 | http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-pakistan9jan09,1,3654315.story
LA Times
January 9, 2005
EDITORIAL
Just Another General
On Sept. 11, 2001, the main protector of the Taliban - and Al Qaeda
- outside Afghanistan was the government of next-door Pakistan. But
by the next day, President Pervez Musharraf had responded to
Washington's "with us or against us" ultimatum by throwing in with the
United States. Sort of.
Musharraf then had been running Pakistan for two years, having seized
power in a coup. After the 9/11 attacks he promised to step down as
army chief of staff while keeping his presidential post, a promise he
repeated as each year dawned. But when 2005 arrived, there was the
president on television, telling the nation he just couldn't take off
the uniform yet: He needed to keep his army post so he could continue
fighting terrorism.
That argument is not totally specious - Musharraf has twice survived
assassination attempts by Islamic fundamentalists - but unless he
does a far better job of using his combined civilian and military posts
to improve Pakistan's economy, educational system and political
institutions, he'll be just the latest in the country's dismal list of
generals who seized power and refused to let go.
Musharraf has rigged elections, proclaimed himself president and
constantly insisted to Washington that it's him or terrorism. After
turning to hard-line Islamic parties for support, he is now trying to
use the secular Pakistan People's Party to undercut the Islamists.
The best thing for Pakistan now would be for him to let the PPP's
leader, Benazir Bhutto, back into the country and let her party and the
rival but also secular Pakistan Muslim League choose their own
candidates in elections.
When Pakistan promised to help hunt Osama bin Laden and block Al Qaeda
fighters from fleeing across the border with Afghanistan, Washington
rewarded it by ending sanctions and ordering an aid package of up to $3
billion. But the U.S. should insist on value for the money. The Bush
administration should demand that Pakistan establish secular public
primary schools to compete with fundamentalist madrasas that preach
hatred of all religions except Islam.
Musharraf also has stiff-armed Washington in its attempts to talk with
Abdul Qadeer Khan, who helped North Korea, Iran and Libya pursue
nuclear weapons. The general claimed Khan was a "rogue scientist" and
then pardoned him. Musharraf's claim that Khan acted without the
knowledge of top generals and civilian leaders is laughable.
Pakistan has alternated for most of its 57 years of independence
between rule by corrupt civilian governments and by army generals. If
Musharraf does nothing to improve his country, Washington should call
him to account. The U.S. has billions of dollars worth of leverage;
leaving it idle does no one any good.
======================================================================================
Washington Post
Thursday, February 5, 2004; Page A20
EDITORIAL
Pakistan's Nuclear Crimes
WHILE WASHINGTON has been debating the failure to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, an extraordinary series of revelations has
confirmed that Pakistan has been guilty of some of the worst crimes of
nuclear weapons proliferation ever committed. For some 15 years it has
been supplying atomic bomb technology to rogue states and sponsors of
terrorism -- and it did so even after President Bush declared that
governments that conducted such transfers could be subject to
preemptive attack by the United States. Under pressure from the United
Nations, Pakistani officials have acknowledged that nuclear designs and
materials were given to Iran, Libya and North Korea, either directly or
through an underground network involving middlemen in Germany and a
secret factory in Malaysia. Officials claim the traffic was conducted
solely by the country's chief weapons scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and
several associates. Hoping to avoid prosecution, Mr. Khan duly
confessed on Pakistani television
yesterday and absolved his government. But the scientist previously
gave investigators a more plausible account: that President Pervez
Musharraf and other senior military leaders approved the deals.
For more than two years the Bush administration has embraced Mr.
Musharraf as a strategic ally and overlooked his suppression of
Pakistani democracy and his coddling of Islamic extremists. Now the
administration must confront the reality that Pakistan's military
leadership has done more to threaten U.S. and global security with
weapons of mass destruction than either al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein.
Were Pakistan not a professed ally of the United States, its behavior
would meet the criteria for preemptive military intervention outlined
in Mr. Bush's national security strategy. He is not contemplating such
action, nor should he be. But the United States must ensure that
Pakistan never again markets its nuclear weapons technology. That will
require more than extracting further promises of good behavior from an
unreliable general.
Mr. Musharraf, who narrowly survived two recent assassination attempts,
has made lots of promises to Washington since Sept. 11, 2001. Most have
not been fulfilled. When asked about Pakistan's commerce with Iran and
North Korea, he either denied that it occurred or implied that he put a
stop to it. But Pakistani military cargo flights to North Korea took
place as late as 2002. Last fall the United States arranged the
interception of a Libya-bound shipment of industrial equipment for
nuclear weapons. It turns out the goods were supplied by the network
connected to Mr. Khan.
Mr. Musharraf can be expected to go on denying responsibility for the
illegal trafficking while promising to stop it. His word should not be
enough. The Bush administration and its allies have insisted that other
nations guilty of illegal nuclear weapons activity, including Iran and
Libya, submit to strict international inspections. Pakistan is not a
signatory to international nuclear arms agreements; no outside
authority regulates its nuclear programs. That should change. If it is
to remain a friend of the United States and receive the billions in aid
promised by the Bush administration, Pakistan should be required to
commit itself formally to stop proliferating -- and the United States
or the United Nations should have the means to verify its compliance.
======================================================================================
|
|
