New Year?

The stories haven't changed. Sinking economy. Global unrest. Politics as usual.

While displaced people from the Katrina disaster are still waiting for help to rebuild, the State of Mississippi wants to take $600 million from the federal monies it was given in aid to expand the port on the Gulf of Mexico.

An aide to Benazir Bhutto says that on the day she was shot and killed, Bhutto was planning to confirm the rumors that Musharraf has been planning to fix the upcoming parliamentary elections, and furthermore, that US aid money is funding the plans.

Bhutto's 19-year-old son has been declared leader of the Pakistan People's Party, with his father and two others holding control until he comes of age, less like a democratic people's party than a kingdom, prompting Tariq Ali to claim that the Party is being treated like a family heirloom.

Kenyans are rioting over a hotly contested presidential election.

After Ron Paul rose to the top of the heap in polls following a May debate, Fox News has barred him from participating in an upcoming one. Fox says they are simply barring those who fall below a certain polling percentage, but Josh Marshall points out that Fred Thompson, who will be in the debate, is running lower in the polls than Paul.

Privacy International has ranked the US at the bottom of the heap world-wide for respect and support for its citizens' right to privacy, calling it an "endemic surveillance country."

(Click to enlarge chart.)You could start praying.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

All in the Family: More Bhutto Intrigue

December 14, 2007:

There are deep divisions within the Bhutto family. In 1996, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Benazir's younger brother and her political opponent, was brutally gunned down just steps from his house in Karachi, while his sister was the prime minister.

The authorities claimed he died in a police shootout with his body guards, but the public -- depending on whom you talk to -- point fingers at Benazir and her husband Asif ali Zardari.

[...]

Fatima is Murtaza's eldest daughter. A graduate of Columbia University, the 25-year-old spends her days writing and campaigning against her aunt, who, she says, is "one of the most corrupt leaders the world has seen."

Many Pakistanis see Fatima as an alternative to Benazir, a serious challenger in the coming years and the rightful heir to the country's most powerful political dynasty.

[...]

"Part of the problem with Pakistani politics is that an entire nation has been held hostage to a very few, who treat politics like it's a family business. We need the field to open up so that is why I am not running."

  PBS Frontline/World

Because….your mother is not part of the family???

Fatima Bhutto campaigning for
her mother in Pakistan's Sindh province.

The questions and accusations grow as elections draw closer. Before I leave she tells me that she is worried about what Benazir's return means for the country. "Her legacy as a two-time prime minister is a legacy of gross corruption. She is estimated to have stolen $1.5 to $3 billion from the Pakistani treasury. It's one of state violence..."

When I ask Fatima if a reconciliation is in the cards, her response is a vehement, "No."

"Benazir needs to be tried in court for the crimes that she has committed. We do not see eye to eye on anything and we do not subscribe to her distorted version of democracy."

It would seem there are many places to look for the agent of Ms. Bhutto's death.

Huckabee: Be Very Afraid

"We ought to have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our borders and particularly to make sure if there's any unusal activity of Pakistanis coming into the country. We just need to be very, very thorough in looking at every aspect of our own security internally because, again, we live in a very, very dangerous time," Huckabee said during a news conference Thursday night in West Des Moines.

  Radio Iowa

Now he’s afraid specifically of murderers coming in hordes from Pakistan. How stupid. They didn’t come streaming in after the earlier failed attack on Bhutto that killed 136. Pakistan didn’t just now become a center of terrorist activity.

Fear-mongering. Generalized profiling. Fascism.

Huckabee called Bhutto's death is a tragedy, but he suggested she had been a threat to Islamic fundamentalists. "An educated, sophisticated, strong, capable woman leader -- that does pose a threat to those who don't believe that women should be given that platform and that level of equality," Huckabee said.

Not-so-subliminal message: if Hillary is elected, we can expect terrorist attacks here.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Bhutto Assassination

On November 2, 2007, David Frost interviewed Benazir Bhutto, at which time she says she had sent a letter to Musharraf telling him where to look if she were to be assassinated, naming individuals who might be financing the extremists carrying out the suicide bombings.

What is very strange is that she casually mentions Omar Sheikh as "the man who murdered Osama Bin Laden."

Bloggers and blog readers are discussing it a-plenty, with many suggesting she made a slip and meant to say Daniel Pearl. But how strange that she doesn't notice what she's said, nor does David Frost bat an eye. Was he listening to what she was saying? (The entire interview is here, and it's never mentioned again or cleared up.)

I would think there might have been some news agencies digging into it or even a follow-up on the Frost show after surely some viewers wrote in or called, or an editor noticed it, but I can't find anything.

What's that all about?

Addendum:

Pakistani police abandoned their protective posts before Bhutto was shot.

Report from a McClatchy special correspondent at the scene:

Three to five shots were fired at her, witnesses said. She was hit in the neck and slumped back in the vehicle. Blood poured from her head, and she never regained consciousness. Moments after the shooting, there was a huge explosion to the left of the vehicle.

[...]

Police officers had frisked the 3,000 to 4,000 people attending Thursday's rally when they entered the park, but as the speakers from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party droned on, the police abandoned many of their posts. As she drove out through the gate, her main protection appeared to be her own bodyguards, who wore their usual white T-shirts inscribed: "Willing to die for Benazir."

  McClatchy

There is now a new official report on Bhutto’s death, claiming she died from hitting her head on her car, rather than from being shot. No autopsy was performed. CNN’s Ken Robinson suggests that is a political ploy to try to deny her a martyr’s death.

Further On Bhutto Assassination

A friend of Benazir Bhutto makes a good point: the killing was not a normal suicide bombing, because the killer made a point to shoot Ms. Bhutto first. The implication is that it was a government hit (making use of fanatics) disguised to look like a terrorist suicide bombing. I'd guess it could well be, and in fact, my jaded nature says that's most likely.

It also could be that, the previous suicide bombing attempt at killing her having failed, they decided the bombing part alone was not guarantee enough. Either way, it's not a simple terrorist attack on a group of innocent people; it's a winning situation for Musharraf.

Nawaz Sharif picks up Bhutto's torch, and George Bush claims it was the work of "cowardly extremists".

Hat tip to TPM, which also reports that a group of Sharif supporters took sniper fire earlier today, making it all the more suspicious.

Benazir Bhutto - Assassinated

Exiled, returned. Blocked from participating. Musharraf then called down an 'emergency' lockdown of the country, imprisoned opponents and protestors. Lifted martial law when international pressure became too great and promised he'd allow the elections to go on. But apparently, someone just couldn't take the chance that he might lose anything. Bhutto was shot and killed today at a political rally, along with 20 other people.

**The Yahoo report was sloppy. Apparently, it was a suicide bombing. When she'd returned from exile, a suicide bomber managed to kill 136 people gathered to receive her. Taliban will get the blame, not Musharraf. Terrorists come in handy when you need them. Ask George.

******Okay, I'm sorry. It appears that, sloppiness notwithstanding, Bhutto was shot first, and then the suicide bomber blew himself up.

Update

Welcome Home to Pakistan, Benazir

Two bombs exploded Thursday night near a truck carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her triumphant return to Pakistan after eight years in exile, killing at least 108 people and wounding 150, an official said. Party workers and police said Bhutto was unhurt.

[...]

Asked about such threats on Wednesday in Dubai, Bhutto said Islam forbids suicide bombings and attacks on her. "Muslims know if they attack a woman they will burn in hell," she said.

  Yahoo

Welcome to the 21st century Benazir.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.