I’m Gonna Set It Straight, This Watergate…
Oh My, It’s A Mirage
I’m Tellin’ Y’all It’s Sabotage [bb]
To me, the “sunroof theory” sounded contrived; it was insult on top of murder. A lot of us aren’t buying what Pakistan is selling, with regards to the assassination of Benazir. The NYT has more (thanks, Camille):
New details of Benazir Bhutto’s final moments, including indications that her doctors felt pressured to conform to government accounts of her death, fueled the arguments over her assassination on Sunday and added to the pressure on Pakistan’s leaders to accept an international inquiry.
Athar Minallah, a board member of the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was treated, released her medical report along with an open letter showing that her doctors wanted to distance themselves from the government theory that Ms. Bhutto had died by hitting her head on a lever of her car’s sunroof during the attack.
In his letter, Mr. Minallah, who is also a prominent lawyer, said the doctors believed that an autopsy was needed to provide the answers to how she actually died. Their request for one last Thursday was denied by the local police chief.
Two other obstacles to an autopsy: objections on religious grounds and the slain woman’s husband. Asif Ali Zardari refused to hand over his wife’s remains to a government he cannot trust:
On Sunday, Ms. Bhutto’s husband, Mr. Zardari, said he received a call from the Punjab home secretary on Thursday evening with a request for his permission for a post-mortem examination. He said he refused because he did not trust the government investigation to prove the cause of her death.
In ordinary circumstances, an autopsy runs counter to Islamic belief that a body should not be tampered with and should be buried as quickly as possible. But several Pakistanis said that in certain classes of Muslim society, particularly the better educated and more urban people, autopsies were not ruled out on religious grounds…
An international inquiry on Ms. Bhutto’s death could not be carried out without an exhumation, a difficult decision in a Muslim country, Mr. Latif said…
But Ms. Bhutto’s supporters noted that the family and the party were so furious at President Musharraf, whom many of them blame for her death, that it was unlikely the Bhuttos would trust an exhumation that involved the government.
Requests for an International Inquiry (see: Rafik Hariri) are increasing, thanks to the Pakistani government’s feeble insistence that Bhutto was not shot. So much for their CYA strategy. It’s far better for the government to put forth this sunroof-based nonsense instead of owning up to the grim fact that security for the most popular politician in Pakistan was pathetic.
The government’s explanation, that Ms. Bhutto died after hitting her head as she ducked from the gunfire or was tossed by the force of the suicide blast, has been greeted with disbelief by her supporters, ordinary Pakistanis and medical experts. While some of the mystery could be cleared up by exhuming the body, it is not clear whether Ms. Bhutto’s family would give permission, such is their distrust of the government.
Bless Dr. Khan, for daring to speak the truth:
Mr. Minallah distributed the medical report with his open letter to the Pakistani news media and The New York Times. He said the doctor who wrote the report, Mohammad Mussadiq Khan, the principal professor of surgery at the Rawalpindi General Hospital, told him on the night of Ms. Bhutto’s death that she had died of a bullet wound.
Dr. Khan declined through Mr. Minallah to speak with a reporter on the grounds that he was an employee of a government hospital and was fearful of government reprisals if he did not support its version of events.
A government official agreed with Dr. Khan, until the truth was massaged in to excuses which inspired incredulity:
On the night Ms. Bhutto was assassinated, an unidentified Interior Ministry spokesman was quoted by the official Pakistani news agency as saying that she had died of a “bullet wound in the neck by a suicide bomber.â€
The next day, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, the Interior Ministry spokesman, recast that version of events, saying at a news conference that Ms. Bhutto died of a wound sustained when she hit her head on a lever attached to the sun roof of the vehicle as she ducked a bullet and was thrown about by the force of the blast. “Three shots were fired but they missed her,†Brigadier Cheema said. “Then there was an explosion.â€
Brigadier Cheema must be a fantastic poker player:
Brigadier Cheema made clear, however, that an international inquiry was not in the cards. “At this point in time we are quite confident with the kind of progress that is going on with our inquiries,†he said Sunday.
Foreign experts did not have the expertise, he said, to deal with the peculiarities of tribal areas that are the base of the nation’s terrorist activities. “This is not just an ordinary criminal case where you only need forensic expert,†he said. “We understand the dynamics better.â€
in related news –
BUT…
She didn’t have a chance. 🙁
The new video that has come out shows her being hit by the bullet pretty clearly – her head slumping as a result of the gunfire cannot be attributed to anything else. It is shocking that the official version still remains “accidental blunt force trauma”. But then I forget that in that part of the world video evidence is not that important – remember the Gujarat Tehelka thing – I don’t think anything came out of that either.
