Bhutto pitch for power urges US to see her as best ally against terror

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Bhutto pitch for power urges US to see her as best ally against terror

· Former Pakistan leader disparages Musharraf
· Military rule has fuelled extremism, Congress told

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday September 26, 2007
The Guardian

Benazir Bhutto, the exiled former leader of Pakistan,
yesterday tried to persuade a Democratic-controlled
Congress to support her return to power by arguing
that she would be a more effective ally against al-
Qaida than the country's military leader.

The Bush administration's partnership with the country's
president, Pervez Musharraf, in the war on terror was a
"strategic miscalculation", Ms Bhutto said.

She told an audience in a Senate committee room that
General Musharraf had tried convincing the world that he
was the only one standing in the way of an extremist
takeover of nuclear armed Pakistan. "It appears to me
that military dictatorship has fuelled extremism."

Ms Bhutto's pitch to Congress comes during a time of
intense political activity in Pakistan ahead of next
month's presidential elections in which Gen Musharraf
will seek to add to his five years in power.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2177091,00.html

[lonestarnot]

1. I listened to her, but I didn't hear this. Must have been distracted when she said that.

I think she is a very brilliant woman, but haven't followed her closely.