The World according to Parvez Musharaf
It is very difficult to be the Head of State of Pakistan, especially if you are an unelected one having grabbed the throne by a coup d'etat. President Parvez Musharaf overthrew the elected government of Pakistan in a military coup in 1999 and has ruled the country with a mixture of tact and bloodletting. He had his army kill the popular leader of the Baluchi tribal Agency and it could well be the beginning of the end of his regime. However during his recent visit to the White House where he met his Afghan counterpartMr Ahmed Karzai, Parvez Musharaf has made ceratin statemwents that need to be analysed rather carefully.
First he has had his ghost written autobiography, In the Line of Fire publisher in New York by Simon Shuster&Co. In this book he has stated that his government cooperated with the US military in capturing and handing over Taliban suspects to the USA for which he and his government received payment. This is an extraordinary admission to make whioch casts his own government in very poor light. In short he has admitted to the export or the rendition of Taliban suspects to locations in the USa and Europe. I cannot think of any government being an accomplice in illegally exporting its own people. The Amnesty International has confirmed this version of events found in the Presidents's book.
The second interesting issue related to the claim that Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State threatened to "bomb Pakistan back to the stone age". I am not quite sure whether the straight taliking Richard Armitage will descent to this level of diplomatic licence. However, Parvez Musharaf has offered the American threat as the justification for signing up on the American side in its self declared War on Terror. This admission only proves what many in Pakistan believe to bne the real reason for the reluctant co operation with the USA. In Pakistan itself this admission is seen as a sign not of political sagacity but of weakness.
The agreement with the tribal elders of Waziristan where many of the Pashtun Taliban fighter have taskern refugwe only shows that Pakistan is riddled with Taliban supporters and thre is precious little that USA can do about it.