| |
News Center | Mason News | News Center |
| SEARCH: |  |
| TheSpringGarden Plants & trees, gardening products & equiptment, homedecor | SunglassesEyeglasses All stunning brand names sunglasses at the great prices | DIYHomeSupplies Do it yourself woodworking projects & home remodeling supplies | UnitedPlus Gift Ideas. Diecasts, Figurines, American Heroes, and much more |
| CarPartsAccessoriesEtc Search and shop for auto parts & accessories online. Simple & Convenient | Sewing Machines Top notch sewing machines, vacuums, and appliances. For home or commercial. | Patio & Landscape Ready for family BBQ party this summer? A Large selection of outdoor furnitures | FontsWorld Looking for those cool fonts? Here, variety of all around the world fonts. Free Download. |
| |||||||
| Army What's up with the Army? |
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
12-29-2007, 08:24 PM
| ||||
| ||||
 The Pentagon Early Bird 12 Dec 2007 C U R R E N T N E W S E A R L Y B I R DDecember 29, 2007 placeRandomImg() Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) WHITE HOUSE
New York Times December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 In Surprise Step, Bush Is Vetoing A Military Bill By Steven Lee Myers and David M. Herszenhorn CRAWFORD, Tex. — For months President Bush harangued Democrats in Congress for not moving quickly enough to support the troops and for bogging down military bills with unrelated issues. And then on Friday, with no warning, a vacationing Mr. Bush announced that he was vetoing a sweeping military policy bill because of an obscure provision that could expose Iraq’s new government to billions of dollars in legal claims dating to Saddam Hussein’s rule. The decision left the Bush administration scrambling to promise that it would work with Congress to quickly restore dozens of new military and veterans programs once Congress returns to work in January. Those included an added pay raise for service members, which would have taken effect on Tuesday, and improvements in veterans’ health benefits, which few elected officials on either side want to be seen opposing. Mr. Bush’s veto surprised and infuriated Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans, who complained that the White House had failed to raise its concerns earlier. And it gave Democrats a chance to wield Mr. Bush’s support-the-troops oratory against him, which they did with relish. “Only George Bush could be for supporting the troops before he was against it,” Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement, reworking a familiar Republican attack during his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004 that he supported the war in Iraq before he turned against it. The veto was an embarrassment for administration officials, who struggled on Friday to explain why they had not acted earlier to object to the provision, Section 1083 of a 1,300-page, $696 billion military authorization bill. It would expand the ability of Americans to seek financial compensation from countries that supported or sponsored terrorist acts, including Libya, Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. It was unclear how the provision had been overlooked by White House lawyers. A senior administration official told reporters in a hastily arranged conference call that the bill’s consequences for Iraq came into “acute focus” only a week to 10 days ago — after Iraqi officials complained to the American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker. The White House said President Bush had recently spoken with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq about the consequences of the provision. It was also an embarrassment for some in Congress, including Republican senators who sponsored the provision, like John Cornyn of Texas and Ted Stevens of Alaska. Republicans joined Democrats in overwhelmingly approving the broader military bill, but they backed the White House on Friday. Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who led Republicans in drafting the military policy bill, said that he was now swayed by the administration’s arguments that it could endanger Iraq’s new government. “The White House prepared a very detailed legal memorandum, and I am convinced that they are correct,” Mr. Warner said in a telephone interview. While removing the provision would involve only a minor amendment, the veto could reopen many of the contentious issues that stalled the legislation’s approval in the first place, including efforts by Democrats to impose conditions on spending for the military operations in Iraq. At a minimum, the veto will provoke a fight over an issue that was put into the legislation after no public debate. The Senate sponsor, Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, expressed strong support for the provision on Friday, saying it would help plaintiffs in lawsuits against Iran and Libya, including relatives of Americans killed in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and in the bombing of a Berlin disco in 1986. “My language allows American victims of terror to hold perpetrators accountable — plain and simple,” said Mr. Lautenberg, who has long championed expanding legislation to let victims sue foreign governments. In a “statement of disapproval,” or pocket veto that lets the bill expire on Dec. 31, Mr. Bush said that the provision could result in preliminary injunctions freezing Iraqi assets in American banks — $20 billion to $30 billion, according to a senior administration official — and even affect commercial ventures with American businesses. He also warned that it was written to revive dormant legal claims, including a $959 million judgment won by American pilots who were prisoners of war during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. The administration had declared the new government exempt from claims dating to Mr. Hussein’s government, which the United States overthrew in 2003. “Exposing Iraq to such significant financial burdens would weaken the close partnership between the United States and Iraq during this critical period in Iraq’s history,” Mr. Bush said in his statement. A senior administration official said, “The Iraqis certainly did raise very serious and strong concerns about this, which were confirmed as we really dived into this and gamed out the consequences.” The White House allowed the official to speak only if not identified. Mr. Bush’s aides have already begun negotiations with Congress to remove the provision or rewrite it to exempt Iraq and enact the bill’s other provisions. The White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, spoke with Republican lawmakers in a conference call on Friday to explain the president’s decision and to build support for quick Congressional action next month, Mr. Warner said. The White House also said it would make an added raise Congress approved for service members — a half-percent above the 3 percent increase that will take effect regardless — retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008, no matter when a final bill is approved. The final military spending bill was adopted by overwhelming margins, 370 to 49 in the House and 90 to 3 in the Senate. It was Mr. Bush’s eighth veto, an executive power he has used with greater frequency with Democrats in control of Congress. Because he used a pocket veto — allowing the legislation to expire 10 days after it was passed by the House — his decision cannot be overridden. Adding to the uncertainty, Brendan Daly, a spokesman for the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Friday evening that the House was reserving its right to schedule an override vote anyway, arguing that the president’s pocket veto was not legally viable. Mr. Daly said House officials believed that, under their interpretation of the rules, Mr. Bush technically could not use his power to pocket veto the measure. Still, Ms. Pelosi and the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, indicated that Democrats hoped to move swiftly to address the concerns of the White House and get the bill back to the president for his signature. The House returns on Jan. 15 and could send a revised version of the bill to the Senate by the time it returns a week later. Some lawmakers accused the administration of siding with the Iraqi government over Americans who had suffered in terrorist attacks, a sensitive charge for a president who has made the fight against terrorism the central theme of his presidency. “It is a shame,” Representative Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, “that the White House has taken this step to satisfy the demands of the Iraqi government for whom our troops have sacrificed so much.” Steven Lee Myers reported from Crawford, and David M. Herszenhorn from Washington. