Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

The Times reports:

Scotland Yard investigators have backed the Pakistani Government’s claim that Benazir Bhutto was not shot, but died after a suicide bomb blast smashed her head against the roof of her armoured vehicle.

The team from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command also concluded that the former Prime Minister and opposition leader was killed by a lone assassin, instead of two, as many Pakistanis believe.

It did not say who was behind her assassination ...

The News in Pakistan is saying Scotland Yard's findings raise more questions than answers:

The Scotland Yard report says nothing as to who sent the killers and is behind Ms Bhutto's assassination. It also raises questions as to the conclusion that one killer was involved, particularly given that a taped conversation of Baitullah Mehsud, released to the media by Pakistani authorities, had spoken of at least two killers being involved. The implication of these findings, then, is that if they are correct, the taped conversation is inaccurate, and its authenticity suspect. Questions are also being asked as to how the Yard reached its conclusions in the absence of an autopsy and the washing away of crucial forensic evidence.

Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack last year, had been warned that four suicide squads were targeting her, including one led by Osama bin Laden's 16-year-old son."

The claims are carried in her soon-to-be-released memoirs. Extracts were released today.

According to Bhutto, who had been campaigning in Rawalpindi ahead of planned elections when she was killed on December 27, another of the suicide squads was run by Islamist warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who authorities suspect masterminded her assassination.

Bhutto's memoirs, "Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West", will be published on February 12.

 Craig Rowley says:

Naveed Ahmad, writing for Newsline in Pakistan, says the investigation into Benazir Bhutto's assassination has raised more questions than it has answered:

Clear answers about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto still seem distant. Every day seemingly brings a new version of the story without any fundamental change in the evidence. Meanwhile, the federal government has lost all credibility with the public. Besides being immediately accused of providing inadequate security to the former prime minister, the government has invited criticism by the initial sloppiness of its investigation, frequently changing its version of events and putting forth an initial explanation that the country, and the world, felt stunk of a cover-up.

Ahmad concludes with a particularly apposite point:

... one thing about the Scotland Yard probe remains contentious. It has been reported that the foreign detectives have been assigned the task of determining how Benazir Bhutto was killed and have not been given the scope to investigate who killed her. In a way, it is tantamount to the government saying, 'We do not want you to help deliver justice.' So much for national reconciliation.

... only if Musharraf allows the UN to lead the inquiry into her murder, something he has ruled out. 

That's what Al-Jazeera has reported (referencing a Newsweek report):

"Exhume it, 100 per cent," Musharraf told Newsweek magazine. "I would like it to be exhumed."
 
However, he ruled out using his executive power to order a post-mortem examination without the agreement of Bhutto's family.

"Everything is not black and white here," he said. "It would have very big political ramifications."
 
"If I just ordered the body exhumed, it would be careless, unless [Bhutto's] people agreed; but they will not ... because they know it's a fact there is nothing wrong."
 
However Bhutto's family said it would agree to an exhumation only if Musharraf allows the UN to lead the inquiry into her murder, something he has ruled out. No autopsy was ever carried out.
 
"There cannot be a UN investigation," Musharraf said. "There are not two or three countries involved. Why should there be a UN investigation? This is ridiculous."

Why should there be a UN investigation?

The news that nearly half of Pakistanis say Musharraf's government is behind Bhutto's death is one good reason, isn't it?

Faheem Raza reports for The Nation (Pakistan) that last week PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari reiterated his party's stance that the probe into the assassination of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto should be conducted by the UN.

Zardari said that he had talked with former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and HRCP head Asma Jehangir who agreed with the PPP stance that probe should be conducted by the UN.

Zardari also said that Musharraf was deceiving the masses regarding the autopsy of Benazir Bhutto’s dead body, adding that he arrived in the country six hours after the incident and the corpse of the slain PPP leader was lying in the hospital where the government did need his permission to conduct the postmortem.

Craig, what would really "reduce pressure on President Pervez Musharraf" would be if Ms Bhutto's family relinquished the body for a post mortem.

Any news yet?

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party believes there is deception involved in the "confession" of teenager Aitzaz Shah.  According to a report by Declan Walsh in The Guardian, they say his is a "cock and bull story" and that it is "intended to reduce pressure on President Pervez Musharraf."

Craig Rowley reports:

"Pakistani police have arrested a teenager who was allegedly trained last year at a camp run by one of Mehsud's commanders in the tribal border region of Waziristan and was allegedly part of a five-man squad in the plot to kill Bhutto.

Yet, Mehsud's "surrender" was reported by Pakistani media in February 2005 and he was reportedly quot;granted amnesty" after "a peace deal" with the administration of the South Waziristan Agency."

Did his commander in the tribal border region also surrender? Or just Mehsud? And is Mehsud still in custody?

