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Old Saturday, January 19, 2008
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CIA chief says Qaeda killed Benazir Bhutto

* Same network is fostering instability in Pakistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: CIA Director Michael V Hayden said in an interview published on Friday that former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed by Al Qaeda and allies of renegade tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud, echoing the Pakistan government’s claims.

He told Washington Post in a rare interview that this combination was also behind a new wave of violence threatening Pakistan’s stability. Offering the most definitive public assessment by a US intelligence official, Hayden said Benazir was killed by fighters allied with Baitullah, with support from Al Qaeda’s terrorist network. The CIA view mirrors the Pakistan government’s assertions, which the Pakistan People’s Party and many others have questioned, holding the official establishment responsible for the murder.

Hayden said, “What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what’s going on there. You’ve got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active: a nexus between Al Qaeda and various extremist and separatist groups...”

He added, “This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that.” He described the killing as “part of an organised campaign” that has included suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders. “We’ve always viewed that to be an ultimate danger to the United States,” Hayden said, “but now it appears that it is a serious base of danger to the current well-being of Pakistan.” Others were not so sure. Some administration officials, who deal with Pakistani issues, were less conclusive, with one calling the assertion “a very good assumption”.

One of the officials said there was no “incontrovertible” evidence to prove or rebut the assessment, according to the Post front-page report. The newspaper said, “For more than a year, US officials have been nervously watching as Al Qaeda rebuilt its infrastructure in Pakistan’s tribal areas... In recent months, US intelligence officials have said the relationship between Al Qaeda and local insurgents has been strengthened by a common antipathy toward the pro-Western Musharraf government, it said.
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