Tense Pakistan Mourns Benazir Bhutto
Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest this morning alongside her father in her ancestral home of Garhi-Kuda Baksh, as violent protest raged on. Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing in Rawalpindi that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally. Click for ongoing news and blogger reaction...
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Reuters: Pentagon Says Pakistani Nukes Secure
AP: Transcript of Alleged al-Qaida Intercept Admitting Bhutto Murder
Telegraph: “One of Miss Bhutto’s aide rejected the government’s explanation of her death as a ‘pack of lies.’”
Phyllis Chesler: “In a sense, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a political and cultural version of an honor killing.”
Confederate Yankee: “While merely speculating, I think that when shots were fired (they missed), her security detail pulled her back inside the vehicle quickly, and she probably hit the back of her head on the sunroof edge as she was pulled in.” UK’s The Sun seems to concur.
IBNlive: “[Interior minister Hamid] Nawaz said that Bhutto died from a head injury. At least seven doctors from the Rawalpindi General Hospital - where the leader was rushed immediately after the attack - say there were no bullet marks on Bhutto’s body. The doctors have submitted a report to the Pakistan government in which they say that no post-mortem was performed on Bhutto’s body and they had not received any instructions to perform one.”
WaPo: “In the initial hours after the slaying, intelligence officials had no firm indication of who was behind the attack and no independent means of verifying any early claims of responsibility. But it was quickly clear that numerous groups possessed both the means of carrying out the assassination and a deep antagonism toward Bhutto and the moderating influences she embodied, according to several current and former officials closely tracking the situation.”
CNN: “Pakistan’s Interior Ministry says the suicide bomber who killed Benazir Bhutto belonged to a group with links to al Qaeda, GEO TV reports.”
Jules Crittenden scans today’s Pakistani press.
CNN: ” It was initially reported that Bhutto, 54, was killed by the bullets of an assassin who blew himself up after firing the shots following a public rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday. But government officials said on Friday that a medical report confirmed that Bhutto was killed by shrapnel from the blast.”
AP: “Furious supporters rampaged through several cities to protest her assassination less than two weeks before crucial elections, and the army was called out to keep order after at least 23 people were killed.”
PJM’s Pakistan correspondent Ghalia Aymen: “As they mourn and try to recover from the shock of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistanis are trying to come to terms with the security failure that allowed such a carefully coordinated shooting-suicide bombing to take place, and asking themselves if it was, indeed, a failure -or a conspiracy. Neither answer is a good one.”
AP: “Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid last respects to Benazir Bhutto as the opposition leader was buried Friday beside her father at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s most famous political dynasty. Furious supporters rampaged through several cities to protest her assassination less than two weeks before a crucial election. Some wept, others chanted “Benazir is alive,” as the plain wood coffin went into the ground inside the cavernous hall of the vast, white marble mausoleum.”
Reuters: “Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday his party would boycott a Jan. 8 general election because of the assassination of another opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto.”
ABC News: “Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said that the government had no immediate plan to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.”
Sky News: “The funeral procession for murder former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto has begun as violence continues to boil across the country.”
CNN: Bhutto’s body arrived in the hours before dawn at her ancestral village of Garhi-Khuda Baksh for burial after a long journey from Rawalpindi, where she died, by transport plane, helicopter and ambulance. The opposition leader’s family — her husband Asif Ali Zardari and three children — accompanied the body aboard a Pakistani Air Force C-130 transport plane to Sukkor but traveled by bus from there to Larkana and on to Garhi-Khuda Baksh. The funeral was planned for Friday afternoon.”
WaPo: “U.S. Brokered Bhutto’s Return to Pakistan — White House Would Back Her as Prime Minister While Musharraf Held Presidency”
CNN: “Two months before her death, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto sent an e-mail to her U.S. adviser and longtime friend, saying that if she were killed, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would bear some of the blame.”
Council On Foreign Relations: ‘Almost Certainly’ the Work of Al-Qaeda
Andrew McCarthy: Killed by the real Pakistan.
Neo-neocon: Bhutto’s rendezvous with death.
CNN: Edwards calls Musharraf; urges international probe
Sepia Mutiny: Bhutto Was Perceived as More Pro-America than Musharraf.
Tigerhawk: Why did Huckabee apologize for Bhutto’s death?
ABC News: “Angry Street Protests Erupt”
ABC News: “U.S. Checking Al Qaeda Claim of Killing Bhutto”
Phyllis Chesler: “A Modest Proposal For Preventing Islamists from Killing the Rest of Us”
Mark Steyn: “Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan had a mad recklessness about it which give today’s events a horrible inevitability.”
Christopher Hitchens: “[Bhutto’s] courage could sometimes have been worthy of a finer cause, and many of the problems she claimed to solve were partly of her own making. Nonetheless, she perhaps did have a hint of destiny about her.”
