musharraf regime's involvement in the activities of the A. Q. Khan nuclear technology export programme and its deals with al Qaeda's Pakistani tribal allies.

The problem faced by the Bush administration when it came into office was that the Pakistani military, over which Musharraf presided, was the real terrorist nexus with the Taliban and al Qaeda. As Bruce Riedel, National Security Council (NSC) senior director for South Asia in the Bill Clinton administration, who stayed on the NSC staff under the Bush administration, observed in an interview with this writer last September, al Qaeda "was a creation of the jihadist culture of the Pakistani army".

If there was a state sponsor of al Qaeda, Riedel said, it was the Pakistani military, acting through its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate.

Vice President Dick Cheney and the neoconservative-dominated Bush Pentagon were aware of the intimate relationship between Musharraf's regime and both the Taliban and al Qaeda. But al Qaeda was not a high priority for the Bush administration.

http://smirkingchimp.com/news/16565

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After 9/11, the White House created the political myth that Musharraf, faced with a clear choice, had "joined the free world in fighting the terrorists". But as Asia expert Selig S. Harrison has pointed out, on Sep. 19, 2001, just six days after he had supposedly agreed to U.S. demands for cooperation against the Taliban regime and al Qaeda, Musharraf gave a televised speech in Urdu in which he declared, "We are trying our best to come out of this critical situation without any damage to Afghanistan and the Taliban."

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In July 2007, a National Intelligence Estimate concluded that al Qaeda's new "safe haven" was in Pakistan's tribal areas and that the terrorist organisation had reconstituted its "homeland attack capability" there. That estimate ended the fiction that the Musharraf regime was firmly committed to combating al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Cheney knew. So does Bill Clinton. That's why BCCI's outstanding matters were deep-sixed throughout the 90s, leading directly to Bush2, 9-11, and this Iraq war. The fascist agenda is on the express track now and has been for the last 8yrs.

BLM's right. They're all connected. (Triangulated). Lots of triangulation. Wish I had something new to post.

truthseekers concerned about their nation's fragile democracy, but when the rubber hits the road with the REAL threats highlighted, they are nowhere to be seen.

Gee, ya think??!

Preventing the 911 attacks was not a high priority for the Bush administration.

Rebuilding New Orleans (or any other American city, town, street, bridge...)is not a high priority for the Bush administration.

Dead uniformed soldiers is not a high priority for the Bush administration.

True support for our uniformed Americans, such as clean hospitals, proper body armor and equipment, food, water, shelter, is not a high priority for the Bush administration.

Americans are not a high priority for the Bush administration.








Power, money...and oil. There's the bUsh regime's trifecta.

either, unless they can profit off someone's else's land and resources and do not care how many people they kill.