It's a big kabuki dance, and the whole frikkin' world knows it:
"Pakistan activists suffer a setback; Prodemocracy movement hit amid arrests" by Pamela Constable and Griff Witte/Washington Post November 10, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's prodemocracy movement suffered a setback yesterday, as the one-day detention of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the arrest of several thousand activists raised new doubts about the opposition's ability to challenge emergency rule.
Security forces barricaded Bhutto inside her house in Islamabad behind rings of barbed wire, concrete blocks, and riot police for 14 hours yesterday, while blanketing the nearby city of Rawalpindi to prevent protesters from reaching the site of an antigovernment rally called by Bhutto.
The massive police deployment, which sealed all major routes between the two cities, was combined with a sweeping nighttime roundup of Bhutto supporters to avert what could have been a day of both triumph and bloodshed for opponents of General Pervez Musharraf's government.
In northwestern Pakistan, meanwhile, a suicide bomber attacked the home of a federal Cabinet minister in the city of Peshawar, killing at least four people outside.
By early morning, streets leading to the rally site at Liaqat Park were barricaded with barbed wire, and major routes leading into Rawalpindi were blocked with buses, trucks, and tractors.
Police, under orders not to allow anyone to protest, carried out the instructions with orderly zeal. Hundreds stood at attention outside the park. Motorcycle squadrons slowly circled the streets in formation, and police on horseback waited nearby.
The normally teeming streets in the garrison city were almost deserted, with private traffic banned and stores ordered shut. A national holiday had also been declared for the birthday of a famed Pakistani poet, and schools and government offices were closed.
Despite the stifling security, a handful of Bhutto supporters tried to breach the cordon in midafternoon. For several hours, they played cat and mouse with police, darting out of narrow alleys to shout slogans and throw rocks. Within seconds, police charged at them with batons raised, and the clusters scattered. If they were slow to disperse, troops in armored carriers launched tear gas canisters at them.
Bhutto's supporters said she would try to leave her house again this morning, when she is scheduled to meet with foreign diplomats.
Although never formally placed under house arrest yesterday, Bhutto was physically prevented from leaving the premises of her suburban house all day. Twice she attempted to move past the inner cordon of barbed wire but was stopped by police.
The second time, at about 4 p.m., she climbed through the sunroof of her white Land Cruiser and spoke through a loudspeaker to hundreds of journalists who had gathered beyond the barricades and thick lines of police.
There was no serious violence, and police acted with restraint, even stopping to allow detainees to briefly address reporters. They also permitted a stream of senior politicians and legislators from Bhutto's party to enter her house and to give lengthy street interviews in which many condemned the government as dictatorial."
And that is what starts to make you wonder.
Of course, my first installment of what the Zionist-controlled media has decided to dish up to us leaves me with no impression of a staged event.
Just protest against a dictator, right?
"Pakistani Leader Blocks Protests, Creating Impasse" by DAVID ROHDE and JANE PERLEZ
It's funny, because the phrase under the headline in newsprint is "Musharraf vs. Bhutto."
Ha-ha-ha! Well, not really, but...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 9 — The sweeping security crackdown by Gen. Pervez Musharraf that thwarted a protest rally against his emergency decree by the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto left the two adversaries locked in a standoff on Friday.
On the surface, the show of force by the government, which deployed thousands of police officers and other security personnel and confined Ms. Bhutto to her house here for most of the day, appeared to leave the rivals further from a power-sharing deal.
But events did not exclude the possibility that back-channel talks were proceeding, and Bush administration officials said they held out hope that the two leaders could still defuse the crisis.
Some 8,500 police officers locked down Rawalpindi, the planned site of the protest, so completely that only small groups of protesters made it into the city. Dump trucks, tractor-trailers and carts blocked all streets leading to the central square. Riot police officers on motorcycles threatened to beat groups of pedestrians who failed to disperse on command.
And Ms. Bhutto was virtually kept hostage in her compound, behind rings of barbed wire.
By the end of the day, chaotic as it was, the standoff allowed both Ms. Bhutto and General Musharraf a face-saving way, whether impromptu or choreographed, to avoid potentially bloody clashes on the streets.
Later in the afternoon, in what appeared to be a stage-managed move agreed on with the government, Ms. Bhutto emerged at the barricades and made a 20-minute speech that was broadcast on official Pakistani television.
Ms. Bhutto had been confined because the government had had warnings of potential attacks against her in Rawalpindi, and did not want a repeat of the suicide attack against her last month, when Ms. Bhutto returned to Pakistan.
Well, that worked out for Mushy, huh? And a CUI BONO?
After that attack, in Karachi, Ms. Bhutto blamed the government for not paying proper attention to her security. She has since accused it of using the threats against her to justify its crackdown on any demonstration by the opposition.
On Friday, the police blanketed several square miles of Rawalpindi and shut down the city center to prevent workers and supporters of her Pakistan Peoples Party from reaching Liaquat Park, the site of the planned rally.
