Anyone saw the PBS - Frontline documentary Return Of The Taliban ? Martin Smith is a tough interviewer and had Musharraf on the defensive.
Formulate your own opinions, here is the link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/taliban/view/
Re: Tough Interview On Frontline
I had Martin Smith on the defensive when he was on public radio last week. What he was not saying on the border control, drug funding, etc. He ended up agreeing with me that there are problems that NATO and afghan forces need to handle and its not really Pakistan's responsibility.
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There are atleast three things that he showed that Musharraf was clueless or in denial about:
- Hayat Ullah Khan.
This is the journalist who printed pictures of american ammo aftera predator strike which Pakistani govt. had claimed was theirs. HU Khan was abducted and his body was found 6 months later. Smith's implication was the Mush knew about this guy.
- Manning the Quetta Afghan border.
Musharraf said that it was checked. Frontline showed footage of trucks and people moving accross the border unfettered.
- Bajaur Agency
Again, the criticism that no Pakistani troops are present in that area.
One thing that many Pakistanis might have overlooked (and this was highlighted in the docu) is how condescending Bush was to Musharraf after his Indian visit (where he signed a civil nook power deal with India). Musharraf
was aware of what was going on and responded well to Bush.
Re: Tough Interview On Frontline
good documentary. it does well to expose the realities that prevent musharraf from taking meaningful actions. westerners shouting about musharraf purposely ignoring taliban sanctuary have no clue about the complicated nexus involving tribals, taliban, ISI, army, etc. and corresponding loyalties. it does not reflect well on pakistan with regard to harboring taliban/al-qaeda, but it certainly works as a defense of musharraf and even invokes sympathy for him in the viewer.
i'm not sure the pakistani officials, including musharraf, should have accepted the interview requests.
it seems that the interviewer was intent on catching pakistani officials telling lies, and he did a great job of it. apart from musharraf and that army officer (sultan?) very obviously lying about the hayat ullah khan incident, the first army officer interviewed about the nek mohammad missile strike was clearly caught off guard and passed off a blatant lie when answering questions about the supposed pakistani operation against nek mohammad. it is better to leave people guessing rather than confirm suspicions by doing a poor job of lying.
even munir akram gave a strange and clueless answer to some question from the interviewer.
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For first two questions, he slept with his eyes open. This guy is the Pakistan's ambassador to the UN and he couldn't string together two decent sentences.
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Bush certainly was rather condescending towards Musharaf after having visited India... I cant imagine how Musharaf controled himself. If I were in place I would have fired back with a salvo of my own.
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Good expose on mushie's reign of terror...
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dude, you are a funny guy. :D
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Yet there are millions of people in Pakistan who take whatever the army has to say as truth.
And CheG, it's not Mush's reign of terror, its Taliban/jihadi reign of terror with Mush looking the other way or too powerless to stop.
The pictures of dead "robbers" hanging from trees were particularly disturbing. Which Islam do these barbaric people follow that allows one to treat bodies of Muslims or even non Muslims like this? And then video tape them? Insane.
This is the way of life that people like Sharaabi support for others while sitting in Dubai, the prostitution capital of the middle east. Hypocrisy at its best!
Re: Tough Interview On Frontline
You have talked with this Martin Smith?