Not mentioned in any of these "reports" is(1) the fact that Pakistan is a fine mess due to the "meddling" of Henry Kissinger (who was in India when Benazir returned to Pakistan.) Henry is now a policy adviser to John McCain! And his tone on Iran had to be adjusted after the National Intelligence Estimate came out; to do the spin he had Alexis Debat do his dirty work ... and yet he was extraordinarily MUM about Benazir's return.
(2) what did people really think Benazir went to Pakistan FOR?? Are there not Other Leaders - or is she the exact definition of power gone totally mad? I know what I think. I don't think her life was worth the original 140 dead (and we now know the "worshipping hordes" there were overstated and PAID to show up!) and this certainly shows what a risky political gambles the rich are willing to take with Other People's lives.
(3) Pakistan is a social laboratory for BuZh and Cheney, a trial balloon. Who REALLY benefits by keeping a state completely in a ongoing crisis? The world's one huge superpower, that is who . and who benefits the MOST - those who represent the government AND Big Business at the same time: ergo, HALLIBURTON, KRB, and Carlyle group. Think about it.
(4) Was it a suicide bomber .. OR .. wuz it something else. The press is very contradictory! Smacks of OTHER known assassinations such as JFK, 9/11 .. At the bottom I have placed the raw story comments on the NEW STORY .. and the next item is the raw news story ...
I wonder what problems the suicide bomber had, how much the jackals paid him to take care of his whole family by "merely" putting into play this one horrible scene of death.
While I may be SAD that another person on this planet has died another bloody death, I think it can be safely said that given the situation, Benazir Bhutto could have better served the cause of Pakistani interests by staying OUT OF THAT COUNTRY. She would then be able to be a mother to her children and the jackals would have to figure out someone else to do in.
Veeger
Riots in Pakistan after assassination
Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:03 pm (PST)
Riots break out in aftermath of Bhutto's death
Shyema Sajjad, Special to CTV.ca
Thu. Dec. 27 2007
http://www.ctv. ca/servlet/ ArticleNews/ story/CTVNews/ 20071227/ karachi_report_ 0712\
27/20071227? hub=TopStories
KARACHI, Pakistan -- The major cities in Pakistan, including the garrison city of Rawalpindi, have all broken out in chaos after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, chairperson of Pakistan People's Party.
The buildings are being torched and there are people out on the streets yelling anti-government slogans, attacking vehicles on the road. In Karachi, riots have broken out on the streets and people are leaving their cars parked on the road and walking home to avoid being attacked.
In residential areas in Karachi, such as the Defence Housing Authority, people are running around with sticks and stones, attacking cars passing by. Gas stations are being torched and there is mayhem among the groups who don't know whom to blame and what implications
lie ahead for the country.
There is a lot of apprehension about what lies next and the people who are out on the streets are being motivated by sadness and anger.
Bhutto, a key player in Pakistan's upcoming election, was a hero to many. Her death has caused mixed emotions as people vent their anger and confusion out on the streets. There is also a fear that this was a ploy to delay Pakistan's democratic process.
Weddings were left abandoned and restaurant meals left untouched as people raced home and all public places closed down.
A big explosion occurred at 9 p.m., local time, opposite Park Towers, one of the largest malls in Karachi. People across the mall were stoning cars and shouting PPP slogans as terrified shoppers rush to escape.
Anti-Pervez Musharraf slogans are being yelled out in the cities. And in Larkana, Sindh, people are walking around with guns on the street. At least 10 banks have been burnt in Larkana, according to local news alerts. Buses are also being torched to block major bridges leading to
Karachi's industrial areas.
The people on the streets, of all ages, are large groups of young men. Election posters and banners are being torched and an address was made to the nation by President Pervez Musharraf who stated that the flag will be raised at half-mast for three days in Pakistan.
Gun shots can be heard in Karachi's residential areas and not a person can be seen on the streets of the quieter areas. Houses are being locked and bolted to avoid attacks and no one is stepping out of their homes. With phone lines jammed and television stations randomly going off-air, people are making sure they have supplies in case electricity is turned off as well.
Even those who were not particularly in favour of her policies are shocked and saddened by her violent and sudden death and the mixed emotions can be seen on the streets where people are turning to violence as their confusion and anger prevails.