And I agree, it is a tangled web.

By the way, have Ms Bhutto's family relinquished the body for a post mortem yet?

The CIA has concluded (in agreement with Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani government) that the men who murdered Benazir Bhutto were directed by Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani police have arrested a teenager who was allegedly trained last year at a camp run by one of Mehsud's commanders in the tribal border region of Waziristan and was allegedly part of a five-man squad in the plot to kill Bhutto.

Yet, Mehsud's "surrender" was reported by Pakistani media in February 2005 and he was reportedly quot;granted amnesty" after "a peace deal" with the administration of the South Waziristan Agency.

So something must have been a deal breaker at some point in the past few years, but scanning the web for news media reports of what that could have been turns up nothing.

After the "surrender" stories in February and March 2005, there's scarcely a story mentioning Mehsud published before June and July 2006 when he was twice mentioned in reports published by the Jamestown Foundation.

First Sohail Abdul Nasir reporting the Pakistani authorities were engaged in "secret meetings with militants" writes that:

In the Waziristan agencies, the situation has tilted toward the militants so much that a writ from local Taliban leaders Baitullah Mehsud or Haji Omar is needed to remove administrative bottlenecks—evidence that the influence of militant leaders has crept into government offices.

Then in July 2006, Mehsud was described by Sohail Abdul Nasir as South Waziristan's "Unofficial Amir", "pledged" to Mullah Omar (leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan), and "pledged" to "not provide assistance to al-Qaeda and other militants" nor "launch operations against government forces."

In April 2006, a BBC report on events in North Waziristan in April 2006 mentioned that Mehsud accused the Pakistani military of "not honouring its agreement to withdraw its forces" and also accused the ISI of "of threatening his life and of trying to sabotage the peace deal", but aside from that it was reported that Mehsud was once again threatening war against the Pakistani government only after (very soon after) the Jamestown Foundation's article in July 2006.

By January 2007, reports make it clear that the "peace deal" was broken. For example, the BBC reported:

A peace deal between pro-Taleban militants and Pakistan's government is in the balance after an air strike on an alleged militant camp on Tuesday.

Government forces carried out the attack in the South Waziristan tribal area. More than 20 people were killed in the raid, officials say.

Tribal leaders have called for revenge and want the deal reconsidered.

Waziristan had seen a decline in conflict between pro-Taleban and government forces after the peace deal.

...

Baitullah Mehsud, a leader of pro-Taleban militants from the Mehsud tribe in the region, told the BBC's Haroon Rashid that "revenge will be taken in the next 10 to 15 days.

"The revenge will be such that they will feel its pain in their hearts," the militant leader said.

Guess why the Pakistanis decided to launch that strike, thereby undoing the "peace deal" and turning Mehsud's mind toward revenge?

That's the operative expression - every day brings more and varying accounts of events. Here is a report that the police prevented an autopsy.

More from Tariq Ali.

William Dalrymple.

Justin Raimondo.

Anyone able to point to a translation of the lyrics of the Natacha Altas song? Preferably the English, not Aramaic, although Tok Pisin would do.

Presumably you mean Osama's assassination Eliot Ramsey, or before he passed away from kidney disease about 5 years ago. Doubt there's much life in the old Bin Laden bogeyman for much longer, unless he's going to become like Santa Claus and be trotted out for every suitable occasion. Then again-, here is already talk of one of his sons carrying the torch - soon those tapes will come from Son Of Osama Bin Laden.

And what is the Aegean Stables Geoff Pahoff - apart from a website that puts the opposite case to Robert Fisk, who at least has spent most of his life in the Middle East and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all the players?

Angela, hi!

If the video and pictures of the man firing the gun at Ms Bhutto, and the following massive explosion blowing the man to pieces and killing a number of people around him don't equate to being the cause of the Ms Bhutto's death, then what are you suggesting did cause it?

The bump on the head on the Toyota sun-roof? Well, that's possible given the force of the explosion, but so what? It's still an assassination by a suicide bomber.

Of course, using the popular fringe dwellers'  Epistemological Retardation approach to problem solving, I guess the onus in on us to prove even to you that Ms Bhutto is in fact dead.

I mean, we only have Mushareff's and George W's word for it. Maybe she's managing a Wal Mart in Islamabad and enjoying the quiet life.

Craig Rowley, hi!

The reason Osama Bin Laden's videotaped message would make no mention of the killing is because it was doubtless recorded well before the assassination.

As much as some US National Security Agency evesdropping unit in Virginia would like him to do it, not even Osama is so stupid as to e-mail MP3 files of himself to the world's media.

He shoots it on old-fashioned VHS tape and it's passed from hand to hand, I hear.

