Makes me feel so secure to know that President Musharraf of Pakistan has apparently managed to fend off a coup attempt from Islamist military officers, this time:
KARACHI – A plot to stage a coup against Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf soon after his recent return from the US has been uncovered, resulting in the arrest of more than 40 people.
Most of those arrested are middle-ranking Pakistani Air Force officers, while civilian arrests include a son of a serving brigadier in the army. All of those arrested are Islamists, contacts in Rawalpindi, where the military is based, divulged to Asia Times Online.
The conspiracy was discovered through the naivety of an air force officer who this month used a cell phone to activate a high-tech rocket aimed at the president’s residence in Rawalpindi. The rocket was recovered, and its activating mechanism revealed the officer’s telephone number. His arrest led to the other arrests.
Other rockets were then recovered from various high security zones, including the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad.
According to Asia Times Online sources, more arrests can be expected, both military and civilian.
Must be fun to have officers under your command targeting rockets at your home, eh President Musharraf? But you know what’s even more fun? When you realize that if these rebellious officers had succeeded, Pakistan’s nuclear tipped missiles would be in the hands of militants who are quite friendly with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and who don’t much care for America or Americans.
Sooner or later, Musharraf is going down. His policy of sucking on the US teat isn’t wearing well with the more radical elements of his own military. What has the Bush adminsitration done to prepare for that eventuality? My guess: nada.
