Pakistan Apologizes For Lying About Bhutto's Cause of Death

I had trouble believing they'd do something so preposterously stupid.

In a dramatic U-turn, Pakistan government has "apologised" for claiming that former premier Benazir Bhutto died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack.
Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan has asked the media and people to "forgive and ignore" comments made by his ministry's spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema which were slammed by her Pakistan People's Party as "lies" and led to an uproar at home and abroad.
The Interior Minister made the apology during a briefing for Pakistani newspaper editors on Monday. Punjab province on Tuesday issued a front-page advertisement in newspapers that offered a reward of Rs 1 crore for information about a gunman and a suspected suicide bomber seen in the photos and video footage of the assassination.
The government's apparent damage control exercise on Cheema's comments made at a news conference a day after Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27, came after TV channels aired privately shot photos and video footage which showed a gunman shooting at Bhutto.
The Pakistan People's Party leader is seen in the footage falling through the sun-roof before the suicide bomber detonated his explosives. The briefing by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro was also attended by the foreign, interior and information ministers and senior officials.

Part of the reason I disbelieved they'd lie is because I saw no benefit from the lie -- if the idea is damage control, mitigating the government's failure to protect Bhutto, how does it possibly aid the government to say "No, she didn't die from an assassin's bullet, she died dodging an assassin's bullet"? Anyone see any meaningful difference here in terms of the government's failure to stop the death?

Apparently the saw a difference in Pakistan, and thought it might help their cause to claim Bhutto hadn't been killed by an assassin, but by her own clumsiness.

Posted by: Ace at 05:41 PM

Comments

1 Come on, you expect "logic" from Pakistani government? The real terror is that they have nukes!

Posted by: GarandFan at January 01, 2008 05:45 PM (+tCxF)

2 I sincerely pray that US has taken away Pakistan's radioactive toys. They cannot disclose that of course, because that might tempt India to settle it's little 'Pakistan problem' once and for all. But I sure hope that Musharraf has sold his nukes to US for a few billions and guaranteed shelter in US when the fan hits the shit in Pakistan.

Posted by: Tushar D at January 01, 2008 06:03 PM (9ULFg)

3 Baghdad Bob has arrived on the scene.

Posted by: Lisa at January 01, 2008 06:29 PM (tpC49)

"Preposterously stupid" describes just about every aspect of this cluster.

Check out the big brains on the press. The big story in this is not that jihad johnny killed this woman. It's not that Pakistan may go over the cliff. It's not that several presidential candidates (from both parties) have demonstrated appalling ignorance of the situation, and that Hillary is trying to use it as an excuse to turn herself into G. I. Jane and Bhutto into her retroactive BFF.

No, the press is interested in being able to yell "gotcha!" over a coverup which may or may not have happened, and which in any case has no real relevance to the huge real story which they seem to only want to touch on tangentally as background for the gotcha story.

Posted by: rickinstl at January 01, 2008 06:33 PM (6XDdL)

Bombs, fractures, gunshots, broken hearts, really doesn't matter to them as long as they can RAGE!

If you had to wipe your butt with your left hand, wouldn't you be angry?

Posted by: TheEJS at January 01, 2008 06:53 PM (JyC8j)

Who...gives...A...Crap....anymore what happens to them.

Jeeeez......

Only good thing is the story pushed a lot of the FOX claptrap out of the way.

I for one, hate Fox anymore, there is no News on that channel, heck CNN is biased as hell but at least we can turn of the volume and see real news.

Posted by: Bob Dole at January 01, 2008 06:53 PM (DoOaN)

Well gullible me actually bought that line and now I have egg all over me.

I tried to accept the simplest and most ironic explanation.

It is called "stuck on stupid."

Ok I'll learn from this but at 57 I'm getting short on time.

Posted by: NortonPete at January 01, 2008 07:01 PM (fVuwW)

8 Claim al Qaeda caused the circumstances, wound caused by sunroof, case closed, move along, nothing to see.

Admit that she was shot, forensic examination of body and thorough exam of the site, it becomes apparent that an agency of the Pakistani gov't might have been involved. That agency is the ISI.

