Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, aides said.

The death of the 54-year-old charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos and created fears of mass protests and violence across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

The attacker struck just minutes after Bhutto addressed thousands of supporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, 8 miles south of Islamabad. She was shot in the neck and chest by the attacker, who then blew himself up, said Rehman Malik, Bhutto's security adviser.

At least 20 others were killed in the attack.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital and taken into emergency surgery.

"At 6:16 p.m., she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.

Bhutto's supporters at the hospital exploded in anger, smashing the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit. Others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack. But some of Bhutto's supporters at the hospital began chanting, "Killer, Killer, Musharraf," referring to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Bhutto's main political opponent. A few began stoning cars outside.

"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to our requests," Malik said.

Nawaz Sharif, another former premier and opposition leader, arrived at the hospital and sat silently next to Bhutto's body.

Hours earlier, four people were killed at a rally for Sharif when his supporters clashed with backers of Musharraf near Rawalpindi.

Bhutto's death will leave a void at the top of her party, the largest political group in the country, as it heads into the parliamentary elections. It also fueled fears that the crucial vote could descend into violence.

Pakistan is considered a vital U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists including the Taliban. Osama bin Laden and his inner circle are believed to be hiding in lawless northwest Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.

In Washington, the State Department condemned the attack.

"It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy," deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.

The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach an accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, who was seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her party had been widely expected to do well in next month's elections.

Educated at Harvard and Oxford universities, Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. Her father, who also served as prime minister, was executed in 1979 two years after his ouster in a military coup.

Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18. On the same day, she narrowly escaped injury when her homecoming parade in Karachi was targeted in a suicide attack that killed more than 140 people.

At the scene of Thursday's bombing, an Associated Press reporter saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh park, where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many other wounded people.

Party supporter Chaudry Mohammed Nazir said two gunshots rang out when Bhutto's vehicle pulled into the main street. Then there was a big blast next to her car.

Police cordoned off the street with white and red tape, and rescuers rushed to put victims in ambulances as people wailed nearby.

The clothing of some victims was shredded and people put party flags over their bodies. Police caps and shoes littered the asphalt.

Hundreds of riot police had manned security checkpoints around the venue. It was Bhutto's first public meeting in Rawalpindi since she came back to the country.

In November, Bhutto had also planned a rally in the city, but Musharraf forced her to cancel it, citing security fears.

In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in Rawalpindi, where Musharraf stays and the Pakistan army has its headquarters.

Well duhhhh, I guess we could not see this coming, eh?? That is too bad, she seemed like a voice of reason in an increasingly area of maddness.  She also seemed to be very popular with the people of Pakistan.

But, as she told Wolf Blitzer recently, people like Osama Bin Lauden don't want democracy to come to places like Pakistan and they ESPECIALLY don't want any women as rulers, but I would not put it past that little weasel Musharraf who is currently in charge of Pakistan to have been behind this either, since he declared military rule shortly after she showed back up in the country!

Too bad, she seemed like a good person, maybe a bit foolish to come back, and once back, had a huge target on her back not only with al queda but with her own gov't. 

MahaRushie37 said: I indeed am saddened by this. Of course this is a big victory for the Drive-By media, the Liberals and the Liberal dominated Congress who want Al-Qaeda to succeed in this area.

MahaRushie37 said: I indeed am saddened by this. Of course this is a big victory for the Drive-By media, the Liberals and the Liberal dominated Congress who want Al-Qaeda to succeed in this area.

  I don't see it that way,  I find it very interesting how the news channels are treating this and using it to push certain presidential candidates.  It appears from coverage that the mainstream media is using this to promote the most entrenched establishment candidates like Hillary or McCain which are quite unacceptable.  Unrest in Pakistan is no reason to put a horrid Pro-Amnesty, Unfair Trade supporter  candidate in the White House.  Destroying America over concern for unrest overseas  is not much of a trade off in my book. 

McCain will not need any supporter donations if the MSM continues to give him FREE advertising and promotion 24/7 on the news channels. 