Protesters, fearing arrest, lurked in the old city’s warren of alleys. Seething residents said they had never seen so many police officers in the city.
Imran Ali, a 25-year-old medical company worker:
“I’m scared. I’m not happy to see my country very deeply troubled.”
Eventually, small groups of several dozen protesters began challenging the police on their own. By late afternoon, orders arrived for protesters to carry out small attacks on the police, protesters and party workers said.
As the sun set, the police began to leave the city and party workers dispersed. Workers said they did not know why Ms. Bhutto never ordered them to carry out larger attacks. The police said 108 protesters were arrested across the city.
In Islamabad, the capital, Ms. Bhutto was surrounded by three layers of police lines, barbed wire and concrete barriers, and an armored personnel carrier blocked the entrance to her house at the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac.
About 20 party workers, most of them in the lower ranks, were arrested outside her house during the day. Some of those arrested shouted “Prime Minister Benazir,” a reference to Ms. Bhutto’s desire to be prime minister a third time, as they were driven away in blue police vans, their fingers forming V-for-victory signs through the bars.
Yeah, those where the fat old ladies I saw getting beaten and knocked down on tv!!!
How much of the day’s events were the result of strategies worked out in advance to avoid tipping the country deeper into crisis was difficult to divine.
But with the mass arrests and near complete lockdown of Rawalpindi, the government was able to demonstrate its resolve, and by getting in her car and starting out the side entrance of her house where she was blocked, Ms. Bhutto was, too.
In her rejection of General Musharraf’s concessions, Ms. Bhutto... had to balance the demands of her backers in Washington, who would like to see her and the general share power, and the feeling on the streets of Pakistan, where the appearance of backroom deal-making between Ms. Bhutto and the general has diminished the standing of both leaders.
So everyone knows what is going on then!!!
And the shit MSM is turning all this into quite a production!!
Can we ever believe in the MSM again? Could we ever?
Even amid the tensions, Western diplomats said Ms. Bhutto and General Musharraf were continuing to negotiate the power-sharing deal that was brokered by the United States and Britain.
So all this "news" coverage of the "protests" is hot fart mist!!!!
Ever notice the Zionist-controlled MSM is so focused on protests when it wants to make enemies or prop up allies?
But we never hear much about protests in America or Israel much!
Ever notice that, readers? Doesn't that just stink?
In an indication of how Ms. Bhutto appeared to have preserved her freedom of movement after Friday’s events, a senior aide said she planned to go ahead with a diplomatic reception at the Senate building on Sunday night.
So the U.S. is eventually backing her.
They just have to make it look good.
Can't turn on Mushy too quick!
Meanwhile, the general’s emergency rule, while having helped plunge the country into turmoil, failed to counter the threat from extremists. A suicide bombing in Peshawar struck the home of a federal minister and killed four people on Friday afternoon, the first such attack since the general’s decree.
The federal minister for political affairs, Amir Muqam, was meeting with colleagues at his home in the well-heeled quarter of Hayatabad when the bomber tried to crash into his house."
Notice how the political bullshit gets so much print, yet the war very little?
That's why I don't trust the Zionist-controlled War Dailies anymore.
Full of SHIT!
Promoting a particular world view and pushing its agenda, that's what they do.
They don't tell the truth or report news.
"U.S. Strategy for Pakistan Looks More Fragile" by HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 —Bush administration officials and Pakistani experts say they still believe that a power-sharing agreement between Ms. Bhutto and the general can survive.
A senior State Department official: “We hope we’re seeing a little bit of political theater here.”
Yeah, that's all it is! Theater for the Amurkn shit-chewer!
By that the official meant Ms. Bhutto’s insistence on holding a rally, General Musharraf’s decision to barricade her in her house, and the subsequent speech by Ms. Bhutto to the nation that was broadcast on official Pakistani television.
But the danger, Bush administration officials said, is that the longer the public conflict — whether choreographed or not — continues, the more likely the chance that the proposed power-sharing deal collapses completely.
They are basically admitting it's all bullshit, what you seeing on that tv screen!
Then WHY IS IT THERE?
But when speaking on the condition of anonymity, administration officials said they were worried that if Ms. Bhutto had gone ahead with her planned rally, she might have been killed.
And CUI BONO? I mean, really!
Killed by who? "Suiciders?" "Al-CIA-Duhs?"
Gimme a break!
Anne W. Patterson, the United States ambassador to Pakistan, urged Ms. Bhutto not to go ahead with the rally because of safety concerns, and General Musharraf’s subordinates told their American counterparts that they stopped the rally because they were concerned that Ms. Bhutto might be attacked by suicide bombers, as she was on the day of her arrival in Karachi last month, the senior State Department official said.
So we are pulling her strings, no doubt about it! US set this whole thing up!
And CUI BONO from that "suicide" bombing, huh? I'd say Mushy did!
