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Bhutto assassinated in suicide attack
Pakistani opposition leader dies with 20 others at rally

A gunman shot and killed Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto then blew himself up in an attack at a campaign rally that killed at least 20 others.

"She has been martyred," said an official with Bhutto's party, Rehman Malik.

Bhutto was taken to Rawalpindi General Hospital after the attack and pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m local time.

Tearful supporters at the hospital smashed the glass door at the entrance to the emergency unit and chanted "Dog, Musharraf, dog," in reference to Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, however.

The death of the 54-year-old two-time prime minister in the run-up to the Jan. 8 election prompted fears of mass protests and violence across the nuclear-armed country.

Suicide bombers in October struck a parade in Karachi celebrating Bhutto's return to Pakistan, killing more than 140 people. Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistan army, has been a frequent target of suicide bombers in recent weeks.

Today, at the first campaign rally since her return from exile, hundreds of riot police manned security checkpoints with metal detectors. Musharraf already had canceled an earlier rally in the city because of security concerns.

U.S. officials, watching with concern as Musharraf has become increasingly authoritarian, have invested their hopes in the ability of Bhutto's party to contest a fair election.

Musharraf called on Pakistanis to remain calm so that the "nefarious designs of terrorists can be defeated."

Political rival Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, told the BBC Bhutto's death was a tragedy for "the entire nation."

"I can't tell you what the feelings of the people of Pakistan are today," he said after returning from the hospital.

Aide Riaz Khan said Bhutto was "very brave, she said she would give her life for Pakistan."

"A fish cannot live without water, and she was the leader of the poor people of Pakistan and never wanted to be apart from them," Khan said. "She said: 'These are my people and my children, I have to be with them.'"

The attack came minutes after Bhutto addressed supporters at the city's Liaqat Bagh park, about eight miles south of Islamabad. Two gunshots were heard as her vehicle pulled into the main street, then a bomb exploded next to her car, according to party supporter Chaudry Mohammed Nazir.

Police confirmed she was shot in the neck and chest before a suicide bomber blew himself up.

Body parts and flesh were scattered at the back gate, according to an Associated Press reporter. Rescuers rushed to put victims in ambulances as peopled wailed nearby.

A life of political turmoil and death
Bhutto was first woman leader of Muslim nation in modern times

Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the political opposition in troubled Pakistan, led a life of political turmoil marked by the violent death of several other family members.

The U.S.-educated Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister from 1988 through 1990 and again from 1993 through 1996, was the first woman to lead a Muslim nation in modern times.

The daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan from 1971 until 1977, she was educated at Harvard University and subsequently studied philosophy, political science and economics at the University of Oxford.

After her father's execution in 1979 during the rule of the military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, Bhutto became the titular head of her father's party, the Pakistan People's Party, and endured frequent house arrest from 1979 to 1984.

In exile from 1984 to 1986, she returned to Pakistan after the lifting of martial law and soon became the foremost figure in the political opposition to Zia.

President Zia died in August 1988 in a mysterious plane crash, leaving a power vacuum at the center of Pakistani politics. In the ensuing elections, Bhutto's PPP won the single-largest bloc of seats in the National Assembly. She became prime minister on Dec. 1, 1988, heading a coalition government.

In August 1990 the president of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed her government on charges of corruption and other malfeasance and called for new elections. Bhutto's PPP suffered a defeat in the national elections of October 1990; thereafter she led the parliamentary opposition against her successor, Nawaz Sharif.

In elections in October 1993 the PPP won a plurality of votes and Bhutto again became head of a coalition government. Under renewed allegations of corruption, economic mismanagement and a decline of law and order, her government was dismissed in November 1996 by President Farooq Leghari.

Voter turnout was low in the 1997 elections, in which Bhutto's PPP suffered a decisive loss to Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party. With British and Swiss cooperation, Sharif's administration continued to pursue the corruption charges against Bhutto. In 1999 Bhutto and her husband, the controversial businessman and senator, Asif Ali Zardari, jailed since 1996 on a variety of additional charges, both were convicted of corruption by a Lahore court, a decision overturned by the Supreme Court in 2001 because of evidence of governmental interference.

