On May 25, 2000, Pakistan’s leader Pervez “Musharraf threw Pakistan’s full weight behind the Taliban, saying that he would never ‘alienate’ the Taliban because Pakistan felt obliged to look out for the interests of Pashtuns on either side of the border. ‘We cannot alienate the Taliban, as we want the Pushtoons on our side. It is strategically very important for us that the Pushtoon, which means now Taliban, are on our side,’ he said at a televised news conference.”
– Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 201