Former Prime Minister Of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, Assassinated

[Gold9472]

Bhutto says ISI spying on PPP candidates

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?...&sid=SAS&sname=

Islamabad, Dec 20: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused Pakistan's military intelligence Thursday of pressuring candidates from her party to drop out of next month's parliamentary elections and urged officials to crack down on such harassment.

Bhutto, a two-time former Prime Minister who recently returned from years of living in exile, told reporters during a campaign stop her party has evidence of interference.

"We demand that the Election Commission should take notice of such things to ensure free and fair elections," she said, also accusing local mayors of gearing up to cheat.

She urged intelligence agencies to concentrate their efforts on capturing terrorists, adding, "This is not your job to indulge in politics."

Bhutto also asked the government of President Pervez Musharraf to act against those involved in rigging the vote, reminding him that he has promised the Jan. 8 balloting will be free and fair.

Under pressure from the international community and domestic opposition, Musharraf also has said he would try to work with anyone getting a majority in Parliament. He has called allegations of rigging an attempt by Bhutto and other opposition leaders to create an excuse in case they fare poorly at the ballot box.

Bhutto, traveling in a bulletproof vehicle and accompanied by tight security, was making her first tour to remote areas of Baluchistan province, where tribal elders have waged insurgency to pressure the central government to return more of the wealth from natural resources extracted from their areas.

She urged flag-waving supporters to reject candidates from the ruling pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, saying it had done nothing for the welfare of the masses.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also has been vehemently opposing the pro-Musharraf party, and the two opposition leaders have indicated they may be willing to share power if, as expected, no party wins a majority.

Sharif initially called for a boycott of the vote but later changed his mind after Bhutto refused to join him. Sharif wants Musharraf to restore Supreme Court judges he sacked after imposing Emergency rule Nov 3.

Although Musharraf lifted the Emergency last Saturday, he has refused to reinstate the deposed judges.

[Gold9472]

Oil climbs after Bhutto killing, U.S. data

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...227&id=7948373

December 27, 2007 11:38 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose more than a dollar on Thursday in response to a big fall in crude oil stocks in top consumer the United States and the killing of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack.

U.S. light sweet crude for February was $1.33 cents up at $97.30 a barrel by 11:01 a.m. EST.

London Brent crude rose $1.25 cents to $95.19 a barrel.

U.S. crude oil stocks fell to their lowest since January 2005 last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil inventories fell 3.3 million barrels, which was more than the 1 million barrel fall forecast by analysts.

Stocks of distillates, which includes heating oil, fell by 2.8 million barrels, when analysts had predicted a 800,000 barrel drop.

"Numbers looking bullish with crude stocks falling about 2 million barrels more than expected," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.

Oil had risen alongside gold after news of Bhutto's death, which unnerved financial markets.

"Pakistan is a crucial country in the region and prospects for political uncertainty are leading to some nervousness (which is reflected in) gold, bond and oil prices rising and the dollar dipping," said Audrey Childe-Freeman, European economist at CIBC bank in London.

Bhutto's killing hit U.S. stock markets, which were also depressed by weaker-than-expected U.S. durable goods data.

Oil had surged to one-month highs in the previous session following Turkey's raid on Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq.

"The Turkish bombing of Kurdish guerrilla targets helped it on its way yesterday," said Kevin Blemkin, oil broker at MF Global. He said this had reminded the market of potential risks to crude supplies in the Middle East.

Oil prices have risen 57 percent since the start of the year and touched a record high of $99.29 on November 21, boosted by concerns over shrinking supplies ahead of winter and the weak dollar.

But the prospect of slower economic growth in top oil consumer the United States as well as forecasts for a mild winter had put a lid on prices until the latest Turkish raid.

Turkey's dispute with the Kurdish separatists poses little immediate threat to Iraq's main oil exports via its southern terminals, but the instability adds an element of risk to regional flows, analysts say.

[Gold9472]

Benazir Bhutto Chronology

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...181533,00.html

By The Associated Press
Thursday December 27, 2007 4:46 PM

Key events in Benazir Bhutto's career:

-April 4, 1979 - Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is executed for the murder of a political opponent, two years after his ouster as prime minister in a military coup.

-April 10, 1986 - Benazir Bhutto returns from exile in London to lead the Pakistan People's Party, founded by her father.

-Dec. 1, 1988 - Bhutto, age 35, wins parliamentary elections to become the first woman prime minister of a Muslim nation.

-Aug. 6, 1990 - President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses Bhutto's government, citing corruption and a failure to control ethnic violence.

