Posted on 12/28/2007 9:41:03 AM PST by jdm
UPDATE: While many have speculated that Pervez Musharraf might cancel the elections -- and Congress has demanded that they continue -- the surviving opposition leader wants them canceled:
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif said Friday if the government went ahead with parliamentary elections next month, it will “destroy the country. If the government is adamant about holding elections on January 8, it is going on a self-destructive path which will not only destroy the government itself but will also destroy the country,” he said.
Sharif, who narrowly avoided an assassination attempt yesterday as well, had wanted to boycott the elections unless Musharraf stepped down and/or restored the judiciary. Benazir Bhutto forced him to give up the boycott, but now that she has been assassinated, he may fall back to that position. He now wants Musharraf to step down as president before any elections get held.
That may leave Congress in a strange position, demanding an election that neither Pakistan's ruling party nor its opposition wants. What will Congress say in response to Sharif?
UPDATE II: The first wire report on the skull fracture comes from AFP, which also notes a rather significant development that points to al-Qaeda:
Pakistan's interior ministry said Friday that Benazir Bhutto was killed after smashing her head on her car's sunroof while trying to duck, and that no bullet or shrapnel was found inside her.
The ministry also said it had intercepted a phone call from a top Al-Qaeda figure congratulating a militant for the attack on her Thursday, and said there was "irrefutable evidence" the group was trying to destabilise the country.
Had she not popped up out of the sunroof, she would have survived the explosion. Of the car's occupants, only Benazir Bhutto sustained any injuries.
Interesting.
ping
Why "interesting"?
If she were, by virtue of standing up in the sunroof, the only one in the car exposed to the blast, why would this not be "as expected"?
After all, the automobile was armored, with bulletproof glass.
It was a bullet-proof vehicle. Anyone within the vehicle would be safe.
So she was ducking down, bomb went off, she got blown into the sunroof (some reports saying “sunroof lever”) hard enough to not just crack her skull, but by at least one report, have her arrive at the hospital with brain matter exposed? This is getting weird.
}:-)4
The elections should go ahead, the PPP will win a majority and should form a government. Mu should stay on as president. Anyone directing their fire at other pols should be anthema to the people. And oh yeah, Mu should send a full corps into Waziristan to kick butts and take names, it is the most popular thing he could do right now. He should also purge the ISI. Now is the time to use popular anger to inflict maximum damage on the Islamicists, and make their name mud.
Well, some earlier reports said that terrorists firing “armor piercing bullets” had wounded her several times after the bomb went off, and there was at least one published report that she arrived at the hospital with a head wound so bad there was actually brain matter showing.
Probably just the confusion and rush to be first that usually accompanies any big story, but this report is much different from the earlier ones.
Why? Presumably because Mu and George Bush and others of that ilk have it in for Al Q and have been warning about them and fighting them, and lordie be we can't admit there was anything to that, now can we? Wake up people. It is all blown smoke, Al Q did this precisely to prevent the people and army in Pakistan from working together against them, and wants everyone to fight over it instead of going after them.
I will defer to the many freepers with more knowledge on these subjects than I have, but I do not believe any vehicle short of a MBT is completely bullet-proof. Hope we get a somewhat authorative account of what actually happened soon.
I’m not saying it’s not plausible. I am saying that I’m a bit surprised there was no shrapnel in her head, since it seems to be standard AQ procedure to load a suicide vest up with metal on the outside to enhance its killing power, like a fragmentation grenade. It’s also sad for her and her family that she took an unnecessary risk like standing up out of the sunroof when leaving the rally.
The real problem is that the rapid contradictory reports (gunshots, then no gunshots but shrapnel, now no shrapnel but basically blunt force trauma) are playing right into AQ’s hands, because they’re going to increase the suspicion among Bhutto’s supporters that the Pakistani government offed her—and considering how heavily infiltrated the ISI is, it may not be an inaccurate conclusion. That doesn’t mean Musharraf did it. He can’t control all the elements in the ISI.
}:-)4
“It took a blog (Captain’s Quarters) to say what the AP, Reuters, etc. haven’t yet stated (at least to my knowledge).”
Unlikely - presumably they don’t have direct access to the Pakistani government themselves?
Amen to that. Unfortunately for Pakistan the fly trap will have to be moved. The DUmmie Richardson almost got it right. Musharraf needs to step aside rather than step down. We should turn those border mountains to dust.
It is amazing how often the press gets it wrong on their first try. And, often, their second...and third.
The SF zoo story is a perfect example. The press reports the zoo's claim that the wall in the tiger containment is 20' tall. The claim is soon accompanied by a photo which, immediately upon inspection, indicates that the wall is nowhere near that high.
You'd think a reporter would know how to use a tape measure.
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