Shyema Sajjad, a journalist in Karachi, attended Ryerson University's journalism school in Toronto last year.
===
Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated at Rally
By SADAQAT JAN and ZARAR KHAN,AP
2007-12-27
http://news. aol.com/story/ _a/pakistans- bhutto-assassina ted-at-rally/ 200712270819\
09990001#addNewCmmn t
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Dec. 27) -- Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack. Her death threw the campaign for critical Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos and stoked fears of mass protests and violence across the
nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
At least 20 others were also killed in the attack on a campaign rally where the 54-year-old Bhutto had just spoken.
Her supporters erupted in anger and grief after her death, attacking police and burning tires and election campaign posters in several cities. At the hospital where she died, some smashed glass and wailed, chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf blamed Islamic extremists for Bhutto's death and said he would redouble his efforts to fight them.
"This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war," he said in a nationally televised speech. "I have been saying that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists. ... We will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."
Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, where they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the elections, an official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. She was shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blew himself up, said Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser.
Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party, said he was standing about 10 yard away from her vehicle at the time of the attack."She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans in her favor. Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle's roof and responding to their slogans," he said."Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away," he added.
Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery. She died about an hour after the attack.
"At 6:16 p.m., she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.
"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.
Bhutto's supporters at the hospital exploded in anger, smashing the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit. Others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.
"I saw her with my own eyes sitting in a vehicle after addressing the rally. Then, I heard an explosion," Tahir Mahmood, 55, said sobbing. "I am in shock. I cannot believe that she is dead."
Many chanted slogans against Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in her killing.
"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment ... but they paid no heed to our requests," Malik said.
As news of her death spread, angry supporters took to the streets.
In Karachi, shop owners quickly closed their businesses as protesters set tires on fire on the roads, torched several vehicles and burned a gas station, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.
In Rawalpindi, the site of the attack, Bhutto's supporters burned election posters from the ruling party and attacked police, who fled from the scene. Violence also broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and many other parts of Pakistan, where Bhutto's supporters set fire to a bus, pelted stones at shops and blocked city roads.
Musharraf, who announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, urged calm.
"I want to appeal to the nation to remain peaceful and exercise restraint," he said.
Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and opposition leader, arrived at the hospital and sat silently next to Bhutto's body.
"Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers."
Speaking to the BBC, Sharif also questioned whether to hold the elections.
"I think perhaps none of us is inclined to think of the elections," he said. "We would have to sit down and take a very serious look at the current situation together with the People's Party and see what we have to do in the coming days."
Hours earlier, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.
Bhutto's death will leave a void at the top of her party, the largest political group in the country, as it heads into the elections. It also fueled fears that the crucial vote could descend into violence.
Pakistan is considered a vital U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists including the Taliban. Osama bin Laden and his inner circle are believed to be hiding in lawless northwest Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.
In Washington, the State Department condemned the attack.
"It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy," deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach an accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, who was seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her party had been widely expected to do well in next month's elections.
Pakistan was just emerging from another crisis after Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, and used sweeping powers to round up thousands of his opponents and fire Supreme Court justices. He ended emergency rule Dec. 15 and subsequently relinquished his role as army chief, a key opposition demand. Bhutto had been an outspoken critic of Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.
Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996.
Her father was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, scion of a wealthy landowning family in southern Pakistan and founder of the populist Pakistan People's Party. The elder Bhutto was president and then prime minister of Pakistan before his ouster in a 1977 military coup. Two years later, he was executed by the government of Gen. Zia-ul Haq after being convicted of engineering the murder of a political opponent.
Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18. On the same day, she narrowly escaped injury when her homecoming parade in Karachi was targeted in a suicide attack that killed more than 140 people.
Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban hated Bhutto for her close ties to the Americans and support for the war on terrorism. A local Taliban leader reportedly threatened to greet Bhutto's return to the country with suicide bombings.
At the scene of Thursday's bombing, an Associated Press reporter saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park, where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.
Police cordoned off the street with white and red tape, and rescuers rushed to put victims in ambulances as people wailed nearby.
The clothing of some victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies. Police caps and shoes littered the asphalt.
Hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints around the venue. It was Bhutto's first public meeting in Rawalpindi since she came back to the country.
In November, Bhutto had also planned a rally in the city, but Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears.
In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi, where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has its headquarters.
===
Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally
By Salman Masood and Graham Bowley
The New York Times
Thursday 27 December 2007
http://www.truthout .org/docs_ 2006/122707Q. shtml
Rawalpindi, Islamabad - An attack on a political rally killed the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto near the capital, Islamabad, Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon at close range before the blast, and an official from her party said Ms. Bhutto was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a suicide attacker.
Ms. Bhutto was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Rawalpindi at 6:16 p.m. after the doctors had tried to resuscitate her for thirty-five minutes. She had shrapnel injuries, the doctors said. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack.
"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Ms. Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack, according to The Associated Press.Hundreds of supporters had gathered at the political rally, which was being held
at Liaqut Bagh, a park that is a common venue for political rallies and speeches, in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to the capital.
Amid the confusion after the explosion, the site was littered with pools of blood. Shoes and caps of party workers were lying on the asphalt, and shards of glass were strewn about the ground. Pakistani television cameras captured images of ambulances pushing through crowds of dazed and injured people at the scene of the assassination.
CNN reported that witnesses at the scene described the assassin as opening fire on Ms. Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up.
Farah Ispahani, a party official from Ms. Bhutto's party, said: "It is too soon to confirm the number of dead from the party's side. Private television channels are reporting twenty dead." Television channels were also quoting police sources as saying that at least 14
people were dead.
At the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was taken, a large number of police began to cordon off the area as angry party workers smashed windows. Many protesters shouted "Musharraf Dog". One man was crying hysterically, saying "O my sister has been killed." Amid the crowd,
dozens of people beat their chests, and chanted slogans against Mr. Musharraf.
The attack immediately raised questions about whether parliamentary elections scheduled for January will go ahead or be postponed.
Ms. Bhutto was the target of a suicide attack in October in Karachi when she returned from exile to Pakistan. That attack, caused by two bombs exploding just seconds apart, narrowly missed Ms. Bhutto but killed scores of people, including many of her party workers. Ms. Bhutto had been warned by the government before her return to Pakistan that she faced threats to her security. She did not blame the president, Pervez Musharraf, for the Karachi attack but said extremist Islamic groups who wanted to take over the country were behind the attacks, which killed 134 people.The attack Thursday in Rawalpindi is the latest blow to Pakistan's treacherous political situation. It comes just days after President Pervez Musharraf lifted a state of emergency, imposed in part because of terrorist threats.Ms. Bhutto, 54, returned from self-imposed exile to Pakistan this year to present herself as the answer to the nation's troubles: a tribune of democracy in a state that has been under military rule for eight years, and the leader of the country's largest opposition political party, founded by her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, one of Pakistan's most flamboyant and democratically inclined prime ministers.
But her record in power, and the dance of veils she has deftly performed since her return -- one moment standing up to the Pakistan president, General Musharraf, then next seeming to accommodate him, and never quite revealing her actual intentions -- has stirred as much
distrust as hope among Pakistanis.
A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, she brought the backing of Washington and London, where she impresses with her political lineage, her considerable charm and her persona as a female Muslim leader.
But with these accomplishments, Ms. Bhutto also brought controversy, and a legacy among Pakistanis as a polarizing figure who during her two turbulent tenures as prime minister, first from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, often acted imperiously and impulsively.
She faced deep questions about her personal probity in public office, which led to corruption cases against her in Switzerland, Spain and Britain, as well as in Pakistan.
Ms. Bhutto saw herself as the inheritor of her father's mantle,
often spoke of how he encouraged her to study the lives of legendary
female leaders ranging from Indira Gandhi to Joan of Arc.
Following the idea of big ambition, Ms. Bhutto called herself chairperson for life of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, a seemingly odd title in an organization based on democratic ideals and
one she has acknowledged quarreling over with her mother, Nusrat Bhutto, in the early 1990s.
Saturday night at the diplomatic reception, Ms. Bhutto showed how she could aggrandize. Three million people came out to greet her in Karachi on her return last month, she said, calling it Pakistan's "most historic" rally. In fact, crowd estimates were closer to 200,000, many of them provincial party members who had received small amounts of money to make the trip.
