Kurt Nimmo and Alex Jones May 1, 2011
http://www.infowars.com/red-alert-government-had-osama-bin-laden-frozen-for-years
CNN and the corporate media report this evening that purported CIA asset Osama bin Laden has been killed by the U.S. military in a mansion outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with other family members.
In an address to the nation, Obama said he ordered the strike that allegedly killed Osama. The remainder of his speech followed the standard war on terror propaganda script.
A small team of Americans killed bin Laden in a firefight at a compound in Pakistan, the president said in a dramatic late-night statement at the White House, the Associated Press reported following Obama’s address.
Obama said the military took custody of his remains. It remains to be seen if the government will attempt to provide evidence that the remains are indeed those of Osama bin Laden.
“The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” said former president Bush. In 2006, Bush admitted that capturing Osama was not a top priority.
In February, 2004, Iranian state radio claimed Osama bin Laden had been captured in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan “a long time ago.” Pentagon and Pakistani officials denied the report. “Osama bin Laden has been arrested a long time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election,” the radio report said.
Osama bin Laden died of kidney failure soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks. In 2002, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said bin Laden had kidney disease, and that he had required a dialysis machine when he lived in Afghanistan. That same year, the FBI’s top counterterrorism official, Dale Watson, said, “I personally think he is probably not with us anymore.”
A Taliban leader told the Pakistan Observer on December 21, 2002, that Bin Laden was suffering from a serious lung complication and died in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief, according to Fox News.
Alex Jones was told live on the radio in 2002 by high-level Council on Foreign Relations members that Osama Bin Laden had died of kidney failure in early 2002.
“I have it from high level [sources] from inside the Bush administration…that bin Laden died of natural causes and that his family has given the body to the CIA, that they’re gonna roll him out right before the election, that he’s on ice right now. They will claim they killed him right before the election,” Alex said at the time.
“Jones gave a caution that the intelligence could be disinformation but claimed that his base in Austin was extremely close to the Bush administration and similar information received in the past had been credible,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote in August of 2002.
During the 2004 election, CNN reported that Democratic insiders had been told that George W. Bush was going to use the Bin Laden body as an ace-in-the-hole if he thought he was in danger of losing the 2004 election. This confirmed the evidence that Jones had been given by the CFR and others.
In 2003, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Fox News Channel analyst Morton Kondracke she suspected Bush knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and was waiting for the most politically expedient moment to announce his capture.
Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack at the end of 2007, stated that Osama bin Laden had been killed by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a man convicted of kidnapping and killing journalist Daniel Pearl.
Obama’s announcement follows the release of a highly suspicious birth certificate last week. Both events represent psychological operations that possibly portend more significant events in the days ahead as the U.S. dollar continues to lose its reserve status, the economy fails to recover as promised, and wars expand in Libya, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Obama’s propaganda stunt arrives as the Democrats kick off their leader’s presidential reelection bid against a number of Republicans contenders who have been highly critical of not only his perceived handling of the economy, but also his management of the manufactured war on terror.
Showing posts with label Benazir Bhutto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benazir Bhutto. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Musharraf Murdered Benazir Bhutto?
"An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has issued a warrant for the arrest of the country's former president, General Pervez Musharraf in connection with the 2007 killing of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in a move that potentially reopens a bitter chapter from the country's troubled political history.
Musharraf, a close ally of former U.S. President George W Bush, has lived in exile since 2008, dividing his time between the U.K. and Dubai, after he resigned to avoid a parliamentary impeachment by newly-elected politicians.
Bhutto, a westernized liberal politician, was killed in a 2007 gun and grenade attack, right after she emerged from a high profile political rally in Rawalpindi, the main suburb of Islamabad, ahead of the country's national elections.
Mohammad Ali Saif, a Pakistani barrister and a member of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League (APML,) confirmed the arrest warrant to CBS News, and said that it appeared to be built on a political vendetta launched by President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's husband, and Pakistan's prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani..."
Arrest Warrant for Pakistan's Ex-President
Farhan Bokhari
February 12, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20031636-503543.html
Musharraf, a close ally of former U.S. President George W Bush, has lived in exile since 2008, dividing his time between the U.K. and Dubai, after he resigned to avoid a parliamentary impeachment by newly-elected politicians.
Bhutto, a westernized liberal politician, was killed in a 2007 gun and grenade attack, right after she emerged from a high profile political rally in Rawalpindi, the main suburb of Islamabad, ahead of the country's national elections.
Mohammad Ali Saif, a Pakistani barrister and a member of Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League (APML,) confirmed the arrest warrant to CBS News, and said that it appeared to be built on a political vendetta launched by President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's husband, and Pakistan's prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani..."
Arrest Warrant for Pakistan's Ex-President
Farhan Bokhari
February 12, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20031636-503543.html
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Cheney’s assassination squad run out of Pentagon
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4912.shtml
Cheney’s assassination squad run out of Pentagon; allegedly targeted Benazir Bhutto
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 16, 2009
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from U.S. intelligence veterans that the secret intelligence operation run by Vice President Dick Cheney was not under the aegis of the Central Intelligence Agency but was a component of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Department of Defense.
The JSOC unit carried out assassinations of foreign individuals, including politicians in countries friendly to the United States, under the direct orders of Cheney. One former intelligence official described the operation as a new “Phoenix Program.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA’s Phoenix program, carried out, with the cooperation of U.S. Special Operations forces, identified key Vietcong leaders in South Vietnamese villages and towns and later assassinated them. What the CIA was involved with from the days subsequent to the 9/11 attacks was a similar operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that identified key leaders of “Al Qaeda” and the Taliban and planned their assassinations.
However, what the CIA abandoned was Cheney’s use of the operation, in part organized under then-CIA director George Tenet’s “Worldwide Attack Matrix” or “WAM,” to target real or perceived political enemies in other countries, possibly including individuals in the United States. CIA director Leon Panetta officially terminated the CIA’s residual role in the assassination program after an eight-year involvement and informed Congress that they had been misled about the nature of the program.
The only actual part of the CIA that worked with the Pentagon’s assassination unit under JSOC was the Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA, itself largely comprised of former U.S. Special Operations personnel, including a number of former Delta Force members.
Far from being concerned about revelations about the program, WMR has learned that rank-and-file CIA officers are ecstatic about the revelations concerning Cheney’s operations. In knowing that most in the CIA, perhaps with the noted exceptions of deputy director of the CIA, Stephen Kappes, and acting CIA general counsel John Rizzo, were not involved in Cheney’s assassination ring, which is considered by many CIA officers to have been illegal, there is a certain amount of glee in realizing that Cheney may soon face the legal music on ordering illegal assassinations.
One retired CIA officer who was involved in the original clandestine targeting program before it was altered by Cheney, believes that the CIA has Cheney “by the balls” over the new revelations about the death squads.
WMR has been told by a U.S. intelligence source that the one person who poses the greatest threat to Cheney is former CIA director George Tenet, who claims that Cheney’s operation was so secretive he was not aware of its details. Tenet has been described as having few friends from the Bush-Cheney administration and has nothing to lose by making public what he knows about Cheney’s role in the assassination operation. Although the Cheney/JSOC operation continued under CIA directors Porter Goss and General Michael Hayden, neither are considered particularly vulnerable, except for their possible testimonies under oath before congressional committees.
The most high-profile target of the secret Cheney assassination squad, according to high-level CIA sources, allegedly was former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi, the heart of Pakistan’s military and intelligence community.
WMR reported the assassination as follows on December 27, 2007: “Bhutto was reportedly first shot in the neck and chest and then killed in a suicide bomb blast at a campaign rally. Bhutto’s closest advisers immediately suspected the involvement of Pakistan’s military and intelligence complex in the assassination, an event which is thought by many to strengthen the hand of Musharraf and Pakistan’s dictatorship. The global corporate media, in practical unison, began echoing the tired tripe that ‘Al Qaeda’ was responsible for Bhutto’s assassination. However, ‘Al Qaeda’ was fostered by Pakistan’s military and intelligence community with large amounts of funding from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.”
According to our CIA sources, Cheney decided that every effort should be made to ensure that his friend, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, remain in power in Pakistan and not be replaced by Bhutto. Cheney allegedly authorized his secret assassination unit to hit Bhutto and then maximize his political gain by blaming the attack on “Al Qaeda.”
Cheney’s alleged hit on Bhutto also involved U.S. and Pakistani electronic surveillance of her communications. On February 21, 2008, WMR reported: “The late former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto knew that all her phone conversations and e-mails were being monitored by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and ‘other intelligence agencies,’ according to her long time friend and co-author Mark Siegel. Siegel made his comments last night in a speech at the National Press Club highlighting ‘Reconciliation,’ a book he co-authored with Bhutto shortly before her assassination. Siegel said he and Bhutto were convinced that during her five years of exile in Dubai that all their phone calls between Washington, DC, and Dubai were being monitored by ISI. Since ISI does not possess its own significant eavesdropping capability in the United States, Bhutto’s reference to ‘other agencies’ is an indication that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was eavesdropping on Bhutto and passing some of the intelligence to the ISI and the government of Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf.”
The House Intelligence Committee is promising to investigate the details of the program and on July 12, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said he believes there will be additional revelations forthcoming about the super-secret Cheney program.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2009 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
Cheney’s assassination squad run out of Pentagon; allegedly targeted Benazir Bhutto
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 16, 2009
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from U.S. intelligence veterans that the secret intelligence operation run by Vice President Dick Cheney was not under the aegis of the Central Intelligence Agency but was a component of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Department of Defense.
The JSOC unit carried out assassinations of foreign individuals, including politicians in countries friendly to the United States, under the direct orders of Cheney. One former intelligence official described the operation as a new “Phoenix Program.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA’s Phoenix program, carried out, with the cooperation of U.S. Special Operations forces, identified key Vietcong leaders in South Vietnamese villages and towns and later assassinated them. What the CIA was involved with from the days subsequent to the 9/11 attacks was a similar operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that identified key leaders of “Al Qaeda” and the Taliban and planned their assassinations.
However, what the CIA abandoned was Cheney’s use of the operation, in part organized under then-CIA director George Tenet’s “Worldwide Attack Matrix” or “WAM,” to target real or perceived political enemies in other countries, possibly including individuals in the United States. CIA director Leon Panetta officially terminated the CIA’s residual role in the assassination program after an eight-year involvement and informed Congress that they had been misled about the nature of the program.
The only actual part of the CIA that worked with the Pentagon’s assassination unit under JSOC was the Special Activities Division (SAD) of the CIA, itself largely comprised of former U.S. Special Operations personnel, including a number of former Delta Force members.
Far from being concerned about revelations about the program, WMR has learned that rank-and-file CIA officers are ecstatic about the revelations concerning Cheney’s operations. In knowing that most in the CIA, perhaps with the noted exceptions of deputy director of the CIA, Stephen Kappes, and acting CIA general counsel John Rizzo, were not involved in Cheney’s assassination ring, which is considered by many CIA officers to have been illegal, there is a certain amount of glee in realizing that Cheney may soon face the legal music on ordering illegal assassinations.
One retired CIA officer who was involved in the original clandestine targeting program before it was altered by Cheney, believes that the CIA has Cheney “by the balls” over the new revelations about the death squads.
WMR has been told by a U.S. intelligence source that the one person who poses the greatest threat to Cheney is former CIA director George Tenet, who claims that Cheney’s operation was so secretive he was not aware of its details. Tenet has been described as having few friends from the Bush-Cheney administration and has nothing to lose by making public what he knows about Cheney’s role in the assassination operation. Although the Cheney/JSOC operation continued under CIA directors Porter Goss and General Michael Hayden, neither are considered particularly vulnerable, except for their possible testimonies under oath before congressional committees.
The most high-profile target of the secret Cheney assassination squad, according to high-level CIA sources, allegedly was former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated on December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi, the heart of Pakistan’s military and intelligence community.
WMR reported the assassination as follows on December 27, 2007: “Bhutto was reportedly first shot in the neck and chest and then killed in a suicide bomb blast at a campaign rally. Bhutto’s closest advisers immediately suspected the involvement of Pakistan’s military and intelligence complex in the assassination, an event which is thought by many to strengthen the hand of Musharraf and Pakistan’s dictatorship. The global corporate media, in practical unison, began echoing the tired tripe that ‘Al Qaeda’ was responsible for Bhutto’s assassination. However, ‘Al Qaeda’ was fostered by Pakistan’s military and intelligence community with large amounts of funding from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.”
According to our CIA sources, Cheney decided that every effort should be made to ensure that his friend, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, remain in power in Pakistan and not be replaced by Bhutto. Cheney allegedly authorized his secret assassination unit to hit Bhutto and then maximize his political gain by blaming the attack on “Al Qaeda.”
Cheney’s alleged hit on Bhutto also involved U.S. and Pakistani electronic surveillance of her communications. On February 21, 2008, WMR reported: “The late former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto knew that all her phone conversations and e-mails were being monitored by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and ‘other intelligence agencies,’ according to her long time friend and co-author Mark Siegel. Siegel made his comments last night in a speech at the National Press Club highlighting ‘Reconciliation,’ a book he co-authored with Bhutto shortly before her assassination. Siegel said he and Bhutto were convinced that during her five years of exile in Dubai that all their phone calls between Washington, DC, and Dubai were being monitored by ISI. Since ISI does not possess its own significant eavesdropping capability in the United States, Bhutto’s reference to ‘other agencies’ is an indication that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was eavesdropping on Bhutto and passing some of the intelligence to the ISI and the government of Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf.”
The House Intelligence Committee is promising to investigate the details of the program and on July 12, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said he believes there will be additional revelations forthcoming about the super-secret Cheney program.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2009 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
Monday, March 31, 2008
Beast of the Month - February 2008
Beast of the Month - February 2008
Mullah Omar, Taliban Leader
"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"
"They're back..."
Poltergeist II tagline
Anyone searching for proof about how bad the "War on Terror" is going needs to look no further than Pakistan.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the CIA (along with the London's Scotland Yard) has agreed with the Pakistan government's controversial assertion that the deed was plotted by Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander with ties to Al Qaeda. The conclusion goes hand in hand with (until now) underreported news stories of the rise in power by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. That it could be even admitted as plausible the Taliban killed Bhutto is an indictment on how the War on Terror has been waged, as one of the few things even the harshest critic of the Bush Administration could concede is the loss of power to the repressive Taliban regime deserves no tears. True, right wing hacks will no doubt try to frame the Bhutto assassination as a reminder Al Qaeda and the Taliban are still a menace to the world. Still, it more likely fits the playbook of the Democratic Party's talking points: that by invading Iraq, the Bush Team fought a war with a country with no ties to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda while dropping the ball on the real battle in Afghanistan.
Of course, there's a reason why the CIA and Scotland Yard have so quickly embraced the "Taliban and Al Qaeda did it" conspiracy theory: the alternative is even more distasteful to the American establishment. After all, the reason the Taliban theory is so controversial in Pakistan is because the public widely believes the political hit was actually orchestrated by Pervez Musharraf, to wipe out the greatest political threat to his dictatorial reign. The theory is supported by missing evidence (most notably the washing down of streets before blood evidence could be collected, and the blocking of an autopsy by police) showing a high-ranking cover-up, shoddy security protection at the time of her murder, official lies about her cause of death, vote-rigging evidence in the recent Pakistan "election" which Bhutto was to hand to US Congressmen on her day of death and an email Bhutto wrote three weeks before her murder where she warned of a plot to kill her, organized by Musharraf cronies rather than Al Qaeda. In short, had the CIA not backed the official story, the US public would now have to acknowledge a partner in the "War on Terror" is a dictatorship that ruthlessly murders its political opponents.
For once, though, the US establishment may actually be telling the truth. Or, more precisely, perhaps they are both lying and telling the truth. To explain, The Konformist provides this little guide to Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al Qaeda:
* WHAT IS THE TALIBAN? Okay, this one is easy background. A fundamentalist Islam nationalist movement led by Mullah Omar (The Konformist Beast of the Month) that took control of Afghanistan in 1996, it was initially embraced by much of the Afghan public for restoring law and order. Soon it became a repressive regime and international pariah, enforcing a strict Muslim religious doctrine which included the subjugation of women, mass murder of political opponents, outlawing of nearly all modern culture and the 2001 destruction of two 6th century Buddha statues that were perhaps Afghanistan's most noted cultural artifacts. Their immense financial aid from Osama bin Laden led to their downfall, as Team USA knocked them out of power after 9/11. Despite this setback, they have been on the rise in power since 2006, with multiple statements by Omar released for propaganda purposes.
* WHAT IS THE ISI? The Inter-Services Intelligence is Pakistan's largest and most powerful intelligence agency, their version of the CIA, and one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world.
* ARE THERE TIES BETWEEN THE TALIBAN AND THE ISI? Um, yeah. Though officially on different sides of the "Good Vs. Evil" paradigm promoted by the Bush Team in the Terror War, they still have covert contacts that benefit both parties. For example, Pakistan allows the Taliban to remain hidden in their borders, in exchange for not becoming a primary target of radical Islam. Furthermore, they both have a joint opponent in Afghanistan, and the ISI allowing the Taliban to flourish creates a force that only weakens a competitive neighbor.
* ARE THERE TIES BETWEEN THE ISI AND THE CIA? Absolutely, indeed, many activities done by the ISI can be viewed as simple proxy operations done for the CIA's bidding.
* SO, DOES THAT MEAN THERE ARE TIES BETWEEN THE TALIBAN AND CIA? Good question. Obviously, officially there is no link between the two after 9/11. Still, it has to be acknowledged the Taliban is pretty much a CIA creation thanks to the war between Afghanistan and the USSR. Further, there were massive negotiations between the Taliban and US oil companies (which the CIA is often just foot soldiers for) as late as the summer of 2001 over a proposed deal to allow access to untapped crude in the Caspian Sea, worth an estimated $3 trillion in 2001 oil prices. (When the talks broke down, the Taliban were warned to "accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.") Of course, now the CIA and Taliban are officially enemies, but intelligence contacts are treasured, and at the very least some back channel contacts likely still exist.
