Tag: Pakistan

The US had chosen who to back in Pakistan, and that was Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.  Not surprisingly, it’s blown up in our faces.  We have no idea where things will lead, but the world is an ever more dangerous place tonight.  With an unstable Afghanistan on one border, Iran on another, longtime rivals India on another and China on the fourth, the instability that this adds could lead to a regional war involving the world’s two most populace countries (and Pakistan is no slouch at over 164 million people.

Accusations, riots, and political instability are among the immediate reactions to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Here’s a roundup.

Talking Points Memo:

A longtime adviser and close friend of assassinated Pakistani ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto places blame for Bhutto’s death squarely on the shoulders of U.S.-supported dictator Pervez Musharraf.

After an October attack on Bhutto’s life in Karachi, the ex-prime minister warned “certain individuals in the security establishment [about the threat] and nothing was done,” says Husain Haqqani, a confidante of Bhutto’s for decades. “There is only one possibility: the security establishment and Musharraf are complicit, either by negligence or design. That is the most important thing. She’s not the first political leader killed, since Musharraf took power, by the security forces.”

Haqqani notes that Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck. “It’s like a hit, not a regular suicide bombing,” he says. “It’s quite clear that someone who considers himself Pakistan’s Godfather has a very different attitude toward human life than you and I do.”

Times of India:

The immediate finger of suspicion though pointed to Pakistan’s security establishment. A key Benazir aide said the country’s military government had much to answer for the assassination because it had not met certain security arrangements required and officials were “dismissive” about Bhutto’s requests in this regard.

“They could have provided better security. Even the equipment they gave consistently malfunctioned. Bhutto had asked for independent security arrangements,” Hussain Haqqani, a US-based former Bhutto aide told CNN .

Haqqani and other analysts like Peter Bergen also pointed out that the attack took place in Rawalpindi, the military garrison town outside Islamabad that is crawling with security personnel and spooks. The fact that she had been shot dead following up a suicide bombing pointed to a concerted effort to finish her off.

Haqqani said he had spoken to Benazir two days ago and she was concerned about the security arrangement and the military government’s effort to rig the election.

This just in from NBC news.  Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22…

VIDEO LINK:   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…

Here’s the BBC Report

[UPDATE] Eye witness report from the assassination:

Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto’s party, said at the time of the attack he was standing about 10 yards away from her vehicle _ a white, bulletproof SUV with a sunroof.

“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.

Mangled bodies lay in a pool of blood and pieces of clothing and shoes were scattered on the road. The clothing of some victims was shredded and people covered their bodies with party flags.  There was an acrid smell of explosive fumes in the air [following the bomb detonation].

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died shortly after being seriously wounded in an attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi, news agencies reported on Wednesday.

This is both horrible and dangerous.

More news will follow on the above link.  This is breaking now.  If you have access to MSNBC, they have brought on Madeline Albright to comment.

She referred to this as a “coup against the rule of law.”

Bhutto’s husband has reported that his wife was shot in the neck during the suicide bombing.

To say that this is a potential disaster for so many is an understatement.  This will put the West in the position to have to strengthen their ties with Mussharaf and cause further destabilisation in what is a nuclear power under pressure from both Al Quaeda and the Taliban.

Madeline Albright: “This has made things even worse in the most tragic way.”

The gunman shot at her as she stood in her vehicle, exposing herself through the sunroof and then detonated his bomb.  It was thought that a bullet severed her spine at her neck and came out through her cheek, but after surgery, reports are emerging that is was the force of the blast that caused her death.

This was a true assassination.   The rally was supposed to be secured by the government security forces with metal detectors and body searches.   That the bomber blew himself up after shooting at her raises the question:  Was it to inflict chaos, maximum damage, kill her supporters or to hide his own identity (or all of the above)?

[UPDATE] VIDEO LINK

The question becomes how both the bomber gained access and who he was that it was important he blow himself up beyond recognition.

Another point of interest:  She met with Karzai of Afghanistan just before the rally.

[UPDATE] The BBC has just filed their report with Mussharaf’s response.

The funeral will be very telling in terms of where the Pakistani people stand and how much further they and the stability of the region are at risk.

[UPDATE]  al Qaeda has claimed responsibility and the Pakistani authorities said they intercepted a phone call from an al Qaeda suspect congratulating someone for the assassination.

Something extremely fishy is going on in the US-Pakistan negotiations.

The world press is reporting that when Deputy Secretary of State Negroponte visited with Pakistani President Musharraf Saturday, urging Musharraf to ease off the “state of emergency” and schedule elections under acceptable conditions, Musharraf responded with a threat.  Essentially saying, “Nice world you’ve got there, be a shame if anything happened to it,” Musharraf told Negroponte that if the Pakistani Army lost control of the government, nukes could get loose.

This is being reported in The Times of India and the UK Telegraph, for example, as a harsh and decisive rebuke of US interference in Musharraf’s affairs.

However, there is something else going on.  Just as word of this remarkable rebuke by Musharraf comes out, we read in The New York Times a new story.  The United States, under a secret Bush plan, has been helping Pakistan secure its nuclear arsenal for years, with a hidden-budget supply of security equipment.

So much has happened over the last 48 hours that I cannot report it all. Also I am no expert on Pakisatan. But from what I have read,  it soumds like, once again, the US is continuing on a collision course with ‘reality’ only this time the tinder box has exponentially broader potential consequences. There’s more…

Admittedly not a hard thing to do to a man who would lose a game of checkers to a 16 oz. bag of shredded mild cheddar cheese.

We learn today that all of the reasons the White House has been backing Musharraf, and all of the ways in which the White House was trying to make it look pretty — make it look like they weren’t ever backing a dictator — are falling apart.

* The White House had hoped former Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto would take part in a for-show power-sharing agreement with Musharraf.  It now apprears she will not do so.

* Musharraf’s aides are now admitting the declaration of martial law had little to nothing to do with cracking down on extremists.

* Those aides also say no moves are planned against said extremists.

More after the jump . . .

Back in 2004, Thomas J. DiLorenzo wrote a piece titled “Bush’s Lincolnian Assault on Civil Liberties (Or, Al Gore is Right!)” Here is some background information:

Under Abraham Lincoln, Habeas corpus was unilaterally (and illegally) suspended … and the military, with the help of a secret police bureaucracy operated by William Seward, imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political opponents. They were thrown into gulags such as Fort Lafayette in New York harbor where they were never charged, had no idea how long they would be held, and their families often had no idea of their whereabouts. (See James Randall, Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln; and Dean Sprague, Freedom Under Lincoln). The Virginia patriot George Washington would have undoubtedly drawn his sword and fought another revolution over such an outrage.