Baitullah Mesud 'responsible' for Bhutto killing: CIA chief

WASHINGTON: Toeing Pakistani government's line, the US intelligence chief has said he has 'no reason to question' the assertion that al Qaida and allies of tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

There is an increasingly active nexus between al Qaida and various extremist groups with the common interest of harming the Musharraf regime in Islamabad, CIA Director Michael Hayden said in an interview to The Washington Post.

"What you see is, I think, a change in the character of what's going on there. You've got this nexus now that probably was always there in latency but is now active," he said.

Bhutto's assassination "was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that", Hayden said, describing the killing as "part of an organized campaign" that includes suicide bombings and other attacks on Pakistani leaders.

Hayden declined to discuss the intelligence behind the CIA assessment, which runs counter to a view held in many quarters including that of the Bhutto family, who accuse President Pervez Musharraf's regime of being involved in Bhutto's death on December 27 last year.
   
The media report quoted unnamed administration officials outside the agency who deal with Pakistani issues as saying that the assessment was not very conclusive, with one calling the assertion "a very good assumption", while another said there was no "incontrovertible" evidence to prove or rebut the assessment.