BushCo Open to Giving Musharraf Asylum in the U.S.

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 5:24 AM on August 20, 2008.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox's Chris Wallace that U.S. asylum for former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was "not on the table." However, she refused to explicitly rule the option out, insisting that he had been a "good ally." Watch it:

But now that Musharraf has officially stepped down, the Bush administration appears to be increasingly receptive to opening America's doors to the former military leader. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that Musharraf "has a right to live wherever he wants." AFP reports:

"We haven't been asked to provide him with any asylum or place of residence," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said amid speculations that the former staunch US "war on terror" ally who quit Monday might stay abroad, including in the United States.

"If he chooses to take up residence somewhere, I mean if he were to request that, we would obviously look at it, but it's not an issue that we've been approached with," Wood explained.

Tagged as: bush, rice, asylum, musharraf

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.