Benazir Bhutto: Reality Check
December 28th, 2007 | by Brook Durant |
When I checked the news this morning like so many other Americans the first thing I saw was that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been murdered. My first reaction was to laugh. Yep, to laugh. Not because it’s funny that someone gets killed, but because how stupid does one have to be not to see exactly what was coming from five thousand miles away? Seriously? How stupid? Spend a moment with me reviewing the evidence and tell me that you’re even slightly surprised she was killed.
- She and her husband were immersed in corruption
- A number of nations had leveled corruption charges again Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari dating back to at least the early 90s.
- Poland
- Provided over 500 pages of documentation to the Pakistani government in 1999 regarding Bhutto’s receipt of illegal commissions on over 8,000 tractors that were sold. The money was then deposited through Swiss bank accounts in the name of an offshore company. Yes, the Swiss provided proof of this to Polish prosecutors.
The Polish Government has given Pakistan 500 pages of documentation relating to corruption allegations against Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari.
The couple were convicted by a Pakistani court on corruption charges last month and received five-year jail sentences and a fine of $8.5m.
But they face further trials, including one which concerns the purchase of 8,000 tractors from Poland. According to Pakistani officials, the Polish papers contain details of illegal commissions paid by the tractor company in return for agreeing to their contract.
Source and rest of the article.
Of course if Poland isn’t good enough for you there’s more…
- Switzerland
- Once again our gracious heroine found herself (and her stalwart hubby) running askew of another nations law. And in 2003 to bear this fact out the Swiss judge Daniel Devaud found them guilt and ordered they pay $50k EACH in fines and an additional two MILLION dollars to the Pakistani government. She of course claimed political motivation, but thankfully the Swiss judge (and Pakistani government) aren’t that stupid.
Investigation Judge Daniel Devaud in Geneva sentenced them to a six-month suspended jail term, fined them $50,000 each and ordered they pay more than $2m to the Pakistani Government.
He said they had illegally deposited millions of dollars in accounts in Switzerland, and ordered the money be returned to Pakistan.
Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari deny misappropriating the money, and are considering an appeal.
The BBC’s Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says the ruling will come as a blow to the former prime minister, who has always said that corruption cases against her in Pakistan were politically motivated.
Source and rest of the article.
- France
- In 1998 French officials claim that her husband offered exclusive rights to Dassault Aviation (French military contractor) to replace the air force’s fighter jets in exchange for a five percent commission to be paid to a corporation in Switzerland controlled by Zardari. For those who are wonder what the big deal is, it amounts to a non-compete agreement in exchange for a five percent kickback. That’s the big deal. Or at least part of the big deal.
In interest of full disclosure and being honest with my readers I must say that at the time this was going on France apparently didn’t have any laws against it. They have since been changed, but regardless this just points once again to her and her husbands corrpution. - Gold trade
- In 1993 Abdul Razzak Yaqub a Dubai based Pakistani gold bullion dealer got the Prime Minister Bhutto to give him an import license. Not a big deal right? Not until you consider the fact that shortly after the license was granted he deposited at LEAST $10 million dollars into husband’s Citibank account. Of course the Citibank account was opened under a front name and not a legitimate corporation or business. His excuse? Somebody in the bank has cooperated with my enemies to make false documents” (Go ahead do a Google or Yahoo search for that exact phrase and see what you turn up).
It’s also interesting to note that gold was actually up while the rest of the market took a nose dive. I think the windbags on Wall Street call it “a correction”. Either way gold didn’t correct. I don’t know if it’s tied into this corruption issue, but it’s worth noting.
If you’d like an in-depth rundown of this womans corruption I suggest you take a look at the New York Times piece about the Bhutto’s trail of corruption
- Al Qaeda in the mix
- I know, I just know that sooner than later someone will tell me she’s a hero for standing up to Al Qaeda. She was not a hero, she was an idiot. Not because she stood up to Al Qaeda but because she was willing to put other lives in danger in order to get herself back into power and her greedy little hands on money that didn’t belong to her.
But let’s get to the point. Al Qaeda is, for lack of a better term, an organization deeply rooted in tradition extremist Islam. Islam that keeps women in the homes covered head to toe. Bhutto being the first ever woman leader in the Middle East didn’t sit too well with Al Qaeda’s view of the world. Since 1992 they have been gunning for this woman. In October they claimed to have carried out the assassination attempt against Bhutto that cost nearly 150 Pakistanis their lives.
By no means should anyone blame Al Qaeda’s actions on Bhutto (or anyone else), but if that isn’t gross negligence I don’t know what is. I mean get a clue, having a huge “home coming” parade with tens of thousands of people in attendance and knowing that odds are that Al Qaeda will be there to wreck the party is stupid. It’s as stupid as you can possibly get. I can hear it now - “Oh but she just wanted to show the people how much she loved them and how much she cared by being out there with them.” That’s the kind of “love” the world doesn’t need. Once again it was nothing short of gross negligence on her part. It’s kind of like letting a “friend” get behind the wheel and drive drunk because you’re too much of an idiot to stop them. Yeah, it’s their responsibility for getting behind the wheel, but how dare you not slap them silly.
