Look out...! Larisa's on the Bhutto case...!

and when larisa's on the case, the big boy cover-up quickly starts to fall apart...

While President Musharraf initially declined help from the British in investigating the assassination of Mrs. Bhutto, pressure from a distrusting public and a crumbling explanation caused a turnaround this week. An agreement was reached allowing the British to conduct their own investigation, and police from Scotland Yard arrived over the weekend.

US intelligence officials say, however, that very little evidence will be found, especially if investigators are looking for the suspected shooter. Three former US intelligence officials have told Raw Story that not only is the gunman dead, he was likely the actual target of the suicide bomber.

According to a former high ranking US intelligence official, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the delicate nature of the information, the US intelligence community understands the gunman to have been killed in the blast following Mrs. Bhutto's assassination.

"He was killed, probably not knowing that the suicide bomber was there," said this source. "We don't know for sure if the two men arrived together. We do know that the assassin died in the explosion, and was probably meant to."

Several other US intelligence officials concur that the bomber was likely "inserted" to "clean up" evidence of the shooting, including eliminating the gunman.

there's so many nasty little sidelights to the bhutto story, it ain't even funny, but i really do like the way that larisa's pulled 'em all together...

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More on election-rigging in PK

in a post the other day, i wondered if this story would grow legs... grew 'em pretty fast, looks like...

At the time she was assassinated, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was just hours away from meeting with two US lawmakers to hand them a dossier alleging that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) was plotting with its Election Commission to rig the upcoming elections.

According to CBS News, which has obtained a copy of the report, it "alleges widespread plans to stuff ballot boxes, rig voting lists, and intimidate, even kill, opposition voters."

CNN quotes the document more specifically as saying, "Where an opposing candidate is strong in an area, they have planned to create a conflict at the polling station, even killing people if necessary, to stop polls at least three to four hours."

The report, titled "Another Stain on the Face of Democracy," was compiled from Bhutto's own sources within the police and intelligence services. It was to be given to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), because Bhutto did not trust the Bush administration, which is seen in Pakistan as strongly backing Musharraf.

The dossier also accuses Musharraf's regime of diverting US aid into political dirty tricks, charging that "ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism ... is being used to monitor and to keep a check on political opponents."

c'mon, c'mon... this is the kind of stuff that ought to be kneecapping the criminals in the white house, and sending 'em packing to never-never land... let's get on with it, shall we...?

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U.S. aid money was being used to fix Pakistani elections in favor of Musharraf

let's see if THIS story from mcclatchy has any legs...

The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.

Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.

Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, said the report was "very sensitive" and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.

[...]

It names as the head of the unit a brigadier general recently retired from the ISI, who was secretly assigned to run the rigging operation, Lashari said. It charges that he was working in tandem with the head of a civilian intelligence agency. Before her return to Pakistan, Bhutto, in a letter to Musharraf, had named the intelligence official as one of the men she accused of plotting to kill her.

Lashari said the report claimed that U.S. aid money was being used to fix the elections. Ballots stamped in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which supports Musharraf, were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 parliamentary constituencies.

"They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money," Lashari said.

[...]

Bhutto was due to meet Specter and Kennedy after dinner last Thursday. She was shot as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi early that evening. Pakistan's government claims instead that she was thrown against the lever of her car's sunroof, fracturing her skull.

tell me, please, why anyone would think that the u.s. WOULDN'T be involved in helping musharraf fix the election... let me just say that i hope they put good solid evidence on the table and let's get this show on the road...

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This will not be good for PK, but, of course, the U.S. simply MUST blame it on al Qaeda

as i've posted previously, benazir bhutto was far from the ideal person to save pakistan from the power lust of musharraf, but having her killed off could very well plunge the country - a country with a nuclear weapons stockpile - into violent chaos... this does not bode well...

from the wapo...

Bhutto Assassinated at Rally
Thursday, December 27, 2007; 9:19 AM

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec. 27 -- Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday at a political rally, two months after she returned from eight years of exile to attempt a political comeback, officials said.

Bhutto, 54, was shot at close range as she was leaving the rally in this garrison city south of Islamabad, aides said. Immediately after the shooting, a suicide bomber detonated explosives near Bhutto's car, killing at least 15 other people.

Bhutto was rushed to a hospital with extensive wounds to her torso, her supporters said. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, an official came out of the building and told a crowd of supporters Bhutto was dead.

Also Thursday, a rooftop sniper opened fire on supporters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a different pre-election rally in Rawalpindi, leaving four dead and at least five injured.

