US worry over night in Pak- Bush may fly off to Afghanistan

[ECH1969]

After all the talk about General Pervez Musharraf’s fight against terrorism and Pakistan’s role as America’s trusted ally, US President George W. Bush may not spend the night in Islamabad when he visits the city on March 4.

According to highly-placed American sources who spoke on condition of anonymity in view of the secrecy surrounding presidential travel arrangements, a contingency plan is being drawn up for Bush to make a surprise visit to Afghanistan on March 4 after his meetings with Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Bush may then sleep over at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan instead of Islamabad, which many security officials here consider to be the most dangerous capital on earth for Americans, let alone the US President.

But the considered view in the US security establishment is that Pakistani security has been deeply penetrated by elements sympathetic to the jihad against America and that Musharraf is not in total control on the ground. When Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton, visited Pakistan in March 2000, he used a decoy executive jet to land in Rawalpindi’s Chakala airbase from Mumbai.

Clinton arrived in Pakistan unannounced on one of the two Gulfstreams and the regular presidential aircraft landed — as if it was carrying the President — after Clinton was on his way in a motorcade to Islamabad. Just as the Pakistanis were upset six years ago by America’s total lack of confidence in Pakistan as a safe host country for VIPs, any decision by Bush to fly to Bagram after his state dinner hosted by Musharraf next Saturday will be unpleasant for the general and his junta.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060227/asp/frontpage/story_5901124.asp

[movonne]

1. I'm not one bit worried....

[ECH1969]

2. What would happen in the mid-terms and 2008 if the president

was killed by al-Qaeda?

Does that make you worry?

[rodeodance]

5. even an attempt with a spitball will raise the terror alert

[thebigidea]

8. well, they didn't spend much time yammering about the grenade attempt

[ECH1969]

9. Imagine Cheney as president with a post 911 type mandate

Makes me think they are going to be sending Bush to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan alot more.

[Dangerously Amused]

13. My thoughts exactly, at first.

But then I remembered that Bush is our Decoy President. President Cheney needs to hide behind Bush so as to get on with his dirty business while everyone else keeps their eyes on the decoy.

Other than Bush, what other national "leader" in all of history would be obedient enough to say something as stupid as that he had no clue his country was selling off it's ports to a foreign country known to have a hand in attacking it?

Fortunately for Bush, there is a handsome payoff in allowing President Cheney to play him for a fool. It will come in the form of millions of dollars worth of business profits - probably billions over time - for the Bush crime family via their oil related companies.

[wordpix]

20. as often is said, "If we impeach Cheney, we'll get Bush for president"

[mom cat]

14. A faked disapearance ... * would get to spend time with his buddy OBL

This would be the Repukes best course. Turn * into a martyr. Actually, it might backfire on them ... there are too many news cycles between now and November for the martyr thing to be counted on. Who remembers the runaway bride anymore.

[oneold1-4u]

17. Stolen thoughts

I figure OBL to leave Saudi Arabia for Afghanistan on the same day * boards AF1 and they will have a whole evening to plan the next jihad terrorist catastrophe that each can blame on the other!

[mom cat]

18. That is even better than my scenario! Hope they don't try to ride

bikes together. Bush might accidentally run into OBL and kill him. That would really screw the ports deal!

[okieinpain]

48. yeah what would happen if bush died, and things got better.

[MADem]

3. Ahhhh, Bagram, that garden spot

We run a lovely prison there, ya know...kept the prisoners in wire cages, too! It makes Gitmo look like a resort. Perfect spot for the guy to visit....

NEW YORK, Feb 26: The US military has quietly expanded a less-visible prison at Bagram, near Kabul, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The news came as an international debate rages over the future of the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the harsh treatment meted out to detainees has been denounced by several international organizations, including the United Nations, which has recently called for its closure.

In an in-depth dispatch, the Times said that Pentagon officials describe the Bagram detention site as merely a “screening centre”. They say most of the detainees were Afghans who might eventually be released under an amnesty programme or transferred to an Afghan prison that is to be built with American aid.

But some of the detainees have already been held at Bagram for as long as two or three years, the newspaper said in a detailed dispatch. And unlike those at Guantanamo, they have no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them and only rudimentary reviews of their status as “enemy combatants,” military officials said....

http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/27/top17.htm

[Copperred]

4. All I know is that Pakistan needs to be let go...

Highly recommend reading "The Musharraf Factor: Leading Pakistan to Inevitable Demise".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0973368713/104-3348520-7931133?v=glance&n=283155

This state is the most un-natural union on earth, none of the masses want to continue it, only the military junta which is holding hostage its own people, the region, and at times the US.

The alternative to Pakistan, supported by the US, will drain the swamp of terrorist breeding grounds in the area.

[The Stranger]

16. I think that is what the Neocons said about Iraq . . .

And Afghanistan. . . .And Iran. . . .

