ABSTRACT
On September 10, 2001, Pakistan was, for all intents and purposes, a rogue state. It was encumbered by numerous layers of sanctions pertaining to nuclear and missile proliferation, the 1998 nuclear tests, as well as sanctions that resulted from General Pervez Musharraf’s 1999 coup. When then U.S. President Bill Clinton visited the subcontinent in 2000, he spent five days in India and mere hours in Pakistan. During that time in Pakistan, Clinton refused to shake General Pervez Musharraf’s hand and hectored the dictator on the necessity of democracy. Pakistan was one of the three countries that recognized the odious Taliban regime and it had by the fall of 2001 secured a long track record of supporting terrorism. So much so that Pakistan teetered on the verge of being designated by the U.S. government as a state that supported terrorism in 1993.