* HOW ABOUT THE TIES BETWEEN THE ISI, THE CIA AND AL QAEDA? This one has a surprisingly murky answer. First, the most shocking link: Mohammed Atta, the alleged lead hijacker and ringleader of the 9/11 plot, was wired $100,000 from Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, then head of the ISI. Was Atta a covert ISI agent? It sure looks that way. This evidence ties the ISI more closely to 9/11 than either the Taliban or much maligned Saudi Arabia. (For example, in Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore made much of the Saudis being the not-so-secret bogeyman, yet Pakistan's suspicious role was completely ignored.) It's hard to dismiss the idea that whatever Atta was doing was at the behest of Pakistan. It's also hard to ignore that since much of what the ISI does is at the CIA's request, this gives some strength to theories that 9/11 was an inside job. As for the ties between the CIA and Al Qaeda, like the Taliban, the entire beginnings of Al Qaeda are tied to the CIA's war against the USSR in Afghanistan. Having said all this, why are the links between the ISI, CIA and Al Qaeda so murky? The answer lies in an even more ignored question...
* DOES "AL QAEDA" EVEN EXIST? This is a question few dare ask, and the answer can be persuasively argued to be no. First, even The Konformist admits, "Al Qaeda" is an easy (and cool-sounding) shorthand for a collection of radical Islamic terrorist groups who are waging war against Team America. In this sense, Al Qaeda certainly is real. But is it a unified network of anti-American jihadists who answer to their evil mastermind Osama bin Laden? Sorry, but this version of things is bogus. In the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, evidence is laid out that "Al Qaeda" (Arabic for "The Base" and a term never used publicly by Osama before the 9/11 attacks) was concocted in 2001 by the US DOJ to nail bin Laden as a head of a crime network. Thus, any radical Islam terror actions could be ultimately linked to Osama under the "Al Qaeda" banner. Unfortunately, this has allowed many smaller groups with competing agendas to be lumped together under a monolithic banner, all to hype up a giant leviathan for propaganda purposes. And even then, the supposed size of "Al Qaeda" is highly exaggerated, inflated by (for example) including those who fought against the USSR in the eighties but are not at war with anyone and certainly aren't allies of bin Laden. And speaking of bin Laden, here's another question that is being ignored...
* IS OSAMA EVEN ALIVE? If he is, The Konformist hasn't found any good evidence to support the claim. The latest supposed video of him from September 2007 looks clearly like an imposter, and this isn't the first bogus Osama passed off as the real deal in the mainstream press. It's unlikely this would be done if the real Osama was still around. Meanwhile, in his speeches, Osama has morphed from a "death to America" Islamo-fascist to a Chomsky-quoting critic of American foreign policy (who no doubt wears Birkenstocks, drives a Prius and has Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on his Netflix queue.) The end result of Osama's conversion is even Nation-reading establishment lefties can be smeared for parroting the propaganda of "bin Laden" when criticizing the Iraqi Quagmire.
Mullah Omar, Taliban Leader
"I yam an anti-Christ... "
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"
"They're back..."
Poltergeist II tagline
Anyone searching for proof about how bad the "War on Terror" is going needs to look no further than Pakistan.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the CIA (along with the London's Scotland Yard) has agreed with the Pakistan government's controversial assertion that the deed was plotted by Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander with ties to Al Qaeda. The conclusion goes hand in hand with (until now) underreported news stories of the rise in power by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. That it could be even admitted as plausible the Taliban killed Bhutto is an indictment on how the War on Terror has been waged, as one of the few things even the harshest critic of the Bush Administration could concede is the loss of power to the repressive Taliban regime deserves no tears. True, right wing hacks will no doubt try to frame the Bhutto assassination as a reminder Al Qaeda and the Taliban are still a menace to the world. Still, it more likely fits the playbook of the Democratic Party's talking points: that by invading Iraq, the Bush Team fought a war with a country with no ties to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda while dropping the ball on the real battle in Afghanistan.
Of course, there's a reason why the CIA and Scotland Yard have so quickly embraced the "Taliban and Al Qaeda did it" conspiracy theory: the alternative is even more distasteful to the American establishment. After all, the reason the Taliban theory is so controversial in Pakistan is because the public widely believes the political hit was actually orchestrated by Pervez Musharraf, to wipe out the greatest political threat to his dictatorial reign. The theory is supported by missing evidence (most notably the washing down of streets before blood evidence could be collected, and the blocking of an autopsy by police) showing a high-ranking cover-up, shoddy security protection at the time of her murder, official lies about her cause of death, vote-rigging evidence in the recent Pakistan "election" which Bhutto was to hand to US Congressmen on her day of death and an email Bhutto wrote three weeks before her murder where she warned of a plot to kill her, organized by Musharraf cronies rather than Al Qaeda. In short, had the CIA not backed the official story, the US public would now have to acknowledge a partner in the "War on Terror" is a dictatorship that ruthlessly murders its political opponents.
For once, though, the US establishment may actually be telling the truth. Or, more precisely, perhaps they are both lying and telling the truth. To explain, The Konformist provides this little guide to Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al Qaeda:
* WHAT IS THE TALIBAN? Okay, this one is easy background. A fundamentalist Islam nationalist movement led by Mullah Omar (The Konformist Beast of the Month) that took control of Afghanistan in 1996, it was initially embraced by much of the Afghan public for restoring law and order. Soon it became a repressive regime and international pariah, enforcing a strict Muslim religious doctrine which included the subjugation of women, mass murder of political opponents, outlawing of nearly all modern culture and the 2001 destruction of two 6th century Buddha statues that were perhaps Afghanistan's most noted cultural artifacts. Their immense financial aid from Osama bin Laden led to their downfall, as Team USA knocked them out of power after 9/11. Despite this setback, they have been on the rise in power since 2006, with multiple statements by Omar released for propaganda purposes.
* WHAT IS THE ISI? The Inter-Services Intelligence is Pakistan's largest and most powerful intelligence agency, their version of the CIA, and one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world.
* ARE THERE TIES BETWEEN THE TALIBAN AND THE ISI? Um, yeah. Though officially on different sides of the "Good Vs. Evil" paradigm promoted by the Bush Team in the Terror War, they still have covert contacts that benefit both parties. For example, Pakistan allows the Taliban to remain hidden in their borders, in exchange for not becoming a primary target of radical Islam. Furthermore, they both have a joint opponent in Afghanistan, and the ISI allowing the Taliban to flourish creates a force that only weakens a competitive neighbor.
* ARE THERE TIES BETWEEN THE ISI AND THE CIA? Absolutely, indeed, many activities done by the ISI can be viewed as simple proxy operations done for the CIA's bidding.
* SO, DOES THAT MEAN THERE ARE TIES BETWEEN THE TALIBAN AND CIA? Good question. Obviously, officially there is no link between the two after 9/11. Still, it has to be acknowledged the Taliban is pretty much a CIA creation thanks to the war between Afghanistan and the USSR. Further, there were massive negotiations between the Taliban and US oil companies (which the CIA is often just foot soldiers for) as late as the summer of 2001 over a proposed deal to allow access to untapped crude in the Caspian Sea, worth an estimated $3 trillion in 2001 oil prices. (When the talks broke down, the Taliban were warned to "accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.") Of course, now the CIA and Taliban are officially enemies, but intelligence contacts are treasured, and at the very least some back channel contacts likely still exist.
* HOW ABOUT THE TIES BETWEEN THE ISI, THE CIA AND AL QAEDA? This one has a surprisingly murky answer. First, the most shocking link: Mohammed Atta, the alleged lead hijacker and ringleader of the 9/11 plot, was wired $100,000 from Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, then head of the ISI. Was Atta a covert ISI agent? It sure looks that way. This evidence ties the ISI more closely to 9/11 than either the Taliban or much maligned Saudi Arabia. (For example, in Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore made much of the Saudis being the not-so-secret bogeyman, yet Pakistan's suspicious role was completely ignored.) It's hard to dismiss the idea that whatever Atta was doing was at the behest of Pakistan. It's also hard to ignore that since much of what the ISI does is at the CIA's request, this gives some strength to theories that 9/11 was an inside job. As for the ties between the CIA and Al Qaeda, like the Taliban, the entire beginnings of Al Qaeda are tied to the CIA's war against the USSR in Afghanistan. Having said all this, why are the links between the ISI, CIA and Al Qaeda so murky? The answer lies in an even more ignored question...
* DOES "AL QAEDA" EVEN EXIST? This is a question few dare ask, and the answer can be persuasively argued to be no. First, even The Konformist admits, "Al Qaeda" is an easy (and cool-sounding) shorthand for a collection of radical Islamic terrorist groups who are waging war against Team America. In this sense, Al Qaeda certainly is real. But is it a unified network of anti-American jihadists who answer to their evil mastermind Osama bin Laden? Sorry, but this version of things is bogus. In the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, evidence is laid out that "Al Qaeda" (Arabic for "The Base" and a term never used publicly by Osama before the 9/11 attacks) was concocted in 2001 by the US DOJ to nail bin Laden as a head of a crime network. Thus, any radical Islam terror actions could be ultimately linked to Osama under the "Al Qaeda" banner. Unfortunately, this has allowed many smaller groups with competing agendas to be lumped together under a monolithic banner, all to hype up a giant leviathan for propaganda purposes. And even then, the supposed size of "Al Qaeda" is highly exaggerated, inflated by (for example) including those who fought against the USSR in the eighties but are not at war with anyone and certainly aren't allies of bin Laden. And speaking of bin Laden, here's another question that is being ignored...
* IS OSAMA EVEN ALIVE? If he is, The Konformist hasn't found any good evidence to support the claim. The latest supposed video of him from September 2007 looks clearly like an imposter, and this isn't the first bogus Osama passed off as the real deal in the mainstream press. It's unlikely this would be done if the real Osama was still around. Meanwhile, in his speeches, Osama has morphed from a "death to America" Islamo-fascist to a Chomsky-quoting critic of American foreign policy (who no doubt wears Birkenstocks, drives a Prius and has Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on his Netflix queue.) The end result of Osama's conversion is even Nation-reading establishment lefties can be smeared for parroting the propaganda of "bin Laden" when criticizing the Iraqi Quagmire.
So let's put this all together. Even if, as the Pakistan government, CIA and Scotland Yard all insist, the Bhutto assassination was a Taliban operation, does that let Musharraf and the ISI off the hook? Or could the Taliban have been doing a contract hit on behalf of the Pakistan state? (In fact, in 2005, alleged Bhutto assassination mastermind Mehsud was offered over $300K by Pakistan to sign a peace deal he would later agree to, so a business relationship already did exist.)
Does it go even further? Is it possible the Bhutto assassination may have US Government fingerprints over it? At the very least, right-wing commentator Bob Novak believes the US let her be killed to prop up Musharraf. Beyond that claim, let's look at the main thing the US establishment would have against her: she was pursuing peace agreements with both Islamic fundamentalists and the state of Israel. While her plans could have led to less violence and a future Nobel Peace Prize, lessened tensions in the area would dismantle the excuse for US presence, potentially leaving American oil companies shut out of the Caspian Sweepstakes. Meanwhile, in a November 2007 interview with David Frost, Bhutto stated bin Laden had already been murdered by an "Al Qaeda" rival Omar Sheikh. Although this was later dismissed as a verbal mistake (supposedly, she meant Daniel Pearl had been murdered, not bin Laden) after her death, it's interesting to note she never corrected herself, nor did her seasoned interviewer Frost ask for a clarification.
At this point, though, all this is history, albeit recent and important history. The bigger question is what will happen to the Taliban. The Konformist guess is they're not going anywhere, and will only get more powerful as time goes on. Whatever the Taliban's faults, many Afghanis felt safer from crime when they were in power, thus explaining any mass popularity they continue to have. Last September, Afghan prez Hamid Karzai recognized this reality and offered to negotiate with Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar. While the Taliban remains an officially sanctioned bogeyman, it seems plausible that so-called "moderate" Taliban leaders (i.e. those willing to give US oil companies sweetheart deals) could be embraced and rejoin the Afghan establishment. If that happens, you heard it hear first.
In any case, we salute Mullah Omar as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Omar!!!
Sources:
Baker, Aryn and Robinson, Simon. "Missing Evidence from Bhutto's Murder." Time 31 December 2007 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1699138,00.html>.
"Benazir Bhutto Said Osama bin Laden Was Dead." Prison Planet 28 December 2007 <http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/281207_said.htm>.
"Bhutto Broke Her Agreement with the CIA, She Wanted to Talk with the Islamists." Roads to Iraq 29 December 2007 <http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2007/12/29/bhutto-broke-her-agrrement-with-the-cia-she-wanted-to-talk-with-the-islamists/>.
"Bhutto Wanted Ties with Israel, Sought Mossad Protection." Israel Today 28 December 2007 <http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=14909>.
"Bhutto Was to Give U.S. Lawmakers Vote-rigging Report." CNN 1 January 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.voterigging/>.
Bright, Arthur. "CIA Blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for Bhutto Assassination." Christian Science Monitor 19 January 2008
Brisard, Jean-Charles and Dasquie, Guillaume. Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden. New York: Nation Books, 2002.
Chin, Larry. "Anglo-American Ambitions Behind the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Destabilization of Pakistan." Online Journal 31 December 2007 <http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2789.shtml>.
Chossudovsky, Michel. America's "War on Terrorism". Quebec, Global Research, 2005.
Chossudovsky, Michel. "Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush Administration?" Global Research 2 November 2001 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html>.
"How Did Pakistan's Bhutto Die?" CNN 28 December 2007 <http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/bhutto.death/>.
Juliano, Nick. "Police Abandoned Security Posts Before Bhutto Assassination." Raw Story 28 December 2007 <http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Police_abandoned_security_posts_before_Bhutto_1228.html>.
"Karzai Talks Peace After Bus Bomb." CNN 29 September 2007 <http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/29/afghanistan.bus.ap/index.html>.
"Lawyer: Police Prevented Bhutto Autopsy." CNN 1 January 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.autopsy/index.html>.
Meacher, Michael. "The Pakistan Connection." The Guardian 22 July 2004 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/22/usa.september11>.
Novak, Robert. "Sacrificing Bhutto to Prop Up Musharraf?" Chicago Sun Times 31 December 2007 <http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/719606,CST-EDT-NOVAK31.article>.
"Osama bin Laden: The Newest Fake." What Really Happened <http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osama_newfake.html>.
Page, Jeremy. "Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? The Main Suspects." Global Research 27 December 2007 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7687>.
"Pakistan Pays Tribe al-Qaeda Debt." BBC News 9 February 2005 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4249525.stm>.
Qayum, Khalid and Ahmed, Khaleeq. "Bhutto Attack Probably a Taliban Plot, Ministry Says." Bloomberg 28 December 2007 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaDPt.tAewPE>.
Rashid, Ahmed. Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Robinson, Simon. "Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air." Time 28 December 2007 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1698828,00.html>.
Sherwell, Philip. "Bhutto 'Blocked from Hiring US Bodyguards'." Telegraph 31 December 2007 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IG1ZSIRJ0UOFPQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/30/wbhutto230.xml>.
Walters, Simon. "Bhutto Email Named Killers Weeks Before Assassination." Daily Mail 30 December 2007 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=505152&in_page_id=1811>.
Watson, Steve. "New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery." Infowars.net 10 September 2007 <http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/100907BinLaden.htm>.
Does it go even further? Is it possible the Bhutto assassination may have US Government fingerprints over it? At the very least, right-wing commentator Bob Novak believes the US let her be killed to prop up Musharraf. Beyond that claim, let's look at the main thing the US establishment would have against her: she was pursuing peace agreements with both Islamic fundamentalists and the state of Israel. While her plans could have led to less violence and a future Nobel Peace Prize, lessened tensions in the area would dismantle the excuse for US presence, potentially leaving American oil companies shut out of the Caspian Sweepstakes. Meanwhile, in a November 2007 interview with David Frost, Bhutto stated bin Laden had already been murdered by an "Al Qaeda" rival Omar Sheikh. Although this was later dismissed as a verbal mistake (supposedly, she meant Daniel Pearl had been murdered, not bin Laden) after her death, it's interesting to note she never corrected herself, nor did her seasoned interviewer Frost ask for a clarification.
At this point, though, all this is history, albeit recent and important history. The bigger question is what will happen to the Taliban. The Konformist guess is they're not going anywhere, and will only get more powerful as time goes on. Whatever the Taliban's faults, many Afghanis felt safer from crime when they were in power, thus explaining any mass popularity they continue to have. Last September, Afghan prez Hamid Karzai recognized this reality and offered to negotiate with Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar. While the Taliban remains an officially sanctioned bogeyman, it seems plausible that so-called "moderate" Taliban leaders (i.e. those willing to give US oil companies sweetheart deals) could be embraced and rejoin the Afghan establishment. If that happens, you heard it hear first.
In any case, we salute Mullah Omar as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Omar!!!
Sources:
Baker, Aryn and Robinson, Simon. "Missing Evidence from Bhutto's Murder." Time 31 December 2007 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1699138,00.html>.
"Benazir Bhutto Said Osama bin Laden Was Dead." Prison Planet 28 December 2007 <http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/281207_said.htm>.
"Bhutto Broke Her Agreement with the CIA, She Wanted to Talk with the Islamists." Roads to Iraq 29 December 2007 <http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2007/12/29/bhutto-broke-her-agrrement-with-the-cia-she-wanted-to-talk-with-the-islamists/>.
"Bhutto Wanted Ties with Israel, Sought Mossad Protection." Israel Today 28 December 2007 <http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=14909>.
