US journo claims Bhutto was killed on Cheney's orders

New York, May 18 (ANI): A special death squad assassinated Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on the orders of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, an Arab TV channel has reported.

"Cheney was the chief of the Joint Special Operation Command and he cleared the way for the US by exterminating opponents through the unit and the CIA. General Stanley was the in-charge of the unit," The Nation quoted US columnist Seymour Hersh, as saying.

The US death unit killed Bhutto because she had told Al-Jazeera TV about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, Hersh said.

The US leadership did not want Osama to be declared dead. It would have raised questions about the US Army's presence in Afghanistan, he claimed.

According to Hersh, the former Lebanese PM Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief were murdered for not safeguarding US interests and for refusing to set up US military bases in Lebanon.

Ariel Sharon, the then prime minister of Israel, was also a key man in the plot, he said. (ANI)