MUSHARRAF TO QUIT?

According to this in the February 24, 2008 edition of the Washington Times:

ISLAMABAD (London Sunday Telegraph) — Pervez Musharraf is considering stepping down as president of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents, his aides say.

One close confidant said the president believes he has run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week's elections announced they would form a coalition government, and he also pledged to reinstate the country's chief justice and 60 other judges fired by Mr. Musharraf in November.

"He has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself," a close friend said. "I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high."...

Can Musharraf's opposition govern Pakistan without putting the rest of the region and perhaps the world at risk?

• Relipaundit adds: Great question AOW. I think that Pakistan has been al Qaeda's central front for several months - ever since the surge started working. They assassinated Bhutto to increase instability, help the islamicist Sharif and dethrone Musharraf. The election results in Pakistan will do to Pakistan what the results in the so-called "occupied territories" did to the so-called palestinians: as Hamas made Gaza worse for democracy & peace, and better for jihadism, so to will Sharif and Zardari make Pakistan worse for democracy & peace, and better for jihadism --- PLUS: THEY HAVE NUKES.

• This makes these developments very troubling.

• I hope the Pakistan Army is strong enough to mount another coup before Pakistan - and its nukes - fall into the wrong hands. The Pakistan Army is run by an American trained, pro-West general we can count on.

MUSHARRAF FOES ANNOUNCE THEY WANT TO TALK WITH JIHADISTS

MORE PROOF THAT MUSHARRAF WAS OUR BEST BET, AND HIS VICTORIOUS FOES PART OF THE PROBLEM - WHIO ARE GOING TO MAKE THINGS WORSE; NYTIMES:

The winners of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections said Tuesday that they would take a new approach to fighting Islamic militants by pursuing more dialogue than military confrontation, ...

The two opposition parties share similar views of how to tackle the terrorism problem. The new approach is more likely to be responsive to the consensus of the Pakistani public than was Mr. Musharraf’s and is more likely to shun a heavy hand by the military and rely on dialogue with the militants.

Mr. Zardari said his party would seek talks with the militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have carved out a stronghold, as well as with the nationalist militants who have battled the Pakistani Army in Baluchistan Province.

Many in Pakistan, including several parties that boycotted the elections, have been strongly opposed to Mr. Musharraf’s use of the army to battle tribesmen in the name of the campaign against terrorism, which is seen as an American agenda.

“We will have a dialogue with those who are up in the mountains and those who are not in Parliament,” Mr. Zardari said. “We want to take all those along who are against Pakistan and working against Pakistan.”

THIS IS SIMILAR TO WHAT THE THAIS DID - AFTER THEIR COUP, AND THEY GOT THE EXPECTED RESULTS: THE JIHAD IN SOUTHERN THAILAND GOT WORSE.

APPEASEMENT HAS NEVER EVER WORKED - NOT ANYWHERE, NOT ANYTIME.

• WHAT MAKES THIS EVEN MORE IDIOTIC IN PAKISTAN IS THAT MUSHARRAF HIMSELF TRIED THIS - AND IT HAS ALREADY FAILED.
• THINGS ARE GOING TO BE GETTING WORSE IN PAKISTAN - AND I PREDICT IT WILL WORSEN IN A HURRY.
• THE ENEMY WILL SEE THE RESULTS AND THESE COMMENTS BT ZARDARI AND SHARIF AS A GREEN LIGHT.
• BRACE YOURSELF - AND STAY TUNED...

ASIDE: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I PREDICTED WOULD BE THE RESULT OF THE OPPOSITION'S WIN: APPEASEMENT AND ALLIANCE WITH THE ENEMY.

OMAR AND BINLADEN IN QUETTA, PAKISTAN

UPI:

U.S. intelligence officials say al-Qaida's Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban's Mullah Omar are planning their attack strategies from within Pakistan.

Speaking with reporters in Washington, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Bin Laden and Omar both are living in Pakistan, despite denials to the contrary from Pakistani leaders, the BBC reported.

