Bill
10-19-2007, 06:50 PM
Interesting - the streetlights went out before the attack, making it hard to detect suicide bombers and search the crowd.
And, there are complaints that the security was badly handled, especially considering there was so much advance warning of the visit and the route and timing.
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International leaders were quick to condemn the attack and many have said that the bombing, which took place just meters from Bhutto's specially designed bulletproof armored trailer, which was transporting her to a planned rally at the tomb of Pakistan's founder, carries all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
Few in Pakistan are so certain. Bhutto, in a press conference late Friday, blamed militants, but suggested that the government was also at fault for failing to provide proper security. A few hours prior to the twin blasts a large section of the convoy route had been plunged into darkness when an as yet unexplained power outage shut down all the street lamps. "The closing of the street lamps was impeding our security procedures," she said. "Our security forces were having difficulty identifying suicide bombers." Ahead of her arrival, she said, she had been warned that suicide bombers were preparing for her. "I knew the attack could be carried out, but I was prepared to take this risk for my people and my land." In a letter written to Musharraf a week prior to her arrival, Bhutto had passed on the warnings, and asked for security measures equal to his own, as the right of a former leader of the country.
Rival and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia, said in an interview with a local television station that "the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the government. This was an extraordinary event, and the government should have gone taken extraordinary measures to protect her."
Security throughout the event was remarkably poor. The crowds that thronged the airport terminal to greet her arrival from Dubai were only superficially searched, and with hundreds of thousands lining the route to cheer her passage, it was more a question of when, not if, an attack would occur. "She was a slow moving target, and her route was known weeks in advance," says Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst and former senator in Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). "She was an easy target for those who hate her."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1673935,00.html
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She has said on several occasions that if the situation in the tribal areas, where senior members of al-Qaeda are thought to be hiding, continues to deteriorate, she would consider allowing American forces to fight on Pakistani soil. She has also said that she would provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEAP) access to nuclear proliferator — and Pakistani hero — A. Q. Khan. "These statements have been manipulated by the media to make it seem as if she is more than willing to do whatever it is the United States wants, and that is a very unpopular position here in Pakistan," says Javed. "Taken with her vow to eradicate extremism in the tribal areas, she has excited all the usual suspects in the political continuum."
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... blaming al-Qaeda or international terrorist groups is too easy, and could potentially cover up a much more complicated array of forces that would benefit by attacking Bhutto. "I don't think Bhutto is much of a threat to groups like al-Qaeda," he says. "What can she really do right now to counter terrorism? Maybe in the long run she will change Pakistan, but in the short run she is less of a threat than the military is." Instead, he says, yesterday's attacks could have been at the instigation of groups within the government that feel threatened by her populist appeal.
And, there are complaints that the security was badly handled, especially considering there was so much advance warning of the visit and the route and timing.
---
International leaders were quick to condemn the attack and many have said that the bombing, which took place just meters from Bhutto's specially designed bulletproof armored trailer, which was transporting her to a planned rally at the tomb of Pakistan's founder, carries all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
Few in Pakistan are so certain. Bhutto, in a press conference late Friday, blamed militants, but suggested that the government was also at fault for failing to provide proper security. A few hours prior to the twin blasts a large section of the convoy route had been plunged into darkness when an as yet unexplained power outage shut down all the street lamps. "The closing of the street lamps was impeding our security procedures," she said. "Our security forces were having difficulty identifying suicide bombers." Ahead of her arrival, she said, she had been warned that suicide bombers were preparing for her. "I knew the attack could be carried out, but I was prepared to take this risk for my people and my land." In a letter written to Musharraf a week prior to her arrival, Bhutto had passed on the warnings, and asked for security measures equal to his own, as the right of a former leader of the country.
Rival and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia, said in an interview with a local television station that "the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the government. This was an extraordinary event, and the government should have gone taken extraordinary measures to protect her."
Security throughout the event was remarkably poor. The crowds that thronged the airport terminal to greet her arrival from Dubai were only superficially searched, and with hundreds of thousands lining the route to cheer her passage, it was more a question of when, not if, an attack would occur. "She was a slow moving target, and her route was known weeks in advance," says Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst and former senator in Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). "She was an easy target for those who hate her."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1673935,00.html
---
She has said on several occasions that if the situation in the tribal areas, where senior members of al-Qaeda are thought to be hiding, continues to deteriorate, she would consider allowing American forces to fight on Pakistani soil. She has also said that she would provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEAP) access to nuclear proliferator — and Pakistani hero — A. Q. Khan. "These statements have been manipulated by the media to make it seem as if she is more than willing to do whatever it is the United States wants, and that is a very unpopular position here in Pakistan," says Javed. "Taken with her vow to eradicate extremism in the tribal areas, she has excited all the usual suspects in the political continuum."
---
... blaming al-Qaeda or international terrorist groups is too easy, and could potentially cover up a much more complicated array of forces that would benefit by attacking Bhutto. "I don't think Bhutto is much of a threat to groups like al-Qaeda," he says. "What can she really do right now to counter terrorism? Maybe in the long run she will change Pakistan, but in the short run she is less of a threat than the military is." Instead, he says, yesterday's attacks could have been at the instigation of groups within the government that feel threatened by her populist appeal.