Benazir Bhutto assassinated!

Allan D wrote:I'm tending to that point of view too as I am beginning to suffer from Bhutto-fatigue. India has survived two political assassinations of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty (3 if you count M.K.Gandhi - no relation) as well as martial law. Sri Lanka has had a 25-year long civil war and Bangladesh has had a recurrent cocktail of natural disasters from tsunamis to typhoons (interestingly without resort to military governments) yet life still goes on.

For the West she may be some saint, and her son the second coming of Christ for Pakistan (with his strings pulled by his father, Mr 10%), but her niece, Fatima, daughter of Benazir's murdered brother Murtaza saw differently - this written before Bibi's death:

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she's saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she'd like to make a deal with his opponents -- but still, she says, she's the savior of democracy.

and re Benazir's corruption charges:

Why did Ms. Bhutto and her party cronies demand that her corruption cases be dropped, but not demand that the cases of activists jailed during the brutal regime of dictator Zia ul-Haq (from 1977 to 1988) not be quashed? What about the sanctity of the law? When her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto -- my father -- returned to Pakistan in 1993, he faced 99 cases against him that had been brought by Zia's military government. The cases all carried the death penalty. Yet even though his sister was serving as prime minister, he did not ask her to drop the cases. He returned, was arrested at the airport and spent the remaining years of his life clearing his name, legally and with confidence, in the courts of Pakistan.

finally, re fighting terrorism:

Ms. Bhutto's repeated promises to end fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan strain credulity because, after all, the Taliban government that ran Afghanistan was recognized by Pakistan under her last government -- making Pakistan one of only three governments in the world to do so.

She was no saint, but she would have been a puppet.

Allan D wrote:I'm tending to that point of view too as I am beginning to suffer from Bhutto-fatigue. India has survived two political assassinations of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty (3 if you count M.K.Gandhi - no relation) as well as martial law. Sri Lanka has had a 25-year long civil war and Bangladesh has had a recurrent cocktail of natural disasters from tsunamis to typhoons (interestingly without resort to military governments) yet life still goes on. The deaths of Kennedy and Diana shifted a lot of newsprint but made little difference to the scheme of things. Johnson continued Kennedy's policies whether in regard to civil rights or Vietnam and the Royal Family seem to be as popular as ever (even Camilla has steadily increased her approval ratings).

All these assasinations have the same masterminds.

From the tragic to the ridiculous: Bhutto's 19 year-old nephew is now co-chairman of the PPP. I'm sure he's a bright lad - but 19 FFS! what can he possibly know?!

Basil wrote:From the tragic to the ridiculous: Bhutto's 19 year-old nephew is now co-chairman of the PPP. I'm sure he's a bright lad - but 19 FFS! what can he possibly know?!

Son

Anniyan wrote:

Basil wrote:From the tragic to the ridiculous: Bhutto's 19 year-old nephew is now co-chairman of the PPP. I'm sure he's a bright lad - but 19 FFS! what can he possibly know?!

Son

Thanks

furriner wrote:So Allan D, let me get this right. Oxford gave a honorary degree to Truman despite opposition based on the fact that he ordered Nagasaki and Hiroshima to be nuked. Oxford later on took a historic decision to deny Bhutto a degree based on the contention (I don't know whether it was proved or not) that he played a role in/ ordered the burning of a uni Library?

I am not arguing whether they should or not have given Truman the degree, mind. Just that it seems highly random in comparison.

You've got it about right, although it could be argued (although I would rather not get into a debate over this) that Truman was involved in a wartime situation and his action probably saved more lives, both Allied and Japanese, than it cost by bringing the war to a swift end whilst Bhutto was simply making war on his own people.

The reasons for denying Mrs T a honorary degree in the 1980s (she had already earned one at Somerville College in 1947) were even more random and bizarre but closer to home since she had reduced Oxford's massive share of state funding, ended the practice of automatic tenure for academic staff and introduced a "payment-by-results" system into salaries. Her achievements such as reversing Britain's long-term political and economic decline paled into insignificance next to these follies. I wasn't around then but the vote against her was probably higher than that against Bhutto.

