Bhutto exhumation okay, Pakistan official says

[cal04]

Source: CNN

The Pakistani government has no problem with officials from Benazir Bhutto's political party exhuming the slain opposition leader's body if they see a need to do so, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema made the remark when asked about comments from a top Bhutto aide who helped bathe Benazir Bhutto's body after her death.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan People's Party information secretary, said it was clear that the former Pakistani prime minister suffered bullet wounds to her head, contrary to a government report that she died because she hit her head on a sunroof lever.

Cheema noted that if Rehman -- as she said -- believes she saw bullet wounds that caused Bhutto's death, "We don't mind if the People's Party leadership wants her body to be exhumed and post-mortemed. They are most welcome, but we gave you what the facts are."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/bhutto.death/index.html#cnnSTCText

[bemildred]

1. This ought to be good ...

:popcorn::popcorn:

[havocmom]

2. a head hit by bullets would not always appear so

if it were hit with bigger things afterward.

Doctors kept changing the story before body left hospital. Would seem likely they had some official company there with them for that to happen. What else may have been done in the hospital besides some arm twisting of attending physicians?

Ever read Best Evidence regarding the immediate aftermath of JFK's killing?

[bemildred]

4. The point is, if she is autopsied, there will be facts as to what happened to her.

And somebody will be proven wrong, as the various stories are not compatible with one another.

[havocmom]

11. Depends who is doin the autopsy & who is leaning on them

Best Evidence is a very interesting book which says much about power and evidence.

[bemildred]

14. It is true it is not a simple matter.

In fact it is a good bet now that the government will attempt to control the "investigation" in some way.

[havocmom]

16. That much was sure when they rushed in to wash the streets.

Perhaps as soon as the bomb blast.

[bemildred]

15. I haven't read that particular book.

Back in the day I read a number on that subject, and other such. The one thing that seems clear is that if TPTB want to muddy things up, they can. And they often do. That seems to be what is happening in Pakistan, spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. That is what the cigarrette companies did, the asbestos companies did, and what the US Government likes to do a lot.

[dipsydoodle]

22. I suppose

a round'ish entry hole might provide a clue. :shrug:

[ShockediSay]

3. about as credible as BushCo nt

[kestrel91316]

5. I have concerns about this person's medical qualifications:

".....Sherry Rehman, Pakistan People's Party information secretary...."

Laypersons FREQUENTLY misinterpret injuries when they see them. This happens ALL THE TIME with my clients. They'll call all in a panic claiming that their cat's leg is broken, and only once in my 25 years in practice has the client been correct. The other times it has virtually always been a bite wound (cat) with or without abscess, or a cancerous tumor.

Clients also like to call in reporting a cancerous tumor, and it turns out to be an infected wound. And vice versa.

It generally requires significant medical training to interpret physical signs and lesions and determine what the heck is going on with any sort of traumatic injury. I doubt Rehman has any such training.

[JackORoses]

9. well it would seem fairly simple,

if there are headwounds besides the skull fracture then something is amiss.

Right?

[Sam Ervin jret]

6. Now Pakistan has it's very own "Kennedy-esk Murder Mystery"

Welcome to the Bushco world of Democracy.

[ohio2007]

7. the religious fundies over there will burn down the the place for going against the teachings

of islam by this abomination to the dead ;)

[High Plains]

8. We can always count on you for another gratuitous slam at Islam.

Thanks for all you do.

[ohio2007]

10. enjoy your Egyptian river cruise

keep the rose colored glasses close at hand...actually,glue them to your nose

News Analysis: Who killed Benazir Bhutto?


snip

Most Pakistanis are by instinct inclined to believe that the “agencies” did it. This is the easy explanation for anything that happens in this country which is either inexplicable or unpalatable. All political assassinations in Pakistan remain inexplicable since the truth about them has never been investigated or investigated but not made public. But the truth of Ms Bhutto’s assassination may also be subliminally unacceptable to many Pakistanis because a religious or “Islamist” element may be at its unpleasant core.

snip

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\12\29\story_29-12-2007_pg1_6

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\12\29\story_29-12-2007_pg1

[acmavm]

12. The underlying cause of her death will be assassination regardless

of whether she was shot, blown up, or hit her head. If not for the fact that a killer in the crowd started shooting and then blew himself up, Bhutto and many others would still be alive.

[seriousstan]

13. Don't argue with the tinfoilers. They won't believe the autopsy either.

They already "know" it is a conspiracy because they are so much more insightful than everyone else. This is a bedrock requirement for a conspiracy theorist.

