Posted on 12/27/2007 5:12:06 AM PST by COUNTrecount
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been critically injured after a suspected suicide attack at a political rally in Pakistan.
It was believed to be a suicide attackShe is undergoing emergency surgery at a nearby hospital, Sky News sources say.
The explosion went off just after Ms Bhutto left the rally in Rawalpindi, minutes after her speech to thousands of people.
Again....sorry for any confusion and have a GREAT NEW YEAR
This is not quite main stream, but it sure gives a viewpoint different than most of what has been published.THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION: NOT WHAT SHE SEEMED TO BE
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1945231/posts
Then it’s time this country get at it then. Deal with the terrorist scum here, then blow them to hell overseas.
Just heard about this... Sad, sad news. Prayers for the whole country as I KNOW this is going to cause all sorts of mayhem, and as a result I’m sure that many innocents will be among those hurt.
>>Sorry for the confusion, but we agree.<<
You are both right.
Bhutto called for opposition to AQ and other extremists, so AQ or similar vermin would have a reason to get rid of her.
Even more important, we see how this seems to be playing out now: Musharraf is getting blamed for it, and may be weakened by the whole affair. If Musharraf is overthrown or the country goes into permanent chaos, that would work out very well for AQ and friends.
Did you notice that Bill Richardson called for an aid cutoff to Pakistan? “Not one penny more ... until Musharraf is gone and the rule of law is restored,” he said.
Did Richardson forget what happened when Carter decided to get rid of the Shah of Iran?
I feel sorry for the people of Pakistan and the region in general and the family, this is the biggest assassination since probably 1963. It also makes me think of Aquino returning to the Phillipines and the assassination of Sadat.
But periodically, we’ve heard of Lebanese Christian officials being slain at least every few years: maybe the general populace over in that area of the world will look at this and somehow a new leaf can be turned in all of this. I mean I understand Pakistan has it’s age old tribes and religious traditions but I’ve heard there is some modernity there as well. As we’ve heard, Clash of civilizations.
Yes I saw that and paid no attention to it because he's a nobody, except for ruining my beloved State of New Mexico.
Richardson is a fool.
Great example! ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas..just have to hate when the mistakes in history once again chooses to repeat itself!
The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (D-1989) became the godfather of al-Qaida and radical Islam. Another Peanut Farmer Carter Legacy.
This is why it's time to go in and take out the AQ trash in the tribal areas. Just bail from Iraq and do it, because this is where the freakin' problem is. Yeah, poor simple tribal morons, protecting evil incarnate. Nuke the whole sector if necessary. The tribal areas are truly the cradle of hellspawn. F-the collateral damage and f-Musharaf.
Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations, I just got back during the night.
Baitullah Mehsud: Congratulations to you, were they our men?
Maulvi Sahib: Yes, they were ours.
Baitullah Mehsud: Who were they?
Maulvi Sahib: There was Saeed, there was Bilal from Badar and Ikramullah.
Maulvi Sahib: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.
Baitullah Mehsud: Then congratulations.
Baitullah Mehsud: It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her.
Maulvi Sahib: Mashallah (Thank God). When I come I will give you all the details.
you know.. nobody has a better pulse on the Alqaida terrorists in Pakistan than Mussarraf. I think the left indirectly caused the death of Ms. Bhutto. They were all hollering for laxing of the Marshall law. You only made it easier for terrorists to get to Bhutto. I wish Mussarraf would declare State of Emergency and take the reigns of such a country in disarray.
The Mehsud counter - Me thinks folks are beginning to realize how ugly this thing could really turn and want to distance themselves from any backlash
Alleged Al-Qaeda official Mehsud denies killing Bhutto: spokesman
Channel News Asia ^ | 12/29/07
Posted on 12/29/2007 2:35:04 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Alleged Al-Qaeda official Mehsud denies killing Bhutto: spokesman
Posted: 29 December 2007 1552 hrs
PESHAWAR, Pakistan : An alleged Al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud, blamed by the Pakistan government for killing Benazir Bhutto, denied any involvement in her death, his spokesman told AFP on Saturday.
“He had no involvement in this attack,” spokesman Maulana Omar said in a telephone call. “This is a conspiracy of the government, army and intelligence agencies.”
The spokesman said he was calling from Pakistan’s Waziristan area, a lawless tribal region where Pakistani government forces have been battling Islamist militants.
“It is against tribal tradition and custom to attack a woman,” Omar said.
He said the transcript released by the government, allegedly of a phone call between Mehsud and a militant discussing Bhutto’s death after the fact, was a “drama” and expressed sadness over her assassination on Thursday.