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570116.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post December 29, 2007 Pg. 2 Bush Plans To Veto Defense Policy Bill Iraq Redevelopment Concerns Cited By Amy Gardner, Washington Post Staff Writer WACO, Tex., Dec. 28 -- President Bush said Friday that he will veto the defense authorization bill because of Iraq's concerns that the legislation could hinder redevelopment efforts by entangling the country's assets in court claims by victims of Saddam Hussein. Bush said he is ready to work quickly with Congress in January to fix the bill, which also contains a 0.5 percent pay raise for U.S. troops and revisions to veteran health-care services. Another 3 percent pay raise for the military approved separately by Congress will not be affected by the veto. Although the president objected to some details in the bill that authorizes major military programs, his aides said he does not seek to reopen those debates. But he said a provision that would permit plaintiffs' lawyers to freeze Iraqi funds would do intolerable harm to the country's reconstruction efforts and the United States' relationship with Iraq. "Iraq must not have its crucial reconstruction funds on judicial hold while lawyers argue and courts decide such legal assertions," Bush said. The announcement drew immediate rebukes from congressional Democrats, who criticized Bush for not raising his objections before the bill was passed. The Democrats also disagreed with Bush's interpretation of the provision and said they are exploring ways to challenge the veto. "This bill is important to our men and women in uniform," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that the Administration failed to identify the concerns upon which this veto is based until after the bill had passed both houses on Congress and was sent to the President for signature." Bush insisted in his statement that he will work quickly with Congress to pass a new version of the defense bill once lawmakers return in January. He urged congressional leaders to make the 0.5 pay raise retroactive to Jan. 1 in the revised bill. He also said that, although he expressed concern about the provision weeks ago, those doubts have grown stronger in recent days. At issue is a provision of the defense bill that would amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. It was championed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) as a way to give victims of state-sponsored terrorism legal recourse. Such victims would be entitled to sue countries in U.S. courts. In a statement, Lautenberg said the measure was intended to extend redress to victims of such state-sponsored terrorist attacks as the Iran-led bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and Libya's downing of an airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland, in 1988. Lautenberg's statement did not address whether the measure also created the unintended consequences for Iraq cited by Bush. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who helped negotiate the defense bill, said he agreed with the president's assessment of the measure's negative consequences. The legislation would allow Iraqi assets to be frozen immediately, before the merits of a case are heard. "The president is doing the right thing," Warner said. "It's in our national security interests, and it's the right thing to try to preserve what I perceive as a strengthening of the relationship between our government and the Iraqi government." In his "memorandum of disapproval," which he will send to Congress along with the unsigned bill, Bush also said that the language could harm the United States' reputation as a safe place to invest assets. The implication is that Iraq would contemplate pulling out its billions of dollars in assets currently invested in U.S. banks rather than see them frozen and tied up in litigation. A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Iraqi officials had raised exactly that possibility. Iraqi Ambassador Sameer Shaker Sumaidaie issued a statement last week saying the provision "makes the New Iraq accountable for crimes perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and would further victimize and punish the Iraqi people. This legislation offends the basic sovereignty of Iraq." White House officials also noted that the measure gives a "propaganda victory" to critics of the United States in Iraq who are opposed to U.S. efforts toward reconstruction. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, "cannot overemphasize the potentially devastating impact this could have to our relationships in Iraq," the senior official said. Because Congress is not in session, Bush is barred by the Constitution from issuing a traditional veto and returning it to lawmakers, according to White House officials. Instead, according to a senior official, Bush plans to execute a "pocket veto," meaning he will not sign the measure -- requiring lawmakers to write and pass an entirely new version of the bill when they return. To block efforts by Congress to challenge the pocket veto, however, Bush is also going the traditional route, sending over to Congress his veto message and the unsigned bill. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570177.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Philadelphia Inquirer December 29, 2007 In The World President Bush will host Turkish President Abdullah Gul at the White House on Jan. 8, a meeting sure to be dominated by Turkey's incursions into Iraq. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570156.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times December 29, 2007 Pg. 18 On Hostile Ground, A Provocative Question MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — President Bush may soon have a new reason to avoid left-leaning Vermont: in one town, activists want him subject to arrest for war crimes. A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put on the agenda of a town meeting in March a measure that would make Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they ever visit the community. As president, Mr. Bush has been to every state except Vermont. The town meeting, an annual exercise in which residents gather to vote on things like fire department budgets and municipal policy, requires about 1,000 signatures to place a binding item on the agenda. The measure asks, “Shall the Selectboard instruct the town attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?” Kurt Daims, a retired machinist leading the drive, has been circulating documents claiming that the community acquires a “universal jurisdiction” to take such steps “when governments breach their highest duties.” “We have the full power to issue indictments, conduct trials, incarcerate offenders and do all other acts which independent jurisdictions may of right do,” the petition says. “This petition,” Mr. Daims said, “is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they’re supposed to do.” The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. Support for the measure is far from unanimous, even in Vermont, where the State Senate voted this year to support impeaching the president and where antiwar rallies and “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers are common. “I would not be supportive of it,” said Stephen Steidle, a member of the town’s Selectboard, which oversees its government. “It’s well outside of our ability. From my perspective, the Brattleboro Selectboard needs to focus on the town and the things that need to be done here.” The state’s attorney general, William H. Sorrell, a Democrat whose office has repeatedly sued the Bush administration over environmental issues, called the move “of very dubious legality.” “I have not seen the proposal,” Mr. Sorrell said, “and I’ve done no legal research on any of the issues. But at first blush, if this passed, they’d have really uphill sledding trying to have it be legal and enforceable.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570125.