The Politico: “The instant conventional wisdom will say that heavy news coverage of the gun and bomb attack will bolster the arguments of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain, both members of the Armed Services Committee…That same instant, C.W. will say that the candidates most damaged will be Sen. Barack Obama and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.”
AKI-ADNKronos: Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Bhutto’s death.
Times Online: “The main suspects in Bhutto’s assassination are the Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who saw her as a heretic and an American stooge and had repeatedly threatened to kill her. But fingers will also be pointed at Inter-Services Intelligence, the agency that has had close ties to the Islamists since the 1970s and has been used by successive Pakistani leaders to suppress political opposition.”
Taylor Marsh: “To add, update and recap what I’ve said before, this is simply the most dangerous place on earth. We need to redeploy from Iraq, switch our focus to Afghanistan, as well as the border to Pakistan.”
John Podhoretz: “The murder of Bhutto moves foreign policy, the war on terror, and the threat of Islamofascism back into the center of the 2008 campaign.”
Roger Simon: “Since all politics is semi-local, it will be interesting to see what ramifications this event has on domestic presidential politics.”
Statement by the American Islamic Congress on the Murder of Benazir Bhutto
AFP: “Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf appealed to the nation to remain peaceful on Thursday after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto ’so that the evil designs of terrorists can be defeated,’ state TV said.”
AP:</strong Bush condemns Bhutto assassination.
Bob Krumm: Which Presidential candidates got it right or wrong about Pakistan in retrospect?
Jules Crittenden: Who killed Benazir Bhutto? A roundup.
The Belmont Club: “The next few days will show whether the Pakistani Army — for it will surely not be the Taliban — can rededicate itself to electoral democracy. Pakistan needs its George Washington. Unfortunately it only has its Pervez Musharraf.”
Canadian Press: Bhutto was shot before she was attacked by the suicide bomber.
Confederate Yankee: What is certain is that Bhutto’s death will throw Pakistani into turmoil, and President Pervez Musharraf now faces the greatest crisis of his Presidency.
Pakistani Spectator: Angry crowds in Rawalpindi are burning shops and vehicles and shouting slogans. Bhutto’s husband and two daughters have left Pakistan for Dubai.
Classical Values: “It not only does not bode well for democracy in Pakistan, but by highlighting the growing instability of a nuclear power, it’s a reminder that isolationism — whether of the Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, or Dennis Kucinich varieties — is not a great idea.”
California Yankee: “We need an alphabet soup of plans for dealing with Pakistan.”
Michelle Malkin: “They tried and failed when she returned to Pakistan in October. They tried and failed with a baby suicide bomber. Yesterday, they stopped a 15-year-old with a bomb packed full of nails trying to kill her. Today, they succeeded. Dammit, dammit, dammit”
The Pakistan Policy Blog: Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi on October 16, 1951. Bhutto’s father was also hung in Rawalpindi in 1979. Ms. Bhutto joins the list of assassinated family members: her brother Shahnawaz died from poisoning in France in 1985 and her other brother Murtaza was shot to death by police at close range in 1996.
Donklephant: “Well Pakistan, this is your chance. You can see what people will do to stop a more democratic government from gaining a foothold. Will you let this deter you or will you push towards a more just and fair republic?”
Getty Images: Graphic photos of the attack
MSNBC: “Bhutto’s supporters at the hospital began chanting “Dog, Musharraf, dog…” Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears.”
Reuters: “Police said a suicide bomber fired shots at Bhutto as she was leaving the rally venue in a park before blowing himself up. ‘The man first fired at Bhutto’s vehicle. She ducked and then he blew himself up,’ said police officer Mohammad Shahid.”
CNN: Media reports quote her husband saying she suffered a bullet wound to the neck in the attack.
Sky News: The country’s upcoming January elections would “most likely be postponed or cancelled” because of the attack.
Bloomberg: Earlier, at least four supporters of Pakistan’s former premier Nawaz Sharif were killed and another 12 wounded in the capital, Islamabad, when gunshots were fired on an election rally (Bloomberg)
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24 Comments
voletti:Benazir was enemy to both Musharraf-Pak military (as she was to be America’s agent in the power troika) and the Al Qaeda Talibunnies (woman heading the land of pure islam? Sacrilege).
She was shot twice after the suicide blast. Looks like army sniper action to me.
Musharraf has now consolidated his power. He’ll extract many more $$billions in rent from America for keeping the nukes out of jihadist hands. There’s now no other viable non-islamist leader in Terroristan.
Just my 2 cents.
