Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Benazir Bhutto speaks from the grave... along with Osama bin Laden?

With David Frost in an interview on November 2, 2007, Benazir Bhutto talks about the attempted assassination in Karachi and her dealings with Musharraf.



But the weirdest moment comes at about 6:13 or so into the interview where she talks about those who might be trying to kill her. She mentions a military man and without naming him says he had dealings with Omar Sheik (sp?) who was the one who murdered Osama bin Laden.

Murdered Osama bin Laden?

And Frost didn't stop and shout,"What did you say?"

Murdered Osama bin Laden?

Is this why Bhutto is dead?

Our boogey man since 9/11/01 is dead?

...

Then who is the poor bastard who is pretending to be Osama and giving us red and orange alert fits for the last six years? Is he Osama Smith of the CIA? The NSA? The Hollywood Extras Corporation?

...

Of course Bush and Cheney know, don't they? They had to keep Osama alive to keep the fear alive; the fear that propelled us into this unholy quagmire of Iraq and $100 barrels of crude.

Update 1/26:
An excellent and different perspective of the character of Benazir Bhutto by Adjit Hegde of Lenin's Tomb.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much of what we think we know is simply fiction?

mapaghimagsik said...

Rosa Brooks has an interesting point today in the LA times regarding Bhutto, the champion of democracy who bequeathed leadership to her son.

Democracy indeed.

ellroon said...

Bhutto was a piece of work all by herself, but she didn't need to be assassinated.

Her poor son. Someone said he is too callow and too young, but how would you like to inherit that kind of dynasty? His grandfather, two uncles and his mother all disposed of rather abruptly.

That said, dynasties have no place in democracies. Tell that to the Bushes, the Clintons, the Roosevelts, the Adamses....

Anonymous said...

How about her mother? Weren't her brothers also killed at some point?

Anonymous said...

The second Roosevelt is still pretty popular on the left. The presidency as an institution has had monarchical tendencies since the beginning, though.

ellroon said...

FDR was a great man, thank goodness. Bush's family was involved with the minor conspiracy of trying to do away with him. It was hushed up in rather a hurry.

Think Benazir's brothers were assassinated, but not sure. Off to google...

Anonymous said...

Bush's family have been involved in a lot of things, some of them even less savory.

ellroon said...

Thus they've earned the name: The Bush Family Cabal...

And yes, from Wikipedia:
Benazir Bhutto's father, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was removed from office following a military coup in 1977 led by the then military chief General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed martial law but promised to hold elections within three months. But later, instead of fulfilling the promise of holding general elections, General Zia charged Mr. Bhutto with conspiring to murder the father of dissident politician Ahmed Raza Kasuri. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sentenced to death by the martial law court.

Despite the accusation being "widely doubted by the public",[7] and despite many clemency appeals from foreign leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979. Appeals for clemency were dismissed by acting President General Zia. Benazir Bhutto and her mother were held in a "police camp" until the end of May, after the execution.[8]

In 1985, Benazir Bhutto's brother Shahnawaz was killed under suspicious circumstances in France. The killing of another of her brothers, Mir Murtaza, in 1996, contributed to destabilizing her second term as Prime Minister.