 Richard:  .. and then it goes onto the net, to be detected and leaked by the White House?  That's how the story went for the September one, anyway.  I'm still having trouble with the whole thing.  As for "epistomoligical retardardation," Eliot, how are your applications of the theorem to the Haneef saga coming along?

Suppose a massive deposit of an extremely valuable rare earth, Democritum, is found in a tribal region of the wildest part of Pakistan. The raw product is essential to a component of the next generation of electronic wizardry (see Celebrate the genius of capitalism). Assuming lessons have been learned from Ok Tedi, the global mining industry will  know how to go about the extraction. It requires a sustainable development to last 100 years, a semiskilled workforce of 1000 and a support base of 5000. With the current political instability, the pay-off would have to be enormous to justify the risk. However, in 50 years time, the Tyrell Corp may be contracted to supply a workforce of indestructible replicants. 

If a saviour emerges to guarantee a surer footing for progress in Pakistan, maybe the fiction of Democritum mining can be actualised through private financing on the global market. Go to Prison with a paycheck or a cruise ship ride? to see how Shell hopes to set up Albion Village, a

$12billion facility housing 2,500 workers in Wood Buffalo, in Alberta, Canada, where oil deposits are comparable to those in Saudi Arabia.

In I say development, you say développement, issues are raised that are very pertinent to projects in Aurukun or Sindh. If skills are dropped in by private corporations for a defined purpose, how much of the skill-base will transfer to the surrounding, indigenous population? When the mine is exhausted, will the company exit and leave a decaying husk of spiralling dysfunction, or will they have purposefully established a node of learning that forms a nucleus for liberation. Irfan's article draws a pertinent observation -

Pakistan turned 60 this year. It hasn't been the most pleasant of years for this Muslim nation, one of only two modern nations (the other being Israel) established on the basis of ethno-religious identity.

I'd say that if Israel had rejected all languages except modern Hebrew, or chosen Portuguese, or Sindhi, or Wik Mungkan, the surrounding nations would not be troubled by Israel's technological prowess.

Maybe it's worth exploring whether the Nelson option (Sell India uranium) is more, or less, useful than other options for sustainable development in South Asia.  

Irfan Yusuf writes (Fault lines of a nation) in The Age:

Pakistan's "folk Islam" consists of devotion to local patron saints. During my last visit, I stopped at the shrine of Imam Syed Ali Hujwiri, Lahore's patron saint. Islamic scholars know Imam Hujwiri as the author of one of the oldest books on Islamic spirituality in the Persian language. But for the average Punjabi villager, he is Data Ganj Bakhsh, the saint who grants their wishes.

One of the vast gaps was on view at the south-west quarter of the Melbourne Zoo yesterday. They have installed a traditional southeast Asian bullock cart as part of the re-created subtropical environment. I went from that to admiration of the photographic equipment sported by an East Asian man at one of the exhibits. He had two big Canon digital SLR cameras, one of them with a huge (25 cm) zoom lens.

That technology gap must be common throughout Asia. The difference between the wealthy assets of the Bhutto clan would be evident to the remaining 20 million of the Sindhi province. It's been said that the ex-Oxford playgirl, Harvard-educated Benazir was as fluent in Urdu as she is in English, yet had difficulty with Sindhi.

Sure, it was not the acme of Western technology, but the crudest of simple tools, that killed her. However, her evident striving for image enhancement paved the way. What would have been the point of glossing and burnishing herself for eager approval and consumption by the West if she couldn't be on display, above the parapet?

It will be interesting to watch how the "appointment" of more Bhuttos to lead the party will be viewed by the 'folk'. In the meantime, I recommend the Zoological Gardens. They are taking a lot of trouble and expense to show slivers of the cultures practised by our near northern neighbours:  far more effective educational tools than the annual shagfest to Bali or Bangkok. A small army of little kids and bubs in strollers was there on Sunday. Maybe, when some of them are older, they will ask the Indonesian caretaker to translate the Bahasa inscriptions on the exhibits.

But not that she is dead.

The two gentleman with pistols look more like patsies to me. Very difficult to shoot someone even at close range in a jostling crowd by raising a pistol in the air, particularly twice. If she was, it was more likely by snipers with a bomber to wipe away the evidence.

Re: (the late) Osama Bin Laden and Mrs Bhutto's comments. It didn't sound like a slip of the tongue and one would assume she had her own good intelligence sources. There is a theory that Daniel Pearl had uncovered good information about the close co-operation between Pakistani intelligence, the CIA, and the various people who may or may not be members of the umbrella group Al Qaeda.

If Bin Laden hadn't been murdered by now, anyone who has any knowledge of kidney disease (providing he did have it) would know he couldn't possibly be alive today unless he was being constantly treated in a hospital (or perhaps at the Bush compound. A portable digital dialysis machine can't be toted around the countryside and simply propped up and used. And by the time you have dialysis at Bin Laden's age, your days are numbered.

