On Nov 7, 3:18 am, RHF wrote:

'the news' it's out there if you listen ~ RHF
.

Is anyone in charge in DC listening?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...502073_pf.html

America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames

By Ahmed Rashid
Sunday, June 17, 2007; B01

.....
The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on
Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in
U.S. history, nobody with serious Pakistan experience is working in
the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State's policy
planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice
President Cheney's office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador
to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American "drugs and thugs";
Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and
Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served
three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia.
"They know nothing of Pakistan," a former senior U.S. diplomat said.

Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is
essentially being run from Cheney's office. The vice president, they
say, is close to Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of
him. This all fits; in recent months, I'm told, Pakistani opposition
politicians visiting Washington have been ushered in to meet Cheney's
aides, rather than taken to the State Department.

No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions.
------------------------------

Some explanation: Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood in Washington, DC,
about a half-mile or so west of the White House, in which the State
Department is located. Beloved Leader goes through the 'hood about
once a year.

Bush #41 owned a SWR. It was a SW7600 or an ICF2001, wasn't it?