- But the people loved her
- So what? Some people love George W. Bush and look what kind of a mess were in. Some people love Fidel Castro, but he’s nothing to write home about. Hell, I’m willing to bet there were even people who loved Adolph Hitler, and I don’t mean his family. Point is that “people loving her” is totally besides the point. It doesn’t change what she was or how dangerous her presence in the Pakistani political landscape made it for both her and her supporters.
- She was a good leader
- If being a liar and a fraud makes you a good leader then she was one of the best ever.
- She revolutionized politics in the Middle East
- Did she really? Seems to me she set them back another 100 years. Why don’t people understand that the vast majority of Middle Eastern nations are NOT READY FOR WOMEN TO LEAD. Period. The only thing that a woman leader will accomplish is getting themselves and many others killed. Don’t like it? Blame the culture because that’s a fact. Even former US ambassardor to the UN Michael Bolton said that Pakistan needs martial law right now.
He said he thinks “this tragedy should guide us now as to what we do next, which I think ought to be declaring a time-out on internal politics; let’s re-stabilize, it probably will require a period of martial law.” “But let’s keep our eyes on the prize. For the United States, that’s the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.”
Source and rest of the article.
I hate to be the asshole, but Bhutto was NOT the leader Pakistan needed. It’s so very sad that the Pakistani people forgot so quickly her lying and corruption. That’s sad, but for the rest of the world to act as if a patron saint had been killed is just disgusting. It’s criminal.
Don't forget to subscribe to A Blog about Nothing's RSS feed!
By Murali on Dec 28, 2007
Great article again! Just wondering, how come you don’t display any ads on your blog, I only see them when i click on comments
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 28, 2007
Murali - Thank you! I do display ads, but not on the main page. If you click on the individual articles, archives, etc you’ll see a few google adsense ads and a few others here and there. I decided to keep the main page as clean as possible so people aren’t inundated by ads they don’t want to see.
By Clement on Dec 28, 2007
Very detailed post but for now let us mourn with those who are mourning. Save the criticism for some timelater
Clement’s last blog post..Making a web hosting choice made easy!
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 28, 2007
Clement - Normally I would, but the world is painting the woman as a saint where clearly she is not. What’s worse is that so many people know it and yet chose to ignore it.
By Kunbukani on Dec 28, 2007
That is true, people take life for granted. There was too many warnings on her but she was so caward to look at it. You everybody knows once beaten twice shy, she could just leave politics alone. I feel sorry for her that now she is gone. This might be a lesson to other leaders especially from Africa who like to clinch on power.
By cooper on Dec 28, 2007
Exactly. I did not elaborate but I wrote something similar. We may mourn but there is a lot to mourn for in this world beside this tragedy which occurred due to a risk, a high risk which was acceptable to Bhutto.
cooper’s last blog post..Acceptable Risk
By GEM on Dec 28, 2007
I’m not sure how the shaky business deals of her husband make Bhutto a fraud…who deserved to be killed. If that was the case, wouldn’t Bush and Cheney…or any other US political figure be killed as well??
The truth is that she knew the power of her family name…and used it. How is that wrong? You think she should have stayed home cooking to abide by her nation’s culture of limiting women?
As you said…no muslim nation is ready for a woman leader. She was the first…and continued to at least try to change that and she and many other paid with their lives.
You laugh at her death? funny…I laugh at you.
GEM’s last blog post..ISLAM Destroys Cultures
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 28, 2007
GEM - That’s funny for the life of me I can’t see anything in this article or any other that I’ve written which even alludes to my thinking it is funny someone has died. In fact after careful inspection of what was written it is painfully obvious I said Not because it’s funny that someone gets killed, but because how stupid does one have to be not to see exactly what was coming from five thousand miles away?
In case you or others are still missing what I’m laughing at it’s the irony and the absurdity of it all.
As far as the “shaky” deals of Bhutto’s husband I would agree with you. IF it were her husband alone, but it wasn’t. She was implicated as well.
It comes down to three distinct elements which led to her death.
The US needing another puppet to try to force democracy and a country which is clearly not ready for it. about Benazir Bhutto and islamomaniacle lunatics.
Benazir Bhutto’s insatiable appetite for power. Get real just over two months ago a suicide bombing killed almost 150 people trying to get at her. Duh?
Islamofanatics who have wanted her dead since 1992 because they can’t stand the idea of a woman in power. Let alone a woman in power over a Muslim state.
Put all of those together and you have recipe for disaster. But answer me this, do you think she “tried” to lead because she gave a damn about the people, and believed in the cause, or do you think she did it because she was greedy and power hungry?
