Richard Armitage's bad month

[X. Benedict]

It comes out that Armitage threatened Pres. Musharaff with

"Get ready to get bombed back to the stone age"

 

I think he picked the right time to retire.

 

TimesOnline

[Chilly]

It comes out that Armitage threatened Pres. Musharaff with

"Get ready to get bombed back to the stone age"

 

I think he picked the right time to retire.

 

TimesOnline

782367[/snapback]

 

lol

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

It comes out that Armitage threatened Pres. Musharaff with

"Get ready to get bombed back to the stone age"

 

I think he picked the right time to retire.

 

TimesOnline

782367[/snapback]

 

Of course, the thing none of these reports mention is that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, if we'd bombed Pakistan, the world would have backed us to the hilt.

 

Even so, it's a good thing we didn't. "Pakistan supported al Qaeda" is true...if you're a simpleton without the intellectual capacity to walk and chew gum simultaneously. The reality is far more complex...

[UConn James]

President Musharraf also spoke about his embarrassment when informed at the UN in 2003 by George Tenet, who was then CIA Director, that Pakistani nuclear weapon technology had been passed to Iran and North Korea by the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, A. Q. Khan.

 

“[Tenet] took his briefcase out, passed me some papers. It was a centrifuge design with all its numbers and signatures of Pakistan. It was the most embarrassing moment,” President Musharraf told CBS.

 

Toilet paper stuck to your shoe at a job interview is embarrassing. Two women wearing the same dress is embarrassing. Your dog crapping in your neighbor's lawn while he's having a family cookout is embarrassing.

 

Having your nuclear program sold to one of the world's biggest bullies on your watch is at least an 'Oh sh--!' moment... and to most people would be a big wake-up call that you'd better get control over it right quick.

 

Musharraff seems to be a friend in an unfriendly world. He faces internal pressures that boggle the mind as to how he stays in power.... Three assassination attempts by extremeists. It's in his interest to cooperate. Whether it was Armitage's threat that lit a fire under his butt to cooperate all the more, whatever. That's called the Stick. Other times we use the carrot. What can you say?

[KRC]

Having your nuclear program sold to one of the world's biggest bullies on your watch is at least an 'Oh sh--!' moment... and to most people would be a big wake-up call that you'd better get control over it right quick.

782412[/snapback]

 

It actually started earlier than Musharraf. Musharraf took control in 2001. Khan was in North Korea starting in 1994. Pakistan had already purchased missile technology from the DPRK before that, but this was his first known visit to the country.

 

Musharraf is by no means innocent in this, but it started before he took office and it ended pretty quickly after he took office.

[UConn James]

It actually started earlier than Musharraf. Musharraf took control in 2001. Khan was in North Korea starting in 1994. Pakistan had already purchased missile technology from the DPRK before that, but this was his first known visit to the country.

 

Musharraf is by no means innocent in this, but it started before he took office and it ended pretty quickly after he took office.

782612[/snapback]

 

Agreed, with the correction that the coup happened in '99. He didn't announce himself as President until '01, but for all intents and purposes he was in charge of Pakistan and the military.

 

Pardoning Khan in exchange for cooperation was a political move Musharraf probably had to make.

 

Another note on the topic, I would add that I'd like to see Armitage face some kind of penalty for divulging the information he did, even if it was inadvertant. Things like that can't go unpunished. Scooter Libby will be on trial for perjury and Armitage gets nothing? Not right.