Bhutto Assassinated

[LoungeMachine]

Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated in Attack at Rally (Update3)

By Naween A. Mangi, Khalid Qayum and Khaleeq Ahmed

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in an election-rally attack in Rawalpindi, threatening the stability of a nuclear-armed nation that is a focal point of the West's war on terror.

At least 16 people died and more than 60 were injured in the gunfire-and-bomb attack on Bhutto's rally, police said. The opposition leader, 54, had survived a previous attempt on her life when she returned from exile two months ago.

Rioting broke out as her supporters gathered outside the hospital where her death was confirmed and in cities across Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf, who had allowed her return to participate in parliamentary elections planned for Jan. 8, appealed for calm in a message broadcast on state television.

``I don't think elections will be possible now,'' said Hassan Abbas, a Pakistani political analyst at Harvard University.

The death of the nation's most popular politician also deepens a vacuum within its civilian leadership to the benefit of the two other communities that strive to rule Pakistan: the military and Islamic militant movements.

``Long-term, it raises very, very serious questions about the stability of Pakistan,'' Farzana Shaikh, Pakistan analyst at the London-based Chatham House foreign policy institute, said in a phone interview from Montpellier, France.

Mourning Period

Musharraf announced three days of mourning in the country.

``We will fly the Pakistan flag at half-mast in her honor,'' Musharraf said. ``Terrorists are the greatest threat to Pakistan and we won't rest till we defeat terrorism.''

Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with top officials to discuss their response to the assassination, according to state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Bhutto, the first female leader of an Islamic nation, died in the blast or was shot by the bomber before he blew himself up, Bhutto spokesman Farhatullah Babar told state-run television. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said earlier in a phone interview that she was killed in the bombing.

In Rawalpindi, where the army has its headquarters, shops were torched and Bhutto's backers clashed with police. Bhutto supporters poured into the streets across Sindh, the southern province that was her home, burning tires and setting fire to shops in Tando Allah Yar, Khairpur and Larkana, where she lived.

``It was Benazir Bhutto that posed the main threat to pro- Musharraf parties,'' Chatham House's Shaikh said.

Worldwide Condemnation

World leaders condemned the killing, and the United Nations Security Council scheduled a meeting later today to discuss the assassination. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Pakistanis to ``work together for peace and national unity.''

President George W. Bush said from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, ``We stand with the people of Pakistan in their struggle against the forces of terror.'' The U.S. had backed a partnership between Bhutto and Musharraf.

``The manner of her going is a reminder of the common dangers that our region faces from cowardly acts of terrorism and of the need to eradicate this dangerous threat,'' Manmohan Singh, prime minister of neighboring India, said in an e-mailed statement. ``Mrs. Bhutto was no ordinary political leader, but one who left a deep imprint on her time and age.''

October Attack

The opposition leader survived an assassination attempt on the night of her return to Pakistan in October after eight years in self-imposed exile. At least 136 people died when suicide bombers attacked her welcome procession on Oct. 19 in Karachi, where thousands of supporters had gathered to receive her.

Harvard- and Oxford-educated Bhutto was born in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, and was the eldest of two sisters and two brothers. She is survived by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, son Bilawal and two daughters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa.

Bhutto attributed her interest in politics to her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the prime minister overthrown by General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in a 1977 military coup.

``She was, like her father, a deeply flawed leader,'' Shaikh said. ``But, she was one of the few popular leaders of Pakistan. She did street politics like no other. She was able to give people a certain sense of belonging.''

Zia ul-Haq went on to become president in 1978. The elder Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was hanged in 1979 after his conviction on charges of authorizing the murder of an opponent. Both of Bhutto's brothers were also killed.

`It Chose Me'

``I didn't choose this life, it chose me,'' Bhutto wrote in the preface to the second edition of her autobiography, ``Daughter of the East,'' in April 2007. ``Born in Pakistan, my life mirrors its turbulence, its tragedies and its triumphs. Pakistan is no ordinary country. And mine has been no ordinary life.''

Bhutto was imprisoned for five years, mostly in solitary confinement, just before her father's execution. She later lived in London, returning to Pakistan in 1986. She was married to a man from a land-owning family of agriculturists in 1987.

``An arranged marriage was the price in personal choice I had to pay for the political path my life had taken,'' she wrote in her autobiography. ``My own parents had married for love and I had grown up believing the day would come when I would fall in love and marry a man of my own choosing.''

