U.S. Was Helping Bhutto Security Detail

Officials Say Key Intelligence Recommendations Went Unheeded; Elections Commission Stalls

(CBS/AP)  The United States provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her before the former Pakistani prime minister was assassinated, U.S. officials said.

They said American spy agencies advised Bhutto's aides on how to boost security, although key suggestions appear to have gone unheeded.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani election official said the government would wait until Wednesday to declare a firm date for crucial elections scheduled for Jan. 8, but "it looks impossible" for the country to hold the vote as planned.

"After consulting representatives of the political parties, we will take any final decision about the date of polls tomorrow," commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad said Tuesday

Sources in Islamabad told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan on Monday that the vote would likely be delayed by at least four weeks due to the widespread unrest following Bhutto's murder.

Opposition parties want the elections on time to capitalize on sympathy for Bhutto and anger at President Pervez Musharraf following her assassination. Western nations, which see the polls as key to restoring democracy in the Muslim nation, are also eager to see them take place as scheduled.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has emerged as the country's most prominent opposition leader following the death of Bhutto, threatened street protests if the vote was delayed.

"We will agitate," he told The Associated Press. "We will not accept this postponement."

Senior U.S. diplomats had multiple conversations, including at least two private face-to-face meetings, with top members of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party to discuss threats on the Pakistani opposition leader's life and review her security arrangements after a suicide bombing marred her initial return to Pakistan from exile in October, the officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

The intelligence was also shared with the Pakistani government, the officials said.

Much of what was passed on by the U.S. to Bhutto's security detail dealt with general threats from Taliban extremists and al Qaeda sympathizers and "was not actionable information."

The officials said Bhutto and her aides were concerned, particularly after the October attack, but were adamant that in the absence of a specific and credible threat there would be few, if any, changes to her campaign schedule ahead of parliamentary elections.

"She knew people were trying to assassinate her," said an intelligence official. "We don't hold information back on possible attacks on foreign leaders and foreign countries." The official added, however, that while the U.S. could share the information, "it's up to (the recipient) how they want to take action."

"We gave them a steady stream of intelligence," one official said.

The officials spoke to AP on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter and amid widespread disbelief over the Pakistani government's assertion that Bhutto died not from bullet or shrapnel wounds but from injuries sustained while hitting her head on her vehicle's sunroof during Thursday's attack by a suicide bomber and gunman.

The dispute over the government's explanation of how she died intensified after a medical report did not state what had caused her injuries and a video obtained by Britain's Channel 4 television showed a man firing a pistol at Bhutto from just feet away as she poked her head out of the sunroof. In the footage, her hair and shawl jerk upward and she falls into the vehicle just before an explosion. No police are seen trying to push the crowd away.

The Bush administration has quietly joined calls for Pakistan to allow international experts to join the probe into Bhutto's Dec. 27 slaying. The officials said they expected an announcement soon that investigators from Britain's Scotland Yard would be asked to play a significant role. Any U.S. involvement would be limited and low-key, they said.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said Monday that his government would welcome outside experts to help investigate the assassination, according to The New York Times. But Durrani said his government would not endorse a separate, outside investigation.

"Pakistan is open to international expertise, international support and international help because it's in our interests," Durrani told the newspaper in a story posted late Monday on its Web site.

On Saturday, a Pakistani interior ministry spokesman, Javed Iqbal Cheema, defended his government's ability to carry out an investigation, saying, "I think we are capable of handling it."

In Islamabad, the government issued a statement Tuesday saying it was "committed to a thorough and transparent investigation and will not shy away from receiving assistance from outside, if needed."

In the meetings with U.S. officials, Bhutto aides did not ask the United States to help protect her but did inquire about the feasibility of hiring private U.S. or British bodyguards, an idea discouraged by the Americans who argued that a noticeable Western security detail would increase the threat and might become a target itself, the officials said.

Instead, the U.S. diplomats recommended as many as five reputable local Pakistani and regional firms that could be contracted to supplement Bhutto's security and urged the party to limit the size, scope and type of her public appearances, upgrade armoring on vehicles in which she might travel and require her to wear protective clothing, the officials said.

However, there was no indication that Bhutto's team - including her husband, Asif Ali Zardari (seen at left), who attended at least one of the meetings - had followed through on the most critical of the recommendations, including the hiring of private guards and reducing her visibility in large crowds like the one in Rawalpindi where she was killed.

