Christy!

Mornin’ Redd

Morning, Christy!

Morning all. How is everyone this morning?

.I’m reluctant to say it should be an American investigation, where we send our law enforcement personnel, because I’m not sure that would have credibility for a different reason.

This statement points the bony finger of guilt for a tarnished American reputation right at the very heart of BushCo.

Meanwhile, on the election front:

Filed at 10:57 a.m. ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Elections in Pakistan appeared set to be delayed by several weeks despite demands by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and other politicians that they take place as scheduled on Jan. 8, officials said Monday.

The Election Commission said it had recommended an unspecified delay in the parliamentary polls following unrest triggered by Bhutto’s assassination last week. It said its final decision would be made on Tuesday.

Separately, a senior government official predicted the elections would be postponed by ‘’six weeks or so as the environment to hold free and fair elections is not conducive.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

The elections should be postponed. Otherwise, Musharraf and his party will simply clean up. The opposition, especially Bhutto’s PPP, is weak at this point.

Also, the less visible official American presence in Pakistan at this time, the better, as the US government has lost credibility with most Pakistanis because of the way it has propped up Musharraf in recent years.

‘morning, all… coffee is late but it is ready…

And the BBC has this:

At least 10 local election offices have been burnt down in the rioting which followed Benazir Bhutto’s death.

Ballot boxes and voting screens have been destroyed and the printing of ballot papers – and their delivery around the country – has also been disrupted.

If the election does go ahead, it is not clear who the PPP would propose as prime minister.

At 19, Bilawal is legally too young to stand for parliament.

And his father has been repeatedly accused of corruption – though he denies the charges and has never been convicted in court.

I actually heard some twit on the teevee this morning saying that the Boosh admin won’t intervene in the Pakistani electoral process because “it doesn’t want to be seen as meddling in the political affairs of another country”.

Uh-huh. Don’t wanna set *that* precedent, now do we? *s*

Good Morning everyone…..

When I read that report and saw the so called x-rays at Huffpo about the fractures from an self infected injury I knew it couldn’t happen. Now if the bomb blast threw her into the sunroof but so many reports of gun shots. Many medical professions wrote into TPM stating what I though too…. self inflected no. In 30 years of nursing I have never seen or heard of a self inflected head injury that caused this much damage.

So the question is…. WHY and who gains by this story?

Dayum!
Who’s the little hottie in the video?
Quite the set of pipes!

“it doesn’t want to be seen as meddling in the political affairs of yet another country”.

There. Fixed/edited for clarity.

I find it hard to believe that the Mushareff government would fabricate such a story. What could they possibly have to gain by Bhutto’s death?

Snort.

Check out the last line of Christy’s post for your answer.

Don’t like the thought, but have the feeling this country is once again ripe for an assasination.

Because here in the U.S. there always must be a designated lone nut assassin, my life experience (1963, 1968, etc.) is telling me someone is being set up as I write this.

Someone who’s a far-left lone nutter.

Mornin’ all. I heard Hillary say what Christy has highlighted yesterday. She has been saying some things about this administration right out loud. Good for her. I’m sure this statement was heard around the world.

DOH!

Also from the BBC:

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, police said that Miss Bhutto had safely escaped the attack. But later it became apparent that she had been taken to the Rawalpindi General Hospital’s emergency section.

A seven-member team of doctors which examined her sent a report to the health ministry saying Ms Bhutto had open wounds on her left temporal region from which “brain matter was exuding”. The report did not say what caused the wound, apparently because no autopsy had been performed on the body.

A day later, an Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, told the media that Ms Bhutto died of a skull fracture caused by a lever attached to the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle. He said she must have hit her head against the lever when she ducked to escape the assassins’ bullets. He denied that her body carried any gunshot wounds.

These differing accounts inevitably fuelled speculation about a possible cover-up at worst, and an attempt by the government to sidestep its responsibility at best.

The interior ministry’s version has been rubbished by Miss Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which says that she was shot in the neck, and that the bullet exited from the back of her head.

Party spokeswoman Sheri Rahman said that she was with Miss Bhutto when the attack took place, and later cleaned her body at the hospital. She says that she saw two wounds that were bleeding profusely.

It seems to me to be far simpler than the MSM is making this out to be. Bhutto was not receiving the kind of protection necessary for such a high-level public figure in an unstable country. Musharraf had nothing to gain by providing that protection so he didn’t. Bhutto was the only credible political opponent he had. Of course he knew that her life was at risk every time she made a public appearance. That they are doing everything they can to cover up the fact that she was shot points to their massive failure to protect her.