Zia ul-Haq's dictatorship ended when he was killed in a plane crash in 1988. Her government was dismissed in 1990. She won a second term in 1993 and was dismissed once again on charges of corruption in 1996.

Managed Party

She lived in Dubai and London since 1999 after being charged in Pakistan with taking kickbacks on state contracts. She wasn't convicted on the charges. While outside Pakistan, she spent time lecturing at universities and think-tanks around the world. She also remotely managed her party.

Zardari, Bhutto's husband and a member of the senate, also spent over eight years in jail on 18 corruption cases. He was released in 2004 without any convictions.

Bhutto flew back to Pakistan after Musharraf, 64, gave her amnesty on the corruption charges and agreed to give up control of the military by Nov. 15. In return, Bhutto didn't object to him being re-elected president by parliament and he won another five-year term.

Vowed to Campaign

The former premier had said she would limit mass election rallies and campaign by telephone to avoid a repeat of the Oct. 19 terrorist attacks.

``We do not want to endanger our leadership unnecessarily, and we certainly don't want to risk potential mass murder of my supporters,'' Bhutto wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 23. ``If we don't campaign, the terrorists have won and democracy is set back further. If we do campaign, we risk violence. It is an extraordinary dilemma.''

Bush banked on the relationship to return stability to a nuclear-armed country that, according to U.S. intelligence reports and officials, is failing to combat a growing Islamist threat.

``Bhutto symbolizes everything that's anathema to the extremists,'' Lisa Curtis, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said in a telephone interview. ``They want a Taliban-like theocratic state in Pakistan and she stands for democracy, modernity and change.''

Bhutto's moderate view of Islam and close contacts with the Bush administration made her a potential target for extremists in the world's largest Muslim nation after Indonesia. Islamic militants had threatened to assassinate Bhutto on her return from exile.

`A Symbol'

``I know that I am a symbol of what the so-called Jihadists, Taliban and al-Qaeda, most fear,'' she wrote. ``I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan.''

The twin bombings on her return to Pakistan in October also injured more than 500 people in the deadliest attacks since Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999.

Musharraf had been informed that three people may be behind the attempts to kill her, Bhutto told reporters on Oct. 22, without identifying them.

``We will not be intimidated,'' she told reporters at her Karachi residence, Bilawal House. ``Despite the heavy loss we incurred, we will continue.''

`Al-Qaeda'

Bhutto received a letter from ``friends of al-Qaeda'' on Oct. 23, threatening more suicide attacks, possibly using women bombers, her lawyer Farooq Naik said. Bhutto also said her houses in Karachi and Larkana in the southern province of Sindh were under threat.

Musharraf imposed emergency rule in Pakistan on Nov. 3 as the Supreme Court neared a decision on the legality of his re- election as head of state while also serving as army chief.

Bhutto called Musharraf's decision to suspend the constitution and impose emergency a mini martial law and said it jeopardized her power-sharing talks with the army ruler.

To contact the reporters on this story: Naween A. Mangi in Karachi at nmangi1@bloomberg.net ; Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at paknews@bloomberg.net ; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: December 27, 2007 12:13 EST

[knuckleboner]

coalition of the willing to martyr, eh?...

[Nickdfresh]

Well, will some people who are obsessed with the possibility of a nuclear armed Iran pull their heads out of their asses and realize that an unstable nuclear armed Pakistan is much more of a threat?

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Well, will some people who are obsessed with the possibility of a nuclear armed Iran pull their heads out of their asses and realize that an unstable nuclear armed Pakistan is much more of a threat?

That's Bin Laden Harboring unstable nuclear threat....

not to split hairs :D

I like how 9ui11iani is already spinning this in his favor....




Not to make light of this tragedy, but I am curoius to see FORD'S
6 Degrees of BCE ;)



The Internets are already full of "It's another ArchDuke Ferdinand"- like event....

[Nickdfresh]

Well, from what I understand, there are riots erupting throughout Pakistan.

LOL @ Giuliani. He's gonna apply all of that philandering while in city gov't expertise...

[LoungeMachine]

Anybody else shocked at the CNN vidoe of firefighters HOSING DOWN THE CRIME SECENE?????

Not exactly like shipping the WTC to China, but Jesus....

:rolleyes:

And I think we can forget about any true "elections" next month...