Omar, and other senior Taliban leaders, are coordinating attacks and fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan from Quetta in Pakistan's Balochistan Province, said the official, who provided no details about how western intelligence sources came by their information.

WIKI: Quetta Demography

In the 1998 census Quetta was the ninth largest city of Pakistan with a population of 565,137. However, the population has risen sharply since then. The city in general is dominated by a Pashtun majority, a Balochi and Hazara minority with an eclectic smattering of smaller groups. However the city is also a home to millions of Afghan immigrants. The Pushto, Balochi, Persian (Hazaragi dialect), Brahui, Sindhi, Punjabi and Urdu languages are spoken in Quetta.

THESE JIHADO-SCU*BAGS ARE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT... WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

• WE NEED TO QUIETLY THREATEN PAKISTAN WITH A QUARANTINE IF THEY DON'T QUARANTINE QUETTA.
• WE TELL THEM TO SURROUND QUETTA WITHIN A DATE CERTAIN. AND THEN "GET" OMAR AND OSAMA.
• IF THEY FAIL TO DO THE QUARANTINE, THEN WE USE DRONES TO ATTACK ANY AND ALL SUSPECTED AL QAEDA HIDEOUTS. DAMN THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE.
• I HAVE LONG MAINTAINED MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY.
• BUT IF THIS INTEL' IS TRUE, THEN MUSHARRAF MUST PROVE IT ONCE AGAIN.

SCOTLAND YARD'S "BHUTTO INVESTIGATION" VINDICATES MUSHARRAF - AND THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

NYTIMES: SCOTLAND YARD AGREES WITH MUSHARRAF - BHUTTO KILLED BY BLAST FORCE, NOT BULLETS

EXCERPT:

Investigators from Scotland Yard have concluded that Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader, died after hitting her head as she was tossed by the force of a suicide blast, not from an assassin’s bullet, officials who have been briefed on the inquiry said Thursday.

The findings support the Pakistani government’s explanation of Ms. Bhutto’s death in December, an account that had been greeted with disbelief by Ms. Bhutto’s supporters, other Pakistanis and medical experts.

When the video of the Bhutto assassination came out EVERYBODY in the MSM and the blogosphere rushed to judgment and BLAMED MUSHARRAF - for the assassination or a cover up.

I ALONE (on 12/30/07) carefully examined the video and courageously argued that the video proved the opposite: that Musharraf's government investigation was right and that Bhutto had indeed died from the blast and that NO BULLETS had hit her.

I compared this video to the Zapruder film: JFK head exploded from the exiting bullet; Bhutto exhibited NO effect from any bullet entry or exit, and her voluntary movement after the shots and before the blast indicated to me that she had definitely NOT been hit.

I was right. I alone in the MSM and the blogosphere.

I am glad to be vindicated by Scotland yard.

I am ALWAYS skeptical of CW and the MSM. CW is most often wring; the MSM is BLATANTLY BIASED.

The MSM JUMPED at the chance to smear a good ally in the GWOT: MUSHARRAF.

And most of the blogosphere fell for it.

Shame on you all.

You should know by know: most of what the MSM has to say about the GWOT is WRONG - and deliberately so.

On the Bhutto assassination the MSM LEAPED at the chance to smear Musharraf - and ever since then they and the leftie Dems have been promoting Zardari, Sharif and Khan - three despicable anti-American pro-Taliban you-know-whats.

Next time: look before you leap and follow the MSM!
CHECK WITH THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS FIRST!

Spread the word.

Blogroll us.

BARAK MET SECRETLY WITH MUSHARRAF IN PARIS

YNET:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak secretly met last week with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, Israel's Channel 2 reported Sunday. The two met in Paris and discussed the Iranian nuclear threat and the situation in the Middle East.

The leaders met each other by chance last Tuesday in the hotel where Barak was staying during his visit to France, and spoke briefly.

On the following day, Musharraf invited Barak for a meeting that focused on Iran's nuclear program and Israel's concerns that Pakistan's nuclear secrets might fall into the hands of extremist Islamist groups.

