Musharraf allowed CIA base in Pakistan: book

There are lots of interesting mini-details in this story, courtesy of respected researcher Ahmed Rashid. For one thing there’s the “CIA base” in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, OK’d early this year by President Musharraf as Pakistan reeled from election turmoil and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Then there’s the revelation that Bhutto was under continuous pressure from the U.S. to cosy up to Musharraf, which she balked at. Then, after her death, Rashid reports that the pressure continued, now directed at Bhutto’s bereaved husband, Asif Zardari.

Apparently, the White House wanted to persuade the victorious People’s Party leader to ally with the right-wing Islamist Muslim League-Quaid against the Muslim Leage-Nawaz, led by Zardari and Bhutto’s great rival, Nawaz Sharif. Amidst all of this, Musharraf has been thoroughly backed by Washington and any fight against “terrorism” has been of distinctly secondary importance to broader strategic goals.

When it comes out, see Rashid’s Descent Into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism Is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia

President Pervez Musharraf permitted the CIA to establish a base in northern Pakistan to launch strikes by drones on Islamist militants, says writer-journalist Ahmed Rashid.

“On Jan 9, 2008, Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, and Gen. Michael Hayden, director of CIA, visited Islamabad where they discussed a plan to make operational a secret CIA base that could mount attacks on militants by drones armed with missiles,” Rashid says in his book “Descent into Chaos”.

The base was located in the restive Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a region considered a safe haven for Taliban and Al Quaeda cadres, The News Tuesday reported, quoting from the book.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.