Free Republic

In researching the April 1996 Croatian plane crash that killed former Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, I slowly but steadily moved to the conclusion that it was not an accident. The evidence strongly supports sabotage by Croatian intelligence. The evidence just as strongly argues that Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and his son Miroslav, the nation’s intelligence chief, had no reason to initiate such a plot. After Brown had a literal “come to Jesus” experience in early 1996, however, several parties did have reason to fear Brown in his increasingly apparent confessional mode. Chief among them were the Clinton White House...

Why Benazir Bhutto posed a threat MANIPAL, India, Dec. 31 Column: Future Present On Nov. 7 this columnist wrote that Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto's election plans were likely to fail "if she survives." The skepticism over her longevity was because of the threat she represented to both the Punjabi component in the Pakistan army and to the continuation of the military's monopoly over state power. While President Pervez Musharraf avoided challenging the latter, since 9/11 he has quietly but systematically sought to reduce the suffocating grip of the Punjabis over the army, giving better representation to Mohajirs, Balochis, Pashtuns and...

They have killed a woman. A beautiful woman. A visible, indeed a conspicuously, spectacularly visible woman. A woman who made a point not only of holding rallies in one of the world's most dangerous countries, but did so with her face uncovered, unveiled--the exact opposite of the shameful, hidden women, the condemned creatures of Satan, who are the only women tolerated by these apostles of a world without women. They killed a Jew, Daniel Pearl. They killed Ahmed Shah Massoud, the great guerilla leader against the Taliban, a moderate Muslim, a cultivated man and free spirit. They tried for years...

Excerpt - A SPOKESMAN for the party backing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said it had suspended election campaigning for the January 8 parliamentary vote. "We have suspended our campaign because of the prevailing situation," said Tariq Azim, the country's former deputy information minister, just days after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "We do not have a climate in which we can canvass voters," Mr Azim said. He said that a delay in the vote, which Mr Musharraf has vowed would be a key step in completing Pakistan's return to civilian rule, would be "realistic". ~ snip ~

Excerpt - "Long live Bhutto," Benazir Bhutto shouted, waving to the crowd surging around her car. They were her last words before three gunshots rang out and she slumped back on to her seat. "She did not say anything more," said Safdar Abbassi, her chief political adviser, who was sitting behind her. In the first eyewitness account from inside the car, Dr Abbassi told The Sunday Telegraph: "All of a sudden there was the sound of firing. I heard the sound of a bullet."I saw her: she looked as though she ducked in when she heard the firing. We did...

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani TV news channel has aired photographs of two men it said were involved in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto after an election rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday. One of the two grainy photos -- which Dawn News channel said were clicked by an amateur photographer -- showed a youth wearing sunglasses aiming a pistol at Bhutto's back while she waved through the sun-roof of her bulletproof vehicle to her supporters. The other picture, apparently taken before the shooting, showed the same youth standing next to another man who had a white cloth wrapped around...

Excerpt - DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: A commander of pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan rejected government claims that he was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, his spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, whom Pakistani authorities describe as an al-Qaida leader, dismissed the allegations as "government propaganda." "We strongly deny it. Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in the killing of Benazir Bhutto," Maulana Mohammed Umer, said in a phone call to The Associated Press from South Waziristan tribal region. "The government is leveling a baseless allegation and we think it is doing so to divert the...

Indian intel discounts Al Qaeda hand Josy Joseph Saturday, December 29, 2007 09:52 IST NEW DELHI: The Indian intelligence and security agencies believe Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was conceived as a deep, politically motivated conspiracy and carried out by forces within Pakistan, and not by Al Qaeda. After completing a detailed assessment based on TV footage and other material, the Indian agencies say some elements within the ISI, the Army, extremist groups and even some political rivals may have had a hand in the killing. “This is not the usual Al Qaeda modus operandi,” an analyst said. The Indian agencies believe...

Excerpts - ~ snip ~ Bhutto told this reporter two weeks before she flew home on Oct. 18 about her plans to flush the Taliban and al-Qaida out of FATA. She wanted to open up FATA to the country's principal political parties to compete with a coalition of six politico-religious parties, known as Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, now the only ones allowed to campaign there. The objective was to wean Pashtun tribesmen from MMA, Taliban and al-Qaida control. This was to be done in conjunction with some $750 million in U.S. aid already authorized to bring basic improvements to mountain villages that...