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 U.S. Fears Greater Turmoil In Region Pakistan's Crisis Could Affect War In Afghanistan By Thomas E. Ricks and Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writers President Bush held an emergency meeting of his top foreign policy aides yesterday to discuss the deepening crisis in Pakistan, as administration officials and others explored whether Thursday's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto marks the beginning of a new Islamic extremist offensive that could spread beyond Pakistan and undermine the U.S. war effort in neighboring Afghanistan. U.S. officials fear that a renewed campaign by Islamic militants aimed at the Pakistani government, and based along the border with Afghanistan, would complicate U.S. policy in the region by effectively merging the six-year-old war in Afghanistan with Pakistan's growing turbulence. "The fates of Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably tied," said J. Alexander Thier, a former United Nations official in Afghanistan who is now at the U.S. Institute for Peace. U.S. military officers and other defense experts do not anticipate an immediate impact on U.S. operations in Afghanistan. But they are concerned that continued instability eventually will spill over and intensify the fighting in Afghanistan, which has spiked in recent months as the Taliban has strengthened and expanded its operations. Unrest in Pakistan and increasing fuel prices have already boosted the cost of food in Afghanistan, making it more likely that hungry Afghans will be lured by payments from the Taliban to participate in attacks, a U.S. Army officer in Afghanistan said. In a secure videoconference yesterday linking officials in Washington, Islamabad and Crawford, Tex., Bush received briefings from CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson, said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. Bush then discussed Bhutto's assassination and U.S. efforts to stabilize Pakistan with his top foreign policy advisers, including Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, as well as Adm. William J. Fallon of Central Command and Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. U.S. intelligence and Defense Department sources said there is increasing evidence that the assassination of Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister, was carried out by al-Qaeda or its allies inside Pakistan. The intelligence officials said that in recent weeks their colleagues had passed along warnings to the Pakistani government that al-Qaeda-related groups were planning suicide attacks on Pakistani politicians. The U.S. and Pakistani governments are focusing on Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, as a possible suspect. A senior U.S. official said that the Bush administration is paying attention to a list provided by Pakistan's interior ministry indicating that Mehsud's targets include former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, former interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, and several other cabinet officials and moderate Islamist leaders. "I wouldn't exactly call it a hit list, but we take it very seriously," the official said. "All moderates [in Pakistan] are now under threat from this terrorism." Mehsud told the BBC earlier this month that the Pakistani government's actions forced him to react with a "defensive jihad." After signing a condolence book for Bhutto at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Rice said the United States is in contact with "all" of the parties in Pakistan and stressed that the Jan. 8 elections should not be postponed. "Obviously, it's just very important that the democratic process go forward," she told reporters. The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan warned U.S. citizens Thursday to keep a low profile and avoid public gatherings. A Pentagon official said plans to evacuate Americans from the country are being reviewed. "We've really got a new situation here in western Pakistan," said Army Col. Thomas F. Lynch III, who has served in Afghanistan and with Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for Pakistan and the Middle East. He said the assassination marks a "critical new phase" in jihadist operations in Pakistan and predicted that the coming months would bring concentrated attacks on other prominent Pakistanis. "The Taliban . . . are indeed a growing element of the domestic political stew" in Pakistan, said John Blackton, who served as a U.S. official in Afghanistan in the 1970s and again 20 years later. He noted that Pakistani military intelligence created the Taliban in Afghanistan. How the United States responds will hinge largely on the actions of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in whom U.S. officials have mixed confidence. If there is indeed a new challenge by Islamic militants emerging in Pakistan, then the United States will have to do whatever it can to support Musharraf, the U.S. Army officer in Afghanistan said. "Pakistan must take drastic action against the Taliban in its midst or we will face the prospect of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of al-Qaeda -- a threat far more dangerous and real than Hussein's arsenal ever was," he said, referring to the deposed Saddam Hussein. But Musharraf has a track record of promising much to Washington but doing little to counter the militants, others said. "My prediction is, Musharraf will go into a bunker mentality and be nicer to the Muslims," said John McCreary, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency's 2001 task force on Afghanistan. "He goes through the pretenses of crackdown but never follows through." "Pakistan isn't really engaged in a fight against terror," added Blackton. "One of the mistakes amongst many U.S. policymakers is to project the American construct of a war on terror onto the Pakistani regime struggle for survival. There are some congruencies between the two, but even more differences." The clever move for Musharraf would be to allay such doubts by capturing or killing a major Islamic extremist leader in the coming weeks, said Larry P. Goodson, an area expert who teaches strategy at the U.S. Army War College. But he said he doubts that would happen or that Musharraf would take many concrete actions, aside possibly from declaring a new state of emergency. A countervailing pressure on Musharraf is that if he does not respond effectively to an Islamic militant campaign against his government, he also could face falling from power. At some point, said Teresita C. Schaffer, a former State Department official specializing in India and Pakistan, the Pakistani army "could conclude that he's a liability." Staff writer Joby Warrick and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570157.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 Pakistan Says Bhutto's Death Has Qaeda Link By Carlotta Gall ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest, the government on Friday recast its version of the events of her assassination and announced that it had obtained an intelligence intercept pinning the attack on a militant linked to Al Qaeda. With many of Ms. Bhutto’s supporters openly blaming the government for her death, the Interior Ministry made the surprising announcement that Ms. Bhutto had died not from gunshots or shrapnel but from a skull fracture when she was thrown by the force of the suicide bomb and hit her head on a lever of the sunroof of the car in which she was riding. A senior American official in Washington said there was some debate within the Bush administration over whether to press President Pervez Musharraf to open the investigation to law enforcement officials from outside Pakistan, including the F.B.I. The body of Ms. Bhutto, a former prime minister, was interred at a mausoleum at her ancestral village in southern Pakistan on Friday in a ceremony attended by thousands of mourners as riots continued across the country, leaving 23 people dead, including four security officers. To prevent the violence from spreading, the government ordered an almost complete shutdown of services. Officials suspended much train service and most domestic flights. Gas stations across the country were closed, making it virtually impossible to make long journeys by car. Roads were closed around city centers, and television and Internet services were shut down or operated only sporadically in most cities. As pressure grew for an independent inquiry, the government said two high-level investigations were being conducted: one led by the senior judiciary and one by high-level police and intelligence officials. The government identified a militant leader with links to Al Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, who holds sway in tribal areas near the Afghanistan border, as the chief suspect behind the attack. “We have an intercept from this morning in which he congratulated his people for carrying out this act,” Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said in a briefing to reporters. “We have irrefutable evidence that Al Qaeda and its networks are trying to destabilize the government,” he added. “They have been systematically attacking our government, and