Such flourishes led questioning in Pakistan about the strength of her democratic ideals in practice, and a certain distrust, particularly amid signs of back-room deal-making with GeneralMusharraf, the military ruler she opposed."She believes she is the chosen one, that she is the daughter of Bhutto and everything else is secondary," said Feisal Naqvi, a corporate lawyer in Lahore who knew Ms. Bhutto.When Ms. Bhutto was re-elected to a second term as Prime Minister, her style of government combined both the traditional and the modern, said Zafar Rathore, a senior civil servant at the time.
But her view of the role of government differed little from the classic notion in Pakistan that the state was the preserve of the ruler who dished out favors to constituents and colleagues, he recalled.
As secretary of interior, responsible for the Pakistani police force, Mr. Rathore, who is now retired, said he tried to get an appointment with Ms. Bhutto to explain the need for accountability in the force. He was always rebuffed, he said.
Finally, when he was seated next to her in a small meeting, he said to her, "I've been waiting to see you," he recounted. "Instantaneously, she said: 'I am very busy, what do you want. I'll
order it right now.' "
She could not understand that a civil servant might want to talk about policies, he said. Instead, he said, "she understood that when all civil servants have access to the sovereign, they want to ask for something."
But until her death, Ms. Bhutto ruled the party with an iron hand, jealously guarding her position, even while leading the party in absentia for nearly a decade.
Members of her party saluted her return to Pakistan, saying she was the best choice against General Musharraf. Chief among her attributes, they said, was sheer determination.
Ms. Bhutto's marriage to Asif Ali Zardari was arranged by her mother, a fact that Ms. Bhutto has often said was easily explained, even for a modern, highly educated Pakistani woman.
To be acceptable to the Pakistani public as a politician she could not be a single woman, and what was the difference, she would ask, between such a marriage and computer dating?
Mr. Zardari is known for his love of polo and other perquisites of the good life like fine clothes, expensive restaurants, homes in Dubai and London, and an apartment in New York.
He was minister of investment in Ms. Bhutto's second government. And it was from that perch that he made many of the deals that haunted Ms. Bhutto, and himself, in the courts.
There were accusations that the couple had illegally taken $1.5 billion from the state. It is a figure that Ms. Bhutto has vigorously contested.
Indeed, one of Ms. Bhutto's main objectives in seeking to return to power was to restore the reputation of her husband, who was jailed for eight years in Pakistan, said Abdullah Riar, a former senator in the Pakistani Parliament and a former colleague of Ms. Bhutto's.
"She told me, 'Time will prove he is the Nelson Mandela of Pakistan,' " Mr. Riar said.
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Graham Bowley from New York.
===
reader comment
Before I start writing anything , I would like to confirm that I am against any and all political assassinations, except for the confirmed-war- criminals who shall even need a proper court condemnation. ...... previously.
Benazir Butho was assassinated hours ago she is a hero for some........ .and "a rich-and-powerful- corrupt-lady" for the others...... .
I know no details , but one or two facts I take into my consideration
in my judgement , what ever it is worth....
1- she inherited her power
2- she was awfully rich
3- she was accused of corruption and then even pardoned , later on
4- The USA never disapproved of her
Otherwise ,
I offer my condolences to her supporters and her family what ever she was or not were.......
democracy or rather plurality has made one step backwards.
Raja Chemayel
PS :
most reporters are asking whether she died from bullets or from that blast....... .....but difference does it make ??
===
PAKISTAN: Benazir Bhutto the ultimate sacrifice
by Beena Sarwar
www.montrealmuslimnews.net
LAHORE (Dec 27): Benazir Bhutto has paid the heaviest price possible for her insistence on engaging in participatory, democratic politics in Pakistan. Bhutto was killed on Thursday evening in what was apparently a suicide bombing following gunshots that injured her as she was leaving a pre-election rally she had just addressed in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.
Twice-elected former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the 54-year old mother of three children, died in hospital in Rawalpindi at about 6.15 pm – barely an hour after an unidentified man fired shots at her as she left the rally venue, a fenced off park, before blowing himself up. Some twenty others were killed and dozens more injured.