Dec 27, 2007 - 6:16 am David Thomson:Benazir Bhutto seemed childishly naïve when it came to the threat of Islamic nihilism. She did not hesitate to stress out the fragile Pakistan government to the breaking point. General Pervez Musharraf leaves much to be desired. The struggle for democracy, however, must not be allowed to make it easier for the Muslim extremists to capture power. Ms. Buhtto appeared unwilling to recognize this most important distinction. The Islamists most assuredly will continue assassinating modern thinking Pakistani leaders. Our world has just become a more dangerous place.
Dec 27, 2007 - 6:23 am Larry J:I have no idea whether Musharraf was involved in the assassination but he’ll surely be blamed for it regardless. Either way, the radical Islamists probably win. Bad day.
Dec 27, 2007 - 6:27 am David Thomson:“Bhutto’s supporters at the hospital began chanting “Dog, Musharraf, dog…” Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears.”
How widespread is this absurd sentiment? This is further evidence that a sizeable number of Bhutto’s followers shared her naivet√©. It is highly unlikely that the secular Musharraf can entice suicide bombers to do his dirty work! No, this is an attack by radical Muslims.
Dec 27, 2007 - 6:44 am Gliker:This is not a good day for our side.
Dec 27, 2007 - 7:01 am Ray Robison:I hope Bhutto’s supporters come to realize this was al Qaeda and not Musharraf.
Ray Robison author of Both In One Trench: Saddam’s Secret Terror Documents
Dec 27, 2007 - 7:24 am aldermanwilliams:http://www.bothinonetrench.com
This is only the beginning and alot of things are in motion.
When, Bhutto was spirited away from the scene by a Korean medical team, she was taken to one of a pair of what looked like mobile data centers - the 18-wheelers with antennae.
I’ve been told in strict confidence that this medical team is merging Bhutto with ASIMO technology that will enable the once and future PM to endure the harsh Pakistani political environment.
She will not only be the first female muslim PM but the first cybernetic female muslim PM.
Dec 27, 2007 - 7:32 am Lem:In the words of Henry Lee “Something wrong”.
Wouldn’t be easier to take control of nuclear and other military assets from a Bhutto led government?
If this is the work of Islamist they may have made thing harder for themselves.
Dec 27, 2007 - 7:49 am Sam:India should seriously consider the need for a massive preemptive (nuclear) attack and be ready for it in the coming weeks.
Dec 27, 2007 - 8:32 am Morton Doodslag:Headline: Bhutto assassinated
Prediction: The West will take the heat, the Muslims will blame the West, the Muslims win again.
They’ve got this Islam thing down pat!
Dec 27, 2007 - 8:59 am Imran:It is so tragic and I am in deep shock about this incident. My heart is crying with blood tears and i think people in Pakistan should keep patience and we need mental healing in pakistan instead of hate in pakistan.
Imran
Dec 27, 2007 - 9:07 am Reason:“Religion of peace”
Pfft!!
Dec 27, 2007 - 9:14 am Mark:I dont know why people are surprised. They tried to kill her when she first came back but failed. It was only a matter of time before they succeeded. People need to understand, you cannot kill ideals, you can kill those people who carry those ideals but as long as these extremists keep passing them on from generation to generation we will continue to have cowardly acts.
Dec 27, 2007 - 9:18 am Sierra Faith:I think Mark Steyn has the best take:
Dec 27, 2007 - 9:54 am Wolf Pangloss:Bhutto was already a president of Pakistan who fled the country in disgrace after stealing from the treasury. I do not think she had all that good a chance at returning to power in January, and cannot believe she thought her chances all that great. Actually, I think she was trying to martyr herself ever since coming back. She was acting recklessly, as Mark Steyn noted, from the first day that ended tragically with 140 dead from a bomb wrapped around an infant in swaddling clothes.
Dec 27, 2007 - 11:21 am Rachel:May she rest in peace, but why was everyone thinking that *she* would be the savior of Pakistan. When she was president, this woman stole millions of dollars from her own people to give to families and cronies. Are we so desparate for a happy ending we would sell out a country to a Pakistani version of Marcos ( and I would say this if she was alive). To me, Steyn is the only one that’s right and I find him a little paranoid sometimes.
Also, whoever said that this would put the WOT back to Afghanistan, my question is how? What are we going to do? Invade Pakistan? Remember “you can’t force democracy at the end of a gun”
Dec 27, 2007 - 11:22 am Roark:The entire middle east and surrounding areas are doomed to savagery such as this as long as the nihilistic ‘religion of peace’ is allowed to run rough-shod over everything. If things are to change it is REASON which must be embraced and irrational religious dogma which needs to be condemned.
Dec 27, 2007 - 12:17 pm steve bourg:The Jihadists want to destroy democracies all over the middle east: Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. These countries are going to have to adopt extreme measures, harsh laws, against clerics who openly preach violence. Each country needs to realize this. And we might have to do something about Iran, b/c they’re a major proponent of jihadism.
Dec 27, 2007 - 2:42 pm Lem:I think Rachel is on to something.
