Posted on 12/27/2007 6:36:57 AM PST by maquiladora
You've earned your nickname. I agree. We'll hold their jackets while they fight it out. Step outside and settle this once and for all.
The population would have no way of knowing if the nukes had been turned over to the U.S. for safekeeping. In fact, it wouldn't be at all surprising if it has already happened. ...long before the Bhutto assassination.
Heck, we can’t even keep secrets like that here in the U.S., much less those people over in Pakistan and especially considering how divided the government is, over there... LOL...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Chronology of Bhutto's last months
July 20: Bhutto and Musharraf hold secret meeting in Abu Dhabi on a possible power-sharing deal to sideline Sharif.
Nov 12 :Bhutto rules out further power-sharing talks with Musharraf. She is placed under house arrest again to prevent her leading a mass procession.
Nov 26: Bhutto and Sharif file their nomination papers for the election. Musharraf's office announces he will resign from the army on November 28 and take a new oath as a civilian leader.
Btw, the MSM are by no means "experts". They of course will promote confusion and crisis and would love to see a regional war. All to blame the WOT and Republicans. Therefore you should first parse what the "experts" are saying against their employers' intent before drawing conclusions.
There is simply no way Bhutto's supporters could wage a civil war. It would be akin to Earth-Firsters and ALF starting a civil war in America. I.e., not enough supporters and no military capability.
He needs more than political capital. He needs the military skill, might and support. He has none of those, which means a long, brutal and drawn-out civil war in a nuclear-armed country that is in a constant face-off with another nuclear-armed country, both of which border a third fascist-communist nuclear power. He can't do it alone, and the entire world knows this brings the US deep into an ugly mess.
AQ is trying to open another hot front in the global WOT. The next few days will determine how successful they are.
....so it appears it's not much of a secret.
Recollecting his recent interactions with Bhutto, Sharif said: “We had a good rapport, although we were rivals. She, in fact, called me on December 25 to wish me on my birthday. She personally called me and sent bouquets for me. She always came up as a warm and pleasant person.”
Sharif said Bhutto had come down to Jeddah when he was in exile and later decided to work together to reinstate democracy in Pakistan. “We had a long meeting - four-hours long meeting — and we decided to agree upon a common charter of democracy.”
“We both felt that the army had no role in politics because she was also the victim of army’s intervention and so am I. There was so much in common between us. We were struggling for the restoration of the rule of law,” he told the television channel adding that there were plans for a joint strategy and seat adjustments between them.
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Sharif has now rushed to the side of the Bhutto supporters alleging Musharraf is to blame for her death.
It might prompt a civil war, but if civil war seems likely anyway, it might make it more survivable by both sides
Visualize nuke warheads being smuggled into areas leaning towards one side or the other. Or to attack India, prompting a nuke response
As many as I choose to. Since there were many threads covering this breaking event, the same few people interested in the topic tend to post in more than one thread until the discussion coalesces into one thread.
If you do not like a post, you have the freedom to ignore it. If you believe you have a different viewpoint, feel free to post it here.
My Prayers to Her Family and may she rest in peace may her family find the peace she so desperately wanted for her people
Amen
can’t wait to hear the tripe the Demoncrats are going to have to say about this if anything at all this seems to fit something they would like to happen following all they do to have Democracy defeated !
Here’s is reference news articles. I and so tired of bad things happening during our Christmas holiday time - TAB
Benazir Bhutto's Death is Victory for Islamic Hardliners
The Daily Telegraph (UK) By Con Coughlin
27, December 2007 - Last Updated: 4:01pm
The murder of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi not only strikes a hammer blow against Pakistan's painful attempts to restore democratic rule. It also marks a significant victory for Islamic hardliners who want to destroy Islamabad's uneasy alliance, but crucial, with the West.
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Benazir Bhutto killed in gun and bomb attack
Obituary: Benazir Bhutto
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From the moment the fifty-four-year-old, Oxford-educated Miss Bhutto returned to her homeland last October, she was well aware that she was taking her life in her hands. The Bhutto family had already paid a heavy price for its devotion to the Pakistani cause. Her father was hanged on the orders of General Zia ul-Haq in 1979 following a military coup, and her two brothers were murdered. Miss Bhutto's own political involvement in her country's affairs had not been without incident. In the course of a turbulent career she was twice unceremoniously dumped out of office, jailed on corruption charges and forced to live in exile and bring up her three children single-handedly while her husband served an eight-year jail term.
