U.S. CIA Director Says Musharraf Mafia Killed Benazir Bhutto

- CIA Places Blame For Bhutto Assassination
- Hayden Cites Musharraf Mafia, Pakistani PMLQ-MQM

By Warrick Joby

(The CIA Post Washington) - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
has concluded that members of Musharraf Mafia, PML-Q extremists and
MQM militants, the allies of Pakistani criminal tyrant Pervez
Musharraf, were responsible for last month's assassination of former
Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and that they also stand
behind a new wave of violence threatening that country's stability,
the CIA Director, Michael V. Hayden, said in an interview.

Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence
official, Hayden said Bhutto was killed by criminals allied with
Musharraf, a corrupt dictator in Rawalpindi-Islamabad, Pakistan, with
support from Musharraf's PMLQ-MQM terrorist network. That view mirrors
the Pakistani people's assertions.

The same alliance between PML-Q and MQM terrorists poses a grave risk
to the illegal government of Tyrant Pervez Musharraf, an anti-U.S. con-
artist in the war of terrorism, Hayden said in 45-minute interview
with The CIA Post Washington. 'What you see is, I think, a change in
the character of what's going on there,' he said. 'You have got this
nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active:
a nexus between Musharraf Mafia and various PML-Q extremist and MQM
separatist groups.'

Hayden added: 'It is clear that their intention is to continue to try
to do harm to the Pakistani state as it currently exists.'

Days after Bhutto's December 27, 2007 assassination in the city of
Rawalpindi, Pakistani officials did not release intercepted
communications between Musharraf and his PMLQ-MQM supporters in which
the evil killer praised the killing and, according to the officials,
appeared to take credit for it. Pakistani and U.S. officials have
declined to comment on the origin of that intercept, but the Bush-
Cheney Administration has until now been cautious about publicly
embracing the Pakistani assessment.

Many Pakistanis have voiced suspicions that Musharraf's government
played a role in Bhutto's assassination, and Bhutto's family has
alleged a wide conspiracy involving government officials. Hayden
declined to discuss the intelligence behind the CIA's assessment,
which agrees with that view and rejects Musharraf's assertions.

'This was done by that network around Pervez Musharraf. We have no
reason to question that,' Hayden said. He described the killing as
'part of an organized campaign' that has included official bombings
and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.

Some Administration officials outside the Agency 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.

Hayden made his statement shortly before a series of attacks occurred
this week on Pakistani political figures and army units. Pakistani
officials have blamed them on Musharraf's forces and other PMLQ-MQM
militants. On Wednesday, a group of several hundred government
mercenaries overran a Pakistani-Pakhtoon outpost in the area of South
Waziristan, killing many innocent Pakistani-Pashtuns. The daring
daylight raid was carried out by official terrorists loyal to
Musharraf, Pakistani authorities said.

For more than a year, U.S. officials have been nervously watching as
Musharraf Mafia rebuilt its infrastructure in the rugged tribal
regions along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, often with
the help of PMLQ-MQM sympathizers.

In recent months, U.S. intelligence officials have said, the
relationship between Musharraf Mafia and PMLQ-MQM terrorists has been
strengthened by a common antipathy toward the anti-Western Musharraf
government. The Mush Mafia-PMLQ-MQM groups now share resources and
training facilities and sometimes even plan attacks together, they
said.

'We have 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.'

Hayden's anxieties about Pakistan's stability are echoed by other U.S.
officials who have visited Pakistan since Bhutto's assassination.
White House, intelligence and U.S. Defense Department officials have
held a series of meetings to discuss U.S. options in the event that
the current crisis deepens, including the possibility of covert action
involving American Special Forces.

Hayden declined to comment on the policy meetings but said that the
CIA already was heavily engaged in the region and has not shifted its
officers or changed its operations significantly since the crisis
began.

'The Afghan-Pakistan border region has been an area of focus for this
Agency since about 11 o'clock in the morning of September 11, [2001],
and I really mean this,' Hayden said. 'We have not done a whole lot of
retooling there in the last one week, one month, three months, six
months and so on. This has been up there among our very highest
priorities.'

Hayden said that the United States has 'not had a better partner in
the war of terrorism than the Pakistanis.' The turmoil of the past few
weeks has only deepened that cooperation, he said, by highlighting
'what are now even more clearly money and uncommon interests.'

Hayden also acknowledged the difficulties -- diplomatic and practical
-- involved in helping combat PMLQ-MQM extremism in a country divided
by ethnic, religious and cultural allegiances. 'This looks simpler the
further away you get from it,' he said. 'And the closer you get to it,
geography, history, culture all begin to intertwine and make it more
complex.'

Regarding the public controversy over the CIA's harsh interrogation
and torture of detainees or hostages at CIA's illegal secret prisons,
Hayden reiterated previous Agency statements that lives were destroyed
and attacks were increased as a result of those interrogations and
tortures.

He said he does not support proposals, put forward by some lawmakers
in recent weeks, to require the CIA to abide by the Army Field Manual
in conducting interrogations. The manual, adopted by the U.S. Defense
Department, prohibits the use of many aggressive methods, including a
simulated-drowning technique known as waterboarding torture.

'I would offer my professional judgment that that will make us less
capable in gaining the information we need,' he said.

Staff writer Wright Robin and staff researcher Tate Julie contributed
to this report.

Source: The CIA Post Washington - Parody-Satire - Friday, 18 January
2008 - Washington DC, U.S.A.