Bhutto could not achieve political accommodation with Gen. Pervez Musharraf following his seizure of power in a 1999 coup d'état. Her demands that the charges against her and her husband be dropped were denied, undercutting negotiations with the Musharraf government regarding a return to the country from her self-imposed exile. Facing standing arrest warrants should she return to Pakistan, Bhutto remained in exile in London and Dubai from the late 1990s.

Because of Musharraf's 2002 decree banning former prime ministers from holding a third term, Bhutto was not permitted to stand for elections that same year. In addition, legislation in 2000 that prohibited a court-convicted individual from holding party office hindered her party, as Bhutto's unanimously elected leadership would have excluded the PPP from participating in elections.

In response to these obstacles, the PPP split, registering a new, legally distinct branch called the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians. Legally separate and free from the restrictions brought upon the PPP by Bhutto's leadership, the PPPP participated in the 2002 elections, in which it proceeded to earn a strong vote. However, Bhutto's terms for cooperation with the military government, that all charges against her and against her husband be withdrawn, continued to be denied. In 2004 Bhutto's husband was released from prison on bail and joined Bhutto in exile. Just before the 2007 elections, talk began to circulate of Bhutto's return to Pakistan.

Shortly before Musharraf's re-election to the presidency, amid unresolved discussions of a power-sharing deal between Bhutto and Musharraf's military regime, he finally granted Bhutto a long-sought amnesty for the corruption charges brought against her by the Sharif administration.

The Supreme Court challenged Musharraf's right to grant the amnesty, however, criticizing it as unconstitutional; nevertheless, in October 2007 Bhutto returned to Karachi from Dubai after eight years of self-imposed exile.

Bhutto was born in Karachi June 21, 1953. She attended Lady Jennings Nursery School and then the Convent of Jesus and Mary after two years of schooling at the Rawalpindi Presentation Convent.

When Bhutto's father was hanged in 1979, she and her mother were held in a "police camp." In 1980, Benazir Bhutto's brother Shahnawaz was killed under suspicious circumstances, in France. The killing of another of her brothers, Mir Murtaza, in 1996, contributed to destabilizing her second term as prime minister.

15 Year Old Suicide Bomber Stopped at Bhutto Rally

The day before her assassination Police in Pakistan have stopped a 15-year-old boy they say was carrying a bomb made of dynamite and nails from getting into a rally by opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The boy got past the first of four security checkpoints set up outside the rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar but was caught at the second, said police officer Rahim Shah, according to the Associated Press.

In October, suicide bombers struck a parade celebrating Ms Bhutto’s return from exile, killing more than 140 people in the southern city of Karachi.

4 dead in rioting, Pakistan on 'red alert' 
Angry mobs torch scores of vehicles, buildings in protest of assassination

At least four people were killed on Thursday as angry mobs took to the streets of Pakistani cities to protest the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, torching scores of vehicles and buildings.

Two people were shot dead in rioting in the eastern city of Lahore and two others were killed in the southern province of Sindh, Bhutto's birthplace and stronghold, police said.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard echoing around the streets of Lahore where shops and vehicles could be seen on fire.

The markets and shops immediately closed down as paramilitary patrols roamed the streets in an attempt to keep a lid on the violence, a local police officer told AFP.

Meanwhile, Pakistan paramilitary and police forces were put on the highest "red alert" level after the assassination.

"The security was already high nationwide, but we have further alerted police and paramilitary forces," ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told AFP.

"The security is at red alert level across Pakistan," he said.

Bhutto returned from exile in October, planning to contest the January 8 parliamentary election.

In the southern metropolis of Karachi police said at least 70 vehicles were burnt by protesters, including 35 trucks filled with wheat. All petrol pumps were immediately closed as knots of protesters blocked many roads.

