From my perspective, I think it benefits the Islamic extremists to have pulled this off. First of all, they know that they can interfere with Musharaff's power by perpetrating this act and turn even more of the populice against him. Keep in mind, Musharaff has been a thorn in the side of the extremists for a long time - waging an internal war against them on behalf of the U.S.A. Secondly, Bhutto, as a leader, would also be bad for the extremists as she supported popular "reform" which is "UnIslamic" according to the extremists. Given the recent strife between Bhutto and Musharaff, the extremists knew that they would be able to plant seeds of doubt among the population regarding responsibility for her asassination.

Two birds, one stone. This act will continue the erosion of Musharaff's power and has eliminated another potential political rival to the extremists. The ensuing chaos is likely to unsettle the entire nation for the forseeable future.

I no very little about the lady and it is very sad that she was killed today...

First and foremost, my heart goes out to the family, friends, and supporters of Bhutto. Such a tragic death is so difficult to deal with, much love from Santa Fe.

I do not know names as I am wildly ignorant of Pakistani politics, but I do know that other political opposers to Musharrafs rule had fled the country, and I know at least one other had returned. It will be quite disturbing to see how many the monster now in power will kill to solidify his (democratic) rule.

Another dictator and one with nuclear weapons, a very sad day indeed. This supposed ally of my nation (USA) is a monster IMHO. Today is truly a sad day.

"DOG, MUSHARRAF, DOG" "DOG, MUSHARRAF, DOG" "DOG, MUSHARRAF, DOG"

[edit on 27-12-2007 by Animal]

Musharraf is done, he will be lucky if him and hes cronies are able to leave the country alive. The US by proxy looks bad in this situation, they should have pressure Musharraf more. This looks bad anyway you look at it.

Bhutto had a lot of faithful supporters and they wont let her death go by in vain. Be perpared for a quick coup or a long civil war, either way Musharraf is gone the question is, how many more people he is going to kill before he himself is killed or flee the country straight to an International Court.

[edit on 27-12-2007 by Bunch]

Romney on the FNC railing away at the Global jihad, terrorists etc, but also says that we don't know who did it yet. Hmmmmm....

The seed has been planted, still awaiting word from the POTUS.

It's something like this that can spark a war. Unrest spills over into India and you then have two countries with nukes and fingers on the button. The west better handle this one very very carefully.

Apparently she was shot they have confirmed this now on the big three disinformation stations the reporter on now is from pakistan and is stating that she was shot by a sniper in the neck and died from a loss of blood but was alive when she arrived at the hospital...


Very sad day indeed whether she was crooked or not she represented many in Pakistan.. I like everyone else on the board wonder about the state of Pakistan and their Nuclear Arsenal looks pretty shaky right now...


Respectfully
GEO

sure doesn't sound like a Musharrif zealot committing the assassination,

what with shooting her twice, about the head & neck, that might be the act of a sane assassin on a mission...

but when the perp. pulls the detonation chord of a suicide vest to take out
the closest +20 people around the scene --- that tells me that a zealot
organization was the invisible hand behind this atrocity.

the voices raised against Mushariff are more likely rabble-rousers from
the same org. which sent the suicide killer on their mission,

chaos is what the perps want, to bring down a dictator and replace him with ?What?

She was corrupt anyway she exiled herself when she knew she was in trouble the first time around....Pakistan is a mess either way people had to expect this most of the pop. there was not gonna accept a female as a leader..I dont know why this was a surprise....Her father was assasinated aswell....It is on its way now all we can do is sit and wait for the fireworks...Because this will deffinetly cause a huge rift in a already tense area.....She knew she was a target and yet she kept trieing to act invincible...

I seriously doubt that Musharraff had anything to do with this. After all he is no fool and he would have to know what would happen to both his country and himself if something like this happened.

In my opinion his days are seriously numbered now.

Instead this has all the hallmarks of the extremists... either Al Qaeda or the Taliban or their supporters... they have far more of a vested interest in chaos in that region than Musharraff ever would.

Besides that, generally speaking you can get someone to kill (and kill themselves) over an ideology, but politicans rarely inspire such devotion or such acts.

The sad thing is that here in the U.S. both parties have fielded a pathetic selection of weenies to run for president, none of whom seem capable of dealing with an ever changing, increasingly complex and dangerous world... after all we have seen what having 7 years of an idiot savant in office does.

I think it's a bit tooo convenient that the sniper obligingly blew himself up. All the water-boarding in the world won't get him to tell who his real boss was.

Oddly enough when I first heard this mentioned, it was by the moderator on CSPAN . I switched first to FOX then CNN.....both were carrying the breaking news.

One or maybe both were saying, ( my husband and I both understood it this way).......the bombing came first, then the gunshots, as she was leaving.

Within 20 min or so, they (both networks) were saying the suicide bomber was the shooter, and had blown himself up after shooting her.

Perhaps in the confusion of the moment, the first reports had the order of the events muddled up........?

But isn't it a bit out of the norm for a suicide bomber to carry a rifle, as it would draw too much attention to him before he reached his target???

She knew it was dangerous to go back. If I'm not mistaken last time she was there something like 145 people were killed in a suicide bombing.

Its a shame that she died like this. They just cant get with the idea of democracy over there. They would rather kill the one they don't like instead of voting against them. I don't think they will ever get it.

I disagree with all the poeple that says that Musharraf has nothing to win out of this development. Musharraf could easily declare another state of emergency, keeping an indefinate hold on power. FEAR, if Bhutto was assasinated do you think anyone would try to assume the role that she had? Knowing that they could be the next target.

Power is a drug for some people, once they have it they cant let go and they would do anything to hold on to it.

[edit on 27-12-2007 by Bunch]

Originally posted by Bunch
I dont think that suicide attacks are only commited by Islamic terrorist, a suicide attack is and has been used as a tool for murder around the world.

Many things could be at work here, but to me it seems clear that Musharraf would perceive her as a threat to his power and in a bad miscalculation either him or one of his followers could have commited or order this attack. Is not like it was the first attack on her life since she returned.

You need to be truly commented to your cause to use suicide as an attack, and today it seems that the Islamic terrorist are the only ones using it as a first choice option most of the time.

No one has yet mentioned the fact that as a female she was breaking just about every religious rule/law of the fundamentalist, and that is why I think she was targeted.