Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack, according to media reports.
Geo TV quoted her husband saying the politician had died following a bullet wound in the neck....
The attacker is said to have detonated a bomb as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said....
Earlier, a spokesman for Bhutto told CNN she was safe and taken away from the scene.
December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto has died.
Terrible news.
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A poorly written article. Leaves me confused:
"RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack, according to media reports.
Geo TV quoted her husband saying the politician had died following a bullet wound in the neck."
There is a difference between a suicide attack where a bomb was detonated and a bullet (assassinated) wound in the neck.
Within how many feet of John Kerry did the "tase me, bro" man get before the police were able to subdue him?
How far from Bill Clinton, during his recent ballroom speech, was the weirdo in the down-jacket before he was hauled off?
Was anyone guarding the doors of Hillary Clinton's office when that nut went in, saying he had a bomb?
This whole slog-in-the-snow-in-remote-areas primary system belongs to the open-top limo motorcade generation.
Haven't you or your favorite source, Drudge, figured out a way to blame Hillary for this yet?! It's coming, I'm sure.
Part of me is mystified, inasmuch as I expected this to have already happened wayback in the wayback machine, and then when it didn't happen I was lulled into thinking that maybe it wouldn't happen after all.
And I'm wondering a couple of whichways about Musharraf too.
Slightly off topic:
I was attending USC when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Two of my roomates in my apartment at the time were a Sikh, and an Indian Muslim. I just happened to be an International Relations major at the time, and their reactions made a huge impression on me. They were both blissfully happy. They invited their friends over and literally had a party.
I contrasted this to the reaction in the US when JFK was assassinated.
Both countries were democracies. Both leaders had been elected in close elections in which their religion had been a major issue.
There were credible allegations of electoral corruption in both cases.
Yet our reactions were entirely different. Protestants did not rejoice when Kennedy was killed. Republicans did not celebrate his death. We were all stunned and horrified.
How will Pakistan react today? Certainly with violence. Probably with some celebration by those opposed to Bhutto.
But islam is a religion of peace.
Its hard to imagine how she ever could have been prime minister of Pakistan, much less that she could ever return to power. Sadly, this was inevitable.
"Both countries were democracies."
I think there is a strong tendency in the countries that we think of as "The West" to conflate democracy and the rule of law. As Fareed Zakaria pointed out, the two don't necessarily have anything to do with each other, and in fact most recently-born 'democracies' have the outward trappings of the democratic process, without the underlying commitment to justice and liberty.
There is a difference between a suicide attack where a bomb was detonated and a bullet (assassinated) wound in the neck.
Yes, there can be, but the two need not be mutually exclusive. I don't believe that "suicide attack" by definition requires explosives strapped to a bomber. Suicidal assassins have a particularly long and glorified history in Islamic countries - thus the name, assassin.
Randy, go back and read the article. It says: "The attacker is said to have detonated a bomb as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said...."
You said: "I don't believe that "suicide attack" by definition requires explosives strapped to a bomber." True, but the article said that's what happened.
Yeah don't forget when Rocco Lampone shot Hyman Roth in Two. That was a suicide shooting.
According to NPR, the attacker began firing an automatic weapon as she was approaching her car; then he blew himself up.
This is very sad news. Didn't our state department want her to go back there and challenge Musharraf? It seems like it was almost inevitable that she would be assaissinated in Pakistan.
And we liked her. She was secular, pretty, courageous and the type of muslim leader we would hope for in the Middle East.
How the hell did this woman not get top security? I guess the security detail could of been involved with her death but the entire situation is very sad.
Unfortunately, now we are going to hear how our politicians are going to politicize this tragic death to their advantage.
"Unfortunately, now we are going to hear how our politicians are going to politicize this tragic death to their advantage."
Tragic death, yes, but even more - an act of terror don't you think?
As to candidates for president politicizing the event, it is extremely important that we hear from them asap. Exactly what action would they recommend the president taking?
"Haven't you or your favorite source, Drudge, figured out a way to blame Hillary for this yet?! It's coming, I'm sure."
j.wilson, how are you following this story? Radio? A s it would be hard to read or see tv with your head so far up your ass.
