Bushco's New Years' "CYA" On Bhutto

This Yahoo News story tells us…

The United States provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her before the former Pakistani prime minister was assassinated and advised her aides on how to boost security, although key suggestions appear to have gone unheeded, U.S. officials said Monday.

…

The intelligence was also shared with the Pakistani government, the officials said.

That’s about as good as helping Musharraf figure out how to kill her as far as I’m concerned; as noted here, police abandoned their security posts in Rawalpindi shortly before she was killed, and the preposterous notion that she received a fatal skull fracture by bumping her head on the hood of the car would be laughable except for the circumstances (the absence of an autopsy is most telling of all, though).

And besides, if our government was supposedly so cooperative with Bhutto and her supporters, then why was her husband, Asif Ali Zardari (who visited the United States shortly before her death to plead for help) denied the meetings he sought at the top levels of the State Department (noted here by Roger Cohen; “Genghis” did a good job, which happens not nearly as much as it should…Cohen also notes that Bushco failed to pressure Musharraf to allow the FBI to investigate the previous attempt on her life last October 18th).

And in the wake of all of this, NBC News correspondent Michelle Kosinski tells us here…

At the gates of Liaquat Park, where Pakistan's first prime minister had been assassinated, and where Benazir Bhutto waved her last to the crowds on Thursday, was a small group of older men, praying silently together. And one by one, more people on the streets would join them, slowly and without cheering or jeering or setting anything aflame but some white candles.

None of them noticed us. Their sorrow was more palpable in that moment than the lingering oily smoke that made us stifle our coughing.

That was the last image we saw in Rawalpindi before darkness completely overtook the dusty old town.

Most of Pakistan is not raging in the streets, but waiting, and watching. Worrying, and mourning.

And in the unreal world of Beltway punditry, we have Little Timmeh Russert trying to get Barack Obama to confirm the absurd “conventional wisdom” that, somehow, Bhutto’s assassination is a weapon of sorts to be used against Hillary Clinton for her vote in favor of the Iraq war (huh?).

I’m not happy with Obama for some of his recent, right-wing-pandering comments against John Edwards and other Democrats, but I thought he did a good job here stating the obvious (though Atrios and Arianna are both right, sadly – “zombie lies never die,” especially this year).

Update: This is positive anyway.