The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

While assasinations and strife are all too common in Pakistan, the extinguishing of a flame for human rights and peace is always a tragedy. One can only hope that a new voice rises from this to replace her.

Also I noticed you only printed the statement from Hillary. Why not others?

S. Markom:

This is the only statement that is in my Inbox

read it again.

Let’s not forget what is most important during this tragedy, how will this help Hillary? As us Hillary supporters know, some folks over there will need to be sacrificed (Iraq & Liebermann-Kyl votes)for the glorious Hillary revolution.

I’m on a lot of the candidate lists / spotted hers because two friends sent it to me directly. I Just added an update — Mark Halperin has compiled a fast list of all the candidates’ statements, and I linked to it. Haven’t read all yet — and I just glanced at Joe Biden’s — his interests me particularly because of his deep knowledge about Pakistan.

I saw Robert Genier did a small segment On MSNBC…
I have not seen him speaking before today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020700016.html

Here is Obama’s statement:

I am shocked and saddened by the death of Benazir Bhutto in this terrorist atrocity. She was a respected and resilient advocate for the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people. We join with them in mourning her loss, and stand with them in their quest for democracy and against the terrorists who threaten the common security of the world.

It’s just so awful. Biden must be terribly upset.

And here is Edwards’ statement:

Benazir Bhutto was a brave and historic leader for Pakistan. Her assassination is a sad and solemn event, and our hearts go out to her family and to the Pakistani people. But we will not let this contemptible, cowardly act delay the march of progress in Pakistan for a single second.

I have seen firsthand in Pakistan, and in meetings with Prime Minister Bhutto and President Musharraf, the instability of the country and the complexity of the challenges they face. At this critical moment, America must convey both strength and principle. We should do everything in our power to help bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to justice and to ensure that Bhutto’s movement toward democracy continues.

Trying to turn this tragedy against Hillary is really quite disgusting. Please don’t openly lie and call yourself a supporter.

Yes I just added his statement. What he says is always important to me because of his extraordinary knowledge of foreign affairs.

Thank you, Lisa.

Thank God I don’t have to listen to the lies on CNN, Fox News, SKY News and BBC. I’m tuned into Al Jazeera in English for the truth!

Save it for a less somber and troubling time.

It’s a shame that such an incident would’ve occurred. It now seems to be for the better that Bhutto had been out of the country all this while. She’d been so caring for her countrymen, all her life, and this is what she gets in return.

Just posted a video on her life and a few words too, titled Benazir Bhutto Killed By Gunmen And Suicide Bomber.

Hope you give it a visit.

Thanks.

Do you think that the terrorists that did this went to the same Madrassa as Hussein Obama? I bet you they did.

Will do. Here’s the link (in the username):
http://my-labyrinth.blogspot.com/

Al Jazeera: “She has three teenaged sons who are prepared to rip that country apart”.

The death of Bhutto is a horror. Someone has made her a martyr for Pakistani democracy. I am utterly grieved by this disaster.

You sir or madam, are a sad and miserable person. Your pathetic attempt at humor would be much better received at a republican-blog where the average reader’s intellect matches your own.

In Biden’s statement, he says the U.S. should offer to send in investigative teams.

John McLaughlin says it was Al Qaeda. What a shock (that he’d say that).

On tv or the streaming web? What truth?

My question re: international relations and the Bhutto assassination

Should the US step aside in terms of rhetoric and investigation and encourage cooperation and peaceful relations between the impacted principles – Pakistan and India? It is possible, for example, that the AQ Khan network flourished in the wake of strained Pakistan/India relations and so, will Pakistan’s stability regress along the same lines?

Wouldn’t be surprised if Zarqawi from beyond the grave was involved too.

John McLaughlin must get all the google inside info.

Now Pakastan is the “central war on terrorist”.
MSNBC – Robert Genier

Frankly, I could not possibly care less what self-serving, empty, meaningless blather is being carefully and cynically crafted for American presidential candidates by their P.R. directors. And it strikes me as a serious case of American self- absorption that this is where the focus is being placed.

What matters is not what Hillarobamedwardbidrichardodd’s Communication Directors think they need to say to get a nice boost in the polls out if this death. What matters is what the short-term and long-term effects of this will be for the Pakistani people.