• AS STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM, ISRAEL AND PAKISTAN ARE ALLIES IN THE WAR AGAINST JIHADOTERROR.
• THERE IS NO REASON PAKISTAN CANNOT ENJOY THE SAME RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL THAT TURKEY DOES.
• THIS MEETING FURTHER PROVES MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY. BETTER THAN TURKEY, (THO' TURKEY'S RECENT ARRESTS OF 25 AL QAEDA SUSPECTS IS REFRESHING).
  

PAKISTAN'S ARMY ADVANCING ON THE ENEMY

TIMES OF INDIA:

At least 25 pro-Taliban militants were killed on Sunday as security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery took control of a strategic tunnel in northwestern Pakistan that had been occupied by the extremists.

Militants on Saturday occupied the Japanese-built Kohat tunnel near Darra Adam Khel town after security forces launched a major operation in the area to trace four trucks carrying ammunition that had been hijacked by the rebels.

Traffic between the key city of Kohat and Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, had been blocked after the militants captured the tunnel. Scores of vehicles had been stranded on both sides of the tunnel.

"Twenty-four militants have been killed," military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said. Two security personnel were injured in Sunday's clashes.

Security forces had cleared the area around the tunnel of militants "after fierce fighting" and the rebels were present only on "a couple of heights".

Abbas said: "The tunnel is now under the control of the security forces."

Troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and heavy machine guns to evict militants holed up in bunkers on hills overlooking the tunnel.

• MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY - HE DESERVES OUR SUPPORT.
• THAT'S WHY THE LEFTISTS ON THE MSM, IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, AND IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT WOULD LOVE TO SEE HIM GONE - AS THEY DID THE SHAH.

PAKISTAN'S ARMY CONTINUES ASSAULT ON JIHADISTS

AL JAZEERA/AFP: Pakistan army raid kills fighters

Pakistan army soldiers have battled pro-Taliban fighters in regions bordering Afghanistan

A helicopter raid by the Pakistani army has killed up to 25 fighters, a senior government official has said.

The fighters were killed on Saturday while attempting to damage the Kohat Tunnel, which links the towns of Kohat and Dara Adam Khel in the North West Frontier Province, the official said.

"Some 20-25 militants have been killed in the attack," Kamran Zeb, district co-ordination officer of the Kohat region, said.

Security forces also battled fighters in South Waziristan, known as a sanctuary for fighters loyal to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Evacuation

The helicopter raid came a day after Pakistani troops killed up to 30 tribal fighters during clashes in Dara Adam Khel.

Thousands of residents fled the town before the raid, seeking refuge in Peshawar, 40km away.

Pakistani troops launched a "search and cordon" operation in Dara Adam Khel to find four trucks containing munitions and supplies, the army said.

Helicopter gunships were used in the operation to recover the lorries, which had been seized by fighters On Thursday

Stronghold searched

Security officials said Dara Adam Khel had recently become a stronghold of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni Muslim group which has links to al-Qaeda.

Troops on Friday searched the South Waziristan region, around the hideout of Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander, officials said.

Mehsud is accused by Pakistani officials and the US Central Intelligence Agency of orchestrating the killing of Benazir Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister, last month.

More than 200 fighters and 30 soldiers are said to have died during three weeks of fighting in South Waziristan.

MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY.

HOUSE TO HOUSE SEARCH IN WAZIRISTAN: Pakistan troops comb Mehsud stronghold

SRI LANKA DAILY NEWS: Pakistan troops comb Bhutto suspect's stronghold

Pakistani troops on Friday combed mountains in the volatile tribal stronghold of an Al-Qaeda-linked militant blamed by Islamabad and Washington for the killing of Benazir Bhutto. ...

The army said it had fired artillery and mortar rounds on Friday targeting militant hideouts from which troops had come under fire overnight in South Waziristan.

"A house-to-house search operation is underway in the areas where the security forces have consolidated their positions," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. No loss of life was reported in the latest skirmishes in the troubled region, which is described by the United States as a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

In the past few days of the offensive, Pakistani forces have also used gunship helicopters to strike the hideouts of Mehsud's tribal followers.