The officials said Zardari rejected using private Pakistani security companies due to fears they might be infiltrated by extremists even though several of the recommended companies have international components and are used by Western embassies to protect personnel.

Anne Tyrell, a spokeswoman for the private U.S. security company Blackwater Worldwide, known for its operations in Iraq, said her company had been approached about possibly providing protection for Bhutto, "but unfortunately, an agreement was never reached."

While Bhutto's staff did take some steps to improve the safety of the party's vehicles, the officials expressed surprise that the car in which she was riding when attacked had a sunroof and stressed that they would have strongly advised her against popping her head out of it in the presence of large numbers of people.

In addition to advising Bhutto's aides, as they worked to forge a political reconciliation and possible power-sharing deal between the opposition leader and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the U.S. diplomats made numerous appeals to the Pakistani government to grant requests from her party to ensure Bhutto's safety, the officials said.

But some requests, such as those for advanced technology and massive police presences in outlying towns, either could not be met or were deemed unreasonable by the government, a position the United States reluctantly conceded, the officials said.

The State Department, meanwhile, angrily denied suggestions that U.S. officials had ignored or minimized the threat to Bhutto even as they were encouraging reconciliation between her and Musharraf.

"It is simply untrue and I simply do not understand why anyone, anywhere would assert that the United States did not have concerns, minimized those concerns, or was not very active in trying to ensure that she was provided with whatever kind of security support she required," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

"We discussed those concerns regularly both with her and officials from her party and with President Musharraf and with his government," he said. "We always, in every instance, took those concerns seriously. We were very active in trying to ensure that any information we had that was relevant to her situation was passed on to her as well as those responsible for her security."

[katg21]

No one should trust our intelligence while Bush is in office. Remember what happened in Iraq in regards to WMDs...
Posted by jh6379

Man, won''t you people ever move on!!! If there weren''t WMD''s in Iraq then how do you account for the thousands of Kurds who were proven to be killed by them... in IRAQ!?! Somewhere in that little mind of yours it has to occur that Saddam had plenty of opportunity and time to move and hide such weapons.

[zootallures2]

Will 2008 find a cure for s*adism?

Each year s*adism kills millions of people. But there is hope! Yes, here at the International S*adism Foundation (ISF) we are close to a break through to stop this killer that has mutated to not distinguish between old and young, rich or poor, or any race or religion. It can cause death and injury to even the most praised and honored, sacred and loved, and your precious small children. Even pets and animals are not immune. Once just a mass killer of bugs and insects, it has spread and evolved into our world%u2019s greatest threat. We need your help. Donate your tax-deductible gift to The International S*adism Foundation today and help fight the war on s*adism.

[toolmangler-2009]

I''''m waiting for a story about the plight of Eskimoes and that it was the Jews fault.
Posted by earth561 at 01:04 PM : Jan 01, 2008


I am not a Jew apologist, but anytime I see one person, country, religion singled out for ridicule, I am forced to read for myself, the facts as far as I can dig them up. I hate for other people to tell me that ''so and so'' is bad while they do the same things that they accuse the mentioned party of. That goes for Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Asians, Africans, and the Mideastern countrys.

(posted elsewhere also.)

[slim1h2o]

In so doing, we create a sinkhole of Western guilt and responsibility for suffering Muslims, in this case in the PA.
Posted by Toolmangler

And not to mention a cesspool of hatred for all peoples of the West.

[Con Mohrat]

