Govt accused of destroying evidence

Dawn Reporter, 29 December

LAHORE, Dec 28: Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Secretary General of the Punjab chapter of Pakistan People’s Party has accused the authorities of destroying evidence of the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

He said in a statement issued here on Friday that the evidence had been destroyed by washing the blast site outside the Liaquat Bagh with high-pressure water hoses.

He said that the government had first failed to act on the complaints about ‘unsatisfactory’ security arrangements for the former prime minister and now its officials had destroyed the evidence.

He directed the party organisations to arrange funeral prayers and ‘Soyem’ for Ms Bhutto in every city of the province on Sunday.


Email to be used only ‘if I am killed’

NEW YORK, Dec 28: It was a story CNN’s Wolf Blitzer hoped he would never have to report — an email sent through an intermediary to him by Benazir Bhutto complaining about her security. Conditions of use: only if she were killed.

Ms Bhutto wrote to Wolf Blitzer that if anything happened to her, “I would hold (President Pervez) Musharraf responsible.”

Mr Blitzer received the email on Oct 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and long-time Washington spokesman for Ms Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life on Oct 18.

Benazir Bhutto wrote to Blitzer: “I have been made to feel insecure by his (Musharraf’s) minions,” that specific improvements had not been made to her security arrangements, and that the president was responsible.

Blitzer agreed to the conditions before receiving the e-mail. He said on Friday that he called Siegel shortly after seeing it to see if there was any way he could use it on CNN, but was told firmly it could only be used if she were killed. Siegel could not say why she had insisted on those conditions.

Blitzer reported on the e-mail late on Thursday. He noted that Ms Bhutto had written a piece for CNN.com that mentioned her security concerns and that American politicians had tried to intervene on her behalf to make her feel safer. “I didn’t really think that it was a story we were missing out on,” he said. “I don’t think the viewers were done any disservice by my trying to hold on to this.”

Wolf Blitzer was the only journalist sent such a message, Siegel said. He also sent the e-mail to Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.

Siegel said he did not believe Ms Bhutto’s opinions had changed since she wrote the e-mail. Her message specifically mentioned she had requested four police vehicles surrounding her vehicle when travelling; Siegel said it seemed evident from pictures taken at the assassination scene that the request was not fulfilled.

Ms Bhutto did not necessarily believe that President Musharraf wanted her dead, but felt many people around him did, he said.

Her husband contacted Siegel on Thursday to remind him about the e-mail message and to make sure it got out, he said.

Wolf Blitzer said he had no regrets about the way he handled the story. To report about it while she was still alive would have meant going back on his word, he said. “I don’t think there is a clear black-and-white in this situation,” he said. “I did what I think was right.”—AP

BB manuscript rushed into print : Book to be published by Feb

NEW YORK, Dec 28: Immediately after receiving the manuscript of Benazir Bhutto’s new book, leading publisher HarperCollins decided to move quickly to get it on the shelves by February, following Thursday’s assassination of the former prime minister.

The book, entitled “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,” was part political treatise and part memoir of the first woman elected prime minister of a Muslim nation.

HarperCollins had signed up the book for an advance estimated to be around $75,000 shortly before she returned to Pakistan in October after years of living in exile.

“We have a finished manuscript,” said HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who learned about Ms Bhutto’s murder from an email alert.

When HarperCollins Executive Editor Tim Duggan sealed the deal with Ms Bhutto, he said: “Pakistan is an increasingly volatile place, and Ms Bhutto’s book is an eye-opening look at the mistakes we’ve made in the region and what we can do to correct them -- as well as what the consequences will be if we don’t.”—PPI

Transcript of ‘Baitullah’s phone call’

ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Here is the AFP’s translation of the transcript of the alleged telephone conversation on Friday from senior Al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud to another militant that the Pakistan interior ministry said had been intercepted after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The ministry said it had been translated from Pashto to Urdu. This is our translation from the ministry’s Urdu to English.

Maulvi Sahib (MS): Assalaam Aleikum.

Baitullah Mehsud (BM): Waleikum Assalaam.

MS: Chief, how are you?

BM: I am fine.

MS: Congratulations, I just got back during the night.

BM: Congratulations to you, were they our men?

MS: Yes they were ours.

BM: Who were they?

MS: There was Saeed, there was Bilal from Badar and Ikramullah.

BM: The three of them did it?

MS: Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

BM: Then congratulations.

MS: Where are you? I want to meet you.

BM: I am at Makeen (town in South Waziristan tribal region), come over, I am at Anwar Shah’s house.

MS: OK, I’ll come.

BM: Don’t inform their house for the time being.

MS: OK.

BM: It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her.

MS: Mashallah. When I come I will give you all the details.

BM: I will wait for you. Congratulations, once again congratulations.

MS: Congratulations to you.

BM: Anything I can do for you?

MS: Thank you very much.

BM: Assalaam Aleikum.

MS: Waaleikum Assalaam.

—AFP