 Sad but they always love to push their own establishment agenda.   This is the big problem with country club govt (CFR).

   I have been listening to McCains blathering  all morning and have yet to hear him say anything profound that you or I could not have said that would make him the one and only obvious "experienced" leader they are claiming he is.   I can't seem to forget that we are in a horrible U.S. economy downturn while congress spends more than ever on pork, and we have been less than stellar globally in foreign policy so WHY would we want anyone who has been part of the current mess for over 20 years in Washington  ( NAFTA, Open Borders, Co-Sponsoring socialist Dem bills constantly ) to tell us he will lead us out of it?  Experience ????  Time for some new blood.

  This event proves once again how those who stand up for the west  are going to be treated anywhere there are radical muslim groups operating.   This is more unsettling to me because we don't know how committed to the U.S. is Perv Musharraff or is he just playing both sides like so often is the case with the leaders of these mideast nations.  We cut them all checks and they stab us in the back in crunch time.   This is going to be a long expensive battle and hopefully we pick our battles wisely and are more demanding of those who claim to be on our side.    

   If we allow ourselves to be scared into voting for any particular candidate we are no better off as a nation than those poor folks in Pakistan who would love free elections and a choice just like we do.

TG    

In memory of Benazir Bhutto. A woman of courage with a strong desire to help Pakistan become a democratic nation where children could go to school without fear of being blown up by extremists. She sacrificed herself in the name of FREEDOM for her fellow countrymen. She was indeed the last, best hope for the people of Pakistan.

I'm wondering if Musharaff had a hand in this execution.....elections were to be held on January 8th.

This incredible woman was a Champion for Freedom and Democracy. I hope Pakistan has another "champion" to pick up the torch and finish her journey of hope for the people of Pakistan.

God rest her soul......the impact of her death is yet to be known. She was both loved and hated- controversial in life, in exile and in death. We will never know if she would have been able to turn a chaotic, hotbed like Pakistan into a civil democracy. 

The light of hope was extinguished today.......even though she is of muslim faith- if you have any admiration for this woman at all- please say a prayer for her. She knew it was almost certain death for her to return to Pakistan- she also knew there was no other option available to save her countrymen.

Well, I thought my day was bad. But it doesn't begin to compare to Benazir Bhutto's.  There is a LESSON here, however. Despite what Bush and the Neocons want to force on the world, not everybody wants to live in a Jeffersonian Democracy. Most Paki moslems are NOT like us and don't WANT to be like us. (Correspondinly, I resent our diversiticrats forcing ME to adopt Third World values when third worlders invade/immigrate into MY country.) Why we can't learn that, I don't know. You would have thought the disastrous experience of do-gooding envisioned by Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations would have been enough. Fact is: we should be on our knees thanking God for a dictator like Musharraf being in charge in Pakistan. Otherwise, people like Bhutto would quickly be whisked aside and our enemies would take over the country and its nuclear weapons, which would then go directly to al-Qaeda. We are ruled by fools.

There is a line in Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET, where an American colonel is overlooking a ditch holding scores of dead Vietnamese bodies. The colonel says, "Inside every Gook, there is an American waiting to get out." No, there isn't. And we are destroying ourselves, Western Civlization, and the world by believing so. God save us all.

Bhutto’s assassination. Just another piece of the puzzle.

Ottawa Canada June 2006: Just as Bilberberg Group quietly discuss how they can take out Hugo Chavez, how was Bhutto a topic of conversation at their mtg. in Instanbul in March 2007? Nothing is as it seems on the news headlines folks.

These are a just a few of the shady characters who met together behind closed doors: Ahmeb Chalabi, Agusto Santos Silva, Matias Rodriguez Inciarte, Bernadino Leon Gross, Jean Luis Cebrian, Siv Jensen, Queen Betrix of the Netherlands, , James Wolfenshon, group Chairman Etiene Davigaon, Global Kingpin David Rockefeller is quoted saying: (“We are on the verge of a major global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.) Richard Hass, Franco Bernabe, Henry Kravis, and USA Logan Act violators Richard Holbrooke former US ambassador to the UN, Hillary Clinton, USA VP Bilderberg possible option Gov. Rick Perry of TEX and George Pataki Gov of New York also showed their faces in this fousty group.