Angela Ryan: "No autopsy is the first step to failure.Hosing immediately away the evidence is a nice follow-up."

Pakistan's government has offered to exhume Ms Bhutto's body for a post mortem. It's her own family resisting this.

Both the US and British governments are urging the government to hold an inquiry into the assasination. And to continue with the election.

There is simply no doubt she was shot - and that the assassin then detonated a bomb killing himself and others.

Two separate amateur images of the assassination are available, clearly showing the assassin raising his gun to shoot.

Not even Bhutto's party is saying Musharraf did the hit - he's being denounced for failing to prevent it.

This is so blatantly an Islamist, al-Qaeda style killing, it's almost hilarious that anyone needs to dispute it.

What is the psychological impulse for Epistemological Retardation?

Fiona: Eliot, you have just given me the most brill idea. Thank you so much, my sweet, and watch this space.

G'day Craig and Angela, a murky situation indeed which raises more and more questions. I dips me lid to those who are seeking information and answers as opposed to those who prefer to publicly indulge in private, solitary vices. And with some more links to add to the mix:

This. 

This. 

This.

A few on US machinations:

PM Carpenter.

Larry Chin.

Gary Leupp.

Reading matter for those interested in trying to find answers. Others can please themselves. Or try to.

PF Journey says:

Now we have:

1. Benazir was killed by a bullet at her neck followed by explosion"

This in and seen around the world by billions...

"Two dramatic photographs from a video that captured the suspected assassin of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto as he aimed his pistol and fired were released today by Dawn News. The most dramatic image clearly shows the hand of the assassin raised with a hand gun firing at Bhutto as she stood through the sun roof of the car leading her from a rally in Rawalpindi"

 Then there's this...

"Security officials said she was shot in the head and neck but witnesses said an attacker fired at her before blowing himself up, police said at the time."

"Last night one of Ms Bhutto's closest aides said she saw a bullet wound in the politician's head when she had bathed her body after her assassination."

"Ms Bhutto's spokeswoman, Sherry Rehman, said she saw a bullet wound that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side."

Like, anyone seriously doubts this?

It's the return of Epistemological Retardation - Occcam's Razor in Reverse - ignore the most obvious explanations, especially when supported by evidence.

It's the methodological basis for all historical revisionism and the core instrument of propaganda. 

Benazir Bhutto was murdered because she was the West's favourite. A female. And pro-democracy.

Hence the panic...

"She was the vessel of Western hopes for stability and moderation in the make-or-break arena in the so-called War on Terror. She was the focus of a US-led bid to choreograph a staggered return to civilian rule after eight years of military power."

Yet, ironically, according to the Retarded account, her death is a Western victory.

If Musharraf's boys did it, it's because he has been dumped by the West. And he hopes to blame it on al-Qaeda.

If al-Qaeda did it, it's because she was, as they have endlessly stated, a friend of the West and a moderate.

Musharraf has nothing to gain by de-stabilisation.

I said previously that there are more shadow plays in Pakistan than all of Indonesia. Now we have:

1. Benazir was killed by a bullet at her neck followed by explosion.

2. The Al Qaeda did it.

3. No,no, no, according to Pakistan Interior Ministry, she was killed by the sunroof of her car.

4. No, no,no, we didn't do it according to the Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militant Baitullah Mehsud .

Something is missing here, where is the CIA? Where is the grassy knoll? Is Dubya still insisting that: "Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice." The Pakistan Nation killed her and let's put Pakistan on trial.

Craig Rowley: "Will we ever get to see "solid evidence"?

"Pakistani and Italian media said al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for killing Ms Bhutto"

"A spokesperson of Al-Qaeda has Thursday claimed responsibility for the killing of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Italian independent news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) said"

She was a pro-Western, female, pro-democracy advocate.

"The Bush Administration had been working hard over the past year to entice the popular Bhutto to join forces with Musharraf to put a respectable civilian face on Musharraf's regime as Washington's most favoured ally in the so-called war on terrorism."

They're bragging about it. And it's obvious why.

Robert Fisk writes in the Independent today that They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf:

Weird, isn't it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were "extremists" and "terrorists". Well, you can't dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa'ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country.

...

George Bush announced on Thursday he was "looking forward" to talking to his old friend Musharraf. Of course, they would talk about Benazir. They certainly would not talk about the fact that Musharraf continues to protect his old acquaintance – a certain Mr Khan – who supplied all Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran. No, let's not bring that bit of the "axis of evil" into this.

So, of course, we were asked to concentrate once more on all those " extremists" and "terrorists", not on the logic of questioning which many Pakistanis were feeling their way through in the aftermath of Benazir's assassination.