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Benazir Bhutto foretold the October 18th, 2007 blast that tore through her homecoming procession, killing 140, including 50 of Bhutto's own guards. What many had hoped would be a triumphant moment for Bhutto, who returned to her homeland after 9 years of exile, instead culminated in what was then one of the deadliest terror attacks since September 11th, 2001. Bhutto herself narrowly escaped, only to be assassinated in an attack a mere ten weeks later.

There is no shortage of Pakistani political and social factions that opposed both Bhutto and the democratic process she gave her life for. Tribal groups, religious extremists, feudal-style landlords and corrupt bureaucrats still stand to lose power, influence and wealth to Pakistan's still-nascent, ever-struggling democracy.

Of these, perhaps the most virulent hatred of both Bhutto and democratic principals has been espoused by religious extremists, who simply could not stomach the prospect of a woman leading one of the world's most powerful Muslim nations.

Bhutto herself is said to have named names prior to the October 2007 bombing. Speaking to CNN the morning following that assassination attempt, Arnaud de Borchgrave, UPI editor-at-large and a longtime friend of Benazir Bhutto, reported that a week before the attack, Bhutto had named three men - Baitul Masood, Hamza bin Laden, and a militant affiliated with Islamabad's Red Mosque - as having been dispatched to assassinate her.

It is not publicly known how this intelligence was divulged to Ms. Bhutto, but the claim was hardly implausible. Particularly tragic is that only now, in May of 2009, as bomb after bomb rips through Pakistan's major cities has the international news media even begun to mention Baitul Masood's name with any frequency.

Baitul Masood is a Taliban leader who had emerged at least by autumn 2007, after earlier leaders were killed during American and allied offensives in Afghanistan. Masood also lead the group likely responsible for the September 2007 abduction of 250 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan.

Hamza bin Laden is a son of Osama bin Laden. The younger bin Laden was said to be battle-hardened as a teenager, and was already a rising figure in the Afghan al-Qaeda hierarchy at the time of the Ocotber 2007 attempt on Mrs. Bhutto.

The Red Mosque, site of July 2007's bloody conflict between local extremists and Pakistani security forces, was a symbol of the looming showdown between supporters of Taliban-style extremism and pro-democracy

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