"Bhutto Was to Give U.S. Lawmakers Vote-rigging Report." CNN 1 January 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.voterigging/>.
Bright, Arthur. "CIA Blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for Bhutto Assassination." Christian Science Monitor 19 January 2008
Brisard, Jean-Charles and Dasquie, Guillaume. Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden. New York: Nation Books, 2002.
Chin, Larry. "Anglo-American Ambitions Behind the Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Destabilization of Pakistan." Online Journal 31 December 2007 <http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2789.shtml>.
Chossudovsky, Michel. America's "War on Terrorism". Quebec, Global Research, 2005.
Chossudovsky, Michel. "Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush Administration?" Global Research 2 November 2001 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html>.
"How Did Pakistan's Bhutto Die?" CNN 28 December 2007 <http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/bhutto.death/>.
Juliano, Nick. "Police Abandoned Security Posts Before Bhutto Assassination." Raw Story 28 December 2007 <http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Police_abandoned_security_posts_before_Bhutto_1228.html>.
"Karzai Talks Peace After Bus Bomb." CNN 29 September 2007 <http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/29/afghanistan.bus.ap/index.html>.
"Lawyer: Police Prevented Bhutto Autopsy." CNN 1 January 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.autopsy/index.html>.
Meacher, Michael. "The Pakistan Connection." The Guardian 22 July 2004 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/22/usa.september11>.
Novak, Robert. "Sacrificing Bhutto to Prop Up Musharraf?" Chicago Sun Times 31 December 2007 <http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/719606,CST-EDT-NOVAK31.article>.
"Osama bin Laden: The Newest Fake." What Really Happened <http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osama_newfake.html>.
Page, Jeremy. "Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? The Main Suspects." Global Research 27 December 2007 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7687>.
"Pakistan Pays Tribe al-Qaeda Debt." BBC News 9 February 2005 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4249525.stm>.
Qayum, Khalid and Ahmed, Khaleeq. "Bhutto Attack Probably a Taliban Plot, Ministry Says." Bloomberg 28 December 2007 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaDPt.tAewPE>.
Rashid, Ahmed. Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Robinson, Simon. "Bhutto Conspiracy Theories Fill the Air." Time 28 December 2007 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1698828,00.html>.
Sherwell, Philip. "Bhutto 'Blocked from Hiring US Bodyguards'." Telegraph 31 December 2007 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IG1ZSIRJ0UOFPQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/30/wbhutto230.xml>.
Walters, Simon. "Bhutto Email Named Killers Weeks Before Assassination." Daily Mail 30 December 2007 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=505152&in_page_id=1811>.
Watson, Steve. "New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery." Infowars.net 10 September 2007 <http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/100907BinLaden.htm>.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Pakistan's Ruling Party Concedes Defeat
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjZVKZR9FBOXSPU057fCwrWwm4-gD8UT9CU03
Pakistan's Ruling Party Concedes Defeat
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
2-19-8
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The chairman of Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parities scored wins in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of President Pervez Musharraf — America's close ally in the war on terror.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told AP Television News that "we accept the results with an open heart" and "will sit on opposition benches" in the new parliament."
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following his decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's opposition dealt a crushing blow to allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections, threatening the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror, according to unofficial results cited by a private TV network Tuesday.
The party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was in the lead in Monday's parliamentary vote, with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif — who was toppled in Musharraf's 1999 coup and has emerged as his fiercest critic — running a close second.
The private Geo TV network said the two parties had so far won 139 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.
The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was trailing a distant third with 33 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.
"All the King's men, gone!" proclaimed a banner headline in the Daily Times. "Heavyweights knocked out," read Dawn newspaper.
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.
With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach the president, who also angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but party president Pervaiz Elahi stopped short of conceding defeat before the returns were more complete.
"We happily accept the verdict of the people," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday.
"If our opponents had faced the same situation at a time when 60 per cent of the results are still to come, they might have started talking about rigging, and we are not doing it ... We have been sitting on opposition benches in the past, and we can do it now as well."
He said the PML-Q had elected Musharraf for five years. "We respect him, and we are still with him," he said.
Sharif has been outspoken in demanding that Musharraf be removed and that Supreme Court justices whom the president sacked late last year be returned to their posts.
The spokesman for Sharif's party, Saqiq ul-Farooq told reporters Tuesday that Musharraf "should go." But he added that if the restored justices validate Musharraf's October election to a new term, the opposition would accept the decision.
"We want to put Pakistan back on the track of democracy, constitution and rule of law, and the restoration of sacked judges is must to achieve this goal," he said.
Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home Monday, the elections for national and provincial assemblies were a major step toward democracy in Pakistan, which has been under military for the past eight years under Musharraf and for over half of its 60-year history.
A win by the opposition is likely to restore the public's faith in the political process and quell fears that the results would be rigged in favor of the pro-Musharraf forces.
Islamic militant violence scarred the campaign, most notably Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination, but Monday's balloting was spared such an attack. The government, however, confirmed 24 election-related deaths in clashes between political parties.
About 18 hours after vote-counting began, Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the 268 National Assembly seats being contested showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party with 33.1 percent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27.5 percent. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third with 14.4 percent.
Contests in four assembly seats have been delayed for various reasons, including the death of candidates during the campaign.
The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Sharif's party holding 30 percent, Bhutto's party holding 26.6 percent and the PML-Q with 12.1 percent.
Several close political allies of Musharraf were election casualties. The chairman of the ruling party, the foreign minister and railways minister were among those who lost seats in Punjab, the most populous province and a key electoral battleground.
Musharraf, who was not on the ballot, has said a strong, democratically elected government is needed to fight a rise in Islamic militancy, and the retired army general pledged Monday to work with the new government regardless of which party wins.
"I will give them full cooperation as president, whatever is my role," he said.
Religious parties also fared badly, and were set to lose their control of the North West Frontier Province gained in the last parliamentary elections in 2002 when they benefited from Pakistani anger over the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The U.S. government, Musharraf's strongest international backer, was anxious for a credible election to shore up democratic forces at a time of mounting concern over political unrest in this nuclear-armed nation and a growing al-Qaida and Taliban presence in the northwest.
"Every single vote must be counted fairly, and the numbers must be transmitted so decisions can be made," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who was one of several American lawmakers monitoring the election.
Lee said that an "effective government for the people of Pakistan" was America's "great concern."
Despite the stakes, it appeared most of the country's 81 million voters stayed home — either out of fear of extremist attacks or lack of enthusiasm for the candidates, many of whom waged lackluster campaigns.
Sarwar Bari of the nonprofit Free and Fair Elections Network said reports from his group's 20,000 election observers indicated voter turnout was about 35 percent. That would be the same as in the 1997 election — the lowest in Pakistan's history.
Bhutto's party had hoped to ride a public wave of sympathy after the former prime minister was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack but it appeared Sharif's tougher line against Musharraf also struck a chord with voters.
Bhutto had negotiated with Musharraf before she returned from exile in October, and her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads her Pakistan Peoples Party, has left open the possibility of working with the president.
Associated Press writers Stephen Graham in Lahore, Zarar Khan in Nawab Shah and Robin McDowell, Sadaqat Jan and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Pakistan's Ruling Party Concedes Defeat
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
2-19-8
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The chairman of Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parities scored wins in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of President Pervez Musharraf — America's close ally in the war on terror.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told AP Television News that "we accept the results with an open heart" and "will sit on opposition benches" in the new parliament."
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following his decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's opposition dealt a crushing blow to allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections, threatening the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror, according to unofficial results cited by a private TV network Tuesday.
The party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was in the lead in Monday's parliamentary vote, with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif — who was toppled in Musharraf's 1999 coup and has emerged as his fiercest critic — running a close second.
The private Geo TV network said the two parties had so far won 139 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.
The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was trailing a distant third with 33 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.
"All the King's men, gone!" proclaimed a banner headline in the Daily Times. "Heavyweights knocked out," read Dawn newspaper.
Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.
With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach the president, who also angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but party president Pervaiz Elahi stopped short of conceding defeat before the returns were more complete.
"We happily accept the verdict of the people," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday.
"If our opponents had faced the same situation at a time when 60 per cent of the results are still to come, they might have started talking about rigging, and we are not doing it ... We have been sitting on opposition benches in the past, and we can do it now as well."
He said the PML-Q had elected Musharraf for five years. "We respect him, and we are still with him," he said.
Sharif has been outspoken in demanding that Musharraf be removed and that Supreme Court justices whom the president sacked late last year be returned to their posts.
The spokesman for Sharif's party, Saqiq ul-Farooq told reporters Tuesday that Musharraf "should go." But he added that if the restored justices validate Musharraf's October election to a new term, the opposition would accept the decision.
"We want to put Pakistan back on the track of democracy, constitution and rule of law, and the restoration of sacked judges is must to achieve this goal," he said.
Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home Monday, the elections for national and provincial assemblies were a major step toward democracy in Pakistan, which has been under military for the past eight years under Musharraf and for over half of its 60-year history.
A win by the opposition is likely to restore the public's faith in the political process and quell fears that the results would be rigged in favor of the pro-Musharraf forces.
Islamic militant violence scarred the campaign, most notably Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination, but Monday's balloting was spared such an attack. The government, however, confirmed 24 election-related deaths in clashes between political parties.
About 18 hours after vote-counting began, Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the 268 National Assembly seats being contested showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party with 33.1 percent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27.5 percent. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third with 14.4 percent.
Contests in four assembly seats have been delayed for various reasons, including the death of candidates during the campaign.
The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Sharif's party holding 30 percent, Bhutto's party holding 26.6 percent and the PML-Q with 12.1 percent.
Several close political allies of Musharraf were election casualties. The chairman of the ruling party, the foreign minister and railways minister were among those who lost seats in Punjab, the most populous province and a key electoral battleground.
Musharraf, who was not on the ballot, has said a strong, democratically elected government is needed to fight a rise in Islamic militancy, and the retired army general pledged Monday to work with the new government regardless of which party wins.
"I will give them full cooperation as president, whatever is my role," he said.
Religious parties also fared badly, and were set to lose their control of the North West Frontier Province gained in the last parliamentary elections in 2002 when they benefited from Pakistani anger over the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The U.S. government, Musharraf's strongest international backer, was anxious for a credible election to shore up democratic forces at a time of mounting concern over political unrest in this nuclear-armed nation and a growing al-Qaida and Taliban presence in the northwest.
"Every single vote must be counted fairly, and the numbers must be transmitted so decisions can be made," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who was one of several American lawmakers monitoring the election.
Lee said that an "effective government for the people of Pakistan" was America's "great concern."
Despite the stakes, it appeared most of the country's 81 million voters stayed home — either out of fear of extremist attacks or lack of enthusiasm for the candidates, many of whom waged lackluster campaigns.
Sarwar Bari of the nonprofit Free and Fair Elections Network said reports from his group's 20,000 election observers indicated voter turnout was about 35 percent. That would be the same as in the 1997 election — the lowest in Pakistan's history.
Bhutto's party had hoped to ride a public wave of sympathy after the former prime minister was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack but it appeared Sharif's tougher line against Musharraf also struck a chord with voters.
Bhutto had negotiated with Musharraf before she returned from exile in October, and her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads her Pakistan Peoples Party, has left open the possibility of working with the president.
Associated Press writers Stephen Graham in Lahore, Zarar Khan in Nawab Shah and Robin McDowell, Sadaqat Jan and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Monday, January 21, 2008
CIA blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for assassination
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0118/p99s01-duts.html
from the January 19, 2008 edition
CIA blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for Bhutto assassination
Director of CIA says "no reason" to doubt Islamist group's responsibility, echoing findings of Scotland Yard.
By Arthur Bright
According to the CIA, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamic militants with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, offering new support to similar but criticized assertions made by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
CIA director Michael Hayden told The Washington Post that the agency has concluded that followers of Islamist tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for carrying out Mrs. Bhutto's assassination.
"This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden said. He described the killing as "part of an organized campaign" that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.
Some administration officials outside the agency who deal with Pakistani issues were less conclusive, with one calling the assertion "a very good assumption."
One of the officials said there was no "incontrovertible" evidence to prove or rebut the assessment.
Mr. Hayden added that Mr. Mehsud is receiving support from Al Qaeda, an accusation also asserted by the Pakistani government. The alliance between Mehsud and Al Qaeda, Hayden says, presents a new threat to Pakistan's stability.
"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there," he said. "You've got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between al-Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups."
Hayden added, "It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists."
The Los Angeles Times cites similar comments from a US intelligence official who, speaking anonymously, said, "There is certainly no reason to doubt that [Mehsud] was behind this." Like Hayden, the official did not disclose how the CIA came to such a conclusion. The Times notes that Pakistani officials, including Mr. Musharraf, accused Mehsud largely on the basis of a telephone-call recording in which a man they believe to be Mehsud congratulates a cleric for his followers' success in killing Bhutto. Mehsud has denied involvement in Bhutto's assassination, but he has not yet commented on the recording.
The Times adds that an official in Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party remained skeptical of the CIA's assertions, noting that the agency was unable to examine much of the forensic evidence because both the crime scene and Bhutto's vehicle were "hosed down" shortly after the attack.
"Whoever is now identified as responsible by state sources, we would need to know how they came to any conclusions, as we are uncomfortable with the cover-up that was done on the ground after Ms. Bhutto's assassination," the party official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by Pakistani officials.
Mehsud, whose followers are also thought to be responsible for an attack Thursday in which insurgents overran a Pakistani fort, is "the premier militant commander" in the Pakistani territory of South Waziristan, writes the BBC in a profile. Mehsud "played a major role" in making South Waziristan into a safe haven for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Commander Mehsud makes no bones about this, and says it is in fact the duty of every Muslim to wage jihad against "the infidel forces of America and Britain".
Talking to the BBC in an exclusive interview earlier in 2007, he said the militants were dead set on their goal of freeing Afghanistan through jihad. "Only jihad can bring peace to the world," he said.
The militant leader on several occasions has openly admitted to crossing the [Pakistan-Afghanistan] border to fight foreign troops.
The BBC adds that Mehsud is believed to lead some 20,000 insurgents, the majority of whom belong to the Mehsud tribe, and that Mehsud serves under Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who allegedly aided Osama Bin Laden's escape from the Afghan mountain fortress in Tora Bora in 2002.
The US's conclusion that Mehsud was involved in Bhutto's murder echoes that of Scotland Yard, which Musharraf asked to investigate the assassination. The Sunday Times of London wrote last weekend that Scotland Yard found the evidence supported Musharraf's claim that Mehsud was involved.
The gun fired at Bhutto has been checked for fingerprints by the Scotland Yard detectives. A government minister told The Sunday Times that these have been traced through identity cards to a man in Swat, an area where Mehsud's men have been fighting.
"There was no cover-up," he insisted. "It was just unfortunate that in all the shock and confusion at the beginning, people shot their mouths off talking about sunroofs rather than simply saying it would be investigated."
The Times adds, however, that Bhutto's widow, Asif Ali Zardari, rejected Scotland Yard's findings and called for an independent, UN-led investigation into her death.
Bhutto herself in the days before her death dismissed Mehsud as just a pawn of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, which she told The Observer were the true threat to Pakistani democracy.
"I'm not worried about [Mehsud],' said Bhutto. 'I'm worried about the threat within the government. People like [Mehsud] are just pawns. It is the forces behind them that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country. They feel threatened now that their infrastructure will be rolled back when democracy is restored."
from the January 19, 2008 edition
CIA blames Al Qaeda, Taliban for Bhutto assassination
Director of CIA says "no reason" to doubt Islamist group's responsibility, echoing findings of Scotland Yard.
By Arthur Bright
According to the CIA, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamic militants with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, offering new support to similar but criticized assertions made by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
CIA director Michael Hayden told The Washington Post that the agency has concluded that followers of Islamist tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for carrying out Mrs. Bhutto's assassination.
"This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden said. He described the killing as "part of an organized campaign" that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.
Some administration officials outside the agency who deal with Pakistani issues were less conclusive, with one calling the assertion "a very good assumption."
One of the officials said there was no "incontrovertible" evidence to prove or rebut the assessment.
Mr. Hayden added that Mr. Mehsud is receiving support from Al Qaeda, an accusation also asserted by the Pakistani government. The alliance between Mehsud and Al Qaeda, Hayden says, presents a new threat to Pakistan's stability.
"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there," he said. "You've got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between al-Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups."
Hayden added, "It is clear that their intention is to continue to try to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists."
The Los Angeles Times cites similar comments from a US intelligence official who, speaking anonymously, said, "There is certainly no reason to doubt that [Mehsud] was behind this." Like Hayden, the official did not disclose how the CIA came to such a conclusion. The Times notes that Pakistani officials, including Mr. Musharraf, accused Mehsud largely on the basis of a telephone-call recording in which a man they believe to be Mehsud congratulates a cleric for his followers' success in killing Bhutto. Mehsud has denied involvement in Bhutto's assassination, but he has not yet commented on the recording.
The Times adds that an official in Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party remained skeptical of the CIA's assertions, noting that the agency was unable to examine much of the forensic evidence because both the crime scene and Bhutto's vehicle were "hosed down" shortly after the attack.
"Whoever is now identified as responsible by state sources, we would need to know how they came to any conclusions, as we are uncomfortable with the cover-up that was done on the ground after Ms. Bhutto's assassination," the party official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by Pakistani officials.
Mehsud, whose followers are also thought to be responsible for an attack Thursday in which insurgents overran a Pakistani fort, is "the premier militant commander" in the Pakistani territory of South Waziristan, writes the BBC in a profile. Mehsud "played a major role" in making South Waziristan into a safe haven for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Commander Mehsud makes no bones about this, and says it is in fact the duty of every Muslim to wage jihad against "the infidel forces of America and Britain".
