Get Your Story Straight

In the wake of the assassination of prime minister candidate Benazir Bhutto, different accounts are being given as to her cause of death. Nothing suspect about that, right?

Both attending doctors and the Pakistani government have curiously offered more and more genteel explanations. Authorities on Thursday said Bhutto died from bullet wounds fired by a young man who then blew himself up, killing 20 other people. A surgeon who treated her said she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull. Later an Interior Ministry official said she died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during the attack and not from bullet wounds.

At a news conference, a videotape of the attack was played, showing Bhutto waving, smiling and chatting with supporters from the sunroof as her car sat unmoving on the street outside a campaign rally. Three gunshots rang out, the camera appeared to fall, and the tape ended. The government claim is all three shots missed her, and noted her vehicle was bulletproof and bombproof. They also deny that shrapnel could have caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull.

Eddie Izzard pointed out that perhaps it's not guns that kill people, but just that loud noise they make, and its pretty close to the position the Pakistan government is edging towards. By next week, a shower of butterflies and flowers will be the cause of death. At least all the chatter isn't undermining that she is, in fact, dead - at least they could agree on that.