• I THINK MUSHARRAF WILL SOON GET MESHUD - AND BINLADEN AND ZAWAHIRI.
  
• MUSHARRAF'S OWN FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.
• A CAPTURE OF ONE WILL GUARANTEE MUSHARRAF'S ALLIES ELECTORAL VICTORY.

SCOTLAND YARD TAKING SOME EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN BACK TO LONDON FOR SPECIAL TESTS

IRISH SUN:

Six of the ten-member Scotland Yard team probing into the assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto left for London Monday with forensic samples and pieces of evidence collected during the investigation.

'Six of the investigators have gone to their head office but four of their colleagues will stay back,' a senior official of interior ministry told IANS.

The officer said the members of the Scotland Yard investigating into the Dec 27 murder of Bhutto will keep shuttling between Pakistan and London until they complete their report with the help of their counterparts in the country.

The official said that they have taken some evidences for laboratory examinations, as some of the facilities were not available in Pakistan.

According to the official, the British experts had also called for autopsy of Bhutto's body, a demand that has not been made public. But her husband Asif Ali Zaradri has already not allowed the post-mortem examination of Bhutto's body.

President Pervez Musharraf has said that the government was ready to exhume the body for post-mortem examination if the Bhutto family allows.

• WHY WON'T ZARDARI ALLOW HER BODY TO BE EXHUMED!?
• OBVIOUSLY HE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE:
  
• THE TRUTH:
  
• THAT MUSHARRAF IS INNOCENT.
• ZARDARI WOULD RATHER THERE BE DOUBT WHICH HE COULD EXPLOIT FOR HIS OWN GAIN - EVEN IF IT BRINGS CIVIL WAR TO PAKISTAN.

ZARDARI IS SCUM. CORRUPT SCUM.

MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY.

Nuclear contingency plans for a Pakistani coup

Huda al Husseini, writing in Asharq Alawsat, hints at America's rumored plan to seize Pakistan's nuclear weapons should a coup against Musharraf succeed.

During a meeting with some Pakistani friends following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, their discussion was centered on “the absence of any sign of grief from her husband Asif Ali Zardari!”

Later, I asked a British friend if the world should now be concerned about the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or any other extremist group. His answer was that Washington had a plan and that it was coordinating with a group of army and security officers in Pakistan whereby the US forces will carry out a military operation to remove Pakistan’s nuclear components and then destroy all the installations so that no nuclear weapons or reserves could fall into the hands of the enemies.

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was not unforeseen, especially in light of the first assassination attempt that ‘greeted’ her upon her return and which resulted in the deaths of over 134 people...

As far back as 2001, Global Security speculated that the U.S. had just such a set of contingency plans in place:

...Secretary Rumsfeld's reiteration on CNN of the U.S. policy of not forswearing the use of nuclear weapons generated a few misguided articles in the Pakistani and Indian press about planned nuclear strikes on Afghanistan, but First World journalists didn't indulge in the same misinterpretation. Most damaging to coalition solidarity was Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article positing the U.S. seizure of Pakistan's atomic arsenal in the event of an anti-Musharraf coup. Pakistani observers bristled at this and at Indian press reports that Islamabad had handed Pak nuclear experts over to the CIA for questioning about links with al-Qaida. Papers in Egypt, the West Bank and Tunisia treated the stories as consistent with the assumed American (and Israeli) fear of Pakistan's "Islamic" bomb. Some Indian editorials implied that the world had woken up late to the danger of atomic weapons being in Islamabad's hands...

That the U.S. would be prepared to secure Pakistan's nukes seems entirely believable. As the Boulder Weekly reminds us, Wretchard's three conjectures still resonate years after being written, especially in the wake of the Bhutto assassination.

…obstacles to terrorist capability are the sole reason that the War on Terror has not yet crossed the nuclear threshold. The terrorist intent to destroy the United States, at whatever cost to themselves, has been a given since September 11. Only their capability is in doubt.