Talking to the BBC in an exclusive interview earlier in 2007, he said the militants were dead set on their goal of freeing Afghanistan through jihad. "Only jihad can bring peace to the world," he said.
The militant leader on several occasions has openly admitted to crossing the [Pakistan-Afghanistan] border to fight foreign troops.
The BBC adds that Mehsud is believed to lead some 20,000 insurgents, the majority of whom belong to the Mehsud tribe, and that Mehsud serves under Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who allegedly aided Osama Bin Laden's escape from the Afghan mountain fortress in Tora Bora in 2002.
The US's conclusion that Mehsud was involved in Bhutto's murder echoes that of Scotland Yard, which Musharraf asked to investigate the assassination. The Sunday Times of London wrote last weekend that Scotland Yard found the evidence supported Musharraf's claim that Mehsud was involved.
The gun fired at Bhutto has been checked for fingerprints by the Scotland Yard detectives. A government minister told The Sunday Times that these have been traced through identity cards to a man in Swat, an area where Mehsud's men have been fighting.
"There was no cover-up," he insisted. "It was just unfortunate that in all the shock and confusion at the beginning, people shot their mouths off talking about sunroofs rather than simply saying it would be investigated."
The Times adds, however, that Bhutto's widow, Asif Ali Zardari, rejected Scotland Yard's findings and called for an independent, UN-led investigation into her death.
Bhutto herself in the days before her death dismissed Mehsud as just a pawn of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies, which she told The Observer were the true threat to Pakistani democracy.
"I'm not worried about [Mehsud],' said Bhutto. 'I'm worried about the threat within the government. People like [Mehsud] are just pawns. It is the forces behind them that have presided over the rise of extremism and militancy in my country. They feel threatened now that their infrastructure will be rolled back when democracy is restored."
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_us/ye_deaths_1
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 28, 2007
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson outlived her husband, Lyndon, by more than 35 years, expanding on her White House efforts to carve her own legacy as an environmentalist.
When she died July 11 at age 94, she left behind countless miles of scenic highways across the United States, dotted not by billboards and junkyards but by wildflowers.
She is one of the political figures, artists, businessmen and heroes to whom we said goodbye in 2007.
Two charismatic but flawed leaders, Russia's Boris Yeltsin and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, aimed to bring democracy to their homelands. Wally Schirra reached for the stars as one of the original team of Mercury astronauts.
We lost authors Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut and David Halberstam — three men whose writings were shaped by war and found eager audiences in the Vietnam era.
The music world mourned Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti, who appealed to the masses as well as opera buffs; the great classical cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; drummer Max Roach and pianist Oscar Peterson, hailed as geniuses by fellow jazzmen; and rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner.
Directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni — Europeans who championed the art of cinema rather than Hollywood glitter — died on the same day. We also lost the Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane, a film pioneer in Africa.
In terms of cable news interest, the death of model-reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith overshadowed just about anyone else's. Other colorful newsmakers who died included daredevil Evel Knievel and "queen of mean" Leona Helmsley.
Their styles differed, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Messner both brought their religious faith to bear on the wider world.
The sports world said goodbye to longtime Grambling coach Eddie Robinson, Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack and to NFL players Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor, both shot to death before their 25th birthday.
In business, we lost the founders or co-founders of Nasdaq, the Gallo wine-making empire, Bob Evans restaurants, Motel 6 and the Body Shop, the environmental cosmetics chain. The political world lost former Sens. Thomas Eagleton and George Smathers, as well as Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. Columnists Art Buchwald and Molly Ivins brightened their writing with humor but never forgot the serious side of life.
Here, a roll call of some of the notables who died in 2007. (Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)
JANUARY:
Darrent Williams, 24. Denver Broncos cornerback. Jan. 1. Shooting.
Teddy Kollek, 95. Six-term mayor of Jerusalem; tried to balance needs of Jewish and Arab populations. Jan. 2.
C. William Verity Jr., 89. As secretary of commerce, he pushed to recognize quality. Jan. 3.
Vincent Sardi Jr., 91. Consummate host of Sardi's, famed Broadway watering hole. Jan. 4.
Bobby Hamilton, 49. NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500. Jan. 7. Cancer.
Yvonne De Carlo, 84. The vampire mom on "The Munsters." Jan. 8.
Carlo Ponti, 94. Italian producer who discovered — and married — Sophia Loren. Jan. 9.
Robert Anton Wilson, 74. Co-author of science fiction cult classic "The Illuminatus! Trilogy." Jan. 11.
Larry Stewart, 58. Anonymous philanthropist known as Secret Santa. Jan. 12. Cancer.
Michael Brecker, 57. Versatile tenor saxophonist; won 11 Grammys. Jan. 13.
Art Buchwald, 81. Pulitzer-winning humorist who skewered Washington's elite. Jan. 17.
Denny Doherty, 66. Member of 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas ("California Dreamin'.") Jan. 19.
George A. Smathers, 93. Three-term Florida senator, friend to presidents. Jan. 20.
Abbe Pierre, 94. Beloved French priest praised for devotion to the needy. Jan. 22.
E. Howard Hunt, 88. He helped organize the Watergate break-in. Jan. 23.
Charlotte Reid, 93. Four-term Illinois congresswoman, then Federal Communications Commission member. Jan. 24.
Eleanor McGovern, 85. George McGovern's wife; outspoken campaigner in his 1972 presidential run. Jan. 25.
The Rev. Robert Drinan, 86. Priest who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House during the 1970s. Jan. 28.
Gordon S. Macklin, 79. A founder and longtime president of Nasdaq stock market. Jan. 30.
Sidney Sheldon, 89. Stage and screen writer turned best-selling novelist ("The Other Side of Midnight.") Jan. 30.
Molly Ivins, 62. Best-selling author, columnist, a sharp-witted liberal who referred to President Bush as "Shrub." Jan. 31.
FEBRUARY:
Gian Carlo Menotti, 95. Pulitzer-winning Italian composer ("The Consul," "Amahl and the Night Visitors"); founded Spoleto arts festivals. Feb. 1.
Barbara McNair, 72. Pioneering black singer-actress; had her own TV variety show. Feb. 4.
Lew Burdette, 80. MVP of the 1957 World Series when he pitched the Milwaukee Braves. Feb. 6.
Frankie Laine, 93. Big-voiced singer; one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s ("That Lucky Old Sun.") Feb. 6.
Anna Nicole Smith, 39. Model and sometime actress. Feb. 8. Accidental overdose of medication.
Rep. Charles Norwood Jr., 65. Blunt-spoken Georgia Republican congressman. Feb. 13.
Robert Adler, 93. Co-inventor of the TV remote, the 1956 Zenith Space Command. Feb. 15.
Maurice Papon, 96. Former French Cabinet minister convicted of complicity in World War II crimes. Feb. 17.
David Berger, 94. Class-action lawsuit pioneer who won major cases in the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Feb. 22.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89. Pulitzer-winning historian; Kennedy administration "court philosopher." Feb. 28.
MARCH:
Marjabelle Young Stewart, 82. Etiquette authority; co-wrote "White Gloves and Party Manners." March 3.
Thomas Eagleton, 77. Former senator who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression. March 4.
Ernest Gallo, 97. With his brother, he built the world's largest winemaking empire. March 6.
Betty Hutton, 86. Singer-actress who brought brassy vitality to Hollywood musicals ("Annie Get Your Gun.") March 11.
Bowie Kuhn, 80. Baseball commissioner during development of free agency, multimillion-dollar contracts. March 15.
John Backus, 82. Developer of Fortran programming language that changed how people interacted with computers. March 17.
G.E. Patterson, 67. Presiding bishop of 6 million-member Church of God in Christ. March 20.
Walter Turnbull, 62. Founded acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem. March 23.
Robert E. Petersen, 80. Publisher whose Hot Rod, Motor Trend magazines helped shape car culture. March 23.
Tosiwo Nakayama, 75. First president of Federated States of Micronesia as it emerged from U.S. control. March 29.
APRIL:
Herb Carneal, 83. Broadcast Minnesota Twins games for 45 seasons. April 1.
William Becker, 85. Co-founded the Motel 6 chain. April 2.
Eddie Robinson, 88. Longtime Grambling coach; transformed small college into a football power. April 3.
Nina Wang, 69. Hong Kong businesswoman; one of world's richest women. April 3.
Darryl Stingley, 55. New England Patriots player paralyzed during on-field collision in 1978. April 5. Complications of paralysis.
Johnny Hart, 76. Cartoonist whose "B.C." showed the Stone Age's humorous side. April 7.
Sol LeWitt, 78. Influential abstract painter, sculptor. April 8.
Kurt Vonnegut, 84. Novelist who captured the absurdity of the world in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five." April 11.
Don Ho, 76. Hawaiian crooner ("Tiny Bubbles"); entertained tourists. April 14.
Frank Westheimer, 95. Eminent chemist; former science adviser to President Johnson. April 14.
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96. Singer-actress; career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film ("A Night at the Opera.") April 17.
Helen Robson Walton, 87. Widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton; philanthropist. April 19.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68. Seven-term California congresswoman; advocated electoral reform. April 21.
David Halberstam, 73. Journalist whose books included towering study of Vietnam War, poignant portrait of aging baseball stars. April 23.
Boris Yeltsin, 76. Former Russian president who helped bring demise of Soviet Union. April 23.
Warren Avis, 92. Founded Avis Rent A Car. April 24.
Jack Valenti, 85. Film industry lobbyist; instituted modern movie ratings system. April 26.
Mstislav Rostropovich, 80. Ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents. April 27.
Tom Poston, 85. The tall, pasty-faced TV comic whose characters were clueless. ("Newhart.") April 30.
MAY:
Walter M. Schirra Jr., 84. An original Mercury Seven astronaut, who combined the Right Stuff with a pronounced rebellious streak. May 3.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, 71. Former cult leader in Miami linked to nearly two dozen gruesome killings in the 1980s. May 7.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, 73. Evangelist who used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty political force. May 15.
Yolanda King, 51. Actress and activist; daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King. May 15.
Fannie Lee Chaney, 84. Mother of one of three civil-rights workers killed in 1964 "Mississippi Burning" case. May 22. (Carolyn Goodman, one of the other two mothers, died Aug. 17 at 91.)
Charles Nelson Reilly, 76. Tony Award winner; known for ribald TV game show appearances. May 25.
Homer J. Stewart, 91. Rocket pioneer; helped develop first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I. May 26.
Paul Yost, 87. Pioneer of hot-air ballooning. May 27.
Barbara Cox Anthony, 84. Heiress to Cox media fortune; one of world's richest women. May 28.
Preston Martin, 83. Top Federal Reserve official; helped create Freddie Mac. May 30.
JUNE
Charles William Maynes, 68. Longtime editor of Foreign Policy magazine. June 2.
Wiley Mayne, 90. Four-term Iowa congressman; one of 10 Republicans who voted not to impeach President Nixon. June 3.
Bill France Jr., 74. Transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate. June 4.
Sen. Craig Thomas, 74. Three-term Senate Republican; reliably represented conservative Wyoming. June 4.
Edwin Traisman, 91. Food scientist; helped develop Cheez Whiz. June 5.
Sembene Ousmane, 84. Father of Senegalese cinema; one of the pioneers of the art in Africa. June 9.
Ray Mears, 80. Winningest men's coach in Tennessee basketball history. June 11.
Don Herbert, 89. Television's "Mr. Wizard." June 12.
Donald Clancy, 85. Eight-term Ohio congressman; Cincinnati mayor. June 12.
Baron Guy de Rothschild, 98. Managed his family's French banking empire. June 12.
Ruth Graham, 87. Rev. Billy Graham's closest confidante, providing a solid foundation for her husband's evangelism career. June 14.
Kurt Waldheim, 88. U.N. secretary-general; Austrian president; was revealed to have been in German army unit that committed atrocities in World War II. June 14.
Gianfranco Ferre, 62. Italian designer known as "architect of fashion." June 17.
Bob Evans, 89. Created namesake restaurant chain. June 21.
Guy Vander Jagt, 75. 13-term Michigan congressman; led House GOP election strategy. June 22.
Charles W. Lindberg, 86. Helped raise first American flag over Iwo Jima. June 24.
Chris Benoit, 40. World Wrestling Entertainment star. Found June 25; apparent suicide after killing wife, 7-year-old son.
Liz Claiborne, 78. Her fashion designs became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes. June 26.
Joel Siegel, 63. "Good Morning America" movie critic. June 29.
JULY
Beverly Sills, 78. Opera diva with a dazzling voice, bubbly personality. July 2.
Boots Randolph, 80. His spirited saxophone made "Yakety Sax" a hit. July 3.
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68. Pioneer of the modern historical romance novel ("The Flame and the Flower.") July 6.
Doug Marlette, 57. Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of comic strip "Kudzu." July 10. Car accident.
Lady Bird Johnson, 94. Former first lady who championed conservation, worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. July 11.
Kai Siegbahn, 89. Shared 1981 Nobel Prize in physics. July 20.
Tammy Faye Messner, 65. Helped then-husband Jim Bakker build a TV evangelism empire that later collapsed in disgrace. July 20.
Laszlo Kovacs, 74. Influential cinematographer ("Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces.") July 22.
Norma Gabler, 84. Influential Texas crusader against what she saw as anti-American errors in textbooks. July 22.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92. Afghanistan's last king, who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 coup. July 23.
Albert Ellis, 93. Influential psychologist, founded a renowned therapy institute. July 24.
Alan Pottasch, 79. PepsiCo. exec whose '60s ads dubbed baby boomers "the Pepsi Generation." July 27.
Tom Snyder, 71. Late-late night TV talk show host with a robust laugh, trademark cloud of cigarette smoke. July 29.
Bill Walsh, 75. San Francisco 49ers coach; won three Super Bowls. July 30.
Ingmar Bergman, 87. Swedish filmmaker; one of the greatest in cinema history ("The Seventh Seal," "Cries and Whispers.") July 30.
Michelangelo Antonioni, 94. Italian filmmaker whose depiction of modern-day malaise made him a symbol of art-house cinema ("Blow-Up," "L'Avventura.") July 30.
AUGUST:
Atle Selberg, 90. Renowned mathematician; worked on the properties of prime numbers. Aug. 6.
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90. A black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1940s. Aug. 10.
Merv Griffin, 82. Singer turned TV host turned impresario who parlayed game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. Aug. 12.
Ralph Alpher, 86. Physicist; did key work on underpinnings of the "Big Bang" theory. Aug. 12.
Brooke Astor, 105. Philanthropist who gave millions to New York City institutions, large and small. Aug. 13.
Phil Rizzuto, 89. Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop; sportscaster much loved for exclaiming "Holy cow!" Aug. 13.
Max Roach, 83. Jazz drummer whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop. Aug. 16.
Dr. Leslie Lukash, 86. Medical examiner who helped identify the remains of Nazi Josef Mengele. Aug. 16.
Michael K. Deaver, 69. Adviser to Ronald Reagan who directed the president's picturesque public appearances. Aug. 18.
Leona Helmsley, 87. Ran a $5 billion real estate empire with her husband but became known as the "queen of mean" during her 1989 tax evasion trial. Aug. 20.
Grace Paley, 84. Acclaimed poet and short story writer. Aug. 22.
Butch van Breda Kolff, 84. Led the Los Angeles Lakers to two NBA finals appearances, won 482 games as a college coach. Aug. 22.
Rabbi Judah Nadich, 95. Military chaplain who advised Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the discovery of Nazi concentration camps. Aug. 26.
Hilly Kristal, 75. His Manhattan club CBGB served as birthplace of punk rock. Aug. 28.
Paul MacCready, 81. Designed the Gossamer Condor flying machine, which in 1977 made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by human muscle. Aug. 28.
Miyoshi Umeki, 78. Oscar-winning actress ("Sayonara.") Aug. 28.
Richard Jewell, 44. Former security guard wrongly linked to 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta. Aug. 29. Heart disease.
Charles Vanik, 94. Ohio congressman who co-sponsored law to get Soviet Union to allow more Jews to emigrate. Aug. 29.
SEPTEMBER:
Rep. Paul Gillmor, 68. 10-term Ohio congressman; strong proponent of the military. Sept. 5.
Jennifer Dunn, 66. six-term Washington state congresswoman. Sept. 5.
The Rev. D. James Kennedy, 76. Megachurch pastor; prominent Christian broadcaster. Sept. 5.
Luciano Pavarotti, 71. Opera superstar hailed as "king of the high C's." Sept. 6.
Madeleine L'Engle, 88. Author who captivated children with "A Wrinkle in Time." Sept. 6.
Jane Wyman, 90. Won Oscar as deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda"; later in TV's "Falcon Crest." Ronald Reagan's ex-wife. Sept. 10.
Anita Roddick, 64. Founded eco-friendly beauty retailer The Body Shop. Sept. 10.
Joe Zawinul, 75. Jazz keyboardist; one of the creators of jazz-rock fusion with Weather Report ("Birdland.") Sept. 11.
Gene Savoy, 80. Explorer who discovered lost Inca and pre-Inca cities in Peru. Sept. 11.
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, late 30s. Iraq sheik who helped American strategy of enlisting aid of Sunni tribes. Sept. 13. Bomb.
John E. Swearingen, 89. Executive who led Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. Sept. 14.
Colin McRae, 39. Britain's best-known rally driver, former World Rally champion. Sept. 15. Helicopter crash.
Robert Jordan, 58. Author of "Wheel of Time" fantasy novels. Sept. 16. Blood disease.
The Rev. Rex Humbard, 88. His televangelism ministry once spanned the globe. Sept. 21.
Marcel Marceau, 84. French master of pantomime who transformed silence into poetry. Sept. 22.
William Wirtz, 77. Longtime Chicago Blackhawks owner. Sept. 26.
