Bhutto: Is the War of Fog Beginning?

Barely twenty-four hours after her assassination, Benazir Bhutto, whose corporeal remains were buried in Rawalpindi, may have had her less tangible remains inserted firmly into Karachi's spin machine. Today we're told by the Pakistani government's Interior Minister that Ms. Bhutto was not hit by any of the gunshots fired at her, but rather, the fatal blow was oddly self-administered, as she hit her head on part of the car frame as the vehicle attempted to speed away from the attack.
Interesting, except for one detail left oddly unexplained by the new scenario: dozens of accounts from yesterday quoted witnesses, as in this example from Australia:

Blood poured from her head, and she never regained consciousness.

You don't need to be a CSI viewer to know that those two accounts don't mesh very well. An AP report quotes the surgeon who treated her as saying she died of "a shrapnel wound and was not shot." Shrapnel would suggest an artifact of the bomb, and would also put the "blood poured" account into doubt. How to untangle all this? An autopsy. Uh-oh. Also in the AP report:

Soomro, the prime minister, told the Cabinet on Friday that Bhutto's husband did not allow an autopsy, according to a government statement.

Well, that's that, then.
UPDATE: Sunday's London Telegraph offers an eyewitness account from inside Bhutto's car.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=EUEUHFLMPGCIPQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/12/30/wbhutto130.xml
That must have been one heck of a sunroof.

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Comments

[billvivre]

Musharraf is a dictator and could conceivably either have had Bhutto killed or reduced her protection in the hopes of some incident. But anyone who has seriously banged their head knows the head bleeds profusely when contused. Slamming her head on her way down into the vehicle so hard that it broke her skull would have caused profuse bleeding. Promoting buffoonish conspiracy theories reduces your credibility when writing about, say, the many actual criminal offenses of Bush and other high U.S. officials. This twisting and turning of the muddled details to promote some sort of vague generalized conspiracy theory outrage is unproductive, loopy and unworthy of the HuffPost. It is more akin to the antics of the wingnut right, with their theories about Whitewater, Vince Foster, et al.
HARRY RESPONDS: I've had two serious head-banging incidents. One involved a sharp object falling in a high wind, which did indeed produce noticeable, if not profuse, bleeding. The other, which I wrote about here, resulted in a near-concussion, but involved no bleeding. Notice, pls, the Pakistan Interior Ministry's apology this week for the sunroof explanation.

[FogBelter]

Harry, I think Musharraf is scared. He's not an idiot and he recognizes that the World's Klieg Light has just been turned on him. I don't know if Musharraf was directly involved in Bhutto's assassination, as you know, she had many enemies in Pakistan, but the perception of these events are oft times more important than their realities.

As used to the Fog as I am, I can think of a group of individuals just as frustrated as we are at the conflicting causes of death of Bhutto put forward by the Pakistani Government ... The Bush Administration.

Initially, almost immediately, this assassination was framed as an Al Qaeda rubout. That outcome suits the Bush Administration and furthers its regional goals of more and continued presence. And I have no doubt, that even if they had definitive proof otherwise, they would support the Al Qaeda/Taliban Theory.

Harry, you could almost hear the shouts from Crawford, Texas as the Pakistani Interior Minster started to push the "Magic Lever" theory.

"Al Qaeda! Al Qaeda! ... AL QAEDA, YOU ASS..."

And so forth.

Now the White House plans on "helping" the Pakistanis in the investigation of Bhutto's Assassination, and who, pray tell, will they find the perpetrators to be?

Musharraf? Yeah, right.

Although, I think it is safe to say that the Bush Administration has an heir apparent to the Pakistani Militaristic Throne, should they decide to throw Musharraf under the bus. The new Chief of the Armed Forces and former head of the ISI ... Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

I had read that John Negroponte had met with him three times in November, when the Bush Administration sent him to Pakistan to do their 'wet work', so I speculated he had the inside track as the new leader of Pakistan. And just last night, Fox News did a profile on Kayani, showing what a great guy he is, so in my book, the die is cast.

