Thursday, December 27, 2007

Update: The Bhutto Assassination

The year ends on such a sour note with the news of Benazir Bhutto's assassination. It's troubling to think of what the fallout will be, hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the animals responsible for this will be captured quickly. Bhutto was leaving a park in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, after giving a speech at an election rally. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for January 8.
A couple of very ironic notes about Rawalpindi:

The park where Bhutto gave the final speech of her life is where Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot to death. The park is named after him. Her father was hung in that city after being convicted on bogus charges. Current President, Pervez Musharraf survived two bombing attacks in 2003. The mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, also in 2003.

Surprisingly, al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack. Why surprisingly? The terrorist group rarely takes credit for their attacks, and when they do it is not so quickly. Perhaps, this is because they really have been kicked off the world's mainstage and are looking to become relevant again.

Benazir Bhutto took one shot in the neck and one in the chest, before the attacker blew himself up.

When a story like this occurs, I really miss John Batchelor being on WABC Radio. He always had the best analysis from the most well-versed guests. I just don't trust many folks on the cable networks to handle this in an intelligent way, and please don't get me started with the talking heads on CBS, NBC, or ABC.

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