Deputy Barney Fife meets the Dragon Lady

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in Kabul on February 1."

Pix from RFERL interview today with Ahmed Rashid about the leaked NATO report fingering the ISI. Rashid thinks the report was leaked to time with the Karzai-Khar meeting. It would have been leaked anyway.

The dog and pony show that Gilani and Kayani put on, in the attempt to persuade the IMF that there was something approximating a civilian government in Pakistan, backfired. So then Gilani had to run around Davos last week assuring everyone that there was not going to be a coup in Pakistan.

My favorite part of the Rashid interview:

RFE/RL: Is the revelation in this NATO report about Islamabad's support for the Taliban news to you?

Ahmed Rashid: It's very well known amongst NATO militaries [and] amongst the U.S. military. I was told by senior American generals that they approached [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld back in 2005 about the support that the Taliban were getting from Pakistan. But it was ignored by Bush at that time.

"Ignored?" So Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had nothing to do with anything. They were just sitting there in Downing Street, pure as the driven snow.

See this what I keep warning: the longer Americans stay in there and play with NATO, the more bags we're going to be left holding.