So, yes indeed, Harry, the Fog is thickening ...

[fogbreath]

if we are to invade pakistan(a much larger country than afghanistan, iraq, or iran) we will need to reinstitute a draft.
the democrats may be up for it.
they were in power the three times a draft was started in the 20th century, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman.
our current military is too small to do what we are demanding of it already and too expensive to sustain(an interesting problem, eh?).

[realitytrumpsbull]

She got shot, everyone panicked, and now she's
dead. The gory details aside, will she end up
being the Archduke Ferdinand of this century?
Only your war profiteer knows for sure...

[godlessclif]

Now that is a magic bullet, it disappeared completely. Speaking of CSI what about the early report of powder burns proving she was shot at close range, evidently by someone who missed, a point blank shot. Lucky for the assassin she hit her head getting into her limo and died.

This happens. This year a Haitian man arrested by the Miami Police hit his head four or five times getting into the police car and was DOA when they rushed him to the hospital.

[VOTER]

The Pakistan government's LATE statement is just plain

stupid (BUSH STUPID) and will undoubtedly created more havoc.

It appears Musharraf took Bushie's "advice" on how to

handle this sad and delicate situation through lying and

deceit. Wish we could hear a tape of their ten minute

telephone call. The tape has likely been shredded by now.

[MagisterLudi]

"But I am looking for journalists willing to ask questions about the incongruities I pointed out."

Certainly the questions are important.
Often the right questions are even more important than definite answers.
After all, questions define the horizon of discourse.
To ask the right kind of questions it's important to find journalists who are willing to get their hands a little dirty, go get facts on the ground, interview witnesses, spread some bakshish in addition to having some local know-how.

lord save us from the shallow journalism like the iron rule followed by certain wordsmiths that every mention of China has to contain the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Otherwise: garbage in, garbage out.
A wag once commented: "Why food inputs looks so different from the food outputs?"
How often this happens to journalistic accounts of events.

[Jonahson]

According to one report she was the only one injured(fatally) in the car she was travelling. I wonder how does this fit into the picture

[tinkaboutit]

They don't want her to die a martyr's death.

They are trying to spin it so the "handle" killed her and not the assassin.

[charon]

One thing seems certain: we are not getting the truth about what happened.

[wmbear]

WHOM DOES THIS STORY SERVE?...

Personally, I think the official account that her death was somehow an "accident" stinks to high heaven. Whatever the real facts about exactly how she was killed are (and we will probably never know this), the indisputable fact is that there WAS an assassination ATTEMPT on Benazi Bhutto and, AS A RESULT (however exactly that result happened) she is now DEAD. The Pakistani government's calling it an "accident" is simply unconscionable. By calling it an "accident," they're trying to get themselves off the hook. But they're on the hook and on the hook they will STAY....

[Spookcatcher]

Interesting that Warren Commission coverup poster boy Arlen Spector was there at the time. No doubt to make sure the sniper and the autopsy was handle according to state secret procedures to protect the U.S. Fascists that back, fund and arm Musharaf.
I am sure he is coaching how to write Unconstitutional laws that Musharaf can utilize like maybe a Pakistani Patriot Act? Oh and maybe to instruct him on the vital importance of Presidential Signing statements.

[gotalife]

Love your entertainment work and posts on New Orleans.

That was some security for her and their military are not going to give up power that easily with her easily winning an election. The assassin got off three rounds then blew himself up.

Hell, w gave them billions and mushroomcloud eliminated the competition.

[zeesean]

Not that it matters, but she was not buried in
Rawalpindi. Her body was taken to her ancestral
burial place in Sindh.

[JBS]

Wasn't shot? No autopsy?

Odd then that the Pakistan government released X-rays of her skull, and photos of the blood drenched seats of the vehicle.