"She feared something like this would happen, but she was so brave," said PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, who was with Benazir Bhutto at the rally minutes before the tragedy struck, speaking to IPS from Rawalpindi shortly before Bhutto's body was transferred to her
hometown Larkana on a C-130 plane. "She waved at the people, and then there was firing and the blast."
"I don't think people realize this, but she was one of the last hopes we had in Pakistan for a peaceful transition to democracy," said Karachi-based economist Haris Gazdar, who supported Bhutto's much-criticised `deal' with the military government that allowed her to return to the country and participate in politics.
President and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) promulgated on Oct. 5, a day before the presidential elections that he was a nominee for despite being in military uniform, gave Bhutto immunity against corruption charges brought against her after she was ousted from power in 1996 (none of these charges were proved in court). In return, her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) lent the election legitimacy by abstaining from the vote – the rest of the opposition boycotted the proceedings.
Explaining his support for Bhutto, Gazdar added, "The Americans think we are a dangerous state, and they want to come and sort things out here. This was a chance to do this peacefully. Make no mistake about it, the state is responsible for her death. They may think that by removing the vehicle for a peaceful change, they can stop the change. But that will not happen. Now that the peaceful mediator has been killed, they (Americans) will use armed force."
"I was nine when ZAB was killed by a General. Now my son is nine and another general has killed his daughter. I grew up with Benazir. It's a personal loss. I want to cry forever," text-messaged a lawyer in Lahore. The military regime of General Ziaul Haq overthrew and later executed the democratically elected prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB), Benazir's father, in 1979.
News of the tragic incident ignited violence all over the country, particularly in Sindh, Bhutto's home province. "They've shut down all the shops, and there is firing all around," said Abdul Jabbar who works as a driver in the Sindh capital and Pakistan's largest city and business center Karachi. "People are just overcome with grief."
By 9 pm, violence had claimed at least five lives in Karachi. Protestors in Sindh evacuated two trains and set them on fire. Angry mobs attacked police stations and other symbols of state authority. Commuters were reported to be stranded in towns and cities all over
the province.
Benazir Bhutto had chosen to return to Pakistan after almost nine years of exile, leaving a comfortable life of exile in London and Dubai, defying warnings by Musharraf to delay her arrival due to the danger of suicide attacks."This is why I am here," she said, radiant atop her armoured truck soon after her arrival from Dubai at Karachi on Oct 18. Waving to the sea of people that surrounded her truck as far as the eye could see, she added as thousands of arms rose in response, "These people are the reason I am here."
Hours later, her slow-moving convoy bogged down by thousands of exuberant supporters on foot had only covered a few kilometers when two bombs struck soon after midnight. Initially thought to be a suicide attack, the blasts claimed over 130 lives and 500 injuries.
Addressing a press conference the following day, a defiant Bhutto implied the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in the attacks by mentioning three anonymous men whom she said she had named in a letter of Oct 16 to Musharraf. "I said that if something happens to me, I will hold them responsible rather than militant groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda or the Pakistani Taliban."
The PPP also demanded the removal of the Intelligence Bureau chief, Ijaz Shah, hinting at Pakistani intelligence agencies' linkage with militancy. Bhutto's later claim that the Oct 18 blasts were remote- controlled further implied the involvement of forces other than the `religious militants' who are traditionally held responsible for such acts.
Despite the threats, Bhutto hit the campaign trail after the Election Commission announced on Nov 20 that polls would be held on January 8, 2008. With elections barely two weeks away, Bhutto was engaged in a series of public rallies around the country. Also on the campaign trail was her major political rival, another twice-elected former prime minster who like Bhutto had recently returned from several years of exile, Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Despite their political rivalry, the two leaders had developed what Sharif termed as a "rapport" over the last couple of years. In May 2006, the two exiled leaders in London signed a Charter of Democracy aimed at pushing the military out of Pakistani politics.
Speaking to the media from the hospital in Rawalpindi where he arrived soon after hearing of the incident, Bhutto's death, Sharif termed it as "very tragic". He said that the tragedy reflected
a "lapse in security" and said that the government should have taken greater measures to protect her.
