[Marxism] They Don't Blame Al-Qa'ida. they Blame Musharraf

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

Published on Saturday, December 29, 2007 by The Independent/UK

They Don’t Blame Al-Qa’ida. They Blame Musharraf.

by Robert Fisk

Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us.  
Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People’s Party,  
is assassinated in Rawalpindi - attached to the very capital of  
Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives - and we are told  
by George Bush that her murderers were “extremists” and “terrorists”.  
Well, you can’t dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were  
behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al- 
Qa’ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared  
to call for democracy in her country.

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy -  
and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no  
illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr - it’s not  
surprising that the “good-versus-evil” donkey can be trotted out to  
explain the carnage in Rawalpindi.

Who would have imagined, watching the BBC or CNN on Thursday, that  
her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, hijacked a Pakistani  
airliner in 1981 and flew it to Kabul where Murtaza demanded the  
release of political prisoners in Pakistan. Here, a military officer  
on the plane was murdered. There were Americans aboard the flight -  
which is probably why the prisoners were indeed released.

Only a few days ago - in one of the most remarkable (but typically  
unrecognised) scoops of the year - Tariq Ali published a brilliant  
dissection of Pakistan (and Bhutto) corruption in the London Review  
of Books, focusing on Benazir and headlined: “Daughter of the West”.  
In fact, the article was on my desk to photocopy as its subject was  
being murdered in Rawalpindi.

Towards the end of this report, Tariq Ali dwelt at length on the  
subsequent murder of Murtaza Bhutto by police close to his home at a  
time when Benazir was prime minister - and at a time when Benazir was  
enraged at Murtaza for demanding a return to PPP values and for  
condemning Benazir’s appointment of her own husband as minister for  
industry, a highly lucrative post.

In a passage which may yet be applied to the aftermath of Benazir’s  
murder, the report continues: “The fatal bullet had been fired at  
close range. The trap had been carefully laid, but, as is the way in  
Pakistan, the crudeness of the operation - false entries in police  
log-books, lost evidence, witnesses arrested and intimidated - a  
policeman killed who they feared might talk - made it obvious that  
the decision to execute the prime minister’s brother had been taken  
at a very high level.”

When Murtaza’s 14-year-old daughter, Fatima, rang her aunt Benazir to  
ask why witnesses were being arrested - rather than her father’s  
killers - she says Benazir told her: “Look, you’re very young. You  
don’t understand things.” Or so Tariq Ali’s exposé would have us  
believe. Over all this, however, looms the shocking power of  
Pakistan’s ISI, the Inter Services Intelligence.

This vast institution - corrupt, venal and brutal - works for Musharraf.

But it also worked - and still works - for the Taliban. It also works  
for the Americans. In fact, it works for everybody. But it is the key  
which Musharraf can use to open talks with America’s enemies when he  
feels threatened or wants to put pressure on Afghanistan or wants to  
appease the ” extremists” and “terrorists” who so oppress George  
Bush. And let us remember, by the way, that Daniel Pearl, the Wall  
Street Journal reporter beheaded by his Islamist captors in Karachi,  
actually made his fatal appointment with his future murderers from an  
ISI commander’s office. Ahmed Rashid’s book Taliban provides riveting  
proof of the ISI’s web of corruption and violence. Read it, and all  
of the above makes more sense.

But back to the official narrative. George Bush announced on Thursday  
he was “looking forward” to talking to his old friend Musharraf. Of  
course, they would talk about Benazir. They certainly would not talk  
about the fact that Musharraf continues to protect his old  
acquaintance - a certain Mr Khan - who supplied all Pakistan’s  
nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran. No, let’s not bring that bit of  
the “axis of evil” into this.

So, of course, we were asked to concentrate once more on all those ”  
extremists” and “terrorists”, not on the logic of questioning which  
many Pakistanis were feeling their way through in the aftermath of  
Benazir’s assassination.

It doesn’t, after all, take much to comprehend that the hated  
elections looming over Musharraf would probably be postponed  
indefinitely if his principal political opponent happened to be  
liquidated before polling day.

So let’s run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair  
might have done in his policeman’s notebook before he became the top  
cop in London.

Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to  
prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir’s supporters  
this month? Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month?  
Answer: General Musharraf.

Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf.

Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto?

Er. Yes. Well quite.

You see the problem? Yesterday, our television warriors informed us  
the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a “murderer” were  
complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir.  
Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her.

Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent.

© 2007 The Independent
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