Bhutto's 19-year-old son to head People's Party

Breaking news out of Pakistan this morning is that Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son, Bilawal Zardari, has been chosen to head the People's Party....

Amy Kellogg is a Fox News Correspondent and has an interesting read on Benazir Bhutto here ... the woman behind the leader.

RWL: "On the late Benazir Bhutto, and Pakistan’s future"

DJ McGuire at The Right-Wing Liberal is very knowledgeable about the Middle East, its history, and people. He has posted about today's assassination of Benazir Bhutto ... read it for some insight into this Middle Eastern hotspot.

Who was Benazir Bhutto?

"They tried and failed when she returned to Pakistan in October. They tried and failed with a baby suicide bomber. Yesterday, they stopped a 15-year-old with a bomb packed full of nails trying to kill her. Today, they succeeded. Dammit, dammit, dammit." --Michelle Malkin

The news this morning of the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, 54, may cause some to wonder who was this woman who headed the Pakistan Peoples Party.

I remember when she was sworn in in 1988 as the first woman elected to head an Islamic country, a strong woman from a family of politically active leaders ... two brothers who were assassinated and her father was executed. Educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities, she served as Prime Minister from 1988-90 and 1993-96.

In the strife-torn country of Pakistan, Mrs. Bhutto had been imprisoned and banished from the country but had recently returned to lead the Peoples Party in the upcoming elections in January 2008.

I emailed my ODBA friend DJ McGuire this morning to ask his thoughts because he is very knowledgeable about that part of the world, the history, and the people. He will probably have a post about this later today.

Fox News report: "Bush Administration condemns assassination of Benazir Bhutto"

Fox News is reporting that the Bush Administration has condemned the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto:

"We have seen the press reports. We're seeking confirmation, but we do not have any definitive word one way or the other about former Prime Minister Bhutto's condition," deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
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U.S. intelligence officials were mobilized on the reports, but the CIA would not immediately offer confirmation of Bhutto's assassination. "We're still looking into it, to make sure we have all the facts," said CIA spokeswoman Michele Ness.

In Washington, Casey said: "Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally. It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy."

What will this do to Pakistan? Fox News goes on to report:

The United States has for months been encouraging President Pervez Musharraf to reach some kind of political accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, a former prime minister who is seen as having a wide base of support in the Southwest Asian nation. Her party has been widely expected to do well in parliamentary elections set for next month.

U.S. relations with Pakistan, a close ally in the war on terrorism, have been strained since Musharraf late last year declared emergency rule. President Bush and leading administration foreign policy figures repeatedly urged a return to normalcy, and Musharraf ultimately gave up his position as head of the army.
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In choosing emergency rule, Musharraf purged the judiciary, jailed thousands of opponents and silenced television news channels after he suspended the constitution on Nov. 3.

This story is still unfolding....