[mogster]

17. A picture from Pakistan just now

[rainbow4321]

18. Report silent on what hit BB’s head

So now it is a vague "open head injury"..so WTF happened to the initial reports I read online that were real descriptive about the bullet injuries..right down to decscribing how one went thru her trachea, etc..??


http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=455970&category=Frontend&Country=PAKISTAN


ISLAMABAD: The seven-member medical team that examined former premier Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi General Hospital on December 27, submitted its report to the Interior Ministry, making no mention of what exactly hit the head of the former prime minister. A 3-page medical report, a copy of which is available with Daily Times, stated that an open-head injury with depressed skull fracture caused a cardiopulmonary arrest. The Interior Ministry had claimed that Benazir suffered a head injury after hitting the lever of her vehicle’s sunroof. The report read, “Benazir was pulse-less and was not breathing when she was brought to the hospital. Her pupils were fixed dilated and non-reacting to light. A wound was present on the right temporo-parietal region through which blood was trickling down and a whitish material, which looked like brain matter was visible in the wound.”It said that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was given as soon as Benazir was brought to the hospital.

[ohio2007]

19. Wonder what size 'BB's" were wrapped around the designer vest that hit BB's head?

oh,
what? to soon ?

[MilesColtrane]

24. If you're gonna go there, at least be funny.

[Satyagrahi]

20. The report about the chest wound was definitely wrong.

I think this is the report you are referring to;

"Bhutto was rushed into emergency surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. She was given an open heart massage, but the spinal cord damage was too great, he said."
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/12/29/news/nation_and_world/doc47749601dee53468819634.txt


Even members of Bhutto's own family say that there was no chest wound, only a head injury:

Benazir Bhutto’s wound was bleeding after ritual bath

By GM Khuhro

LARKANA: Safia Bhutto, a woman that carried out the ablution of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s body, said on Saturday she had seen Benazir’s wound continuously bleeding during and after the final ablution.

Talking to Daily Times at her residence she said she had not seen the wound because it was covered with plaster or bandage, but had seen it bleed. She found the bandage wrapped around her head, covering her forehead and both ears, she said

Safia said she didn’t open the bandage to see the wound as women from Benazir’s family were standing beside her and had forbidden her to do so. She said she herself carried out the bath while another woman from the village, Ghulam Sughra, poured the water.

Safia said she could only partially bathe the body since she wasn’t permitted to move it because of the wound. According to her, Benazir’s left hand was lying flat while the right was over her abdomen. The fingers on her right hand were folded as if she had been holding something, Safia added.
Daily Times

[rainbow4321]

21. And these...

I wonder how much pressure the medical team at the hospital and ER were under to alter their initial findings??

http://news.oneindia.in/2007/12/28/pakistan-govt-decide-january-8-polls.html


Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack minutes after she addressed a huge election rally here on Thursday. Shots were fired at her before a suicide bomber blew himself up near her bullet-proof jeep as it pulled out of the Liaquat Bagh gate. Bullets pierced her neck and damaged her trachea, which proved fatal.



http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11921

“An invader suddenly came in front of her Land Cruiser and started firing at her,” a guard of Benazir Bhutto said, adding that she quickly sat down but a bullet pierced into her neck and damaged her trachea.

A surgeon at the hospital, who was one of the doctors who carried out surgery, told ‘The News’ that Benazir sustained two bullet injuries — one in her neck and the other in the skull. He said, “Tempiral bone and skull bone were fractured”.


http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/28/top2.htm


A REPORT sent by the Rawalpindi General Hospital to the Health Department of the Punjab provincial government said all efforts by its doctors to revive Ms Bhutto failed and she was declared dead exactly 41 minutes after she was brought at its emergency department at 5.35pm with open wounds on her left temporal bone from which “brain matter was exuding”.


“Left antrolateral thoracotomy for open cardiac massage was performed,” it said and added: “In spite of all the possible measures she could not be revived and (was) declared dead at 1816 (6.16pm) hours.”

The report said a post-mortem examination of Ms Bhutto’s body was not carried out at the hospital “because the district administration and police had not requested the hospital authorities (for this)”.

[Satyagrahi]

23. Indeed, the official medical report only mentions damage to the

temporal bone:

"Medical Report of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto"
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11974

Nothing about a neck wound. One explanation could be pressure on the medical team, as you suggested. An alternative explanation could be that the doctor who is speaking on condition of anonymity did not really take part in the surgery. Anonymous sources in Pakistan can be a tricky thing and rather unreliable.

The member of Bhutto's family who prepared her body for burial also doesn't mention the neck wound, but I agree that the article is not completely clear in this regard. Perhaps the neck wound is also covered by the bandage.

[LibertyLover]

25. OK, it's been how long since Ms. Bhutto died?

If she was buried without embalming, I wouldn't think that a post mortem is going to show much after almost 3 weeks of decomposition. Even with embalming, it's still 3 weeks.