As they embarked on their election campaigns, the two leaders drew huge crowds marked by a passion that the `kings' party', the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) was unable to muster. The campaigning was also marked by violence. Several political workers, mostly PPP, died in various incidents. On Dec 20, a suicide bomb in a mosque in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) killed over 20 people and injured 200 in an attack apparently aimed at former PPP stalwart and ex-interior minister Aftab Sherpao. On Dec 27, barely three hours before the blast that killed Bhutto, gunfire killed four PML-N supporters in a welcome rally for Nawaz Sharif outside the capital city Islamabad.
Bhutto's decision to contest elections "under protest" went against the move to boycott the polls, initiated by `civil society' -- lawyers, students, human rights activists, non-government organisations and the smaller political parties – who argued that participating in the elections would only legitimize Musharraf's role in Pakistani politics. Bhutto maintained that a boycott would not solve anything. Her stand forced Sharif to reconsider his initial position and announce that his party would contest rather than boycotting the polls.
The participation of these political forces posed a major challenge to the PML-Q which ruled the roost along with Musharraf for five years since the 2002 general elections that Bhutto and Sharif had both been barred from contesting. Democratic electoral politics were also expected to push back the `jihadists', the right-wing religious parties who had joined hands as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and made significant electoral inroads during the 2002 elections. MMA was also weakened by internal divisions as some of its components were in the boycott camp while others were contesting elections.
Bhutto's assassination "sends a very frightening signal to those who aim to pursue liberal politics in Pakistan," commented Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan-based South Asia Researcher for Human Rights Watch. "This will leave a huge vacuum at the heard of Pakistani politics. It is the most significant political event to happen in Pakistan since the death of General Zia." Gen. Zia's death in 1988 had paved the way for fresh elections that brought Benazir Bhutto into power as the world's first Muslim woman prime minister. Condoling with Bhutto's family and other affected people in a brief, televised address, President Musharraf announced a three-day mourning period during which the Pakistani flag will be flown at half-mast.
"It is important now for Asif Ali Zardari (Bhutto's husband) to call for peace, and to give Benazir Bhutto a decent burial that she deserves," said Nusrat Javeed, the banned head of current affairs for Aaj Television who appeared in a special transmission along with another banned host, Talat Hussain. "We need to sit and think, and transform the grief and the anger into strength."
Police abandoned security posts before Bhutto assassination
No autopsy performed on body; docs say bullet wounds not found
Police abandoned their security posts shortly before Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's assassination Thursday, according to a journalist present at the time, and unanswerable questions remain about the cause of her death, because an autopsy was never performed.
Read more HERE
“The report says she had head injuries – an irregular patch – and the X-ray doesn’t show any bullet in the head. So it was probably the shrapnel or any other thing has struck her in her said. That damaged her brain, causing it to ooze and her death.”
Reading this rubbish makes me feel like a victim of shrapnel.
--
Ruby Jewelryani
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| This is such a clusterf*k, I now think the Bush Administration is somehow implicated in this. Absolute incompetence abounds:
lack of police security
no autopsy
no "Plan B" for engagement
Bush's support for Musharraf
no bullet wound?!?
At first I thought that it was, as being widely discussed, an internal terrorist attack; there were plenty of wingnut groups out to get her.
But the absolute chaos, with no fix in sight, just smacks of the Bush/Cheney gang.
notKeith | Email | Homepage | 12.28.07 - 11:32 am
Direct link to this comment
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| If you watch the video (as seen on CNN) released by Pakistan of Bhutto's last moments, look in the crowd & you can see a guy filming her with his cellphone- he's quite a but closer to her than the man behind the released video is.
I wonder where that & his cell-vid is.
Anonymous
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| They must have studied the JFK storyline and took it from there.We'll never know the real deal.
RKW
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| look at the video released by Pakistan just moments ago. There's a guy in crowd filming her with his cell phone. I wonder where he & his video are. The cell phone guy is much closer than the man behind the Interior Minitry video.
jeremy
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| on of them new-fangled sound-technology weapon or theresuch
joe
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| WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK?
A SUNROOF KILLED HER?
NO AUTOPSY, GUARDS ABANDONING THEIR POSTS, BULLETS FLYING AND BOMBS EXPLODING...AND A SUNROOF GETS HER?