Bhutto's death is a devastating development, coming 12 days before Pakistanis are set to vote in national parliamentary elections already marked by enormous political turmoil. President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November -- a move which he said was to combat terrorism, but which was widely perceived as an effort to stave off legal challenges to his authority. U.S. military officials said last week that the terrorist group al-Qaeda increasingly is focusing its efforts in Pakistan.

Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan in October, had been running for parliament. Her People's Party was expected to win enough seats for her to become prime minister. A daughter of a Pakistani political royalty, she was the most popular candidate running, and had fared very well in recent polls.

[...]

At the Sharif rally, party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said supporters were fired upon while waiting to welcome the former prime minister. He called the attack unprovoked, and said it was carried out by Musharraf supporters. Musharraf's party is "panicked by the astounding reception Mr. Sharif is getting," Iqbal said. "They're trying to use violence as an excuse to postpone the elections."

this item from the associated press wasn't mentioned in the wapo story...

[Bhutto's] supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.

the fact that a sharif rally was also targeted is a very strong indication to me that the violence is government-backed... that the u.s. is seizing the opportunity to blame the whole thing on al qaeda, to me, points to that even more strongly...

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Two wolves, posing as shepherds, discussing how best to care for the Pakistani flock

John Negroponte and Pervez Musharraf

note: the above photo was taken from musharraf's official website (see screen shot below)... what's really interesting about it is that it's dated september 13 of this year... i couldn't google up anything about THAT visit...



while i knew that bush had sent a "senior envoy" to pakistan to twist pervez' arm, i figured i would eventually find out who he chose to send... today, i find out it was john negroponte... so now i have this virtually unshakeable visual image of two wolves, both dressed in shepherd's clothing and carrying large crooked staffs, discussing how best to care for the flock...

here's how musharraf's website describes negroponte's visit...

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Saturday called on President General Pervez Musharraf here at his Camp Office and discussed with him regional and international issues of mutual concern. Negroponte also discussed with the President the ongoing fight against terrorism and militancy, re-emphasizing the mutual resolve to combat the menace through joint efforts. They also discussed further bolstering the Pak-US multi-faceted bilateral ties.

here's how the la times reports the visit...

A senior U.S. envoy pressed President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday to lift a harsh emergency decree and move the country toward civilian rule, but the Pakistani leader balked at setting any firm timetables despite the high-level demand from his government's main patron.

Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte reported no breakthroughs in the two-hour meeting, during which he also urged Musharraf to reconcile with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"There remain serious issues we urge President Musharraf and his government to consider as rapidly as possible," Negroponte told journalists early today.

In the talks, the Pakistani leader reiterated his pledge to hold parliamentary elections in January and step down soon as military chief, Negroponte said. But no date was set for ending the emergency decree, lifting media restrictions or freeing thousands of political prisoners arrested since the emergency rule was imposed two weeks ago.

except for the names, you wouldn't know you were reading about the same visit, now would you...?

and, in case you need a refresher on our fine, upstanding "senior envoy"...

In 1995, The Baltimore Sun published an extensive investigation of U.S. activities in Honduras. Speaking of Negroponte and other senior U.S. officials, an ex-Honduran congressman, Efraín Díaz, was quoted as saying:

Their attitude was one of tolerance and silence. They needed Honduras to loan its territory more than they were concerned about innocent people being killed.

Substantial evidence subsequently emerged to support the contention that Negroponte was aware that serious violations of human rights were carried out by the Honduran government, but despite this did not recommend ending U.S. military aid to the country. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, on September 14, 2001, as reported in the Congressional Record, aired his suspicions on the occasion of Negroponte's nomination to the position of UN ambassador:

Based upon the Committee's review of State Department and CIA documents, it would seem that Ambassador Negroponte knew far more about government perpetrated human rights abuses than he chose to share with the committee in 1989 or in Embassy contributions at the time to annual State Department Human Rights reports.^[4]

Among other evidence, Dodd cited a cable sent by Negroponte, in 1985, that made it clear that Negroponte was aware of the threat of "future human rights abuses" by "secret operating cells" left over by General Gustavo Álvarez Martinez, the chief of the Honduran armed forces, after he was forcibly removed from his post by fellow military commanders in 1984.