And let’s not be in such a hurry to go all warm and fuzzy and treacle-and-melted-chocolatey about what a wonderful advocate she was for everything fine and wonderful, and how she promised democracy, human rights, truth, justice, and the American way (well, OK, maybe that, since she WOULD have been very beholden to the Bush administration) and how hope and promise for the Pakistani people, and the world has died with her. Let us be clear about the fact that she was an avaricious and corrupt politician who ran a deeply corrupt government. Let us be very clear about the fact that her return to Pakistan was engineered and shoved down the throat of the Pakistanis by the Bush administration. She was not there for any altruistic reason, but was simply taking opportunistic advantage of the Bush regime’s always-disastrous habit of meddling in other countries’ governmental affairs in order to regain power and reline her personal coffers.

And let us also be clear that this is yet another case of the by-now-famous Bushite reverse Midas touch in which once again their self-interested meddling in the internal affairs of another country has led to tragedy and potential disaster.

Benazir Bhutto was not a “flame for human rights and peace”. She was an avaricious and extremely corrupt politician who ran a deeply corrupt government, and who was taking advantage of an opportunity provided to her by the Bush administration.

CNN International over here in Europe keeps telling me that it was a ‘suicide’ bomber (echoes of bloodthirsty Palestinians… if you know what I mean) and overtly implying that it was a terrorist (more images of islamofascist-osamas come to mind).

When in reality, what we have here was a bomb that, may or may have been strapped to a willing or unwilling soul that killed a political hot potato in Pakistan. Now they are even saying that perhaps her head was shot off before the bomb even exploded.

And who really benefited most from her death? Answer that and you will likely find out who killed her. And methinks it was probably motivated by other forces than the cave dwellers up north near the border with Afghanistan.

The press is climbing all over each other to blame the commies… no err, sorry wrong era…. I mean the Islamic extremists (or by de facto all Muslims). Even U.K. New Labour Poodle Gordon Brown attempted a limp tepid bit of rhetoric with a talk of how the Islamic Fundies will never win in Pakistan… and “never win on British soil” (key God Save the Queen in the background).

Therefore further validating New Labour’s draconian anti-terror legislation (which makes the Patriot Act look like the Magna Carta). Brown slyly painted Muslims into another corner in the U.K. by implying that forces in Pakistan that popped Bhutto were dwelling the very back alleys of England somehow. Pump the fear, pump the fear… pump the fear.

A interseting link to TPM and an interview :

TPM’s Spencer Ackerman talks to Pakistan expert Barnett Rubin about Bhutto’s assassination and what it means for Pakistan and the United States.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/062049.php

….Brown slyly painted Muslims into another corner in the U.K. by implying that forces in Pakistan that popped Bhutto were dwelling the very back alleys of England somehow. Pump the fear, pump the fear… pump the fear….

Brits are coming to Italy and buying up property in the countryside even though they arn’t entitled to residence. The reason they SAY they don’t have residence is because “terrorists” are coming to Italy from Eastern EU countries so Italy doesn’t give automatic residence to any citizen from another EU state. But this is simply NOT true. Brits don’t have residence in other EU member states because Britain and Ireland didn’t sign the Schengen Treaty. So, I agree, the Britsh agenda (just like the USA)is to pump the fear. In reality EU citizens wouldn’t care one hoot if Britain and Ireland dropped out of the EU altogether.

First, at this point no one knows who killed Benazir Bhutto. It could have been “Islamist terrorists”, it could have been agents of the military or Musharraf’s government, some have even suggested that she was accidentally hit by police gunfire. So, you the assumption that it was “terrorists” is premature.

Second, there is no such thing as a madrassa. The word is madrasa (yes, the double-versus-single letter is important), and it is pronounced MADruhsuh, not MuDRAHsuh. The word means school, simply. Most madaris are secular, some are religious, and are run by mosques or churches or synagogues.The madrasa Barak Obama attended was, like most madaris, a secular madrasa.

And for those who like to make an issue of his middle name being Hussein – ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I suspected that she was expendable. Now her death will give us the excuse to sent troops.

Suckers. Suckers all around.

Check this out

This report, published today in The Australian newspaper, appeared on the Murdoch media portal news.com.au within half an hour of the confirmation of the announcement of Bhutto’s death (excerpts) :

US Special Forces are to increase their presence in Pakistan amid assessments that the country is to become the central battlefield for al-Qaida as it is driven from Iraq.
“Pakistan should be carefully watched because it could prove to be a significant flashpoint in the coming year,” US think tank Strategic Forecasting said in an evaluation of al-Qaida’s tactics as the Islamist group comes under mounting pressure in Iraq.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22978944-2,00.html

Do you think that the terrorists that did this went to the same Madrassa as Hussein Obama? I bet you they did.

LOL!

“She’d been so caring for her countrymen, all her life…”

Caring?!! She lined her pockets at their expense.