First must we not understand and realize exactly who/what is our enemy and his multi-faceted tactics of warfare, then and only then may we begin to counter his efforts to destroy all we hold dear?

Bhutto was a highly disciplined and wily politician who kept an iron grip on control of her party, even during her long, self-imposed exile. She flirted with military power-sharing deals even as she passionately championed Pakistani democracy.

The eldest child of a wealthy and politically powerful Pakistani family, educated at Harvard and Oxford, Bhutto had been elected prime minister twice -- in 1988 and 1993. She was the first woman elected to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. Eloquent in both English and Pakistani Urdu, she above all was her father's daughter, determined to carry on his legacy as Pakistan's first modern, progressive civilian leader.

Her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 by Pakistan's then dictator, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. Benazir Bhutto, who was 26 at the time, was both toughened and inspired by his execution. She survived numerous attempts on her own life. Both of her brothers were assassinated years ago.

At her Oct. 18 homecoming reception in Karachi, bombing attacks killed 140 people -- but Bhutto emerged unscathed.

Nine days after returning to Pakistan, Bhutto made a heavily guarded visit to her father's tomb, to scatter rose petals over his grave.

"I have led an unusual life. I have buried a father killed at age 50 and two brothers killed in the prime of their lives," Bhutto wrote in a recent Op-Ed for The Washington Post. "I raised my children as a single mother when my husband was arrested and held for eight years without a conviction -- a hostage to my political career. I made my choice when the mantle of political leadership was thrust upon my shoulders after my father's murder. I did not shrink from responsibility then, and I will not shrink from it now."

Her public appearances drew large crowds, and increasingly stringent security checkpoints. But Thursday's rally was relatively sparsely attended, according to those present, apparently because people feared at violence.

Distrusting the government, Bhutto relied on her own heavily armed security guards for protection, traveling in a bulletproof, white SUV. She complained at times that the government was not doing enough to ensure her safety. Because of security concerns, she had considered giving up political rallies in favor of less-dangerous campaign tactics, including tape-recorded messages. But she continued to appear publicly and to draw large crowds.

After her death was announced, Sharif went to the hospital to pay his respects.

In the narrow corridor outside the operating room, supporters cried out: "Long live Bhutto!" and "Musharraf is a murderer!"

"This is the height of brutality. They have hanged her father. They have killed her brothers. The government has killed all the good people of Pakistan," said Sarfraz Khan. "Please pray for us. Pray for our poor country."

Sharif has been barred by the government from running for office Jan. 8. But his party has been competing in the elections and also has been attracting sizeable numbers of supporters to its rallies. At the Sharif rally Thursday, party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said, supporters were fired upon while waiting to welcome the former prime minister. Iqbal called the attack unprovoked, and accused Musharraf supporters of carrying it out.

Musharraf's party is "panicked by the astounding reception Mr. Sharif is getting," Iqbal said. "They're trying to use violence as an excuse to postpone the elections."

Stupid Huckabee offered apologies for Bhutto's assassination. What an idiot.

With about 150 supporters crowded around a podium set up on the tarmac of Orlando Executive airport (and about 20 Ron Paul supporters waving signs outside) Mike Huckabee strode out to the strains of “Right Now” by Van Halen and immediately addressed the Bhutto situation, expressing “our sincere concern and apologies for what has happened in Pakistan.”

Super Pat Said:

Musharraf's party is "panicked by the astounding reception Mr. Sharif is getting," Iqbal said. "They're trying to use violence as an excuse to postpone the elections."

I hope Musharraf is pooping his pants about now....he SHOULD be worried! 

I hope Mr Sharif DOES run and that they continue with the elections on January 8th.....this could be a bloody battle to determine who will take the helm of Pakistan.....and control the nukes! What a hotbed of chaos. Makes you truly thankful you are an American...and we bemoan the problems we have in this country- but at least we can be civil with regard to elections (most of the time!). At least we don't have to worry about being gunned down when voting in a Presidential campaign in America.