[thome]

I know she isn't your hero anymore, but to bag on Hillary is why I am here.

To my own dismay..

Within hours of the Murder of Bhutto, Hillary was passing out 8by10 glossies of herself and Benazir..... at a political rally.
Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Anybody else shocked at the CNN vidoe of firefighters HOSING DOWN THE CRIME SECENE?????



Add the belief that her body must be under ground by sundown tomorrow ....?


I think this story has many different ways to be talked about but I know I will get pissed off so let see if I can just say...

One of the finest of women who stood up for all, has been knocked down by the inbred ignorant men, who's main goal on this planet is the subjugation of women.

I am affraid this thread is already about something else.

I do know I won't be able to stay on subject all I will end up doing is defending the inability of this to be about her and what happen.It is already about everything else.

[WACF]

This just seemed inevitable.

Tragic...there has been alot of chest beating over Iran but I do not think anyone would be surprised about Pakistan.

It has been a very pricarious situation for a long time now.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by thome
I know she isn't your hero anymore, but to bag on Hillary is why I am here.

To my own dismay..

Within hours of the Murder of Bhutto, Hillary was passing out 8by10 glossies of herself and Benazir..... at a political rally.

Add the belief that her body must be under ground by sundown tomorrow ....?


I think this story has many different ways to be talked about but I know I will get pissed off so let see if I can just say...

One of the finest of women who stood up for all, has been knocked down by the inbred ignorant men, who's main goal on this planet is the subjugation of women.

I am affraid this thread is already about something else.

I do know I won't be able to stay on subject all I will end up doing is defending the inability of this to be about her and what happen.It is already about everything else.

Any links?

Or was Rush talking out of his ass when taking time to remove the balls from his mouth?

[FORD]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine

Not to make light of this tragedy, but I am curoius to see FORD'S
6 Degrees of BCE ;)



The Internets are already full of "It's another ArchDuke Ferdinand"- like event....

Don't think there's 6 degrees just yet, but the ArchDuke comparison might not be far off. Seems that the various religious factions in India also resumed hostilities recently (Christian vs Hindu vs Muslim vs whatever)

So if you take two neighboring countries with massive internal conflicts who hate each other.....

Both nuclear powers.... one with a secret police which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CIA, the other a country complicit in the 9-11 coverup and "coincidentally" the sudden benefit of much corporate outsourcing immediately after that.

The BCE has enough influence over both countries to inflame the whole fucking powder keg into the World War III they really want, so they can occupy the entire western half of Asia, instead of just select "terraist" countries.

[hideyoursheep]

Musharraf had better start putting boot to Al Qadea ass pronto.

If they do it to Bhutto, he could be next.

Ignoring them up north won't grant him immunity.

They aren't known for their loyalty to host governments unless their agenda is strictly enforced.

He needs to wake up.

[thome]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Any links?

Or was Rush talking out of his ass when taking time to remove the balls from his mouth?

Rush who ?

My Hillary info came off CNN Headline News Cable TV this morning.

We git cable here in KC yall'.

[FORD]

Holy shit!

Mike Malloy just played a piece of a David Frost interview with Bhutto from just last month.

She was discussing previous assassination plots against her and indicated that one suspect who might be threatening her was "THE MAN WHO MURDERED OSAMA BIN LADEN"


Did you get that?

Osama is DEAD and Bhutto announced it to the entire world.

Does that change anybody's perception of this situation?

[FORD]

This just got more interesting.....


The guy who Bhutto named as Osama's killer is named Omar Saeed Sheikh. He is ALSO the guy who killed Daniel Pearl!

Could Pearl have stumbled onto the fact that Osama was dead, and been killed himself to keep Bin Laden "alive" as the Emmanuel Goldstein of the BCE.


Hey Nancy Pelosi...... isn't it time to put CHIMPEACHMENT back on the fucking table??? :mad:

[FORD]

Here's the Frost interview. Bhutto names Sheikh as Osama's killer at about 6:10 into the clip.....

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oIO8B6fpFSQ&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oIO8B6fpFSQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

[Dan]

She Paid The Price,She Knew That Her Number Was Coming Up One Day.

Sad But True.:(

[letsrock]

So what, now just finish the rest of them off.

Good job CIA.

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by FORD
Holy shit!
Did you get that?
Osama is DEAD and Bhutto announced it to the entire world.
Does that change anybody's perception of this situation?