By GEM on Dec 29, 2007
Look at it this way…even after the first attempt on her life where close to 150 people died, people still went out to show their support for Bhutto at her rally. They risked their lives because they believed or had placed their hopes on her. Would you blame these people for risking their lives..for taking a stand against “Islamofanatics”. Whatever her reason was to lead her people…she took a brave stand and so did her supporters. You might see this risk as plain stupidity…i choose to see as courageous. She and her supporters proved twice before that a woman can indeed be brave enough to lead in this environment.
Was she or could she had been a good leader?…that’s subjective. Was she stupid? No. Did she have a need for more power and wealth than she already had?…perhaps.
To her credit, I choose to believe that she took a stand not because she wanted, but because she had to.
GEM’s last blog post..ISLAM Destroys Cultures
By Texas_JAM on Dec 29, 2007
I found it sad that she was only safe in her own country while she was contained in her own home. People were attacking Musharraf for what he was doing; however, he knew what he was doing. She left the security in order to campaign - doing so made her more at risk. Your post brings to light the American reporters who were stunned they found people in Pakistan who could care less about her when she was held up in her home. American reporters had been pumping her up to the US people saying that her country desperately wanted her in power. They couldn’t understand it; however, I know that this was based on the corruption charges on her more than the fact she was a woman. With her tragic death, they seem to have forgotten this. When I heard of her death, I did not laugh. I had been expecting it and think it is a shame and a crime that she was killed. As for whether or not a woman can lead, her country thought she could when they first elected her. The corruption is what forced her from power and her home. I sincerely believe that Musharraf knows what he is doing. I didn’t think putting her into a co-leadership of the country with Musharraf would have helped anyone except make the Europeans, Western reporters, and certain politicians in the US feel good. If her killers are among the IslamicFascists, then that just supports my belief that you cannot deal with them (as some think only opening conversations w/them will work - see the recent expulsions by the Afghan govt).
Texas_JAM’s last blog post..Fire fighters aid in penis operation…
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 29, 2007
GEM - I think at best we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Certainly I see what you’re saying and I get your point, but I can’t agree with you view point on the issue, sorry.
Texas - I didn’t laugh at her, or at her death, but I laughed at the irony of it. For reasons I’ve already expounded upon in the article and subsequent comments. Long and short of it is this; she was a crook and a fraud who became the darling of the media and the US government. She didn’t pay with her life for her crimes, but paid with her life because islamofanatics couldn’t bear the idea of a woman in power, especially a woman who wasn’t a practicer of fanatical Islam.Was her dying in and of itself funny? No. It was however funny when you take into account everything else. At least to me.
By Insaan on Dec 29, 2007
The article is right but not complete. When she was prime-minister of Pakistan, she had a movement of police officers go into neighborhoods in Sindh and have Mahajirs (people whom immigrated from India post-partition) and had all the men shot and killed. The police had an open warrant to do this. How I know this is because I lived through it. When there was news of a group of police officers coming into the my neighborhood in Hyderabad, the men in the house, including myself, would go to the local shops and hide in the boxes to avoid being killed. That is the type of regime that she lead. Am I saddened by her death? Well, yes, as when any muslim dies, all muslims should have some feeling of sadness. But, the fact remains, she had muslims killed on her watch just because they were in Sindh (her being a Sindhi), and were not “true” Sindhis.
Also, another fact not brought forth was that she had initially refused to stay in her armed car because “she wanted to be closer to the people”. There is only so much protection any government can provide. If the candidate just doesn’t realize the risk she puts herself and those around her in, well, nothing can be done.
Finally, these riots that are occurring in Pakistan only hurt the Pakistanis themselves. Those commiting these acts of violence are the ones that are jobless and don’t have families. If they were real muslims, they would resort to peace, not violence. They would destroy other peoples’ property. Burning cars, trains, etc, only hurts Pakistan as a nation and negative mark on growth. If patriotism was in the blood of these Pakistanis, they wouldn’t resort to such lowlife acts such as these.
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 29, 2007
Insaan - I want to thank you for taking the time to give myself and my readers an “inside view” of Bhutto’s prior reign as prime minister. I realized she had some shady issues in her past, but I didn’t realize it extended to attempted genocide against a particular group of people.
Personally I don’t care what risk she puts herself in, but I find it disgusting that she was willing to put her followers at risk. Granted they are responsible for their choice to be there, but anyone who claims to be a leader needs to know when it simply isn’t safe. Either for themselves or for the people who will be greeting them.
Unfortunately I can’t speak at all to the rioting. For the life of me I don’t understand why they are rioting. It makes less sense to me than people who riot over football (soccer) or people in America who riot when their cities team wins the Super Bowl.
By singh on Jan 8, 2008
Benazir Bhutto (June 21, 1953 – December 27, 2007) was a
Pakistani politician who chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party a
centre-left political party in Pakistan. Bhutto was the first woman
elected to lead a Muslim state,[1] having twice been Prime Minister of
Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996).
Please visit for more detail
http://www.desidirectory.com/desi-indian-blogs/
By A Blog about Nothing on Jan 11, 2008
Singh - Thanks for stopping by and giving you input. Appreciated!