[Copperred]

46. What do the neocons have to do with this?

Why don't you read up on the struggles of the secular indigenous ANP, Balochi and Sindhi nationalists. The Pak army keeps oppressing them with US support since 1947. Ending this evil, yes evil, dynamic is the key to a safer long term stable South Asia. If it happens to coincide with some Neocon idea of world empire, I could care less...empires never last, letting these people control their own destiny right....especially since we have been the enablers of their oppression!!!

Here is some coffee for you: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/45.grare.final.pdf

[adriennui]

6. buh, bye.

i won't lose any sleep over his trip.

[radwriter0555]

7. Shhhhhhhh, if we WHISPER, no one will know the TOP SECRET PLANS of

the PRESIDENT.

Be VEWWY VEWWY QUIET.

*tip toe tip toe tip toe*

[goforit]

36. LOL!!!.....Wheyr is dat pesky dam wabbit.......eheheheheh

[MrPrax]

10. He should be safe...

No history in that part of the world where the various security personnel themselves have done the assassination...well except for a Rabin and a Sadat and three Ghandis...but but...they were fanatics...

Safe trip, jerk

[AndyA]

11. Bush will be in a bubble, he couldn't possibly care what others think.

How he sleeps at night knowing what he's done and is doing, I sure can't understand.

He doesn't have to worry or sleep with one eye open, though. He has lots of security to do that for him.

[Virginia Dare]

12. Perhaps he'll take a nice bike ride in the countryside with the locals n/t

[Dangerously Amused]

15. If the bike didn't get him, the locals would.

Bush is probably about as safe taking a leisurely stroll through the streets of Islamabad as he would be taking a leisurely stroll through some of the streets in America right now.

[Orsino]

19. While I don't want anything to happen to him...

...if he is sweating a bit out there in the world he helped to make more dangerous, that's a good thing.

[AnneD]

21. If he stays overnight in Pakistan...

it will be the closest and perhaps longest time that chickensht Chickenhawk has near a battle zone. He likes to be in and out with heavy protection. Too bad George Sr. wasn't the same way ;)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. May I say

:applause:?

The best graffiti I have seen in all my long life was in the men's room (yes, I'm female, but it's a long story) in a Boston bar in 1967, where someone had written, "We have to pull out Vietnam NOW!"

Underneath it, someone else had written "Pull out is what Nixon's father should have done."

[AnneD]

24. Yes...I remember that making the rounds..

I also remember a cartoon of a pregnant woman. Underneath was the caption...Nixon's the one! :spray:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

25. Remember Dick Tuck?

The best Tuck prank was pulled on Nixon when he visited the San Francisco area during his 68 campaign.

Lots of pregnant Chinese women waving big placards done in Chinese characters which translated to "Nixon's the one!"

Those were the good old days............... sigh.............

[AnneD]

27. Yeh...

you could have a good tussel and still go out for drinks togather afterwards and laugh with them about get each other. I like moderate Repubs and have family and friends that are...but the Neocons....they just take the fun out of everything and make everyone miserable in the process. I remember the line from the movie Dr Ziavago...where that family 'friend' advised her about her first husband, the zealot. Boy truer words were never spoken. Can't quote them exactly but everyone pretends to love them but secretly hate them etc....

[OldLeftieLawyer]

31. Had this conversation with a friend last night

In fact, the man who told me about DU.

We were talking about the nastiness of the rightwingnuts, and I said that victory didn't seem to give them any pleasure - that what they seemed to want was the total destruction of those who didn't agree with them - the Inquisition, if you will.

Then it occurred to me. Anhedonia - the inability to experience pleasure. A pathology that seems to define these people. Nothing will ever be pleasing to them, not even our destruction. They are simply nothing but rage.

And there's no hope for people like that.

[AnneD]

33. Gosh

I think we are on to something. The Puritan gene gone amuck. That which made us will destroy us....Well, I have to go now. Loved the banter. Feel free to pm me.

[saigon68]

41. The Iraq "pull out'

[OldLeftieLawyer]

22. "GET OUT THE PLASTIC TURKEY!!!!!"

"Don't forget that jumpsuit with the small child sewn into the crotch!!!"

"Oh, BOY!!! Fuckface is coming! Fuckface is coming!!"

[AnneD]

28. Gosh

we are on the same wave length today. The first thing I though of was that ridiculous picture. How about giving them something they need like body armour. Or something they want like no more stop loss 'enlistments'.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

30. Or a trip home.

Yeah, we're both sane, so, naturally, we're on the same wavelength.

::: sigh ::::

[jpak]

26. Why would he want a sleepover at Bagram????

That's nuts - mortars, rockets, suicide bombers...and a huge highly visible soft-target AF1 sitting on the tarmac????

Fuck that - if he want's a sleepover - do it on the flight back.

all too risky - someone needs to talk some sense here....