As far as I’m concerned, the blood of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is on Musharraf’s hands.

Good morning all and a Happy New Year. I can’t think of a better thing to do on New Year’s Day than be with you! I raise my tea cup to all of you. Here here!

Credibility. Pakistan. Either way is the wrong decision. If we make a showing it only emphasizes our weak position. If we are under the radar, it emphasizes our weak position. Once you loose credibility, it’s gone. Ask Michael Vick. Little mistakes are forgivable. Colossal gross repeated misjudgments with deadly consequences are not forgivable. The Bush/Cheney combo has dragged us all down with them. Every day they look and are weaker and weaker.

Good morning all and a Happy New Year. I can’t think of a better thing to do on New Year’s Day than be with you! I raise my tea cup to all of you. Here here!

Isn’t that tomorrow? I know we’re all eager to get out of 2007, but – !

How can anyone think that “she hit her head on the sunroof” is in any way mitigating? She hit her head on the sunroof because she was being shot at, not because she slipped on a banana peel.

I agree. I don’t see how it changes anything. Now if they claimed she started shooting at someone in the crowd, who shot back and then blew themselves up in self defense, it might make a difference.

And his father has been repeatedly accused of corruption – though he denies the charges and has never been convicted in court.

If I recall he also spent a fair (over two years) amount of time in prison for unproven crimes. There was a list of charges including kidnapping and extortion. Also, abuse of power. These charges are not unusual by your political enemies. I just don’t know how valid they are and if they were outside the norm.

The Bhutto interview is very important. Bhutto says her life is being threatened by the son of Bin Laden-not reported by the NY Times as far as I know.

A link to Texas Betsy has the Bhutto-Frost interview. Bhutto said that Bin Laden was killed by “Omar Sheikh”. Sheikh was convicted of killing Daniel Pearl. But the US Government Bushies claim KSM killed Pearl.

Confused yet, with all the Spy vs. Spy kabuki? Sheikh is also linked to the $100,000 that financed the attack on the World Trade Center. Someone has lots of splainin to do.

On October 6, 2001, a senior-level U.S. government official told CNN that U.S. investigators had discovered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Sheik Syed), using the alias “Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad” had sent about $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta. “Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead. In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars — believed to be excess funds from the operation — back to Saeed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11. CNN later confirmed this.

I believe the “hit head on sunroof” theory was supposed to mean that the concussion from the bomb blasted her head in to the sunroof as opposed to “ow, i bumped my head.” However, the video of the incident appears to show differently.

Elections in Pakistan appeared set to be delayed by several weeks despite demands by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and other politicians that they take place as scheduled on Jan. 8, officials said Monday.

The elections should be postponed. Otherwise, Musharraf and his party will simply clean up. The opposition, especially Bhutto’s PPP, is weak at this point.

The opinion that Biodun expresses is the same as mine, but I must admit to some confusion. I don’t understand why, if what I’ve bolded is true, the oppositon party of Bhutto has demanded that the election take place as scheduled on January 8. Unless…could it be that Bhutto’s party is a sure fire winner for representatives in the equivalent of their Congress, even though they no longer have a candidate for their top office now occupied by Musharraf, and they have some provisions, as we do, for their Congress to vote Musharraf out of office, like a vote of no confidence?

correction: So right. I meant New Year’s Eve. At this point in my life one day blends into the other.

2,111 signs posted on freeways since Jan. 1 ‘07

http://freewayblogger.blogspot…..acker.html

going for the record now.

nice work, ScarletP…

No, the implication was that she whacked her head on her own volition.

It seems to be a way to minimize her death. Making it seem like a fluke or an accident instead of the result of the assassination.

They are implying she wasn’t a brave martyr.

-G

I read a couple days ago that over 150 banks had also been destroyed.

Ya know, I think maybe I should apply for a newly created position at one of the cable news outlets. It would be called “howler”. I envision the job as sitting quietly until the vapid anchor/anchorette inevitably says something as stupid as “doesn’t wanna interfere in the politics of another country” or “global warming could be a good thing, because there are homeless people, and they’re cold, ya know”.

At that point my job would simply be to break out into uproarious, uncontrollable, table-pounding, finger-pointing, tears-stramin’-down-my-face laughter until such point as the proponent of such nonsense is forced to leave the set in embarrassment.

I wonder how much I should ask for in salary?

He also looks like the love child of Omar Shareef and Stacy Keech.

