WASHINGTON - The CIA believes a Pakistani tribal leader's network was behind the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
No surprise there. As the incident was happening, we were being told who was behind it.
It is kind of like 9/11. Our government couldn't connect the dots to prevent it, but as the towers were falling, suddenly the dots were connected and they knew the identities of all the people who were behind the attack, and by the evening of 9/11, the FBI had been to all these places where the terrorists had been prior to launching the attack, and it was all Al Qaeda's fault. But, they were unable to get there on the evening of 9/10 and prevent the attack.
Same thing -- now we know who killed Bhutto, and there is no need for an investigation.
Baitullah Mehsud is an extremist with strong ties to al-Qaida and is based in the federally administered, lawless tribal area of Pakistan, along the Afghan border. He has been blamed for an organized campaign of assassinations of Pakistani officials and suicide bombings in the country.
This guy is a terrorist, he is horrible -- who's going to stick up for him and demand that he get a fair trial?
Who would even demand that he not be tortured?
After all, he's a terrible person -- and, we already know he's guilty.
What are you, a terrorist-sympathizing leftard? Get on the team, and let the Pak authorities capture and torture this guy -- it might save a few lives.
The trouble is, aside from being morally wrong (and counterproductive) to torture, and aside from being against the principles that this country was founded on to jump to a legal conclusion (we most emphatically are entitled to our opinions, and to voice them), if we fail to conduct a fair and thorough investigation of these events, the real culprits -- assuming there are others involved, which I am sure there are -- go free, and will strike again.
Do you really believe in the Warren Commission's magic bullet that did so much damage in Kennedy's limo in Dallas?
(Looking at the vast clouds of concrete that had been pulverized even before the towers began to fall, do you really believe that no explosives were involved in bringing down three towers that were hit by only two airplanes? And the two towers that were hit were designed to withstand the impact of enormous jet liners full of fuel -- in fact, they were overengineered to withstand just such an eventuality.)
Do you really believe that this terrorist's "organization" had no help -- no sympathizers willing to do their part -- from the Pakistani government, especially from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence?
(When you get up on Easter morning, do you run around the house looking to see what the Easter Bunny left you?)
Because the Bhutto assassination is on a par with the Kennedy assassination as an event that was larger than life -- an event that needs orchestration to get past the security precautions, and then to derail effective investigation so the preordained explanation is the only one that does not get officially challenged, while all others are written off (and belittled) as the products of overactive imaginations. ("Truther!")
The CIA arrived at the conclusion that Mehsud was behind the Dec. 27 killing of Bhutto shortly after it occurred, according to an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Of course leaking the officially-approved story is a sensitive matter, and is only going to be done "on condition of anonymity".
The Washington Posts first reported the CIA's take on Friday, in an interview conducted with CIA director Michael Hayden. "This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden told the Post.
"This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that."
Always question your government.
How many people were condemned at Nuremburg for not questioning their government?
The government of Pakastani President Pervez Musharraf has blamed Bhutto's death on Mehsud, but some of her political party and family members have questioned those assertions. There have been complaints that the government failed to provide her enough security and vague allegations that elements within the government might have been involved in the assassination.
Bhutto was a secular politician popular in the U.S. and other Western countries for her opposition to hard-line Islam. Mehsud has denied involvement in her death.
Ah, but there is a little more to the story than that, isn't there?
In this post, which begins a series on Baitullah Mehsud, I also begin a new label: Pakistani Taliban.
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