now a political icon.” Ms. Bhutto, he said, was on the hit list of Al Qaeda and other terrorists. Mr. Mehsud has been blamed for most of the rising tide of suicide attacks on government, military and intelligence targets in recent months. Based in the South Waziristan tribal areas, he is known to run training camps, prepare and dispatch suicide bombers on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and have links to the Arab and Central Asian militants who have established a stronghold in the tribal areas. Brigadier Cheema said the Bhutto assassination was connected to several other attacks whose targets have included Mr. Musharraf and several high-ranking government officials over the last few years, as well as to some more recent attacks on army and intelligence personnel. Saying he wanted to dispel erroneous reports that Ms. Bhutto had died from gunfire, Brigadier Cheema gave an exhaustive description of the episode and showed a video on which Ms. Bhutto could be seen waving at the crowd from the sunroof of her car as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi. But the camera lost focus in the pandemonium after it recorded the sound of three gunshots. Ms. Bhutto tried to duck down into the car just as the suicide bomber detonated his explosives, and the force of the blast caused her to strike her head, he said. “One of the levers of the sunroof hit her on the right side, which caused a fracture, and that is what caused her death,” Brigadier Cheema said. He said shrapnel from the blast hit the left side of the car, but her injury was on the right side of her head. The lever on the car showed traces of blood, he said. “There was no bullet that hit Mohtarma Bhutto, there was no splinter that hit Mohtarma Bhutto, and there was no pellet that hit her,” he said, referring to Ms. Bhutto with a term of respect. It remained unclear if the suicide bomber had fired the shots or if a second person had, he said. Ms. Bhutto was almost unconscious when taken to the hospital, he added. He said that Ms. Bhutto’s husband had not allowed an autopsy but that doctors conducted an external postmortem and took X-rays. Islamic custom dictates that the body be buried as soon as possible. President Bush, who is at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., this week, held a teleconference on Friday with his senior national security advisers, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; the C.I.A. director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden; and Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, to weigh options for Pakistan. “The president told his senior national security team that the United States needs to support democracy in Pakistan and help Pakistan in its struggle against extremism and terrorism,” said Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman. Mr. Musharraf and his supporters in the Bush administration, meanwhile, were coming under increasing pressure, inside and outside Pakistan, to open up the inquiry. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, said Friday that the United States should call for an independent investigation. “I don’t think the Pakistani government at this time under President Musharraf has any credibility at all,” she told CNN in an interview. She suggested an investigation along the lines of the ongoing international inquiry into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. State Department officials said they had no plans for the moment to join the investigation. But a senior Bush administration official said, “There’s a growing sense that we’re going to have to work on the investigation in some way, that it can’t just be a Pakistani investigation.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said that administration officials were concerned that “there’s so much distrust” of the Musharraf government among Pakistanis that outside nations may have to join the investigation to give the findings any credibility. A second administration official said the idea of an independent international investigation had been proposed by “a number of people, and is certainly something that hasn’t been ruled out.” But, he added, no decision had been made. Indeed the distrust of Pakistan’s government among Ms. Bhutto’s supporters runs strong and deep, and the government’s effort to place responsibility for the assassination on Qaeda-linked militants may not be readily accepted by them. One Western official who met with Ms. Bhutto the day before her death said that while Ms. Bhutto was concerned about the threat from militants, she was most preoccupied by government restrictions on her campaign before parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8. She complained that in the city of Peshawar, she had to hold her rally in a cricket stadium far away from the center of town under tight security, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. She was not allowed to lead a procession all the way to the stadium, and she complained that the crowd of some 2,000 supporters was small because of the restrictions. Ms. Bhutto also complained that while the militants represented a threat, the government was as much a threat in its failure to ensure security. After she returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-imposed exile, she sent an e-mail message on Oct. 26 to her spokesman in the United States, Mark Siegel, saying that if anything happened to her, Mr. Musharraf should be held responsible. “I have been made to feel insecure by his minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides could happen without him,” the message read. She also suggested on many occasions that either the government had a deal with the militants that allowed them to carry on their terrorist activities, or that Mr. Musharraf’s approach at dealing with them was utterly ineffective. Brigadier Cheema acknowledged as much. Asked why the government did not act against Mr. Mehsud, when he was known to be training suicide bombers, he said, “It is not that easy.” Mr. Mehsud is always on the move and goes underground very quickly after communicating with his people, so it is hard for the security forces to follow up on intelligence intercepts, he said. The opposition leader’s death, meanwhile, left the nation’s politics teetering on a knife’s edge, and the prospect of elections uncertain. At Ms. Bhutto’s funeral, grief-stricken supporters thronged the ambulance carrying her remains as it crawled through a haze of dust from her family home in Garhi Khuda Baksh, in southern Sindh Province, to an imposing white marble mausoleum three miles away. Wailing mourners beat their heads and jostled to touch the coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which Ms. Bhutto had led for decades. They wept and threw rose petals as the coffin was lowered into the grave beside the grave of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was president and prime minister from 1971 to 1977. He was ousted and executed by a military dictator in 1979. Clad in a white Sindhi cap, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, wept as he helped lower the simple coffin into the grave. He was accompanied by the couple’s son, Bilawal, 19, and two daughters, Bakhtawar, 17, and Aseefa, 14, news reports said. Even as Ms. Bhutto was laid to rest in the midst of a chaotic but peaceful crowd, there were signs of the violent outbursts that had erupted after her death. En route to the mausoleum, the coffin passed the smoldering wreckage of a passenger train that rioters had set aflame, according to The Associated Press. Rioting flared across Pakistan. Thousands of people took to the streets in the central city of Multan, ransacking banks and gas stations and throwing stones at the police, The A.P. reported. In the generally peaceful capital, Islamabad, a crowd of about 100 protesters set fire to tires. In Peshawar, an estimated 4,000 supporters of Ms. Bhutto’s party chanted, “Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today,” and cried, “Musharraf dog.” The continuing violence caused many to question whether the government could proceed with parliamentary elections. But the government has announced a three-day mourning period for Ms. Bhutto and no decision is likely to be made during it. Muhammad Mian Soomro, the caretaker prime minister, told reporters in Islamabad that the government would hold talks with all political parties to chart a plan of action, but that “right now, the elections stand as they were announced.” The Pakistan Peoples Party has made no comment on its election plans. All the leaders of the party attended the funeral on Friday, and they have declared that they will observe the traditional 40 days of mourning. Yet the party could be expected to win an overwhelming sympathy vote, which could give it a majority in Parliament, analysts and politicians said. Other parties could also suffer in the polls from a backlash after the death of a national leader. Several leading politicians said they did not think the government could go ahead with elections so soon after what is being described as a national tragedy that has dismayed people across the political spectrum. Another politician was killed Friday in a suicide attack in the Swat Valley, a famed tourist area in northwestern Pakistan. And on Thursday, a sniper killed four people at a rally for Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister and the leader of the other main opposition party. “Speaking on a personal level, there is no mood or inclination to have an election,” said Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League faction that backs Mr. Musharraf. He said the elections could be postponed until March to allow people time to regroup. “Right now there is so much uncertainty.” Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, and Helene Cooper from Washington. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570108.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 Pakistan Violence Threatens Rule Of Musharraf By Peter Wonacott, Yaroslav Trofimov and Jay Solomon As Benazir Bhutto's body was laid to rest, violence and looting broke out across Pakistan, challenging President Pervez Musharraf's control over the nation. How Mr. Musharraf handles Pakistan's worst unrest in decades may determine whether he keeps his job -- and whether the turmoil flares into a bigger crisis that splits the 60-year-old nation. A key U.S. ally, Mr. Musharraf was recently elected to another five-year term after months of maneuvering to staying in power. Government officials blamed the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, a former prime minister killed in a suicide bombing Thursday, on an al Qaeda faction based in a Pakistani tribal area. They said Ms. Bhutto died not from gunshot wounds, as some witnesses contended, but from a skull fracture suffered after the explosion. Pakistan's instability is likely to test U.S. patience and to make Mr. Musharraf, 64 years old, more susceptible to a military coup, analysts said. Mr. Musharraf stepped down as army chief last month to begin his new presidential term as a civilian. "He's now very vulnerable to political forces and the disappointment of the army," said Talat Masood, a retired general and a political analyst. "The question is whether he's become a big enough liability that he needs to be removed." Pakistan's government said Friday it is weighing whether to hold national elections as scheduled on Jan. 8. Officials said they would be consulting with Pakistan's main political parties to try to widen participation in the vote, which would result in a new prime minister to share power with Mr. Musharraf. The election is aimed at restoring democracy after Mr. Musharraf led a bloodless coup in 1999. The Bush administration, which has been criticized for focusing too intently on its ties to Mr. Musharraf, is promoting a moderate coalition of political parties. U.S. officials, while opposing a long delay in voting, acknowledged it might have to be pushed back to give the parties, especially the one that Ms. Bhutto led, more time to prepare. U.S. officials held talks with leaders of all Pakistan's principal political parties Friday, the State Department said. President Bush talked to Mr. Musharraf Thursday. Pakistan's government moved to deflect accusations that it had provided inadequate security to Ms. Bhutto. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference in Islamabad, the capital, that Ms. Bhutto ignored repeated security advice when she stopped her motorcade and emerged through her armored vehicle's sunroof to greet supporters after a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison town near Islamabad. The attacker -- a young clean-shaven man, according to photographs released by the government -- fired three shots at Ms. Bhutto. He missed, according to the government account, although witnesses said she was shot in the neck and chest. When the attacker's suicide bomb went off moments later, the shockwave from the explosion threw Ms. Bhutto's head against the lever of the vehicle's sunroof, Mr. Cheema said. The resulting skull fracture -- which he described as the only injury that Ms. Bhutto sustained that day -- proved fatal. "I wish she had not come out of the rooftop -- perhaps she would have been saved," Mr. Cheema said. None of Ms. Bhutto's aides inside the car were hurt in the blast. Mr. Cheema, who released video footage of the attack and the post-mortem X-rays, blamed the killings on an al Qaeda faction led by Baitullah Mehsud, a Pashtun tribal leader in South Waziristan, on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan. Mr. Cheema aired what he said was an intercept of a telephone conversation in which Mr. Mehsud early Friday congratulated the alleged direct organizers of Ms. Bhutto's assassination. Mr. Mehsud has established an Islamic emirate in the border area, and his men have been fighting against the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. According to Pakistani security authorities, he has close links with al Qaeda. He declared jihad against Pakistani forces after a raid in July against radicals who had occupied Islamabad's Red Mosque. The raid killed more than 100 people. Pakistani security officials said Mr. Mehsud has set up training camps for militants in the border area. His men this autumn took hostage several hundred Pakistani troops and later released them in exchange for the release of some two dozen captured militants. Mr. Cheema said he believes Mr. Mehsud, a reclusive man deeply influenced by the Taliban, was responsible for "most of the recent terrorist attacks that have taken place in Pakistan." He added: "They are systematically targeting state institutions in order to destabilize the country." Many in Pakistan and elsewhere still believe elements of Pakistan's security services may have been involved in the Bhutto assassination -- an allegation denied by security officials. "There's nothing compelling yet pointing toward a single individual or group," said one European official. Violence following the assassination appeared worst in the province of Sindh, the home and political stronghold of the Bhutto family. Mobs looted several banks in Karachi, a city of 18 million that is the province's and the nation's largest city, and engaged in shootouts with police. Many people stayed locked inside their homes. Troops were called out and a curfew was imposed in several cities in the province after 23 people -- including four security personnel -- were killed in a second day of violence. Train services were disrupted after rioters burnt down several trains across the country. Nationwide, some 200 bank branches were looted. Islamabad turned into a ghost city Friday, with shopping areas and gasoline stations shuttered. Despite a heavy contingent of army and police forces on the streets, rioting broke out in Islamabad and Rawalpindi in the hours following Ms. Bhutto's funeral. Supporters of Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party waved the party's red, black and green flag as they set tires on fire in the middle of the roads. They also methodically tore down campaign banners of politicians allied with Mr. Musharraf and threw them on bonfires. Roads across the two cities were strewn with rocks and bricks that the protesters threw at passing motorists. In another attack in the scenic valley of Swat, a former provincial minister and seven others were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb. Mr. Musharraf's decision in March to suspend the chief justice of the Supreme Court prompted months of street protests, led by lawyers, who helped spawn a prodemocracy movement. The chief justice was ultimately reinstated. As his popularity waned, Mr. Musharraf reached out to the exiled Ms. Bhutto. The two appeared headed for political alliance after a series of secret discussions aimed at paving the way for Ms. Bhutto's return from self-imposed exile. The understanding was that Ms. Bhutto would throw her party's weight behind Mr. Musharraf, provided he step down from the army and hold free and fair parliamentary elections. But upon Ms. Bhutto's return in October, the prospective alliance quickly fell apart. She blamed people inside the government for plotting a suicide attack during her Oct. 18 homecoming in Karachi that killed more than 130 people. Ms. Bhutto, who narrowly escaped, finally broke with the president after declared emergency rule on Nov. 3 and suspended civil liberties. Analysts blame Mr. Musharraf for bungling what might have been a peaceful transition to civilian rule. "He's in well over his head," said Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asia scholar at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Musharraf retains the backing of the nation's military and, for now, the U.S. As a partner in the U.S.