She was a respected and resilient advocate for the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people.

SINCE WHEN?

Let me go throw up after reading the rest of this statement.

Please keep us informed.

Yes, Leslie, there is a good likelihood that she would have won, largely due to the widespread (but by no means universal) “anybody but Musharraf” impetus. But let’s not pretend she was something she was not simply because she is dead.

And let’s not pretend that the cynically crafted P.R. statements of American presidential candidates are even worth paying attention to, let alone focusing on.

Clock Timeline

http://www.thebulletin.org/minutes-to-midnight/timeline.html

TV. Al Jazeera (English), Satellite channel 522

I spoke to my close friend in Pakistan this morning. He was not, of course, able to say who he thought was responsible, but reading between the lines, I believe it is Musharraf. He and his family were fans of neither Musharraf nor Bhutto.

And, by the way, what I have been hearing consistently is that she was shot in the neck before the bomb went off, that they performed emergency surgery at the hospital.

How do you get that, Centrocitta? I so wish I could get that channel on my TV. Do you listen online? Oh wait … you’re in Italy. No wonder. Sigh. All the cable and satellite providers in the U.S. are terrified to add Al J. English because they’d get a huge backlash from the ‘wingers. (Ignorant bastards.)

The press is climbing all over each other to blame the commies… no err, sorry wrong era…. I mean the Islamic extremists (or by de facto all Muslims).

Heh. Pump the fear is right. Also pump your dollars and soldiers into another losing battle.

Al Jazeera (English) says she was shot in the neck AND chest before the bomb went off and that she got hit when she stuck her head out the car window as they were preparing to drive off.

Yeah. Not the best statement, especially compared to the others’. (Btw, I heard that his campaign mgr., David Axelrod, is talking to the press, speculating about who killed her. More on that if I learn more.)

Biden’s is powerful. This paragraph made me sad:

“I am convinced Ms. Bhutto would have won free and fair elections next week. The fact that she was by far Pakistan’s most popular leader underscores the fact that there is a vast, moderate majority in Pakistan that must have a clear voice in the system. Her assassination makes it all the more urgent that Pakistan return to a democratic path.

It is patronizing and insulting. Why should Pakistan need the American government to investigate for it? They are too primitive to do their own investigations?

So Condi and Zalmay arranged for Ms Bhutto to go back to Pakistan.
Then King Abdullah arranged for Nawaz Sharif to go back to Pakistan.
Then Kind Abdullah arranged for the President of Iran to make the Hajj this year, and the President of Iran accepted.
And the Saud’s tried to arrange for the house arrested AG of Pakistan to make the Hajj but he declined.
When folks start believing how important they are alive it is good to remember that they can be more important dead. Bhutto is more important now than she has been for decades. ( oh and her party was projected to finish fourth in the election, the votes are already counted all that remained was the voting ) http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/28/content_7326091.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bhutto_aide_blames_military-security_establishment/articleshow/2656367.cms

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7181533,00.html

I have to think again, that the average American does not know the real situation in Pakistan to even give it a logical verbiage/oreitation. We simply do not know how it works over there and again I do fear that the US was involved in her being there in the first place since they were upset on how the current dictator was doing things and thumbing his nose at us. Such a shame that ppl have to die for our involvement in other countries and their political happenings or circumstances.

No can get…Do they stream?

“the country is to become the central battlefield for al-Qaida as it is driven from Iraq.”

What a pile of crap! Al Qa`eda is not IN Iraq – not in any noticeable numbers, anyway. So-called Al Qa`eda in Mesopotamia is not Al Qa`eda, it is a cheap knock-off with no real connection to bin Laden or his organization.

Since when is right, Cee! She was an advocate for lining her pockets and those of her family and cronies, and that’s about it.

Sure is closer. People like Bush are thrilled.

I got the most interesting thing in the mail the other day.

An evangelical named Steve Wohlberg was contacted by the chaplains office of the Pentagon and went to speak to people attending a morning prayer breakfast.
The topic was the book of Revelation. His point was that the US government represents the beast.

I just checked and found it online.

http://www.whitehorsemedia.com/about/newsletters/details.cfm?news=23

Jump TV has Al Jazeera English – for a fee, of course. http://www.jumptv.com/en/channel/aljazeerainternational/

You DO know that Al Jazeera has an English news website:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55ABE840-AC30-41D2-BDC9-06BBE2A36665.htm

Al Jazeera English TV and website do not run the same content, though, as the Arabic edition.

Maybe to you. To me it is all meaningless bullshit carefully crafted for maximum P.R. impact – just another campaign speech.