This is an inversion of the Cold War situation when the capability of the Soviet Union to destroy America was given but its intent to do so, in the face of certain retaliation, was doubtful… The relevant Cold War question was ‘do they intend to use the Bomb?’ In the War on Terror, the relevant question is simply ‘do they have the Bomb?’ This puts the nuclear threshold very low...

...It is supremely ironic that the survival of the Islamic world should hinge on an American victory in the War on Terror, the last chance to prevent that terrible day in which all the decisions will have already been made for us. That effort really consists of two separate aspects: a campaign to destroy the locus of militant Islam and prevent their acquisition of WMDs; and an attempt to awaken the world to the urgency of the threat. While American arms have proven irresistible, much of Europe, as well as moderates in the Islamic world, remain blind to the danger and indeed increase it. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad recently "told an international conference of young Muslim leaders ... (that) ... Muslims must acquire skills and technology so they can create modern weapons and strike fear into the hearts of our enemies". Fecklessness and gunpowder are a lethal combination. The terrible ifs accumulate.

Preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of Jihadists is truly the most important work in the history of mankind. And the armed forces of the United States are in the forefront of this mission to save humanity from itself.

MUSHARRAF IS A BETTER ALLY IN THE GWOT THAN NATO

At considerable domestic political risk - not to mention the risk to his own life - Musharraf has 90,000 troops fighting the enemy in the federally administered tribal regions. They are killing many of the enemy and dying in significant numbers, too.

Pakistan is the central front in the GWOT and right now they are only holding their own.

NATO has the political guts and courage and firepower to barely scrape enough to send to Afghanistan: 8000 troops from 36 NATO and NATO-partner nations.

PATHETIC.

Yet most people criticize Musharraf before they criticize NATO.

BOTTOM-LINE: Musharraf is a better ally than NATO.

He needs our support.

Which means if you want Pakistan to remain an ally (and if you want to keep those Pakistani nukes out of the hands of the jihadists), you CANNOT vote Democrat.

BHUTTO'S CORRUPT PPP, ISLAMICIST SHARIF, TALIBAN, AL QAEDA, AND LEFTIST DOMINATED MSM GET THEIR WISH: PAKISTANIS BELIEVE MUSHARRAF KILLED BHUTTO

DAILY TELEGRAPH (AU):

Government killed Bhutto: poll

NEARLY half of Pakistanis suspect that government agencies or government-linked politicians killed Benazir Bhutto, an opinion poll showed, highlighting the popular mistrust of the country's US-allied president ahead of elections next month.

• THE ENEMIES OF THE WEST HAVE WON THE PROPAGANDA BATTLE - SO FAR.
• HOPEFULLY, THE REPORT BY SCOTLAND YARD WILL QUELL THIS "BIG LIE" BEFORE THE NEXT PAKISTANI ELECTION - FEBRUARY 18.

India suspends rail service to Pakistan

YAHOO/AFP:

New Delhi has suspended two train services to Pakistan following violence in the wake of the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, the railways ministry said.
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Two trains were "cancelled on security considerations with immediate effect until further notice," the ministry said in a statement late Friday.

• IF AL QAEDA IS INDEED BEHIND THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION THEN THE INDIA-PAKISTAN BORDER AND KASHMIR IS WHERE THERE COULD BE SOME DANGEROUS ADVENTURISM AND ESCALATION.

• AL QAEDA - WHICH THRIVES ON CHAOS AND EXPLOITING OLD HATREDS - WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE REGION DEVOLVE INTO CHAOS AND WAR.

• IN THIS SENSE, WE SHOULD SEE THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION AS THE EQUIVALENT TO THE DESTRUCTION OF IRAQ'S GOLDEN MOSQUE.

LET'S HOPE THIS EFFORT FAILS.

