Marksman shoots Bhuto, then apparently kills himself. CONSPIRACY ALERT!

[Sensitivity]

While we wait for the "facts" to emerge, I think that we should assume that this was
a well planned assasination to the benefit of her political opponent and Bush friend, General Musharraf.

[Zynx]

1. Because we all know radicals are not capable of political violence...

[Evergreen Emerald]

2. I disagree. It does not benefit Musharaff.

He needs stability in the country, and with elections on the way the country was stabilizing. This may send it into chaos, which is not good for Musaraff.

[Zynx]

3. I agree. The backlash will lead to his ouster.

He may as well have shot himself.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. Except that the town it happened in

Rawalpindi, is a garrisoned town controlled by the military.

[whosinpower]

6. He can postpone the elections,

and redeclare marshall law. He can don on his uniform again. This is bad for him? No. Is it bad for Pakistan? sure is. He can state that Pakistan is not ready for democracy - and rule as he has before - as a dictator.

[Zynx]

11. Last time he did that, his popularity went in the shitter and hastened the

move towards his fall. This will not help. People are sick of his crap over there.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. "hastened the move towards his fall"?

Musharraf is firmly in control and is just playing the usual sick games with the democracy movement in Pakistan. The upcoming elections (likely to be cancelled now) were expected to be a farce in which Musharraf would triumph. The only sticky point was his commitment to resign as head of the military, which would create a rival overnight for control of Pakistan. That problem is likely to be postponed along with the election. The external pressure to democratize is likely also to be put on hold. This is a win win win situation for Musharraf.

[Zynx]

22. I will laugh next year when he is thrown out of power.

If it is not sooner. He's had to make a series of concessions since the last crackdown due to international pressure. He's on the verge of being forced out as it is.

[Warren Stupidity]

26. OK. I'l laugh too. I always laugh when dictators get bounced.

I just don't share your view of the recent events there.

[sentelle]

31. on the verge of being forced out?

You mean the same way the Generals in Burma are?
Is this mall security writ large (you know, the guys who say 'Stop! or I'll say stop again!')?
If the UN places sanctions, he just gets in bed with the Taliban/Al Qaeda elements that are already in place, (whom he's made peace with) and dares the UN to do something.

He won't step down willingly... we all saw what happened with the last elections. He declared Martial law because it didn't go his way, and put all his political opponents under house arrest.

He still owns the guns in the country. the only way he will step down is being forced... with force.
Thats the way thugs operate.

[NoPasaran]

13. Whoa, pardners! Marshal law just rode back into town

All you bad guys better git!

[sam sarrha]

7. showed toooo much of her hair, SHE HAD TO DIE...!!!! Rant!!

[whosinpower]

8. grow up.

[Zynx]

12. Hey, that element exists in force over there.

Sure there is some of that over here, but it is massive over there.

[sam sarrha]

19. IT IS ACTUALLY ABOUT THE POWER OF MONEY.. WHO GETS IT, they use extrenists

[Clovis Sangrail]

10. possibly

but it also gives Musharaff the opportunity to impose despotic measures in the name of securing stability and eliminate challenges to his authority at the same time.

With the backing of the US he may think he can pull it off.
:shrug:

[Warren Stupidity]

15. "He needs stability in the country"

No actually he needs instability as a justification for cancelling the elections. Dictators thrive on this sort of crap. Musharaff is a dictator who until this morning was under pressure to democratize. That pressure will now be considerably eased. Martial law will be declared again if the protests mount, and the crackdown will be severe.

[Fovea]

4. Why chaos is bad

because no matter who actually planned this,
we cannot dismiss your possibility.

[DS1]

5. laughable chain of thoughts

Muslims don't know how to shoot, right?

[Kucinich4America]

9. And this "Marksman" was named

"Lee Harvey Muhammad". Or might as well have been. Wonder what the Pakistani word for "patsy" is?

[pansypoo53219]

20. and don't forget

the grassy knoll.
do they have knolls there?

[paulk]

14. I don't think we should assume anything.

[librechik]

17. another "lone gunman"

don't make me laugh.

[dailykoff]

18. Let's wait until CNN and the NYT have had a chance

to coordinate their spin with the Whitehouse and CIA.

[Zynx]

23. I'm sick of your "The CIA is running the whole damn world" mentality.

It is such nonsense. Why even bother resisting if that is true?

[dailykoff]

24. Did you ever see Judgement at Nuremburg?

All through the movie, Germans keep telling Spencer Tracy that they didn't know about the concentration camps, forced sterilizations, etc., and even if they did, there was nothing they could do about it.

Then at the end he sentences a bunch of Nazi collaborators to life sentences and everybody, including the other Americans, are pissed off at him for not giving them lighter sentences.

Well, the point is that even if there's nothing we can do about CIA crimes, it's still important to protest against them, if only because eventually justice will be served, and collaborators (some of them anyway) will have to answer for their crimes.

[Warren Stupidity]

25. You do realize that 'running the whole damn world' is a fairly

accurate description of our foreign policy goals and that the CIA et al are important tools used to further our goals? We may not succeed in actually running the whole damn world, but we certainly have spent the last 60 odd years waist deep in the blood and gore that has resulted from our efforts to do just that.

[ButterflyBlood]

27. Yes but the preceding poster seems to think literally EVERYTHING is the CIA

Every single death of a public figure, every airplane crash, etc. I don't think I've seen a single thread about someone's death he posted in where he didn't blame the CIA. I'd just advise him to keep on a lookout for black helicopters in his yard.

[dailykoff]

29. Many people don't realize just how bad things are

at the moment. But the CIA and its assorted intel operations are no less powerful and evil than the KGB or SS at their prime. Far worse in fact.

The CIA should never have been chartered as a permanent peace-time agency with the extraordinary, extra-constitutional powers it was granted. Truman and Kennedy both said it. Eisenhower complained about the MIC but that's only a visible manifestation.

The CIA is basically the president's private army and is subject to oversight whatsoever. Eventually Frankenstein's monster takes control and gives us Dumbya, the creature's creature, and then we get 911, Gitmo, torture, anthrax, Iraq, and all the rest.

All I'm doing is pointing out what should be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention.

[suston96]

28. She may have been standing in the vehicle with her head exposed...

Keep checking the cable channels. I saw a picture of her standing through a sun-roof in a double=armored vehicle.

[Sensitivity]

30. Let's be clear: BHUTO'S ENEMIES AND HER FATHER'S ENEMIES were NOT the "radicals" BUT

the Intelligence services, the military, and the factions in the Musharraf camp.
Only those unaware of the history of the Bhuto Dynasty and the eliminations of
each claimant one by one could believe that this is NOW the work of "radicals."

[sentelle]

33. what's the difference?

The ISI and Musharraf's camp is rife with those who sympathise with the Taliban and Al Qaida.
Even Musharraf has called off his purge of those who sympathise with the above groups within Waziristan.

[surfermaw]

32. Wasn' the old guy thrown out and

then put back in power some years ago,