Now suppose it becomes public that the ISI, the group that founded and supported the Taliban, supports and trains radicals, protects the terrorists in the "frontier" regions, has launched terror attacks in Kashmir for decades and is only under token control of the Pakistani gov't, is complicit in the murder of Bhutto. Think that might have some effect on the billions in aid the US gives Pakistan and the reign of Musharraf?

The worst thing that could happen to Musharraf, and maybe us, is to expose to the world just how out of control Pakistan really is. Pakistan created a monster with the ISI and now they can't control it. We are in the screwed up position of pretending we don't know how out of control things are and we have to give Musharraf, who is at least trying to get control of the situation, a lot of rope. If Pakistan starts to melt down and the ISI goes completely off the reservation, Iraq will look like a day in the park.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 01, 2008 07:10 PM (t+mja)

but at least we can turn of the volume and see real news.

uh huh...whether they have to create it out of whole cloth or not, right, "Bob"?

Posted by: Frank G at January 01, 2008 07:20 PM (Ydps9)

10 That's pretty insightful, Jack. Is there any info out there about how much of Pakistan's nuclear "party favors" are under the ISI's control?

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at January 01, 2008 07:25 PM (BhHL1)

11 By most estimates, Russ, we have spent north of $100 million helping Pakistan secure their nukes. To me, its sort of problematic. The nuclear asset in Pakistan is AQ Khan and he has long been in league with the ISI.

There is simply no way that he could have made the technology and equipment transfers between Iran, N. Korea, Malaysia, ?? without the help of the ISI. It would amaze me if they didn't already have the same nuclear technology that Khan was selling around the globe.

The ISI worries me a whole lot more than Iran.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 01, 2008 07:44 PM (t+mja)

12 Well. . .shit.

Posted by: tachyonshuggy at January 01, 2008 07:45 PM (IVUjc)

13 And there's a cheery thought to start the New Year.

Posted by: alexthechick at January 01, 2008 08:07 PM (ZG2QS)

I'm just gonna throw this out there, but maybe we should look for Mr. Khan to have a little accident in the near future? Something along the line of falling down an open elevator shaft. Onto a bunch of bullets. Are we still good enough friends with the JOOOOOOS to hope for a joint Mossad/Delta Force op to help secure the Paki nukes & take out the big fish of their program?

Why not a Mossad/CIA operation? Jesus Christ, do you even have to ask that question?

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at January 01, 2008 08:32 PM (BhHL1)

15 Russ: According to this report, our guys have a plan to secure the nukes if necessary.

Posted by: Bugler at January 01, 2008 08:48 PM (YCVBL)

16 A little bit too complicated for all that now, I think.

When the Soviets were trying to help Prince Daoud establish a gov't after overthrowing the King of Afghanistan, it was the CIA (see Wilson, Charlie) the SAVAK, at that time under the control of the Shah and ISI who funneled money and weapons and training to the Mujahideen threw a front group called MAK (which, incidentally was involved in the first World Trade Tower bombing). The MAK was headquartered in Peshwar and one of the key operatives was a guy named Osama bin Laden.

After the Soviets threw in the towel, the CIA hung around for a while, mostly encouraging the mujahideen to grow opium and ship it to the Soviet U but that sort of backfired when we left and they started shipping it to the west. Well, we left but the mujahideen and the ISI never did and before you know it, the Taliban under the control of the ISI. The ISI had the Taliban give sanctuary and training facilities for bin Laden for al Qaeda and also for ISI terror recruits for areas such as Kashmir or internal needs.

Fast forward to the summer of 2000 and General Ahmed, head of the ISI, sends a $100k wire transfer to one Mohameed Atta. One year later, Atta leads the 9/11 plot that is the brainchild of Kahlid Sheik Mohameed. In 2003, under heavy pressure from the US, the ISI arrests KSM in a safe house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, one of the strongholds of the ISI and the town which Bhutto will be assassinated in in December, 2007.