-G

I don’t understand why, if what I’ve bolded is true, the oppositon party of Bhutto has demanded that the election take place as scheduled on January 8. Unless…could it be that Bhutto’s party is a sure fire winner for representatives in the equivalent of their Congress, even though they no longer have a candidate for their top office now occupied by Musharraf,

PPP is shooting for a sympathy vote, but does not really have a viable candidate for prime minister to replace Bhutto. The deal that the US struck with Musharraf and Bhutto is that they power-share: Musharraf as president and Bhutto as prime minister. The other opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, is not as popular as Bhutto. He’s also something of a fundamentalist, and his two previous governments were corrupt as hell.

Sounds like a great job! It’s got to be worth at least whatever the average of Wingnut Welfare is paying. They do quite well for themselves, so this may be a profitable gig for you.

Send Fitz over there.

Brave? Her physical bravery is undeniable. A martyr? I wouldn’t rush to that conclusion.

Very interesting frame by frame of the various video on CNN World International….. a clean shaved man with a gun…. three shots… movement of her head scarf and slowmo of her dive into the car through the sunroof. Actually looked like a faint type slump. She was down inside the car before the bomb blast…. rules the blast threw her head into the sunroof story.

Now the interior minister states the issue isn’t how she died but who killed her…. WTF? If you don’t know the cause of death, how do you know the who? Was the “clean shaved man” the same as the suicide bomber?

Now if CNN is correct with their “clean shaved man” as the shooter…. that rules out Muslim extremist doesn’t it?

Also from the BBC:

The opinion in Pakistan is that Mr Zardari has shown himself to be a fast learner in the past, and the immediate challenge of elections will help him galvanise his skills quickly.

He has had considerable political experience as an unofficial advisor of Ms Bhutto when she was prime minister in the 1990s.

But he also earned the reputation, within the party, of being someone who used Ms Bhutto’s influence and clout for his personal gain, and he subsequently became the subject of judicial inquiries both within the country and abroad.

He says those charges were politically motivated, and that none of them have led to a conviction in ten years.

This, and the fact that he remained in jail for eight years without compromising with the military regime, have reassured some party loyalists.

IIRC the first reports I saw say that the gunman blew himself up.

That’s at least a million a year. Minimum.

Oh, yeah…and the gunman, you know, the Al Qaeda gunman, was wearing a suit and dark glasses.

In the footage, it looks as if the explosion came from a different direction than where the shooter is shooting from. It could easily have been a planted IED type of device. They just said “suicide” to make it sound like AQ. JMHO

It is fairly common where you have a large crowd around a crime scene to get highly variable reports. A lot of folks will have seen only tiny bits and pieces of what happened. And every one of them from a different angle of perspective, varying height, and so on, making every witness’ acount slightly different — let alone factoring in age of witnesses, level of attention to detail, etc., which muddles everything a bit further. Which makes it all the more important to get as many immediate statements as you can to pick out the thread of the whole story as much as possible. Skilled investigators get as much information as possible as immediately as possible, and seal off a crime scene and attempt to prevent comings and going as much as possible to preserve any evidence — including powder residue on any adjacent bystanders to the potential shooter, angle of shot evidence and such. I have no idea how this was handled, but it sounds from all the descriptions of the aftermath that there was — predictibly, honestly, given the human dimensions on this — sheer chaos.

But the longer they wait to start a full, thorough investigation, the more muddled and intermingled the witness statements are going to get as news story information begins to co-mingle and sink in with their own memories, not to mention conversations among people who were there. Jeralyn has done a lot of work on witness memory issues, and it can be highly malleable if it isn’t treated with care and immediacy.

That is what I was seeing…. a heavy set man in a suit, clean shaved with sun glasses on the left of the car. The blast from the right…. from the photographer perspective.

Because here in the U.S. there always must be a designated lone nut assassin, my life experience (1963, 1968, etc.) is telling me someone is being set up as I write this.

Someone who’s a far-left lone nutter.

So you don’t think this type of action will wait until this time next year? You don’t think it will be a lone far-right nut job? Perhaps a fundie type that just can’t stand the immorality of another Clinton in the WH? Or some KKK throwback that won’t tolerate a black at the helm of this country? Maybe some law and order radical that believes it’s not a good idea to have a trial lawyer as President?

Personally, I couldn’t be happier that a Democratic headed government will have a lawyer at the top regardless of which of the top candidates are ultimately chosen. Maybe we can start doing things legally again.

Christy I was seeing video of them hosing off the blast scene, cleaning up the street within day of the blast and someone commenting that the crime scene investigation had not been done and the guy with the hose just shrug.

Skilled investigators get as much information as possible as immediately as possible, and seal off a crime scene and attempt to prevent comings and going as much as possible to preserve any evidence — including powder residue on any adjacent bystanders to the potential shooter, angle of shot evidence and such.

