Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan

[rodeodance]

Source: asia times




Oct 20, 2007


Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

The first shot has already been fired in the battle that Islamists have vowed to wage against the Washington-inspired and brokered attempt at regime change in Pakistan. It came in the form of twin bomb blasts aimed at Benazir Bhutto, the lynchpin in US machinations, within hours of her arrival in Karachi after years in exile.
..............


- She is the only opposition politician who supported the military attack earlier this year on Islamabad's Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), a hotbed of Islamist radicalism, and she coninues to condemn the Lal Masjid ideologues; - She has stated that she would allow incursions by US forces into Pakistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden; - She has stated that she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to question Dr A Q Khan, the former leading nuclear scientist accused of passing Pakistani nuclear technology to anti-Western countries.

The Western powers were meanwhile cementing their plan for the future of Pakistan and the region. On Thursday, the same day as the bomb attack, Britain's Lord Malloch-Brown, a minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, arrived in Pakistan to discuss a future pro-Western government in Islamabad. The day before, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi, Hamish Daniel, called on Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad to ensure that Bhutto's homecoming was accorded full protocol.

Bhutto's return to Pakistan is part of a complex arrangement brokered by Washington and its allies to ensure that a pro-Western government gains power after parliamentary elections in about three months' time. The plan was put in train earlier this month with the promulgation of a National Reconciliation Ordinance, under strong US pressure, by Pakistan's current leader, General Pervez Musharraf. Under the ordinance, all charges against current and former lawmakers who have been accused of corruption (with Bhutto, a twice former prime minister, prominent among them), were dropped. This paved the way for Musharraf's reelection as president and a political settlement with Bhutto which, after Musharraf's giving up his post as chief of the military, would result in a civilian-based, pro-Western consensus government - or so Washington hopes. (See From Washington to war in Waziristan, ATol, Oct 11, 2007) ..........

Read more: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IJ20Df01.html

[gateley]

1. Is there NO PLACE on this planet we haven't fucked up? So discouraging! nt

[independentpiney]

2. Take away the corruption, and Bhutto looks pretty good

compared to anyone else I know of in Pakistani politics. Her PPP party seems fairly progressive.

[Wilber_Stool]

3. I was listening to the

BBC the day Musharraf took over and they said, maybe it would be a good thing because Bhutto ran the most corrupt government on the face of the planet. Cabinet members had to bribe each other to get anything done.
Now, she's being treated like a savior. I don't get it.

[monktonman]

4. Sounds alot like the US

The only way to get anything done in our legislature is by backroom deal as well.
What one calls bribery in another country, we call normal operating proceedure.
I know little about the history of the Bhutto regime but I do know that the US congress
has no leg to point fingers with when it comes to corruption, we just do it American style.
Different method, same result.