In April 2005, as the Senate confirmation hearings for the National Intelligence post took place, hundreds of documents were released by the State Department in response to a FOIA request by The Washington Post. The documents, cables that Negroponte sent to Washington while serving as ambassador to Honduras, indicated that he played a more active role than previously known in managing US efforts against the leftist Sandinistas. According to the Post, the image of Negroponte that emerges from the cables is that of an

exceptionally energetic, action-oriented ambassador whose anti-communist convictions led him to play down human rights abuses in Honduras, the most reliable U.S. ally in the region. There is little in the documents the State Department has released so far to support his assertion that he used "quiet diplomacy" to persuade the Honduran authorities to investigate the most egregious violations, including the mysterious disappearance of dozens of government opponents.

no doubt in my mind, negroponte is one of the truly "bad guys..."

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Benazir Bhutto's niece calls b.s. on Aunt Benazir

i'm not entirely sure why i'm so fascinated with the happenings in pakistan... maybe it's that they are, in a broken mirror kind of way, illustrating many of the same dynamics that go on here in the u.s., to say nothing of the kind of people the u.s. government chooses to support...

once again, pakistan, pervez musharraf and benazir bhutto are in the news... this time, one of musharraf's principal opponents has been arrested, pervez says he'll give up his military role, and bhutto calls for him to resign... but, as bhutto's niece notes, in this la times op-ed, bhutto remains in a comfortable house arrest...

Aunt Benazir's false promises

Bhutto's return bodes poorly for Pakistan -- and for democracy there.
By Fatima Bhutto
November 14, 2007
KARACHI -- We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law -- shutting down all private news channels -- has been drafted.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this circus has been the hijacking of the democratic cause by my aunt, the twice-disgraced former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. While she was hashing out a deal to share power with Gen. Pervez Musharraf last month, she repeatedly insisted that without her, democracy in Pakistan would be a lost cause. Now that the situation has changed, she's saying that she wants Musharraf to step down and that she'd like to make a deal with his opponents -- but still, she says, she's the savior of democracy.

The reality, however, is that there is no one better placed to benefit from emergency rule than she is. Along with the leaders of prominent Islamic parties, she has been spared the violent retributions of emergency law. Yes, she now appears to be facing seven days of house arrest, but what does that really mean? While she was supposedly under house arrest at her Islamabad residence last week, 50 or so of her party members were comfortably allowed to join her. She addressed the media twice from her garden, protected by police given to her by the state, and was not reprimanded for holding a news conference. (By contrast, the very suggestion that they might hold a news conference has placed hundreds of other political activists under real arrest, in real jails.)

Ms. Bhutto's political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf's regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.

It is widely believed that Ms. Bhutto lost both her governments on grounds of massive corruption. She and her husband, a man who came to be known in Pakistan as "Mr. 10%," have been accused of stealing more than $1 billion from Pakistan's treasury. She is appealing a money-laundering conviction by the Swiss courts involving about $11 million. Corruption cases in Britain and Spain are ongoing.

It was particularly unappealing of Ms. Bhutto to ask Musharraf to bypass the courts and drop the many corruption cases that still face her in Pakistan. He agreed, creating the odiously titled National Reconciliation Ordinance in order to do so. Her collaboration with him was so unsubtle that people on the streets are now calling her party, the Pakistan People's Party, the Pervez People's Party. Now she might like to distance herself, but it's too late.

naturally, the wapo gives us NOTHING of benazir's background, and i'm certainly not the only one who notices... this from a commenter on the wapo article...

Bud0 wrote:
Do we have to paint everything in black and white? Musharraf is a dictator, but that doesn't make Bhutto (or Sharif or Imran Khan) a saint.

I think readers deserve to know that these are all millionaire aristocrats who got into politics so they could siphon the national treasury to their family's bank account.

And the dirtiest of the three is Bhutto, whose wealth is estimated at $1.5 billion, since her father and her both took turns looting Pakistan's coffers.

She also faces criminal money-laundering investigations in both Spain and Switzerland.

This woman is no Aung San Suu Kyi. In fact she has a lot more in common with Ahmed Chalabi.

That's why I get antsy when the Post seems to push her. Everyone knows she's Bush's new chosen puppet, that the US govt engineered her return. Is she now to be wafted in to power on a magic carpet of uncritical media coverage?

context-free journalism... gotta love it...

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The Benazir Bhutto back-story we aren't being told [UPDATE]

oddly enough, i had completely forgotten about the fact that benazir bhutto fled pakistan a number of years ago under the threat of corruption charges, and it wasn't until today, after reading several articles and posts in, naturally, non-U.S. media, that i remembered... and, of course, i WOULDN'T have remembered at all if i had stuck with our oh-so-context-free media here in the united states...

what our media aren't telling us, this from radio netherlands worldwide...

