Friday, December 28, 2007

Pakistan's Mushy Pile of Sh...

Exasperation sums it up for me:

"Pakistan Says Bhutto’s Death Has Qaeda Link" by CARLOTTA GALL

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest, the government on Friday recast its version of the events of her assassination and announced that it had obtained an intelligence intercept pinning the attack on a militant linked to Al Qaeda.

With many of Ms. Bhutto’s supporters openly blaming the government for her death, the Interior Ministry made the surprising announcement that Ms. Bhutto had died not from gunshots or shrapnel but from a skull fracture when she was thrown by the force of the suicide bomb and hit her head on a lever of the sunroof of the car in which she was riding.

To prevent the violence from spreading, the government ordered an almost complete shutdown of services. Officials suspended much train service and most domestic flights. Gas stations across the country were closed, making it virtually impossible to make long journeys by car. Roads were closed around city centers, and television and Internet services were shut down or operated only sporadically in most cities.

The government identified a militant leader with links to Al Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, who holds sway in tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, as the chief suspect behind the attack.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said in a briefing to reporters:

We have an intercept from this morning in which he congratulated his people for carrying out this act. We have irrefutable evidence that Al Qaeda and its networks are trying to destabilize the government. They have been systematically attacking our government, and now a political icon. [Ms. Bhutto was on the hit list of Al Qaeda and other terrorists]."

Gee, one day later and they get this "intercept," huh?

Talk about being a day late.

How about the alleged order by the terrorist?

That get lost in the intel?

WTF, readers?


Mr. Mehsud has been blamed for most of the rising tide of suicide attacks on government, military and intelligence targets in recent months. Based in the South Waziristan tribal areas, he is known to run training camps, prepare and dispatch suicide bombers on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and have links to the Arab and Central Asian militants who have established a stronghold in the tribal areas.

Sigh!

Tired of the cover story lies, readers.

Exhausted by them, really!


Saying he wanted to dispel erroneous reports that Ms. Bhutto had died from gunfire, Brigadier Cheema gave an exhaustive description of the episode and showed a video on which Ms. Bhutto could be seen waving at the crowd from the sunroof of her car as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi. But the camera lost focus in the pandemonium after it recorded the sound of three gunshots.

Ms. Bhutto tried to duck down into the car just as the suicide bomber detonated his explosives, and the force of the blast caused her to strike her head, he said. He said shrapnel from the blast hit the left side of the car, but her injury was on the right side of her head. The lever on the car showed traces of blood, he said.

Brigadier Cheema, referring to Ms. Bhutto with a term of respect:

One of the levers of the sunroof hit her on the right side, which caused a fracture, and that is what caused her death. There was no bullet that hit Mohtarma Bhutto, there was no splinter that hit Mohtarma Bhutto, and there was no pellet that hit her.”

It remained unclear if the suicide bomber had fired the shots or if a second person had, he said.

Ms. Bhutto was almost unconscious when taken to the hospital, he added. He said that Ms. Bhutto’s husband had not allowed an autopsy but that doctors conducted an external postmortem and took X-rays. Islamic custom, meanwhile, dictates that the body be buried as soon as possible.

Yesterday, it was the police who didn't allow the autopsy. WTF?


A senior Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said that administration officials were concerned that “there’s so much distrust” of the Musharraf government among Pakistanis that outside nations may have to join the investigation to give the findings any credibility.

Brigadier Cheema, asked why the government did not act against Mr. Mehsud, when he was known to be training suicide bombers:

It is not that easy. [Mr. Mehsud is always on the move and goes underground very quickly after communicating with his people, so it is hard for the security forces to follow up on intelligence intercepts]."

But they can pick up his confession toot-sweet?

Pfffffffftttttttttt!!!!!!


Even as Ms. Bhutto was laid to rest in the midst of a chaotic but peaceful crowd, there were signs of the violent outbursts that had erupted after her death. En route to the mausoleum, the coffin passed the smoldering wreckage of a passenger train that rioters had set aflame, according to The Associated Press. Rioting flared across Pakistan.

Thousands of people took to the streets in the central city of Multan, ransacking banks and gas stations and throwing stones at the police, The A.P. reported. In the generally peaceful capital, Islamabad, a crowd of about 100 protesters set fire to tires.

In Peshawar, an estimated 4,000 supporters of Ms. Bhutto’s party chanted, “Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today,” and cried, “Musharraf dog.” Another politician was killed Friday in a suicide attack in the Swat Valley, a famed tourist area in northwestern Pakistan.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League faction that backs Mr. Musharraf:

Speaking on a personal level, there is no mood or inclination to have an election. [The elections could be postponed until March to allow people time to regroup]. Right now there is so much uncertainty.”

And CUI fucking BONO?