Frost is about as into this interview as Larry King.

She could have told him she were the virgin Mary and he wouldn't
notice..skipped right over that little tidbit.

How is someone as associated with corruption in gov't this side of
Dick Chaney supposed to hold THAT kind of credibility?

What is her source on this intel?

Nice job, Dave.
:mad:

BUT- should it be true, you'd better dump this thread before Big Brother finds it and "digs a hole" for us all!!:eek:

[ULTRAMAN VH]

Benazir Bhutto
Killed by the real Pakistan.

By Andrew C. McCarthy

A recent CNN poll showed that 46 percent of Pakistanis approve of Osama bin Laden.

Aspirants to the American presidency should hope to score so highly in the United States. In Pakistan, though, the al-Qaeda emir easily beat out that country’s current president, Pervez Musharraf, who polled at 38 percent.

President George Bush, the face of a campaign to bring democracy — or, at least, some form of sharia-lite that might pass for democracy — to the Islamic world, registered nine percent. Nine!

If you want to know what to make of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder today in Pakistan, ponder that.

There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.

Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West.

The real Pakistan is a breeding ground of Islamic holy war where, for about half the population, the only thing more intolerable than Western democracy is the prospect of a faux democracy led by a woman — indeed, a product of feudal Pakistani privilege and secular Western breeding whose father, President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, had been branded as an enemy of Islam by influential Muslim clerics in the early 1970s.

The real Pakistan is a place where the intelligence services are salted with Islamic fundamentalists: jihadist sympathizers who, during the 1980s, steered hundreds of millions in U.S. aid for the anti-Soviet mujahideen to the most anti-Western Afghan fighters — warlords like Gilbuddin Hekmatyar whose Arab allies included bin Laden and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the stalwarts of today’s global jihad against America.

The real Pakistan is a place where the military, ineffective and half-hearted though it is in combating Islamic terror, is the thin line between today’s boiling pot and what tomorrow is more likely to be a jihadist nuclear power than a Western-style democracy.

In that real Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto’s murder is not shocking. There, it was a matter of when, not if.

It is the new way of warfare to proclaim that our quarrel is never with the heroic, struggling people of fill-in-the-blank country. No, we, of course, fight only the regime that oppresses them and frustrates their unquestionable desire for freedom and equality.

Pakistan just won’t cooperate with this noble narrative.

Whether we get round to admitting it or not, in Pakistan, our quarrel is with the people. Their struggle, literally, is jihad. For them, freedom would mean institutionalizing the tyranny of Islamic fundamentalism. They are the same people who, only a few weeks ago, tried to kill Benazir Bhutto on what was to be her triumphant return to prominence — the symbol, however dubious, of democracy’s promise. They are the same people who managed to kill her today. Today, no surfeit of Western media depicting angry lawyers railing about Musharraf — as if he were the problem — can camouflage that fact.

In Pakistan, it is the regime that propounds Western values, such as last year’s reform of oppressive, Sharia-based Hudood laws, which made rape virtually impossible to prosecute — a reform enacted despite furious fundamentalist rioting that was, shall we say, less well covered in the Western press. The regime, unreliable and at times infuriating, is our only friend. It is the only segment of Pakistani society capable of confronting militant Islam — though its vigor for doing so is too often sapped by its own share of jihadist sympathizers.

Yet, we’ve spent two months pining about its suppression of democracy — its instinct not further to empower the millions who hate us.

For the United States, the question is whether we learn nothing from repeated, inescapable lessons that placing democratization at the top of our foreign policy priorities is high-order folly.

The transformation from Islamic society to true democracy is a long-term project. It would take decades if it can happen at all. Meanwhile, our obsessive insistence on popular referenda is naturally strengthening — and legitimizing — the people who are popular: the jihadists. Popular elections have not reformed Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon. Neither will they reform a place where Osama bin Laden wins popular opinion polls and where the would-be reformers are bombed and shot at until they die.

We don’t have the political will to fight the war on terror every place where jihadists work feverishly to kill Americans. And, given the refusal of the richest, most spendthrift government in American history to grow our military to an appropriate war footing, we may not have the resources to do it.

But we should at least stop fooling ourselves. Jihadists are not going to be wished away, rule-of-lawed into submission, or democratized out of existence. If you really want democracy and the rule of law in places like Pakistan, you need to kill the jihadists first. Or they’ll kill you, just like, today, they killed Benazir Bhutto.