Yes, she was also hit in the chest based on what I have been hearing.

too dispirited to comment much; may bush & cheney burn in hell.

bush & cheney, the SADIM boys — midas spelled backwards.

True, but “flame for rights and peace” is what presidential candidates must say, however false it might be. Since a lot of readers on this blog seem intent on analyzing the entirely political BS statements issued by the candidates on Bhuto’s assasination (at least we have been spared the Republicans waxing lyrical), I guess we’ll just have to go with it. Nice to see someone call seaweed for what it is, instead of insisting that it’s a rose bush.

“Such a shame that ppl have to die for our involvement in other countries…”

I could not agree more!

At close range or?

Possibly the most accurate use of American slang to describe Al Qaeda in Iraq that I’ve seen: “A cheap knockoff.” I’ll try to give you credit when I use this in the future.

Interesting theory. I haven’t seen any evidence yet that the hitmen were Indonesian. but now that we know what to look for, we’ll keep out eyes open. Message to Bob Gates: Screw the secret Soviet-China accord. Here’s a conspiracy that you can sink your teeth into!

Yeah, well, I do not consider myself at all sophisticated regarding D.C. politics, and even I know that all these candidates’ and other politicians’ statements are nothing but cynically opportunistic and meaningless campaign blather designed to help the numbers. It’s all a lot of sound and fury that tells us nothing meaningful about the situation.

Good lord. Chill. Take a walk.

Susan, I am worried sick about my family in Pakistan, and what all this will mean for them both in the short and in the long term, so pardon me if I I find it tiresome that so much attention is being paid to opportunistic “statements” by American politicians.

I didn’t hear anything about that one way or another, but my guess is that it wasn’t at terribly close range, as it seems she was more or less intact and still alive when she got to the hospital.

More important dead ey?

The End of the Primary’s Holiday From History
John Podhoretz – 12.27.2007 – 10:27

The horrifying assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan this morning comes only one week before the Iowa caucuses and 12 days before New Hampshire. It is a sobering and frightening reminder of the challenges and threats and dangers posed to the United States by radical Islam, the nature of the struggle being waged against the effort to extend democratic freedoms in the Muslim world, and the awful possibility of a nuclear Pakistan overrun by Islamofascists. This is what the next president will be compelled by circumstance to spend a plurality of his or her time on.http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/1684

Romney however, taking the hint from Podhoretz, straps on his six-shooter.

Pakistan has long been a key part in the war against extremism and radical jihadists. For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the War on Terror, one must look no further than what has happened today. America must show its commitment to stand with all moderate forces across the Islamic world and together face the defining challenge of our generation – the struggle against violent, radical jihadists.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/27/132526/61/269/426889

AQ is, in a form, publicly “taking credit” with their statement:

““We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

However I consider it entirely possible the “we” used in the statement could just refer to the jihad movement brothers in arms mentality, and not necessarily implicate Zawahiri specifically, as the AKI article suggests.

Were I a betting girl, I’d place my money on newly appointed Taliban/Pakistan leader, Baitullah Mehsud… all with a wink and a nod of approval from Zawahiri and all the AQ umbrella/associated terror groups, of course

GOV. HUCKABEE IS SICK FUCK!

(susan, larry & leslie, this might be worthy of a separate post by y’all.)

he goes pheasant hunting yesterday. put 3 dead pheasants at the feet of the press. then says.

“These three birds all said they would not vote for me on 
caucus night. You see what happened to ‘em. Now that one that flew away? We saw a Huckabee button on his rear-end, and so we knew not to take him.”

also, i’ve seen reported on the inner tubes that huck said (ron) “paul is dead.” haven’t investigated it, but i don’t like it. this following tim-meh russert’s press the meat interview with ron paul. ge’s lackey concludes by saying something like “be safe out there on the campaign trail.” what i want to know is this: has russert EVER said this to any pres. candidate on his program this election season? threat delivered timmeh?

oh, AND huck’s hunting party circled back and shot in the direction of where the press was. a camera man said, “oh, that’s too close.” huckabee and cheney, poster boys for hunter safety.

Ina Jaffe: “What does hunting pheasants have to do with running for President?”

Huckabee: “It has everything to do with running for President. Because that way you prove that you can shoot and if somebody really messes with you with negative campaign ads, they just need to be prepared…I have mentioned nobody’s name. I’m just talking about, you know, taking care of business.”

“You like to speak in metaphors, governor,” one reporter asked. “What’s the metaphor for this?”