AND OUR FRIENDS ALI QAEDA AND THE SEVEN THIEVES "CLAIM" RESPONSIBILITY?
ARE WE IN CARTOON LAND?
IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION HERE?
Disenfranchised
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| Kennedy and Lincoln style hit,... To kill the king you need the help of his guards.... Sounds like a plot out of the Jesuit play book! No one does it better than the society of Jesus!
MALTHUSIAN
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| "Perhaps more shockingly, an attendee at the rally where Bhutto was killed says police charged with protecting her 'abandoned their posts,' leaving just a handful of Bhutto's own bodyguards protecting her."
Well! What do you expect in a nation of heathens? That could never happen here.
[JFK assassination: Secret Service Standdown — view video]
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ProudPrimate
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| Well, I don't think it has to be a very complicated plot to imagine that the little dictator Mushareff conveniently ends his "takeover", announces free elections, kills the only real opposition, and then the bungling and obfuscating take over.
The most casual observer
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| yes...just like JFK and 9/11...conflicting stories, bungled investigations...this has MONKEY written ALL over it!...
chuck h |
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| All I can say is, do they think people are that f**king stupid?
All day long, "bullet wounds to neck and chest... and look, there's the gun on the ground." They must have shown that gun a million times and repeated the first story all day long.
Of course it's our old friend, the bogeyman, "Al Qaeda!" Damn, they're good. They're everywhere!
I pity ANYONE who believes this story for it must be difficult to function in life without the slightest bit of reason or logic to work with.
truth hunter
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| She bumped her head and now she's dead??
Har Har! Who makes this shit up???
hannabanana
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| Interestingly, this morning I heard that al Qaeda claimed responsibility for this and said a Pashtun volunteer was the man who blew himself up. (on MSNBC) It reeks of 9/11.
We had the names of the hijackers, and all sorts of info BEFORE any real investigation could be launched. Then there was no congressional investigation until AFTER citizens made a ruckus.
No investigation, no autopsy.
The ones who gain the most from this murder are Bush and Musharraf.
hmmmm
leslie |
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| Islamic custom is to bury the dead as quickly as possible. The coverup was in place before Bhutto was assasinated. Destroy the evidence so no one is to blame and no one can answer for it. Her death was as predictable as the cover-up afterwards. Hardly a surprise to me....
Lets all blame the terrorists. Okay which one? Would you please step forward? Who are the terrorists now? All terrorist groups are guilty until someone figures out what really happened. That will never happen. No one is innocent here. Who do you trust to tell you the truth. The President of Pakistan? The Prime Minister? George Bush? Who will stand up and tell the truth? Who do you believe?
We live in scary times.
The truth will set you free.
We therfore are all enslaved.....
Bill D |
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| Well it appears that the continuation of the same old BS just keeps marching on.
There is no way anyone can convince me that this story is true. I believe this news report is an attempt to lessen the uproar in Pakistian. Some bull-headed nut cooked up this storyline to prevent the US $$ from loosing more value.
After all, this was somewhat of an unpredictible tragedy that was not played out between Bush/Cheney/Rice/Hadley & Perez, et al. Although, Gates made a smirky remark news reporters that al Qeada was becoming more active in Pakistian, (Dec 21, 2007). It doesn't seem as though the had the chance to perfect their plan very well.
The people's reaction to Buhtto's assassination was not at all expected and somehow the elitist have the burden of saving the world of finanical ruin.
So there you have it folks, the best story plot ever played without an official investigation of any kind..just a mere made up storyline.
jive talkin
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| same crap happened with indira ghandhi and her sikh 'guards.' power enjoys power. let the pakistanis who are really devoted to democracy get to the bottom of this; we have our own neo-cons and religious fascists to deal with.
same old
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| so much for the single bullet theory...
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| People don't die immeadiatly from even massive head wounds. Had her skull been fractured it would have taken at least 3 days to die. The Mossad is on overtime trying to get us into a full scale war in the middle east before the Chimp leaves office. Or maybe so the Chimp
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| There is video, but it's not great. You can see it at the CNN link.
In the video you can see something that looks like a square hatch door open on the top of the SUV between the bomb and Bhutto. It looks about 3-4" thick. Presumably the armored sunroof. That would've been blown closed by the shockwave, and with her head only 12-18" out of the top before the attack started, she would have been in the way.
