Musharraf does what Cheney (and Rudy) dream of

Musharraf Declares State of Emergency

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 3 — The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency on Saturday night, suspending the country’s Constitution, blacking out all independent television news reports and filling the streets of the capital with police officers and soldiers.

The move appeared to be an effort by General Musharraf to reassert his fading power in the face of growing opposition from the country’s Supreme Court, civilian political parties and hard-line Islamists. Pakistan’s Supreme Court was expected to rule within days on the legality of General Musharraf’s re-election last month as the country’s president, which opposition groups have said was improper.

The emergency declaration was in direct defiance of repeated calls this week from senior American officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not to do so. A day earlier, the senior American military commander in the Middle East, Admiral William J. Fallon, told General Musharraf and his top generals in a meeting here that declaring emergency rule would jeopardize the extensive American financial support for the Pakistani military.

How long can Musharraf hang on and how long before the country splinters. Musharraf is under attack by both the Islamic extremists and the secular pro Democracy crowd. His only support is the military and that is full of Taliban supporters. I hope that the US and the west know where the nukes are - that is the real mushroom cloud threat not Iran. Just one more example of how the insane Bush/Cheney neocon policy has made the world a more dangerous place.