“Don’t get in my way,” Huckabee said. “This is what happens.” He looked down at the three lifeless birds, now laid out in the snow. Someone asked which bird was named Romney. “Each of these three birds made a sacrifice for the campaign,” Huckabee said. “We’re just asking Iowans to make much less of a sacrifice on caucus night.”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/27/21731/147/415/426743

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/27/huckabee-this-is-what-happens%e2%80%a6you-vote-for-me-you-live-you-dont%e2%80%a6there-you-go/

Yes, entirely possible. Read up on Baitullah Mehsud, brother of now deceased Abdullah Mehsud and newly appointed leader of Pakistan’s Taliban.

From an Anthony Bruno report I read:

Baitullah instructed Al Qaeda militants in Karachi to kill her for “three major offenses against Islamists.”

First, she supported the Pakistani military attack on Lal Masjid (the Red Mosque) in Islamabad on July 10, 2007—Lal Masjid was considered a hotbed of Islamist radicalism; one hundred and sixty-four Pakistani special-forces commandos stormed the mosque and madrassah, killing at least 20 and injuring over 100.

Second, Bhutto has made it clear that if she takes power in Pakistan, she will allow American forces to search for Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan’s borders.

Third, she has said that if elected, she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to question A. Q. Khan

.

Baitullah has sworn allegience to Mullah Omar, and has an established financial/working arrangment with OBL/Zawahiri’s AQ umbrella organization.

Indicative of the fragile relationships, Mullah Omar’s Taliban was created by Bhutto with her friend, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, back in the 1990s as a protection force for Pakistan’s imports against Hekmaytar. Tho the Taliban turned far more radical than she liked, she and her ministers continued financial support for the Taliban… who then harbored OBL.

Shirin is correct. She is not the freedom saint the media portrays, but a corrupt opportunist that is pro western… and, in some ways, the “mother of the Taliban”. However, despite her failings, she was another voice who’s loss is to be lamented.

…and your worry and focus is well placed, Shirin. May they be safe, and that your countrymen maintain clear heads.

more stuff on huckabee. from digby.

Were it not for the Bhutto assassination, I think this hit piece on Mike Huckabee would have been a pretty big story, and it still might be. The fact that the Huck is still giving paid speeches for up to $25,000 while running for President is at the least unseemly. What’s more, his reply that “unlike people who are independently wealthy, if I don’t work, I don’t eat,” when he’s getting $25 grand per speech, and after a litany of stories about loads of gifts and perks he took while Governor of Arkansas, is just out of touch.

for reference purposes.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/double-bind-by-dday-were-it-not-for.html

FREE ADVICE TO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

You have the right to remain Silent;

Please try to muster the ability to so remain.

Anything you say can and will bite you in the ass long before the the Primaries.

Save the hagiography for the State Funeral.

(This advice is offered gratis, but, should you find it useful, please remit 2 hours’ Consulting fee in the usual billing period. All instruments payable to The April Glaspie Institute for International Understanding.)

Thank you!

Bhutto was Musharraf’s easy out. She was ideal for conceding his stance with the West and not truly limiting his own role behind closed doors.

She was a face who could speak english well enough to shape PR, and she had ties to Western interests, and she was corrupt enough to let everyone profit off her rise to power once more.

Win-win for Musharraf.

This was a major loss for someone, unless the General had some kind of assurance he’d have our full force behind him. He’s been trying to tightrope and act in that regard and distance self from the West domestically and still come into the view of internationalists. Bombing his countryside and the border along Afghanistan didn’t seem to help this process…

To the extent this was retaliation for an opposition attack of recent, it looks like both are the result instead of intercine sabotage by any one of a swath of radicals who vary their fealthy to any cause or groups not their own.

To the extent this had any dealings with the Mid East Peace Conference remains to be seen. SEATO perhaps should have a greater role, but it’s clear that the non-secular model of cultures within the Crescent is a major problem. Trying to develop any kind of working consensus between other states hits a roadblock. The background religious fervor seems to amplify ethnic underpinnings of discord and this carries across local borders in regional models.

Biden is smart to offer our assistance in the bombing investigation, our FBI is marvelous at collecting evidence and we need that just to get the right take on how close to the existing leadership structure this hit piece actually was.

Can Larry evaluate the technical procedures of providing security to Benazir Bhutto on Rawalpindi?

What are the standard procedures for such a political event? Ms.Bhutto’s security chief has complained bitterly that the cell phone jammers provided by the police on three previous occasions did not work. What are they for, and would they have helped to prevent Bhutto’s assassination?

Also, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, is considered a Garrison City and is the headquarters of the Army. How significant is this in the assassination?