January 5, 2008 --The Pakistani government today accused the International Crisis Group (ICG) of "promoting sedition'', by calling for the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, before the upcoming parliamentary elections, Press Trust of India reported. The ICG also called for the U.S. to use the Pakistani military to get Musharraf out, calling him a "a serious liability, seen as complicit'' in Benazir Bhutto's death. The IRC claimed that unless Musharraf is ousted, "the international community could face the nightmare of a nuclear-armed, Muslim country descending into civil war.''

Islamabad said the report "amounts to promoting sedition'' and the ICG "neither has the credentials, nor the credibility and lacks representational standing specially on Pakistan's national affairs'' to comment on Pakistan.

Musharraf has also asked Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro to increase the speed of the investigation into Bhutto's assassination. He said he is concerned about the "slow progress," and asked Soomro to extend full cooperation to Scotland Yard experts who have arrived in Pakistan.

The hand behind this crisis, and others occuring, now, simultaneously, around the world, is certainly not "invisible."  It is distinctly British.