From the Beeb or Auntie:

The scene of the blast was washed with a high pressure hose of the fire brigade hours after the incident, apparently to clean the road.

The interior ministry spokesman said the spot was washed after all the required evidence had been collected by the investigators.

He brushed aside observations by the media that the investigators may still have had to revisit the site for verification of evidence they had collected earlier.

(Same link as my 19.)

The suspicious part is that the car stopped and Bhutto stood up with here upper body outside the bulletproof car at exactly the point where the assassins were waiting. That smacks of an inside component to this job.

KatyMine @11,

WHY and who gains from this story? I think that some would prefer Bhutto not given a Martyrs death. Face it, she died while still very popular, and died as a result of assassination. If the government puts doubt in that assassination and plays it off as some ‘accident’ then she is denied a Martyrs death. She died just like anyone else, as in, no big deal. If she died doing what she thought was best for Pakistan and her people, it means much more.

So, it looks like some would prefer if Bhutto is not given that badge. That, and placing doubt on her death opens debates where they shouldn’t be. The question should not be how she died, but why she died. That is the question Pakistanis need to consider.

I blame Joey Bhutto-fuoco.

This, and the fact that he remained in jail for eight years without compromising with the military regime, have reassured some party loyalists.

{{{ouch}}} Eight years in prison. Those are not nice prisons. If you are married to someone who is a concert pianist and you a singer, is it using your partner’s position for your own advantage if you do a concert together? It seems to me there is a lot of give and take that is just normal. I just don’t get the accusation. It is common practice here and there and everywhere.

You are assuming that the men that shot/exploded were the only people in the crowd along that road equipped to do so.

That smacks of an inside component to this job.

Rawalpindi is a military garrison right next to Islamabad (you can even walk there from Islamabad), the HQ of Pakistani Armed Forces, and therefore a secured city. You need to get through security to get inside.

I’m reluctant to say it should be an American investigation, where we send our law enforcement personnel, because I’m not sure that would have credibility for a different reason.

For shit’s sake, Hillary, say it – we can’t do it because Bush (enabled by you, BTW) has totally fucked our credibility with his stupid wars.

The Mourners.

Bonne annee, copain…Feliz Ano Nuevo.

BTW, they reported that she was traveling with only one security person, a woman, but if you look at the footage of her getting into the car, a guy in an army uniform gets into the front seat.

I agree. This smacks of “inside job” in collusion with assassinators. What are the odds of the shooter just happening to be in the most advantageous position? There is a lot of luck and convenience of chance to make this happen.

The very first reports on the BBC were that she died from blood loss, which would not result from a conk on the head.

merci, mon pote! bonnee annee a toi aussi…

This comes from Robert Novak so it has to be taken with a large grain of salt.

Nevertheless -

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto followed two months of urgent pleas to the State Department by her representatives for better protection. The U.S. reaction was that she was worried over nothing, expressing assurance that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would not let anything happen to her.

That attitude led a Bhutto agent to inform a high-ranking State Department official that her camp no longer viewed the backstage U.S. effort to broker a power-sharing agreement between Musharraf and the former prime minister as a good-faith effort toward democracy. It was, according to the written complaint, an attempt to preserve the politically endangered Musharraf as George W. Bush’s man in Islamabad.

That sounds like something Bush would do.

Ann at 50

My point is this: the assassin will be PORTRAYED as a far-left lone nutter, so as to discredit those on the left.

This is defninitely good news for Republicans, though, and especially Rudi. /s

Wow. From Novak:

“A more sinister fallout of a free hand from Washington for Pakistan might be Bhutto’s murder. Neither her shooting on Thursday nor the attempt on her life Oct. 18 bore the trademarks of al-Qaeda.”

The view from Asia Times Online:

KARACHI – As the shockwaves continue to reverberate across Pakistan following the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto on December 27, and political parties declare their intention to contest national elections scheduled for January 8, the threat to the country’s political system remains as dire as ever.

Following the killing of Bhutto – considered by her al-Qaeda killers to be an “American asset” – al-Qaeda can be expected to launch

more suicide attackers on those considered a part of the United States plan to establish a broad coalition government comprising secular and liberal elements that would change the political and social dynamics of the country and the region.

At stake is the very soul of the country and how it should be governed.

On the one side are US-backed President Pervez Musharraf and political parties such as Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (now headed by her 19-year-old son Bilawal) and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League.

