the daughter departs

A suicide bomber thought to be tied to al-Qaida managed to murder Bhutto as she was leaving a political rally Thursday in Rawalpindi, the very headquarters of Pakistan's military.

Running for prime minister, Bhutto had openly vowed to defeat al-Qaida and deny it the sanctuary it had gained in Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf.


Benazir Bhutto, assassinated Thursday, votes for the first time in 1988.

"I am what the terrorists fear most," she said.

Her assassination was a tragic blow to her party's bid to check Musharraf in the Jan. 8 election, a contest that is now meaningless. She was the leading opposition candidate.

Musharraf, who had twice placed Bhutto under house arrest, no longer has to worry about an increasingly frustrated West using her as leverage to force democratic reforms or action against al-Qaida.

The former prime minister told CNN upon returning to her country that the risks of her assassination were worth it to save Pakistan from Islamic extremism and to stand up for democracy.

"I know the dangers are there," she said, "but I'm willing to take that risk."

Bhutto, 54, showed uncommon courage, and a genuine love for country, despite charges that she and her husband were corrupt and embezzled public funds.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai praised her as a "very, very brave woman" who "sacrificed her life for the sake of Pakistan and the sake of this region."

Karzai, no fan of Musharraf, had hoped Bhutto would grant what Musharraf has refused — U.S. boots on the ground in the tribal areas where the Taliban and al-Qaida are staging cross-border attacks on Afghan and U.S. forces.

In his recently published memoir, Musharraf had some nasty things to say about Bhutto, the first female prime minister of a Muslim country. He called her a liar who brought "sham democracy" to Pakistan while plundering the treasury.

But Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup, has been doing some plundering of his own. Congress is now probing $5 billion in U.S. military aid that has gone unaccounted for.

The funds were intended to help the Pakistani military attack al-Qaida in the tribal areas, but reports say they were diverted instead to help buy weapons designed to attack India.

It's more evidence that Musharraf has been taking Washington for a ride. Even now, no anti-terror metrics are tied to the annual $1 billion they are sending to his regime.
Bhutto personally asked Musharraf to beef up measures, such as providing jamming devices to thwart bombs, after she narrowly escaped a similar assassination attempt in October.

By all accounts, Musharraf ignored her pleas and never mounted an investigation of the earlier attempt on her life.

In an Oct. 16 letter to Musharraf, Bhutto reportedly shared information she'd received about three officials within his military intelligence services who wanted to kill her. And she asked him to help secure her safety ahead of the election.

That request, too, apparently fell on deaf ears.

The fact that this successful second attack occurred in Pakistan's military headquarters signals that "there may be some low-level military involvement," terror expert Peter Bergen said.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton agreed, telling Fox News that "radical elements of Pakistan's military" may have had a hand in the attack.

Despite Musharraf's denials, it's well known that Pakistan's military intelligence — the ISI — is infested with al-Qaida sympathizers. And Bhutto tried to push ISI out of politics in her first term as prime minister.

Musharraf also has been the target of at least nine assassination attempts since he signed on to our war on terror seven years ago. But it speaks volumes that Bhutto, back in the country just a few months, would be killed before him.

Al-Qaida, we hear, took credit for the murder. And who is the bigger threat to al-Qaida?

We have to wonder if under Bhutto, Pakistani authorities would have allowed the mastermind behind 2006's trans-Atlantic sky-terror plot to escape from custody.

Last week, Rashid Rauf, who has ISI connections, went missing from a mosque after police let him pray there. He escaped just days before he was due to be extradited to Britain.

Earlier this year, Musharraf freed from jail an al-Qaida lieutenant who plotted to hit U.S. financial and government targets. U.S. officials privately protested the release of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, but to no avail.

Even so, being realists, we understand Musharraf is still in control of Pakistan. While the terrorists just seem to get stronger under Musharraf's rule, he's probably still the only thing standing between Pakistan and chaos — or worse, a fundamentalist Islamic regime that would have access to nuclear weapons.

A faithful opposition leader and true friend of the 'West', Benazir Bhutto showed herself to be courageous in a way few leaders are.

Her death is a tragedy not just for Pakistan's fledgling democracy, but for all of us. We only hope that Musharraf has the strength and resolution to fight those who would drag Pakistan back into the Middle Ages.