4 posts tagged “assassination”
According to an article by Alamgir Hussain, Benazir was a fomenter of Jihadism in the days of her office as Prime Minister. Yet she came back to Pakistan to attempt a middle ground for Pakistanis by being the voice of democratic institutions which diametrically opposite of the Theo-Political ideology of Jihad-Islamism.
One could extrapolate her agenda was not as saintly as the image she tried to project to the West. I suspect the wily female politician saw an opportunity to play the military and the Islamists and form a position of power with an image of secularism. In other words her motive was not to seal democracy but to self-aggrandize power for the Bhutto family. I suspect her miscalculation was that Islamists have infiltrated the Pakistan military and Intelligence community with Islamist sympathizers.
I suspect her assassination was the result of Islamists not appreciating a woman leader and a divided military (Islamist sympathizers and traditional elitist secularists) not wanting to tolerate a Bhutto insertion into Pakistani politics.
Bhutto’s murder smacks of a good old fashioned conspiracy theory that I doubt the complete truth of who the murder conspirators were will be known for some time.
By The Associated Press
December 28, 2007 3:38 PM ET
A transcript released by the Pakistani government Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:
Maulvi Sahib: Peace be on you.
Mehsud: Peace be on you, too.
Maulvi Sahib: How are you Emir Sahib?
Mehsud: Fine.
Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations. I arrived now tonight.
Mehsud: Congratulations to you, too.
Maulvi Sahib: They were our men there.
Mehsud: Who were they?
Maulvi Sahib: There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there.
Mehsud: The three did it?
Maulvi Sahib: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.
Mehsud: Then congratulations to you again.
Maulvi: Where are you? I want to meet with you?
Mehsud: I am in Makin. Come I am at Anwar Shah's home.
Maulvi Sahib: OK I will come.
Mehsud: Do not inform their family presently.
Maulvi Sahib: Right.
Mehsud: It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.
Maulvi Sahib: Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.
Mehsud: I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.
Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations to you as well.
Mehsud: Any service?
Mauvliv: Thank you very much?
Mehsud: Peace be on you.
Maulvi: Same to you.
_____________________
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
The Musharraf government says it has proof that al Qaeda assassinated Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan has released to the public an alleged communication interception of al Qaeda operatives speaking about the “who done its” and includes conversational back slapping of congratulations of a job well done. (I will post the transcript because of Yahoo’s rep of removing links or updating content with the same link)
Terrorist organizations are usually hot to claim the glory of a perceived victory. Here I am reading the government knows who did the assassination and is going after the surviving assassination cell. It may be true, but something just reads as to convenient and tidy of an explanation from a nation that has not controlled al Qaeda and the Taliban that have blatantly operated from the sovereign nation of Pakistan.
I still think there was collusion within the Pakistan military and their Intelligence modus operandi in the assassination of Bhutto.
Here is the Yahoo News account of the Musharraf government findings: as posted at SlantRight.
I just finished reading a Symposium on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto at the National Review Online. Those invited to write an analysis about the assassination were Jonathan Foreman, Sumit Ganguly, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Victor Davis Hanson, Mansoor Ijaz, Stanley Kurtz, James S. Robbins, Bill Roggio and Henry Sokolski.
As of this writing there is only guessing who is directly responsible for the assassination from the region of the world in which the Religion of Peace is the dominant religion.
The consensus of the Symposium was really mixed. The mentioned culprits: al Qaeda and allied Islamists, Taliban and allied Islamists, Infiltrating terrorist Islamists in the Pakistan Military, Infiltrating terrorist Islamist in the Pakistan version of a Secret Service, sympathizing Pakistan Secret Service of Islamists itself, Pervez Musharraf and a sympathetic element of the Pakistan military.
The only agreeing link is Islamism, the apparent dominant voice of Mohammedanism of the modern Mohammedan dominated lands.
My guess is that Bhutto caused a temporary alliance of all of the above to cause Bhutto’s death.
Despite a checkered past in past Pakistani politics, her current presence was rallying an opposition that rejected both Islamism and the pro-Western ruling oligarch dictatorship within the Pakistani military. A successful Bhutto would be a huge challenge to the death cult idealism of the Islamist terrorists and a huge challenge to ruling by semi-military fiat by the later.
In essence all Pakistani factions opposing Bhutto’s rise stood to gain with her death.
America is in the uncomfortable Machiavellian position of being forced to choose between two repressive elements in Pakistan: The Pakistan military and Islamist terrorists. Of course it would be global suicide to choose America’s primary enemies thus America will be forced to put its strength behind Musharraf and the military.
I have the impression that Musharraf and the pro-Western elements of the military are becoming more and more unpopular with the Pakistani people. Thus the people that are not happy with Musharraf are being driven to the Islamists even though they may not be Islamists themselves.
This portends a Sunni version of the Shia inspired Iranian Revolution. If an Islamist revolution triumphs over a pro-Western Pakistani military, then Islamists would control Pakistan’s already established nuclear arsenal.
The Shah of Iran overthrown by Khomeini was extremely solid behind America. The Shah even tried to Westernize Iran with a bit of success even though the regime was repressive. The Shah was deserted by a deluded President Carter who felt the end of the Shah would bring democracy to Iran. Oops! Selling out the Shah brought Sharia Law and a repressive regime that made the Shah look like a Western Saint.
Bhutto’s death sets America up for the dreaded repetition of history. Oh yes, a Democratic Party Presidential victory will guarantee handing a nuclear arsenal over to Islamist terrorists just as Carter did in the ‘70’s.
