Wampum

Of the nineteen justices on the Supreme Court, fifteen, including Chief Justice ftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, were "removed" and arrested over the weekend. Of the twenty seven justices on the Sindh High Court, twenty three judges, including Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed were "removed" and arrested over the weekend.

The device employed is a requirement to "take oath" under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) that was issued by the Musharraf Regime directly after its proclamation of a "state of emergency" on Saturday.

Thomas Moore refused to swear the Oath of Supremacy of 1534, which made Henry Tudor head of the Church of England, was charged with praemunire, tried for treason, sentenced to death, and beheaded at London Tower. His last words were The King's good servant, but God's First. The translation to modern Pakistan, or the US after Gore v Bush, substitutes "Constitution" for "God".

Shaukat Aziz has just made the first official announcement of the scope of the arrests -- between 400 and 500 "preventative arrests". At this point, just about anyone you could name from the bench or the courts or the opposition parties is either in custody or has been issued a "30 day house arrest", so its Burma write a bit larger, with nuclear weapons, and $11,000,000,000 in military aid from the Bush Regime, which held its own coup in December 12, 2001.