THE LEFT COASTER's Steve Soto has some thoughts on the Bush administration's sale of F16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

On the same day that the Los Angeles Times broke the story that Pakistan has been discovered to be illegally buying nuclear weapon-making equipment from American firms, with the White House preventing law enforcement agencies from stopping it, the Bush Administration announces that it plans to sell President Musharraf F-16 fighter jets. This is the same White House that has already stopped the FBI from investigating Saudi links to terrorism, and this is the same President Musharraf who has prevented the United States from getting access to Pakistani national hero A. Q. Khan, who we know has assisted Iran, North Korea, Libya, and even Al Qaeda in its efforts to go nuclear. It is also the same President Musharraf who has been likely harboring and assisting Mr. Dead or Alive, Osama Bin Laden, whose trail the Pakistanis conveniently told the world had gone cold last week. Yet Mr. Bush is selling Musharraf these advanced fighters as a reward for his cooperation in the war on terror. Does anyone really think outside of the White House that Musharraf has any real intention of capturing Bin Laden, especially after getting the F-16s for doing nothing?

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