Bhutto's premonition

In October, Benazir Bhutto said Pervez Musharraf would be responsible for her assassination:

Benazir Bhutto said in an email that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf should be held responsible for her death, a close friend said Friday.

Mark Siegel, a Washington lobbyist, said he received the email from Bhutto in October, a week after she survived an assassination attempt upon her return to Pakistan.

In the email, Bhutto said Musharraf should be held complicit in her death due to his refusal to meet safety requests she had made.

"Nothing will, god willing, happen," began the email sent to Siegel. "Just wanted you to know that, if it does ... I would hold Musharraf responsible."

[...]

Bhutto wrote that she had been made to feel insecure by Musharraf's "minions" and had not received the requested improvements to her security.

Siegel said she had been stopped from taking private cars with tinted windows and had not received radio jammers or four police escorts -- as she had requested.

On Newsnet, Siegel read the email, saying, "There is no way what is happening -- in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted window, or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides -- could happen without (Musharraf)."

Siegel said her request for four police escorts -- one on each side of her vehicle -- could have saved her life.

NRO's Jonathan Foreman defends Musharraf here. Unfortunately, it certainly sounds like elements within the Pakistani government and/or security services were in on the murder. In Pakistan, "the government did it" and "Islamists did it" are not mutually exclusive propositions - even though they're at war with each other.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at December 29, 2007 11:29 AM