[NYTr] Juan Cole News Roundup on Pakistan

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Informed Comment - Jan 2, 2008
http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/pakistan-elections-postponed-ppp.html


Pakistan Elections Postponed; PPP Threatens Street Protests;

OSC: Al-Qaeda has not Claimed Bhutto Killing

Pakistan's electoral commission announced Tuesday that the elections
scheduled for January 8 will be postponed until February. The Pakistan
People's Party objected strenuously to the delay, and threatened to
take to the streets with popular protests.

Meanwhile, the caretaker government is furiously backtracking on its
earlier claims that Benazir Bhutto died of a concussion. The retraction
comes after videotape surfaced that shows her being shot. The Pakistani
public has been enraged by the appearance of a cover-up in official
pronouncements on the cause of her death.

Barnett Rubin's most recent posting on Pakistan's crisis and Bush
administration policy is a college education all on its own. Read, and
grow learned. It is also a sensitive and searching deconstruction of
the Bush administration's 'war on terrorism' rhetoric and its practical
meaning for Pakistani and Afghan politics. And it is written by one of
the world's great experts on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who actually
knows Afghanistan and Pakistan intimately. See:
http://icga.blogspot.com/2008/01/pakistans-power-puzzle.html

The USG Open Source Center sent out the following note, which points
out that in scouring jihadi web sites, the analysts have found none
where al-Qaeda has taken credit for assassinating Benazir Bhutto. You
think of the announcement by al-Qaeda posted the morning of 7/7/05 when
the London Underground was bombed. Yet they are not claiming this one.
Curioser and curioser:

"FYI - - No Al-Qa'ida Claims for Bhutto Assassination Found on Jihadist
Websites Jihadist Websites

OSC Summary Monday, December 31, 2007

FYI: No Al-Qa'ida Claims for Bhutto Assassination Found on Jihadist
Websites

As of 1830 GMT on 31 December, OSC has not observed any official
statements from Al-Qa'ida claiming responsibility for the assassination
of Benazir Bhutto on any of the websites that normally disseminate
authenticated statements from the group. OSC will continue to monitor
these websites for any such claims. "