Friday, September 19, 2008

Real News Video with Pepe Escobar: Pak army protected bin Laden and Taliban

Khawar Mehdi: What happened to Pakistani military after 9/11? Part 4 of 4



"In part 4 of this series, Pakistan analyst Khawar Mehdi tells Pepe Escobar about the repercussions of Musharraf's crucial policy switch after 9/11, abandoning the Taliban and embracing the Bush-declared "war on terror". Mehdi recalls the visit by a Pakistani delegation to Afghanistan that allegedly asked Taliban emir Mulah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden. Mehdi argues that the true story was that the head of the delegation, Pakistani ISI chief Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, convinced the Taliban to implement a new Pakistani plan, advising the Taliban to retreat instead of facing overwhelming US military power. Mehdi also discusses how Musharraf's radical U-turn has been extremely confusing for the Pakistani armed forces and for the ISI - which had nurtured the Taliban since the mid-1990s."

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