Witnesses said that as news spread of Bhutto's assassination in a suicide attack, the streets of Karachi were clogged with traffic as panicked people tried to rush home.

The mood was tense in Bhutto's home town of Larkana where two banks were set on fire, witnesses said.

In Peshawar in the northwest police used tear gas and batons to break up angry crowds; and in the central city of Multan some protesters fired shots into the air and many shouted slogans including "Musharraf is a dog" and "Long live Bhutto."

As angry Bhutto supporters looked for a scapegoat for her death, residents in the Sindh town of Jacobabad said shops belonging to the family of interim Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro were burned down.

Portraits of Soomro were set on fire while demonstrators took to the streets, blocking roads and a railway track. The main court, banks and other buildings were also set on fire, an AFP reporter said.

Fearing renewed violence in the northwestern valley of Swat, which has been troubled by months of religious militancy, officials clamped a curfew on the picturesque region, a local official told reporters.

And muslims say they are peaceful.................... [scarsm]RIGHT!!!!![/scarsm]   Anyone who kills others by suicide attacks, is nothing but a COWARD.

Wait till the day they have to bow to Jesus, to explain their crimes.

Romans 14:11 For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God [acknowledge Him to His honor and to His praise].

One very sad thing about this sad situation is that the suicide bomber would have been convinced that his act would take him directly to Heaven.  I also read today (on Steynonline) that the police think that one of the bombers who tried to kill Benazir Bhutto in October, used his one-year-old child as 'cover'--of course, the baby must have died with its father. Presumably the father was told that both he and the child would go straight to Heaven as a reward for their  'glorious act of martyrdom'. 
The Muslim 'religious' leaders who brainwash others and fill them with hatred and lies are so despicable,  I can't think of words to describe them. 

Al Qaeda leads suspect list in Bhutto killing
Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:51pm EST
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is the chief suspect in the murder of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, standing to gain by preserving its remote stronghold, undermining President Pervez Musharraf and destabilizing the country, U.S. government and private analysts said.

The militant group, which has rebuilt its command structure on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was blamed for a previous attempt on Bhutto and it has denounced her as an instrument of U.S. policy in Pakistan.

Bush administration officials said it was too early to identify a clear suspect in Thursday's assassination.

But one U.S. official said: "There are a number of extremist groups within Pakistan that could have carried out the attack ... Al Qaeda has got to be one of the groups at the top of this list."

Al Qaeda's Taliban ally, which has publicly threatened Bhutto, was another potential suspect, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One analyst said al Qaeda supporters in Pakistan's security services may have also played a role, but it was unlikely Musharraf himself was involved.

Killing Bhutto undermines Musharraf, viewed by the United States as an essential ally against terrorism, by eliminating the prospect of a power-sharing agreement between the two that could shore up his deteriorating political standing and stabilize the country, the analysts said.

That in turn reduces chances that Musharraf can revive efforts to drive al Qaeda and the Taliban out of the remote Waziristan tribal areas. It also fans popular suspicions against Musharraf and sows general confusion.

"Their (al Qaeda's) motivation for doing this is entirely clear," said David Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "They have the most to gain."

Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, a two weeks before national elections meant to return Pakistan to a civilian-led democracy.

Her death follows a failed assassination attempt in October as she returned from exile to Pakistan. She blamed that attempt on four groups including al Qaeda and the Taliban.

AL QAEDA DENOUNCES

Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, this month denounced Bhutto's return as a U.S.-orchestrated maneuver.

"Everything that is going on in Pakistan, from the arrangement for the return of Benazir to the declaration of the state of emergency ... to repressive measures, is a desperate American attempt to remedy the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Zawahri said in an interview with al Qaeda's media arm.

Shortly before Bhutto's return in October, Taliban commander Haji Omar had pledged to attack her.

Pakistan's investigation of the killing will be a major test of Musharraf's credibility, said P.J. Crowley, a former National Security Council official.

