In 2002, at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, President Gore and his advisers confront the Pakistani coup.
There is consensus that it is a disaster for U.S. interests. The authoritarian General Musharraf was far from an ideal American ally, but the emergence of an Islamist regime threatens to turn a nuclear-armed state into a staging ground for Islamic terrorism.Bin Laden Lives by Eric LippsThe President's advisers are united in urging immediate action to unseat Ahmed and either restore Musharraf to power or install another secular-oriented figure. There is disagreement over how to do it, though, with Tenet calling for a covert operation and the rest opting for open military action. Gore notes that Tenet supposedly already has a covert op underway in Pakistan, Operation Mountain Strike, the aim of which is to capture or kill Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri. "Is it really feasible," he asks, "either to expand this operation to encompass regime change in Islamabad as well, or mount another covert effort for that purpose? How covert would it stay if we did? And if it isn't likely to stay covert anyway, why not simply intervene openly, as in Afghanistan?"

Tenet reluctantly acknowledges that secrecy may be impossible to maintain. Obviously unhappy, he admits that Mountain Strike itself is becoming an open secret in northern Pakistan.

Gore decides he has no choice but to order direct military intervention.