What difference it made, whether she died from shrapnel wounds or hitting her head while ducking from the blast, still escapes me. She is dead as a result of an attack on her person. The exact nature of the death is near, if not, irrelevant, no?
Brigadier Cheema has the unenviable task of being the spokesperson of a self-deluding, obdurate, purblind autocrat [anyone else remember Comical ali. And then, who can forget Powell’s glorious UN tales.]
The G&M believes the reason they brought up the sunroof handle was to give BB a less glorious death and thus blunt her development into a martyr. It’s no different from the logic that was at play around Pat Tillman’s death. We are all the same. All of us. Venal to the core.
It is relevant if it’s a lie. What I am troubled by is the cover-up element, like the doctors being “influenced” to ignore their own findings and Cheema’s spin on the assassination. Additionally, the security experts quoted in the NYT article which this post is based on think that her being shot is far worse for the Pakistani govt to cop to, because it makes them look negligent; all of that does make this situation worse to me. I get where you’re coming from, though.
Another possible motive behind this cover-up by the government is to shrug off their responsibility of protecting Bhutto. If they can make people believe that she did not die from a bullet or from shrapnel, but by her own sudden reaction to the blast, then it puts them in a much better position. One should keep in mind that everyone inside Bhutto’s Land Rover survived the blast, thereby strengthening the government’s tacit claim that she would have survived if not for her head hitting the lever of the sun-roof.
“What difference it made, whether she died from shrapnel wounds or hitting her head while ducking from the blast, still escapes me”
There’s also the consideration of herl legacy. Mushy is trying to deny her martydom status by contriving a death that implies a cowardly act of ducking. The Islamic culture prides those who martyr themselves with blood, naming them shaheeds. By spinning the story, Mushy’s attempts seem to quell giving her a legacy, which may be larger in death than in life. Denying her such a patriotic death in the name of democracy could be such a motive.
CNN concurs: CNN national security analyst Ken Robinson, who worked in U.S. intelligence in Pakistan during the Clinton administration, said he suspects Bhutto’s enemies are attempting to control her legacy by minimizing the attack’s role in her demise. “They’re trying to deny her a martyr’s death, and in Islam, that’s pretty important,” Robinson said.
But a great many of us also think conspiracy theories at this stage in the game are overblown and unhelpful. The last thing that this part of the world needs are more conspiracy theories. I for one am still willing to see what the government of Pakistan (and Mushie) is selling.
Also, Bhutto is dead and the death of anyone is a bad thing. I won’t be shedding many tears though. To put it simply, Bhutto craved power more than she feared death. People like that are usually (or at least should be) prepared for what befalls them. Here is a good critique written before the assassination.
The entire world should deny her “Martyr status.” If people really think this woman was a martyr then we have a lot more to worry about.
I dont believe that Benazir deserved to die by an assasin. She should have been tried in a Court of law along with her criminal husband. Also the people who killed Benazir probably did not do it out of a sense of justice but to settle some old score.
Having said that, I am not shedding any tears for this woman. She was hands down more corrupt than both Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif. This ‘chairperson for life’ of the PPP was no liberal and her two terms in power were especially aliberal. The extra judicial killings and people missing under her reign was actually worse than Nawaz Sharif’s reign. This is a woman who quite possibly had her brother killed. If she did not order the killings, she was absolutely involved in the cover up.
Word. Live by corruption, die by corruption.
I suppose that the denial of martyrdom status makes the most sense (tho’ really, the difference in proximate causation is . . . well, it’s just ridiculous). I guess I also take it as a given that the gov’t will lie about it. I just thought they’d lie for a useful purpose.
Yeah, someone dodges a bullet, only to crack their skull on a sunroof handle, all with an amazingly coincidental explosion happening at the same time. Is Cheema a spokesperson for the Pakistan Government or is he auditioning for the next Monty Python stage play? Why doesn’t Cheema just admit that Bhutto was bitten by a tiger? That would be more believable than what he’s trying to paint.
Those security experts are talking nonsense. The assassin(s) managed to shoot at her and blow themselves up. Thats a failure in security. Period. How does the govt look less negligent if the shots missed?
The reason for the govts idiotic claim that the cause of Benazir’s death was accidental suicide by sunroof is sleazy and mean political gamesmanship. Once Bhutto was safely buried, knowing that Bhutto’s family and supporters wouldnt allow the indignity of exhumation they came up with this deliberate lie “to give BB a less glorious death and thus blunt her development into a martyr” (in the words of the poster above).
