Bhutto to meet Specter, Kennedy over Election Rigging
[Guest post by DRJ]
On the day she was assassinated, the UK Independent claims Benazir Bhutto was set to hand over to visiting US politicians (identified as Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Patrick Kennedy) proof of a Pakistani intelligence plan to rig the January 8 elections:
“On the day she was assassinated, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal what she claimed was damning evidence that revealed the involvement of a shadowy Pakistani intelligence agency in a plan to rig the country’s upcoming elections.
Colleagues of Ms Bhutto have revealed she was due to meet visiting US politicians to hand over a report compiled by her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) into an operation it says was being run by the ISI military intelligence agency to fix the polls in the favour of President Pervez Musharraf. Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the PPP election monitoring cell, said the report was “very sensitive” and the party wanted to initially share it with trusted US politicians rather than the government of George Bush, which has backed Mr Musharraf.”
It was reported earlier that Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Patrick Kennedy were in Pakistan and scheduled to meet with Bhutto when she was assassinated. The Independent article confirms the meeting:
“The PPP has not claimed that Ms Bhutto was killed in order to stop her from revealing the information the party had gathered. However, last Thursday – the day that she was killed in Rawalpindi – Ms Bhutto was due to meet Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican, and the Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy. It is unclear whether the two US lawmakers had any indication that they were to be provided with the report.
After Ms Bhutto’s death, Mr Specter said: “Our foreign policy had relied on her presence as a stabilising force. I knew her personally… She was, as you know, glamorous, beautiful, smart. Her loss is a setback. But you have to face what is. And now, without her, we have to regroup.”
The Melbourne Herald Sun described the meeting with Specter and Kennedy as follows:
“Ms Bhutto was due to meet US Republican Senator Arlen Specter and Democrat Patrick Kennedy last Thursday to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency planned to fix the polls in favour of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party election monitoring unit, said the report was “very sensitive” and the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which it believed strongly backed Mr Musharraf.”
I’d like to know what Specter and Kennedy knew beforehand and where their interests lie.
The Independent report (linked above) also indicates the proof was provided by intelligence sources loyal to Bhutto and claims the plans to rig the election used diverted US aid funds:
“The report compiled by the PPP apparently includes information on an alleged “safehouse” being run by the ISI in a neighbourhood of Islamabad called G-5, from which the rigging operation was run. “It was compiled from sources within the [intelligence] services who were working directly with Benazir Bhutto,” said Mr Lashari.
The report names a recently retired ISI officer who has allegedly been running the rigging unit and claims he worked in tandem with another named senior intelligence officer. It also claims that US aid funds were being used for the projects.
At the heart of the scheme, the report says, was a project in which ballot papers – stamped in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), which supports Mr Musharraf – were to be produced by the intelligence agencies in about 100 constituencies. Mr Lashari said the effort was directed at constituencies where the result was likely to be decided by a small margin, so it would not be obvious. “They diverted money from aid activities. We had evidence of where they were spending the money,” he added.”
Finally, the Independent article provides new hospital information that further disputes the government account that Bhutto died after hitting her head on a sunroof lever:
“Meanwhile, controversy continued to rage over the precise cause of Ms Bhutto’s death. Having initially said she was killed by a gunman, the government has since claimed Ms Bhutto died after striking her head on a lever that controlled the sunroof of her bullet-proof car. The claim drew accusations of a cover-up from members of her party who said the government was seeking to avoid criticism for not having provided adequate security.
Yesterday a member of the board of the hospital where Ms Bhutto was rushed last Thursday, said doctors had been prevented from carrying out a post-mortem examination by the local police chief. Athar Minallah, a leading lawyer, released medical notes from the hospital which showed Ms Bhutto had suffered a single wound to her head. Mr Minallah said the doctor who had written the report, the head of surgery at Rawalpindi General Hospital, had told him he believed Ms Bhutto had died of a bullet wound, though the medical notes make clear that a post-mortem examination was required.
“The doctors have said they were not allowed to perform an autopsy,” said Mr Minallah.”
Corrupt Pakistani elections, diverted US aid, and clandestine meetings with US politicians to avoid the Bush Administration …
This is not good news for the US government.
