New York Times Articles

NEW YORK TIMES

Article 1

Benazir Bhutto was known as the “daughter of Pakistan”. She was elected twice for prime minister and was expelled twice from office because of corruption charges that led to her self-imposed exile in London for the last ten years. She returned home last fall as a candidate in opposition to President Pervez Musharraf. She made it clear that she was against Islamic extremism and a tribune of democracy.

She was assassinated on December 28th in a combined shooting and bombing attack at a rally. She was campaigning for upcoming elections, despite a previous failed assassination attempt against her the day she returned in October. Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hung after he founded the populists Peoples Party and he was overthrown. Benazir at the age of 24 became the successor of PP.

In October she staged a high profile return to her home city of Karachi, drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters to an 11 hour rally and leading a series of political demonstrations in opposition to the country’s Military leader, President Pervez Musharraf. The triumphal return parade was bombed killing 134 people and wounding more that 400. Ms. Bhutto narrowly escaped and shouted at a later rally “Bhutto is alive”. After the first assassination attempt, she asked President Musharraf to ensure her with proper security. A request he never granted. She knew her life was at risk, but she died a heroine to her people of Pakistan. She’s remembered as intelligent, ambitious, resilient and courageous. She endured her father’s assassination and her own imprisonment at the hands of a military dictator to become the country’s and the Muslim world’s first female leader.

Questions

1. The audience seems to be high class, liberal and politically savvy people. This quote specifically contributes to my conclusion, “Despite numerous accusations of corruption and an evident predilection for luxury, Ms. Bhutto, the pale-skinned scion of a wealthy landowning family, successfully cast herself as a savior of Pakistan’s millions of poor and disenfranchised. She inspired devotion among her followers, even in exile, and the image of her floating through a frenzied crowd in her gauzy white scarf became iconic”.

2. The villain in this story is President Pervez Musharraf, because he didn’t ensure her with proper security and it was his responsibility to do so as President.

3. The hero in this story is Benazir Bhutto herself. She remains an iconic figure and died fighting for her people of the Peoples Party and for democracy.

4. This story would differ from other newpapers because of the language and vocabulary content. The New York Post writes for local people, middle class. This newspaper is clearly written for high society, upper class.

Article 2

Editorial- After Benazir Bhutto

Published 12/28/07

This article describes the predicament that Bhutto’s death left the Bush administration in. Now they are left with no strategy for extricating Pakistan from its crisis or rooting out Al Qaeda and the Taliban. This leaves President Bush with no option but to use American prestige and resources to fortify Pakistan’s badly battered democratic institutions. It is now Washington’s duty to call for new rules to assure a truly democratic vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections. And it must insist that President Musharraf reinstate the impartial Supreme Court judges he fired last month in order to block them from overturning his rigged election. This means that they will allow Ms. Bhutto’s party, which is the country’s largest to choose a new candidate for prime minister. America’s policy must now be directed at building a strong democracy in Pakistan that has the respect and support of its own citizens, as well as the will and the means to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Questions

1. The audience is people who are aware of the role that the United States government plays in international affairs, people who are interested in government and politics. This article is from the New York Times, so it is aimed at high society people.

2. There are no villains in this story. The purpose of this article is to inform people that the Bush administration needs to be careful of how to approach Pakistan because President Pervez Musharraf is an unreliable ally.

3. There are no heroes in this story. This article reinstates how critical it is to be careful when dealing with foreign affairs because of Pakistan’s situation. The Bush administration is funneling billions into Pakistan’s military. That money is supposed to finance the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In recent reports, they say Washington hasn’t kept a close watch on the money and it has gone to projects like building weapon systems aimed at America’s ally India. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda and the Taliban continued to make alarming gains. This is why President Bush has to come up with a solution to fix this problem and still remain an ally of Pakistan. Otherwise Pakistan can use all of there new “projects” on the U.S.

