December 28, 2007 (LPAC)--The Asia Times today was the first to publish Al-Qaeda's claim of responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, made in an interview with AT Karachi correspondent Syed Saleem Shahzad. However, while the claim is being widely published, Indian intelligence is already questioning its validity, because the usual al-Qaeda procedures for such an announcement were not followed. EIR's sources indicate that the Asia Times reporter who published the claim, is himself close to Pakistani military officials.
EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche warned last night that the assassination was not done for local South Asian reasons, but was a British "chaos operation" more related to the global financial crash, aimed at political chaos preventing nations from taking actions to reorganize the international monetary system.
Al-Qaeda's top commander for Afghanistan operations and spokesperson Mustafa Abu al-Yazid is reported to have told the Times in a phone interview: "We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat mujahideen. This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against al-Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen." He said the death squad consisted of Punjabi associates of the underground anti-Shi'ite militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, operating under al-Qaeda orders.
Pakistan intelligence had tracked a cell phone discussion on Dec. 6 between a militant leader and a local cleric, in which a certain Maulana Asadullah Khalidi was named. He was arrested in Karachi that same day, which led to the arrest of a very high-profile non-Pakistani militant leader, and he revealed an operation aimed at wiping out "precious American assets" in Pakistan, including Musharraf and Bhutto, according to Asia Times. Hundreds of cells all over Pakistan are allegedly involved.
Today, a Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema also mentioned the possibility of al-Qaeda involvement. "Benazir has been on the hit-list of al-Qa'eda," Cheema said. "Now there is every possibility that al-Qa'eda is behind this tragic attack to undermine the security of Pakistan."
