Bhutto said Musharraf failed to protect her: e-mail

[Leo 9]

Bhutto said Musharraf failed to protect her: e-mail
28 Dec 2007, 0545 hrs IST,AFP

WASHINGTON: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto blamed President Pervez Musharraf for failing to protect her in the volatile months preceding her assassination, an email released by US media on Thursday showed.

If harmed in Pakistan, "I would hold Musharraf responsible," Bhutto wrote in the October email, revealed on air by CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer, who received it from Bhutto's friend and US spokesman Mark Siegel.

"I have been made to feel insecure by his minions," Bhutto wrote of Musharraf, detailing security measures which she said were not granted her after her return to the volatile country.

"There is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides could happen without him."

Siegel told the channel that Bhutto had asked authorities to provide protection including a four-car police escort and jamming devices against bombs, but had not received them.

snip

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bhutto_said_Musharraf_failed_to_protect_her_e-mail/articleshow/2656940.cms

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Thank goodness for that email.

She wasn't being protected. Musharraf needs to be questioned on her security.

[Rex]

2. By who? His Surpreme Court? His military generals?

It is becoming obvious that he has no plans to leave power. If he had her assassinated, it would not surprise me. If someone else did it, no surprise. She took a great risk going home.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. LIHOP. n/t

[Leo 9]

4. Or MIHOP

I'd say.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Perhaps.

Musharraf certainly hasn't been very diligent about dealing with the extremists in his country despite all the dollars the US has been funneling to him for that purpose. Whether he personally is actually in league with them, it's hard to say, but both Musharraf and the extremists would seem to benefit from having Bhutto out of the picture, since she challenged both his dictatorship and the extremists' free reign in the northwest.

It's like 9/11. Sometimes I'm just sure that Bush/Cheney actively conspired with Al Qaeda (a CIA outgrowth, after all), but even if they didn't, both sides of that equation benefited equally. Bush had an excuse to consolidate his power, invade Iraq and strip us of our liberties, and Al Qaeda got to recruit untold numbers of new adherents.
Everybody wins -- except US.

[madrchsod]

6. well duh.....there is no love

between the bhutto and the musharraf families. they have hated each other since her dad and musharrafs clashed over control many years ago.


what was promised to her by the bush neo cons/neo liberals for her return to claim power in Pakistan? did`t they know there was no way musharraf was ever going to allow bhutto to usurp his power.

this has all the markings of a neo-con/neo-lib idea of how to control the middle east and it`s resources.

[IDemo]

7. The Pakistani ambassador is denying Musharraf to blame

Interview by Blitzer, says "she was not a security person, she was a politician."

[MiniMe]

8. The fact that she was standing up in the jeep basically absolves Mushie

Per an interview I read today, they only reason that they didn't get her in October was because she bent down to tie her shoe when the bomb went off. She was in a bullet-proof SUV, yet a good portion of her was above the roof of the SUV.

And before I get flamed, I don't think it is her fault for doing that. My point is that there had already been attempts on her life, and I know that she wanted to reach out to the people, but I think she took an unnecessary risk being unprotected above the crowd like that. Of course, doing things like that may have been why she is so popular.

[tuckessee]

10. Great. We'll put her in for a Darwin Award if you'd like.

Personally, I'd nominate her for the Brass Cajones Award because it took a lot guts to mount an open campaign in the face the danger we all knew she faced.

Is Musharraf still absolved if it comes out that the ISI or other local military-industrial-intelligence elements have passive or active guilt in the assassination?

[MiniMe]

11. I agree that it took guts

Never said that it didn't. However, the assination attempt in October would have been successful if she didn't bend down into the jeep at the moment the bomb exploded. One that was wired to a baby, those bastards. I'm just saying that she is a much easier target standing up out of the sunroof, she is significantly higher than the crowd that way. Its a shame, because in spite of her prior corruption allegations, I think she would have done a lot of good for Pakistan. I also think that she shouldn't have made herself a target by standing up.

edited to add:

Did you even read my post, or just the title.

[tuckessee]

12. Of course I read your post above.

And this one as well.

Sure, Bhutto put herself at risk by standing up in the sunroof but that was who she was & that was the type of accessable, real campaign she was running.

She wanted the thousands of supporters lining the streets at her rallies to see her. After all, they too were risking their lives just by being there.

The only way she could've refrained from making herself a target was to get the heck out of Pakistan and never have anything to do with politics again.

But, she was a leader and she did what leaders do which sometimes involves exposing oneself to great, seemingly reckless danger.

What was she supposed to do? Live in an armored vehicle while smothered in kevlar forever?

[MiniMe]

13. I would agree with that, and that is one reason that the people loved her

However, my point in the original post is that if she puts herself at risk like that, it makes it hard to blame Musharaff and his security for her assination.

[tuckessee]

9. Siegel was interviewed on ATC this afternoon.

It's worth listening to.

There's a link to the clip at the top of this page http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17638522&ft=1&f=1001