[link to timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

Bhutto aide blames military-security establishment
27 Dec 2007, 2034 hrs IST,Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN

WASHINGTON: Her autobiography is called "Daughter of the East," but lately, as General Musharraf taunted her, she was the "Darling of the West."

Questions will now inevitably be asked about how much responsibility rests on the United States over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, although Washington has never once publicly affirmed that it had a role in her return to Pakistan.

The immediate finger of suspicion though pointed to Pakistan's military-security establishment. A key Benazir aide said the country's military government had much to answer for the assassination because it had not met certain arrangements required and officials were "dismissive" about Bhutto's requests in this regard.
"They could have provided better security. Even the equipment they gave consistently malfunctioned. Bhutto asked for independent security arrangements," Hussain Haqqani, a US-based former Bhutto aide told CNN .

Much of the Bush administration – and indeed the United States – was in holiday mode when news of a ssassination rocked Washington. President Bush, who is away at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, was reported to be in a huddle with aides to discuss the situation.

But while expressions of sorrow and condemnations at the assassination will doubtless follow, this is one American script that has gone horribly wrong.

Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan to participate in a carefully controlled election engineered covertly by the Bush administration and some key lawmakers who persuaded a reluctant General Musharraf to allow her back into the country.
Washington's reasoning for her return was that Pakistan would be more stable if power was broadly shared between a civilian dispensation (led by a popular political party) and the omnipresent military. Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf represented the two forces.

Benazir's price for her return was withdrawal of all corruption cases against her and a power-sharing arrangement with the military which would return her to the prime ministership for a third term. General Musharraf balked at the last condition and there was uncertainty how the arrangement would proceed.

Bhutto knew full well there was danger to her life if she returned. In a CNN interview, she spoke of the threats against her from dark forces who were opposed to a woman ruling the Islamic Republic. She was careful not to implicate Gen.Musharraf, but hinted at extremist forces within the military.

But she said "there are risks that need to be taken and I am prepared to take them."

"I know past has been tragic but I am optimistic by nature," she said when reminded of the murder of her father by the Pakistani military.. "I put my trust in the people of Pakistan and put my faith in God."

That trust was almost immediately breached when she returned to Pakistan earlier this year after eight years in exile when a bomb attack on her arrival rally killed scores of supporters.

She escaped narrowly, blamed some key figures in the Pakistani security establishment while absolving Gen.Musharraf, but plunged back into the rough and tumble of electoral politics.

It would have been a foolish person who would have bet against another assassination attempt. And while there may have been questions about her probity, few doubted her courage -- and what some saw as her foolhardiness.