Militants Gaining Ground in Pakistan

Militants Gaining Ground in Pakistan

By KATHY GANNON

SWAT, Pakistan (AP) — Muslim extremists are expanding their control of northern Pakistan, challenging the U.S.-backed government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and adding to the lands where terrorists allied with Osama bin Laden find refuge.

Once restricted to pockets in the mountains along the Afghanistan border, radical mullahs and their followers now wield power in vast areas of northwest Pakistan. They have moved in the past few months beyond the tribal regions and into northern Pakistan cities and the Swat Valley.

- rest at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXuvBX_2kZFMmwPoD7dwLQbrThiwD8SL15L00

 

Pakistan's Musharraf declares emergency

Pakistan's Musharraf declares emergency

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant violence.

The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, were cut. Dozens of police blocked the road in front of the Supreme Court building where judges were believed to be inside.

"The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order," a newscaster on Pakistan TV said, adding that he would address the nation later Saturday.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, is also chief of the army.
The U.S. and other Western allies urged him this week not to jeopardize the country's transition to democracy. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said Thursday the U.S. would not support any move by Musharaff to declare martial law.

- rest at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071103/ap_on_re_as/pakistan

 

Musharraf Leaves White House in Lurch
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 — For more than five months the United States has been trying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manage to somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery of President Bush’s promotion of democracy in the Muslim world.

On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly. Now the White House is stuck in wait-and-see mode, with limited options and a lack of clarity about the way forward.

General Musharraf’s move to seize emergency powers and abandon the Constitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: an American-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in a country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.


- rest at www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/asia/04assess.html?ex=1351828800&en=a2a416da643902ce&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

 

Bhutto under house arrest in Pakistan

This situation is starting to remind me of what happened when these United States backed another dictator, the Shah of Iran, when Islamic militants took over Iran in 1979.

The difference is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. If Islamic militants overthrow Musharraf, what happens then?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071109/ap_on_re_as/pakistan


And where is the Bush administration on this? It is so concerned about democracy in Iraq - even to the point of invading the country. Where is its concern about democracy in Pakistan in order to stop the Islamic militants from taking over?