Article #3

C.I.A. Sees Qaeda Link in the Death of Bhutto

Published January 19, 2008

By Mark Mazzetti

This article discusses the possible link that the Central Intelligence Agency noticed between Baitullah Mehsud and Bhutto’s assassination. Mehsud is a Pakistani militant leader in hiding and he has had some ties to Al Qaeda. They concluded that the assassins were directed by Mehsud.

The C.I.A. has a source which is an American intelligence official who spoke out anonymously saying that he has “powerful reason’s to believe that terror networks around Mehsud were responsible” and that “different pieces of information” had pointed to Mehsud’s responsibility as well. Within days of Ms. Bhutto’s assassination, Pakistani authorities announced they had intercepted communications between Mr. Mehsud and militant supporters in which they said the leader had congratulated his followers for the assassination and appeared to take responsibility. Mr. Mehsud’s spokesperson, released a statement saying that he denied responsibility for the killing and suggested that the assassins were directed by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president and a longtime rival of Bhutto. Members of Bhutto’s family and political party have challenged the Pakistani government accounts of the attack. They have blamed President Musharraf for not providing Ms.Bhutto with proper security as she campaigned around the country and some hint that the government was behind the assassination. The Bush administration is currently considering proposals to step up covert actions in Pakistan against the Qaeda network.

Questions

1. The audience is intellectuals who are well aware of international affairs and are well educated. It is targeted at people who are concerned with the facts of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. This article discusses the possibility of an Al Qaeda link to the assassination and a link to the government and President Musharraf.

2. The villain’s in this story is Baitullah Mehsud and President Musharraf because this article states the possible involvement of them in the assassination. Also because President Musharraf didn’t provide adequate protect for Ms. Bhutto when she was campaigning.

3. The heroes in this article seem to be the C.I.A. and the British Government because they are working hard to figure out who is responsible for the assassination. The intelligence and the counterterrorism officials are trying to produce a plan to dismantle terrorist networks in Pakistan.

Article 4

Bhutto’s Assassination Ignites Disarray

By Salman Masood and Carlotta Gall

Published December 28th, 2008

This article discusses the chaos that occurred after Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan. The assassination ignited widespread violence by her enraged supporters. Ms. Bhutto, 54, was shot in the neck or the head, according to different accounts, as she stood in the open sunroof of the car and waved to crowds. Seconds later a suicide attacker detonated his bomb killing more than 20 people and wounding over 50.

She was a leading contender to become Prime Minister after the Jan, 8 elections, campaigning as an advocate for Pakistan’s People party after 8 years of military rule under Mr. Musharraf, who relinquished his post only this month. She also presented herself as the individual who could best combat growing militancy in Pakistan. Her comments condemning militancy and suicide bombing had made her a target of Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan. Her homecoming procession in Karachi was attacked with two bomb blasts that killed 150 supporters and narrowly missed killing her.

Much of the rage over Bhutto’s assassination is likely to be directed at Mr. Musharraf. He kept her out of power for eight years and had shown her only a grudging welcome at first and later outright hostility. Ms. Bhutto has long accused the country’s premiere military intelligence agency, the Inter- Services Intelligence, or ISI, of working against her and her party because they oppose her liberal, secular agenda. All of these allegations are causing complete disarray and unreliability throughout the government and country. Once again everyone in the country agrees that there wasn’t adequate security for Bhutto. Who is there to blame for that other than President Musharraf.

Questions

1. The audience for this article is for intellectuals who are interested in foreign affairs. The language is reminiscent of high society, particularly the vocabulary. This is a quote that supports my conclusion, “A deeply polarizing figure, Ms. Bhutto spent 30 years navigating the turbulent and often violent world of Pakistani politics, becoming in 1988 the first woman to lead a modern Muslim country”.

2. The villains in this story is President Musharraf and the ISI who is under investigation for possibly collaborating with Mr. Musharraf and other government officials in the assassination.

3. The heroes in this story are the counterterrorism officials who are investigating along with the C.I.A. and the British Government.