Making deals with the devil will always get you burned! So I'm watching PBS's "Now with Bill Moyers" today (taped it, ya know ...) and a French author/philosopher who's published a book titled "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" tells the interviewer that Perez Musharaff (sp?), the president of Pakistan, is a puppet leader who allows terrorists like Osama bin Laden to operate with impugnity in his country.

Bernard Henri-Levy, the author, says after spending 30 years in Pakistan and writing dozens of books and articles about that untidy nation, he's determined that Bush's overt support of the Mushareff government is a bad mistake. He points out that Daniel Pearl was killed by people who received active support from the chief of intelligence for the Pakistani government.

"Mushareff is a king without a throne," Henri-Levy said. "Pakistan is already half-run by extremists who teach hatred of the Western powers, especially the United States."

It was Mahoud Akhmad (sp?), the aforementioned intelligence chief, who funnled $100,000 from the Pakistan coffers to none other than Mohammed Atta, leader of the 9-11 terrorists, Henri-Levy said.

So Mushareff's visit with Bush is a mockery of those who died on 9-11, he said. "It's a disgrace!" he added.

Forgive the mispelled names but hear the message I'm conveying here. The Bush administration, like others before his, is in collusion with and paying huge sums of cash to a country that's the center of world terrorism. Ironic, eh?

Well, its seems to me that we've made a deal with the devil when we asked Mushareff for help in dealing with Afghanistan. I wouldn't be surprised if bin Laden approved the deal and high-tailed it out of Afghanistan just before the assault on the Taliban began.

How else do we explain why our intelligence agencies are unable to locate such a high-profile personage as bin Laden? It would suggest at least the possibility that bin Laden is being allowed to slip the noose – for whatever political reasons we may have. Hell, perhaps Bush and his cronies aren't aware that they're being played by Pakistan. It's not a stretch to believe that, not at all.

So hold on to your backpacks kiddies, we're in for some very weird days ahead, I fear. And it will be our so-called allies who open the door for bin Laden or some other evil bastard to cross the U.S. borders and reek havoc somewhere in this great nation.

As for Iraq, I noticed that Powell (Colin, of course) juggled the balls nicely when asked about the public opinion of Bush's request for $87 billion to float the Iraqi campaign through the end of the year.

Of course, the president will have to ask for another multi-billion package in 2004 to continue the democratization of Iraq, a fools bet if ever there was one.

And so it goes.