[coalition_unwilling]

29. I just couldn't resist . . . he wants a sleepover at Bagram so that

he can get in on the fun-n-games reported in this past Sunday's NY Times, viz., 500+ detainees held at Bagram in primitive conditions with no access to attorneys or legal proceedings, torture galore (I think there have been 1-2 coroner-confirmed homicides of detainees held there).

* is getting in touch with his inner torturer. And we all know torture is as American as apple pie.

[leQ]

45. did you get a hold of his itinerary? (n/t)

[daleo]

38. He wants a photo-op

And he wants the public to think he is a big brave soldier, instead of an AWOL chimp, as Saigon68 unforgettably calls him.

[Buns_of_Fire]

43. There's your next Kurt Russell film: "Escape from Bagram"

SCENARIO: Snake Plisskin unwillingly rescues the Cowardly Commander after AF1 is disabled by a stealth al-Qaeda agent and the "sorry nutbucket" (as Plisskin refers to him) is captured. Plisskin rescues him and they fly off together in a commandeered Afghani DC-3. Plisskin then delivers the "sorry nutbucket" to a safe place and lets him off, promising that there'll be someone along shortly to take care of him. Plisskin then takes off for points unknown, and the "sorry nutbucket" breathes a sigh of relief.

Then he sees the weathered sign, lying torn-down by the landing point: "Welcome to Iraq. Enjoy your stay. Saddam Hussein, Your Host."

Much hilarity ensues as the DC-3 becomes an ever-smaller dot in the sky and the first clouds of sand appear on the horizon, kicked up by the tires of...

(Okay, the outline needs work. And I need beer.)

[Rex]

32. That's not the reason Boosh wants to go to Afghanistan.

He needs to bring back some Afghani heroin to his Poppy. Poppy makes the Afghani opium warlords pay tribute yearly.

[brooklynite]

34. Damn the media! Endangering America's safety again...

Of course Al Qaeda knew he was coming, but if the media didn't keep repeating it maybe they'd forget.

"You would assume," he conceded "that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance. But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget." (Alberto Gonzales)

[Jose Diablo]

35. I'd be cautious if I were junior

Old dead eye Dick just might take advantage of the situation and blame it on OBL. I don't think it would be the first time a VP attempted to take out number one and usurp the throne. Thinking about Hinkley/Raygun here and how senior stepped-in to a incapacitated Rayguns job.

The history books are filled with examples of the king being offed by the prince.

[MetaTrope]

37. Time for him to give Bin Laden some new orders, is it?

[Up2Late]

39. Bush to visit Afghanistan despite Taliban attacks (Unless he's a Coward!)

(At least that's basically what Marvin Weinbaum, a former state department analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan said
at The Brooking's Institute. Bush, if you don't go, You're a Coward!)

Bush to visit Afghanistan despite Taliban attacks

· President to extend vital visit to India and Pakistan
· US marines to lead huge sub-continent security

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi and Ewen MacAskill
Tuesday February 28, 2006
The Guardian

The US president, George Bush, is planning a visit to Afghanistan this weekend, his first to the country since the US-led invasion in 2001. Security round the president will be tighter than usual because the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are still able to mount attacks.

The White House is refusing to confirm that Mr Bush will go to Afghanistan after a visit to India and Pakistan that begins tomorrow. Mr Bush has declared Afghanistan to be a triumph over terrorism but there has been a resurgence of the Taliban over the last 18 months, especially in the south. US forces are pulling out of parts of the south and handing over to British troops this spring.

Marvin Weinbaum, a former state department analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan, speaking at a briefing organised by the Brookings Institution, a foreign affairs thinktank, said Mr Bush had no alternative but to go to Afghanistan. "He's in the neighbourhood. Laura Bush went. Can he not go if Laura Bush took the chance and was more exposed actually - not much more, but more exposed than the president will certainly be?"

Thousands of snipers, commandos and US marines are expected to be discreetly deployed for the American leader's maiden first visit to the subcontinent. Mr Bush's visit comes six years after his predecessor Bill Clinton's successful five-day stay. But while the former president charmed New Delhi, he left without a major announcement. In contrast Mr Bush will go to New Delhi offering a number of deals covering space technology, agriculture and biotechnology.

(more at link below)

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1719580,00.html?gusrc=rss>

[SoCalDem]

40. I wish they would land, and just push him out of the plane

let him wander around on his own and "feel the love"..

[0007]

42. We couldn't get that lucky. n/t

[gasperc]

44. and the surprise is??

cat's out of the bag, no?

[hedgehog]

47. Does anybody know why he's going to India anyways?

[genieroze]

49. Bush may fly off to Afghanistan?

Gonna take a peek a pooh at the poppy fields that have flourished since the Taliban have been dismantled. Maybe he wants to check out the gas pipe line.

[DoYouEverWonder]

50. This is the 'SURPRISE' visit

that they announced 3 days ago?