If the UN does an honest and competent investigation they will find that Musharraf had her murdered. The U.S. government has chosen to accept the absurd claims of their Pakistan "ally" in the war on terror, so they can't trusted to find the truth. And if the UN finds it was the Pakistani government that had Bhutto murdered will they hold Musharraf accountable? I'll believe it when I see it.
The U.N. chief has agreed to Pakistan's request to establish an independent commission that will investigate the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office confirmed the agreement moments after it was announced by Pakistan's top diplomat.
"The objectives are for the commission to identify the culprits, perpetrators, organizers and financiers of the assassination," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters Thursday, just after a brief, private meeting with Ban.
Determining who was behind Bhutto's killing could help stabilize a nation that is a key U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, but has been struggling against an influx of insurgents joining with al-Qaida and other militant groups in Pakistan's remote tribal and mountainous areas.
The previous government blamed the Taliban in Pakistan for the attack against Bhutto, but suspicions surrounding her death have been cast far and wide _ a further reason for the government's pressing to clear up the matter. Qureshi assured reporters that Ban would appoint "well-respected, eminent people" to the independent commission.
Let's see if the Democrats in Congress have the courage and decency to punish the evil genius behind Bush's criminal administration. Or will they play games until after the elections.
Former White House adviser Karl Rove defied a congressional subpoena to testify Thursday about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department, including whether he tried to influence the prosecution of a former Democratic governor of Alabama.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, chairman of the House subcommittee that called Rove, ruled with backing from fellow Democrats on the panel that Rove's claim of immunity was invalid — perhaps the first step toward holding him in contempt for refusing to cooperate.
Lawmakers subpoenaed Rove in May in an effort to force him to talk about whether he was involved in prosecutors' decisions to pursue cases against Democratic politicians or in the firing of federal prosecutors two years ago.
He had been scheduled to appear at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Thursday morning. A placard with his name sat in front of an empty chair at the witness table, with a handful of protesters sitting behind it calling for Rove to be arrested.
The House already has voted to hold two of President Bush's confidants in contempt for failing to cooperate with its inquiry into whether the administration fired federal prosecutors for political reasons.
It wasn't just Bush, inc. that tortured "terrorists."
Attorneys for 10 Iraqis tortured by the British military say they've settled a civil case for about $6 million.
The law firm Leigh Day & Co. says the settlement with the military involves the family of slain hotel clerk Baha Mousa and nine others who suffered injuries while in British custody in Iraq.
Mousa died in September 2003 after being detained in the southern Iraqi city of Basra along with a group of other Iraqis on suspicion of being insurgents.
A post-mortem found Mousa suffered 93 different injuries, including a broken nose and fractured ribs. It said he died of asphyxia, caused by a stress position that soldiers forced him to maintain.
Barack Obama has shown to be a major league panderer despite the image of being a different kind of politician. But calling for Americans to learn spanish is going too far. A little background: I was raised in spanish speaking home, and do not believe in bilingualism. This is outrageous. Obama obviously learned a few tricks from Hillary Clinton on how to pander to get votes.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I agree with that, but, understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual.
TUCKER: Critics of the senator's statement point out the real problem isn't Americans learning another language.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Virtually every language that's spoken in the world is also spoken in the United States because we have immigrants from every corner of the world.
TUCKER: In fact, America's the most multilingual country in the world. Literally hundreds of languages are spoken here, and the linguistic diversity is not limited to urban areas. It's geographically widespread, which is why proponents of making English the official language argue it's important that one language be the official language of communication.
JIM BOULET, ENGLISH FIRST: It appears from Barack's statement that the only people expected to learn another language are English- speaking children. They're to be required to learn Spanish. I don't know what that's going to do to the Vietnamese child who has to now learn English and Spanish as well as her home language.
TUCKER: Nor does Obama's statement address the reality that in many parts of the southwest, Spanish is widely spoken and in some areas it is the dominant language.
[...]DOBBS: And today's comment, Bill Schneider, by Senator Obama, saying that children should be speaking Spanish in this country, your take?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that is a very controversial comment. That I think will provoke a lot of heated discussion about whether this should be a bilingual country. I'm not sure that's what he meant. But what he did say was that everyone in this country is bound to learn English, probably not older people, but younger people. If they want to get anywhere in this country, they need to learn English but if the implication is that somehow America should be a bilingual country that will provoke a lot of heated discussion.
DOBBS: And of course that is precisely the debate that is going on both in public education amongst a number of ethnocentric organizations, some who really and truly believe that this should be a multicultural nation to the point of separate languages defining us and departing from a unifying single official language.
Jessica, your thoughts?
YELLIN: Well, Barack Obama has taken this position that U.S. needs to change its image in the world. The U.S. needs to respect other nations and understand that we're in a global economy now, et cetera. It really does play into that message. It's going to stir up a lot of controversy as it has. But here's one area at least he's sticking to his guns.
DOBBS: He may be in one area, as you put it, at least, sticking to his guns. But when he says he's embarrassed by Americans traveling the world who cannot speak native languages, that element of this is surely -- surely going to have a considerable impact and be quiet controversial, wouldn't you agree, Bill?
SCHNEIDER: I would agree. "E pluribus unum," it says on our money, "For Many, One." That's the definition of our society; we are one culture, one society. Many different things that are celebrated in the country, but everyone comes together as one America in this country. And that is precisely what Barack Obama wants to run on.
I think if he's talking about that Americans should be more familiar with the world, should even speak more languages, that's fine. But there can be really only one national language in this country.
Here's the video of his comments (thanks to http://polijamblog.polijam.com/?p=1564):