Those sleazeballs must have been congratulating themselves on being so very clever. But their ‘clever’ tactic has backfired big time and made them lose whatever face they had left. And much of the world is watching their humiliating loss of credibility.
umm… i am not a fan either, but that’s a bit harsh. i dont know abotu whether she feared death or not – but given that she was greeted with a bomb explosion the day she landed in pakistan and yet kept pushing forward into the crowds, it does speak of a certain amount and a certain type of bravery. then again, it isnt a sin to seek power for power’s sake alone. Closer to home, Jean Chretien, exPM of Canada, has publicly stated in his memoir that his goal as a politician is to get power and to hold on to power – and IMO he’s been a good administrator and good for Canada. Desire is good. Desire for Power is necessary because without power one can do nothing.
i can be debate the issue from another end and blast the misuse of power, the nepotism at play through her rule, her failure to live up to feminist principles etc but it is just a little courteous to let the earth on someone’s grave go cold before dredging up her skeletons (sic).
btw – here’s a conspiracy theory. Zardari was estranged from bhutto. He stands to gain the most with her death. now he is unofficially leader of one of the main opposition parties and can pull the strings to his heart’s content. so, he could eb behind all this. If this is too far fetched, remember this. Zardari is alleged to have had murtaza bhutto killed because murtaza publicly humilated him (by forcibly shaving half of zardari’s moustache). The games these guys play are at a level that are beyond the hoi polloi (such as us).
In malayalam there is a saying:
Vaal-eduthavan vaalale(the one who took the sword will be done by the sword)….’nuff said.
Cliff
Also the vaporous coverage of her death in the American media is a new low for American media. How about adding some perspective instead of the ‘brave-woman-democracy lover’ memo which was recited by every analyst who showed up on tv to discuss her death.
Abhi, are you accusing the NYT of engaging in recklessness? I understand your concern about conspiracy theories…actually I don’t…I thought you liked them! 😉
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you, I think it is okay to be disturbed that the Pakistani government is saying one thing while doctors, witnesses et al are saying another right now. If not now, when information floods out, what stage are we allowed to wonder about what’s going on? They’re selling some nonsense regarding a sunroof. I’m not buying that. If they want to sell me something else, I’ll poke at it and take a wary look.
2 · A N N A said
I’m still mulling over what she said in an interview with the New Yorker:
Powerful words in general, even more so for me, being the daddy of a little girl. It gives me pause to think about the great women in history and how often they have paid with their lives for the struggles they have led.
It is because of her fight and her determination to not be put down, to not be cowed, or forced to hide that she was cut down. Even with all of her faults, and she had a few, Benazir Bhutto provided a role model for women in Pakistan and around the world. She gave all women the chance to say “I am more than you allow me to be. I have the right to lead my own life as I see fit”. In her own nation, currently being ripped asunder by the forces of extremism battling the powers behind a fragile status quo, she provided a clear and dangerous message of empowerment, of a third way out of the madness, that the lunatic fringes would not tolerate. If the powers of blind fundamentalism suddenly admitted that they wrong along about the role of women then their grip on other powers unravels too as everything opens to examination.
So they killed her. And they could mean, Al-Qaeda, or Musharaff, or some other political rival. Maybe we all had a small part in that assassination as well by standing idly by while she stood for a better future for her people, and for all people.
And I know that some don’t think that’s as important as other issues in the world, but let’s be honest, true equality and empowerment for women leads to more freedom and prosperity for all people. As long as a culture is allowed to discriminate against an entire gender for the sake of religion or tradition then other freedoms whither and die too. And then, well, we all suffer.
Hat tip to 3 Quarks Daily for linking to the New Yorker Profile.
I said almost the same thing yesterday, to one of you. Unfortunately, I did not use the word “vaporous”. That’s a good word. I’m stealing it.
It seems to me that all of these responses to Benazir’s death ignore the main point, which is why in India and Pakistan there is such an undercurrent of violence that threatens to erupt at every turn. Perhaps those who don’t live there don’t have an impression of this truth.
4 · MB said
It is very relevant. It shows us how manipulative Pak is. The Pak authorities for a long time and the press of Pakistan except Geo TV is giving people what they want to hear, not what they need to be hearing. Look at Kargil war or providing refuge to Dawood, they were all major coverups, not to mention minorities civil rights. Not surprising considering the track record of Pak. Bottom line: You cannot have democracy with the name “islamic republic of pak”.
