Reply #16: It wouldn't be the first time Musharraf used unrest to maintain power:

[Junkdrawer]

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ADRIAN LEVY: Absolutely. I think there is a false configuration coming out of the Pentagon which is that if Musharraf falls, the Islamists will take over and have their fingers on a nuclear trigger. This is a false argument put out in order to continue the client status of the Pakistan military with the U.S. military. In fact, if you analyze Musharraf’s military record and look of his deeds rather than at the dogma, what you discover is the Pakistan military and Musharraf in particular, have been manipulating the Islamist faction. I mean the military as a whole had done that since 1988 when Benazir Bhutto first came to power, setting up an Islamist coalition to attack her viciously. They repeated the same in 1990 with the slush fund of $16 million. And Musharraf himself by 1995 reignited the Kashmir war by taking 10,000 Sunni extremists who then set fire to the divided state of Kashmir in order to make India bleed That element of Islamists would join forces very much with Al Qaeda factions, with the Taliban by 2006, 2007. The national intelligence estimates for this and the published intelligence for this shows both in the UK And Europe that these factions – these Sunni militia gave new life blood to the Al Qaeda remnants and to the Taliban in the Waziristan area. The meddling would continue. There were 17 banned Sunni organizations which the U.S. State Department proscribed as did the Pakistan president. They were all resurging under new names post 2005. He said he would de-radicalize society, he would help control religious schools which tend to prey on the poor and impoverished in the tribal areas. You know, they increased to 13,000. I mean what we’ve seen is Musharraf and the military very much backing their own agenda. The agenda is to destabilize Afghanistan, to create a government there which is favorable to Islamabad. These are goals which are actually contrary to the goals – very largely contrary to the goals of the West. Yet, this is slowly moving car crash of the U.S. pumping billions of untraceable cash into the Pakistan military has continued since 2001 and we’re left with the position where Pakistan is to devoid of democracy, democracy is weakened and feeble, and we have just increased instability, quite honestly.


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http://www.democracynow.org/2007/11/19/deception_british_reporter_andrew_levy_on