In the midst of the agonizing over who’s to blame for Benazir Bhutto’s assassination (candidates range from Musharraf, to Bush, to herself) has emerged yet another question of arguably equal importance: how exactly did she die?

The Musharraf government revised it’s initial version of the attack, first citing her cause of death as being from gunshot and shrapnel wounds and now declaring that she’d essentially killed herself, hitting her head on the sunroof.  Bhutto’s party denies the government’s claims as a ‘pack of lies.’  There’s no doubt that the way she died is of critical significance:

CNN national security analyst Ken Robinson, who worked in U.S. intelligence in Pakistan during the Clinton administration, said he suspects Bhutto’s enemies are attempting to control her legacy by minimizing the attack’s role in her demise.

“They’re trying to deny her a martyr’s death, and in Islam, that’s pretty important,” Robinson said.

Bhutto, he said, threatens to become more influential in death than she was in life. “Her torch burns bright now forever. She’s forever young; she’s forever brave, challenging against all odds the party in power and challenging the military and Islamic extremism.” [cnn.com]