Great post Super Pat.....she followed in her father's footsteps alright....they were BOTH executed!

You know, watching all this unfold on the news today, I guess I felt a bit of relief that this country doesn't solve it's political differences by violence.  Sure there has been an assisination or two, but for the most part, and considering we are the most well armed nation on earth (speaking of private citizens), it is rather amazing we don't have more political violence going on.  I mean, we have (fairly) civilized debates amongst 8-10 candidates running for Prez, imagine that happening in Pakistan without a few shoot outs and at least one sucicide bomber!

I guess we do have a few things to be grateful for.  I do feel for Ms Bhutto's family, or what is left as most of them have died violent deaths, she did seem to be a voice of reason in an insane region of the world.

 Bin laden murderd ?????

Not shure what to make of this but listen carefully 3.45 -7 and right after 6.10...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

Randynaz said:

Bin laden murderd ?????

Not shure what to make of this but listen carefully 3.45 -7 and right after 6.10...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

 

 

Randynaz said:

Bin laden murderd ?????

Not shure what to make of this but listen carefully 3.45 -7 and right after 6.10...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

After hearing Bhutto speak now I know Bilderberg and those they finance took her out.

If Bin is pushing up 'roses' then the elites in our governemt know, only they don't want to spread the word around because is not Bin Laden their great patsy, their front/cover in order to rage on against the American people and world with this so called 'war on terror' and 'homeland security' sham that stripping you and I of liberties?

Some one mentioned that American civilians are the most armed people in the world. I disagree. I am American but work in a country where I am free carry a fully loaded 9 mill automatic anywhere in public (except in banks where I must leave my gun secured the provided lockers while I do my banking transactions) as long I keep the gun concealed not in open view like the police.

I can buy a gun and liscence in one day and don't need a special liscence to carry a concealed weapon in order to protect myself from hoodlems or renagade governmemt crooks/police who feel they can abuse their power....I say the general public in America should carry tazers too!!! to protect themselves from the police.

Police and crooks in USA will ALWAYS have guns, the bigger the better. No matter how many anti-gun laws they hep on us the criminals will always be armed , only the upright will abide by the laws and they are not the ones to worry about. Watch out and don't let them blow up the 2nd amendment folks. If they dis-arm you it's all over.

My experience is that one's best protection in any given heat of the moment encouter is first keep your wits about you, maintian calmness & street smarts tempered with wisdom from on High. I choose not to own a weapon because of my personal convictions and faith, but I am free to be armed to the teeth if I so choose.  

I do own a dog that you would not want to cross and I do have a writstrocket slingshot and can pick off a bottle cap repeatedly at 30 feet....  just a toy to keep the crows from my few plants.

World elites who inspired and funded the 'Left/Right' real yet illusion of Communism and Capitalism at the turn of the century have since fanned into flame and funded terror groups in efforts to establish their World Government inch by inch yard by yard.

Bhutto is down. Who may be next on their hit list?

Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
December 27, 2007

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1432

Bhutto's casket is carried out of Rawalpindi General Hospital by her supporters.

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Hundreds of thousands of people in the surrounding streets almost brought the procession to a standstill before it finally reached the mausoleum.

The throngs of her grieving supporters crushed up against the flag-draped coffin, while minor scuffles also broke out.

Violence had earlier erupted in Pakistan in the hours before Bhutto's funeral started, with at least nine people reported killed and banks, train stations and cars torched.

Bhutto, 54, was killed on Thursday after a public rally in Rawalpindi by the bullets of an assassin who blew himself up after firing the shots, killing at least 28 more people and wounding at least 100 according to GEO-TV.

Her father and former prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in the same northern city in 1979.