Basil wrote:From the tragic to the ridiculous: Bhutto's 19 year-old nephew [son] is now co-chairman of the PPP. I'm sure he's a bright lad - but 19 FFS! what can he possibly know?!

Octavian was 18 when he was named as Julius Caesar's heir in his will after his assassination in March 44 BC (although he probably meant heir to his considerable personal fortune rather than as head of the government). The period was followed by three brutal civil wars first between Octavian and Mark Antony before they united and defeated Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC and then when Octavian defeated Antony and his Greek-Egyptian paramour, Cleopatra, at the sea battle of Actium in 31 BC. This led to Octavian being given the title of Augustus ("The Wise" or "Revered One") and becoming the first Roman Emperor in 27 BC. He is popularly said to have "found Rome brick and left it marble" because of the numerous public buildings he ordered constructed.

His four successors were all related to him (although through a complex series of relationships) and were known as the Julio-Claudians. However none of them quite lived up to Augustus' reputation. Augustus himself lived to be almost 77 (an unusually prolonged age even for the upper classes in those days) but was probably poisoned by his third wife, tired of waiting for him to die, so her son and Augustus' stepson, Tiberius, could succeed him.

Tiberius was in turn suffocated so he could be succeeded by his great-grandson, Caligula, who was assassinated and succeeded by his uncle, Claudius, who was probably poisoned by his fourth wife, and niece, Agrippina, so her son, Nero could succeed him. Nero, who was two months short of his 17th birthday when he became Emperor, returned the favour by murdering his mother. He also kicked his pregnant wife to death and married a male dancer dressed as a woman. He finally committed suicide after being proclaimed an enemy of the state by the Senate imposing a legal obligation on every Roman citizen to kill him on sight.

After this Rome reverted to a straightforward military dictatorship with the emperors mostly unrelated to one another and though an emperor could nominate his successor they only ruled with the consent of the army. The Roman Empire did quite well under this arrrangement until Christianity came along to spoil it.

So beware of giving teenagers political power. P.J.O'Rourke once said that giving politicians money and power was like giving teenagers the keys to your sports car and the drinks cabinet. I shudder to think what the effect is of giving teenagers money and power too, bearing in mind the above.

However, India's greatest ever emperor (arguably) was appointed at the age of 13. Although Akbar the Great did have a little help, it must be said.

Those were different times, doremi. And Ashoka was greater.

Analysis: Military slew Bhutto -- sources

By CLAUDE SALHANI (UPI Contributing Editor)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on orders of lower- and middle-level officers of the Pakistani army and air force, according to various intelligence sources, including members of India's counterintelligence service.

According to a source who asked to remain unnamed, members of the Pakistani armed forces involved in Thursday's killing of the former prime minister and leader of the opposition are sympathizers of the ultra-conservative Islamists with ties to the jihadis.

"It's worrying when half of your lower or mid-level Pak intelligence analysts have bin Laden screen savers on their computers," a former official of the CIA was reported to have commented.

More than one analyst is of the opinion al-Qaida and other jihadis have managed to successfully penetrate Pakistan's armed forces and security services. Given the fact Pakistan is in possession of nuclear weapons, the possibility of a pro-al-Qaida regime replacing President Pervez Musharraf would radically change the entire geopolitical alignment in southwest Asia, and it would have a spin-off effect on the Middle East, as well, primarily in regards to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

And it's not for lack of trying, either. Pro-Islamist groups have tried to assassinate Musharraf multiple times. Two attempts took place in December 2003 when rockets were fired at his vehicle during a visit to Rawalpindi, the same city where Bhutto was assassinated last Thursday.

Then there was an attempt to shoot his plane down with anti-aircraft fire in early 2007. There were also two suicide attacks on the army's general headquarters and two attacks outside the offices of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency after Pakistani security forces, acting on orders from Musharraf, assaulted the Red Mosque in Islamabad last July; Islamists had sought refuge inside the mosque with dozens of hostages. Scores of people died in the assault, and hundreds were arrested.