The shockwave moves at something like a mile per second, and a heavy door flapping in that breeze would be deadly. So it's at least possible to explain without believing she just "bumped her head while ducking" and fell over dead.
But the AP gave anonymity to one of the surgeons who worked on her when he described two bullet wounds which weren't there. The AP should name the doctor, who has some explaining to do.
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| How many ministers are shoveling shit over there? For Pete's sake, you'd think we were listening to a WH press briefing with Feigna Spitshitto at the dais while reporters grasp frantically for rolls of toilet paper whenever she opens her mouth!
Yesterday we had bullets ... bullets ... shots fired ... gun on the ground ... and now a fu_king sunroof lever and none of yesterday's reports are true? And WTF is with no autopsy? Good luck with that if YOU get shot in a criminal act where there's also an explosion. Oh, what primo allies we have in TehWarOnTurrur
Those who empower Chimpy and Darth have their blood-soaked paws in this somewhere, no doubt.
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Ruby Jewelryani | Email | Homepage | 12.28.07 - 1:35 pm
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| May those who so callously propagate fear and death reap the whirlwind.
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del.icio.us 
All this is incredibly interesting in light of the recent information that she had NO BULLET WOUNDS, and an autopsy was avoided!!
Couple of things with the Pakistan-situation, which aren’t adding up. As background, Pakistan government is claiming that they have a recording; and that the telecom conference/call shows AlQueda was involved. Here are the problems:
Ongoing Investigation
Normally, during an “ongoing” investigation, the last thing the government in the US would want to do was indicate what they knew or didn’t know. This would tip people off. It makes no sense for the Pakistanis — before apprehending those people supposedly on the tape — to disclose the information the Pakistanis have, their methods, or their suspicions. These should be kept confidential until the suspects are apprehended. Disclosing the information before apprehending anyone casts doubts about the motivations for the disclosure, the accuracy of the claims behind the information, and the credibility the government investigation is serious about finding someone.
Electronic Interception
Curiously, the Pakistanis want us to believe they have a recording, but they cannot explain how they knew — in advance — to target this phone/communication device; or, why — despite this information about the phone — they were unable to put energy into locating in physical space/on planet earth where these people were. It is backwards to have a recording of someone, not take action to detain them; however, know enough to have ongoing surveillance, but there is no apparent effort to ensure the conversations were recorded and acted upon for purposes of preventing an attack.
Questions
- How was the Pakistani government able to pinpoint the phone they were using, but unable to track that phone to a physical location, and prevent the attack; or quickly round up those supposedly involved?
- How many people are they monitoring, who are engaged in ongoing conversations, but they’re not doing anything about?
- If people were going “off line”, then why weren’t people sent into the area to find these people supposedly connected with the phone lines, instead of letting these “known people” wander around?
- How do they explain being able to track a phone line, but no ability to locate that person?
- Why are they disclosing — before apprehending — the identities of the people they think are involved?
Conclusions
The claim the Pakistani government is making are dubious. It does not seem credible that they would disclose — now — specific information about suspects, but not take steps to apprehend the people. Rather, the fact that they supposedly have these people “under surveillance” and have “recordings” suggests the opposite: There are no real recordings, they don’t know where the suspects are, as they should if they can monitor them.
Judgments
The transcript has been fabricated. There are no suspects. The claims AlQueda are making have not been captured on any ongoing surveillance or monitoring effort. The Pakistani government has no evidence. The people making claims have not been targeted through either electronic surveillance or physical detention or monitoring.
The Pakistani government appears to be lying and misrepresenting the status of the investigation. They do not appear to have any real information; and their “disclosure” of this information doesn’t mean the information is real, true, accurate, or signs of progress. It is our judgment the people who may ultimately be brought to trial may have nothing to do with any planning; and it is likely the electronic evidence used to convict them could be tainted, fabricated, and not survive cross-examination. The people currently being targeted, accused, or are “under surveillance” appear to be nothing more than convenient scapegoats. We have no confidence the investigation into the assassination will be untainted. We make no judgements as to the alleged complicity of ISI or who was involved with the assassination.