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US journo claims Bhutto was killed on Cheney’s orders

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jade_lee

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US journo claims Bhutto was killed on Cheney’s orders
May 18th, 2009

Benazir Bhutto New York, May 18 (ANI): A special death squad assassinated Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on the orders of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, an Arab TV channel has reported.

“Cheney was the chief of the Joint Special Operation Command and he cleared the way for the US by exterminating opponents through the unit and the CIA. General Stanley was the in-charge of the unit,†The Nation quoted US columnist Seymour Hersh, as saying.

The US death unit killed Bhutto because she had told Al-Jazeera TV about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, Hersh said.

The US leadership did not want Osama to be declared dead. It would have raised questions about the US Army’s presence in Afghanistan, he claimed.

According to Hersh, the former Lebanese PM Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief were murdered for not safeguarding US interests and for refusing to set up US military bases in Lebanon.

Ariel Sharon, the then prime minister of Israel, was also a key man in the plot, he said. (ANI)

Remember Bhutto being interviewed prior to her death?
 
Who knows ... I love the way everyone simply assumes it was the Vice-President running the show ... I can't think of any other president in over a century where this would even cross people's minds!
 
it's easy to claim something especially when you have the option of saying any denial is a "conspiracy"..... but it should be really backed by at least some proof.

Of course it does not mean that is not the truth - but the odds are against it.
 
While I'm tempted to dismiss this out of hand it's Seymour Hersh who is apparently making the claim, and Hersh does have an impressive history as an investigative journalist. But Hersh does work with a lot of anonymous sources and until a lot more substantive info comes out of this I'm not going to take his word for it simply because someone told him. The whole reasoning for the murder is weak (the CIA/special unit kills her in revenge for her leaking info?) and Sharon's involvement seems completely senseless.
 
Perhaps Cheney had her killed, he was after all quite possibly the most powerful non-presidential figure since Edwin M. Stanton. It would make sense to silence her so she could not make that claim again. However I too was a little troubled by Hersh's claim that Ariel Sharon was involved, Sharon has been in a coma since 4 January 2006. I just don't see how he could be involved.
 
I wouldn't put much past Cheney, but this makes no sense.

- The Bush Administration would have liked nothing more than to say "we got him!" and prove they had killed Bin Laden. After they found and hanged Saddam, they got a huge support boost back home and the US stayed in Iraq. If there was any plausibility that Bin Laden was dead it would be all over the news, not covered up.

- Bhutto was a very Western-friendly leader, just the sort the US would like to be dealing with in Pakistan. Her assassination risked instability in Pakistan and a more hostile leader, neither of which the US would want.

- The tossing of Sharon into the mix is laughable, considering he'd been in a coma for almost 2 years when Bhutto was assassinated.
 
As someone who covers Pakistan for a living, I say hogwash. Bhutto was a US ally. Maybe not as much as Musharraf but an ally nevertheless. The yanks were getting more and more impatient with dealing with the money pit that was the Pakistan military. 10 billion in aid at that point and all the Pak military had achieved was a growing Taliban presence in Pakistan and a resurgent Afghan Taliban operating from the tribal areas. The US was deathly afraid of Nawaz Sharif and his Islamist pals coming back into power and Bhutto was seen as the only insurance against that. There is no way they would whack her. Maybe Sharif but not Bhutto. The obvious question to ask with this story would be, 'Why kill Bhutto if her opponents were more dangerous to US interests?' Indeed, I remember the look on the faces of US officials after her death. They were rudderless after the incident. Their one hope for Pakistan had been snubbed. And sadly many of their dire predictions have come true. Pakistan is becoming more of a basketcase each day.

Aside from all the facts behind the story….I would suggest that some Arab media don't make good journalistic sources. They have a predilection with airing even the tinies hint of a conspiracy especially if there is a hint of anti-US, anti-Western, anti-Israel, anti-Jew and increasingly an anti-India element involved. Some Arab and muslim networks have suggested that the Indian government launched the Mumbai attacks on its own people so that it would have an excuse to attack Pakistan. Even today some in the Pakistani media claim that the captured attacker Ajmal Kasab is not Pakistani. This despite his own parents identifying him and confirmation by DNA testing. There are few credible media sources in that part of the world. When it comes to English language press in the Middle East, Al-Jazeerah is about the best that it gets...though they are about as reliable at times as CNN...and many of their shows have the same amount of anti-Western, anti-Jew spin as other Middle Eastern media.

By the way Sy Hersh is retracting his comments:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\19\story_19-5-2009_pg7_4
 
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Well he's not so much retracting as saying that he never made such assertions in the first place. I am sure something's been lost in translation here. There's also the assertion that Cheney offed Hariri which makes even less sense than Bhutto. Why would the US go through that much effort to protect Hariri and support Lebanon's nascent and fragile democracy and then off its architect, who was a staunch ally opposing a reviled (by US neo-cons at least) foe. That's beyond all logic.
 
^ And now you're trolling. The thread is not about everything Cheney did but about the specific accusation by Sy Hersh that Cheney had Bhutto killed. Do you have anything more on the topic or are we to yield the soapbox to you?
 
jade lee, keithZ,

You two are great sparring partners. I'm a fencing coach. Ought to have you two over for a lesson in the basics and you can bout it out, and shake hands afterwards. I enjoy both your posts. It's easy to see how political opinions spring from personal values belief systems.

Carry on.:)
 
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