-Oct. 19, 1993 - Bhutto takes oath for second term as prime minister.

-Nov. 5, 1996 - President Farooq Leghari dismisses Bhutto's second administration amid accusations of nepotism and undermining the justice system.

-April 14, 1999 - A court finds Bhutto guilty of corruption while she is out of the country. The conviction was later quashed, but Bhutto remains in exile.

-Oct. 12 - Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the head of the armed forces, seizes power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup.

-Oct. 5, 2007 - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf signs a corruption amnesty covering other cases against Bhutto, opening the way for her return and a possible power-sharing agreement.

-Oct. 18 - Bhutto returns to Pakistan more than eight years of exile. She narrowly escapes a suicide bombing that kills 140 people during a homecoming procession in Karachi.

-Nov. 9 - Police throw barbed wire around Bhutto's house to keep her from speaking at a rally to protest Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule. Security forces round up thousands of her supporters.

-Nov. 13 - Authorities put Bhutto under house arrest for the second time in a week. She urges Musharraf to resign and says it is likely her party would boycott the January parliamentary elections. She also indicates a desire to build an alliance with other opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Sharif.

-Nov. 30 - Bhutto presents her election manifesto, dimming the prospect of an opposition boycott.

-Dec. 1 - Bhutto launches her election campaign, urging resistance against Islamic militancy.

-Dec. 8 - Gunmen kill three people in an attack on one of Bhutto's party offices.

-Dec. 10 - Sharif's party announces it will participate in Pakistan's parliamentary elections after failing to persuade Bhutto to join a boycott.

-Dec. 25 - Bhutto accuses Musharraf of failing to stop the spread of Islamic militants and promises to crack down on groups if she wins parliamentary elections.

-Dec. 27 - An attacker strikes minutes after Bhutto addresses thousands of supporters in Rawalpindi. She is fatally shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blows himself up, killing at least 20 others.

[Gold9472]

Army being used against countrymen, says Benazir

http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/26/top9.htm

Dawn Report

MUZAFFARGARH/MULTAN, Dec 25: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto said on Tuesday that the force that was supposed to defend the country and its borders (army) was being used against own countrymen. She pointed out that the operation in Balochistan was still on.

Addressing public meetings in Muzaffargarh and Lodhran, she condemned the Charsadda blast and said the killing of innocent men offering Eid prayers was no service to Islam.

Ms Bhutto said the PPP believed in peace, but it had never accepted any dictator “civilian or in uniform”.

She said that negotiations with Gen Musharraf in 2002 had failed because the PPP did not accept an army general as president of Pakistan.

She claimed that her decision to hold talks with the government this year had given the country a civilian president and a full-time army chief.

The PPP chairperson said the separation of presidency from the General Headquarters was a first step for the transition to democracy, but the next step was fair and free elections. “I hope that total powers will be transferred from the dictator to democratic institutions.”

She said that Mr Musharraf had promised to the world and to the nation that free, fair, transparent and credible elections would be held. “I will keep an eye on Musharraf to see whether he fulfils his promise or not.”

Ms Bhutto said the PPP believed in provincial autonomy, security of rights of women, minorities and powerless people.

On the occasion, she introduced new slogan of the PPP: “Chahta hai har insaan, ilm, roshni, kaam (Every human being wants knowledge, electricity and work”, and “Chahta hai har insaan, roti kapra aur makaan (Every individual needs bread, clothes and house)”.

Ms Bhutto, who had started her journey in the morning from Lodhran by addressing a public meeting there, said the country was facing a crisis and people were being deprived of their rights.

She said that extremist forces had tried to establish their writ in tribal areas of the NWFP and near the Afghan border and they were fighting against the army.

Ms Bhutto urged the people not to vote for PML-Q candidates, “who were involved in plunder of national resources”.

The PPP did manage a big gathering in Muzaffargarh, but the Lodhran show was poor.

[Gold9472]

Who Killed Bhutto?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...ed_bhutto.html

Rick Moran
12/27/2007

Conventional wisdom would point the finger at Islamic extremists in Pakistan as the ones who pulled off the successful assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. They made no secret of the fact that killing Bhutto was their number one priority.

They despised her relative secularism and the fact that she was a woman doing man's work. But most of all, they needed to kill her in order to bring unrest to Pakistan, thus setting the stage for what they hope could turn into a bloody civil war and the victory of extremists.

