Sad News

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today. Time will tell how this event plays out. There are so many implications, so one of my first thoughts was what type of contingency planning had been done by this administration for the event which Mark Steyn described as a horrible inevitability.

AP seems to think there was no plan, althought the story doesn't give any evidence of the scrambling they report.

I surely hope we've been planning for this. Basic risk management. If (event) Bhutto is killed, then (impact)... Our risk response strategy is to ...

That brings up an interesting question. What would have happened if the news leaked out that intelligence officials in the Bush administration were "planning" for the response to her assassination? Would it be seen through the lens of "good, they've learned what happens when you fail to consider the what ifs" or through a darker, conspiratorial lens. I think I know the answer to that, but you can bet that if they really are "scrambling" they will (should) be pilloried for failing to foresee it.