Benazir Bhutto blames Musharraf in pre-death email but did she follow security precautions?

After reading the article, Bhutto blames Musharraf in pre-death email, on the ctv news website, I am a bit confused. Apparently former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, said in an email to Washington lobbyist, Mark Siegel that if she was assassinated, that Musharraf should be held complicit in her death due to his refusal to meet safety requests she had made.

Below are some excerpts from that article:

Siegel said she had been stopped from taking private cars with tinted windows and had not received radio jammers or four police escorts -- as she had requested.

On Newsnet, Siegel read the email, saying, "There is no way what is happening -- in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted window, or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides -- could happen without (Musharraf)."

Siegel said her request for four police escorts -- one on each side of her vehicle -- could have saved her life

Having more than four police escorts did not save assassinated US President John F. Kennedy's life on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas or prevent former US President, Ronald Reagan, from being shot and wounded on March 30th, 1981. And you can bet they had the best security detail possible.

In terms of protecting someone, there is only so much that can be done in the best of circumstances against a determined assassin, and Bhutto has dozens of very experienced bodyguards, so I am not sure if Siegel's statement about the police escorts is a fair one.

But, after looking back on a previous article, 2 blasts strike crowd celebrating Bhutto's return, on the MSNBC website, it seems to indicate that Benazir Bhutto deliberately refused to take precautions and advise by security officers dating back to the first assassination attempt in October.

Below are some excerpts from that article:

An estimated 20,000 security officers had been deployed to protect Bhutto and her cavalcade of motorized rickshaws, colorful buses, cars and motorcycles in the streets of Pakistan's largest city.

Authorities had urged Bhutto to use a helicopter to reduce the risk of attack amid threats from extremists sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaida, but she brushed off the concerns.

"I am not scared. I am thinking of my mission," she had told reporters on the plane from Dubai. "This is a movement for democracy because we are under threat from extremists and militants."

Last month, Bhutto told CNN she realized she was a target. Islamic militants, she said, "don't believe in women governing nations, so they will try to plot against me, but these are risks that must be taken. I'm prepared to take them."

Bhutto refuses to use protective cubicle
Leaving the airport, Bhutto refused to use a bulletproof glass cubicle that had been built atop the truck taking her to the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to give a speech. She squeezed between other party officials along a railing at the front.

What surprised me the most was that moments before she was assassinated, she stood with her head exposed in the sun-roof of her vehicle as it moved slowly through the crowds estimated in the thousands. Why did her security detail allow her to do this, knowing the threats and the previous assassination attempt on her life?

I am not assigning any blame for Bhutto's death, as whichever group is responsible committed a morally reprehensible act clearly designed to destabilize Pakistan and throw it into chaos barely 2 weeks before parliamentary elections. But I also think that one should not jump to conclusions and blame Pakistani President Musharraf before taking into account all the facts surrounding Bhutto’s assassination.

It is clear for one thing that the Taliban and al-Qaeda wanted her dead because she was a secular woman who had close ties to the United States administration that was involved in overthrowing the Taliban regime. They also viewed Pakistan’s involvement in the “war against terror” as an assault against Islam and Bhutto had vowed to continue this co-operation if elected as Prime Minister.