Against them are al-Qaeda ideologues such as Egyptian scholar Sheikh Essa, who are determined to stamp their vision on the country and its neighbor, Afghanistan.

A.J. has a good analysis of Bhutto’s death over at AmericaBlog

Zardari, Bilawal’s father, served 11 years in prison on corruption charges.

f US foreign policy for a particular country or topic depends on an *individual* rather than a system or structure or process, odds are it’s a crummy policy. The very idea that our foreign policy for Pakistan could be utterly destroyed by the death of a single person, however tragically and unexpectedly, shows you how bad a policy it was in the first place.

This is definitely good news for Republicans

Teddy, is there a way that you could copy and paste, or something, so that this comment is automatically inserted into every thread? Because, after all, *everything* is good for the R’s.

Again from Asia Times Online:

This is the beginning of the new world of takfiriat, reborn in North Waziristan many decades after having first emerged in Egypt in the late 1960s. On the advice of Sheikh Essa, militants have tried several times to assassinate Musharraf, launched attacks on the Pakistani military, and then declared Bhutto a target.

This nest of takfiris and their intrigues was on the radar of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the day after Bhutto’s killing Sheikh Essa was targeted by CIA Predator drones in his home in North Waziristan. According to Asia Times Online contacts, he survived, but was seriously wounded. Sheikh Essa had only recently recovered from a stroke which had left him bedridden.

This somewhat dampened the jubilation in the jihadi camps over Bhutto’s death and al-Qaeda members had to flee to safe havens. Nevertheless, their intention to carry out more attacks is as steadfast as ever.

(Same link as my 70.)

This gets quite interesting indeed.

katymine — Thanks for the link to AJ’s post. Missed that this morning — appreciate it and will update above.

Zardari, Bilawal’s father, served 11 years in prison on corruption charges.

I’ve seen “reliable” information that states he spent 2 years, eight years and eleven years in prison. My math isn’t adding up between the birth of children and time spent living in other countries.

You really didn’t miss it… it was just posted within the last hour. Love A.J.’s take on international issues. Great resource.

Ann at 50

My point is this: the assassin will be PORTRAYED as a far-left lone nutter, so as to discredit those on the left.

And my point is, I think they’d rather kill one of ours after s/he ascended to a power position than to lose one of theirs just to besmirch the reputations of the left wing “extremists.” Do you see them sacrificing Bush and/or Cheney?

I think if there was a deliberate attempt to subvert the government, it would likely be to throw this country into chaos, and that is far more likely to come from the right (having now become part of their MO,) but I think they will more likely attack a Hillary, Barack, or John Edwards than to assassinate Bush and/or Cheney just to make us look bad.

“when the US ought to be standing up for real democratic principles: openness, honesty and integrity in an investigation, free and fair elections, and independent judiciary, for starters.”

Why would we stand up for those things there when we don’t stand up for them here?

if there was a deliberate attempt to subvert the government

there, fixed now.

Here’s the video that shows that Bhutto was clearly gunned down: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vq-DwHXx4oI&

Christopher Higgins in interview now on NPR. Mr. NeoCon is blaming AQ and saying from the video Mrs. Bhutto could have hit her head. He is defending Musharrif. He describes her as “bewitching” and a fanaticism in her courage which was driven by power. Talk about left-hand compliments. He says she never even closed a car door or pulled a curtain in her life. Daddy took care of her. Higgins describes her as indifferent. This doesn’t jive with the thread on FDL about meeting Bhutto as a young woman at Harvard.

I have no doubt that the Bhutto family is typical of class entitlement found throughout the world.

Bhutto’s widower is on CNN right now & states she was shot “point-blank” and the sunroof cause of her death was “rubbish” along with the link to Al Q…

notoriety
exemplary
sorry, blame it on catholic school

this time we not only don’t get even a magic bullet, we get no bullet at all. as the french say, “waalaah!”

Christopher Higgins in interview now on NPR. Mr. NeoCon is blaming AQ and saying from the video Mrs. Bhutto could have hit her head. He is defending Musharrif. He describes her as “bewitching” and a fanaticism in her courage which was driven by power. Talk about left-hand compliments. He says she never even closed a car door or pulled a curtain in her life. Daddy took care of her. Higgins describes her as indifferent. This doesn’t jive with the thread on FDL about meeting Bhutto as a young woman at Harvard.

I have no doubt that the Bhutto family is typical of class entitlement found throughout the world.

yeah like in crawford texas. anybody think boosch ever closed a car door? he said he’d run the govt like a bidness. no one bothered to point out what he did to the last bidness he ran. this stuff makes me sick. i know im always late to the party, but better late than never.