Benazir Played Miss Congeniality III: Unarmed & Endangered

Benazir Bhutto's assassination was easy to predict: in fact, her survival, both politically and physically, was something of a dark horse. With many enemies and no army, strong pro-US anti-terrorist rhetoric right in the heart of Al-Qaeda Country, and without any political clout except being the titular head of a political party that was not really in the running, she had no one watching her back except the remote-control promises of a maligned superpower (with the Oh-so-trustworthy Bush administration), and her old nemesis, Pervez Musharraf who only allowed her back in Pakistan under U.S. pressure. By her own account:

"There was one suicide squad from the Taleban elements, one suicide squad from al-Qaeda, one suicide squad from Pakistani Taleban and a fourth – a group, I believe, from Karachi,” she said.

So why did the geniuses at Bushco put her up to it? Her gushing, smiling interviews before her "triumphant" return to Pakistan gave her the innocent look of a True Believer. I asked myself, "Does she actually believe this war on terror crap? Does she really think the United States is trying to bring democracy to Pakistan? She looks for all the world like she really does..."

Bhutto was the perfect answer to America's public relations disaster in Pakistan - our Great White Hope for a Democratic Pakistan. A disarming - but not demilitarizing - smile, general good looks, a woman who is nonetheless Muslim, she has name recognition, a following, a way with words (first female president of prestigious Oxford's Debate Club) ... what more could she ask for?

Blackwater, for one thing. But Musharraf wouldn't allow Blackwater to operate in Pakistan, leaving Benazir at the mercy of rivalvMusharraf, with those sticky fingers in the Al-Qaeda/Taliban/Islamist pie...

Bhutto was "immortalized" in Pakistani newspapers, such as this article:

Benazir Bhutto embraced martyrdom and was immortalized just like her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as another tragedy struck the unfortunate Bhutto family.She is the fourth Bhutto dying in violent circumstances.

She was killed in the same town where her father was executed 28 years ago, in an area

"... outside the Liaquat Bagh, the same park where Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was shot dead not long after the country’s independence. ... Liaquat Bagh, named after Liaquat Ali Khan, has in a way become a tragic place where participants of public rallies have been often attacked and killed and two prime ministers lost their lives in violent circumstances."

With a family known for being on the receiving end of death plots, you couldn't say she didn't know she was putting herself in harm's way. It took much cajoling and reassurance from Condi Rice to convince her to come back. Rice, too, was fully aware of the danger to Ms. Bhutto in this high-stakes, high-risk gamble. Ultimately, her love of the adulation of crowds and the high-end perks of power, combined with her trusting attitude towards American assurances, led to her "dark horse" going down.

According to earlier reports:

Benazir made the fatal mistake to come out of the sun-roof, deciding to wave to the crowd, and was shot.

You wouldn't catch Musharraf standing up in a van - he's a survivor, not a Bhutto. And he has the military, the executive power, and the conniving to back up his own security against repeated assassination attempts. He now stands accused of being either behind the Bhutto murder or deliberately laissez fair in her security. Now he's also accused of a coverup, which lends more credence to the murder plot innuendoes. Why else would he try to deny the gunman's hand and point at the suicide bomber?

The initial reports of Ms Bhutto having been killed by a gunman's bullets to her head and neck were changed later by officials in the Mubarak regime to state that the suicide bomb blast caused her to hit her head, causing her death. But new video released by nbc news shows that the official line could NOT have been the case, and that the gunman is the actual assassin who killed Benazir Bhutto. This, of course, only inflames the Pakistani public further against Musharraf.

Even before this responsibility claim was supposedly released from al-Qaeda:

"We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

Bush was already pinning the tail on the donkey:

"The US strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," he said. "Those who committed this crime must be brought to justice."

Of course, we all know "extremists" by name. Then why, now, are those dastardly al-Qaeda folks denying it? The Musharraf government had even named the al-Qaeda operative, Ali Mehsud, who now publicly states it would be against his tribal traditions to kill a woman, and that he had nothing to do with it. Speaking on behalf of al-Qaeda - and who in that shadowy world doesn't? - and the Taliban - or more precisely, a recently formed Pakistani version of same - he claims

"This was a well-planned conspiracy carried out by the intelligence agencies, army and government for their own political motives," he said.

So who speaks on behalf of whom? Who really killed Benazir? Check out the above video for the photo of the guy. As for who put Benazir in harm's way, we should look beyond UBL, America's favorite anti-Christ, and a little closer to home... like that bumbling, foreign-policy wizard, the one who thinks the so-called war on terror is a great idea, a guy also known as W ...