NOTE: DOUBTING AL QAEDA'S ROLE IS - IMHO - A FORM OF MHS: MUSHARRAF DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, MUSHARRAF PUBLICLY SPECIFIES WHERE OSAMA IS HIDING

SATP: Pakistan

Osama bin Laden hiding around Bajaur, says President Pervez Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf has for the first time identified an area where he thinks al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding, according to Dawn.

When asked where he thinks the Osama could be, Musharraf said in an interview to The Washington Post that he could be in the area that borders Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency and Afghanistan’s Kunar province.

WHY TAKE CHANCES: LET'S JUST NUKE THIS AREA IN BAJAUR-KUNAR.

UPDATE: THIS IS AN AREA WE'VE LONG AND RECENTLY ATTACKED FOR THIS VERY REASON; FROM ASIA TIMES (VIA VWT JULY 17, 2007):

The Bajaur area has been hit twice by Central Intelligence Agency predator drones, one specifically after Zawahiri. However, at a time when al-Qaeda is reactivated and the Taliban's main focus is to lay siege of Kabul, via adjacent Nooristan province in Afghanistan, aerial surveillance is considered insufficient.

... As a result, a large US base is under construction on a mountaintop at Ghakhi Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan (Bajaur) border.

Militants believe this is in preparation for an operation inside Pakistan to clamp down on them as well as to renew the hunt for bin Laden and his associates. As a result, the militants have attacked the new base in an attempt to delay its construction.

MY GUESS: MUSHARRAF WOULD ONLY SAY THIS IF:

• A MAJOR ATTACK IS AFOOT;
  
• OSAMA IS TRAPPED -
• AND THIS LEAK IS MEANT TO FLUSH HIM OUT A LITTLE;
• AND THEREFORE I FEEL THAT OSAMA WILL SOON BE DEAD.

ARE PAKISTAN'S NUKES SAFE? LOUD WORDS AND A SHOW OF FORCE FROM PAKISTANI MILITARY SAY... MAYBE

ROGGIO AT LWJ SAYS AL QADA IS TARGETING PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR BASES:

Yesterday's suicide bombing at the Kamra Air Force Base in Punjab was not the first strike at a nuclear weapons storage facility. After a closer look at the bases struck inside Pakistan since August, at least two more strikes occurred either on or near nuclear weapons storage facilities, based on open source information on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs. Since August 2007, there have been two suicide attacks at or near the Sargodha Air Force Base, a nuclear weapons and missile storage facility in central Punjab province. Other attacks in Punjab and the Northwest Frontier Province may be aimed at facilities providing regional security for Pakistan's nuclear program.

On August 2, Pakistani police prevented a suicide bomber from attacking a parade at a police training facility in the city of Sargodha in eastern Punjab province. Police shot and killed the suicide bomber after he climbed the wall of the police academy, fired on a security detail, and ran towards the parade grounds where over 900 recruits assembled. One police officer was killed and another wounded in the exchange.

On November 1, a suicide bomber drove his motorcycle into a bus carrying military and intelligence officers at the air base in Sargodha. Eight were killed and 27 wounded in the strike.

The Sargodha Air Force Base serves as the "headquarters of the Pakistan Air Force's Central Air Command and home base for nuclear-capable F-16 combat aircraft, and Hatf-III/Ghaznavi/M-11 ballistic missiles," NTI reports. The base houses F-16 fighters believed to be converted to deliver nuclear weapons. "Analysts believe that the F-16s have been most likely modified for nuclear delivery. Some analysts believe that components or partially assembled air-deliverable nuclear devices might be stored at an ammunition depot at the Sargodha air base."

The Sargodha Air Force Base also houses "Pakistan's nuclear-capable, short-range, solid-fueled Hatf III/Ghaznavi/M-11 (total number estimated at 34-80) ballistic missiles," which are thought to be stored "at facilities near the Central Ammunition Depot on Kirana Hills at Sargodha. The evidence captured on US satellite imagery includes missile crates; storage sheds for transporter-erector launch vehicles; missile maintenance facilities; and housing for missile crews."

