Posted on 12/27/2007 5:12:06 AM PST by COUNTrecount
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been critically injured after a suspected suicide attack at a political rally in Pakistan.
It was believed to be a suicide attackShe is undergoing emergency surgery at a nearby hospital, Sky News sources say.
The explosion went off just after Ms Bhutto left the rally in Rawalpindi, minutes after her speech to thousands of people.
Afghan President karzai just released a very nice concise statement on Bhutto -— Musharraf also just proclaimed 3 days of national mourning for Bhutto.
You said — “Yep. Mushariff can pretty much do the “martial law” thing on a whim at this point.”
And he should very well do so..., and go after al Qaida, while he’s at it.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Yeah, Harpy is not any good at winging it. The Wicked Witch is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She doesn’t have 1/10th the charisma that Bhutto had.
What did the clintons do about terrorism??
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Ok. I'll try and others can correct me or support me either way.
Pak is divided into 3 political trains of thought. Democrats, Secularists and Fundamentalists.
Bhutto was leader of the Pro-West Democrats. Sharif who was ousted from power about 10 years ago by Musharraf and his military junta was secularists (or just in it for himself) and the fundamentalists are just plain nutz. But the fundies have about half a dozen parties of their own.
Al Queda and the Taliban have backing from the ISI, military intelligence.
Bhutto and Sharif have been out of the country in exile (self-imposed or not who knows) but there's going to be an election come Jan 8 in which they were both going to be running against Mush for the Prime Ministership.
Now though, that's all out the window. The fundies probably wouldn't have won against the secularists and the democrats but right now they're pretty close to the brink of civil war. Bhutto was former prime minister (possibly corrupt who can tell - everybody over there appears to be corrupt) and was very popular and prolly had a good chance of sweeping the election which would have been a MAJOR problem for the fundies.
My take.
OH look, what a surprise, Juan Williams on Fox licking Hitlery’s boots.
Only problem with your analysis is that AQ enjoys widespread support from fundies in Pakistan, who hate both Musharraf and BB. This scored big points for AQ, and will encourage further and random acts of violence from inside the country.
I agree they could have gotten significant mileage from keeping their mouths shut, but they will still win points from a large chunk of the populace.
Yeah, I’ve been told on another post that I misheard the name of Musharaff, instead of the opposition leader, Sharif. As I said before, I’m having trouble listening to some of these accents on Sky News... LOL!
Regards,
Star Traveler
I understand that it was Sharif at her bedside too.
Iraq was the biggest defeat for AQ in 30 years. Now they have been chased into Pakistan and they are paying the price. Iraq was the main battlefield, now it is Pak.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
ping
If Al Quaida did it and boasted of it, they are indeed foolish.
On the other hand, if Mushariff had done it, he might have manufactured an Al Quaida boast to accomplish what you are implying.
The Middle East has become a far stranger place than when the Pharoahs ruled in Egypt.
They just made a martyr...
.......So the islamofascists will lose on this one
The big losers are the London banks who are her partners in corruption.
AQ looks like most likely suspect. If that’s the case, it’s within their M.O. to strike other prominent targets within next 24 hours.
Such is the price of appeasement of terror — the FATA should have been weeded out a long time ago — this is what happens when you cut deals with terrorists. It’s too bad Bhutto had to pay the price for this, as apparently she was willing to crack down on Islamic terror.
Ahhhhh, what's a Bhutto kid or two when pandering to the masses about her EXPERIENCE?
You said — “I understand that it was Sharif at her bedside too.”
Yes, it appears that I’m outnumbered... :-)
I must have heard the name wrong. Those British and Pakistanis are hard to understand at times... LOL
Regards,
Star Traveler
Why was the President’s announcement so short? Any thoughts?
I sensed it was because he was rather angry, upset and didn’t want to say a lot — knew Bhutto, personally, of course.
Musharaf has to think there is an attack planned on him too. AQ will not be happy to take out half of the Pak gummit, he is the primary target now.
Who says there wasn’t two attacks planned. He has his hands full right now and as much as we may dislike him, he is the leader. If he gets killed there will be pure chaos.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Winners
Course, AlQ/Taliban workers in the ISI could have easily assisted with this and left a trail of bread crumbs to Mush too.
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