As far as I’m concern the security of the nukes is far more important than some phony election.
She was a democrat, yadi yada.. but she would have been weak.
Nobody wants to say this but our lot is better of with the ex-general.
We should quit pushing him so overtly.
Dec 27, 2007 - 6:46 pm tgag:bhutto stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Pakastan. Take a look at her family molseum. In 1993 she was convicted of money laudering by swiss government.
Dec 28, 2007 - 2:55 am dan:On NPR this morning I was treated to another round of correspondants and experts attributing this to the Bush Administration. This is hilariously instinct with the main impulse of the Pak mobs: never blame the 30 million unreconstructable jihadi tribals only 100 km to the northwest of Islamabad. No - it’s always the fault of the US; in fact, there would be no inner turmoil in feudal/kleptocratic Pakistan were it not for the manipulations of a few CIA agents and the tantalizing prospect of a half dozen nearly obsolete fighter jets.
Disgusting. Pakistan is a complete sh*thole of resentment, serfdom and exploitation beyond anything the British - nevermind the USA - would have bothered imagining, let alone implemented. At this point it’s difficult to ascribe these tendencies to anything but the stupidity of these people. Sorry if that offends your sensibilities, Dorothy.
Of course, even though Musharaff remains the best option and was self-evidently the best option prior to the intervention of those geniuses at the State Department, he failed to confront the tribes effectively - i.e., with massive punitive slaughter (journalists can’t go there anyway). For some reason there is this Asiatic soft spot for the ancient ways of forefathers whose habits are only a generation or two or three removed from the present public.
Anyway, hopefully this won’t allow Sharif to prosper.
Dec 28, 2007 - 5:47 am malix:Her death is a very sad incident and the perpetrators of this crime should be brought to justice. But a look at her history will surprise everyone. Even though she was Harvard and Oxford educated, she was the most corrupt leader in the history of world, maybe. It is documented that she and her husband stole approx USD 3.2 billion from Pakistan during her tenure as PM. In fact her husband was nicknamed “Mr. 10%” because he wouldn’t allow any business deal or industrial activity to take place without a 10% share in it specifically for him. During around mid 90s she actually bought a property in UK which is called Surrey Palace and it was the most expensive property in the world at the time. And she bought it at an auction for around USD 750 mln and she outbid the Prince of Brunei, who was the richest person in the world in those days. She was also the one who helped the Taliban come to power in Afghanistan. She may have come to power through democracy but she herself was a total dictator. In 2004 a Swiss court found her guilty of corruption and money laundering in Pakistan and she was given six month jail sentence with a refund of all the stolen money to the government of Pakistan. But she made a deal with the US that she would allow US forces to operate in Waziristan directly if she was made the PM of Pakistan and the Swiss sentence was scraped. The US then pressured the Musharraf government to change their constitution and allow her a third term when no leader can serve more than two terms by law; in addition to scrapping all investigations and court proceedings against her. During her tenure she was also involved in the murder of her brother who was also a politician and her rival. Her father the famous Bhutto of the 70s was a socialist and was extremely anti US, in fact he engineered the famous oil-embargo. It was because of his destructive policies for Pakistan that he was ousted in a military coup. And the reason he was executed was due to US pressure. Her family and she herself are feudal lords of the Sindh province. They live like kings and queens over there and keep people on their lands as slaves. They make them work for generations for no money at all on their agricultural lands and even force them to vote for them during elections. The Musharraf government has been desperately trying to introduce land reforms and free these people from such slavery. As for her death only the extremists and terrorists like Al-Qaeda and the enemies of US and Pakistan are the ones who are going to gain from this, because Al-Qaeda have almost been defeated in Iraq, they are struggling in Afghanistan and Waziristan, just been crushed in Swat region of Pakistan. Now because of this incident they created political instability in Pakistan and the US and Pakistan are both have been distracted in dealing with political instability rather than attacking them. You never know it could be the Russians or Iranians to keep the US and Pakistan distracted and engaged in a bloody and extremely expensive war.
But still may God have mercy on her soul and give her children the strength to deal with the loss of their mother.
Dec 29, 2007 - 4:13 pm Richard Jansen:Benazir Bhutto was not killed by the military as some headlines have said. She was killed by Jihadis in the military.
Dec 31, 2007 - 1:31 pm Sammer Abbas:i Will must submit my reservation against Mr. Malix comments,the financial allegation on Benazir was malicious,there for no clear verdict of any court stand agianst her. his government was dismissed illegally without any corruption evidence,the only reason seems behind her assination is that she was a popular leader of poor person suffering from miliraty brutality in pakistan, Buttos prove that by not associating with her with elites ,by giving her life .she also proved a common the life of a common worker of her party is as so important as her.
Jan 1, 2008 - 12:11 am