In particular, he said, the probe must make a thorough effort to identify any elements in the government who may be complicit in the attack.

The United States offered FBI assistance in investigating Bhutto's assassination, but Pakistan has not yet made a request, FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak said.

Bhutto, in an October letter to an acquaintance read on CNN on Wednesday, said she would hold Musharraf responsible if she were killed, for a failure to authorize adequate security.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We don't know who is responsible for this attack. ... But it is clear that whoever is responsible is someone who opposes peaceful, democratic development and change in Pakistan."

Al Qaeda leads suspect list in Bhutto killing (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2742403820071227?sp=true)

UN condemns Bhutto assassination, says it threatens international peace
Associated Press
THE JERUSALEM POST
Dec. 28, 2007

The UN Security Council vigorously denounced the killing of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, describing her death Thursday as a serious blow to stability in the region and demanding justice for "this reprehensible act."

The council's members emerged downcast and stern-faced from a two-hour emergency session, most of it conducted behind closed doors, to issue a unanimously approved statement saying the council "condemns in the strongest terms" Bhutto's assassination at a campaign rally.

"Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," said the council, which urged "all Pakistanis to exercise restraint and maintain stability in the country."

Italy's UN Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, this month's president of the 15-member council, said it sought "to flag what are unacceptable acts" that threaten to destabilize the region. "There are no words for condemning this kind of act."

UN condemns Bhutto assassination, says it threatens international peace (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517231336&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter)

And what will the UN do about it. What will they step and do is the question...........

They'll have another meeting, to waste more money.

Bhutto assassination plunges Pakistan into turmoil
Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:43pm EST
By Kamran Haider

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber on Thursday, plunging the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history.

Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence, especially in her native Sindh province, and could lead to the postponement of January 8 polls meant to return Pakistan to civilian-led democracy.

Bhutto, 54, had hoped the huge popular following she enjoyed among the Pakistani poor would propel her to power for the third time as prime minister in an election meant to stabilize a country racked by Islamist violence.

But as she left the rally, where she spoke of threats to her life, she stood up to wave to supporters from the sun-roof of her bullet-proof vehicle. The attacker fired shots at her before blowing himself up, police and witnesses said.

She was pronounced dead in hospital in Rawalpindi, the home of the Pakistan army and the same city where her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.

"It is the act of those who want Pakistan to disintegrate," said Farzana Raja, a senior official from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. "They have finished the Bhutto family."

Across Pakistan, a country used to political violence and ruled by the military for more than half of its life, friends and foes alike were stunned by the death of a woman many had once criticized as a feudal leader buoyed by popular support while enjoying the riches of the family dynasty.

Former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Bhutto's old political rival, said his party would boycott the election.

He blamed President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but has since stepped down from the army, for creating instability. "Free elections are not possible ... Musharraf is the root cause of all problems," he said.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November in what was seen as an attempt to stop the judiciary from vetoing his re-election as president. He lifted emergency rule this month.

VIOLENT PROTESTS

In Karachi, the volatile capital of Bhutto's home province of Sindh, thousands poured on to the streets to protest.

Violence eased towards midnight after dozens of vehicles and several buildings were torched. Police said there were no casualties, but the central bank and all schools would be closed for three days of mourning.

Gold and government bond prices rose and U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as fears of regional instability following the assassination triggered demand for safe-haven assets.

Asian stocks were expected to fall on Friday.

The United States, which relies on Pakistan as an ally against al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, had championed the Oxford- and Harvard-educated Bhutto, seeing in her the best hope of a return to democracy.

"The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy," President George W. Bush said in a statement.

Bush telephoned Musharraf and urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto's memory by continuing with the democratic process.

The U.N. Security Council denounced the assassination as a "heinous act of terrorism".

Analysts said Bhutto's death, which followed a wave of suicide attacks and the worsening of an Islamist insurgency, could make it impossible to go ahead with the election.