— Andrew C. McCarthy directs the Center for Law & Counterterrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.












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[ULTRAMAN VH]

!

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by ULTRAMAN VH
A recent CNN poll showed that 46 percent of Pakistanis approve of Osama bin Laden.....

NOT A SUBSCRIBER TO NATIONAL REVIEW?

Since when does the right use information from the left?:p


1) Mushareff wants to be the Alpha Dog in Pak. He won't "step down", or share responsibility with some "elected" individual. He may very well
had been in on having Bhutto whacked. Indirectly involved.

2) He's in no position to serve 2 masters (Chimp or Al Qadea), so any sort of "promises" he makes to either are hollow. Preserving his status
as President is what he's worried about-that's why he needs that military link. He controlls that, he remains untouchable to both.

The Col.Kurtz of the mideast. He won't relinquish power to either one without a fight.

[Nickdfresh]

What about the 54% that don't?

What about the millions mourning her death?

Many of those Pakis that lvoe Bin Laden do so because they have a shitty existence of poverty and a complete lack of centralized gov't control, and their limited notion of democracy as one of institutionalized corruption...

[WACF]

I think Mushareff needed Bhutto...this hurts him too.

The whole Osama was murdered thing kinda comes out of nowhere...I find it odd nobody picked this up already...unless of course she has nothing to back it up.

Mushareff has been barely holding on for quite some time...he has been fighting on the Northern border and it has cost him...but at the same time you know much goes on that should not.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by WACF
I think Mushareff needed Bhutto...this hurts him too.
...

Maybe, but he no doubt viewed her as a rival as well...

[Nickdfresh]

Bhutto Buried As Pakistan Unrest Spreads

By ASHRAF KHAN – 1 hour ago

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of mourners, weeping and chanting for justice, thronged the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in a raw outpouring of grief for Benazir Bhutto. The government blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for the assassination of the opposition leader, who was buried alongside her father.

Furious supporters, many of them blaming President Pervez Musharraf's government for the shooting and bombing attack on the former prime minister, rampaged through several cities in violence that left at least 23 dead less than two weeks before crucial elections.

Some wept, others chanted "Benazir is alive," as the plain wood coffin was placed beside the grave of her father in the vast, white marble mausoleum in southern Sindh province near the Bhuttos' ancestral home.

Thursday's attack on Bhutto plunged Pakistan into turmoil and badly damaged plans to restore democracy in this nuclear-armed nation, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror.

Musharraf initially blamed her death on unnamed Islamic militants, but Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told The Associated Press on Friday that "we have the evidence that al-Qaida and the Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto."

He said investigators had resolved the "whole mystery" behind the opposition leader's killing and would give details at press conference later Friday.

Bhutto's supporters ransacked banks, waged shootouts with police and burned trains and stations in a spasm of violence less than two weeks before parliamentary elections.

Soldiers patrolled the streets of the southern cities of Hyderabad and Karachi in an effort to quell violence, witnesses said. At least 23 people were killed in unrest, said Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram, home secretary for Sindh province.

Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the government had no immediate plans to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite the growing chaos and a top opposition leader's decision to boycott the poll.

"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference. "We will consult all the political parties to take any decision about it."

Mourners traveled to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh by tractor, bus, car and jeep. Many crammed inside the mausoleum and threw petals on the coffin. Women beat their heads and chests in grief.

"As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto," they chanted.

An Islamic cleric led mourners in prayers and Bhutto's son, Bilawal, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, helped lower the coffin beside the grave of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, also a popular former prime minister who met a violent death. Thousands of supporters then filed in to shovel dirt onto the grave.

Some mourners angrily blamed Musharraf, the former army chief, for Bhutto's death, shouting "General, killer!" "Army, killer."

The death of the 54-year-old Bhutto left her party without a clear successor. Her husband, who was freed in December 2004 after eight years in detention on graft charges, is one contender to head the party, although he lacks the cachet of a blood relative.

"I don't know what will happen to the country now," said Nazakat Soomro, 32.

Bhutto's funeral procession began at her ancestral residence in the southern town of Naudero. Her plain wood coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was carried in a white ambulance toward the marble mausoleum, about three miles away, passing a burning passenger train on the way.