Just yesterday, a spokesman for the religious party -- Jamaat-e-Islami -- said religious groups would also participate.
Maulana Siraj-ul-Haq, a party provincial chief: "It's time to rise up and remove this tyrant regime."
So CUI BONO, readers?
Administration officials have already begun talking with members of Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party about staging political campaign rallies in stadiums and arenas, and not out in the streets, in order to address safety concerns.
Pakistan's own free-speech zones, huh? How nice!
And thought up by the Americans, too!!!
Continued discussion of a power-sharing agreement, they say, reinforces perceptions that the United States is manipulating Pakistan’s politics and that General Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto are its pawns.
What, the dumb Pakis are on to us?! Pfffffffttttt!
The United States is underestimating popular discontent with military rule, they say, and the ability of open elections to stabilize the country.
Ah, we always do that, and then wonder what went shit wrong!
Ultimately, administration officials are counting on their belief that Ms. Bhutto and General Musharraf need each other to survive politically.
So when the smoke clears, watch 'em kiss-and-make-up!!!!!
What's hilarious is the Globe's editorial staff sees through it, too!
"Pakistani make-believe" Boston Globe Editorial November 10, 2007
THOUGH THE international stakes in Pakistan's stability are high, that country's domestic power struggles remain intensely intramural. It is all too easy for foreigners, and even gullible sectors of the Pakistani public, to be fooled by appearances.
Amurkns, too! Especially after the shit the MSM shovels!
A case in point was the high drama yesterday, when twice-removed prime minister Benazir Bhutto declared she would lead a rally of her Pakistan People's Party against General Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency. The world saw soldiers preventing the march by surrounding her house with barbed wire and rounding up her party's activists. The effect was to make Bhutto look like a brave leader of the opposition to military dictatorship.
The reality is less clear-cut.
The parties involved have spoken openly about American sponsorship of a political deal between Musharraf and Bhutto. A complicating factor in their negotiations is that neither one wants to appear to be the pawn or the favorite of Washington.
Consequently, the two sides are fulfilling elements of the deal while insisting they have not been able to come to terms with each other. Musharraf, after all, had corruption charges dropped against Bhutto, enabling her to return from exile. In return, legislators from her Pakistan People's Party allowed Musharraf to be reelected president last month by the outgoing Parliament, despite a constitutional prohibition against one person simultaneously holding the positions of army chief and president.
How's that shit taste? Good?
The elegance of their unacknowledged understanding is that each still holds a card of great value to the other. Musharraf needs Parliament to accept the legitimacy of his election by the previous federal and provincial assemblies. This is a favor Bhutto may eventually be able and willing to grant. And for Bhutto ever to regain the office she covets, Musharraf will have to undo the constitutional ban prohibiting anyone from serving more than two terms.
The fact that Bhutto was allowed to speak on government television yesterday, denying that she has been talking directly to Musharraf and demanding that he end the state of emergency, suggests that the two sides are continuing to coordinate their actions. She is leaving the door open for Musharraf to remain in power; he is protecting her from suicidal assassins while giving her a platform to appear the people's democratic champion.
Oooh! I think they kind of missed that last one there.
Protecting her with lax security the first night out, and shutting down her protests?
Oh, o.k.!
This is a political shadow play. Many Pakistanis know that Bhutto's family and entourage presided over egregiously corrupt and incompetent governments, and that Musharraf's military cronies have been placed in key business sinecures from which they control a large swath of Pakistan's economy.
Amid all this intrigue, the current prime minister, the apolitical former Citibank executive Shaukat Aziz, has fostered stunning economic growth in the last few years, without the corruption of his predecessors. His stewardship comes much closer to the ideals of competence, transparency, and accountability than to Bhutto's penchant for feudal privilege or Musharraf's for Napoleonic authoritarianism. Whatever the outcome of the Bhutto-Musharraf shadow play, Pakistan needs the kind of good governance it has had from Aziz."
Look at this! Now they come out for the U.S.-backed technocrat!!
Yeah, best of both worlds for the west, huh? And Pakis are shat on again!
And what about that money?
"Bush finds no legal reason to cut assistance to Pakistan" by Matthew Lee/Associated Press November 10, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has concluded it is not legally required to cut or suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan despite President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of a state of emergency and crackdown on the opposition and independent media.
The money is governed by laws that can sometimes trigger automatic aid cutoffs, but all of it is covered by locked-in presidential waivers, according to officials familiar with the findings.
Since when did Bush ever care about the law?
Couldn't he sign state his way around this?
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced concern that the political turmoil there will undermine the Pakistani Army's fight against terrorism.
Gates told reporters earlier yesterday as he flew home from a weeklong visit to Asia:
"The concern I have is that the longer the internal problems continue, the more distracted the Pakistani Army and security services will be in terms of the internal situation rather than focusing on the terrorist threat in the frontier area."
Yeah, yeah, yeah! How about leaving those people alone up there?!
That's all they want!