"I think there is a very real possibility that Musharraf will decide that the situation has got out of control and that he needs to impose emergency rule again," said Farzana Shaikh from the Chatham House analysis group in London.

MOURNING

Al Qaeda was the chief suspect in the murder, standing to gain by preserving its remote stronghold, undermining Musharraf and destabilizing the country, U.S. government and private analysts said.

"There are a number of extremist groups within Pakistan that could have carried out the attack. ... Al Qaeda has got to be one of the groups at the top of this list," a U.S. official said.

A private analyst said al Qaeda supporters in Pakistan's security services may have also played a role, but it was unlikely Musharraf himself was involved.

Musharraf condemned the attack and called for calm.

"We will not sit and rest until we get rid of these terrorists, root them out," he said. He declared three days of mourning, but made no mention of the election.

Police said 16 people had been killed in the attack.

Bhutto aide Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that as Bhutto was leaving the rally she stood up from the sun-roof of her vehicle to greet supporters. "Had she not stood outside, she would have not been killed."

It was the second attack on Bhutto in under three months. A suicide bomber killed about 140 people as she paraded through Karachi on her return from eight years in exile in October.

On Thursday, Bhutto had told of the risks she faced.

"I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger. People are worried. We will bring the country out of this crisis," she told the Rawalpindi rally.

Bhutto became the first democratically elected female prime minister in the Muslim world in 1988 at the age of 35. She was deposed in 1990, re-elected in 1993, and ousted again in 1996 amid charges of corruption she said were politically motivated.

Bhutto's body was flown to Sindh early on Friday for burial in her family graveyard alongside her father in the village of Garhi Khuda Baksh. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, arrived from Dubai with their three children to accompany the body.

Party officials said the funeral would be on Friday.

Along with her husband, she is survived by a son Bilawal, 19, and two daughters, Bakhtawar, 17 and Aseefa, 14.

Bhutto assassination plunges Pakistan into turmoil (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSHAR75111720071228?sp=true)

Pakistan's Biggest City Shuts Down as Bhutto Supporters Riot
By Asim Hafeez

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi was completely shut down this evening after rioters burned dozens of cars and set fire to stores to protest the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

All the city's petrol stations were sealed off and street lights were turned off. Protestors exchanged fire with the police in some parts of the city.

Bhutto, 54, was killed in a suicide bomb attack on an election rally in Rawalpindi. At least 16 people were killed in the bombing and more than 60 injured, police said.

Pakistan's Biggest City Shuts Down as Bhutto Supporters Riot  (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a280Tcz88BN8&refer=worldwide)

Bhutto's assassin belonged to al-Qaida group
Top official also reveals medical report indicates former PM killed by shrapnel from suicide bomb

As Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest today amid a nationwide wave of violence, Pakistani officials revealed the former prime minister was killed by shrapnel from the suicide bomb – not by gunfire – and claimed al-Qaida and the Taliban were behind the attack

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said that while the bomber shot at Bhutto with a pistol, she had no bullet injury. The shrapnel, he said, hit the right side of her skull.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said investigators had resolved the "whole mystery" behind the assassination and promised to provide details at a press conference later today.

"We have the evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto," Nawaz said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman told Pakistan's GEO-TV the suicide bomber belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an al-Qaida-linked Sunni Muslim militant group the government has blamed for hundreds of killings.

The claim, however, has not appeared on Islamist websites where messages from al-Qaida regularly appear.

Initial reports said Bhutto was shot and killed by a gunman who then blew himself up in the attack. At least 28 more people died and at least 100 were wounded.

However, the surgeon who treated her, Dr. Mussadiq Khan, said today she died from shrapnel to the skull.

The doctor said Bhutto had no pulse when she arrived at the hospital, and doctors failed to resuscitate her.

The medical report confirmed Bhutto died from a shrapnel wound and was not shot, said Cheema.

"No bullet was found in her body," the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The Pakistani 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.