When she did finally return last October she narrowly escaped death when Islamic extremists launched two suicide bomb attacks against her homecoming procession in Karachi, the Bhutto clan's traditional stronghold. More than one hundred people were killed including some of the supporters who were travelling on Bhutto's bus. But Miss Bhutto refused to be deterred from her self-appointed mission to return Pakistan to democratic government after more than eight years of military dictatorship, even though she was well aware of the risks to herself and her family. "I know there will be security risks, people who want to kill me and to scuttle the restoration of democracy," she told her biographer Christina Lamb shortly before she left London. "But with my faith in God and trust in the people of Pakistan, I'm sure the party workers will be there and will protect me."
In fact officials from her Pakistan People's Party were less than complimentary about the security arrangements that had been put in place by General Pervez Musharraf, the country's current military dictator, whom they suspected of not being overly vigilant in preventing the attacks because he was less than enthusiastic about entering into a power-sharing arrangement with Miss Bhutto. But it was not just Miss Bhutto's commitment to democracy that attracted strong support from her Western backers, which more recently included the Foreign Office and the White House. Miss Bhutto, whose commitment to Pakistan's Islamic legacy was as strong as her support for the democratic process, was seen as a reconciler, the one mainstream political figure who could transcend the awkwardness inherent in an Islamic state forging a close strategic alliance with the West following the September 11 attacks.
Writing shortly before she left London for Pakistan, Miss Bhutto declared her commitment to "the reconciliation of the values of Islam and the West and prescription for a moderate, modern Islam that marginalises extremists, returns the military from politics to their barracks, treats all citizens and especially women equally and selects its leaders by free and fair elections." Her tract was so on message that it could have been written by any one of the seemingly endless procession of Foreign Office diplomats who visited her Edgware Road headquarters in the months that preceded her departure for Islamabad. Miss Bhutto's ardent solicitation by both the British and Americans governments has been prompted by mounting frustration in both London and Washington at the performance of Mr Musharraf who, despite receiving billions of dollars worth of financial support, is deemed to be making insufficient progress in tackling Islamic extremists holed up in the lawless tribal areas that border Afghanistan.
In the long-running coalition campaign to eradicate the threat posed to Western security by Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist organisation, no country is deemed more important an ally than Pakistan. Nearly all the major terrorist threats against Britain - both those that have succeeded, such as the July 7 attacks, and those that haven't, such as the thwarted attacks on Heathrow - originated from al-Qa'eda's stronghold in north-western Pakistan. The area also acts as the main command and training centre for the Taliban in its violent campaign against British troops based in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Consequently the overwhelming priority of both the American and British governments since September 11 has been to forge a strong alliance with Mr Musharraf.
Had the Pakistani dictator made more progress in eradicating the terrorist infrastructure that enables bin Laden and his associates to continue to threaten Western interests, then his allies might have been more prepared to tolerate his disregard for Pakistan's democratic institutions, most of which have been crammed with his military cronies over the past eight years and whose rapaciousness is equal to anything perpetrated by their political predecessors. But not only was Mr Musharraf failing to deal with the coalition's demands for tangible progress in prosecuting the war on terror against Islamic extremists; his continued disinclination to return the country to democracy made him an embarrassment for an alliance that openly extols the virtues of democratic government.
Unlike Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's other mainstream political figure, who has openly campaigned against Islamabad's close alliance with the West, Miss Bhutto was seen as a politician who could facilitate the country's return to democracy while remaining a staunch supporter of the West. The dramatic death of Benazir Bhutto brings both those long-term goals into question. In the current political climate it now seems highly unlikely that the country can proceed with the elections scheduled for next month. And if, as seems likely, Islamic extremists were responsible for Miss Bhutto's murder, then Islamic hardliners will have successfully demonstrated that they pose as much threat to the future stability of Pakistan as they do to the West.