He said it would have been “impossible” for militants to get through the security cordon around the campaign rally where she was killed.
“Benazir was not only a leader of Pakistan but also a leader of international fame. We express our deep grief and shock over her death,” Omar said. - AFP/ch
“It is against tribal tradition and custom to attack a woman,”
Unless shes your sister, daughter or wife.
It’s called putting all your eggs in a (corrupt) basket.
The militants/extremeists/Islamic radicals stand the most to gain if it was Musharaff, the military or ISI that was behind or perceived to be behind the assassination of Bhutto. Bhutto’s party (the PPP) desparately wants to pin this on Musharaff, heck, they are already blaming him for it.
I don’t think the militants on their own are going to take down the Musharaff govt in the near time. However, Bhutto’s following (PPP) is large enough and motivated enough that if the assassination gets pinned on him his govt could be in trouble, which is obviously beneficial to the radicals. Which is why I believe this Meshud guy is denying this thing
You know, her robes didn’t appear to be red and blue on tv...
Don’t know much about this source, but it may give insight as to what some Indians think of all this -
The Ominous Symptoms of a post-Musharraf Indo-Pak Nuclear War
- Hindutva News Analysis -
http://hindutva.org/indopakwar.html
Islamabad, with inputs from correspondents at New Delhi, Srinagar and Doha:
The clash of Pakistani Rangers with a band of Taliban militiamen at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border recently was a seminal event. The two countries have been in the thick of camaraderie since the last 20 years, with Pakistanis considering Afghanistan their strategic depth in a war with India. Now things have come a full circle. All these years it was the Madrasas (seminaries of Islamic theology) in Pakistan from where the Talibs (students of Islamic theology) were turned out to be fed into the Taliban of Afghanistan. Now these very Talibs are storming the streets of Pakistan baying for American blood and demanding the head of Pakistani President General Musharraf. Instead of streaming into Afghanistan as in the past; those already there are storming the border with Pakistan, which has been closed to prevent their entry.
In this context let us look at the outlines of the situation in Pakistan today and in the near future; and its implications for India and in general for the Global War on Terrorism:
Regular Pakistani Troops were a part of the Taliban Militia
Regular troops from the Pakistani army who drew their salaries from the Pakistani army fought inside Afghanistan as a part of the ragtag Taliban militia. The Northern Alliance reports that 1300 regular Pakistani troops were occupying the frontline facing Alliance troops in North Afghanistan.
The destruction of the Taliban’s infrastructure in Afghanistan is being viewed with anger and frustration by the top echelons of the Pakistani army which was the architect of the Taliban and all its infrastructure.
General Mahmoud Ahmad, the ex-chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) who was recently removed by General Musharraf had prevented the General from visiting Afghanistan to negotiate with the Taliban, since he, alongwith the pro-Taliban Jihadi top brass of the Pakistani military did not want to dilute the Taliban’s militancy and was itching for a showdown with the West. The mindset of this Jihadis in the Pakistani army is similar to the man on the street in Pakistan who is chanting the slogan “Death to America”.
By the recent “reshuffle” President Musharraf has tried to clip the wings of these Jihadi sections of the Pakistani army.
As the Taliban faces defeat at the hands of the Americans and the Northern Alliance; the pro-Jihad sections of the Pakistani military will open up the border and let the defeated Taliban militiamen inside Pakistan
As the Taliban was defeated at the hands of the Americans and the Northern Alliance, it is these proJihad sections of the Pakistani military which opened up the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and let the defeated Taliban militiamen inside Pakistan. The clash at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is an early symptom of this.
These lumpen defeated Taliban militiamen will create havoc inside Pakistan by joining the anti-Musharraf street demonstrations. The present Pakistani regime foresees this. And that is why the Pakistani government has warned the Afghans who have so far entered Pakistan against participating in the antigovernment demonstrations.
Defeated Taliban militiamen would help the pro-jihadis in Pakistani army to overthrow the regime of President Musharraf
Some of these defeated Taliban militiamen will be pushed into Indian administered Kashmir by the Jihadi pro-Taliban elements in the Pakistani army to add fuel to the Islamic terrorism there. India can expect more suicide missions like the one that shook the Srinagar legislative Assembly. According to recent reports there is an increase in the firing at the LoC (Line of Control - effective India-Pakistan border in Kashmir) and infiltration into Indian Kashmir is on the increase.
