The Weekly Tribune

2007 began with the thuggish execution of Saddam Hussein and ended with the appalling assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The Pakistani government now claims that Bhutto was killed by hitting her head on the sunroof of her vehicle and not by bullets or shrapnel as was previously reported. You know you lack credibility when you have to back up an official government report but offering to exhume the body of your former leader less than 48 hours after she was lain to rest. How macabre! But then again, Pakistan has distinctly macabre tendencies these days. Who can forget Bhutto's bloody homecoming or the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl?

In the aftermath of Bhutto's assassination, US Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton stated the obvious on CNN:

"I don't think the Pakistani government at this time under President Musharraf has any credibility at all,"

According to Carlotta Gall of the New York Times, Clinton suggested "an investigation along the lines of the ongoing international inquiry into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. This adds to the pressure placed on the Bush administration to intervene, although their ability to gather evidence (remember the non-existent Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction?) is sketchy at best. Why Bhutto was encouraged to return to Pakistan at all in this political climate mystifies me but I'll chalk it up to yet another one of the wonders of US foreign police under George W.Bush. The jury is still out on whether her death, which her supporters call her "martyrdom", will accomplish anything save the further destruction of any hope of bringing democracy to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Bhutto's political opponent Imran Khan, who withdrew from the election prior to her murder, has been uncharacteristically silent. Even Khan's socialite ex-wife, Unicef ambassador Jemima Khan who once described Bhutto as a "kleptocrat in an Hérmes scarf" has not commented on her assassination. I imagine the Khans could lend some rather interesting perspective to this historical event. Especially in light of Bhutto leaving a damning security e-mail with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who true to form, bungled and marginalized her message in which she is plainly pointing her finger at Musharraf from beyond the grave.