War On Terror: Benazir Bhutto gave up a comfortable life in Britain to return to Pakistan where she felt the military regime wasn't doing enough to defeat terrorists. Tragically, she was right.A suicide bomber thought to be tied to al-Qaida managed to murder Bhutto as she was leaving a political rally Thursday in Rawalpindi, the very headquarters of Pakistan's military. Running for prime minister, Bhutto had openly vowed to defeat al-Qaida and deny it the sanctuary it had gained in Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto, assassinated Thursday, votes for the first time in 1988. "I am what the...

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" was initially all that Dr. Amna Buttar could say this morning, stunned to find out that former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto had been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi today. Buttar, until recently an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School, had been in Pakistan since October, joining Bhutto on the former prime minister's triumphant return to her native country after eight years in exile. "Everyone is in shock," Buttar said. "It is very sad." Bhutto was killed following a rally for...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Suspects in the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto number in the tens of thousands. Some 800 Pakistanis have been killed by suicide bombers in the past year. Bhutto had a close brush with death Oct. 18, a few hours after returning from eight years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. The suicide bomber killed more than 140 people and injured 350, some a few feet from where she was sitting in a large vehicle. Bhutto knew of at least three extremist leaders who had ordered her assassination. She had received a letter...

Here is a link to a photo showing Benazir Bhutto moments before she was shot. (Videos on CNN show that her Toyota Land Cruiser had an armored interior. Had she remained fully within that armored protection, she likely would still be alive.) Here's what actually happened: After the large political rally, she is shown getting into the SUV with several other people. The SUV and a black vehicle its left then drive about 50 yards, where a crowd surrounded her vehicle. She decided to stand up through the sunroof to greet the crowd. However, one or more assassins were in...

BLAST HEARD OUTSIDE BHUTTO RALLY IN PAKISTAN'S RAWALPINDI - REUTERS WITNESS PAKISTANI OPPOSITION LEADER BENAZIR BHUTTO IS SAFE - DAWN TV

I did not come this far in life to be intimidated by suicide bombers. There is a battle raging in Pakistan for the hearts and minds of a new generation. It is a battle for the future of Pakistan as a democratic nation. The new generation will choose moderation or extremism; it will choose education or illiteracy; it will choose dictatorship or democracy; it will choose tolerance or bigotry; and it will choose peace or war. I returned to Pakistan this week to lead the fight for democracy. With the blood of my supporters on the streets and on...

Benazir Bhutto takes on a powerful enemy By Colin Freeman in Karachi Last Updated: 1:07am BST 21/10/2007 Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto plans to purge her country's intelligence services of hundreds of rogue agents suspected of supporting Islamic terrorism, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Benazir Bhutto: 'We need a security service that is professional' In a move that puts her in direct confrontation with the nation's most powerful institutions, Ms Bhutto, who returned home from exile last week, said Pakistan's security agencies had to become "professional" outfits free from political agendas. Foremost in her sights if she returns to...

Benazir Bhutto blames rogue officials for bomb By Isambard Wilkinson in Karachi Last Updated: 3:05am BST 20/10/2007 Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister, accused rogue government officials yesterday of organising the suicide attack on her homecoming procession that killed at least 138 people. Benazir Bhutto tried to galvanise support for a campaign against terrorism Speaking for the first time since the assassination attempt in Karachi, Ms Bhutto tried to galvanise support for a campaign against terrorism. "We are prepared to risk our lives. We're prepared to risk our liberty. But we're not prepared to surrender this great nation to militants,"...

via translation - Mrs. Bhutto accuses supporters of the former military regime PARIS-Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused the supporters of the former military regime of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq to have instigated the attack have referred Thursday in Karachi, in an interview broadcast Friday by online french weekly Paris Match. "I know exactly who wanted to kill me. These are the dignitaries of the former regime of General Zia who are now behind extremism and fanaticism, "said Mrs. Bhutto in the interview given in the night from Thursday to Friday Karachi and published on the website of the journal...

Breaking on Fox...they are reporting 3 explosions near Bhutto....she is reported safe....but scores are dead and wounded.

Excerpt - DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was heading home on Thursday to end eight years in self-exile, making a comeback that could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf. Waved off by supporters in Dubai, and accompanied by her sister, Sanam, Bhutto was due to land around 2:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) in Karachi, where al Qaeda-linked militants have threatened to assassinate her. For years Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for General Musharraf, the army chief who took...