In this scenario, al-Qaeda and those who sympathize with them both in and out of government could be responsible for her death. The intelligence service, ISI, has many Islamist sympathizers in its ranks and getting through the security that surrounded Bhutto could have been facilitated by the professionals in Pakistani intelligence. As details of the attack are revealed, that aspect of the puzzle may come together.

Who else might have carried out such an attack? The Pakistani people are apparently blaming President Musharraf, thinking he offed her in order to get rid of a rival for power. Or, their reasoning goes, he had Bhutto killed in order to re-establish some kind of one man rule.

The problem with blaming Musharraf is that the last thing the Pakistani president wants at this point is violence in the streets. Dawn is reporting that tear gas is already being used against protestors in Peshwar and the possibility of millions of Pakistanis rioting in the major cities is Musharraf's main nightmare at the moment. This is not to say, as I mention above, that elements of the government weren't in on the plot. But Musharraf would have to have a death wish to kill Bhutto.

Is it possible that this was a lone nut? Possible but not very likely. Security surrounding Bhutto was several layers deep and it would seem extremely unlikely that someone could wander through the security net and blow himself up. This is why the finger keeps coming back to a detailed plot with perhaps complicity among Bhutto's bodyguards. The reason for that speculation is that early reports indicate that shots were fired inside the vehicle immediately before the suicide bomber detonated himself. It could be that the bomber was able to push his way into the car following Bhutto who witnesses say was shot as she was getting into the car.

The next few days will tell the tale for Pakistan and its efforts to bring democracy to the country. Elections, scheduled for a little more than two weeks from today, will feature a new leader of Bhutto's Pakistani People's Party. Can he or she fill Bhutto's shoes?

If not, Pakistan is in for some very dangerous times.

Update: Thomas Lifson adds:

Is there a connection between the killing of Bhutto and Musharraff's campaign in the Swat Valley? Quite possibly.

From December the 8th ABC News (Australia - not related to American ABC News), the Pakistani Army is claiming the Swat Valley is clear of Islamist militants. Musharraff's forces have killed 290 rebels and arrested another 143, but pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah is still on the run with about 200 to 400 "hardcore fighters, including some foreigners."

It's not unreasonable to assume that remnants of Fazlullah's forces are behind the attack on Bhutto given that they were kicked out of the Swat Valley almost three weeks ago and are desperate to continue their campaign of de-stabilization. Also, Maj Gen Janjua of the Pakistan Army says it will take about four months to completely restore order in the Swat Valley. In the meantime, pro-Taliban forces could very well have dispersed and then regrouped to conduct the attack.

[Gold9472]

U.S. Checking al Qaeda Claim of Killing Bhutto

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/...ecking-al.html

Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & R. Schwartz
December 27, 2007 11:47 AM

While al Qaeda is considered by the U.S. to be a likely suspect in the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Banazir Bhutto, U.S. intelligence officials say they cannot confirm an initial claim of responsibility for the attack, supposedly from an al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.

An obscure Italian Web site said Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, told its reporter in a phone call, "We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahedeen."

It said the decision to assassinate Bhutto was made by al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al Zawahri in October. Before joining Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Zawahri was imprisoned in Egypt for his role in the assassination of then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Bhutto had been outspoken in her opposition to al Qaeda and had criticized the government of President Pervez Musharraf for failing to take strong action against the Islamic terrorists.

"She openly threatened al Qaeda, and she had American support," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism adviser. "If al Qaeda could try to kill Musharraf twice, it could easily do this," he said.

Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the bomb attack Oct. 18 during Bhutto's homecoming rally that killed 140 people but left the former prime minister uninjured.

Senior U.S. officials say it will take several days to sort out who was responsible and that it will be "a test of credibility for the Pakistani government."

U.S. officials monitoring Internet chat rooms known to be used by Islamic militants say several claims of responsibility have been posted, although such postings are notoriously unreliable.

[Gold9472]

Opposition leader's assassination 'moves us closer' to potential nuclear apocalypse, expert says
Predicts Pakistan will not dissolve, but US lacks options dealing with nuke-armed country

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Opposi...oser_1227.html

Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday December 27, 2007

The death of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has left the US lacking in options for dealing with the tumultuous, nuclear-armed, militant-rich nation and has raised the possibility that the country's weapons will fall into the wrong hands, leading to a possible apocalypse, a foreign policy expert tells RAW STORY.

"When people aren't looking, you have a question of command and control of their nuclear warheads," Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at The New America Foundation, said in an interview Thursday.

