[NYTr] MI-5 Blames Bhutto murder on Factions in Pakistan's ISI

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The Scotsman - Dec 30, 2007
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Bhutto-murder-blamed-on-Pakistan.3628362.jp

Bhutto murder blamed on Pakistan agents

By Richard Elias and Jeremy Watson

FACTIONS within the Pakistan intelligence service might have been
behind the assassination of the country's opposition leader Benazir
Bhutto, sources within MI5 told Scotland on Sunday last night. Pakistan
continues to teeter on the brink following Bhutto's death on Thursday
as she left a rally for an election in which she was expected to become
prime minister. The government has tried to blame militant groups
linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which saw Bhutto's
rise to power as a threat.

But security sources in the UK say pro-Taliban factions in Pakistan's
feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency may have been behind
the attack on the charismatic politician, who returned to her homeland
from exile only two months ago to fight the election.

Bhutto, 54, blamed rogue elements in the ISI for a suicide bombing that
killed 140 people at a rally shortly after her return in October. There
were reports last night that just weeks ago, she had sent UK Foreign
Secretary David Miliband a private e-mail naming three senior members
of government who, she said, wanted her dead.

The source said: "The ISI was responsible for setting up the Taliban
during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and there remain parts of the
ISI who are desperate to see the Taliban back in power there. They hope
that if this happens, it will pave the way for an Islamist state in
Pakistan."

Today, Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal will read out his mother's will
in a public demonstration that the Bhutto dynasty is still alive. The
first-year Oxford University undergraduate is expected by many to be
thrust into the forefront of her Pakistan People's Party in the
forthcoming elections, due for January 8.

"What will cause major problems is that whoever from Whitehall is
involved in those discussions, whether it be mandarins or SIS (MI6],
they are dealing with precisely the very people who are, in some
quarters, being blamed for being behind the killing of Benazir Bhutto."

Bhutto supporters yesterday dismissed as "ludicrous" a government
theory that the former leaded had died after hitting her head on a
sunroof and accused the government of a "cover-up" over the real
culprits.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema reiterated the
government's claim that Islamic militant leader Baitullah Mehsud was
behind Bhutto's killing. Yesterday Mehsud's spokesman contacted a news
agency to issue a denial. But Cheema insisted: "We have the evidence
that he is involved." He also declined any foreign aid to help
investigate the killing.

Rioting continued yesterday but there were no signs that the violence
was escalating. Doubts remain over whether the planned elections will
go ahead.

Meanwhile, in a taped video message, Osama bin Laden has pledged to
expand al-Qaeda's attacks against Israel. During a 56-minute recording
broadcast yesterday, he said: "I would like to assure our people in
Palestine we will expand our jihad there. We intend to liberate
Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan] river to the sea."
He threatened "blood for blood, destruction for destruction".