Crisis Of Possible Apocalyptic Proportions In Pakistan.

Apocalypse means revelation, something revealed of importance. It doesn't necessarily mean the end of anything except ignorance, where a person is willing to let go of it.

Well, many of us are about to suffer the revelation none of us wanted because we already knew about it.

I would say "duck and cover," but what would be the point? There is no out-running or hiding from karma. We are Sooo screwed!

But what the hell, The Empire Must Come Down, and never another one so much as contemplated by those with more money than sense.

As one who grew to maturity under the shadow of the twin mushroom clouds which arose over Japan before my birth, I have never known a day without the nuclear threat, or at least the government inspired fear of nuclear attack, even before there was a clear chance of it.

Like I said a few years back, when visiting friends in Egypt, "there are way too many kooks with nukes and I include Bush and Cheney."

I am not as sure here, as the author of the below alert, that we are all doomed. No one knows what's going on behind the scenes. Nevertheless, it seems to be the most dangerous situation we have faced since the Cuban missile crisis and the White House is brainless and without any credibility, let alone moral standing in the world.

Serious crisis in Pakistan (crickets in DC)

We are in a catch 22 of epic proportions with regard to Pakistan. First the latest:

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan showed continued defiance to threats of impeachment Sunday, saying through aides that he wanted to see the formal charges before making any decision on leaving office.

Musharraf, a former general, is known as a fighter by instinct, and colleagues said that, as his career seemed poised to end in indignity, he was determined not to bend to politicians whom he has long viewed with disdain.

Behind the scenes, negotiations between representatives of Musharraf and the governing coalition on an exit strategy that would satisfy both sides proceeded over the weekend.

At the core of the talks is a demand by Musharraf for immunity from prosecution if he leaves office before the impeachment proceedings begin.

The negotiations were bogged down, according to a senior official in the coalition, over the legal technicalities of when the immunity would be granted.

Apparently he has learned much from Nixon. The article continues:

The four-month-old civilian government composed of two major political parties - the Pakistan People's Party headed by Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan Muslim League-N led by Nawaz Sharif - announced 10 days ago that they would bring impeachment charges against Musharraf.

The grounds of impeachment revolved around violations of the Constitution when Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November and fired 60 judges under that decree. The chief instigator of the impeachment movement is Sharif, who Musharraf deposed as prime minister in 1999 and then banished to Saudi Arabia.

The minister of information, Sherry Rehman, said Sunday that the charges against Musharraf had been completed and would be presented to Parliament next week. She gave no specific date.

Now why is this a catch 22 for us? That is to say a catch 22 of epic proportions for us? Two major reasons: terrorism and the nuclear black market.

Al Qaeda:

Instead of going after nations directly involved in funding terrorism and/or training, housing, or arming terrorist, the Bush administration moved against Iraq. Now, if you do not understand the role of Pakistan in terrorism, I will give you a very small summary.

The radical elements of the Pakistani ISI (their intelligence services) have long been directly involved with funding and training members of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc. It is a state within a state as a shadow government of Pakistan. Some of the very camps used to train ISI officers double as training camps for extremist elements. It is in fact through the very effort of the ISI that Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden came to power. In addition to this, the Saudi regime looks to the ISI radical elements to keep Al Qaeda out of Saudi Arabia. The latter accomplishes by funneling money, arms, and drugs through the ISI pipeline of pay-offs and fronts. One of the biggest scandals of this arrangement was called the BCCI scandal.

But just to give you an idea of how close the ISI is to terrorism, consider the following example.

The head of the ISI on September 11, 2001 was Mahmud Ahmed. He quietly resigned when it was discovered that he had wired $100k to the alleged 9/11 ring-leader, Mohamed Atta prior to the attacks. Ahmed had the transaction carried out for him by a man named Ahmad Umar Sheikh, who later goes on to murder WSJ reporter Danny Pearle.

In another stunning example, consider the following fact. When we, the US, cornered Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora, it was the Pakistani ISI that air lifted him and his fellow terrorists out.

Currently, Al Qaeda resides and trains within Pakistan. Obviously, all of this was a good idea (snark) to make Pakistan a partner in the war on terror (slogan war). So instead of conducting an actual war on Al Qaeda, the Bush administration cooked evidence for a war with Iraq.

Musharraf is both a demon and an angel in this equation. He is a dictator and the ISI is strongly allied with him. Yet he makes attempts to give US access to Al Qaeda intelligence. He plays all sides to stay in power, but he keeps all sides from exploding as well. If he is out, who will the ISI install next and will the newly created government allow the ISI's shadow government to continue? Remember, a civil war is bad, but a civil war in the same country housing both Al Qaeda and nukes, is really bad.

Nuclear Proliferation:

The major arms proliferateor in the region is Pakistan, whose ISI often doubles as arms and drug dealers. The main cell of proliferation for many years has been the circle of Dr. AQ Khan. Even though Khan is considered a national hero for his advances of Pakistani nuclear program, he is also an arms dealer in a black markets whose clients are our main enemy: terrorists.

Now the ISI will continue to run the arms black-market with or without Musharraf. But there are serious issues should there be a civil war or with regard to who will replace him.

So Now:

So now that that the Bush administration has rallied all terrorists everywhere under a single banner, allowed Al Qaeda to grow stronger and better trained, and depleted US abilities (militarily, financially, and diplomatically) to do anything for our actual national security (not the black hole box known as Department of Homeland Security, whose only job it appears is to give out lucrative contracts to Bush cronies), has alienated our allies, allowed Russia-China to blossom into a lethal power structure, and threatened Iran (not to mention attempting to start a war several times), a civil war or any serious power structure threat in another country - especially Pakistan - is a threat of epic proportions.

Forget the Russian-Georgian conflict for a moment. Forget Iraq for a moment. Forget everything for one moment and understand, that if Pakistan explodes into a power struggle, that struggle/conflict will be the match that lights a world war of epic proportions. A war that we are not equipped to deal with anymore. So while our entire nation is drunk on election scandal after scandal, and while our entire nation is being bled dry of finances and human treasure, no one - NO ONE - is watching this crisis as it unfolds. They are all too busy playing at politics to care and they have already long ago removed any qualified intelligence expert on Pakistan from their post. We know very well that this administration replaced qualified people with political sock-puppets who are now in positions to fuck things up even more, but certainly not to understand the brewing world crisis.

To be clear, I loathe Musharraf and want him removed from office. But right now, any change, big or small in the region is going to be a catastrophe. A change of ISI-backed Musharraf is going to be an epic catastrophe.

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