-led war against Islamist terrorism, Mr. Musharraf's government has received nearly $11 billion in assistance, with most of the funds going to Pakistan's fight against Islamic extremists. The army's operations in Pakistan's tribal areas -- where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is suspected of hiding -- have turned many locals against the military and the government. That insurgency has spread into other areas of Pakistan such as Northwest Frontier Province. Over the past few months, suicide attacks have struck a number of military and political targets, including buses carrying children of military personnel. Many in Pakistan's army have been distressed by the wave of attacks and rising antimilitary sentiment in the nation's cities. The trouble has fed speculation that the army, under a new chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, might seek to dislodge Mr. Musharraf from power and bring in a new government through elections. Others played down that possibility. "The military is a disciplined institution," said Asad Durrani, a retired general and former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. "No one should be counting on any revolt in the military." Ms. Bhutto's death has marked another victory for militants in their efforts to undermine the government and frighten secularist politicians. Despite threats against her life, Ms. Bhutto continued to lambaste the forces of extremism -- earning her admiration even among her critics. "It's not just a person who has been killed," said Muhammad Ali Saif, a minister in an interim government put in place ahead of elections. "A nation has been challenged." In the wake of her death, a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, led by Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, announced it will boycott January's elections, a threat it had made previously before agreeing to participate. Mr. Sharif's faction said elections can't be fair under current circumstances. U.S. diplomats and strategists said they have reached out to aides of Mr. Sharif to see whether his political party might reverse the boycott. While wary of Mr. Sharif's politics, which are viewed as more conservatively Islamic, senior U.S. officials said they see the politician as central to calming Pakistan. "He's in the middle of everything politically," said a U.S. diplomat involved. Ms. Bhutto's party declared a 40-day mourning period. The party hasn't yet decided whether to boycott elections, according to spokesman Farhatullah Babar. "We are in a state of shock," said Mr. Babar, who was part of a huge funeral procession that accompanied the body to the Bhutto family's native village of Garhi Khuda Baksh, in Sindh Province. "The first thing is the burial of Ms. Bhutto. Then we will take up the political discussion." Senior U.S. strategists suggested that one way forward would be to create a government of national unity, comprised of the PPP and the parties led by Messrs. Musharraf and Sharif, to jointly oversee preparations for the parliamentary vote. Mr. Musharraf also may be forced to allow international involvement in investigating Ms. Bhutto's murder. Ms. Bhutto's family has already sought the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain's Scotland Yard in the probe, according to U.S. officials. Ms. Bhutto was buried next to her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, another former prime minister of Pakistan. Her plain wood coffin, draped in the flag of her party, was carried in an ambulance toward a white mausoleum. Ms. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is among those considered leading candidates to take over the party's leadership. Yet Mr. Zardari comes with heavy political baggage. A former minister in his wife's government, he spent more than eight years in jail facing corruption and other criminal charges, though he was never convicted. He was released in 2004 and has since been living in Dubai and New York. It's not clear whether Mr. Zardari can rally the party's rank and file, many of whom hold him responsible for the dismissal of Ms. Bhutto's two previous governments. A less controversial choice would be the party's long-serving vice chairman, Amin Fahim. U.S. officials said they have spoken with both potential successors and are trying to galvanize and strengthen the leadership of Ms. Bhutto's party. --Siobhan Gorman in Washington and Zahid Hussain in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this article. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570186.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 U.S. Gave Bhutto Intelligence On Dangers She Faced Questions are raised about whether Islamabad -- and Washington -- did enough to try to protect her. By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — In the weeks before Benazir Bhutto's assassination, the Bush administration directly provided her with intelligence on dangers she faced from militants in Pakistan, as U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf resisted pressure to expand the scope of her security detail, U.S. lawmakers and other officials and Bhutto supporters said Friday. Yet as the slain former prime minister was laid to rest, questions mounted about both the adequacy of the U.S. efforts and shortcomings on the side of the Pakistani government. U.S. lawmakers and the popular Pakistani opposition leader's friends charged that Musharraf had rebuffed U.S. entreaties for beefed-up security. And U.S. officials were reluctant to press Musharraf too hard, a former advisor to Bhutto said. Nonetheless, the decision to provide intelligence to an opposition candidate in a country headed by a strong American ally reflects U.S. recognition of the gravity of the threat Bhutto faced as she sought to reclaim power in Pakistan, in part with the support of Americans who saw her as a stabilizing influence in the turbulent country. Yet though acknowledging the danger, U.S. officials stopped short of providing direct security services, such as the private contractors they have arranged for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and for top leaders in Iraq. Pakistani officials have rejected criticism of their security efforts, contending that they took careful precautions for Bhutto's safety. But when she was fatally attacked Thursday, she had no police escort, only her own force of volunteer guards surrounding her car, putting their bodies between her and any attacker. The intelligence provided to Bhutto was furnished by the U.S. Embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Along with information about possible threats to her, the Americans provided security advice on ways her risks could be reduced. The U.S. official said the Americans were aware that Bhutto faced serious dangers, especially in light of an earlier attempt on her life, a bombing during her homecoming rally in Karachi on Oct. 19, in which more than 140 people were killed. Americans also "reiterated" that the Musharraf government needed to make vigorous attempts to avert dangers to her, the official said. Husain Haqqani, the former advisor to Bhutto, said he had entreated U.S. officials to press Musharraf to see that Bhutto had better security. But he said U.S. officials resisted deeper involvement, saying they did not want to start "micromanaging the security arrangements of another country." Haqqani, who is director of the Center for International Relations at Boston University, said he considered the U.S. argument legitimate. But he said that American officials have gone so far in supporting Musharraf that they should have been willing to ensure that the Pakistani president "was willing to see that Ms. Bhutto had sufficient security." Haqqani said Bhutto wanted to use private international security contractors for her protection. But Musharraf was unwilling to provide the necessary approvals for them to operate in Pakistan, even though Bhutto was willing to pay for them herself, he said. