Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
The first shot has already been fired in the battle that Islamists have vowed to wage against the Washington-inspired and brokered attempt at regime change in Pakistan. It came in the form of twin bomb blasts aimed at Benazir Bhutto, the lynchpin in US machinations, within hours of her arrival in Karachi after years in exile.
The bombs narrowly missed Bhutto but killed up to 150 and injured hundreds of the rapturous supporters who thronged the Karachi streets to greet her. The windshield of her vehicle was shattered and members of her entourage on the roof of the vehicle were injured. A car that was part of her convoy was destroyed.
The attack was hardly a surprise. Militants see Bhutto's return to Pakistani politics as a Western-backed coup against Islamists in Pakistan, akin to the arrival in the Afghan capital, Kabul, of the US-backed Northern Alliance in 2001. Militant leader Baitullah Mehsud had instructed pro-al-Qaeda cells in Karachi to kill her for three major offenses against the Islamists, which he listed as:
- She is the only opposition politician who supported the military attack earlier this year on Islamabad's Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), a hotbed of Islamist radicalism, and she coninues to condemn the Lal Masjid ideologues; - She has stated that she would allow incursions by US forces into Pakistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden; - She has stated that she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to question Dr A Q Khan, the former leading nuclear scientist accused of passing Pakistani nuclear technology to anti-Western countries.
The Western powers were meanwhile cementing their plan for the future of Pakistan and the region. On Thursday, the same day as the bomb attack, Britain's Lord Malloch-Brown, a minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, arrived in Pakistan to discuss a future pro-Western government in Islamabad. The day before, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi, Hamish Daniel, called on Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad to ensure that Bhutto's homecoming was accorded full protocol.
Bhutto's return to Pakistan is part of a complex arrangement brokered by Washington and its allies to ensure that a pro-Western government gains power after parliamentary elections in about three months' time. The plan was put in train earlier this month with the promulgation of a National Reconciliation Ordinance, under strong US pressure, by Pakistan's current leader, General Pervez Musharraf. Under the ordinance, all charges against current and former lawmakers who have been accused of corruption (with Bhutto, a twice former prime minister, prominent among them), were dropped. This paved the way for Musharraf's reelection as president and a political settlement with Bhutto which, after Musharraf's giving up his post as chief of the military, would result in a civilian-based, pro-Western consensus government - or so Washington hopes. (See From Washington to war in Waziristan, ATol, Oct 11, 2007)
This is something Pakistan's Islamists are determined to prevent, and sources say that Thursday's bombing was just the first of more such attacks aimed at Western allies in the cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
The attack on Bhutto was very well planned and its style was identical to bombings in Iraq. No one has claimed responsibility. The list of suspects is long but Bhutto herself is pointing a finger at Islamists elements within Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence agency.
I walked past the site of blasts on Karsaz Road five minutes before the explosion. The hour of the attack - just before midnight - was carefully chosen. The crowd of Bhutto supporters had dwindled to not more than 20,000 people, compared to the 100,000-200,000 people who attended a welcoming rally in the afternoon. This allowed the attackers to get close to Bhutto (it is not yet known whether this was a suicide bombing).
Security personnel of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were tired after a long day and I saw them resting at the roadside. They were slow to react to the initial small bomb, and so were trapped when the second, powerful, bomb detonated a few minutes later. As is common in Iraq, the first small bomb - hardly big enough to injure anybody - attracted curious onlookers who became the victims of the second bomb.
Coincidentally, Bhutto herself was tired at this time and 10 minutes before had left the roof of her truck (where she was protected by a bullet-proof shield) and had retired inside the vehicle. Only a few party leaders were on the roof, and some were injured by the blast.
With friends like this ...
This is the same Benazir Bhutto who only few years ago was banned from lecturing at European institutions because of her links to corruption scandals. But times have changed, and Bhutto once again has won Western favor.
The deal between Bhutto and Musharraf was so abrupt and unexpected that even Bhutto's PPP leaders were unable to defend it, especially as just a few weeks earlier they had been agitating against Musharraf over his suspension of the chief of the judiciary. Government ministers too were take by surprise, and when Asia Times Online asked Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kusuri about the deal, he admitted that it had been made under American pressure.
Although the PPP has released expensive advertising for Bhutto's homecoming, feelings against her are running high in some quarters. Anti-Bhutto media have published a list of her, her husband's, and her children's declared assets: they amount to US$1.5 billion, including all Swiss accounts that are frozen because of corruption charges.
Western governments have long shown an affinity for shady characters in their attempts to organize the globe to their liking, though the strategy has seldom paid off in the long term. Thursday's bombings point to enormous problems ahead if the West is to have its way in Pakistan.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IJ20Df01.html
her loyalty and love for Pakistan. She tenured over the development of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and was intelligent enough to garner a deal with western powers, which guarded the development of the bomb from the scrutiny of an international scandal.
She has also been at the "frontier" of supporting Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was under her stewardship that the Taliban was born. It is important however to ask when and why did a riff develop between Benazir Bhutto and Islamists?
Yes, she does have over 2 billion dollars in frozen assets stemming from the corruption charges from both of her terms in office. However, it is hardly, unfathomable that Musharraf would not use any means of subversion to silence potential enemies - including manufactured charges.
The fact that she comes from a family that has enjoyed a politcal and economic dynasty in Pakistan is important, but does not necessarily, mean that she is an evil person.