Bhutto's body arrived in the hours before dawn at Garhi-Khuda Baksh after a long journey by plane, helicopter and ambulance. Watch video from Bhutto's funeral procession »

The opposition leader's family -- her husband Asif Ali Zardari and three children -- accompanied the body aboard a Pakistani Air Force C-130 transport plane to Sukkor but traveled by bus from there to Larkana and on to Garhi-Khuda Baksh.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bhutto's family had requested a private funeral.

Another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, told CNN on Friday that he had planned to attend Bhutto's funeral, but was advised not to by Zardari, who cited security concerns.

"He said that we must not come today in view of these inadequate security arrangements," Sharif said. "The security arrangements are far from satisfactory."

In the aftermath of the assassination, the prime minister's office has launched a judicial inquiry and the Ministry of the Interior is setting up a police inquiry, according to Information Minister Nisar Memon.

Memon said no decision had been made to postpone parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8.

"We remain on course," he said.

Sharif, who visited the hospital to pay his respects to Bhutto, later announced that he and his party would boycott the elections.

Bhutto, who was campaigning for the elections, had completed an election rally minutes earlier and was leaving the rally site, Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh Park, at the time of the attack.

As a shocked Pakistan absorbed the news of Bhutto's death, authorities called for calm and asked residents to stay inside.

Many obliged, shuttering shops or rushing home from work and surrendering the streets to protesters who set fire to banks, shops and gas stations, blocked roads and pelted police with rocks, Pakistani media reported.

At least five people were killed in Karachi in the violence, GEO-TV reported, and dozens more were wounded. Police in Khairpur fired on an angry mob, killing two people, the station reported, and two more people were killed in Larkana.

"It's all mayhem everywhere," Shehryar Ahmad, an investment banker in Karachi, told CNN by telephone. "There's absolutely no order of any kind. No army on the streets. No curfew."

Ahmad said that as he drove back from work, he counted the burned-out shells of dozens of cars. A one-mile strip leading to Bhutto's Karachi house was a "ghost town," he said.

"A lot of government buildings and many vehicles have been burned by the angry protesters," said Majid Siddiqui of GEO-TV.

In Sindh province, where Karachi is located, police said demonstrators had burned a dozen banks, set two train stations on fire, along with three trains. Since Thursday, 240 vehicles have been burned.

Because of the violence, paramilitary forces in Sindh were told to "shoot on sight" anyone causing civil disturbances, a spokesman for the Pakistan Rangers said.

Local media reported that in some areas, police were on the streets but were avoiding direct confrontation with the mobs, not wanting to inflame an already tense situation.

But by Friday morning, Pakistani media reported that an uneasy calm had spread across the shaken country, now marking a three-day period of mourning declared by President Pervez Musharraf.

Bhutto's coffin was removed from Rawalpindi General Hospital late on Thursday -- carried above a crowd of grieving supporters.

Bhutto spent her final moments giving a stirring address to thousands of supporters at a park in Rawalpindi, a city of roughly 1.5 million that is 14 km (9 miles) south of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

She climbed into a white Land Rover and stood through the sunroof to wave to crowds after the speech.

It was then that someone fired two shots, and Bhutto slumped back into the vehicle, said John Moore, a news photographer with Getty Images who saw what happened.

Seconds later an explosion rocked the park, sending orange flames into the throng of Bhutto supporters and littering the park with twisted metal and chunks of rubble. The carnage was everywhere, he said.

The assassination happened in Liaquat Bagh Park, named for Pakistan's first prime minister -- Liaquat Ali Khan -- who was assassinated in the same location in 1951.

The attack came just hours after four supporters of Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport on Thursday, Pakistan police said.

Bhutto led Pakistan from 1988-1990 and 1993-96, but both times the sitting president dismissed her amid corruption allegations. She was the first female prime minister of any Islamic nation. What impact could Bhutto have had in Pakistan? »

A terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi in October killed 136 people on the day she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

Bhutto had been critical of what she believed was a lack of effort by President Musharraf's government to protect her. View timeline »

Two weeks after that assassination attempt, she wrote a commentary for CNN.com in which she questioned why Pakistan investigators refused international offers of help in finding the attackers. E-mail to a friend