Bhutto sent Musharraf a letter naming three who should be investigated in case she were assassinated

The NYTimes reported today that “Ms. Bhutto has long accused parts of the government, namely the country’s premier military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, of working against her and her party because they oppose her liberal, secular agenda. In a letter she sent to Mr. Musharraf just before her return to Pakistan in [...]

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Asia Times Online says caller claimed credit for Bhutto assassination

Asia Times Online reported from Karachi that, immediately after the attack in Rawalpindi that claimed the live of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday evening, “al-Qaeda’s top commander for Afghanistan operations and spokesperson Mustafa Abu al-Yazid” said in a telephone interview that ”We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat mujahideen”. Asia Times did [...]

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Hanan Ashrawi on Benazir Bhutto: a very brave woman whose assassination is a very big loss

In our previous post, Bhutto in Geneva, we picked up on a comment in one of YNet’s stories today which reported that Israeli Knesset Member “Colette Avital (Labor) met Bhutto for the first time in the 90s at a dinner held by former US President Jimmy Carter, when the Labor Knesset member served as Israeli [...]

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Benazir Bhutto was surrounded by security before being killed

Does it look as though there’s any laxity in the security surrounding Benazir Bhutto, as she was leaving the rally in Rawalpindi yesterday that was her last — and just moments before she was killed? The AP has just reported that “Benazir Bhutto was the target of threats from virtually all of the militant groups [...]

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Benazir Bhutto in Geneva six months ago

In my previous post, I wrote that I saw Benazir Bhutto at the luggage carousel in the arrivals area of Geneva’s Cointrin Airport very late on the night of 26 June. She was with a single aide (a subcontinental-type man in a grey suit, about her height). Just now, in Israel’s YNet news, I saw [...]

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Benazir Bhutto: “I didn’t choose this life, it chose me”

Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan who returned two months ago to contest parliamentary elections (8 January) after being pardoned on corruption charges by General Pervez Musharraf, was assassinated today by a gunman who blew himself up after reportedly firing bullets at her in Rawalpindi. At least 20 other persons died in the same [...]

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Hair-raising stories about Pakistan’s present political melodrama

China Hand wrote in his (her?) brilliant blog, ChinaMatters, on Tuesday that “In contrast to Bhutto, who grotesquely over-reached and counterproductively traded on her U.S. support, Sharif seems to be playing his political hand with considerable skill and coolness—a fact that has probably not escaped Pakistanis wearied of Musharraf’s spectacular ineptness as a political leader. [...]

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Asma Jahangir under house arrest in Pakistan

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has put out a press release calling for the immediate release of Asma Jahangir, a UN special rapporteur and a member of the ICG Board: The ICG release says that “Forces loyal to Musharraf rounded up hundreds of political and civil society leaders after his imposition of martial law [...]

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