Someday, Osama, this will be all yours…

From The Guardian:

 The Pakistani military’s private business empire could be worth as much as £10bn, according to a ground-breaking study. Retired and serving officers run secretive industrial conglomerates, manufacture everything from cement to cornflakes, and own 12m acres [4.8m hectares] of public land, says Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy…Ms Siddiqa estimates that the military controls one-third of all heavy manufacturing and up to 7% of private assets….Ms Siddiqa says the military businesses thrive, thanks to invisible state subsidies in the form of free land, the use of military assets, and loans to bail them out when they run into trouble.

Oh, yeah. They also have nuclear weapons, serve as the home base of the Taliban, the military is chock full of Islamists, and there have been a series of assassination attempts against the country’s Supreme Leader, Pervez Musharraf.

On the bright side, The Guardian also has some neat pictures:

Silkworms

Mama and baby turtle

Another New Bush Nixonian-Style Power Grab?

Probably not, say the experts.  Still, it doesn’t hurt to pay attention.  Remember, these are the people who decided they could misuse and abuse signing statements to get around Congress and the American people.