Harry Dent, 77. Former top adviser to President Nixon; helped him win the South. Sept. 28.
Wally Parks, 94. Founded National Hot Rod Association, helping turn drag racing into legitimate sport. Sept. 28.
Ralph Sturges, 88. As Mohegan chief, helped develop tribe's hugely successful Mohegan Sun casino. Sept. 30.
OCTOBER:
Al Oerter, 71. Discus great who won gold medals in four Olympics. Oct. 1.
James W. Michaels, 86. Transformed business journalism as Forbes magazine editor. Oct. 2.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, 57. Virginia congresswoman; made servicemen's needs a key issue. Oct. 6. Breast cancer.
Sri Chinmoy, 76. Indian-born spiritual leader; inspired followers to perform athletic feats. Oct. 11.
Vernon Bellecourt, 75. Fought use of Indian nicknames for teams as a leader of the American Indian Movement. Oct. 13.
Deborah Kerr, 86. Actress who kissed Burt Lancaster on a beach in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with Yul Brynner in "The King and I." Oct. 16.
Barbara West Dainton, 96. Englishwoman believed to be one of the last two survivors from the Titanic. Oct. 16.
Joey Bishop, 89. Stone-faced TV and nightclub comedian; last of the Rat Pack. Oct. 17.
Catherine Roraback, 87. Attorney who won 1965 Supreme Court that established the right to contraceptives and privacy. Oct. 17.
Teresa Brewer, 76. She topped the charts in the 1950s ("Till I Waltz Again With You.") Oct. 17.
William Crowe, 82. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ambassador to Britain. Oct. 18.
Max McGee, 75. Hero of first Super Bowl in 1967, helping Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10. Oct. 20.
R.B. Kitaj, 74. A key figure in the British Pop Art movement. Oct. 21.
Hans Stern, 85. Founded H. Stern jewelry empire. Oct. 26.
Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 89. His test-tube synthesis of DNA earned a 1959 Nobel Prize. Oct. 26.
Porter Wagoner, 80. Grand Ole Opry star; helped launch the career of Dolly Parton. Oct. 28.
Thomas J. Meskill, 79. Connecticut congressman and governor; later a federal judge. Oct. 29.
Robert Goulet, 73. Baritone made Broadway debut in "Camelot;" won Tony in 1968 for "The Happy Time." Oct. 30.
NOVEMBER:
Paul Tibbets, 92. Piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Nov. 1.
Igor Moiseyev, 101. Choreographer who transformed folk dance into a legitimate art, showcasing Russian culture. Nov. 2.
Luis Herrera Campins, 82. Former Venezuelan president; part of a generation of leaders who helped usher in democracy in the 1950s. Nov. 9.
Norman Mailer, 84. The pugnacious prince of American letters. Nov. 10.
Augustus Hawkins, 100. California's first black congressman, elected in 1962. Nov. 10.
Delbert Mann, 87. Directed "Marty," classic lonely-guy teleplay that became Oscar-winning film. Nov. 11.
Charlie Brady "C.B." Hauser, 90. College professor who took a stand against segregation in 1947 by refusing to give up a bus seat to a white. Nov. 11.
Ira Levin, 78. Best-selling novelist ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Boys From Brazil.") Nov. 12.
The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., 82. Pastor of church in Birmingham, Ala., where four girls died in a 1963 racist bombing. Nov. 15.
Joe Nuxhall, 79. Youngest major leaguer ever at age 15; later a Cincinnati sportscaster. Nov. 15.
Dick Wilson, 91. Played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who begged customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin." Nov. 19.
Milo Radulovich, 81. Serviceman championed by Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s. Nov. 19.
Ian Smith, 88. Rhodesia's last white prime minister; his attempts to resist black rule brought isolation and civil war. Nov. 20.
Herbert Saffir, 90. Engineer; created the five-category system to describe hurricane strength. Nov. 21.
Maurice Bejart, 80. Avant-garde French choreographer. Nov. 22.
Silvestre Herrera, 90. Awarded Medal of Honor for a one-man assault on an enemy position during World War II. Nov. 26.
Dr. J. Robert Cade, 80. Inventor of Gatorade. Nov. 27.
Bill Hartack, 74. Hall of Fame jockey; one of only two to win five Kentucky Derbys. Nov. 26.
Bill Willis, 86. Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns; Ohio State's first black football All-American. Nov. 27.
Sean Taylor, 24. Washington Redskins' star safety; known as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Nov. 27. Shot in his home.
Henry Hyde, 83. Illinois congressman steered impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Nov. 29.
Roger B. Smith, 82. Led General Motors Corp.; was subject of Michael Moore's documentary "Roger & Me." Nov. 29.
Evel Knievel, 69. Motorcycle daredevil known for spectacular jumps and bone-crushing crashes. Nov. 30.
DECEMBER:
Robert O. Anderson, 90. CEO of Atlantic Richfield Co. when it announced the discovery of North America's largest oil field. Dec. 1.
Elizabeth Hardwick, 91. Leading intellectual author ("Sleepless Nights") and critic. Dec. 2.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79. Avant-garde German composer; pioneer of electronic music. Dec. 5.
Roger M. King, 63. CBS and King World Productions executive; helped bring such stars as Oprah Winfrey to television. Dec. 8.
Rene J. Cappon, 83. Longtime Associated Press editor; the word master behind some of its best writers. Dec. 9.
Freddie Fields, 84. Colorful Hollywood agent, producer ("Glory"), studio executive. Dec. 11.
Ike Turner, 76. Rock innovator who teamed with wife Tina Turner (and denied abusing her). Dec. 12.
Rep. Julia Carson, 69. First black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress. Dec. 15.
Dan Fogelberg, 56. His gentle, poignant hits ("Longer," "Leader of the Band") helped define soft-rock. Dec. 16. Cancer.
J. Russell Coffey, 109. Oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I. Dec. 20.
Ken Hendricks, 66. His ABC Supply Co., a roofing and siding supply company, made him a billionaire. Dec. 21.
Michael Kidd, 92. Choreographer whose athletic dances ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") won him five Tonys and a special Oscar. Dec. 23.
Oscar Peterson, 82. Jazz pianist whose hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations were hugely influential. Dec. 23.
Benazir Bhutto, 54. Former Pakistan prime minister who returned from exile to challenge the current leader, Pervez Musharraf. Dec. 27. Assassinated.
Yeltsin, Bhutto among notable '07 deaths
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Dec 28, 2007
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson outlived her husband, Lyndon, by more than 35 years, expanding on her White House efforts to carve her own legacy as an environmentalist.
When she died July 11 at age 94, she left behind countless miles of scenic highways across the United States, dotted not by billboards and junkyards but by wildflowers.
She is one of the political figures, artists, businessmen and heroes to whom we said goodbye in 2007.
Two charismatic but flawed leaders, Russia's Boris Yeltsin and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, aimed to bring democracy to their homelands. Wally Schirra reached for the stars as one of the original team of Mercury astronauts.
We lost authors Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut and David Halberstam — three men whose writings were shaped by war and found eager audiences in the Vietnam era.
The music world mourned Beverly Sills and Luciano Pavarotti, who appealed to the masses as well as opera buffs; the great classical cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; drummer Max Roach and pianist Oscar Peterson, hailed as geniuses by fellow jazzmen; and rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner.
Directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni — Europeans who championed the art of cinema rather than Hollywood glitter — died on the same day. We also lost the Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane, a film pioneer in Africa.
In terms of cable news interest, the death of model-reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith overshadowed just about anyone else's. Other colorful newsmakers who died included daredevil Evel Knievel and "queen of mean" Leona Helmsley.
Their styles differed, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Messner both brought their religious faith to bear on the wider world.
The sports world said goodbye to longtime Grambling coach Eddie Robinson, Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack and to NFL players Darrent Williams and Sean Taylor, both shot to death before their 25th birthday.
In business, we lost the founders or co-founders of Nasdaq, the Gallo wine-making empire, Bob Evans restaurants, Motel 6 and the Body Shop, the environmental cosmetics chain. The political world lost former Sens. Thomas Eagleton and George Smathers, as well as Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt. Columnists Art Buchwald and Molly Ivins brightened their writing with humor but never forgot the serious side of life.
Here, a roll call of some of the notables who died in 2007. (Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)
JANUARY:
Darrent Williams, 24. Denver Broncos cornerback. Jan. 1. Shooting.
Teddy Kollek, 95. Six-term mayor of Jerusalem; tried to balance needs of Jewish and Arab populations. Jan. 2.
C. William Verity Jr., 89. As secretary of commerce, he pushed to recognize quality. Jan. 3.
Vincent Sardi Jr., 91. Consummate host of Sardi's, famed Broadway watering hole. Jan. 4.
Bobby Hamilton, 49. NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500. Jan. 7. Cancer.
Yvonne De Carlo, 84. The vampire mom on "The Munsters." Jan. 8.
Carlo Ponti, 94. Italian producer who discovered — and married — Sophia Loren. Jan. 9.
Robert Anton Wilson, 74. Co-author of science fiction cult classic "The Illuminatus! Trilogy." Jan. 11.
Larry Stewart, 58. Anonymous philanthropist known as Secret Santa. Jan. 12. Cancer.
Michael Brecker, 57. Versatile tenor saxophonist; won 11 Grammys. Jan. 13.
Art Buchwald, 81. Pulitzer-winning humorist who skewered Washington's elite. Jan. 17.
Denny Doherty, 66. Member of 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas ("California Dreamin'.") Jan. 19.
George A. Smathers, 93. Three-term Florida senator, friend to presidents. Jan. 20.
Abbe Pierre, 94. Beloved French priest praised for devotion to the needy. Jan. 22.
E. Howard Hunt, 88. He helped organize the Watergate break-in. Jan. 23.
Charlotte Reid, 93. Four-term Illinois congresswoman, then Federal Communications Commission member. Jan. 24.
Eleanor McGovern, 85. George McGovern's wife; outspoken campaigner in his 1972 presidential run. Jan. 25.
The Rev. Robert Drinan, 86. Priest who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House during the 1970s. Jan. 28.
Gordon S. Macklin, 79. A founder and longtime president of Nasdaq stock market. Jan. 30.
Sidney Sheldon, 89. Stage and screen writer turned best-selling novelist ("The Other Side of Midnight.") Jan. 30.
Molly Ivins, 62. Best-selling author, columnist, a sharp-witted liberal who referred to President Bush as "Shrub." Jan. 31.
FEBRUARY:
Gian Carlo Menotti, 95. Pulitzer-winning Italian composer ("The Consul," "Amahl and the Night Visitors"); founded Spoleto arts festivals. Feb. 1.
Barbara McNair, 72. Pioneering black singer-actress; had her own TV variety show. Feb. 4.
Lew Burdette, 80. MVP of the 1957 World Series when he pitched the Milwaukee Braves. Feb. 6.
Frankie Laine, 93. Big-voiced singer; one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s ("That Lucky Old Sun.") Feb. 6.
Anna Nicole Smith, 39. Model and sometime actress. Feb. 8. Accidental overdose of medication.
Rep. Charles Norwood Jr., 65. Blunt-spoken Georgia Republican congressman. Feb. 13.
Robert Adler, 93. Co-inventor of the TV remote, the 1956 Zenith Space Command. Feb. 15.
Maurice Papon, 96. Former French Cabinet minister convicted of complicity in World War II crimes. Feb. 17.
David Berger, 94. Class-action lawsuit pioneer who won major cases in the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Feb. 22.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89. Pulitzer-winning historian; Kennedy administration "court philosopher." Feb. 28.
MARCH:
Marjabelle Young Stewart, 82. Etiquette authority; co-wrote "White Gloves and Party Manners." March 3.
Thomas Eagleton, 77. Former senator who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized for depression. March 4.
Ernest Gallo, 97. With his brother, he built the world's largest winemaking empire. March 6.
Betty Hutton, 86. Singer-actress who brought brassy vitality to Hollywood musicals ("Annie Get Your Gun.") March 11.
Bowie Kuhn, 80. Baseball commissioner during development of free agency, multimillion-dollar contracts. March 15.
John Backus, 82. Developer of Fortran programming language that changed how people interacted with computers. March 17.
G.E. Patterson, 67. Presiding bishop of 6 million-member Church of God in Christ. March 20.
Walter Turnbull, 62. Founded acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem. March 23.
Robert E. Petersen, 80. Publisher whose Hot Rod, Motor Trend magazines helped shape car culture. March 23.
Tosiwo Nakayama, 75. First president of Federated States of Micronesia as it emerged from U.S. control. March 29.
APRIL:
Herb Carneal, 83. Broadcast Minnesota Twins games for 45 seasons. April 1.
William Becker, 85. Co-founded the Motel 6 chain. April 2.
Eddie Robinson, 88. Longtime Grambling coach; transformed small college into a football power. April 3.
Nina Wang, 69. Hong Kong businesswoman; one of world's richest women. April 3.
Darryl Stingley, 55. New England Patriots player paralyzed during on-field collision in 1978. April 5. Complications of paralysis.
Johnny Hart, 76. Cartoonist whose "B.C." showed the Stone Age's humorous side. April 7.
Sol LeWitt, 78. Influential abstract painter, sculptor. April 8.
Kurt Vonnegut, 84. Novelist who captured the absurdity of the world in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five." April 11.
Don Ho, 76. Hawaiian crooner ("Tiny Bubbles"); entertained tourists. April 14.
Frank Westheimer, 95. Eminent chemist; former science adviser to President Johnson. April 14.
Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96. Singer-actress; career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film ("A Night at the Opera.") April 17.
Helen Robson Walton, 87. Widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton; philanthropist. April 19.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, 68. Seven-term California congresswoman; advocated electoral reform. April 21.
David Halberstam, 73. Journalist whose books included towering study of Vietnam War, poignant portrait of aging baseball stars. April 23.
Boris Yeltsin, 76. Former Russian president who helped bring demise of Soviet Union. April 23.
Warren Avis, 92. Founded Avis Rent A Car. April 24.
Jack Valenti, 85. Film industry lobbyist; instituted modern movie ratings system. April 26.
Mstislav Rostropovich, 80. Ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents. April 27.
Tom Poston, 85. The tall, pasty-faced TV comic whose characters were clueless. ("Newhart.") April 30.
MAY:
Walter M. Schirra Jr., 84. An original Mercury Seven astronaut, who combined the Right Stuff with a pronounced rebellious streak. May 3.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, 71. Former cult leader in Miami linked to nearly two dozen gruesome killings in the 1980s. May 7.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, 73. Evangelist who used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty political force. May 15.
Yolanda King, 51. Actress and activist; daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King. May 15.
Fannie Lee Chaney, 84. Mother of one of three civil-rights workers killed in 1964 "Mississippi Burning" case. May 22. (Carolyn Goodman, one of the other two mothers, died Aug. 17 at 91.)
Charles Nelson Reilly, 76. Tony Award winner; known for ribald TV game show appearances. May 25.
Homer J. Stewart, 91. Rocket pioneer; helped develop first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I. May 26.
Paul Yost, 87. Pioneer of hot-air ballooning. May 27.
Barbara Cox Anthony, 84. Heiress to Cox media fortune; one of world's richest women. May 28.
Preston Martin, 83. Top Federal Reserve official; helped create Freddie Mac. May 30.
JUNE
Charles William Maynes, 68. Longtime editor of Foreign Policy magazine. June 2.
Wiley Mayne, 90. Four-term Iowa congressman; one of 10 Republicans who voted not to impeach President Nixon. June 3.
Bill France Jr., 74. Transformed NASCAR from a small Southern sport into a billion-dollar conglomerate. June 4.
Sen. Craig Thomas, 74. Three-term Senate Republican; reliably represented conservative Wyoming. June 4.
Edwin Traisman, 91. Food scientist; helped develop Cheez Whiz. June 5.
Sembene Ousmane, 84. Father of Senegalese cinema; one of the pioneers of the art in Africa. June 9.
Ray Mears, 80. Winningest men's coach in Tennessee basketball history. June 11.
Don Herbert, 89. Television's "Mr. Wizard." June 12.
Donald Clancy, 85. Eight-term Ohio congressman; Cincinnati mayor. June 12.
Baron Guy de Rothschild, 98. Managed his family's French banking empire. June 12.
Ruth Graham, 87. Rev. Billy Graham's closest confidante, providing a solid foundation for her husband's evangelism career. June 14.
Kurt Waldheim, 88. U.N. secretary-general; Austrian president; was revealed to have been in German army unit that committed atrocities in World War II. June 14.
Gianfranco Ferre, 62. Italian designer known as "architect of fashion." June 17.
Bob Evans, 89. Created namesake restaurant chain. June 21.
Guy Vander Jagt, 75. 13-term Michigan congressman; led House GOP election strategy. June 22.
Charles W. Lindberg, 86. Helped raise first American flag over Iwo Jima. June 24.
Chris Benoit, 40. World Wrestling Entertainment star. Found June 25; apparent suicide after killing wife, 7-year-old son.
Liz Claiborne, 78. Her fashion designs became a cornerstone of career women's wardrobes. June 26.
Joel Siegel, 63. "Good Morning America" movie critic. June 29.
JULY
Beverly Sills, 78. Opera diva with a dazzling voice, bubbly personality. July 2.
Boots Randolph, 80. His spirited saxophone made "Yakety Sax" a hit. July 3.
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, 68. Pioneer of the modern historical romance novel ("The Flame and the Flower.") July 6.
Doug Marlette, 57. Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of comic strip "Kudzu." July 10. Car accident.
Lady Bird Johnson, 94. Former first lady who championed conservation, worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. July 11.
Kai Siegbahn, 89. Shared 1981 Nobel Prize in physics. July 20.
Tammy Faye Messner, 65. Helped then-husband Jim Bakker build a TV evangelism empire that later collapsed in disgrace. July 20.
