No better ally for US than Musharraf: ex-CIA official

Islamabad, Dec 31: A former Central Intelligence Agency official has alleged the United States seldom had an ally like Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has been more than willing to further its interests.

The former head of the CIA unit for tracking Osama bin Laden, Michael Scheuer, said the steps taken by Musharraf to help the US in Afghanistan were not in "Pakistan's interests".

"The truth is that virtually none of the many things Musharraf has done to assist the US in Afghanistan has been in Pakistan's national interest. By sending the Pakistani Army into the Pashtun regions he brought his country to the brink of civil war," he told the Daily Times.

He said it was wrong for the US to assume that Musharraf's Pakistan was an "American proxy" with national-security interests mirroring those it had.

In future, when America's "defeat" in Afghanistan will be apparent, and if he survived, Musharraf will reflect on his relationship with President Bush and say - as President Lincoln said about Union General McClellan - "Poor George, I did all I could to help him, but he proved unable to do anything to help himself," the former CIA official said.

He claimed that US and NATO forces in Afghanistan would ultimately face defeat and the Karzai government would fall.

"By failing to accomplish the only mission that had to be accomplished in Afghanistan, the US is now faced with a growing insurgency that probably already outnumbered the combined US-NATO force," Scheuer said.

--- PTI

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