She had power twice. What did she do with it other than give her husband the keys to the national treasury? It seems that she craved power more for the mass adulation (on which she really got off) than for the opportunity it provided to bring change and do good.
Anna and brown_dbd correctly point out why the Pakistan Government might want to claim that it was hitting her head against the lever which led to cardiac arrest. Note that they don’t claim that there were no bullets, just that none hit her. Depending on how/if she hit her head against the lever, it could lead to a bleeding wound, and the trauma could lead to cardiac arrest. It is not something you can completely rule out.
It is at least possible that both might be true – she could have been hit by a bullet which grazed or passed through (so that there is no ‘foreign object’ in her body, which is the Government’s claim) – and also hit her head against the lever, and that caused the cardiac arrest. It may not be a simple either/or.
It bears mentioning that PPP does gain by claiming it was a bullet and then not agreeing to a post-mortem autopsy. This way, it never becomes completely clear what happened, but they can still get political mileage out of it, and they don’t run the risk of a finding that both things happened but the head hit caused the trauma leading to cardiac arrest.
(Just as a side note, I was quite surprized how many videos of the event are emerging, in addition to the media videos. It is possible that all these videos will give rise to a mini-industry of analysts and conspiracy theorists, like the Kennedy assassination.)
But as far as security, there is simply no way to deny that it was woefully inadequate, no matter whether a bullet hit her or not. Why anyone should get into a bullet proof vehicle, and then stick their head out (or be allowed to do so) is a very big question. Similarly, usual practice in VVIP convoys – to have several identical vehicles, to have no intervening space, to drive quickly through cities, to be surrounded on all sides by outriders or buffer vehicles, to have a siren car, to get in and get out in enclosed spaces, to leave potentially insecure areas immediately, etc etc – none of these were observed. Several blocks of that road really ought to have been shut down to people and traffic till she left the venue. Instead, you clearly see thronging crowds surging her vehicle. Given that the threat against her was specific, and they tried to get her in Karachi just a few weeks ago, it really boggles the mind how such a big security lapse was allowed to occur.
It doesn’t really matter, in that sense, how she actually died – there were huge, gaping, unforgivable security lapses no matter. It’s also worth mentioning that the assassination took place in Rawalpindi, a garrison town, where the Pakistan Army HQ is located, as are Musharraf’s, and all senior generals’ houses, considered a fairly secure area.
23 · Topcat said
Well, to be a little clearer, I was saying that I didn’t see what purpose it served the gov’t to quibble over the exact cause of death when it is clear to any person with two brain cells to rub together that she died as a result of an assassination attempt.
4 · MB said
political mileage can be derived from the media hype about the real perpetrator, motive and the benefeciaries of the assassination. It is all about politics whether it is here or there. Who cares about anything else ?
Hogwash. The video evidence clearly shows shots being fired at her head in close range, her head scarf fluttering at the point of entry of the bullet, and her falling straight down.
it’s all rotten. the gov., the PPP, the other parties.
god bless amerika.
It’s not like newspapers have never overdramatized stuff like this before to sell newspapers. Then again, I care very little that Bhutto is dead. One less corrupt “leader” in the world. Maybe now some real leadership will rise in Pakistan (and not the kind related to her). Maybe I am thus being surly about this whole issue and appreciate the vaporousness of it all.
Assasination attempt?? The govt was trying to do two things 1. Covering up the security lapses. How did a man with a gun and another wearing explosives get that close to BB. 2. I may be wrong but maybe they were trying to make her assasination look less glorious considering the elections next month. Oh, she is a not a martyr she just hit her head and died.
Dev, I haven’t seen a video that lets you so easily rule that out, or even one that shows her falling straight down. Care to link it here?
I did also say a cottage industry of analysts will start up with all these videos in play, just like with the JFK story, and clearly you’re leading the pack. I should have added that some or all of them will also claim monopoly over the truth.
Welcome to South Asia. 🙂
I’m bothered that she is being held up as a face of the feminist movement in the ‘Eastern’ world. I remember people saying that she made a lot of promises to peasant women that she didn’t follow through on, and that she could’ve helped the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Can anyone point me to any sources that point out that she had it harder as a woman in politics? Other than Benazir herself, of course–which is what bothers me most; there doesn’t seem to be much analysis of her political legacy in the media or in the blogosphere, just misled adulation, IMO. I also want to point out that while probably the vast majority of women in Pakistan find their sex to be a daily burden, there are more populous pockets with a more ‘Western’ sensibility. I have a friend from Lahore who had a hard time getting people to believe that she isn’t under house arrest 24/7 back home. So yeah I feel like it was exploitative of Bhutto to use the ‘I stand for all women’ rhetoric, especially since her actions show that she never actually followed through on it!
