the "democratic" peoples republic of Pakistan

Catching up with last weekends Meet The Press just now. Director of National Intelligence (whatever that is) Admiral McConnell was actually strangely convincing up to this point. Then he said the following, in response to Tim Russert's question about Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and I just about choked on my biscuit..

MR. RUSSERT: If his [Musharraf's] government fell, how detrimental would it be to the U.S.?

Admiral McCONNELL: It would have a severe impact. It would depend—if it fell, it depends on who would replace him. It’s a democratic nation, if they continue down this current path. So, if the process of turnover happens in a democratic way, it, it may not have severe impact.

Oh! Maybe I missed the relevant daily brief. Unfortunately I have to rely on wikipedia which says things like...

Musharraf became ... Chief Executive ... of Pakistan following a bloodless coup d'état on 12 October 1999. That day, the constitutional Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempted to dismiss Musharraf and install Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. ... In the coup, the Generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with allegedly only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf assumed control of the government. ...

The existing President of Pakistan, Rafiq Tarar, remained in office until June 2001. Musharraf formally appointed himself President on June 20, 2001, just days before his scheduled visit to Agra for talks with India.

..

Shortly after Musharraf's takeover, several people filed court petitions challenging his assumption of power. However ... the Supreme Court of Pakistan now filled which judges of the General's pleasing and who had now taken oath not to take any decisions against the Military Junta.. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the approaching restoration of democracy, he held a referendum on April 30, 2002 to extend his presidential term to five years after the October elections. .. the referendum was boycotted by the majority of Pakistani political groupings, which later complained that the elections were heavily rigged, and voter turnout was 30% or below by most estimates. A few weeks later, Musharraf went on TV and apologized to the nation for "irregularities" in the referendum.

General elections were held in October 2002 and a plurality of the seats in the Parliament was won by the PML-Q, a pro-Musharraf party. However, parties opposed to Musharraf effectively paralysed the National Assembly for over a year.

The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf made a deal with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal party, a six-member coalition of Islamic parties, agreeing to leave the army by December 31, 2004. He subsequently refused to keep his promise.

.. etc etc.. in other words the usual dictator refuses to give up power story. Its outrageous that the director of the NIE could make such outrageous statements and not be challenged!