The cleaning of the crime scene with water hoses less than two hours after the crime was committed, on the order of the head of intelligence; the involvement of intelligence agencies in the assassination, and their effort to obstruct the investigation; rushing to accuse Pakistan's al-Qaeda, which was led by Beitullah Masoud, of committing the crime, to steer suspicion away from Pakistani intelligence: These are the key points reached by the United Nations investigation committee that was tasked by the Pakistani government with looking into who was responsible for killing Benazir Bhutto. This committee could not have been formed, or requested, if Pakistan were still in the grip of former President Pervez Musharraf, whom the committee accused of being directly responsible for the assassination, as the person who was harmed the most by Bhutto's return to the country. The former Pakistani prime minister knew that her life was in danger. She had been the victim of several assassination attempts in the past, and had accused a group of senior politicians and security officials of conspiring to kill her. Before her return to Pakistan from Dubai, where she lived as a refugee with her family, Arab intelligence agencies warned the Musharraf government in Islamabad that Benazir Bhutto was in danger, and that her movements during her election campaigns meant that she required exceptional protective measures. Nonetheless, according to the international report on the conditions surrounding the killing, the Musharraf government failed to provide adequate security details, and had it done so, the assassination would not have been carried out in such ease. This is prior to the assassination. After it took place, and in addition to the quick clean-up of the crime scene to prevent the recovery of forensic evidence (something that could not have take place without the approval of high-ranking officials), senior leaders made exceptional efforts to obstruct access to military and intelligence information that would help the investigation. There was a rush to create a Pakistani version of the “Abu Adas” story, and to hold al-Qaeda responsible, even though no one in Pakistan believed such a claim. Also, the Pakistani police deliberately failed to conduct a serious investigation into the assassination because it feared that the intelligence agencies were involved. The current alliance between Pakistani intelligence and local leaders of al-Qaeda, for whom the Pashtuns form the backbone, is well-known. This is why it is difficult to imagine al-Qaeda getting involved in an operation of the magnitude of killing Benazir Bhutto without the Pakistani security and intelligence agencies looking the other way, even if we assume that they were not directly involved. Even if the hurried accusation by the former government, against al-Qaeda, is true, the Bhutto assassination could not have been possible without government involvement in the killing, at the highest levels. It would not have been possible for the investigation to proceed this quickly, two and a half years after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, if it was not for the seriousness pursued by the Pakistani government on the matter, and also had it not been for the presence of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as the head of state. However, the speed, and the courage to investigate, was mainly due to the fact that the assassination did not involve evidence or accusations that go beyond the country's borders. This means that revealing the identity of those responsible for the assassination does not threaten to cause a civil war, and there is no room for choosing between such a war and the revealing of the truth regarding the assassination of the former prime minister. As usual with any party that is under suspicion, Pervez Musharraf, who now lives in London, and his supporters in Pakistan, have rushed to condemn the results of the international investigation and consider them to be a “pack of lies.” Such a condemnation can only strengthen the accusation, rather than lessen its impact. Meanwhile, Islamabad has affirmed that the report of the investigating committee will pave the way for a serious investigation by the Pakistani police and for harsh measures against those responsible. It is a step that, if it takes place, will prove that Pakistan can arise from its disintegration and internal conflicts and impose the rule of law on criminals, without any fear of the consequences.