Following the two attacks on Musharraf, lower-ranking army and air force officers were placed under arrest. The investigation that followed discovered that the officers had ties with Jaish-e-Mohammad, an Islamist group. In the rocket attack, security forces arrested the son of an army brigadier general. According to the same source, however, only lower-ranking army officials were arrested and court-martialed. "The investigations are dead in the water," said the source.

Bhutto's main fear, according to a well-placed source in the intelligence community, was that retired Brig. Gen. Ijaz Shah of the Pakistani Intelligence Bureau would prove a grave threat to her. Bhutto was worried about her security but did not make a big issue of it, some say believing in destiny. But as recently as Dec. 26 she complained that the electronic jammers used to neutralize improvised explosive devices provided by the government were faulty.

Bhutto was well aware of the dangers she faced, having been briefed and having received death threats from her enemies. "She was warned of the dangers yet she continued to behave in a way in which the Secret Service in the U.S. would never accept," said Thomas Houlahan, director of military assessment with the Center for Security and Science in Washington.

Bhutto insisted on having her own people run her protection, said Houlahan, who added, "but nothing would protect her when she decided to stand through the sunroof of her car."

"That was extremely reckless," he said. "I don't see what could have been done."

Opposition to Bhutto was to be found not only in the country's armed forces and bin Laden sympathizers, but also from old Zia ul-Haq loyalists who did not want the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a position of power. "They especially loathed the idea that Bhutto had pledged the United States to allow U.S. intelligence to interrogate rogue atomic scientist A.Q. Khan and allow U.S. forces to hunt for bin Laden on Pakistani soil.

"She did not have much of a chance," Houlahan said.

--

(Claude Salhani is Editor of the Middle East Times.)

--

(e-mail: Claude@metimes.com)

"Tiberius was in turn suffocated so he could be succeeded by his great-grandson, Caligula, who was assassinated and succeeded by his uncle, Claudius, who was probably poisoned by his fourth wife, and niece, Agrippina, so her son, Nero could succeed him. Nero, who was two months short of his 17th birthday when he became Emperor, returned the favour by murdering his mother. He also kicked his pregnant wife to death and married a male dancer dressed as a woman. He finally committed suicide after being proclaimed an enemy of the state by the Senate imposing a legal obligation on every Roman citizen to kill him on sight."

er........dies nostri ago vita????

Or even vita uber quod praeclarus????

The fallacy that Buckaroo and others such as George Galloway on his fatuous radio phone-in programme share is that there is some kind of faultline in Pakistani politics between the military on one side and civilian politicians on the other. This is not the case. Most of the present civilian politicos have served and gained their administrative experience under military regimes.

The first general to take political power in Pakistan was Ayub Khan in 1958. A 30yo technocrat who was serving with Pakistan's UN delegation named Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto not only did not object to this turn of events but accepted a Cabinet appointment as Minister for Energy in the Field Marshal's government and over the next 9 years through a different series of appointments rose in seniority to become Foreign Minister and Ayub's most trusted confidant.

However when there was an adverse public reaction to the Tashkent Agreement with India, brokered by the Soviet Union (and which he had largely negotiated) in 1966 following the war with India a year before Bhutto broke with the Field-Marshal, set up his own party, the PPP and called for the restoration of democracy. At one fell swoop he transformed himself from loyal tehnocrat to populist politician. The question was though why he hadn't demanded a return to democracy in 1958 rather than accept Khan's patronage. It is impossible to believe that between entering Ayub Khan's government in 1958 and establishing the PPP in 1967 he had not established good relationships with the military which were further enhanced during his period in office from 1971-77.

