The Bush Administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to capture Bin Laden or other High Value Targets. Well, finally, that's good news, right?
This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November.....Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election.
What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, "The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections."
Desperation? Pinning your election hopes on the Pakistani Army doesn't sound like a solid plan, but once again the Bushies concentrate more on political appearance than on policy itself.