No one should trust our intelligence while Bush is in office. Remember what happened in Iraq in regards to WMDs...
Posted by jh6379 at 01:22 PM : Jan 01, 2008
~~~~~~~~

Bush and Intelligence in the same sentence = Oxymoron

[ajaxtheleast]

a rude cocoon intrusion

30 DEAD IN BAGDAD 34 WOUNDED

a policeman and 5 of his family

[hungry1968]

No one should trust our intelligence while Bush is in office. Remember what happened in Iraq in regards to WMDs...

Posted by jh6379 at 01:22 PM : Jan 01, 2008



The intelligence was right on - there were no WMD''s in Iraq. And Bush knew that as early as January 2001.

[hungry1968]

"U.S. Was Helping Bhutto Security Detail"


Yeah - and we "helped" install democracy in Iraq too. Look at what a successful record we have under George Bush...

[toolmangler-2009]

No one should trust our intelligence while Bush is in office. Remember what happened in Iraq in regards to WMDs...
Posted by jh6379 at 01:22 PM : Jan 01, 2008



For the most part, the intel was correct. The problem was there was a "DUMMY" reading it and seeing a mandate to subjugate the world. remember "stupid is as stupid does"

[excoachken]

For Bush, "intelligence" means his very best lie. After all, using "W''s" name and "intelligence" in the same sentence creates an oxymoron.

[toolmangler-2009]

Paying Islam for our Western guilt


Christmas came early to the Palestinian Authority when the %u201Cinternational community%u201D decided not only to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas%u2019 request for $5.6 billion in aid, but to throw in almost $2 billion more. Why? Did the PA end its terrorist ways? Stop state-sanctioned incitement against Israel and the West? Change Fatah%u2019s charter (forget about Hamas) calling for Israel%u2019s destruction?

Alas, no, no and no. We are heaping riches on the PA for other reasons, one of which I discuss below.

But first, a digression: Christmas, obviously, doesn%u2019t come to the PA, even if Western billions do. Despite a tiny (and decreasing) number of Christians, the PA is a land of Islam %u2014 Dar al-Islam. That makes Israel, the object of the PA%u2019s destructive animus, Dar al-Harb, land of war, right?

Right. But not according to the PC script of the %u201Cinternational community.%u201D We never, ever discuss the Islamic context of %u201CArab-Israeli%u201D conflicts. But how else can we hope to understand them?

[toolmangler-2009]

Jihad ideology inspires the Arab struggle against Israel. It also explains it. As the only non-Muslim country amid Middle Eastern Dar-al Islam, as the only %u201Cdhimmi%u201D nation to reclaim its land once conquered by Islam, Israel%u2019s very existence is a religious offense to the %u201Cumma,%u201D or Islamic community. In this same context, what we call %u201Cforeign aid%u201D to the PA may be understood as a form of %u201Cjizya,%u201D the protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims.

But the non-Muslim world prefers not to think like that. We avert our collective eye from the goals of jihad, from the history and teachings of Islam. Instead, we see ourselves as villains %u2014 Israel for its existence, and Israel%u2019s supporters for, well, their support for Israel%u2019s existence.

In so doing, we create a sinkhole of Western guilt and responsibility for suffering Muslims, in this case in the PA.

They suffer not as a consequence of their religio-political bloodlust to destroy the Jews in Israel (the nearest infidels), but because there are Jews in Israel. In other words, it%u2019s everyone else%u2019s fault but their own.

Islam %u2014 particularly, jihadist ideology %u2014 is not to blame. Throw more money down the hole.

Of course, this works only until we stop misreading such ideology.

[toolmangler-2009]

And how long will that take? Probably forever %u2014 so long as we continue leaning on the same authorities who got us into this mental mess in the first place.

As it happens, I began the calendar year thinking about this subject %u2014 exonerating Islam %u2014 while discussing a PBS documentary on anti-Semitism in the Islamic world. The show%u2019s conclusion: What isn%u2019t Israel%u2019s fault is that of the West.

Well, you can%u2019t expect much more from (lefty) PBS. What was startling about the message, however, was one of the messenger%u2019s: none other than the eminent historian Bernard Lewis. He declared that anti-Semitism didn%u2019t even exist in the Middle East until European Christian colonizers brought it. You don%u2019t need to be a scholar of Lewis%u2019 stature to know that European colonization of the Middle East didn%u2019t begin until some 1,100 years after Islamic anti-Semitism got going in the Koran, the canonical commentaries on the Koran, and in a long and painful (for Christians also) historical record. Because Lewis is probably the most influential voice on Islam in our time %u2014 particularly for the U.S. foreign policy establishment %u2014 his pronouncements are more than significant.

Right or, in this case, wrong, they become the conventional wisdom, or reinforce it.