Benazir Bhutto's first term as PM from 1988-90 would have been impossible without the death, along with the then US Ambassador, of Pakistan's military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, in a mysterious and hitherto unexplained plane crash in 1988. There is a common belief that Zia was the victim of a plot within the military (who were the only ones who could get close enough to the presidential plane) opposed to Zia. Were these military men also pro-Bhutto? Certainly Bhutto (Benazir this time) would be the almost certain beneficiary of any return to civilian rule and many, even in the military, thought that Zia had gone too far in ordering her father's execution in 1979. Did BB know about these plots against Zia beforehand and did she give them her willing imprimatur? Certainly it is common knowledge that she "rejoiced" on hearing of Zia's death, presumably not only from the point of view of having old scores settled but of the opportunities his demise afforded.

Also, as filo has pointed out, during her second term as PM from 1993-6, it was she who, through the military intelligence service, the ISI, propped up and supported the Taliban in power in Afghanistan as a "stabilising" force after the chaos that ensued following the departure of Soviet forces in 1989 although, by affording a safe haven to Al-Qaeda, this policy tragically led to 9/11. Bhutto was also never removed from power by a military coup but by the courts, after indicting her for corruption.

Nawaz Sharif also served without complaint as Chief Minister of the Punjab under Zia (and was reappointed to that post by Zia when he abolished provincial assemblies shortly before his death in 1988). Sharif has always been thought of as a figure closer to the establishment and ordered the first nuclear tests to go ahead in 1998. However it was Sharif, not Bhutto, who had serious differences with the military while in power, falling out with 3 Chiefs of Staff over various issues, removing two of them before being removed in turn by his hand-picked replacement as Army Chief of Staff, Musharraf. If any politician had offended the military it was Sharif not Bhutto.

Of course this is not to say that there are not anti-Bhutto factions within the military as there may also have been pro-Bhutto factions but the truth seems to me to be more sophisticated and subtle than the military vs civilians line that Buckaroo (and Galloway) as well as the civilian politicians' rhetoric like to perpetuate.

Also, as Della Street used to say at the end of every Perry Mason episode, "there's one thing that still bothers me, Perry" about the military hit theory. How did the assassins (or assassin - since noone has yet established a link between the suicide bomber and the gunman) know that BB was going to stick her head out of the sun roof when she was leaving the rally since it seems evident from the newly-released video (and Buckaroo's last posted piece supports this too) that this last misjudgment on her part proved fatal?

She would have probably survived the suicide bomb as others inside the car did and the bullets that struck her in the back of the head (accoprding to the video) were not armour-piercing else they would have blown her head off. If you are part of a military hit operation you are trained not to leave anything to chance or to the whim of the subject and take advantage of the maximum opportunity.

The best chance for any marksman would have been to shoot her in the front while she was standing still addressing the rally not in the back of the head while she was a moving target in an armoured car. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, who was the victim of a military assassination, was gunned down while reviewing troops at a parade in 1981. Bhutto's assassination, on the other hand, has all the hallmarks of an opportunist hit, mostly carried out by nutters and cranks, such as the attempt on Ronald Reagan who was shot by the madman John Hinckley whilst leaving a political meeting also in 1981.

Benazir's son Bilawal and his string-puller - I mean father, Mr. 10% Zardari will be pleased with the Irish:

Irish peace prize for Benazir Bhutto
DUBLIN, Jan 1 (AFP):

Assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is to be posthumously awarded Ireland's 2007 Tipperary Peace Prize, the organisers said Tuesday. Bhutto was recognised for her “courageous” work for democracy and reconciliation, said the Tipperary Peace Convention which has in the past honoured South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof. “Ms Bhutto fought all her battles through dialogue and political debate and was an example to all those who do not use or surrender to terrorism,” it said in a statement. “Her selection as Peace Prize recipient should act as an inspiration to those in Pakistan who seek to secure democracy and reconciliation for their country,” it added. (Posted @ 17:10 PST)

http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/01/welcome.htm

Her selection is a joke.

Fatima Bhutto (daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, one of BB's murdered younger brothers) will be astonished, I'm sure!