The excuse often given by Mr Musharraf's supporters to explain his caution both in returning the country to democracy and tackling al-Qa'eda and the Taliban was that he feared alienating further the powerful constituency of Islamic fundamentalists who dominate many of Pakistan's mosques and madrassas. But Mr Musharraf has demonstrated that, when pushed to the limit, he is prepared to take extreme measures to deal with extreme threats, especially when they challenge the country's survival as a functioning entity. When, last summer, Islamic radicals seized control of Islamabad's Red Mosque, and openly challenged the government's writ, Mr Musharraf had no hesitation in ordering his special forces to storm the mosque and restore order. If Pakistan is to survive this latest challenge to its existence, then the Pakistani dictator must summon the determination to destroy the enemies of his state once and for all.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/12/27/do2705.xml
Posted for FlAttorney by TAB
Since early March, Pakistan's path to democracy has been plagued by increasing violence and political controversy. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto throws the question of elections, and the country's future, into doubt. Here is a timeline of events that shaped the current crisis:
Dec. 27, 2007: Ms. Bhutto was killed in a suicide bombing, throwing Pakistan's political system into a new round of turmoil.
Dec. 21, 2007: A lone bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing around 50 people. The suicide bomb attack apparently targeted a former top Pakistani antiterrorism official, who was unhurt.
Dec. 18, 2007: Mr. Sharif lost his appeal against the rejection of his nomination for the Jan. 9 parliamentary elections, eliminating one of Pakistan's key opposition leaders from the crucial vote.
Dec. 15, 2007: Mr. Musharraf lifted the state of emergency he imposed in the country on Nov. 3.
Nov. 28-29, 2007: Gen. Musharraf resigned his military post and was sworn in for a new five-year term as president, this time as a civilian.
Nov. 25, 2007: Mr. Sharif returned to Pakistan, ending seven years of exile in Saudi Arabia and positioning him to challenge the authority of Gen. Musharraf, the man who deposed him in 1999.
Nov. 11, 2007: Gen. Musharraf announced a timetable to hold national elections by Jan. 9, earlier than expected.
Nov. 7, 2007: Ms. Bhutto initiated nationwide protests against the state of emergency declared by Gen. Musharraf.
Nov. 3, 2007: Gen. Musharraf declared a state of emergency, consolidating his grip on the courts, media and political opposition by blackening private domestic and international television channels, replacing several Supreme Court justices, and detaining about 500 political opponents and human-rights activists.
Oct. 19, 2007: Hours after Ms. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, two bomb blasts near her cavalcade killed at least 136 people.
Oct. 6, 2007: Gen. Musharraf won reelection in a presidential vote boycotted by nearly the entire opposition. But the Supreme Court said that the official results can only be declared after it rules on complaints lodged by Gen. Musharraf's opponents about him running for a civilian post while still army chief.
Oct. 2, 2007: Gen. Musharraf took steps toward giving Ms. Bhutto amnesty from prosecution on corruption charges. Ms. Bhutto was holding talks with Gen. Musharraf during the past several months about a power-sharing agreement.
Sept. 10, 2007: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif landed in Pakistan for about four hours before the government deported him to Saudi Arabia, where he had gone into exile in 2000.
July 27, 2007: Gen. Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto secretly met in Abu Dhabi for talks on a possible power-sharing agreement.
July 20, 2007: The Supreme Court of Pakistan reinstated Chief Justice Chaudhry, whom the government had suspended in March for alleged misconduct, dealing a blow to Gen. Musharraf.
July 10, 2007: Hundreds of soldiers stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque to evict Islamist militants occupying the building. By evening, about 50 militants and 12 soldiers had died in the worst fighting ever in the heart of Pakistan's capital.
May 12, 2007: Clashes between government and opposition supporters turned violent in Karachi, killing dozens. The riots later prompted a nationwide general strike that closed down Pakistan's major cities and united both secular and Islamist opposition to Gen. Musharraf.
March 9, 2007: Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the head of Pakistan's Supreme Court, for abuse of office. Lawyers and judges began protests against perceived interference in the judiciary, and the movement quickly snowballed to include the political opposition and religious groups long antagonistic to Gen. Musharraf.
http://oxxynews3.blogspot.com/2007/12/timeline-pakistans-tumultuous-year.html
Posted for FlAttorney by TAB
It would not be possible to be more alarmed and sustain this constant state of alarm we have been in since 1954 and so we will simply watch and see what happens if anything.
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