Clemons said Bhutto's assassination could cause the "Doomsday Clock" to tick forward. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists maintains the clock, which depicts how close the world is to midnight, representing a nuclear catastrophe. At the beginning of this year, the clock was set at 11:55 p.m.

"I think we've moved closer to midnight ... to a potential apocalyptic situation," Clemons said. "It doesn't mean we're going to get there, but we have moved closer."

Based on conversations he's had with associates of Bhutto, Clemons predicted the country "would not disintegrate." However, he told RAW STORY that Bhutto's death likely would prevent next month's scheduled election and could lead to more security crackdowns against Pakistani citizens.

As for the US approach toward Pakistan, options are now "very, very narrow," he said.

"It blows up America's effort to manage the Pakistan mess. ... Now we don't have an alternative to Musharraf," Clemons noted. "The timing of this is amazingly bad; she probably would've been elected Prime Minister next week."

Other observers were more pessimistic about Pakistan's future now that Bhutto is dead.

"The impact will be that Pakistan is in more turmoil -- it will be the start of civil war in Pakistan," said Riaz Malik of the opposition party Pakistan Movement for Justice, according to The Guardian. "There is a very real danger of civil war in Pakistan."

Questions have swirled around potential flaws in Bhutto's security detail. The former prime minister, who had recently returned to Pakistan after years in self-imposed exile, was shot at close range by a gunman, then hit with shrapnel from a suicide bomb, according to news reports. It was the second attempt on her life since her return.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, implied in a statement Thursday that more could have been done to protect Bhutto.

“This fall, I twice urged President Musharraf to provide better security for Ms. Bhutto and other political leaders – I wrote him before her return and after the first assassination attempt in October," Biden said. "The failure to protect Ms. Bhutto raises a lot of hard questions for the government and security services that must be answered."

Clemons said that, both Bhutto and Musharraf were seen by the average Pakistani as US "puppets," but that now the US has no option except Musharraf in trying to quell an increasingly unstable country.

Musharraf himself is believed to be under threat of assassination attempts by foreign extremists because of his perceived closeness to the US. At the same time, he has come under fire from American politicians for not doing enough to root out elements of al Qaeda believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Whatever happens, a resolution of the turmoil seems farther away that it was Wednesday night, while threats are still prevalent within Pakistan.

"It's going to take time," Clemons said. "And we still have a nuclear Pakistan with Osama bin Laden and [Ayman al-]Zawahiri residing in their country."

[simuvac]

This was posted at 911Blogger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

At about the 6 minute mark, Bhutto refers to Omar Sheikh as the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden.

Have you seen/heard this before, Jon?

[simuvac]

Council on Foreign Relations says: "Almost Certainly Al Qaeda"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/82153

A Pakistan analyst discusses who killed Benazir Bhutto and what her death will mean for Pakistan.

Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 2:43 PM ET Dec 27, 2007

Bruce Riedel, a former defense and intelligence official who helped make South Asia policy in the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, says he believes Benazir Bhutto's assassination "was almost certainly the work of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda's Pakistani allies." He says, "Their objective is to destabilize the Pakistani state, to break up the secular political parties, to break up the army so that Pakistan becomes a politically failing state in which the Islamists in time can come to power much as they have in other failing states." He says the United States should press the government of President Pervez Musharraf to go ahead with the parliamentary elections—perhaps after a brief pause. "The only way that Pakistan is going to be able to fight terrorism effectively is to have a legitimate democratically elected secular government that can rally the Pakistani people to engage Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other extremist movements," he says.

Let's start with an obvious question. In the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who do you think was responsible?
It was almost certainly the work of Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda's Pakistani allies. Al Qaeda has been trying to kill Ms. Bhutto for decades. She has been the target of assassination attempts by Al Qaeda before. They were most likely responsible for the attack on her when she first returned to Pakistan. Their objective is to destabilize the Pakistani state, to break up the secular political parties, to break up the army so that Pakistan becomes a politically failing state in which the Islamists in time can come to power, much as they have in other failing states where Al Qaeda knows its chances for success are higher.

There is supposed to be a parliamentary election on January 8, two weeks away. What will happen? Will they be postponed?
There is a good chance that President Pervez Musharraf will postpone the election, at least temporarily, in part to give Ms. Bhutto's party, the PPP [Pakistan People's Party], a chance to select a new front-runner and to organize itself. If he tries to postpone the election indefinitely, or to in effect shelve them, there will be a very strong backlash in Pakistan because Pakistanis across the political spectrum want an opportunity for elections to produce a new, more legitimate government. I don't think they would find the argument that terrorists killed a leading figure in the democratic movement an appropriate excuse to shelve democracy. We will see soon how Musharraf acts. I hope he will adhere to the principle of elections with a date certain, even if they are postponed temporarily to give the Pakistan People's Party a chance to reorganize.