Laszlo Kovacs, 74. Influential cinematographer ("Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces.") July 22.
Norma Gabler, 84. Influential Texas crusader against what she saw as anti-American errors in textbooks. July 22.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92. Afghanistan's last king, who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 coup. July 23.
Albert Ellis, 93. Influential psychologist, founded a renowned therapy institute. July 24.
Alan Pottasch, 79. PepsiCo. exec whose '60s ads dubbed baby boomers "the Pepsi Generation." July 27.
Tom Snyder, 71. Late-late night TV talk show host with a robust laugh, trademark cloud of cigarette smoke. July 29.
Bill Walsh, 75. San Francisco 49ers coach; won three Super Bowls. July 30.
Ingmar Bergman, 87. Swedish filmmaker; one of the greatest in cinema history ("The Seventh Seal," "Cries and Whispers.") July 30.
Michelangelo Antonioni, 94. Italian filmmaker whose depiction of modern-day malaise made him a symbol of art-house cinema ("Blow-Up," "L'Avventura.") July 30.
AUGUST:
Atle Selberg, 90. Renowned mathematician; worked on the properties of prime numbers. Aug. 6.
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90. A black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1940s. Aug. 10.
Merv Griffin, 82. Singer turned TV host turned impresario who parlayed game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire. Aug. 12.
Ralph Alpher, 86. Physicist; did key work on underpinnings of the "Big Bang" theory. Aug. 12.
Brooke Astor, 105. Philanthropist who gave millions to New York City institutions, large and small. Aug. 13.
Phil Rizzuto, 89. Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop; sportscaster much loved for exclaiming "Holy cow!" Aug. 13.
Max Roach, 83. Jazz drummer whose rhythmic innovations defined bebop. Aug. 16.
Dr. Leslie Lukash, 86. Medical examiner who helped identify the remains of Nazi Josef Mengele. Aug. 16.
Michael K. Deaver, 69. Adviser to Ronald Reagan who directed the president's picturesque public appearances. Aug. 18.
Leona Helmsley, 87. Ran a $5 billion real estate empire with her husband but became known as the "queen of mean" during her 1989 tax evasion trial. Aug. 20.
Grace Paley, 84. Acclaimed poet and short story writer. Aug. 22.
Butch van Breda Kolff, 84. Led the Los Angeles Lakers to two NBA finals appearances, won 482 games as a college coach. Aug. 22.
Rabbi Judah Nadich, 95. Military chaplain who advised Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the discovery of Nazi concentration camps. Aug. 26.
Hilly Kristal, 75. His Manhattan club CBGB served as birthplace of punk rock. Aug. 28.
Paul MacCready, 81. Designed the Gossamer Condor flying machine, which in 1977 made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by human muscle. Aug. 28.
Miyoshi Umeki, 78. Oscar-winning actress ("Sayonara.") Aug. 28.
Richard Jewell, 44. Former security guard wrongly linked to 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta. Aug. 29. Heart disease.
Charles Vanik, 94. Ohio congressman who co-sponsored law to get Soviet Union to allow more Jews to emigrate. Aug. 29.
SEPTEMBER:
Rep. Paul Gillmor, 68. 10-term Ohio congressman; strong proponent of the military. Sept. 5.
Jennifer Dunn, 66. six-term Washington state congresswoman. Sept. 5.
The Rev. D. James Kennedy, 76. Megachurch pastor; prominent Christian broadcaster. Sept. 5.
Luciano Pavarotti, 71. Opera superstar hailed as "king of the high C's." Sept. 6.
Madeleine L'Engle, 88. Author who captivated children with "A Wrinkle in Time." Sept. 6.
Jane Wyman, 90. Won Oscar as deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda"; later in TV's "Falcon Crest." Ronald Reagan's ex-wife. Sept. 10.
Anita Roddick, 64. Founded eco-friendly beauty retailer The Body Shop. Sept. 10.
Joe Zawinul, 75. Jazz keyboardist; one of the creators of jazz-rock fusion with Weather Report ("Birdland.") Sept. 11.
Gene Savoy, 80. Explorer who discovered lost Inca and pre-Inca cities in Peru. Sept. 11.
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, late 30s. Iraq sheik who helped American strategy of enlisting aid of Sunni tribes. Sept. 13. Bomb.
John E. Swearingen, 89. Executive who led Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. Sept. 14.
Colin McRae, 39. Britain's best-known rally driver, former World Rally champion. Sept. 15. Helicopter crash.
Robert Jordan, 58. Author of "Wheel of Time" fantasy novels. Sept. 16. Blood disease.
The Rev. Rex Humbard, 88. His televangelism ministry once spanned the globe. Sept. 21.
Marcel Marceau, 84. French master of pantomime who transformed silence into poetry. Sept. 22.
William Wirtz, 77. Longtime Chicago Blackhawks owner. Sept. 26.
Harry Dent, 77. Former top adviser to President Nixon; helped him win the South. Sept. 28.
Wally Parks, 94. Founded National Hot Rod Association, helping turn drag racing into legitimate sport. Sept. 28.
Ralph Sturges, 88. As Mohegan chief, helped develop tribe's hugely successful Mohegan Sun casino. Sept. 30.
OCTOBER:
Al Oerter, 71. Discus great who won gold medals in four Olympics. Oct. 1.
James W. Michaels, 86. Transformed business journalism as Forbes magazine editor. Oct. 2.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, 57. Virginia congresswoman; made servicemen's needs a key issue. Oct. 6. Breast cancer.
Sri Chinmoy, 76. Indian-born spiritual leader; inspired followers to perform athletic feats. Oct. 11.
Vernon Bellecourt, 75. Fought use of Indian nicknames for teams as a leader of the American Indian Movement. Oct. 13.
Deborah Kerr, 86. Actress who kissed Burt Lancaster on a beach in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with Yul Brynner in "The King and I." Oct. 16.
Barbara West Dainton, 96. Englishwoman believed to be one of the last two survivors from the Titanic. Oct. 16.
Joey Bishop, 89. Stone-faced TV and nightclub comedian; last of the Rat Pack. Oct. 17.
Catherine Roraback, 87. Attorney who won 1965 Supreme Court that established the right to contraceptives and privacy. Oct. 17.
Teresa Brewer, 76. She topped the charts in the 1950s ("Till I Waltz Again With You.") Oct. 17.
William Crowe, 82. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ambassador to Britain. Oct. 18.
Max McGee, 75. Hero of first Super Bowl in 1967, helping Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10. Oct. 20.
R.B. Kitaj, 74. A key figure in the British Pop Art movement. Oct. 21.
Hans Stern, 85. Founded H. Stern jewelry empire. Oct. 26.
Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 89. His test-tube synthesis of DNA earned a 1959 Nobel Prize. Oct. 26.
Porter Wagoner, 80. Grand Ole Opry star; helped launch the career of Dolly Parton. Oct. 28.
Thomas J. Meskill, 79. Connecticut congressman and governor; later a federal judge. Oct. 29.
Robert Goulet, 73. Baritone made Broadway debut in "Camelot;" won Tony in 1968 for "The Happy Time." Oct. 30.
NOVEMBER:
Paul Tibbets, 92. Piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Nov. 1.
Igor Moiseyev, 101. Choreographer who transformed folk dance into a legitimate art, showcasing Russian culture. Nov. 2.
Luis Herrera Campins, 82. Former Venezuelan president; part of a generation of leaders who helped usher in democracy in the 1950s. Nov. 9.
Norman Mailer, 84. The pugnacious prince of American letters. Nov. 10.
Augustus Hawkins, 100. California's first black congressman, elected in 1962. Nov. 10.
Delbert Mann, 87. Directed "Marty," classic lonely-guy teleplay that became Oscar-winning film. Nov. 11.
Charlie Brady "C.B." Hauser, 90. College professor who took a stand against segregation in 1947 by refusing to give up a bus seat to a white. Nov. 11.
Ira Levin, 78. Best-selling novelist ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Boys From Brazil.") Nov. 12.
The Rev. John H. Cross Jr., 82. Pastor of church in Birmingham, Ala., where four girls died in a 1963 racist bombing. Nov. 15.
Joe Nuxhall, 79. Youngest major leaguer ever at age 15; later a Cincinnati sportscaster. Nov. 15.
Dick Wilson, 91. Played the fussy, mustachioed grocer who begged customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin." Nov. 19.
Milo Radulovich, 81. Serviceman championed by Edward R. Murrow when the military threatened to decommission him during the anti-communist crackdown of the 1950s. Nov. 19.
Ian Smith, 88. Rhodesia's last white prime minister; his attempts to resist black rule brought isolation and civil war. Nov. 20.
Herbert Saffir, 90. Engineer; created the five-category system to describe hurricane strength. Nov. 21.
Maurice Bejart, 80. Avant-garde French choreographer. Nov. 22.
Silvestre Herrera, 90. Awarded Medal of Honor for a one-man assault on an enemy position during World War II. Nov. 26.
Dr. J. Robert Cade, 80. Inventor of Gatorade. Nov. 27.
Bill Hartack, 74. Hall of Fame jockey; one of only two to win five Kentucky Derbys. Nov. 26.
Bill Willis, 86. Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns; Ohio State's first black football All-American. Nov. 27.
Sean Taylor, 24. Washington Redskins' star safety; known as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Nov. 27. Shot in his home.
Henry Hyde, 83. Illinois congressman steered impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Nov. 29.
Roger B. Smith, 82. Led General Motors Corp.; was subject of Michael Moore's documentary "Roger & Me." Nov. 29.
Evel Knievel, 69. Motorcycle daredevil known for spectacular jumps and bone-crushing crashes. Nov. 30.
DECEMBER:
Robert O. Anderson, 90. CEO of Atlantic Richfield Co. when it announced the discovery of North America's largest oil field. Dec. 1.
Elizabeth Hardwick, 91. Leading intellectual author ("Sleepless Nights") and critic. Dec. 2.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, 79. Avant-garde German composer; pioneer of electronic music. Dec. 5.
Roger M. King, 63. CBS and King World Productions executive; helped bring such stars as Oprah Winfrey to television. Dec. 8.
Rene J. Cappon, 83. Longtime Associated Press editor; the word master behind some of its best writers. Dec. 9.
Freddie Fields, 84. Colorful Hollywood agent, producer ("Glory"), studio executive. Dec. 11.
Ike Turner, 76. Rock innovator who teamed with wife Tina Turner (and denied abusing her). Dec. 12.
Rep. Julia Carson, 69. First black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress. Dec. 15.
Dan Fogelberg, 56. His gentle, poignant hits ("Longer," "Leader of the Band") helped define soft-rock. Dec. 16. Cancer.
J. Russell Coffey, 109. Oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I. Dec. 20.
Ken Hendricks, 66. His ABC Supply Co., a roofing and siding supply company, made him a billionaire. Dec. 21.
Michael Kidd, 92. Choreographer whose athletic dances ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers") won him five Tonys and a special Oscar. Dec. 23.
Oscar Peterson, 82. Jazz pianist whose hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations were hugely influential. Dec. 23.
Benazir Bhutto, 54. Former Pakistan prime minister who returned from exile to challenge the current leader, Pervez Musharraf. Dec. 27. Assassinated.
Bhutto was to give U.S. lawmakers vote-rigging report
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/pakistan.voterigging/
Sources: Bhutto was to give U.S. lawmakers vote-rigging report
Story Highlights
Hours before assassination, Bhutto was to meet with two U.S. lawmakers
Report accuses Pakistani government of planning to rig upcoming election
Report alleges government plan to misuse American-made voting equipment
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- On the day she died, Benazir Bhutto planned to hand over to visiting U.S. lawmakers a report accusing Pakistan's intelligence services of a plot to rig parliamentary elections, sources close to the slain former Pakistani prime minister told CNN Tuesday.
Bhutto was assassinated Thursday, hours before a scheduled meeting with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania.
A top Bhutto aide who helped write the report showed a copy to CNN.
"Where an opposing candidate is strong in an area, they [supporters of President Pervez Musharraf ] have planned to create a conflict at the polling station, even killing people if necessary, to stop polls at least three to four hours," the document says.
The report also accused the government of planning to tamper with ballots and voter lists, intimidate opposition candidates and misuse U.S.-made equipment to monitor communications of opponents.
"Ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism is being used to monitor and to keep a check on their political opponents," the report says. Watch the controversy surrounding Pakistan elections »
The Pakistani government denied the allegations, with two Pakistani diplomatic sources calling the report "baseless." Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Musharraf, called the accusations "ridiculous" and said the election will be "free, fair and transparent."
"I think they are just a pack of lies," he said.
One Bhutto source said the document was compiled at her request and said the information came from sources inside the police and intelligence services.
The election had been scheduled for January 8, but in the wake of Bhutto's assassination, the Election Commission is expected to announce Wednesday that it will delay the vote at least four weeks into February, sources at the commission said.
Sen. Latif Khosa, who helped put the report together, accused the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence of operating a rigging cell from a safe house in the capital, Islamabad. The goal, he said, is to change voting results electronically on election day.
"The ISI has set up a mega-computer system where they can hack any computer in Pakistan and connect with the Election Commission," he said.
Media outlets in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have run reports alleging that retired Brig. Gen. Ejaz Shah -- formerly an Inter-Services Intelligence officer and now head of the civilian Intelligence Bureau -- is involved in the vote rigging plans.
Shah's name also turned up in a letter Bhutto wrote to Musharraf after the first attempt on her life on October 18, when she returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile, Pakistani media reported. In the letter, the media reported, Shah was one of four Pakistani officials Bhutto named as people who wanted her dead.
The Pakistan government has denied those allegations as well.
Khosa said he could make no link between Bhutto's assassination and the report. Some terrorism experts also said there was no reason to believe Bhutto was killed because of the report, agreeing with Pakistani government contentions that al Qaeda was responsible for her death.
CNN's Brian Todd and Zain Verjee contributed to this report.
Sources: Bhutto was to give U.S. lawmakers vote-rigging report
Story Highlights
Hours before assassination, Bhutto was to meet with two U.S. lawmakers
Report accuses Pakistani government of planning to rig upcoming election
Report alleges government plan to misuse American-made voting equipment
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- On the day she died, Benazir Bhutto planned to hand over to visiting U.S. lawmakers a report accusing Pakistan's intelligence services of a plot to rig parliamentary elections, sources close to the slain former Pakistani prime minister told CNN Tuesday.
Bhutto was assassinated Thursday, hours before a scheduled meeting with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania.
A top Bhutto aide who helped write the report showed a copy to CNN.
"Where an opposing candidate is strong in an area, they [supporters of President Pervez Musharraf ] have planned to create a conflict at the polling station, even killing people if necessary, to stop polls at least three to four hours," the document says.
The report also accused the government of planning to tamper with ballots and voter lists, intimidate opposition candidates and misuse U.S.-made equipment to monitor communications of opponents.
"Ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism is being used to monitor and to keep a check on their political opponents," the report says. Watch the controversy surrounding Pakistan elections »
The Pakistani government denied the allegations, with two Pakistani diplomatic sources calling the report "baseless." Rashid Qureshi, a spokesman for Musharraf, called the accusations "ridiculous" and said the election will be "free, fair and transparent."
"I think they are just a pack of lies," he said.
One Bhutto source said the document was compiled at her request and said the information came from sources inside the police and intelligence services.
The election had been scheduled for January 8, but in the wake of Bhutto's assassination, the Election Commission is expected to announce Wednesday that it will delay the vote at least four weeks into February, sources at the commission said.
Sen. Latif Khosa, who helped put the report together, accused the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence of operating a rigging cell from a safe house in the capital, Islamabad. The goal, he said, is to change voting results electronically on election day.
"The ISI has set up a mega-computer system where they can hack any computer in Pakistan and connect with the Election Commission," he said.
Media outlets in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have run reports alleging that retired Brig. Gen. Ejaz Shah -- formerly an Inter-Services Intelligence officer and now head of the civilian Intelligence Bureau -- is involved in the vote rigging plans.
Shah's name also turned up in a letter Bhutto wrote to Musharraf after the first attempt on her life on October 18, when she returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile, Pakistani media reported. In the letter, the media reported, Shah was one of four Pakistani officials Bhutto named as people who wanted her dead.
The Pakistan government has denied those allegations as well.
Khosa said he could make no link between Bhutto's assassination and the report. Some terrorism experts also said there was no reason to believe Bhutto was killed because of the report, agreeing with Pakistani government contentions that al Qaeda was responsible for her death.
CNN's Brian Todd and Zain Verjee contributed to this report.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Who killed Benazir?
http://sify.com/printer_friendly.php?id=14582240&ctid=2&lid=1
Benazir Bhutto’s assassination
Who killed Benazir?
Sunday, 30 December , 2007
Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau.
During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil-ISI,CIA Al Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.
Making a political forecast is more hazardous than astrological speculation. The loudest question now being asked after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is about the future of Pakistan and political and security ambience in the region. The pundits make conflicting forecasts, according to their strategic interests and perceptions.
However, several days after the assassination of an excellent leader, the main riddle as to who killed her is yet to be solved.
The governing coterie in Pakistan promptly gave out that Baitullah Mehshud, described variously as leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan and Al Qaeda chief in Pakistan had organised the assassination. Agencies in Pakistan quoted Adnkronos International (AKI) news agency reporting.
“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) mujahadeen,” AKI quoted Al Qaeda commander and main representative Mustafa Abu Al Yazid as saying. According to AKI, Al Yazid is the main Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. “It is believed that the decision to kill Benazir...was made by Al Qaeda No 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman Al Zawahiri in October,” AKI said. “...one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Benazir,” it added.
Meanwhile, the FBI and US Homeland Security departments on Friday claimed that Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri masterminded the assassination of the PPP chairperson.
The same government sources hastened to reveal that at least three activists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Sunni extremist group were deployed by the Al Qaeda to carry out the assassination.
