i cant think: Musharraf Handicapping the U.S. Election?

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September 27, 2004

Musharraf Handicapping the U.S. Election?

Well, it seems that Pakistan has gotten serious in their terrorist roundup of late. After dragging their feet for nearly three years, they have made a number of arrests and managed to kill a few of the bad guys. Earlier this week, Pakistan announced they managed to kill Amjad Hussain Farooqi, a nefarious evildoer who, among other things, was involved in the beheading of Daniel Pearl. While I don't think many tears will be shed for this guy, it makes me wonder at the timing.

This Thursday Bush and Kerry will have the first of three debates. Bush is going to say the War on Terror is working and may even use this news as an example. Bush knows he has the edge over Kerry when it comes to fighting terror and I am sure this will help even more. Pervez Musharraf has a vested interest in seeing Bush win the election. Musharraf went from an international pariah to "an important ally in the war on terror" just by getting out of our way when we went into Afghanistan, and he wants to keep it that way. So it looks like he is going to dangle terrorists all the way up to the election. He announced the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, another nefarious evildoer, on the day of Kerry's acceptance speech even though Ghailani was caught the weekend before. Since that was pretty blatant timing, the wise Musharraf let this one go a couple of days before the debate and maybe left enough time to catch another one.

And then this curious bit of news. It seems that bin Laden is still alive and may be in Pakistan. Duh. I knew that sitting in my easy chair even without Musharraf's impressive spy network. Once again timing is important to remind everybody that the big fish is still out there and is swimming in the Pakistani pond. Will Musharraf give bin Laden up before the election? Doubtful, for even though it would probably be enough to assure a comfortable Bush victory, Musharraf knows he will be marginalized again and probably quickly forgotten about in the new Bush White House. Best to keep that carrot for future use.

Posted by pmcmahon at September 27, 2004 10:27 PM