Violence roared through much of the country. A mob in Karachi looted at least three banks and set them on fire, and engaged in a shootout with police that left three officers wounded, police said.

About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. In the capital, Islamabad, about 100 protesters burned tires in a commercial district.

Paramilitary rangers were given the authority to use live fire against rioters in southern Pakistan, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman.

"We have orders to shoot on sight," he said.

Army soldiers patrolled the streets of Hyderabad and Karachi, witnesses said. In Hyderabad, the soldiers refused to let people out of their houses, witnesses said.

Earlier, mobs burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Bhutto's Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between the city of Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official.

The rioters uprooted one section of the track leading to India, he said.

An Associated Press reporter saw nine cars of a train completely burned. Witnesses said all the passengers were pulled out before the train was torched.

About 4,000 Bhutto supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar and several hundred ransacked the empty office of the main pro-Musharraf party, burning furniture and stationery.

Protesters shouted "Musharraf dog" and "Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today." Dozens of police in riot gear followed the protesters but did not intervene.

In other violence, a roadside bomb killed a local leader from the ruling party and six of his associates as they drove through Swat in northwestern Pakistan, where troops have been fighting followers of a pro-Taliban cleric in recent months, said Mohib Ullah, a local police official.

Many cities were nearly deserted as businesses closed and public transportation came to a halt at the start of three days of national mourning for Bhutto.

A coalition of opposition parties called for a general strike, said Mohammed Usman Kakar, a leader in the All Parties Democratic Movement, which comprises small anti-Musharraf groups.

"The repercussions of her murder will continue to unfold for months, even years," read a mournful editorial in the Dawn newspaper. "What is clear is that Pakistan's political landscape will never be the same, having lost one of its finest daughters."

Bhutto was killed after a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally, police and witnesses said. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, but Dr. Mussadiq Khan, a surgeon who treated her, said Friday that she died from shrapnel that hit her on the right side of the skull.

Bhutto had no heart beat or pulse when she arrived at the hospital and doctors failed to resuscitate her, he said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said he saw the medical report, and it, too, said she died from a shrapnel wound and was not shot. "No bullet was found in her body," he said.

Soomro, the prime minister, told the Cabinet on Friday that Bhutto's husband did not allow an autopsy, according to a government statement.

After the killing, Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and leader of a rival opposition party, announced his party would boycott the elections.

"I am worried about the country, about the people. Nobody is secure, there is total insecurity," Sharif said.

Opposition politician and former cricket star Imran Khan blamed Musharraf for Bhutto's death, saying he did not give her proper security. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, India, where he was on a private visit, he called on the president to resign and for an independent judicial probe into her death.

Bhutto, whose party has long been popular among Pakistan's legions of poor, served two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. Both elected governments were toppled amid accusations of corruption and mismanagement, but she was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat Islamic extremism.

She had been vying for a third term if her party fared well in the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

AP-Google (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIE0IUn4WIiaMBpjG8SI_6H5RXzgD8TQGL480)

[BITEYOASS]

I don't think we should feel sorry for her death, since she allowed the Taliban to set up shop in Afghanistan once the Soviets left. Guess that plan came back around to really bite her in the ass yesterday.

[Guitar Shark]

Originally posted by FORD
Holy shit!

Mike Malloy just played a piece of a David Frost interview with Bhutto from just last month.

She was discussing previous assassination plots against her and indicated that one suspect who might be threatening her was "THE MAN WHO MURDERED OSAMA BIN LADEN"


Did you get that?

Osama is DEAD and Bhutto announced it to the entire world.

Does that change anybody's perception of this situation?

Since when is Bhutto the authority on whether OBL is alive or dead?

[FORD]

It all makes sense when you think about it.....

Remember how Chimpy did the 180 degree turn about 6 months after 9-11, from "I want Osama dead or alive" to "I'm truly not that concerned about him"?

Could that be because he knew Osama was already DEAD?

But to announce that fact would have weakened PNAC's case for a "war on terra" and definitely the false case they were building against Iraq at the time.

Daniel Pearl stumbled on to the fact that Osama was dead, and as an investigative journalist, was going to reveal that fact to the world. Why wouldn't he? Most people would consider it a GOOD thing that the "#1 terrorist in the world" was dead.

Except for those using him as the Ultimate Boogeyman, of course.