As for how she died- I hold that slow-moving arsenic was injected into her bloodstream while she was sleeping, and in combination with the power of the magical ifrit, she just happened to fall and hit her head at the very same time that three shots were fired and a bomb went off. 🙂
Though can be called as conspiracy theorists or media hype hijacking the investigations of security agencies , some of the questions raised were genuine enough that need to be answered or clarified by the govt. This can atleast bring the “truth” out from the clutter and noise. I guess this can be called as investigative journalism ? Bhutto’s supporters would claim that all corruption charges were foisted as a political vendetta by the army which was against her family right from her father’s days.
Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq-DwHXx4oI
Still want to give credence to the govt claim that she died from accidental suicide by sunroof lever?
<
blockquote>I’m bothered that she is being held up as a face of the feminist movement in the ‘Eastern’ world. True. She was not a champion of womens rights and never claimed to be one but with all her faults she acted as a role model as a woman who held her own in the male dominated pak politics.
In the talk show with Simi Garewal she talks about how she constantly underplayed her western liberal education and upbringing in order to avoid controversies in conservative Pak.
I am bothered by the feminist tag myself. She was a muslim woman, and that typically brings a huge burden with it; but she also inherited the Bhutto mantle from her dad, something that made up for any disadvantage many times over. Also, she was lucky enough to be compared to Mushy on democratic credentials. By any objective standards, she is appalling…witness her handing over “control” of her “democratic” party to her husband.
I’m weirded out that her son is apparently the same age/year as me. I can’t even imagine what that responsibility and paranoia must feel like.
He can’t make the situation any better, but he very probably can’t make it any worse either.
11 · Pagal_Aadmi_for_debauchery said
Bibi Benazir-ji stole ~$1B, and when adjusted for inflation is about $1.7B today. I’m sure that all that money was split amongst her and her immediate friends/family. On the other hand, Mushie-bayya swindled the American $5B, and he has distributed that money amongst the military. Therefore, Mushie-bayya stole far more money, but he did so much more insidiously and secretly. His distribution of this fraudulently-earned money was distributed more democratically, instead of horded by Benazir.
Believe on Wednesday what you believe on Monday!
The “feminist” tag is just plain wrong. She had an arranged marriage to a land owning tribal leader, so that she would be more acceptable to the people of Pakistan as a married woman, and so much of Pakistani politics is feudal. She indulged in rampant nepotism, appointing him to the cabinet and letting him skim liberally off Pakistan’s wealth, such as it was, and then screamed his innocence from the rooftops even comparing him to Mandela in his imprisonment.
New video released by Pakistan government comprehensively proves Bhutto not hit by bullets.
7 · brown_dbd said
I don’t think that it was a Land Rover. It was a Toyota Landcruiser. For sure, this is an attempt to discredit BB from a “Shaheeda” title. His bold-faced lie is a big slap on the face of every Pakistani. I get this impression that he and his employers are also slapping the face of everyone in the world, and not just Pakis. Perhaps Mushie-bayya is taunting the West and all Pakis by this admission of Cheema.
Anyone think there will be an exhumation and second autopsy outside of Pakistan ? How are autopsies viewed by Muslims, are they considered a desecration of the corpse ?
New footage. From a different angle.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=344536176059189156&q=rajnikant+bullet&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
Sorry about the previous link. This should work.
Not all western commentary on BB is unremittingly positive. William Dalrymple, who was never a worshipper at her shrine (the account of her in his Age of Kali is pretty withering) wrote a deeply unfavourable further account in The Observer on December 30. It’s at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2233261,00.html
Rahul, that has to be one of the best comments in Sepia history.
Sorry Dev, the video you linked in does not rule out a blunt trauma in addition to a possible bullet injury. In fact the concussion hypothesis is explicitly discussed by one of the experts in the video itself. Some of the footage actually seems more grainy than stuff from the JFK assassination, another reason the interpretation is likely to be go on for a long time.
And Dev, would you do everyone the favor of actually reading the entire comment you are responding to instead of picking off one or two phrases? I clearly said that it is possible that there was both a bullet wound and blunt trauma leading to cardiac arrest. Your video does not rule out either possibility, nor their joint occurrence.
I also identified the motivation for the Government and the PPP to each spin the story, so I’m hardly ‘giving credence’ exclusively to the Government version.