A few puzzle pieces, and a couple of questions:

[Jackpine Radical]

Benazir Bhutto, whose earlier reign was marked by unparalleled corruption, is apparently poised to assume a sharing of power in Pakistan with Musharraf. This is apparently being engineered by the US (I would think by Cheney's office).

Bhutto was asked, "What are your views on AQ Khan and will you permit him to be interviewed by the West?"

She replied, "While we do not agree at this stage to have any Western access to AQ Khan we do believe that the IAEA...would have the right to put questions to AQ Khan. That will satisfy them and give the world community greater confidence that the illegal structure has been broken and that no further dangerous repercussions for the world community come about due to those activities."

Khan is the guy the Neocons use to plant "throwdown" weapons, sometimes nukes, on countries they want to attack. Iran for instance.

Bhutto also says she will allow US forces to chase Islamic extremists around inside Pakistan.

What thoughts does this constellation of events suggest to you?
--for example,--
Is the Khan operation about to get a whitewash job?
Does all of this play a role in setting the stage for an upcoming Iran war?
Or, more generally, WTF is going on here?

[Yael]

1. No western access to Khan? There is no western access to Sibel.

Nothing to see here. Just move along. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[JackRiddler]

2. The sad truth...

Is that Bhutto was not "unparalleled" for corruption in that country. Let's not forget Zia, or for that matter Musharraf, or for that matter the ISI. Untangling the disinfo may be very difficult from our vantage point.

I don't think there's a big mystery in the attack, by the way: she came back, her enemies predictably tried to kill her.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. You're right about the corruption issue.

I think she may have gotten unparalleled coverage for the corruption that occurred on her watch, though.