And you can't help but laugh at the fact that the very minute this story surfaced yesterday - though it's hardly being reported in the corporate media - the BCE put out the word that a "new Osama tape" was expected soon :rolleyes:

It's like clockwork with these cowards......

[EAT MY ASSHOLE]

Originally posted by FORD
It all makes sense when you think about it.....

Remember how Chimpy did the 180 degree turn about 6 months after 9-11, from "I want Osama dead or alive" to "I'm truly not that concerned about him"?

Could that be because he knew Osama was already DEAD?

But to announce that fact would have weakened PNAC's case for a "war on terra" and definitely the false case they were building against Iraq at the time.

Daniel Pearl stumbled on to the fact that Osama was dead, and as an investigative journalist, was going to reveal that fact to the world. Why wouldn't he? Most people would consider it a GOOD thing that the "#1 terrorist in the world" was dead.

Except for those using him as the Ultimate Boogeyman, of course.

And you can't help but laugh at the fact that the very minute this story surfaced yesterday - though it's hardly being reported in the corporate media - the BCE put out the word that a "new Osama tape" was expected soon :rolleyes:

It's like clockwork with these cowards......

Wait...I thought Saddam was the ultimate boogeyman? And I thought Osama was an American actor used as a tool for the BCE? I thought 9/11 was an inside job? And wasn't osama himself one of the missiles on the aircraft that was disguised as a passenger plane that was fired into the WTC?

Which one is it???

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Guitar Shark
Since when is Bhutto the authority on whether OBL is alive or dead?

:rolleyes:

Compared to whom, exactly?

I'd say she had MUCH MORE authority on the subject than ANYONE else who has ever spoken publicly via MSM over the last 6 years.

Pervez himself knows. That's for sure. Ask Porter Goss.

My point is....

Just because it came via FORD doesn't mean it's absolutely bat-shit conspiracy crazy. ;)

I believe he is dead, too. And I believe BushCO has always known this...

But I'm no authority on Al Qaeda / CIA operatives, either :D

:gulp:

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Many of those [insert mideast nationality here] that love Bin Laden do so because they have a shitty existence of poverty and a complete lack of centralized gov't control, and their limited notion of democracy as one of institutionalized corruption... ;)

FORD's view on the situation makes alot of sense and would be a
monsterous scenario should anyone been actually paying attention
to what has played out the past 6 years. It's so clear, it's disturbing.

IF she really knew whether or not UBL was killed and was herself whaked by the BCE or CIA, impeachment should be the least of the punishments handed out to these bastards.

But for some odd reason, no one seems to be interested in her claims about Usama Boogeyman Ladin.

I'm wondering about the CNN poll @ 46%- how accurate can that actually be? The fact that The National Review paints Pakistan as a stronghold for terrorists while The W praises them for their efforts
against them is sort of odd. It would appear The NR are doing the same hit job on Pakistan that BushCo were doing on Iran.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by hideyoursheep
[B

The fact that The National Review paints Pakistan as a stronghold for terrorists while The W praises them for their efforts
against them is sort of odd. . [/B]

Nah, it's actually classic BushCO.

"You're doing a heckuva job, Paki"

Bush made his bed with Perv a long time ago...

He now knows he blew it. bad.

But propping up THIS dictator in the Middle East is crucial for BushCO at this time.

The Devil you Know.........


But then again, it's really no stretch to see why Chimpy likes this Paki "Democracy" :rolleyes:

He only wishes he could kill those who oppose him, and declare Marshal Law.

:gulp:

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine


-it's really no stretch to see why Chimpy likes this Paki "Democracy" :rolleyes:

He only wishes he could kill those who oppose him, and declare Marshal Law.

:gulp:


:lol:

They DO have some similarities, don't they?.....

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x119/brakeman_2007/8016d646.jpghttp://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x119/brakeman_2007/bush_flightsuit.jpg


They love to play "dress-up".:p

[Steve Savicki]

Sad. Someone who died for a good cause. :(

[letsrock]

Did she have a nice rack?

[letsrock]

Any pics of her snizz on the net?

[hideyoursheep]

Happy Newsyear!

THIS JUST IN!!



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[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by hideyoursheep
;)

FORD's view on the situation makes alot of sense and would be a
monsterous scenario should anyone been actually paying attention
to what has played out the past 6 years. It's so clear, it's disturbing.