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate, released a letter that he and two Senate colleagues wrote to Musharraf at Bhutto's request to urge him to step up the protections. The letter, sent soon after the October attempt on Bhutto's life, urges that she be given "the full level of security support afforded to any former prime minister," including bomb-proof vehicles and jamming equipment. Biden said, however, that their appeal was unavailing and that Musharraf was "indirectly complicit" in the assassination. "I'm not saying had she had the protection she would have lived," Biden said in a CBS interview Friday. "But it sure bothers me that she did not have the kind of protection she needed." Several security analysts have questioned Bhutto's decision to mingle with supporters while standing through the sunroof of her armored SUV after her rally Thursday. It was at that moment that shots were fired and a suicide bomber detonated a powerful explosion. Bhutto died after the attack. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) released an e-mail message that Bhutto had written to one of his former aides saying she feared that she could be killed because of her limited security. The former aide, Mark Siegel, had collaborated with Bhutto on a yet-to-be-published book. Bhutto wrote in the message that if something happened to her, "I will hold Musharraf responsible." It was not clear whether U.S. officials began providing the information before or after the Oct. 19 attack. But the information was supplied in the context of U.S. knowledge about a network of militant organizations considered hostile to Bhutto, including some that had vowed to attempt to kill her should she return to Pakistan. A member of those groups, Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud, was named Friday by Pakistani officials as being responsible for Bhutto's death. U.S. intelligence officials said they could not confirm the finding. Israel said that he did not fault the Bush administration for Bhutto's assassination, but that greater public pressure on Musharraf from President Bush "might have been helpful" for getting more protection. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, said this week that after the October attack, he talked to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about ways the administration could work with Musharraf to ensure Bhutto's safety. David Wade, an aide to Kerry, said the State Department had indicated it was "determined to help." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570094.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP London Daily Telegraph December 29, 2007 Who Is In Control Of Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal? By Rahul Bedi, in New Delhi Benazir Bhutto's assassination not only threatens to exacerbate the volatile situation in Pakistan but also raises questions about the security of its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan is the only Islamic state with nuclear weapons. Its atomic arsenal, comprising 60-65 warheads according to experts, is controlled almost exclusively by an increasingly "Islamised" military. The arsenal's location remains secret but Western intelligence sources believe it is hidden close to Islamabad, with the warheads and missiles kept separately. Islamabad's record in nuclear proliferation is dubious. Its top atomic scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, was exposed in 2004 as the head of an global black-market operation in nuclear technology, working reportedly in collusion with the military, leaking secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea in exchange for money and long-range missile designs. Pakistani nuclear scientists are said to have visited Afghanistan to meet the al-Qa'eda leadership before the invasion of 2001. Indian and Western analysts believe that radicalised elements within the military establishment could gain access to its nuclear weapons if the war of attrition against the jihadists continues. They point to the large number of Pakistani soldiers, including officers, who have opted to surrender to militants in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan and in Swat, north of Islamabad. Analysts said there were growing signs of "fraying" loyalties in the Pakistani army - the country's most powerful institution - with its normally robust command and control system appearing "wobbly". A number of retired Pakistani military officers question its motivation in fighting what many believe to be someone else's war. In India, former Brigadier Arun Sahgal of the United Service Institution said: "A situation threatening the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and collapse of its command and control could only be brought about by subversion from within the military. Were this to happen, it would signify the Islamists' penetration of the last bastion of credible power in Pakistan." This month President Pervez Musharraf assumed formal control of the National Command Authority (NCA), which he established in 2000 to manage the country's nuclear weapons. But Harsh Pant, a nuclear analyst at King's College in London, said: "It would take little time for the [nuclear] command and control network to collapse if Pakistan slid toward anarchy. Should that happen, sympathisers of radical Islamists within the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies could very possibly assist militant groups in acquiring the wherewithal of a nuclear weapon." Last month Pakistan confirmed that the US was helping to ensure the security of its nuclear weapons. It reiterated that the security of Pakistan's nuclear assets was "foolproof". American media reports, meanwhile, said Washington had spent £50 million to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons against theft and accidents, a claim Islamabad denied. Some Western experts believe that, after the two countries aligned in the war against terror, the US fitted Pakistan's nuclear warheads with permissive action links or security devices that control their activation. Pakistan also rejects that claim. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570203.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Boston Globe December 29, 2007 Questions Rise On US Support For Musharraf Democracy, fighting terror are key issues By Farah Stockman and Bryan Bender, Globe Staff WASHINGTON - A growing number of voices in Congress, influential think tanks, and inside the Bush administration are urging the White House to reconsider its open-ended support for embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying his increasingly autocratic rule is impeding fair elections, and his usefulness in rooting out violent Islamic extremists has run its course. As unrest swept through Pakistan yesterday after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, US officials said publicly they remain committed to their current diplomatic strategy: encourage Musharraf to hold parliamentary elections as soon as possible, and quietly support his increasingly tenuous grip on power. Nevertheless, Pakistan analysts across the branches of government say privately that they are weighing the US options. "It's fair to say that we are in a wait-and-see mode," said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "There are always visions and plans floating around. I don't think we are wiping the slate clean and starting over, but of course the passing of Bhutto is a shock and causing people to take stock." Michael Krepon, an expert on South Asia at the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, said the United States should urge Musharraf to delay elections and appoint a unity government with key opposition leaders, easing tensions until fair elections can take place. Krepon argued that would introduce real reconciliation and political change, as opposed to swift parliamentary elections which many believe will be rigged to keep Musharraf in control. "There are stellar choices for a unity government," Krepon said. "You could start with those under house arrest, humanitarians, lawyers, untainted politicians, clean civil servants." Some current and former Pentagon officials recommend that the US government strengthen its relationship with Pakistani General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whom Musharraf hand-picked to serve as army chief of staff. Kayani met with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte last month in Pakistan, and has maintained strong ties to the US military, studying at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. American authorities believe that Kayani may one day eclipse Musharraf as the most powerful person in the country. But others argue that Washington cannot support another military ruler and ignore the groundswell of demands for democratic change. They say that Washington should proceed carefully given that past efforts to influence Pakistani politics have backfired; political leaders that the United States supported have lost credibility at home. "Pakistan is not a very manageable place and our track record has not been good," said Adil Najam, a professor of global politics at Boston University. Nonetheless, US policy has a massive influence on the struggling South Asian nation. The recent turmoil in Pakistan has ignited a firestorm in Washington over which direction American policy should take there. Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidates issued their sharpest criticisms yet of Bush's support for Musharraf. "You cannot begin to get things in order in Pakistan until you end this tyranny of a single man being able to run the country," Senator Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS. New Mexico's governor, Bill Richardson, said if he were president Pakistan would get "not one penny more" of nonessential US aid "until Musharraf is gone." Two of the Republican presidential contenders, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, said yesterday that if elected they would follow Bush's policy of giving large amounts of aid to Musharraf, a leader they believe can provide stability and fight terrorism in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation. "Musharraf has done most of the things we wanted him to do," McCain said in an interview yesterday on CBS. He added that Pakistan "was a failed state before he came to power." President Bush held the same view when he campaigned for president in 1999. When a Boston television station asked him to name the Pakistani general who had just taken power in a coup, Bush couldn't remember Musharraf's name, but said: "It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country. I think that's good news." Two years later, Bush and Musharraf met for the first time, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The meeting cemented a new alliance between the two countries. Bush helped push more than $10 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan, while Musharraf allowed his territory and intelligence agencies to be used to assist the US-led war against the Taliban - a former close ally of Pakistan. Musharraf also opened critical supply lines to US troops fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. But over the past year, US officials have begun to doubt Musharraf, who has grown increasingly unpopular and has produced lackluster results in fighting Islamic terrorists inside Pakistan's borders. Musharraf's decision to dismiss the chief of the Supreme Court to preserve his power, and later to declare martial law to suppress rebellion sparked widespread opposition and unleashed massive protests. "The big picture in Pakistan is we have a guy there who is increasingly unpopular and the more we back him the more unpopular he becomes," said Najam, the Boston University professor. "Just about any political leader at this point - even the religious parties - would do at least as much as he is doing in the war on terrorism. And they will do it for the same reason he is: it is in their interest. He is not doing a great deal anyhow." But President Bush - so far - is believed to remain loyal to Musharraf, a man he says is struggling to bring Pakistan into a modern, secular era. "Did the US have too much faith in President Musharraf?" Xenia Dormandy, former National Security Council specialist on South Asia who is currently at Harvard University. "I think he has had enormous faith in himself. Musharraf convinced himself that he is the man to save Pakistan, and the US believed that. Whether he still can or not is an open question." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071229570131.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3901371_AEP PjkQAAD68R3bVqAShbgX%2BzOU&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20071229aaindex_concat.html&cred=euhcjqQ1thbZud UJ4qbNplE9W4eye06rHHvVTti0qte2PefCGJzY4kL5zf53tv#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times December 29, 2007 Pg. 1 Vote Still On, Pakistan Says By Ashraf Khan, Associated Press GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan--The government said it plans to go ahead with Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, even as the deadliest wave of political violence in years swept the nation after the funeral of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. "Right now, the elections stand where they were," Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro told reporters. "We will consult all the political parties to take any decision about it." But it was not clear how anyone could campaign in the final 11 days before the balloting with Bhutto supporters rampaging through cities in violence that has left at least 27 dead. Many of Mrs. Bhutto's supporters blamed President Pervez Musharraf's government for Thursday's assassination of Mr. Musharraf's most powerful opponent. Hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged the family mausoleum in southern Pakistan, where Mrs. Bhutto was laid to rest next to her father, a former prime minister who was overthrown by Gen. Zia ul-Haq in 1977 and hanged by Gen. Zia two years later. Mrs. Bhutto was killed Thursday when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally in Rawalpindi. At least 20 others were also killed. Authorities initially said Mrs. Bhutto died from bullet wounds, and a surgeon who treated her said she died from the impact of shrapnel on her head. The government yesterday said Mrs. Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during the suicide attack. But video images aired by CNN and other television networks showed someone with a pistol firing at Mrs. Bhutto from close range before the explosion. U.S. officials said Mrs. Bhutto's death is unlikely to prompt any major strategy shift or cuts in billions of dollars in American aid, with some conceding that the Bush administration has little choice but to stay the course. "There are not a lot of alternatives out there," said one. "We have an interest in seeing Pakistan be stable and seeing that the government there has a reasonable level of legitimacy and popular support. That has not and will not change." Mrs. Bhutto's supporters yesterday ransacked banks, waged shootouts with police and burned trains and train stations. Soldiers patrolled the streets of the southern cities of Hyderabad and Karachi, witnesses said. At least 27 persons were killed in the unrest, said Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram, home secretary for Sindh province. Mourners traveled to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh by tractor, bus, car and jeep. Many crammed inside the mausoleum and threw flower petals onto the coffin. Women beat their heads and chests in grief. "As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto," they chanted. An Islamic cleric led mourners in prayer, and Mrs. Bhutto's son, Bilawal, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, helped lower the coffin beside that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also a popular former prime minister who met a violent death. Some mourners angrily blamed Mr. Musharraf, the former army chief, for Mrs. Bhutto's death, shouting "General, killer!" "Army, killer." In an e-mail sent to CNN, to be made public only if Mrs. Bhutto were killed while campaigning, she said that if anything happened to her, Mr. Musharraf would be responsible. The death of the 54-year-old Mrs. Bhutto left her party without a clear successor. "I don't know what will happen to the country now," said Nazakat Soomro, 32. A mob in Karachi looted at least three banks and set them on fire, and engaged in a shootout with police that left three officers wounded, police said. About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. In the capital, Islamabad, about 100 protesters burned tires in a commercial district. Paramilitary rangers were given the authority to use live fire against rioters in southern Pakistan, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman. "We have orders to shoot on sight," he said. Earlier, mobs burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Mrs. Bhutto's Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between the city of Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official. The rioters uprooted one section of the track leading to India, he said. About 4,000 Bhutto supporters rallied in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and several hundred ransacked the empty office of the main pro-Musharraf party, burning furniture and papers. Protesters shouted &q |
