Scotland Yard: Al Qaeda Linked Baitullah Mehsud Behind Bhutto Assassination

But British and American officials, who have examined the transcript, say they believe it is genuine and share Musharraf’s view that Mehsud is behind most of the suicide bombings in Pakistan.

Asked why Pakistani forces do not capture Mehsud, one official said: “It’s not so easy to go into tribal areas. Look what happened to the last lot of Pakistani soldiers that tried.” According to diplomats, Mehsud had dispatched teams of suicide bombers round the country to follow Bhutto to rallies and seize an opportunity to kill her.

The gun fired at Bhutto has been checked for fingerprints by the Scotland Yard detectives. A government minister told The Sunday Times that these have been traced through identity cards to a man in Swat, an area where Mehsud’s men have been fighting.

“There was no cover-up,” he insisted. “It was just unfortunate that in all the shock and confusion at the beginning, people shot their mouths off talking about sunroofs rather than simply saying it would be investigated.”

Scotland Yard has insisted that its task is not to establish who killed her but only how she died.

Even that is not straightforward. They cannot examine the body, and the crime scene and Bhutto’s vehicle were both scrubbed within hours.

Every day another conspiracy theory emerges. It is now widely believed that the gun had a laser sight, suggesting military complicity, or that a sniper may have been in a nearby building.

The Pakistani government hasn't exactly helped themselves by engaging in an exceedingly swift funeral and internment of Bhutto's body, which means that investigators cannot examine her remains for evidence as to how she died, and who might have killed her. Similarly, the scene of the attack was sanitized and little evidence remains for which investigators can use. There are some videos and photos of the scene - both immediately before the bomb went off and right afterwards.

However, it shouldn't be all that surprising that Mehsud was fingered by Scotland Yard. He was one of the logical choices for being behind the attacks and was among those prominently mentioned as details of the attack were unfolding.

UPDATE:
Some are now suggesting that Mehsud is even more dangerous than Osama bin Laden. I guess it would depend on who he is more dangerous to. Clearly, Mehsud's followers have the capability to seriously destabilize Pakistan and cause trouble in Afghanistan. They've become especially effective at fighting the Pakistani military. However, the thug's reach beyond those two countries is far more limited, which is the perceived strength of Osama, whose minions operate around the world, but are focused on such places as Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Gaza, and have cells operating in Algeria and Europe as well.