It is also true that Benazir Bhutto has been running around the capitals of the west engineering a return to Pakistan - including think tanks. She has made a deal with Musharraf for the prime ministership in 2008 - A man she has christened a dictator in all the media outlets of the west. This maneuvering does bring some doubt to her integrity, but this decision is not dispositive on her overall record of fighting for Pakistan sovereignty.
My estimation is that she realizes that the west is aching to sack her country with a military and economic onslaught therefore, she realized that she had to devise a niche for Pakistan that is opaque enough yet forthcoming to keep the west hanging on to the illusion of hegemonic supremacy in the region.
The more likely source of the blasts are the military and the intelligence community in Pakistan - more so than any Islamist groups. At most, elements of both factions may have worked in tandem on the attack. Although, the military / intelligence apparatus has the most to lose if Benaziz Bhutto comes to power - the US and other western countries have invested heavily in the military and intelligence institutions of Pakistan.
Nevertheless, her hold on power in Pakistan has always been tenuous in the past. She was never allowed to have complete control over the important state institions nor, was she allowed to develop her platform for reform and progress. Her being a woman has a great deal to do with the historic ire she has met from certain sectors.
Moreover, Benazir Bhutto is a very intelligent and capable states-person and deserves a candidacy and electoral victory if the people of Pakistan so choose. Benazir Bhutto and her ministers should allowed to govern without interference from the military and the intelligence community if the voters of Pakistan choose her for a third term.
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"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, most of mankind are Nazis"
--Isaac Bashevis
Can someone tell me what an islamist is?
Just DYING to find out!
Is is a cowardly, descriptive term come to think of it. It strikes of cretinism in an extra ordinary manner. I never thought about the implications before - thank you.
Islam - ist would cover any submitter to Allah - i.e., any believer [lest the tirades of internecine sectarianism] in the call of Islam - as you aptly insinuate with but a few wise words. It is apparently, an Orient-a-list term. I will be more careful and guard against co-opting and adopting such vehement terms in the future. Thank you for the lesson.
I guess I should have written fundamentalist, however that too paints with a broad brush. As does Jihadist. I'm thinking - terms are just that and no more. The words chosen to signal an idea, thought or feeling are often too limiting to perform the task, the theory of language never meets the reality of existence. This the more so inadequate when the task at hand is the demonization of a people, obfuscation and subterfuge to mask ulterior motives through the device of linguistic reformation - brain training with words.
Nevertheless, it is with this theoretical dynamic that we create the world anew.
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"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, most of mankind are Nazis"
--Isaac Bashevis
LOL Rhiannon… Indeed what the hell is an “Islamist”?? What is a “Jihadist” for that matter? I see all sorts of “oriental” terminology flying all over and as a Muslim, I don’t see that it is fitting at all. All they do is affirm and re-affirm the West’s (and mainly the US’s) misunderstanding of the East.
A Muslim is a person who is born a Muslim… just like Christians. Within the category of “Muslims”, there are all sorts of people and they are not all the same. Are all people who are born Christians the same?
You and I as Muslims....we get extremely tired of this "description manipulation" crap.
Truly it is the intention of those who despise us or don't understand us to demonize our personalities, beliefs.
This rotten scheme of "us and them" mentality invented by the powers that be....
So why bother spending loads of money to find out what kind of "life" is out there in outer space if people here on earth can't even treat each other with respect!
Is a "being" from another asteroid going to make things OKAY?
Thanks Stern Gang for being so eloquent!
lol Rhiannon and Stern..
I just watched "60 Minutes" on ABC and I found the program rather odd. Americans really come from lala land..
The first part of the program was about BOOMING Dubai in which the whole world has very heavily invested.. and consequently won't be too happy to see the US attack Iran as their investments will simply go down the drain that very second...
Then there was a section on Black Water… which was given the podium to play the role of lambs.. lol..
Then there was a section about a very high security prison in the US which "60 Minutes" insisted on calling 'facility' and which of course lodges the most dangerous "Islamists" (I thought of you Stern)terrorists responsible for the 9/11 false flag...
Then there was a section about this weird 'priest' called something or other Olsteen... (probably an ex ...stein) who preached in a huge stadium which everyone persisted in calling a "church" (lol). Americans have completely lost it.. calling a stadium a church.. The stadium was rigged with the best Hollywood state of the art/effects available. Holstein as I would called him preferred not to speak about Jesus in specific. How very Christian.. or rather how very gullible.
“60 Minutes” was as usual very interesting:)
AZ.....hehehehe.....
One day I will figure how to do that.
:-)
I wonder of CBS' 60 Minutes pro-zionist bias has anything to do with Leslie Moonves, the head of CBS.
Moonves is, after all, a zionist Jew, and the great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion.
My head, eyes and ears hurt.....
I can't stand to watch anything about the middle east on TV. If I do, it's for a brief moment.
Ahmadinejad's speech was the only item that kept me watching steadily in a long time.
My mother watches cnn. I don't know how she can stand it.
blitzer's voice really hurts my ears. Like finger nails on a chalk board.
I must say that I physically suffer while watching US media…lol.. but I like to know what garbage Americans are being told… and what they are not being told. As for the Mossad agent Wolf Blitzer, I can’t bare listening to that bastard either..