From LGF: Ron Paul Blames US Policy for Bhutto Killing
Ron Paul blames the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on the “interventionist” policy of the United States, and says Al Qaeda is justified in being “annoyed” at us.
Hot Air has the YouTube:
In Ron Paul’s vision, all the problems of the world are caused by America. That he thinks that Al-Qaeda is justified in being “annoyed” at America is reason enough to dismiss him as the crank he is.
Victor Davis Hanson has it right:
If there is any fallout from this tragedy at home, it is to remind us that radical Islam has the ability to change world affairs in a matter of minutes (at least if taking out a democratic leader vying for control of a nuclear Pakistan qualifies), that the war against Islamic radicalism goes on, and that we should look carefully at those who wish to be commander-in-chief in the years ahead.
As little confidence as we have in Musharraf, we don’t buy into suspicions held by Bhutto’s supporters that he ordered her assassination.
But we do share concerns about the lax security Pakistani authorities provided her. Bhutto personally asked Musharraf to beef up measures, such as providing jamming devices to thwart bombs, after she narrowly escaped a similar assassination attempt in October.
By all accounts, Musharraf ignored her pleas and never mounted an investigation of the earlier attempt on her life.
In an Oct. 16 letter to Musharraf, Bhutto reportedly shared information she’d received about three officials within his military intelligence services who wanted to kill her. And she asked him to help secure her safety ahead of the election.
That request, too, apparently fell on deaf ears.
The fact that this successful second attack occurred in Pakistan’s military headquarters signals that “there may be some low-level military involvement,” terror expert Peter Bergen said.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton agreed, telling Fox News that “radical elements of Pakistan’s military” may have had a hand in the attack.
Despite Musharraf’s denials, it’s well known that Pakistan’s military intelligence — the ISI — is infested with al-Qaida sympathizers. And Bhutto tried to push ISI out of politics in her first term as prime minister.
Musharraf also has been the target of at least nine assassination attempts since he signed on to our war on terror seven years ago. But it speaks volumes that Bhutto, back in the country just a few months, would be killed before him.
Al-Qaida, we hear, took credit for the murder. And who is the bigger threat to al-Qaida?
We have to wonder if under Bhutto, Pakistani authorities would have allowed the mastermind behind 2006’s trans-Atlantic sky-terror plot to escape from custody.
Last week, Rashid Rauf, who has ISI connections, went missing from a mosque after police let him pray there. He escaped just days before he was due to be extradited to Britain.
Earlier this year, Musharraf freed from jail an al-Qaida lieutenant who plotted to hit U.S. financial and government targets. U.S. officials privately protested the release of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, but to no avail.
Even so, being realists, we understand Musharraf is still in control of Pakistan. While the terrorists just seem to get stronger under Musharraf’s rule, he’s probably still the only thing standing between Pakistan and chaos — or worse, a fundamentalist Islamic regime that would have access to nuclear weapons.
A faithful opposition leader and true friend of the West, Benazir Bhutto showed herself to be courageous in a way few leaders are.
Her death is a tragedy not just for Pakistan’s fledgling democracy, but for all of us. We only hope that Musharraf has the strength and resolution to fight those who would drag Pakistan back into the Middle Ages.
Via Gerard, Benazir Bhutto: Mob hit in Pakistan
NGOstan is (or was) of course Bhutto’s faction. Its chief claim to fame is that it is sponsored by the Western establishment, ie the State Department, the Times, etc, etc. It is clean and sweet and true. At least, relatively clean and sweet and true.
Obviously, it is not a secret that Bhutto herself was a mob queen, at least that many of her associates were gangsters, but the Westernists had an easy solution for this. If they needed to come across as especially clean and sweet and true, they could just condemn Bhutto as a mob queen. She was not offended, at least not unusually offended. You think she didn’t know she was a gangster? So, for example, this article by Jemima Khan did not terminate the membership of Imran Khan as a leading capo in NGOstan. If Musharraf goes down, there will be plenty for everyone to eat.
PakMil, NGOstan and Islamists, and how they play the brutal game: read it.
UPDATE:
Deconstructing The Myth Of Benazir Bhutto
Update 2
The Bhutto Assasination: Not what she seemed to be