The government sources and doctors of Rawalpindi General Hospital (government owned) had initially disclosed that Benazir was hit by bullets on her neck and chest. The entire world instantaneously reacted to the official version and accepted that Al Qaeda was the villain that wanted destabilisation of Pakistan and burial of the democratic process.
But amidst the global reaction, the truth behind the assassination was entangled in the webs of contradictory statements. As I watched the video footage of Benazir stepping down from the rostrum and walking down to her car parked at a distance of about fifty feet I did not notice the presence of any armed security barrier around her- what is known as the first ring of security. This glaring omission happened in spite of Pakistani claim that the authorities had made three rings of security arrangement for protecting the PPP leader. The official agencies refused to respond to allegations that the electronic jammer supplied to Benazir was faulty. The official video footage abruptly ended as Benazir was waiving at her supporters and the cameras stopped rolling as soon as the shots were fired and the explosion hit Benazir’s car within split seconds.
This incongruity was followed by the water-hosing the scene of crime within an hour of the ghastly incident, denying intensive forensic examination of the scene of crime. To any investigating agency, preservation of the scene of crime is of vital importance. Why was this cleaning operation done, and under whose orders?
The most incongruous developments started taking place a few hours after Benazir was declared dead. The doctors of the government hospital; changed their versions at least three times while describing the nature of injury and finally decided to record that Benazir was neither hit by any bullet or bomb splinter. She died because of an accidental head injury. A PPP spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar and Benazir’s close aide Sherry Rahman have claimed that the government was trying to cover up the facts. Mr Babar and Ms. Rahman claimed that Ms. Bhutto was hit by two bullet injuries and was pronounced dead by doctors 15 minutes after she was shifted to the hospital. “Doctors of the hospital confirmed that she had died of bullet wounds.”
A medical report issued on Thursday by a panel of doctors, headed by Prof Mussaddiq Khan, the principal of the Rawalpindi Medical College, had confirmed that Ms. Bhutto had sustained an injury on her neck.
However, the Interior Ministry representative provided another medical report, which said she had a wound measuring 5x3 centimetres above the pinna of her right ear and there was a big boggy swelling around the wound. He tried to prove that Ms. Bhutto had hit the handle of the sunroof and had injured herself accidentally and that was responsible for her death.
Doctors later revealed that they had carried out an external autopsy i.e. X-ray etc but no anatomical autopsy was carried out to ascertain the cause of death. They claimed and it was confirmed that Asif Ali Zrdari had not agreed to a detailed post-mortem examination.
Whenever a crime like murder or assassination takes place, the investigating agencies carry out a detailed autopsy of the dead body. This basic lesson of medical jurisprudence is taught to all investigating officers and agencies and the doctors are not required to seek permission of relatives. The causes that lead had to death are required to be established under the provisions of law. Pakistan like India follows the British framed Penal code, Penal procedure and Evidence Act. How is that the State of Pakistan and its investigating agencies allowed the body of a national leader to be buried without detailed autopsy? A detailed autopsy was carried out when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in front of a crowd. The law of the land was followed and no one in her family was asked if an autopsy should be carried out.
Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, said, “As she was waving to her supporters and workers from the sunroof of the vehicle when the firing started followed by a suicide bombing which took place at the left side of the vehicle, but she received injury on the right side which confirms that she was not killed by the bullet injury.”
The spokesperson also produced photo of the head of one of the suicide bombers and claimed that it was yet to be identified. However, during the same briefing, Cheema said that a telephone intercept between Mehsud and another Qaeda leader had named three persons who had carried out the assassination. What was the difficulty in deploying the vast government machinery in identifying the men mentioned in the monitored telephone conversation?
On the other hand, Baitullah Mehsud claimed that his tanzeem was not involved in the assassination. “I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Mehsud's spokesperson Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Benazir Bhutto has been buried by the grieving relatives and political colleagues. It is also suspected that the government agencies have also made unsuccessful attempts to bury the truth behind the assassination of the leader.
It would not be prudent to draw conclusions that official agencies and individuals whom Benazir had suspected were involved in the assassination and the massive cover up effort. It is possible that some Al Qaeda related tanzeem has carried out the dastardly assassination. But in the mysterious land of Pakistan infested by Salafi, Wahhabi and Deobandi jihadis the very transparent connectivity between the official agencies and the surviving ghosts of Zia-ul-Haq regime is proverbial. It is difficult to say with surety when the agencies act on behalf of the tanzeems and when the tanzeems carry out orders of their official masters.
The situation also conforms that the so-called government of Pakistan headed by Musharraf is not a united machine. There are factions within factions in the ISI, IB, Military Intelligence and several layers of the governing tools. Not every tool is controlled by Musharraf and his Army. Perhaps, even President Musharraf is also not in a position to say which elves of his governing tools are mixed up with the jihadis. That is a tragic situation for Pakistan.
Therefore, before making any political forecast about Pakistan, the truth seekers should pressurise Pakistan to come out with the truth behind Benazir’s assassination, if needed, by exhuming her body.
The Pakistani people have a right to know who killed Liaquat Ali Khan, General Zia-ul-Haq and now Benazir Bhutto. The army has no right to bludgeon the Truth to dust by using guns and mortars.
Benazir Bhutto’s assassination
Who killed Benazir?
Sunday, 30 December , 2007
Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau.
During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil-ISI,CIA Al Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.
Making a political forecast is more hazardous than astrological speculation. The loudest question now being asked after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is about the future of Pakistan and political and security ambience in the region. The pundits make conflicting forecasts, according to their strategic interests and perceptions.
However, several days after the assassination of an excellent leader, the main riddle as to who killed her is yet to be solved.
The governing coterie in Pakistan promptly gave out that Baitullah Mehshud, described variously as leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan and Al Qaeda chief in Pakistan had organised the assassination. Agencies in Pakistan quoted Adnkronos International (AKI) news agency reporting.
“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) mujahadeen,” AKI quoted Al Qaeda commander and main representative Mustafa Abu Al Yazid as saying. According to AKI, Al Yazid is the main Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. “It is believed that the decision to kill Benazir...was made by Al Qaeda No 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman Al Zawahiri in October,” AKI said. “...one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Benazir,” it added.
Meanwhile, the FBI and US Homeland Security departments on Friday claimed that Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri masterminded the assassination of the PPP chairperson.
The same government sources hastened to reveal that at least three activists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Sunni extremist group were deployed by the Al Qaeda to carry out the assassination.
The government sources and doctors of Rawalpindi General Hospital (government owned) had initially disclosed that Benazir was hit by bullets on her neck and chest. The entire world instantaneously reacted to the official version and accepted that Al Qaeda was the villain that wanted destabilisation of Pakistan and burial of the democratic process.
But amidst the global reaction, the truth behind the assassination was entangled in the webs of contradictory statements. As I watched the video footage of Benazir stepping down from the rostrum and walking down to her car parked at a distance of about fifty feet I did not notice the presence of any armed security barrier around her- what is known as the first ring of security. This glaring omission happened in spite of Pakistani claim that the authorities had made three rings of security arrangement for protecting the PPP leader. The official agencies refused to respond to allegations that the electronic jammer supplied to Benazir was faulty. The official video footage abruptly ended as Benazir was waiving at her supporters and the cameras stopped rolling as soon as the shots were fired and the explosion hit Benazir’s car within split seconds.
This incongruity was followed by the water-hosing the scene of crime within an hour of the ghastly incident, denying intensive forensic examination of the scene of crime. To any investigating agency, preservation of the scene of crime is of vital importance. Why was this cleaning operation done, and under whose orders?
The most incongruous developments started taking place a few hours after Benazir was declared dead. The doctors of the government hospital; changed their versions at least three times while describing the nature of injury and finally decided to record that Benazir was neither hit by any bullet or bomb splinter. She died because of an accidental head injury. A PPP spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar and Benazir’s close aide Sherry Rahman have claimed that the government was trying to cover up the facts. Mr Babar and Ms. Rahman claimed that Ms. Bhutto was hit by two bullet injuries and was pronounced dead by doctors 15 minutes after she was shifted to the hospital. “Doctors of the hospital confirmed that she had died of bullet wounds.”
A medical report issued on Thursday by a panel of doctors, headed by Prof Mussaddiq Khan, the principal of the Rawalpindi Medical College, had confirmed that Ms. Bhutto had sustained an injury on her neck.
However, the Interior Ministry representative provided another medical report, which said she had a wound measuring 5x3 centimetres above the pinna of her right ear and there was a big boggy swelling around the wound. He tried to prove that Ms. Bhutto had hit the handle of the sunroof and had injured herself accidentally and that was responsible for her death.
Doctors later revealed that they had carried out an external autopsy i.e. X-ray etc but no anatomical autopsy was carried out to ascertain the cause of death. They claimed and it was confirmed that Asif Ali Zrdari had not agreed to a detailed post-mortem examination.
Whenever a crime like murder or assassination takes place, the investigating agencies carry out a detailed autopsy of the dead body. This basic lesson of medical jurisprudence is taught to all investigating officers and agencies and the doctors are not required to seek permission of relatives. The causes that lead had to death are required to be established under the provisions of law. Pakistan like India follows the British framed Penal code, Penal procedure and Evidence Act. How is that the State of Pakistan and its investigating agencies allowed the body of a national leader to be buried without detailed autopsy? A detailed autopsy was carried out when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in front of a crowd. The law of the land was followed and no one in her family was asked if an autopsy should be carried out.
Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, said, “As she was waving to her supporters and workers from the sunroof of the vehicle when the firing started followed by a suicide bombing which took place at the left side of the vehicle, but she received injury on the right side which confirms that she was not killed by the bullet injury.”
The spokesperson also produced photo of the head of one of the suicide bombers and claimed that it was yet to be identified. However, during the same briefing, Cheema said that a telephone intercept between Mehsud and another Qaeda leader had named three persons who had carried out the assassination. What was the difficulty in deploying the vast government machinery in identifying the men mentioned in the monitored telephone conversation?
On the other hand, Baitullah Mehsud claimed that his tanzeem was not involved in the assassination. “I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women," Mehsud's spokesperson Maulvi Omar said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Benazir Bhutto has been buried by the grieving relatives and political colleagues. It is also suspected that the government agencies have also made unsuccessful attempts to bury the truth behind the assassination of the leader.
It would not be prudent to draw conclusions that official agencies and individuals whom Benazir had suspected were involved in the assassination and the massive cover up effort. It is possible that some Al Qaeda related tanzeem has carried out the dastardly assassination. But in the mysterious land of Pakistan infested by Salafi, Wahhabi and Deobandi jihadis the very transparent connectivity between the official agencies and the surviving ghosts of Zia-ul-Haq regime is proverbial. It is difficult to say with surety when the agencies act on behalf of the tanzeems and when the tanzeems carry out orders of their official masters.
The situation also conforms that the so-called government of Pakistan headed by Musharraf is not a united machine. There are factions within factions in the ISI, IB, Military Intelligence and several layers of the governing tools. Not every tool is controlled by Musharraf and his Army. Perhaps, even President Musharraf is also not in a position to say which elves of his governing tools are mixed up with the jihadis. That is a tragic situation for Pakistan.
Therefore, before making any political forecast about Pakistan, the truth seekers should pressurise Pakistan to come out with the truth behind Benazir’s assassination, if needed, by exhuming her body.
The Pakistani people have a right to know who killed Liaquat Ali Khan, General Zia-ul-Haq and now Benazir Bhutto. The army has no right to bludgeon the Truth to dust by using guns and mortars.
Benazir Bhutto and destabilization of Pakistan
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2789.shtml
Anglo-American ambitions behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and destabilization of Pakistan
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor
Dec 31, 2007
It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been manuevering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto does not change this agenda. In fact, it simplifies Bush-Cheney’s options.
Seeding chaos with a pretext
“Delivering democracy to the Muslim world” has been the Orwellian rhetoric used to mask Bush-Cheney’s application of pressure and force, its dramatic attempt at reshaping the Pakistani government (into a joint Bhutto/Sharif-Musharraf) coalition, and backdoor plans for a military intervention. Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts, proposed the toppling of Pakistan's military.
The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of “chatter” among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place.
As succinctly summarized in Jeremy Page’s article, "Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? The Main Suspects", the primary suspects are 1) “Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who saw her as a heretic and an American stooge," and 2) the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, a virtual branch of the CIA. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari directly accused the ISI of being involved in the October attack.
The assassination of Bhutto has predictably been blamed on “Al-Qaeda,” without mention of fact that Al-Qaeda itself is an Anglo-American military-intelligence operation.
Page’s piece was one of the first to name the man who has now been tagged as the main suspect: Baitullah Mehsud, a purported Taliban militant fighting the Pakistani army out of Waziristan. Conflicting reports link Mehsud to “Al-Qaeda,” the Afghan Taliban, and Mullah Omar. Other analysis links him to the terrorist A.Q. Khan.
Mehsud’s profile, and the reporting of it, echoes the propaganda treatment of all post-9/11 “terrorists." This in turn raises familiar questions about Anglo-American intelligence agency propaganda involvement. Is Mehsud connected to the ISI or the CIA? What did the ISI and the CIA know about Mehsud? More importantly, does Mehsud, or the manipulation of the propaganda surrounding him provide Bush-Cheney with a pretext for future aggression in the region?
Classic “war on terrorism” propaganda
While details on the Bhutto assassination continue to unfold, what is clear is that it was a political hit, along the lines of US agent Rafik Harriri in Lebanon. Like the highly suspicious Harriri hit, the Bhutto assassination has been depicted by corporate media as the martyring of a great messenger of Western-style “democracy." Meanwhile, the US government’s ruthless actions behind the scenes have received scant attention.
The December 28 New York Times coverage of the Bhutto assassination offers the perfect example of mainstream Orwellian media distortion that hides the truth about the Bush-Cheney agenda behind blatant propaganda smoke. This piece echoes White House rhetoric proclaiming that Bush’s main objectives are to “bring democracy to the Muslim world” and “force out Islamist militants."
In fact, the openly criminal Bush-Cheney administration has only supported and promoted the antithesis of democracy: chaos, fascism, and the installation of Anglo-American friendly puppet regimes.
In fact, the central and consistent geostrategy of Bush-Cheney, and their elite counterparts around the world, is the continued imposition and expansion of the manufactured “war on terrorism”; the continuation of war across the Eurasian subcontinent, with events triggered by false flag operations and manufactured pretexts.
In fact, the main tools used in the “war on terrorism” remain Islamist militants, working on behalf of Anglo-American military intelligence agencies -- among them, “Al-Qaeda," and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, the ISI. Mehsud fits this same profile.
Saving Bush-Cheney’s Pakistan
In an amusing quote from the same New York Times piece, Wendy Chamberlain, former US ambassador to Pakistan (and a central figure behind multinational efforts to build a trans-Afghan pipeline, connected to 9/11), proudly states: “We are a player in the Pakistani political system."
Not only has the US continued to be a “player," but one of its top managers for decades. Each successive Pakistani leader since the early 1990s -- Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf -- have bowed to Western interests. The ISI is a virtual branch of the CIA.
While Musharraf has been, and remains, a strongman for Bush-Cheney, questions about his “reliability," and control -- both his regime’s control over the populace and growing popular unrest, and elite control over his regime -- have driven Bush-Cheney attempts to force a clumsy (pro-US, Iraq-style) power-sharing government. As noted by Robert Scheer, Bush-Cheney has been playing “Russian roulette” with Musharraf, Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- each of whom have been deeply corrupt, willing fronts for the US.
The return of both Bhutto and the other former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has merely been an attempt by the US to hedge its regional power bets.
What exactly were John Negroponte and Condoleeza Rice really setting up the past few months?
Who benefits from Bhutto’s murder?
The “war on terrorism” geostrategy and propaganda milieu, the blueprint that has been used by elite interests since 9/11 to impose a continuing world war, is the clear beneficiary of the Bhutto assassination. Bush-Cheney and their equally complicit pro-war/pro-occupation counterparts in the Democratic Party enthusiastically support the routine use of “terror” pretexts to impose continued war policies.
True to form, fear, “terrorism," “security” and military force are, once again, the focuses of Washington political rhetoric, and the around-the-clock media barrage.
The 2008 US presidential candidates and their elite campaign advisers, all but a few of whom enthusiastically support the “war on terrorism," have taken turns pushing their respective versions of “we must stop the terrorists” rhetoric for brain-addled supporters. The candidates whose polls have slipped, led by 9/11 participant and opportunist Rudy Guiliani, and hawkish neoliberal Hillary Clinton, have already benefited from a new round of mass fear.
Musharraf benefits from the removal of a bitter rival, but now must find a way to re-establish order. Musharraf now has an ideal justification to crack down on “terrorists” and impose full martial law, with Bush-Cheney working from the shadows behind Musharraf and continuing to manipulate or remove his apparatus if Musharraf proves too unreliable or broken to suit Anglo-American plans.
The likely involvement of the ISI behind the Bhutto hit cannot be overstated. ISI’s role behind every major act of “terrorism” since 9/11 remains the central unspoken truth behind current geopolitical realities. Bhutto, but not Sharif or Musharraf would have threatened the ISI’s agendas.
Bhutto, militant Islam, and the pipelines
Now that she has been martyred, many unflattering historical facts about Benazir Bhutto will be hidden or forgotten.
Bhutto herself was intimately involved in the creation of the very “terror” milieu purportedly responsible for her assassination. Across her political career, she supported militant Islamists, the Taliban, the ISI, and the ambitions of Western governments.
As noted by Michel Chossudovsky in America’s “War on Terrorism," it was during Bhutto’s second term that Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and the Taliban rose to prominence, welcomed into Bhutto’s coalition government. It was at that point that ties between the JUI, the Army and the ISI were established.