Do they have an obvious replacement for her?
This party was very much Ms. Bhutto's party. There is no heir apparent on the horizon. They have a significant problem. This might be a boon to the other secular parties, including the one run by Nawaz Sharif. Sharif is clearly not seeking to be elected through this kind of tragedy. He has been an advocate of elections with all political parties running.

Does President Musharraf have a political party?
President Musharraf has a party. It is a splinter of the Sharif party, the Pakistani Muslim League [PML-N]. By most accounts and most polls, [Musharraf's] party will come in very poorly in this election. There is a widespread feeling among Pakistanis that the Musharraf dictatorship has gone on too long. A recent poll (PDF) by the International Republican Institute shows somewhere around two-thirds of Pakistanis would like to see Musharraf step down and give up power now. It [also] suggests that in a fair election, the opposition parties are likely to do very well. But because they are divided, it was unlikely and it remains unlikely that any single opposition party will have a majority in the new national assembly—there would have to be coalition building.

Would the PPP have won outright?
I don't think it would have won a clear majority, but no one knows. Of course another factor is that no election in Pakistani history has ever been entirely free and fair. Every Pakistani election has been tainted by widespread allegations of fraud. It had been expected, even by Ms. Bhutto, that the elections would be tainted by fraud. The question was always going to be whether the level of political machination and rigging of the election would be beyond the pale—that is, so gross and massive that no one would take the election results seriously—or be within the norm of Pakistani politics.

When did you first meet Ms. Bhutto?
My first encounter with Ms. Bhutto was in 1991 when I was working at the White House for President George H.W. Bush as the director for South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. I have seen her again periodically over the years, including when she called on Mrs. Clinton in the second administration when she was in exile. I don't claim to have a personal relationship with her.

Why did she take such risks when she already had been targeted on her first day back in Pakistan?
Ms. Bhutto was the kind of person who believed that it was imperative for her to be in touch with her followers: that she couldn't be a leader of a democratic, secular party and hide from view all the time. It was part of her being the symbol of democracy and of women's rights in a Muslim country that she would be out on the campaign trail. She knew the risks. She knew her own family's tragic history; her father [former Pakistani president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto] being executed by a previous military dictatorship in 1979; her brother [Murtaza Bhutto] dying in politically motivated violence in 1996.

She knew the risks, but she felt that being a political figure and standing for democracy meant that you had to be out there among the people and you couldn't be hiding. There now will be calls in Pakistan for a thorough investigation of the security around her appearance today and whether the government provided sufficient security. I won't try to preview how this will come out, but there will be a lot of desire to have accountability for the security situation today.

You said earlier that Al Qaeda was responsible, but could it also be military intelligence?
I am sure that conspiracy theories about that will abound in Pakistan. She was widely disliked in the intelligence apparatus, but it was more likely the work of Al Qaeda and its cohorts. Now it is certainly possible that they had penetrated and had sympathizers within the Pakistani security apparatus and had advance knowledge of her movements. It is clear from the Al Qaeda attacks in the past, including on President Musharraf, that Al Qaeda has sympathizers at the highest levels of security, and intelligence which provided information on his movements in the past which facilitated the efforts to kill him.

If you were still working at the White House what advice would you give the president on how the United States should respond?
First, to mourn the loss of the heroic figure. But the more critical point would be to press the Pakistani government to continue to go forward with the elections. The Musharraf government has promised to deliver stability and democracy and today's events are a tragic indication that it has failed to do both. Instead of stability we have acts of terror in the military capital of the country, Rawalpindi. And instead of democracy, we have one of the leading democratic advocates in the Muslim world killed. The only way that Pakistan is going to be able to fight terrorism effectively is to have a legitimate, democratically-elected, secular government that can rally the Pakistani people to engage Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other extremist movements. The army has failed to do that. The army dictatorship has failed to do so. We should now press for the democratic movement to move forward.

Do you think Sharif will become prime minister?
I don't know. His party has not been tainted by rumors of backroom deals like Bhutto's was. He is doing pretty well among Pakistanis who want a government that will be free of Musharraf and to move against him. But I won't try to predict the outcome of the elections now that we have the new tragedy.


URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/82153

[beltman713]

Looks like Bush's buddy(Musharraf) in Pakistan finally took her out. There goes the competition. The shit could really hit the fan there now.