But the greatest danger posed by these defeated Taliban militiamen would be to the internal security of Pakistan. They would cause violent unrest of civil war proportions which can be expected to lead to a military coup in Pakistan that would overthrow the regime of President Musharraf.
Defeated Taliban militiamen alongwith the pro-Jihad coup plotters of the Pakistan Army would swiftly start an undeclared war with India
All this will have implications for India in particular and for the ongoing American lead War on Terrorism. Without mincing too many words, we can say that the defeated Taliban militiamen alongwith the proJihad coup plotters of the Pakistan Army would swiftly start an undeclared war with India, with full scale attacks along the LoC and unprecedented insurgency inside Indian-administered Kashmir (and the rest of India too). Needless to say that reverses to this first flush of Pakistani attacks in Kashmir will be bolstered by a first strike using nuclear weapons by the rogue Pakistani army. North Indian cities could bear the brunt of these nuclear attacks.
The surprise reversal of his Afghanistan policy and jettisoning of the Taliban, by President Musharraf has put the possibility of the Indo-Pak nuclear war on hold, till President Musharraf is not overthrown
This dangerous but certain scenario could see the beginning of the world’s first post-Hiroshima nuclear war. The result could be the nuclear decimation of large parts of North India and to a lesser extent of other parts of India. If India responds swiftly, in kind, to the first Pakistani nuclear attacks, then Pakistan could face complete decimation during the course of this war.
This could prophetically prove the US assertion the South Asia sits on a nuclear powder keg. A possibility of nuclear war that existed before September 11th has now increased manifold. Even before that fateful day, the declare Pakistani policy has been that if they lose a conventional war, they would use nuclear weapons. They have never committed themselves to a “no first use” policy for nuclear weapons, as India has done. So the danger of nuclear war between India and Pakistan which was always there has now only become more acute.
The surprise reversal of his Afghanistan policy and jettisoning of the Taliban, by President Musharraf has for the time being, put the possibility of the Indo-Pak nuclear war on hold. This holds till President Musharraf is not overthrown. But the day he is overthrown, we can safely predict a nuclear war between the two nations immediately after that.
If India is smart then it will keep its nuclear gunpowder dry and at the first hint of the President being overthrown, it would unilaterally launch a first strike nuclear attack on Pakistan as a self-saving measure
If India is smart then it will keep its nuclear gunpowder dry and at the first hint of President Musharraf being overthrown, it would unilaterally launch a first strike nuclear attack on Pakistan as a self-saving measure. We doubt that the Government of India can actually do this. But, when the calamity strikes, the Government of India cannot say that they had not been warned; now that we have filed this report!
Exactly, and watching them get broken in spectacular fashion.
Looks like the rioting in Pakistan is wearing itself out. India has restarted rail service, and reports from centers of unrest such as Karachi have street traffic picking up, gas stations re-opening, amd grocery stores doing brisk business.
Bhutto’s son, 19 years old, has been named leader of the PPP, but is reported to be hesitant to interrupt his education at Oxford, so her husband may head an advisory committee until he graduates.
No word on elections yet, but most agree that a delay of a few weeks is necessary. Bush says election timing is up to the Paks.
The interior minister seems to be backing away from his claim that the sunroof lever killed Bhutto, saying “it doesn’t matter how she died, the fact is we have lost her and the focus should be on who killed her.” He also offered to exhume her body for a post mortem if the PPP requests it.
A party official, who prepared Bhutto’s body for burial, reported a bullet entry wound in the left rear of her head, consistent with the location of the shooter pictured in several stills from the video, and a much larger, still-bleeding exit wound opposite. At death, the heart obviously stops, but a large wound in a soft tissue area can drain for some time.
This is inconsistent with both the earliest report from the hospital, who omitted mention of any second head wound, and with the interior minister’s statement, which also only referred to a single head wound.
In the stills I saw, the shooter was holding the weapon with a single arm stance, no Weaver or Isoceles, and did not appear to have a sightline along the top of the weapon, as it was too high. Hard to say where in the process the still was captured, recoil would have had similar effect if he had just fired, however, I really think a professional would have used a two handed stance. That’s not set in concrete, obviously he’d have had to aim at a target of opportunity, and from his position, he appeared to need to reach over some of the crowd between him and his target. A proficient shooter can score almost as well with a one hand stance, even his off hand, as with two. If I have a choice, I’ll use two hands, if not, you use the next best available option.
Pak sources report that Iran has closed their border with Balochistan, second time in two weeks, last instance was when an Iranian border official was kidnapped.
That’s all I have for now.
Looks like the Paki official line is questionable at best -take a look at the new video just out.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d2a_1199047237
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