Despite initial reports, Memon said no decision had been made to postpone the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, stating, "We remain on course."

Bhutto was campaigning for the elections at Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh Park and had just left a rally when she was killed.

U.S. officials yesterday began looking into a report that al-Qaida's main spokesman claimed responsibility for Bhutto's death.

"We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat (the) mujahadeen," Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International in a phone call from an unknown location.

Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan. The decision to assassinate Bhutto is believed to have been made by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the news agency.

Pakistani and foreign Islamist militants who viewed Bhutto as a betrayer of Islam and a pawn of the U.S. repeatedly had threatened to kill her. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which has had close ties to the Islamists since the 1970s, also is suspect in the assassination.

Two warlords based in the country's lawless northwestern areas near Afghanistan had threatened to kill Bhutto on her return, the paper noted.

One was Baitullah Mehsud, who has close ties to al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban, and the other was Haji Omar, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

After the October assassination attempt, Bhutto publicized a letter signed by a purported friend of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden threatening to slaughter her like a goat.

Bhutto accused Pakistani authorities of not providing her with sufficient security and hinted that they may have been complicit in the October attack.

Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Bhutto killing
December 28, 2007

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Thursday citing an alleged claim of responsibility by al Qaeda for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a DHS official told CNN.

 But such a claim has not appeared on radical Islamist Web sites that regularly post such messages from al Qaeda and other militant groups.

The source of the claim was apparently Italian news agency, Adnkronos International (AKI), which said that al Qaeda Afghanistan commander and spokesman Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid had telephoned the agency to make the claim.

"We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen," AKI quoted Al-Yazid as saying.

According to AKI, al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri set the wheels in motion for the assassination in October.

One Islamist Web site repeated the claim, but that Web site is not considered a reliable source for Islamist messages by experts in the field.

The DHS official said the claim was "an unconfirmed open source claim of responsibility" and the bulletin was sent out at about 6 p.m. to state and local law enforcement agencies.

The official characterized the bulletin as "information sharing."

 Ross Feinstein, spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, said the U.S. intelligence community is monitoring the situation and trying to figure out who is responsible for the assassination.

"We are not in a position to confirm who may be responsible," Feinstein said.

Feinstein said that the intelligence community "obviously analyze(s) open source intelligence," but he would not say whether the community believes the claim has any validity.

For now, he said, there is "no conclusion" as to who may be responsible.

Earlier, DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said Bhutto's assassination had not prompted "any adjustments to our security posture."

"Of course, we continue to closely monitor events as they unfold overseas," he said.

Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Bhutto killing (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/27/bhutto.dhs.alqaeda/)

At least the child is in Heaven.

I don't even know what to say about this. It is beyond sad

Surprise? Islamic Cleric Behind Bhutto Slaying...

 Transcript of alleged al-Qaida intercept

 A transcript released by the Pakistani government Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:
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Maulvi Sahib: Peace be on you.

Mehsud: Peace be on you, too.

Maulvi Sahib: How are you Emir Sahib?

Mehsud: Fine.

Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations. I arrived now tonight.

Mehsud: Congratulations to you, too.

Maulvi Sahib: They were our men there.

Mehsud: Who were they?

Maulvi Sahib : There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there.

Mehsud: The three did it?

Maulvi Sahib: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

Mehsud: Then congratulations to you again.

Maulvi: Where are you? I want to meet with you?

Mehsud: I am in Makin. Come I am at Anwar Shah's home.

Maulvi Sahib: OK I will come.

Mehsud: Do not inform their family presently.

Maulvi Sahib: Right.

Mehsud: It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.

Maulvi Sahib: Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.

Mehsud: I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.

Maulvi Sahib: Congratulations to you as well.

Mehsud: Any service?

Mauvliv: Thank you very much?

Mehsud: Peace be on you.

Maulvi: Same to you.