She was secular, pretty, courageous and the type of muslim leader we would hope for in the Middle East.
Not particularly well-versed in Bhutto's history, now are you?
titusad: Unfortunately, now we are going to hear how our politicians are going to politicize this tragic death to their advantage.
That great thinker (*snerk*) Chris Cilizza at WaPo is already on board the This Benefits Rudy Giuliani™ train -- a train that's been ridiculous since day one. Since when does putting your command center in a building that's been attacked once and not improving the FDNY's radios during FIVE FRICKIN' YEARS make you an "expert" on "fighting terrorism."
The only part of terrorism in which Rudy is an expert is exploiting the bodies of the dead for his own political aggrandizement.
If anything, the events of today show that mad-dog saber-rattling without thinking is precisely the WRONG thing to do.
I do know her and her husbands history reader what I meant by the muslim leader we had hoped for was more about how she presented herself-pretty, secular, modern.
I understand her husband spent 8 years in jail for stealing money from the government-which she and he denies. Her father was hanged, She was in an arranged marriage, she was in exile in London etc.
I don't know all of her history but I am not an idiot even if I talk about hog quite a bit.
The presentation of her-Harvard eduated, Oxford educated, came across as more modern.
I do know that she called herself the people's party daughter or some such nonsense.
Yes, I love clothes and am fabulous but I did go to good schools and am somewhat intelligent.
Not completely dim as some of my postings may indicate.
Ann titled this "Bhutto has died"...
Just for the sake of it, when someone dies...well everyone dies but some die naturally and some are murdered or the like.
The utilization of a life ending event descriptor should, I think, convey clearly what happened..specially in a "headline" of sorts.
Benazir Bhutto was murdered.
(lead sentence) Former Prime Minister Bhutto died of a bullet wound to her neck...and so on.
the inclusion of "has" also softens it...is the lead "has passed" more the inflection rendered?
Just picking nits as there is nothing good about this. Nothing good to come of it. Now Mr. Bush is not only aligned us with a military/political hack but also a murderer. Let's not make it any easier on him.
Did Benazir order the assassination of her own brother?
Her niece sure does think so...
"My father was a member of Parliament and a vocal critic of his sister's politics. He was killed outside our home in 1996 in a carefully planned police assassination while she was prime minister. There were 70 to 100 policemen at the scene, all the streetlights had been shut off and the roads were cordoned off. Six men were killed with my father. They were shot at point-blank range, suffered multiple bullet wounds and were left to bleed on the streets.
My father was Benazir's younger brother. To this day, her role in his assassination has never been adequately answered, although the tribunal convened after his death under the leadership of three respected judges concluded that it could not have taken place without approval from a "much higher" political authority."
Is this for real?
pissed off hillbilly wrote
"But islam is a religion of peace."
Aah yes, something like this would never happen in the U.S.
Hitchens on Bhutto.
I am not moved by Bhutto's death.
She insisted on returning to her country on a fool's errand, which resulted in the deaths of over a hundred people. She should have heard the message and left for good. But she had to stay for her own personal political gain. So she was killed. This was the predictable, inevitable consequence.
She was secular, pretty, modern; everything Islamic fundamentalists hate. So if she had ruled the country, their power would have grown and resentment toward her would have festered. Having her in power to "save Pakistan" would have caused more problems than it solved.
That said, she was very, very pretty and very, very smart.
JohnTaylor88, according to your comment, Bhutto was not good for Pakistan because she was everything fundamental religious nut jobs in those parts hate, and so her election, you say, would have "caused more problems." Excuse me? You know, southerners before the American Civil War didn't care much for Abe Lincoln either. He was everything they hated, too. History is full of examples of this kind of "hated" political figure coming to power even though (gasp) their nutty opponents loathed them. Good heavens, JohnTaylor88, you're a world class appeaser. People like you are unfortunately the new face of Europe, and most recently, of America, the Kum Ba Yah face that is being swallowed by sharper, more realistic non-Western forces that still have a stomach for conflict when the stakes are high.
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