Bhutto Was Too Meet With US Congressmen the Night She Was Assassinated

by Scott Creighton 

It is now being reported that Benazir Bhutto was scheduled to meet with two congressmen the evening of her assassination to present to them evidence that Musharraf had been using some of the 5 billion dollars, sent to him by the US to fight terrorism, to rig the upcoming elections.

“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.” McClatchy.

From what the spokesperson says in the interview, they didn’t trust the pro-Musharraf Bush administration so they were taking the report to our congress instead. I guess they never heard of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

***UPDATE*** State Department denies claims made by Robert Novak that they ignored pleas from the Bhutto camp for additional security. Story from CNN here.

(In my previous article I wondered why Rice would negociate for Bhutto’s return without providing security from Blackwater or any of the other contractors they routinely use for such affairs. Now we see that Bhutto may have been asking for such help all along. What a sickening development this would be. This is truely an administration of monsters.)

Rice Scripted Bhutto’s Return then Left her Unprotected

by Scott Crieghton 

Two months ago Secretary of State, Condi Rice, convinced Pakistan’s president and current dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to allow exiled Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto back into the deeply troubled country.

Rice also had to convince Bhutto it to come out of exile and go back into public spotlight and the rough and tumble world of Pakistani politics. She did so with a promise of US support and a shared power structure agreement with Musharraf. (Slate story here.)

But after two attempts on her life, begining almost the minute she touched down in Pakistan, one might start to wonder if the former Prime Minister wasn’t set up from the begining. Especially when you consider Bhutto was sent there with no additional security.

***UPDATE*** key questions raised about the events as they unfolded. Check the BBC stroy here.

***UPDATE*** BBC edits the David Frost interview with Bhutto and removes the mention of OBL being murdered. TheZoo has the story, here.

***UPDATE*** new video of her assassination shows her head scarf move when the bullet struck her in the head. CNN story here.

***UPDATE*** doctors who examined her are distancing themselves from the “official” story that she hit her head while ducking. They insist they didn’t want to report that story and that they wanted to do an autopsy, but the officials there told them no. NYT story here.

***UPDATE*** right on que, Pakistan rejects offers to assist in probe of attack. Story at HuffPo here.

Salon Excludes Kucinich from “Which Democrat is a Winner List”, So I Respond in Kind

 by Scott Creighton 

Salon dot com just sent me an email with a headline story about which democratic candidate could be a “winner”; and guess who wasn’t even included in the list?  You see, I was signed up to get their daily newsletters.

 Not anymore.

Edwards Decries Corporate Greed While Bush Protects Bankers

 by Scott Creighton 

John Edwards is intensifying the rhetoric of his campaign. He is now on a mission to expose the corporate greed that is destroying this country. What used to be considered the conspiracy theory ramblings of the malcontents is quickly becoming the rallying cry of several campaigns from Gravel to Paul and from Kucinich now to Edwards.

“Everything about America is threatened today…this is an epic struggle for the future of America,” Edwards told the cheering crowd. “Corporate greed and the very powerful use their money to control Washington and this corrupting influence is destroying the middle class.” HuffPo

“”We will defeat greed and fear - and strike a blow for working people, for those with no voice, for those Washington has ignored too long.”

Bhutto Names OBL Murderer. And Gives Motive for Her Asssassination

There are some very, very interesting things (motive for her killing and the “murder of Osama bin Laden”…what?) in this video. Thanks go out to Shayne at TPZoo for finding it.

Musharraf’s Martial Plan: NYT Op-Ed by B. Bhutto

published Nov. 7th 2007 NYT 

NOV. 3, 2007, will be remembered as the blackest day in the history of Pakistan. Let us be perfectly clear: Pakistan is a military dictatorship. Last Saturday, Gen. Pervez Musharraf removed all pretense of a transition to democracy by conducting what was in effect yet another extraconstitutional coup.

4 Sharif supporters killed in shooting near Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — At least four supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were killed Thursday when unidentified gunmen fired at his party’s procession in the outskirts of Islamabad, local press reports said.

    Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), was due to address election rallies in the eastern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, some 30 kms south from Islamabad. (story)

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

  This article is a combination of several articles.

NYT article here;  NYT article here; and an MSNBC News article here.

“The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto, who was appearing at a political rally, was fired upon by a gunman at close range, quickly followed by a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide attacker.”

“Her arrival procession on Oct. 18 demonstrated the strength of her Pakistan Peoples Party, as did the quarter of a million loyal and enthusiastic supporters who went to Karachi to greet her.”

“She has also attacked conservatives in the government, including officials close to the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, accusing them of aiding and abetting extremists, and supporting the bombers who attacked her.

“She has raised a warning against her old enemy, Pakistan’s foremost intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and officials from the era of Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who deposed and hanged her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, saying they are working against her.”

“Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime mister. He was executed in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.”

“Ms. Bhutto’s assassination immediately raised questions about whether the parliamentary elections scheduled for January will now go ahead or be postponed. Mr. Musharraf was carrying out an emergency meeting with top government officials Thursday following Ms. Bhutto’s death, the aide to Mr. Musharraf said. He said no decision had been made on whether to delay the national elections.”

“Parties across the country were stepping up campaigning for the Jan. 8 elections after a Muslim holiday late last week and a holiday on Tuesday for the birthday of Pakistan’s founder and revered first leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.”

“The elections are for provincial parliaments and for a National Assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn. It was not clear if they would still be held on schedule.”

The War on Democracy by John Pilger

The Beastly Beatitudes of George W. “B”

 by Scott Creighton 

…for my Mother on this Christmas Eve Day.

“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven;”   (Matthew ch. 5: 17-20)

About 5 miles west of the Sea of Galilee a man rose from the crowd and ascended a small hill to address his disciples and all those to come who would heed his words. This address came to be known as The Sermon on the Mount and it was recorded according to St. Matthew in his first group of studies.

This single event personifies the new faith that was to be solidified in our social, political, and theological history, better than any other. For in it we see what is truly at the heart of the teachings of that man and by extension, the potential that lies within us all.