Musharraf: Pakistan isn’t hunting Osama

MSNBC ^ | 1/22/2008 | ap

[tobyhill]

PARIS - Pervez Musharraf says he still gets the question a lot: When will Osama bin Laden and his top deputy be caught? The Pakistani president insists it's more important for his 100,000 troops on the Afghan border to root out the Taliban than search for al-Qaida leaders.

That bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are still at large "doesn't mean much," the former general said Tuesday on the second day of a swing through Europe. He suggested they are far less a threat to his regime than Taliban-linked militants entrenched in Pakistan's west.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding somewhere in the lawless tribal areas along Afghanistan's frontier with Pakistan.

The 100,000 troops that we are using ... are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly," Musharraf told a conference at the French Institute for International Relations. "They are operating against terrorists, and in the process, if we get them, we will deal with them certainly."

A U.S. ally in its war on extremist groups, Musharraf has come under increasing pressure following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month and for his brief declaration of emergency rule in early November.

[G8 Diplomat]

He suggested they are far less a threat to his regime than Taliban-linked militants entrenched in Pakistan's west.

Better think again Mushy....bin Laden wants you dead.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Musharraf: Pakistan isn’t hunting Osama

News Flash.......

[E. Pluribus Unum]

He's [still] dead, Jim.

[tobyhill]

Zawahiri will do then.

[exit82]

Perv-boy has been useless in the WOT.

All talk, no action. Then he comes here, and tries to peddle his book.

If the Paks didn’t have nukes, we could have shoved them out of the way and gotten the Al Qaeda leadership ourselves.

[doc1019]

Seems that the best ally Ben (asshole) Landan has in the region is Musharraf, if not, he would be dead. Didn’t take much to kill Benazir Bhutto.

[WoofDog123]

“He suggested they are far less a threat to his regime than Taliban-linked militants entrenched in Pakistan’s west.”

Is this true? Easy to sit here and say yes or no, but anyone with perspective or experience in the region have a comment on this?

This guy is usually refreshingly direct in interviews, far more than most dictators.

[Parley Baer]

Hard to say what is going on. Most of the WOT is behinds the scenes so to speak. Like most of these stories it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

[G8 Diplomat]

Seems that the best ally Ben (asshole) Landan has in the region is Musharraf, if not, he would be dead. Didn’t take much to kill Benazir Bhutto.

Well, I'm not going to declare who's in league with whom, but it should be noted that al-Qaida or the Taliban has attempted to assassinate Musharraf and his aides, but has failed because Mush has much better security than Bhutto, since he's the president. Also OBL has called Musharraf "a tyrant and an apostate," and radical Islamist parties in Pak have called for Mushy to hang. Pakistani politics is hard to read...it's hard to know for sure who's on whose side.

[G8 Diplomat]

This guy is usually refreshingly direct in interviews, far more than most dictators.

From a Newsweek interview with Musharraf:

NEWSWEEK: You see the U.S. discussing withdrawing from Iraq. Does this mean America pulls out of this region again?

MUSHARRAF: Unless there is an arrangement where you don't create chaos and destabilize this whole region, it would be a mistake.

NEWSWEEK: You mean withdrawing from Iraq would be a mistake?

MUSHARRAF: Yes, if there were a sudden withdrawal. Either make some arrangements where there is a continuity of effort to bring sanity and democratic government into Iraq and ensure the integrity of Iraq. If we [just] leave, I don't know what will happen there.

He gets it, liberal Newsweek doesn't. Victory is simple enough for the quasi-dictator of a third world Islamic nation to figure out.....what's up with Congress?

[doc1019]

And yet, with all the power that Osama (supposedly) has, he can’t off Musharraf? No near misses with suicide bombers, no near misses with in-house planted assassins, etc.

Points to ponder. Thank you for your insight.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

I guess Musharraff is the Joe Lieberman of the Mid East.....good on WOT but bad everywhere else.

[WoofDog123]

Thanks for that excerpt, that is the level of direct discourse I have come to expect from interviews with him. I suspect both geography and internal politics have an impact on his options inside pakistan that many freepers are unaware of.

[rahbert]

Most freepers are shockingly unaware and naive about
the WOT.

What would they expect Musharraf to say? This is a chessgame. Bluffs and miscues are part of the strategy.

Thats all I’m going to say.

[Fishrrman]

Perhaps the reason that Musharraf isn't hunting Osama is because Mr. Musharraf doesn't want to become "the hunted one"!

HINT: he already IS.

- John

[AZLiberty]

I got caught by the Osama/Obama thing again. I was wondering why Musharraf was denying hunting a Democrat Presidential candidate.

[DoughtyOne]

Haven’t the Taliban been the predominant threat in Pakistan? I don’t think there’s a very big Al Qaeda presence there, and that’s why he’s focused on the Taliban, not Laden or Al Qaeda.

[swarthyguy]

That’s quite OK, neither are we, LOL!