Who did it?
The (UK) Times has an article out that casts a very dark cloud of suspicion over the Pakistani government’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). While they make sure not to implicate President Musharraf directly in their accusations they really don’t have much to base their accusation on other than innuendo. If the ISI did do this then Pakistan can absolutely not be trusted. But, we really don’t know.
The (UK) Times is doing a great disservice by reporting what amounts to a rumor, especially considering al Qaeda seems to have already taken credit for the attack. So you can see it here, here’s the piece from the Times:
The main suspects in Benazir 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.
Ms Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in October, when a suicide bomber killed about 140 people at a rally in the port city of Karachi to welcome her back from eight years in exile.
Earlier that month, two militant warlords based in Pakistan’s lawless northwestern areas, near the border with Afghanistan, had threatened to kill her on her return.
One was Baitullah Mehsud, a top commander fighting the Pakistani army in the tribal region of South Waziristan. He has close ties to al Qaeda and the Afghan Taleban.
The other was Haji Omar, the “amir” or leader of the Pakistani Taleban, who is also from South Waziristan and fought against the Soviets with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.
After that attack Ms Bhutto revealed that she had received a letter signed by a person who claimed to be a friend of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden threatening to slaughter her like a goat.
She accused Pakistani authorities of not providing her with sufficient security and hinted that they may have been complicit in the bomb attack. Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, directly accused the ISI of being involved in that attempt on her life.
Mrs Bhutto stopped short of blaming the Government directly, saying that she had more to fear from unidentified members of a power structure that she described as allies of the “forces of militancy”.
Analysts say that President Musharraf himself is unlikely to have ordered her assassination, but that elements of the army and intelligence service would have stood to lose money and power if she had become Prime Minister.
The ISI, in particular, includes some Islamists who became radicalised while running the American-funded campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan and remained fiercely opposed to Ms Bhutto on principle.
Saudi Arabia, which has strong influence in Pakistan, is also thought to frown on Ms Bhutto as being too secular and Westernised and to favour Nawaz Sharif, another former Prime Minister.
From UK Times
The whole purpose of this article is to cast aspersions on Musharraf. Things may have already passed the tipping point for this country and the (UK) Times is doing everything it can to give it a big push.
And why would the Pakistani government want her dead? In death she is going to be a bigger hindrance to Musharraf’s rule than she ever could have been in life. Now she and her corrupt past are all but forgiven in many people’s minds. To even talk about it, implying her motives were anything but pure, will get you some dirty stares and very few will listen to what you have to say.
Musharraf has spent the last couple of months ensuring he will retain his political power. He had it all set up; the judiciary was chastened, the opposition’s politicians were neutered, basically everything was set up so he would remain the leader of his country. So why do something that would significantly destabilize your country and put your authority in question? I don’t think he would do that.
I don’t think anyone who wants what is best for Pakistan would even consider this. The people behind this most likely are not partisan political nuts who don’t want her in power. The people behind this attack are most likely those who want to see Pakistan devolve into a country without a state. That leaves us with the terrorists.
Al Qaeda has stated in the past few months that they want to bring down Pakistan’s government. What better way to do that then to kill the West’s favorite opposition leader and have the West level the blame on the leader of Pakistan? That would seem to be the best option for al Qaeda or some other terrorist organization.
Pakistan is circling the drain right now. Anything that the Western media does to undermine the Prime Minister will only help the terrorists destroy our ally. If they have evidence that implicates the Pakistani government, then everything changes and the media should report it. But until they have real evidence implicating the Pakistanis in this assassination the media should not recklessly implicate our ally. Doing so would be playing into the hands of the terrorists. BigT
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