While Bhutto’s relationship with both the ISI and the Taliban were marked by turmoil, it is clear that Bhutto, when in power, supported both -- and enthusiastically supported Anglo-American interventions.
In his two landmark books, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad:The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, Ahmed Rashid richly details the Bhutto regime’s connections to the ISI, the Taliban, “militant Islam," multinational oil interests, and Anglo-American officials and intelligence proxies.
In Jihad, Rashid wrote: “Ironically it was not the ISI but Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the most liberal, secular leader in Pakistan’s recent history, who delivered the coup de grace to a new relationship with Central Asia. Rather than support a wider peace process in Afghanistan that would have opened up a wider peace process in Afghanistan, Bhutto backed the Taliban, in a rash and presumptuous policy to create a new western-oriented trade and pipeline route from Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan to Pakistan, from which the Taliban would provide security. The ISI soon supported this policy because its Afghan protégé, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, had made no headway in capturing Kabul, and the Taliban appeared to be strong enough to do so.”
In Taliban, Rashid provided even more historical detail: “When Bhutto was elected as Prime Minister in 1993, she was keen to open a route to Central Asia. A new proposal emerged backed strongly by the frustrated Pakistani transport and smuggling mafia, the JUI and Pashtun military and political officials.”
“The Bhutto government fully backed the Taliban, but the ISI remained skeptical of their abilities, convinced that they would remain a useful but peripheral force in the south.”
“The US Congress had authorized a covert $20 million budget for the CIA to destabilize Iran, and Tehran accused Washington of funneling some of these funds to the Taliban -- a charge that was always denied by Washington. Bhutto sent several emissaries to Washington to urge the US to intervene more publicly on the side of Pakistan and the Taliban.”
Bhutto’s one mistake: she vehemently supported the pipeline proposed by Argentinian oil company Bridas, and opposed the pipeline by Unocal (favored by the US). This contributed to her ouster in 1996, and the return of Nawaz Sharif to power.
As noted by Rashid: “After the dismissal of the Bhutto government in 1996, the newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his oil minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, the army and the ISI fully backed Unocal. Pakistan wanted more direct US support for the Taliban and urged Unocal to start construction quickly in order to legitimize the Taliban. Basically the USA and Unocal accepted the ISI’s analysis and aims -- that a Taliban victory in Afghanistan would make Unocal’s job much easier and quicken US recognition.”
Her appealing and glamorous pro-Western image notwithstanding, Bhutto’s true record is one of corruption and accommodation.
The “war on terrorism” resparked
Every major Anglo-American geostrategic crime has been preceded by a convenient pretext, orchestrated and carried out by “terror” proxies directly or indirectly connected to US military-intelligence, or manipulated into performing as intelligence assets. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is simply one more brutal example.
This was Pakistan’s 9/11; Pakistan’s JFK assassination, and its impact will resonate for years.
Contrary to mainstream corporate news reporting, chaos benefits Bush-Cheney’s “war on terrorism." Calls for “increased worldwide security” will pave the way for a muscular US reaction, US-led force and other forms of “crackdown” from Bush-Cheney across the region. In other words, the assassination helps ensure that the US will not only never leave, but also increase its presence.
The Pakistani election, if it takes place at all, is a simpler two-way choice: pro-US Musharraf or pro-US Sharif.
While the success of Bush-Cheney’s 9/11 agenda has met with mixed results, and it has met with a wide array of resistance (“terroristic” as well as political), there is no doubt that the propaganda foundation of the “war on terrorism” has remained firm, unshaken and routinely reinforced.
As for Nawaz Sharif, who now emerges as the sole competitor to Musharraf, he, like Musharraf and Bhutto, is legendary for his accommodation to Anglo-American interests -- pipelines, trade, and the continued US military presence. As Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie noted in their book, Forbidden Truth, the October 1999 military coup led by Musharraf that originally toppled Sharif’s regime was sparked by animosity between the two camps, as well as “Sharif’s personal corruption and political megalomania," and “concerns that Sharif was dancing too eagerly to Washington’s tune on Kashmir and Afghanistan."
In other words, Bush-Cheney wins, no matter which asset winds up on the throne.
Anglo-American ambitions behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and destabilization of Pakistan
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor
Dec 31, 2007
It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been manuevering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto does not change this agenda. In fact, it simplifies Bush-Cheney’s options.
Seeding chaos with a pretext
“Delivering democracy to the Muslim world” has been the Orwellian rhetoric used to mask Bush-Cheney’s application of pressure and force, its dramatic attempt at reshaping the Pakistani government (into a joint Bhutto/Sharif-Musharraf) coalition, and backdoor plans for a military intervention. Various American destabilization plans, known for months by officials and analysts, proposed the toppling of Pakistan's military.
The assassination of Bhutto appears to have been anticipated. There were even reports of “chatter” among US officials about the possible assassinations of either Pervez Musharraf or Benazir Bhutto, well before the actual attempts took place.
As succinctly summarized in Jeremy Page’s article, "Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? The Main Suspects", the primary suspects are 1) “Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who saw her as a heretic and an American stooge," and 2) the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, a virtual branch of the CIA. Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari directly accused the ISI of being involved in the October attack.
The assassination of Bhutto has predictably been blamed on “Al-Qaeda,” without mention of fact that Al-Qaeda itself is an Anglo-American military-intelligence operation.
Page’s piece was one of the first to name the man who has now been tagged as the main suspect: Baitullah Mehsud, a purported Taliban militant fighting the Pakistani army out of Waziristan. Conflicting reports link Mehsud to “Al-Qaeda,” the Afghan Taliban, and Mullah Omar. Other analysis links him to the terrorist A.Q. Khan.
Mehsud’s profile, and the reporting of it, echoes the propaganda treatment of all post-9/11 “terrorists." This in turn raises familiar questions about Anglo-American intelligence agency propaganda involvement. Is Mehsud connected to the ISI or the CIA? What did the ISI and the CIA know about Mehsud? More importantly, does Mehsud, or the manipulation of the propaganda surrounding him provide Bush-Cheney with a pretext for future aggression in the region?
Classic “war on terrorism” propaganda
While details on the Bhutto assassination continue to unfold, what is clear is that it was a political hit, along the lines of US agent Rafik Harriri in Lebanon. Like the highly suspicious Harriri hit, the Bhutto assassination has been depicted by corporate media as the martyring of a great messenger of Western-style “democracy." Meanwhile, the US government’s ruthless actions behind the scenes have received scant attention.
The December 28 New York Times coverage of the Bhutto assassination offers the perfect example of mainstream Orwellian media distortion that hides the truth about the Bush-Cheney agenda behind blatant propaganda smoke. This piece echoes White House rhetoric proclaiming that Bush’s main objectives are to “bring democracy to the Muslim world” and “force out Islamist militants."
In fact, the openly criminal Bush-Cheney administration has only supported and promoted the antithesis of democracy: chaos, fascism, and the installation of Anglo-American friendly puppet regimes.
In fact, the central and consistent geostrategy of Bush-Cheney, and their elite counterparts around the world, is the continued imposition and expansion of the manufactured “war on terrorism”; the continuation of war across the Eurasian subcontinent, with events triggered by false flag operations and manufactured pretexts.
In fact, the main tools used in the “war on terrorism” remain Islamist militants, working on behalf of Anglo-American military intelligence agencies -- among them, “Al-Qaeda," and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, the ISI. Mehsud fits this same profile.
Saving Bush-Cheney’s Pakistan
In an amusing quote from the same New York Times piece, Wendy Chamberlain, former US ambassador to Pakistan (and a central figure behind multinational efforts to build a trans-Afghan pipeline, connected to 9/11), proudly states: “We are a player in the Pakistani political system."
Not only has the US continued to be a “player," but one of its top managers for decades. Each successive Pakistani leader since the early 1990s -- Bhutto, Sharif and Musharraf -- have bowed to Western interests. The ISI is a virtual branch of the CIA.
While Musharraf has been, and remains, a strongman for Bush-Cheney, questions about his “reliability," and control -- both his regime’s control over the populace and growing popular unrest, and elite control over his regime -- have driven Bush-Cheney attempts to force a clumsy (pro-US, Iraq-style) power-sharing government. As noted by Robert Scheer, Bush-Cheney has been playing “Russian roulette” with Musharraf, Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- each of whom have been deeply corrupt, willing fronts for the US.
The return of both Bhutto and the other former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has merely been an attempt by the US to hedge its regional power bets.
What exactly were John Negroponte and Condoleeza Rice really setting up the past few months?
Who benefits from Bhutto’s murder?
The “war on terrorism” geostrategy and propaganda milieu, the blueprint that has been used by elite interests since 9/11 to impose a continuing world war, is the clear beneficiary of the Bhutto assassination. Bush-Cheney and their equally complicit pro-war/pro-occupation counterparts in the Democratic Party enthusiastically support the routine use of “terror” pretexts to impose continued war policies.
True to form, fear, “terrorism," “security” and military force are, once again, the focuses of Washington political rhetoric, and the around-the-clock media barrage.
The 2008 US presidential candidates and their elite campaign advisers, all but a few of whom enthusiastically support the “war on terrorism," have taken turns pushing their respective versions of “we must stop the terrorists” rhetoric for brain-addled supporters. The candidates whose polls have slipped, led by 9/11 participant and opportunist Rudy Guiliani, and hawkish neoliberal Hillary Clinton, have already benefited from a new round of mass fear.
Musharraf benefits from the removal of a bitter rival, but now must find a way to re-establish order. Musharraf now has an ideal justification to crack down on “terrorists” and impose full martial law, with Bush-Cheney working from the shadows behind Musharraf and continuing to manipulate or remove his apparatus if Musharraf proves too unreliable or broken to suit Anglo-American plans.
The likely involvement of the ISI behind the Bhutto hit cannot be overstated. ISI’s role behind every major act of “terrorism” since 9/11 remains the central unspoken truth behind current geopolitical realities. Bhutto, but not Sharif or Musharraf would have threatened the ISI’s agendas.
Bhutto, militant Islam, and the pipelines
Now that she has been martyred, many unflattering historical facts about Benazir Bhutto will be hidden or forgotten.
Bhutto herself was intimately involved in the creation of the very “terror” milieu purportedly responsible for her assassination. Across her political career, she supported militant Islamists, the Taliban, the ISI, and the ambitions of Western governments.
As noted by Michel Chossudovsky in America’s “War on Terrorism," it was during Bhutto’s second term that Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and the Taliban rose to prominence, welcomed into Bhutto’s coalition government. It was at that point that ties between the JUI, the Army and the ISI were established.
While Bhutto’s relationship with both the ISI and the Taliban were marked by turmoil, it is clear that Bhutto, when in power, supported both -- and enthusiastically supported Anglo-American interventions.
In his two landmark books, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad:The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, Ahmed Rashid richly details the Bhutto regime’s connections to the ISI, the Taliban, “militant Islam," multinational oil interests, and Anglo-American officials and intelligence proxies.
In Jihad, Rashid wrote: “Ironically it was not the ISI but Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the most liberal, secular leader in Pakistan’s recent history, who delivered the coup de grace to a new relationship with Central Asia. Rather than support a wider peace process in Afghanistan that would have opened up a wider peace process in Afghanistan, Bhutto backed the Taliban, in a rash and presumptuous policy to create a new western-oriented trade and pipeline route from Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan to Pakistan, from which the Taliban would provide security. The ISI soon supported this policy because its Afghan protégé, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, had made no headway in capturing Kabul, and the Taliban appeared to be strong enough to do so.”
In Taliban, Rashid provided even more historical detail: “When Bhutto was elected as Prime Minister in 1993, she was keen to open a route to Central Asia. A new proposal emerged backed strongly by the frustrated Pakistani transport and smuggling mafia, the JUI and Pashtun military and political officials.”
“The Bhutto government fully backed the Taliban, but the ISI remained skeptical of their abilities, convinced that they would remain a useful but peripheral force in the south.”
“The US Congress had authorized a covert $20 million budget for the CIA to destabilize Iran, and Tehran accused Washington of funneling some of these funds to the Taliban -- a charge that was always denied by Washington. Bhutto sent several emissaries to Washington to urge the US to intervene more publicly on the side of Pakistan and the Taliban.”
Bhutto’s one mistake: she vehemently supported the pipeline proposed by Argentinian oil company Bridas, and opposed the pipeline by Unocal (favored by the US). This contributed to her ouster in 1996, and the return of Nawaz Sharif to power.
As noted by Rashid: “After the dismissal of the Bhutto government in 1996, the newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his oil minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan, the army and the ISI fully backed Unocal. Pakistan wanted more direct US support for the Taliban and urged Unocal to start construction quickly in order to legitimize the Taliban. Basically the USA and Unocal accepted the ISI’s analysis and aims -- that a Taliban victory in Afghanistan would make Unocal’s job much easier and quicken US recognition.”
Her appealing and glamorous pro-Western image notwithstanding, Bhutto’s true record is one of corruption and accommodation.
The “war on terrorism” resparked
Every major Anglo-American geostrategic crime has been preceded by a convenient pretext, orchestrated and carried out by “terror” proxies directly or indirectly connected to US military-intelligence, or manipulated into performing as intelligence assets. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is simply one more brutal example.
This was Pakistan’s 9/11; Pakistan’s JFK assassination, and its impact will resonate for years.
Contrary to mainstream corporate news reporting, chaos benefits Bush-Cheney’s “war on terrorism." Calls for “increased worldwide security” will pave the way for a muscular US reaction, US-led force and other forms of “crackdown” from Bush-Cheney across the region. In other words, the assassination helps ensure that the US will not only never leave, but also increase its presence.
The Pakistani election, if it takes place at all, is a simpler two-way choice: pro-US Musharraf or pro-US Sharif.
While the success of Bush-Cheney’s 9/11 agenda has met with mixed results, and it has met with a wide array of resistance (“terroristic” as well as political), there is no doubt that the propaganda foundation of the “war on terrorism” has remained firm, unshaken and routinely reinforced.
As for Nawaz Sharif, who now emerges as the sole competitor to Musharraf, he, like Musharraf and Bhutto, is legendary for his accommodation to Anglo-American interests -- pipelines, trade, and the continued US military presence. As Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie noted in their book, Forbidden Truth, the October 1999 military coup led by Musharraf that originally toppled Sharif’s regime was sparked by animosity between the two camps, as well as “Sharif’s personal corruption and political megalomania," and “concerns that Sharif was dancing too eagerly to Washington’s tune on Kashmir and Afghanistan."
In other words, Bush-Cheney wins, no matter which asset winds up on the throne.
Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/24001.html
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections
Saeed Shah McClatchy Newspapers
December 31, 2007
NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.
Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, said the report was "very sensitive" and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.
"It was compiled from sources within the (intelligence) services who were working directly with Benazir Bhutto," Lashari said, speaking Monday at Bhutto's house in her ancestral village of Naudero, where her husband and children continued to mourn her death.
The ISI had no official comment. However, an agency official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject, dismissed the allegations as "a lot of talk but not much substance."
Musharraf has been highly critical of those who allege that his regime is involved in electoral manipulation. "Now when they lose, they'll have a good rationale: that it is all rigged, it is all fraud," he said in November. "In Pakistan, the loser always cries."
According to Lashari, the document includes information on a "safe house" allegedly being run by the ISI in a central neighborhood of Islamabad, the alleged headquarters of the rigging operation.
It names as the head of the unit a brigadier general recently retired from the ISI, who was secretly assigned to run the rigging operation, Lashari said. It charges that he was working in tandem with the head of a civilian intelligence agency. Before her return to Pakistan, Bhutto, in a letter to Musharraf, had named the intelligence official as one of the men she accused of plotting to kill her.
Lashari said the report claimed that U.S. aid money was being used to fix the elections. Ballots stamped in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which supports Musharraf, were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 parliamentary constituencies.
"They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money," Lashari said.
Lashari, who formerly taught environmental economics at Britain's Cranfield University, said the effort was directed at constituencies where the result was likely to be decided by a small margin, so it wouldn't be obvious.
Bhutto was due to meet Specter and Kennedy after dinner last Thursday. She was shot as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi early that evening. Pakistan's government claims instead that she was thrown against the lever of her car's sunroof, fracturing her skull.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections
Saeed Shah McClatchy Newspapers
December 31, 2007
NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.
Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, said the report was "very sensitive" and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.
"It was compiled from sources within the (intelligence) services who were working directly with Benazir Bhutto," Lashari said, speaking Monday at Bhutto's house in her ancestral village of Naudero, where her husband and children continued to mourn her death.
The ISI had no official comment. However, an agency official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject, dismissed the allegations as "a lot of talk but not much substance."
Musharraf has been highly critical of those who allege that his regime is involved in electoral manipulation. "Now when they lose, they'll have a good rationale: that it is all rigged, it is all fraud," he said in November. "In Pakistan, the loser always cries."
According to Lashari, the document includes information on a "safe house" allegedly being run by the ISI in a central neighborhood of Islamabad, the alleged headquarters of the rigging operation.
It names as the head of the unit a brigadier general recently retired from the ISI, who was secretly assigned to run the rigging operation, Lashari said. It charges that he was working in tandem with the head of a civilian intelligence agency. Before her return to Pakistan, Bhutto, in a letter to Musharraf, had named the intelligence official as one of the men she accused of plotting to kill her.
Lashari said the report claimed that U.S. aid money was being used to fix the elections. Ballots stamped in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which supports Musharraf, were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 parliamentary constituencies.
"They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money," Lashari said.
Lashari, who formerly taught environmental economics at Britain's Cranfield University, said the effort was directed at constituencies where the result was likely to be decided by a small margin, so it wouldn't be obvious.
Bhutto was due to meet Specter and Kennedy after dinner last Thursday. She was shot as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi early that evening. Pakistan's government claims instead that she was thrown against the lever of her car's sunroof, fracturing her skull.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
McClatchy Newspapers 2007
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