This comes to mind because Lewis has done it again %u2014 holding Europe responsible for unpalatable traditions of Islam.

[toolmangler-2009]

Writing at The American Thinker blog, Andrew Bostom, author of %u201CThe Legacy of Jihad%u201D (Prometheus, 2005) and, forthcoming, %u201CThe Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism,%u201D quotes a recent speech in which Lewis said: %u201CThe authoritarianism present in the Middle East region is not part of the Arab and Muslim traditions, but it has been imported from Europe.%u201D Bostom goes on to cite copious chapter and verse %u2014 including earlier writings by Lewis himself %u2014 demonstrating that %u201Cthe Arab and Muslim tradition%u201D needed no lessons from Europe on authoritarianism.

Why is Lewis making statements contradicted by the historical record? If European Christendom truly is the source of Islamic evil %u2014 e.g., anti-Semitism and authoritarianism %u2014 Islam is let off the hook, and blame falls on the West. Whether that is Lewis%u2019 point, it is certainly Lewis%u2019 effect.

And it is certainly the conventional wisdom. Not very wise, though, when it helps feed the kind of guilt assuaged only by giving billions of dollars to murderers and thieves.

Diana West is a columnist for The Washington Times

[toolmangler-2009]

Haven''''t they ever heard about bomb sniffing dogs over there?
Posted by scottyusa at 09:49 AM : Jan 01, 2008


Doesn''t work over there, "Everybody" smells of explosives, poor dogs can''t tell friend from foe.

[prinzowhales]

CYA is the name of the US plan with regard to the Bhutto assassination by elements of the Istanbul regime. She named the suspects in an e-mail...shades of Lady Di recording that Charles was going to murder her in a fake auto accident in her private papers...

Was the ''steady stream of BS...or ''intelligence'' anything like that which claimed Saddam had WMDs and links with al Qaeda and could hit London in 45 minutes and the US with its ''gliders of death''?

Our man in Islamabad--Musharraf--refused Bhutto''s request for outside bodyguards...wouldn''t grant them visas...

His regime won''t allow an autopsy and claims her sunroof killed her--not the man aiming the handgun at her before she collapsed into the auto and the bomb went off...

She said on David Frost that OSAMA BIN LADEN had already been murdered--Frost did not even follow that spectacular (for Western and particularly American ears) revelation with a follow-up question.

Arlen Specter, the magic bullet cover-up attorney who was and accessory after the fact in the murder of JFK was on hand for a meeting with Bhutto at which she was to show evidence that American foreign aid was being used to rig the vote in Pakistan...(Just as American foreign aid to Israel is being used to rig the vote in America).

Bhutto was going to talk to the Islamists.

The US, despite its protestations, is led by a pack of Neo-Con scoundrels who want chaos throughout the region...to, in true New World Order fashion, bring order out of chaos.

When are reporters in the media going to"drop their onions" and stop trying to produce articles that do not show the REAL BUSH-ITE. The Pakistan issue is another "story untold" --Bush cow-tailed huge funds to Musharrf to encourage Musharrf to give approval for the invasion of Iraq. But no one seemed to think it was%u201Dreportable%u201D then --so it wasn''t reported in the U.S. Media. Now the veil of truth is slowing peeking through and still no reporter has the onions to report the truth. What really was the huge sums of money spent for.

Truth - in the media - seems to be a "golden opportunity that no one wants to share with the public" --better to file what the political honchos want for their future bed to "lie" in.

Now, once again, people have to ask "what is the truth". Bhutto was murdered --but who at the State Department wants to come forward and "personally" announce that He/She contacted Bhutto''s security personnel to tell them how to protect themselves. When all the time Bhutto''s request to Musharrf - if true- was to provide the additional protection that could have - should have prevented this horrible event - - went silent.

Please, MEDIA %u2013we%u2019uns - the public - really need you.

William J Clemons
[e-mail]

[yongamerica]

"The intelligence was also shared with the Pakistani government, the officials said."

In essence Musharraf was told what the potential dangers and weak points of her security detail. This enable him to know when and how to exploit a weakness. With his military''s close ties with the Taliban and aql Qaeda, this intelligence most likely ended up directly in the very hands of her assasins.

[ajaxtheleast]

HARK!? Did I hear mention of Bozo''s legacy here?

How about, "Bozos''s legacy will be the expansion of

areas available to the application of ignorance

and stupidity.?

[fornicario]

I find this too hard to swallow. If we knew so much, why did it happen? Oh wait, we don''t interfere with the workings of foreign nations, no sorry, we only interfere with nations that we can sell off to corporate society. This is just another example of the ineffectiveness of our modern nation.