The Taliban and al Qaeda have hit several military and police bases near Pakistani nuclear facilities in northern Punjab and the Northwest Frontier Province over the past year. A suicide bomber killed 45 army recruits as they trained outside the military base in Dargai in the Northwest Frontier Province in November 2006. The Dargai base “serves as the headquarters of a Pakistan's army corps," the New York Times reported. "Mechanized infantry, armor and artillery are stationed in the garrison."

TIME MAGAZINE ALERTS US TO ANOTHER REASON THE NUKES MIGHT NOT BE SAFE:

Whenever the question of the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal comes up, the official U.S. response has been that the weapons are in safe hands. That position is, like the U.S. position on Russian nukes, based on trust — on high-level, personal contacts between military commanders on both sides. For now, Washington can maintain that line about Pakistan because that country's two highest military leaders have close ties to the U.S. or Britain. General Pervez Musharraf, who is also President, was trained in England, and his likely military successor General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani was trained in the U.S. Soon, however, that trust and fellow-feeling will no longer be available.

That is because of the estrangement between the U.S. and a rising generation of Pakistani officers. For about 10 years, the U.S. Congress barred contacts between American and Pakistani military officials as part of sanctions on Islamabad for pursuing nuclear weapons in the first place. In an ironic boomerang, it is now those officers, ascending to ever more senior ranks, who soon could be overseeing various elements of the Pakistani military, including the security of the several dozen atomic weapons Pakistan is believed to have in its arsenal. Their provincialism, U.S. officials fear, could make them sympathetic to the al-Qaeda and Taliban elements now roiling the country.

SO... HOW IS MUSHARRAF HANDLING THIS? HERE:

GULF TIMES: Pakistan warns of strong response to nukes grab

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military vowed a strong response to any international attempt to seize its atomic arsenal as the army successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile yesterday.

The security of Pakistan’s estimated 50 nuclear warheads has been under global scrutiny since President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on November 3 citing Islamist violence and political turmoil.

But the chairman of Pakistan’s joint chiefs of staff, General Tariq Majid, blasted reports by “vested and hostile elements in the international media” about the security of its nuclear weapons, an army statement said.

“Suggestions have been made that our assets could either be neutralised or taken away towards safer place to prevent them from falling into wrong hands,” the statement quoted Majid as saying after witnessing the launch of the locally developed Babur (Hatf 7) cruise missile.

“We remain alert to such threats and are fully capable of handling these.”

The statement added: “Though no responsible state in the world can contemplate such an impossible operation, yet if someone did create such a scenario he was confident that Pakistan would meet the challenge strongly.

“Pakistan’s nuclear assets are very safe and secure, and the nation need not to worry on that account. There is a very strong security system in place, which can ward off all threats, internal as well as external.”

I HOPE SO.

BUT THIS SOUNDS A LITTLE TOO MUCH LIKE BRAGGADOCIO - ESPECIALLY COMING FROM AN ARMY THAT CAN'T SEEM TO DEFEAT THE TRIBAL THUGS IN THEIR OWN NATION....

MUSHARRAF PROMISES EARLY END TO EMERGENCY RULE AND ELECTIONS

BLOOMBERG:

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he would lift his emergency decree on Dec. 15, a day earlier than originally planned, and that the political situation in his country shouldn't be judged by U.S. standards.

Musharraf, appearing on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program, also promised that ``free and fair'' parliamentary elections will go forward on Jan. 8.

``Now that I have said that the emergency will be finished in the 15th, I mean every word of it,'' Musharraf, 64, said in the recorded interview. ``I give commitments which I always follow and honor.''

Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution Nov. 3 and fired Supreme Court judges, saying the judiciary was interfering in affairs of state and undermining the fight against terrorism. U.S. President George W. Bush, who calls Musharraf a crucial ally in fighting terrorism, has been pressuring the Pakistani leader to lift the emergency rule.

Earlier today, Information Minister Nisar Memon said in Islamabad that ``preparations are under way'' for the government to end the emergency.

Musharraf asked for understanding from Western leaders, saying ``we are fighting the terrorists here. Do not destabilize Pakistan. You will regret it.''