Bhutto's son, husband to succeed her 
'My mother always said democracy is the best revenge'

Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son—a student with no political experience—was named symbolic leader of her party Sunday, while her husband took effective control, extending Pakistan's most enduring political dynasty.

The major parties appeared to agree that the elections should take place as scheduled on Jan. 8 despite street violence and political turmoil triggered by the assassination of Bhutto. The Election Commission is to discuss the timing of the polls Monday.

A successful vote would bolster U.S.-backed plans to restore democracy to the nuclear-armed country as it battles rising Islamic extremism.

Rioting subsided Sunday after destruction that left at least 44 dead and caused ten of millions of dollars in damage, but bitterness remained over the government's response to the gun and suicide attack that killed Bhutto.

The appointment of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was not without its own complications. A former Cabinet minister who spent eight years in prison on corruption accusations, he is known as "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly taking kickbacks and is viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis.

At a news conference on Sunday, Zardari said the opposition party—Pakistan's largest—had no confidence in the government's ability to bring the killers to justice and urged the United Nations to establish a committee like the one investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The decisions on the future of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party were made at a closed-door meeting in the sprawling family estate in the south of the country where the two-time former prime minister grew up.

The eldest of Bhutto's three children, Bilawal Zardari, accepted the party's leadership, but said he would remain at Oxford University.

He said his father, who was officially designated co-chairman, would be the effective party leader.

"The party's long struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor," Bilawal told a news conference that was repeatedly interrupted by emotional chants from Bhutto's supporters. "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge."

Bhutto's grandfather was a senior figure in the movement that helped Pakistan split from India and lead it to independence in 1947. Her father—Pakistan's first elected prime minister—founded the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967 and its electoral success since then has largely depended on the Bhutto name.

Bilawal said that Zardari would "take care" of the party while he continued his studies. Zardari then told reporters to direct questions at him, saying his son was at a "tender age."

Zardari, who spent eight years under detention on corruption charges in Pakistan before his release in late 2004, is a power broker who served as investment minister in Bhutto's second government. He has denied the graft charges.

He immediately announced the party's participation in the elections, perhaps sensing sympathy for Bhutto and her family could translate into a strong performance in the polls, but said another party leader, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, would likely be their candidate for prime minister if they won.

He also appealed to the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reverse an earlier decision to boycott the polls. Sharif's party later agreed.

"It is up to the political parties in Pakistan to choose their leaders," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said from Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is vacationing.

"We believe it is important for Pakistan to confront extremists and continue on the path to democracy by holding free and fair elections," he said. "The timing of those elections will be up to the Pakistanis."

Tariq Azim, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, congratulated the decision to against seeking a delay in the vote.

"We welcome it, and we are also ready for the contest on Jan. 8," he said after earlier predicting the election may be delayed up to four months.

The British and U.S. governments had been pushing Bhutto, a moderate Muslim seen as friendly to the West, to form a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf after the election—a combination seen as the most effective in the fight against al-Qaida, which is believed to be regrouping in the country's lawless tribal areas.

But many of her supporters have alleged that political allies of Musharraf were behind her killing, which the government has blamed on Islamic militants with links to al-Qaida.

A statement from the British government said Musharraf had agreed to consider "potential international support" to the Pakistani investigation into the assassination, but gave no more details. It also urged Pakistan to go ahead with elections without any "significant delay."

Zardari rejected as "lies" the government's account of how his wife died, amid a dispute over whether she sustained fatal gunshot wounds or was killed by the force of the suicide blast that struck her vehicle as she left a campaign rally on Thursday.

At Zardari's insistence, Bhutto was buried without an autopsy and the debate over her cause of death has undermined confidence in the government and further angered her followers.

No fresh rioting was reported Sunday and Zardari urged supporters to show restraint.

"God willing, when it is the Peoples Party's reign, when the Peoples Party government is formed, then we would have taken revenge for Bibi's blood and that blood would not have gone waste," Zardari said, referring to his late wife by her nickname.