There are ... many observers in Lahore and Islamabad who don't believe there's a real power struggle going on between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. They argue that it's a matter of a well-orchestrated piece of theatre, with former prime minister Bhutto publicly denouncing the president, while supporting him in secret. One observer, speaking close to the barricades, comments: "She wants Musharraf's support, and so she's supporting him."

Bhutto spent more than seven years living in self-imposed exile, in connection with charges of corruption made against her in Pakistan. Following negotiations between her and Musharraf, which began at the end of 2006, she returned to Pakistan in October this year. The charges against her were dropped. The talks were said to have been aimed at bringing democracy back to Pakistan and have now - according to Bhutto - been ended. President Musharraf, however, has always denied being involved in any negotiations with Ms Bhutto.

[...]

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party is the only party which has made its voice heard in the protests. Bhutto has also been the only opposition leader who's been given the opportunity to speak to the press while under house arrest. This is one reason why observers think that her power struggle with Musharraf is perhaps being staged. "She has it in her power to get large numbers of people onto the streets, but she's not doing that," is the comment from one observer at the barricade.

[...]

ARY, a local TV station which can now only be received via satellite, reports that police officers have been given orders not to arrest any senior figures from Bhutto's party. Rightly or wrongly, the suspicions remain.

puts a few things in perspective, right...?

[UPDATE]

here's the context-free, benazir bhutto "back-story" as it appears in the nyt...

Ms. Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan twice and was twice dismissed before she was able to complete her terms.

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So much for Condi's plan for Pakistan by tempering Musharraf with Bhutto

whatever deal was made is obviously off now...

juan cole...

Opposition politician Benazir Bhutto has called for Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign as president of Pakistan, and says she will never serve as prime minister under him. He put her back under house arrest on Tuesday.

My guess is that Benazir Bhutto will now be deported by Musharraf. He only let her back into the country under pressure from Secretary of State Condi Rice in the first place because she made a deal to cohabit with him politically.

However annoyed the Bush administration may be with Musharraf for letting the veil of 'democracy' drop and revealing clearly what a dictator he is, I can't imagine Washington backing Ms. Bhutto against the Pakistani military!

condi is a spectacularly ineffective diplomat... hard to believe the right-wing nutcases were actually pushing her for president not all that long ago...

Political associates of Secretary of State Condi Rice are stirring the 2008 presidential pot on her behalf. While she takes the high road, they're pushing her name out there. "She definitely wants to be president," said one. But, the friend added, Rice isn't planning on quitting to run. "She wants to be drafted," he said.

thank god THAT one died a natural death...

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Musharraf lifts Bhutto's house arrest

one can only imagine the container-size load of shit that was dumped on his head for having made such a totally idiotic move in the first goddam place...

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed from house arrest late on Friday, hours after she was stopped from leaving her Islamabad home to lead a rally against the president's imposition of emergency rule.

"The detention order has been withdrawn," said Aamir Ali Ahmed, acting deputy commissioner of Islamabad.

A security official said police barricades around Bhutto's home were being taken down. A spokeswoman for Bhutto's party, Sherry Rehman, said she had no information about the lifting of the order.

Earlier in the day police prevented Bhutto from leaving her home and sealed off the capital and the nearby city of Rawalpindi to stop a rally against President Pervez Musharraf.

ol' pervez must have realized that he was signing his own resignation letter if he tried to keep her away from her supporters... god, he's such a fool, but, i guess, he's only acting in true form for somebody who, like his best buddy, george, wants so desperately to hang on to power...

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Musharraf just screwed up BIG-TIME by putting Benazir Bhutto under house arrest

pervez is REALLY showing his true colors NOW...

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yielded to pressure from the United States on Thursday and said Pakistan will hold elections by mid-February. But he showed no sign of ending a political crack down, placing opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest and detaining thousands ahead of a major protest.

The move against Bhutto Friday came amid a broader crackdown on her supporters, who were planning to rally near Islamabad against Musharraf's emergency rule. Bhutto's party said some 5,000 of its supporters have been rounded up in the last three days, and riot police were out in force in nearby Rawalpindi, the city where Friday's rally was to take place.

A security official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Bhutto had been placed under house arrest. He offered no other details.

very, very cool, pervez, you moron... if you poured gasoline on the mess you created and struck a match, you couldn't have done any worse than this... your whole friggin' country is going to explode right in your face... good work, you fool...

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