Killing a few senior bad guys and securing the current crop of nukes is not going to fix this mess. There is every reason to believe given the long and complicated relationship between the ISI and numerous terror groups, most notably al Qaeda, they already have the know how to build a bomb if not the materials. Yet.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 01, 2008 09:11 PM (t+mja)

17 I kind of wonder if that spokesman was a plant or agent of some sort and tossed out the "hit her head" theory just to make Musharraf's gov't look bad. Because really, that's about all I can see that particular lie possibly accomplishing.

Posted by: Calix at January 01, 2008 09:31 PM (8d3U/)

18 Musharraf is trying to get things under control??

I'll lay odds Musharraf was behind the planning and execution of the entire Bhutto killing.

Posted by: Tom at January 01, 2008 10:47 PM (1kwK7)

Why is "apologised" surrounded by quotation marks? Is that an ironic "apologised"? Is the wink implied?

Or by "apologised", does the article merely mean to say that the government is offering its condolences, like Huckabee, to those who were hurt by the lie?

Posted by: Mark V. at January 01, 2008 11:09 PM (dZ4mk)

20 >>I'll lay odds Musharraf was behind the planning and execution of the entire Bhutto killing.

Tom, it is foolish to lay your odds on things you know nothing about.

Mark Steyn puts it best: "Everyone�s an expert on Pakistan, a faraway country of which we know everything".

Tom, in case you are wondering, Steyn was being sarcastic.

Posted by: Tushar D at January 01, 2008 11:31 PM (9ULFg)

21 Hey, Tom's not clueless on this. His boss at the 7-11 fills him in on Pakistan

Posted by: Ted K. at January 01, 2008 11:36 PM (PVAtt)

22 You should listen to Tushar, Tom. He's a brown person.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at January 02, 2008 12:40 AM (BhHL1)

23 "...if the idea is damage control, mitigating the government's failure to protect Bhutto, how does it possibly aid the government to say 'No, she didn't die from an assassin's bullet, she died dodging an assassin's bullet'? Anyone see any meaningful difference here in terms of the government's failure to stop the death?"

Yes, the meaningful difference is that in one case, they let her get shot, and in the other case they did not let her get shot, but due to her own bungling, panicked response she killed herself ducking into the car.

Posted by: Bob at January 02, 2008 02:01 AM (O5ZeM)

24 Bob, others, I think we are more reasonable than many in Pakistan. We say "she dodged a bullet and broke her skull', so that's a failure in her security.

Some in Pakistan were saying 'the security was fine and the shooters missed and the bomb failed to breach the car, she died because she was a clumsy silly woman.

Really, somehow, people bought the line that her clumsiness (which was a lie) somehow made her death totally her fault. Forget blaming islamist terrorism, people are blaming her clumsiness, or now they're blaming the security (which did suck).

I don't get it. I've hit my head really hard, but I've never put a perfect vertical dent on my head. I wonder, did the government goons take a hammer to her skull when they buried her, and then take that picture? Did they prepare for the exhuming of her tampered corpse?

It's pathetic that this tactic was even slightly successful. Where there no nukes or Osama, I'd think we need to ignore this country. Unfortunately, the missle east is a loose hodgepodge of interrelated moronic behavior. What happened to Bhutto is helping Iran prepare nuclear weapons.

Posted by: Mike Huckabee at January 02, 2008 04:04 AM (8dfqL)

25 >>You should listen to Tushar, Tom. He's a brown person.

Now now, Russ. You made poor Tommy soil his pants.

And Congratulations on the expected new arrival!

Posted by: Tushar D at January 02, 2008 07:43 AM (9ULFg)

26 >>Where there no nukes or Osama, I'd think we need to ignore this country.