The same faulty emotional (non-) thought process that turns good players into great players once they retire.

filosofee wrote:Benazir's son Bilawal and his string-puller - I mean father, Mr. 10% Zardari will be pleased with the Irish:

Irish peace prize for Benazir Bhutto
DUBLIN, Jan 1 (AFP):

Assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is to be posthumously awarded Ireland's 2007 Tipperary Peace Prize, the organisers said Tuesday. Bhutto was recognised for her “courageous” work for democracy and reconciliation, said the Tipperary Peace Convention which has in the past honoured South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof. “Ms Bhutto fought all her battles through dialogue and political debate and was an example to all those who do not use or surrender to terrorism,” it said in a statement. “Her selection as Peace Prize recipient should act as an inspiration to those in Pakistan who seek to secure democracy and reconciliation for their country,” it added. (Posted @ 17:10 PST)

http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/01/welcome.htm

Her selection is a joke.

Fatima Bhutto (daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, one of BB's murdered younger brothers) will be astonished, I'm sure!

The Irish have always been rather odd, filo. On 1 May 1945, the day after Adolf Hitler had shot himself through the mouth in his Berlin bunker to forestall the advancing Red Army, the Prime Minister of the Irish Free State (later renamed Eire, now the ROI), Eamonn De Valera, turned up at the German Embassy in Dublin (the Irish, at least those no longer tied to Britain, were neutral in WWII) to express his condolences on behalf of the Irish people. As far as I know De Valera was the only world leader to behave in this manner following the Fuhrer's demise.

“Instead of the peace and settlement, instead of mercy and truth being brought together, righteousness and peace kissing each other, by reconciling the honest people of these nations, and settling the woeful distempers that are amongst us...weeds and nettles, briars and thorns, have thriven under your shadow, dissettlement and division, discontentment and dissatisfaction, together with real dangers to the whole.”

Oliver Cromwell, when dissolving the 1st Protectorate Parliament, 22 January 1655.

There's a reason why they're called general elections in Pakistan.

Benazir was targeted using laser beam tech: PPP

There is no dearth of stories about Benazir's death. The controversy has taken another turn with a section of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claiming she was targeted with sophisticated "laser beam technology".

Bhutto's wounds were caused not by bullets, but by some sort of laser weapon, The Nation newspaper said, quoting sources in the PPP.

When Bhutto was admitted to Rawalpindi general hospital shortly after the fatal attack on her on December 27, doctor Musaddiq Khan, who treated her, told a PPP leader that he had seen "such a case for the first time in his life", sources said.

Bhutto's wounds were not caused by bullets and she had died before reaching the hospital. A part of her brain and blood had spilled out from her head, they quoted the doctor as saying.

The sources also claimed both the gunshots and the bomb blast in the attack on Bhutto "were a decoy to hide the real shooters".

The paper further said the militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban, blamed for her assassination by the government, did not have such technology.

Mehsud had sent two messages to Bhutto after the suicide bombing of her motorcade in Karachi on October 19 in which he said that he had no hostility against her and would not make any attempt to kill her, they said.

The PPP sources said after the suicide attack, the "ambulance also picked up a dead body behind the stage of Liaquat Bagh", the venue of an election rally that Bhutto had addressed.

Bhutto was scheduled to meet two US lawmakers after the Liaquat Bagh rally at 9:30 pm. In this meeting, she was about to expose the rigging plans of the government in the forthcoming polls, they said.

Bhutto usually used two bulletproof vehicles and often changed cars during a journey if she received an important call. When the attack occurred, there was a distance of 20 to 30 metres between these two vehicles.

At the time of the attack, Bhutto and PPP leaders Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Nahid Khan and Safdar Abbasi were sitting in one bulletproof car while spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Babar Awan and Bhutto's security adviser Rehman Malik were in the other car, sources said.

They also said that two wills prepared by Bhutto were presented in the meeting of the PPP's top leadership. Both wills were written by Bhutto and one was about her party while the other related to her personal property.

Bhutto's close aide Sherry Rehman has claimed she was shot in the head and rejected as "absolute nonsense" the government's contention that she died of a skull fracture during the suicide attack in Rawalpindi.

>>> and rejected as "absolute nonsense" the government's contention that she died of a skull fracture <<<

Mortuaries the world over must be inundated by people who bump their head and die immediately.