The Plot Thickens - Musharraf vs. Bhutto

Just don't mug yourself,
That's all don't mug yourself!
Hold it down boy,
Your head's getting blurred
--The Streets

The western press has been content to play up the al-Qaida dimension to the Bhutto killing so far, which happens to coincide with agenda of most western governments that see Musharraf as the proverbial "bulwark" against terrorism. They have overlooked his emergency rule, his tyrannical overthrow of judges, his coup of a democratically elected leader and his footsie with the Kashmiri rebels. Is it so far fetched that he would kill a potential rival?

Fisk explores the subject here:

So let’s run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair might have done in his policeman’s notebook before he became the top cop in London.

Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir’s supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.

Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?

Er. Yes. Well quite.

The standard reply so far has been "Well, this has been quite a blow to Musharraf", as Hitchens says here:

But it's hard to construct any cui bono analysis on which Gen. Pervez Musharraf is the beneficiary of her death. The likeliest culprit is the al-Qaida/Taliban axis, perhaps with some assistance from its many covert and not-so-covert sympathizers in the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.

But is it so hard to see that he benefits? He eliminated the front runner in a parliamentry election that would see his own power reduced and his legitimacy decimated. More importantly, Bhutto was about to drop a dime on the rigged nature of the upcoming elections on the day she died:

NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.

Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.

She was a threat and Musharraf knew it.

If you want to see your own power maintained, the best thing to do is destroy a parallel source of power and Bhutto was that source.

The western press and governments need to stop talking up the same narrative where Musharraf is alwasys the good guy and start asking some tough questions.