That would be a tragic mistake. I would strongly encourage anyone who doesn't know about the Pakistani ISI to do some reading up on them. They sit at the core of Islamic terror, from recruiting to training to funding to planning and execution, they are one of the most dangerous organizations on the planet and we will never be done with Islamic terror until this group is destroyed. Virtually every terror organization from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia to the Palestinian territories has ties to the ISI. There's a reason that Azzam, bin Laden and Zawahiri chose Peshwar as the base of operations to build al Qaeda. Those relationships are very much intact. If you want to get the core of the people who created 9/11, they are in the ISI.

For a little background on Miss Bhutto and her dealings with the ISI, try this from November of 2001 in the wake of 9/11.

http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/nov/09ny8.htm

Posted by: JackStraw at January 02, 2008 09:56 AM (t+mja)

27 JackStraw, I was unaware that OBL was operating in the region at the time the Russians were fighting the muj. What should I be reading to fill in my gap there?

Posted by: s'worthy at January 02, 2008 10:13 AM (a00go)

28 Sponge-

Oh yeah, he was there. It's where he met Mullah Omar and the whole thing got started.

This is a great place to get a baseline about not just on bin Laden but on Islamic terror, it's roots and the money behind it.

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Clubs_Al-Qaeda.Islam

Posted by: JackStraw at January 02, 2008 11:04 AM (t+mja)

29 JackStraw is right. ISI is at the root of almost all Islamic terror out there. The Saudis may contrinute money and even stupid men, but ISI brings in the strategic planning and the execution. It is a out of control monster and must be slayed. We in India have been fighting these guys for years now.

Posted by: Tushar D at January 02, 2008 12:12 PM (IlgNp)

I know he was there and I know he did some bagman work between the region and the Kingdom. I know he fought in a spirited but limited fashion against the Soviets. But he was maybe 21 at the time, hardly in a position to be any sort of muckety-muck. From what I have read, and I've read an awful lot, it would be a big stretch to say that we at any time funneled any money to OBL.

I enjoyed the link, but when the narrative goes here:

Dr. Azzam traveled around the globe, establishing the connections that would lead to al-Qaeda's worldwide network of affiliates. He even visited the United States, participating in an Islamic conference in Oklahoma City in 1988 (the site of an al-Qaeda affiliate's (Abu Sayyaf's) initial strike in the United States).

there's substantial speculation is going on.

Posted by: s'worthy at January 02, 2008 12:22 PM (a00go)

31 >>From what I have read, and I've read an awful lot, it would be a big stretch to say that we at any time funneled any money to OBL.

Prepare to stretch.

>>Bin Laden first works for Maktab al-Khidamat from this building in Peshawar, a former British government guesthouse. [Source: PBS]
Bin Laden moves to Peshawar, a Pakistani town bordering Afghanistan, and helps run a front organization for the mujaheddin known as Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), which funnels money, arms, and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. [NEW YORKER, 1/24/2000] �MAK [is] nurtured by Pakistan�s state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA�s primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow�s occupation.� [MSNBC, 8/24/1998]

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=amid80sisibinladen

Bin Laden was the bagman for the ISI through MAK. The CIA was funneling money and arms to the ISI. The link wasn't direct but yea, he was the recipient of lots of money and weapons from the CIA.

You have to put this in context. We were still in the middle of the cold war and saw an opportunity to help a group that was fighting back against the Soviets. That group was the mujahideen. Not all of the groups fighting the Soviets were Islamic fundamentalists, some like Masoud of the Northern Alliance, were more interested in a free Afghanistan. They fought back against the Taliban after the Soviets left but the Taliban won and killed Masoud and struck the Northern alliance right before 9/11.

The CIA went to the ISI with good intentions and didn't intend to foster Islamic radicals to come after us but you know what often happens with good intentions.

BTW, don't be to quick to write off connections between Terry Nichols, Abu Sayef and Oklahoma CIty. There is lots and lots of information about Nichols and his trips to the Phillipines and potential meetings with Ramzi Yousef and Abu Sayef. Remember John Doe number 2? Google Hussain Al-Hussaini. He's an ex-Iraqi Republican Guard.

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