— DRJ
I’d be surprised to know that Kennedy knew anything more than which of his nostrils is a better snot mine. What on earth is Specter doing running around with that moron? Kucinich is more lucid, but I guess he’s busy.
To paraphrase Ace, Bhutto died of a bullet wound and stupidity, but mostly stupidity. Not to excuse the killer(s) by any stretch, but given the threats and attempts against her life, she acted perfectly recklessly.
Pablo (99243e) — 1/1/2008 @ 2:23 pmYes. It’s hard to miss Benazir Bhutto.
Christoph (92b8f7) — 1/1/2008 @ 2:27 pmWhy Specter and Kennedy? Let’s think about this further.
First there is Specter, who proudly proclaims at his Senate website that he is the senior member of the Appropriations Subcommittees on Foreign Operations and Defense. Not the senior Republican member, by the way, but the senior member. He’s also not known for his fondness of the Bush Administration, so who better than a defense appropriations senator with an antipathy for Bush to discuss a report on diverted US aid?
As for Kennedy, he is best known for his family ties, not only his father the Senator but also his cousin Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – a Harvard graduate and classmate of Benazir Bhutto who shared the unfortunate experience of the assassination/execution of a politically active father.
Why Specter and Kennedy? Frankly, who else but Specter and Kennedy?
DRJ (09f144) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:00 pmCalling it reckless behavior would be a compliment…
What irks me most is hearing that members of the legislature *continue* to try to be pseudo-executive diplomats. For heavens sake, don’t Specter & Kennedy have things to take care of in their own country, for their own constituents who directly elected them?
Bleh.
h2u (57b696) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:04 pmDRJ, off topic and you don’t think this is worth an update?
[Yes, Christoph, thanks and I’ve added an update here. — DRJ]
Christoph (92b8f7) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:04 pm“This is not good news for the US government.”
-DRJ
Kudos to you for acknowledging that.
Leviticus (78dbeb) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:08 pmSorry, but until something more damning than what appears in the links appears I fail to see why this is so bad for the U.S. Government.
It is not unheard of for political parties in other countries to work around an administration to achieve their ends, so that Bhutto wanted to meet with Kennedy and Spector proves nothing as I see it. Also, it is not unheard of for aid funds to be diverted from their intended purposes if that part of the story turns out to be true.
Basically all I see is a lot of speculation with little evidence to back it up. While it may turn out to be accurate, I would remind people that events in other countries are not always reported fairly or accurately when filtered through the prisms of other people’s political interests. I seem to remember some pictures of ambulances and reports of destroyed Mosques as examples of less than accurate reports.
I would also remind people that we are not the rulers of Pakistan and so even if much of the reports are true, before blaming the administration you really need some evidence that they knew what was happening and approved of, or at least condoned it. The fact is that we cannot simply tell a sovereign nation what to do and immediately have them do it, even a relatively friendly nation.
Fritz (4c04c1) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:15 pmKennedy’s family ties are all he’s got going for him. The man is an embarrassment that compounds itself every time he opens his mouth. And I say that as one of his constituents.
The local “morning zoo” radio show does Patrick impressions regularly and the recurrent bit is that every time the interviewer calls him “Congressman” “Patrick” responds with “Heh heh…Congressman!” as though he can hardly believe it either. He’s a recurrent addict and a lout without the brains God gave a goldfish. Were he not a Kennedy, he’d have trouble holding down a janitor’s gig.
Pablo (99243e) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:20 pmThat and the simple fact that they were there, which was not Pakistan-centric, but part of a broader tour including Israel and Syria where Specter did his best Nancy Pelosi impersonation while Kennedy likely looked at all the shiny things. If there are American politicos in town of course Bhutto would want to meet with them, and they with her.
Pablo (99243e) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:28 pmI’m certainly not going to give up on Musharraf over this story, even if it’s true, but I don’t see how anyone can claim this won’t be a problem for the US government. In addition, while I’m suspicious about why Specter and Kennedy were in Pakistan, I understand they may have been there by coincidence and even that the election rigging story was fabricated after-the-fact. I think these things are unlikely but it’s always possible.