• MUSHARRAF HAS BEEN A BETTER ALLY THAN FRANCE WAS AND TURKEY IS.

• BHUTTO AND SHARIF ARE CORRUPT TALIBAN SUPPORTING SCUM.

YO, DUBYA ... CONDI: IT WOULD BE WISER TO PRESSURE MALIKI AND ABBAS THAN ISRAEL AND PAKISTAN.

MUSHARRAF WINNING IN SWAT

BBC:

Pakistan's army has said it has cleared most of the restive north-western Swat valley of pro-Taleban militants.

Troops were pursuing several hundred hardcore supporters of cleric Maulana Fazlullah in the region's mountains, the army's head of operations said.

... "The militants have retreated to two places in the mountains in the northwest of the valley and we will chase them there."

Only five troops and six civilians have been killed, and 20 civilians wounded, he said.

He said 290 militants had been killed and 143 arrested in recent weeks.

• THIS IS PROBABLY TRUE.

• AFTER ALL; IF THINGS WERE GOING BADLY THEN WE'D BE HEARING A LOT MORE ABOUT IT THAN WE HAVE BEEN HEARING.

MORE PROOF MUSHARRAF IS ON OUR SIDE: THE LAWYERS HATE HIM!

NYTIMES:

Lawyers and their supporters chanted slogans in opposition to Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, for his treatment of the judicial system. They were marching to the home of the former Supreme Court chief justice Mohammed Iftikhar Chaudhry, who is under house arrest in the capital, Islamabad.

WELL, WELL, WELL... MUSHARRAF HAS TWO SETS OF ENEMIES: JIHADISTS AND LAWYERS.

TWO AWFUL GROUPS. EVEN SHAKESPEARE KNEW THIS: King Henry VI, Part II, Act IV, Scene II - LINE #59:

DICK

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

• SERIOUSLY: WE MUSTN'T ABANDON MUSHARRAF THE WAY JIMMY CARTER ABANDONED THE SHAH, AND THE WAY THE DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED CONGRESS ABANDONED SOUTH VIETNAM IN 1975 - (TWO YEARS AFTER THE LAST US COMBAT TROOPS HAD LEFT).

• AND KEEP IN MIND THAT MUSHARRAF'S ANTAGONISTIC RIVALS - BHUTTO AND SHARIF - ARE MUCH CLOSER TO THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA THAN HE IS.

MORE ON SCU*B*G LAWYERS - LIKE JOHN EDWARDS - HERE, AT THE WSJ - VIA GLENN.

MUSHARRAF ATTACKING AND KILLING JIHADISTS IN TRIBAL AREA

BBC:

Hundreds of Pakistani ground troops have been fighting pro-Taleban insurgents in Swat, backed up by artillery and helicopter gunships.

Military officials say they are making progress. The highest peak in the Kabal district has now been retaken and other recent gains have been consolidated.

An FM radio station run by the local leader of the insurgency, Maulana Fazlullah, has gone off air.

The army has reported more than 200 deaths since the beginning of last week, most of them suspected militants.

• MUSHARRAF IS A GOOD ALLY IN WW4 - BETTER THAN FRANCE UNDER CHIRAC; BETTER THAN TURKEY AND SAUDI ARABIA.

• HIS HOUR OF NEED.
  

• WE SHOULD SUPPORT HIM. ESPECIALLY NOW - INHIS HOUR OF NEED.
• NEITHER SHARIF OR BHUTTO IS BETTER.
  
• THEY WOULD BE WORSE.
  

• WE MUSTN'T ABANDON HIM AS CARTER ABANDONED THE SHAH.

MUSHARRAF : PAKISTAN :: SHAH : IRAN?

SHALL WE ABANDON MUSHARRAF NOW THE WAY JIMMY CARTER DID THE SHAH IN 1979?

HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING!?

MANY THOUGHT A FELLA NAMED BAKTIAR OR BAZARGAN OR BANISADR WOULD TAKE OVER A NEW DEMOCRATIC REGIME.

HA.