Bill Clinton saved (Pakistani Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif from hanging

[sabra]

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/84321.php/Bill-Clinton-saved-Nawaz-Sharif-from-hanging

Bill Clinton saved Nawaz Sharif from hanging

Washington, Nov 21 (ANI): Former US President Bill Clinton saved Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from hanging, in the aftermath of the bloodless coup in October 1999 in which General Pervez Musharraf seized power.

According to Clinton aides, the US President had serious apprehensions about the life and safety of the deposed Premier and had expressed his concerns to the Saudi Royal House and asked them to intervene with General Musharraf to set Sharif free, who had been charged with a range of "grave crimes".

While Clinton did not want to take the matter up one-on-one with General Musharraf, neither was he willing to go to Pakistan during his India visit the following year, because of the October 1999 coup.

...

According to the Daily Times, Clinton had also wished that he be not photographed with Musharraf.

In effect, Clinton's intervention saw the Saudi Royal House negotiate a complicated deal with the Musharraf regime, which saw the deposed Nawaz Sharif and his family flown to safety to Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

[hippiechick]

1. And isn't it interesting that ...

... in the 2000 debates, Pervez Musharraf was pretty much the only 'world leader' that Dimson could identify (and pronouce correctly) ? And he took power in a coup, just months prior to the start of the campaign season. And of course he was one of Dimson's early best-buddies.

Makes one wonder. :tinfoilhat: BFEE anyone?

[Igel]

2. I think we remember things differently.

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2000b.html

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2000a.html

The two debates (were there only two) didn't touch upon this.

But * did show a dismal awareness (let's not even mention knowledge) of foreign affairs and foreign events. There was a highly embarrassing incident: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/11/05/bush.popquiz/ * faired miserably (and that's being charitable. The interviewer even repeated the question about Pakistan since, as you say, the coup was recent history and * should have known--but it only drove home the fact that * was clueless.

Gore, of course, did well.

[Kagemusha]

3. Wha?... Don't you remember, he famously flunked a question re: that?

He got stumped by a radio show host asking him who the president of Pakistan was and he didn't know, DURING the campaign season! It requires no tinfoil hat to wonder why the hell Bush had the name rammed into his brain before the debate!

Edit: And the previous poster seems confident this didn't come up at the debates themselves. Well whatever, my point's the same: I'm sure Bush's familiarity skyrocketed after he was FORCED by public embarassment to find out who the hell the President of Pakistan was, and to hell with the question of how Musharraf reached that position. After that, well, the US has to have relations with Pakistan for War on Terror purposes no matter who's in charge.

[johnfunk]

4. Remember those days of peace and prosperity in the mid to late 1990s when we had a President...

... who was a diplomat and peacemaker, a President who was respected -- even greatly liked -- by foreign leaders and legislators, a President who brought pride to America and prestige abroad?

It still appalls me how easily the Party of Culture of Corruption foisted Dim Son on the nation, giving a jibbering, unstable, religiously insane dry drunk idiot the executive branch.