Members of al-Qaida and allies of Pakistani tribal leader
Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for last month's assassination of
former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, CIA director
Michael V. Hayden said Friday.
The conclusion of the CIA was revealed by Hayden in an interview
with the Washington Post published Friday.
The named men were also behind a new wave of violence
threatening Pakistan's stability, he said.
Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a
tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from
al-Qaida's terrorist network.
That view mirrors the Pakistani government's conclusion.
The same alliance between local and international terrorists
poses a grave risk to the government of Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf, a close U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, Hayden
said.
However, some Bush administration officials outside the CIA 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.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2008)