IF she really knew whether or not UBL was killed and was herself whaked by the BCE or CIA, impeachment should be the least of the punishments handed out to these bastards.

But for some odd reason, no one seems to be interested in her claims about Usama Boogeyman Ladin.

I'm wondering about the CNN poll @ 46%- how accurate can that actually be? The fact that The National Review paints Pakistan as a stronghold for terrorists while The W praises them for their efforts
against them is sort of odd. It would appear The NR are doing the same hit job on Pakistan that BushCo were doing on Iran.

As far as Ford's view, that's just speculation for her death has been tied to a pro-Taliban Paki scum living in the lawless tribal territories of Waziristan, which is really where the Taliban came from - NOT Afghanistan as the Taliban are largely seen as as a foreign (Pakistani) a presence as NATO is...

And as the the Nat'l Review, well, they engage in the typical "Islamofascist" hype which is largely useless, both culturally and logically ignorant, and is a convenient excuse for simplifying or ignoring actual very complex histories that they have a part in as they pretty strongly advocated supporting the Mujahideen in the 1980s. They thusly enabled the Paki & Saudi meddling, and selective support for the most radically anti-Western groups, into the affairs of Afghanistan, which was one of the reasons the country was so unstable to begin with...

And it was of course the Bush policy which pressured Musharraf to allow Bhutto back in. Well, democracy is difficult in extremely unstable times...

[113]

Hey, I`m worried about the situation in Iran. The Iranian leader has threatened to wipe Israel off the map (meaning he is planning to nuke them when he has developed the wepons) and intends to enforce extreme muslimism on the world. Do Israel have nuclear weapons, and will they attack Iran before it develops nuclear technology? Will Israel use military force before the states are involved?

[113]

Do you guys think, George and Dick will risk bombing Iranian military installations, and possibly provoking the Russians and China into world war 3?
I think Iran will have to be forced through military action, to abandon its wepons programme!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by 113
Hey, I`m worried about the situation in Iran. The Iranian leader has threatened to wipe Israel off the map (meaning he is planning to nuke them when he has developed the wepons) and intends to enforce extreme muslimism on the world. Do Israel have nuclear weapons, and will they attack Iran before it develops nuclear technology? Will Israel use military force before the states are involved?

Completely off topic and covered in numerous threads here.

But to answer your question, in my opinion, it's about as likely as hen's teeth biting into your ass.

Israel has about 25 to 400 small yield nuclear weapons which would turn Iran into a glass floor exhibit. And countries do not go through the expense of acquiring nuclear weapons to authenticate their anti-Semitic propaganda spouted for domestic consumption....

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by 113
Do you guys think, George and Dick will risk bombing Iranian military installations, and possibly provoking the Russians and China into world war 3?
I think Iran will have to be forced through military action, to abandon its wepons programme!

Doubtful:

http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51624

[113]

George has accused Iran of supplying Iraq with wepons, to attack American and English soiders over recent weeks. Dick and George are now blaming the unrest in Iraq on the Iranians. They have issued many warnings to the republican guard and Iranian Leader over the last few weeks! George has said he does not want to go down in history, as the man who allowed an unstable country like Iran, to develop Nuclear wepons, before he leaves office in 2009.

[Nickdfresh]

He has and they probably have to some extent. However, the Iranian elite Revolutionary Guard "Quds Force" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force) are often undisciplined renegades that may not always answer directly to the Iranian gov't. So no one really knows if this is offical policy or gunrunners and renegade military units just making money...

In any case, Bush has little recourse because the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has stated that the Iranians have basically stopped their Nuke program...

[letsrock]

Iran wont be an issue. it never was. George just wants to fight everyone.

Do you remember before 9-11-2001. What the big deal was?

C'mon think about it.

It was Georges first year in Office.

here it is. this guy from the start has just wanted to kill Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.-China_Spy_Plane_Incident

[113]

I think George will want to go out of office on a high. I`m guessing he and Dick are planning to kick some Iranian ass, before they go out. I think they will carpet bomb Iranian military installations, and eliminate the Revolutionary guard, before their term is up.

[Nickdfresh]

Nope, they won't...

They have no support...

[letsrock]

Iran isnt on the agenda. But watch for chavez and venezuela this year.

[WACF]

Originally posted by letsrock
Iran isnt on the agenda. But watch for chavez and venezuela this year.


Chavez will take care of himself...just give him time.