Bhutto Bombing Links to Al-Qaeda Questioned

I don't buy it. The story that the bombing of Benazir Bhutto's motorcade was the work of al-Qaeda militants on the unstable Afghan border.

How easy would it be for the Pakistani intelligence to plant a newspaper story about a "top militant leader," Baitullah Mehsud, seeking to hit Bhutto? The Pakistanis get a two-fer: First, they create a scapegoat for the hit on Bhutto. Second, they undermine their foe Mehsud.

Musharraf said earlier that he was "deeply shocked" by the attack and condemned it in the strongest possible terms as part of a "conspiracy against democracy," [blah, blah, blah] the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Update:

Bhutto blamed al-Qaida and Taliban militants for the assassination attempt against her, and vowed she was ready to risk her life to restore democracy to her troubled homeland.

But she also hinted Friday that government or military officials could have been involved in the attack — a charge the government rejected.

She blamed remnants of the government of the former dictator, Gen. Zia.

She also said she had told Musharraf that three officials — whom she would not name — were planning suicide attacks on her.

She said the military thugs of the 1970s who terrorized her family and today's extremists and militants share the same thirst to "to kill and maim innocent people and deny them the right to a representative government."

Sources:

Associated Press, Al-Qaida links cited in Bhutto bomb, October 19, 2007.

Associated Press, Pakistan says it tried to protect Bhutto, October 20, 2007.