DRJ (09f144) — 1/1/2008 @ 3:53 pmAs far as I can see, the difference between Pak politics, and Rick’s Cafe Americain, is that while at Rick’s the gambling was in the back room, corruption in Pak politics is front and center.
Specter: For a guy who needed GW’s support badly (and got it against a solid-gold conservative) in his last PRIMARY election, he sure has a weird way of showing his gratitude for past favors.
I would imagine that after Thursdays’ IA fandango, most media will just forget to know how to spell or find Rawalpindi.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 1/1/2008 @ 4:09 pmI have trouble getting worked up over the contents of this report without having any idea what they are and the veracity of them. As it stands, this is nothing but rumor.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has now retracted the sunroof level claim. Which makes sense given that such an injury is a physical impossibility.
Pablo (99243e) — 1/1/2008 @ 4:26 pmSpecter and Kennedy? Was Jay Rockefeller busy trying to get more national security secrets to hand over to the NYTs?
Specter is an embarrassment and has been for a long time. Kennedy is just another spoiled little rich boy who has a Major drug problem and frequent nose bleeds.
Shadow government?
retire05 (402392) — 1/1/2008 @ 6:21 pmThis does sound the Lambrakis case which was dramatized in the Costas Gavras agit/prop film Z, where a mob beat up a leftist politician and then tried to make it look like an accident mixed with the Marcos/Aquinos situation in the Phillipines.
narciso (c36902) — 1/1/2008 @ 6:40 pmIronically, if some one had got her protection from the ‘infidel crusader’ company Blackwater, she’d most likely be alive. It’s ironic that Specter, of the ‘single bullet, and a older analogue of Bilawal Bhutto would be meeting her.
Given the Kennedy family history, were I a politician, I would not get within 50 yards of Patrick Kennedy, especially if he was behind the wheel.
These Reps and Senators seem to think that they are self appointed ambassadors to foreign countries and leaders. President Bush has been gracious enough, far more so than I would have been.
JD (bad43f) — 1/1/2008 @ 8:39 pmWhat was Kennedy doing there? I thought he had his “Holiday at Hazelden” in the Kennedy Wing routine firmly established now.
daleyrocks (906622) — 1/1/2008 @ 11:17 pmCan we re-tune the Logan Act so its actually enforcable and/or get an administration willing to enforce it?
jpm100 (33ce8e) — 1/2/2008 @ 5:46 amHmmmm…US aid diverted: business as usual around the world..what is the big deal?
Sue (e25fba) — 1/2/2008 @ 8:06 amSpecter,R and Kennedy, D set to meet with Bhutto? So, what else is new. Bhutto herself was no saint and I am sure that she was trying to set up more power with the two biased senators.
And, what was Bhutto doing sticking her body out of the top of the car? She might as well have waved a red flag for the executioner. What was she thinking? And, that is the ultimate point, isn’t it….
I really do wish the administration would start enforcing the Logan Act (USC 18.I.45.953)
LarryD (feb78b) — 1/2/2008 @ 9:13 amSince independence of pakistan,unknown forces have tried to take control of this strategic location, keeping their plans marked TOP Secret,
Terrance Francis (4e16b6) — 8/8/2008 @ 9:26 pmBut they also left a trail of events which easily justify foriegn intentions. These trails are so prominent that , new events are predictable. Countries like US, Russia , China , Pakistan etc, Asassinations like Bhutto family , kenedy family , Ghandhi family, Corporations developing them selves as Network within Network Strategy, like Microsoft , Prince Karim Agha Khan network, etc.
Forces are trying to create mutant, for their own financial reason.
PURPOSE: UNIVERSAL LEADERSHIP
STRATEGY : DIVIDE AND RULE
WAR ZONE : 7 Continents and the 2 more in two Hundred years.
WEAPON: FOOD
Possible Remedy : a small army will rise,its work will be felt, but they will never be seen, some might claim to be them, where as rest will fight them, for this small network, will consist of people from all over the world, 24-7 connection with each other.
Scientific ways yet not discovered by men, are being used by them,…Message Complete Decode if possible….