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Bhutto said she’d blame Musharraf if killed

(CNN) — Two months before her death, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto sent an e-mail to her U.S. adviser and longtime friend, saying that if she were killed, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would bear some of the blame.

She cited his government’s denial of her request for additional security measures after the October suicide bombing that targeted her upon returning to Pakistan from exile.

Nothing will, God willing happen, she wrote to Mark Siegel, her U.S. spokesman, lobbyist and friend.

Just wanted u to know if it does in addition to the names in my letter to Musharaf of Oct 16nth, I wld hold Musharaf responsible. I have been made to feel insecure by his minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides cld happen without him.

Bhutto was seeking to become prime minister for a third time when she was assassinated; her death comes exactly two weeks before Pakistan’s January 8 parliamentary elections. Watch Siegel describe her concern and the reaction of Pakistan’s U.S. ambassador

Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Mahmud Ali Durrani, on Thursday insisted Musharraf’s government provided the former prime minister with unprecedented security. He said that terrorists and extremists, who also have targeted Musharraf, were the only ones responsible for her death.

Bhutto wrote the e-mail on October 26, eight days after at least 130 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in Karachi by the suicide bombing that occurred as Bhutto’s motorcade passed.

Siegel forwarded that e-mail to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, with instructions he not report on it unless Bhutto was killed.

Just before returning to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile, Bhutto told CNN she was aware of threats against her and said that some had come from people who hold high positions in Pakistan’s government. She said she had written a letter to Musharraf about her fears, apparently the same letter she refers to in her e-mail to Siegel.

In a speech, she listed four groups she believed posed the biggest threat to her and her cause — the Taliban in Pakistan, the Taliban in Afghanistan, al Qaeda and a suicide team from Karachi that she did not describe.

After the October bombing, she accused elements in the government and security services of trying to kill her and asked Musharraf for basic security, including vehicles with tinted windows and private guards in addition to police guards. Three United States senators repeated the request in a letter to Musharraf.

Bhutto was concerned by the lack of security she had upon her arrival in Karachi and called the October 18 bombing very suspicious, Siegel said. He accused Pakistani authorities of not investigating the assassination attempt and of refusing Bhutto’s request for Scotland Yard and the FBI to aid in the investigation.

Bhutto and her husband had asked for jammers to impede the detonation of bombs; special vehicles with tinted windows; and four police vehicles to surround her at all times, Siegel said.

She basically asked for all that was required for someone of the standing of a former prime minister, Siegel told CNN’s The Situation Room. All of that was denied to her. … She got some police protection, but it was sporadic and erratic.

Bhutto was concerned the problem was worsening as the January elections neared, Siegel said.

At the time of the October suicide bombing, Bhutto was riding in a truck from Karachi’s airport to the tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan. She had moved from the roof to inside the bulletproof, armed vehicle just moments before the blast and was unharmed.

CNN’s Dan Rivers, in Karachi to cover her return to Pakistan, remarked at the time that her security appeared to be loose, saying his crew was able to walk up to the side of her vehicle without being stopped by authorities.

Durrani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., insisted security surrounding Bhutto then was more than adequate.

There were, I think, a sea of security people, he said. She was surrounded by police vehicles. And had it not been one of the police vehicles which took the blast in Karachi, unfortunately she would have died there.

There was a bubble around her of security. The PPP [People’s Party of Pakistan, Bhutto’s party] insisted that they have their own private loyalists around. They were there too. And there were about 7,800 to 8,000 security people deployed just for that, Durrani said.

That is more security than anybody deploys anywhere in the world.

Bhutto is not a security person, said Durrani. She’s a politician. I think the government of Pakistan provided her all the security that was necessary. You tell me — the way she was hit, she would have been hit with tinted windows or without, or without the IED … so it’s just a blame game.

After the October attack, Bhutto said police offered to let her use a helicopter for the trip from the airport, but she told them she wanted to be near her people. She said she did not regret that decision.

She believed in democracy, and she believed in speaking to the people, Siegel said. It’s not reckless to go out and touch the people. Don’t blame the victim for the crime. The person that was supposed to be protecting Benazir Bhutto and the other candidates was the government of Pakistan with the government of Pervez Musharraf.

At the same time, Siegel acknowledged, She was moving almost in a sea of humanity, he said. No system in the world can protect you against that.

Blitzer noted that Bhutto was shot Thursday while standing out of her vehicle’s sunroof — seen by some as a a reckless action after the October incident.

Getty Images senior staff photographer John Moore, who was at the scene of her assassination, told CNN he was surprised at Bhutto’s actions, considering the earlier suicide attempt. The rally was smaller than expected, he said, and the people he spoke with said they were just afraid to come out, for the simple reason that they all remembered what happened in Karachi.

Siegel grew emotional as he told Blitzer that Bhutto was the bravest person I ever knew. … She knew that there were risks coming back, but those risks were important, she thought, for the fight for democracy.
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Bhutto photographer: ‘Gunshots rang out and she went down’

(CNN) — The photographer who took images of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto moments before her assassination Thursday told CNN he was surprised to see her rise through the sunroof of her vehicle to wave to supporters after delivering her speech.

I ran up, got as close as I got, made a few pictures of her waving to the crowd, Getty Images senior staff photographer John Moore told CNN’s online streaming news service, CNN.com Live, in a phone interview Thursday from Islamabad, Pakistan.

And then suddenly, there were a few gunshots that rang out, and she went down, she went down through the sunroof, he said. And just at that moment I raised my camera up and the blast happened. … And then, of course, there was chaos. Watch Moore describe Bhutto’s final moments

Moore said he was about 20 yards away from Bhutto’s vehicle when he took his photographs. Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Moore said he had been following Bhutto’s story since her return to Pakistan in October. He was present October 19 when a terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people. In the aftermath of that attack, the rallies had been very small, because of high security, Moore said.

However, the Rawalpindi rally was announced beforehand, he observed.

Whoever planned this attack — they had time on their hands to plan everything properly, and you saw the results today, he said.

Between 5,000 and 8,000 were at the Rawalpindi rally, which was held at a parkground, he said. We [the news media] all expected it to be filled … but there were less people there than most of us expected to see, he said. When I talked with a number of people, they said that people were just afraid to come out, for the simple reason that they all remembered what happened in Karachi.

Moore said he himself expected there could be another attack following the Karachi massacre. He said he stayed away from gates at the Rawalpindi parkground, where police were searching people, because he suspected that’s where a bomb would go off.

Moore said it was obvious that Bhutto enjoyed being with her supporters. She was clearly in her element, he said. She just wanted to get close to the people, and obviously whoever was after her — they saw that coming. E-mail to a friend

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Bhutto photographer: ‘She was clearly in her element’

(CNN) — The photographer who took the last known images of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before her assassination Thursday told CNN he was surprised to see her rise through the sunroof of her vehicle to wave to supporters after delivering her speech.

I ran up, got as close as I got, made a few pictures of her waving to the crowd, Getty Images senior staff photographer John Moore told CNN’s online streaming news service, CNN.com Live, in a phone interview Thursday from Islamabad, Pakistan.

And then suddenly, there were a few gun shots that rang out, and she went down, she went down through the sunroof, he said. And just at that moment I raised my camera up and the blast happened. … And then, of course, there was chaos. Watch Moore describe Bhutto’s final moments

Moore said he was about 20 yards away from Bhutto’s vehicle when he took his photographs. Bhutto was rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Moore said he had been following Bhutto’s story since her return to Pakistan in October. He was present October 19 when a terror attack targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people. In the aftermath of that attack, the rallies had been very small, because of high security, Moore said.

However, the Rawalpindi rally was announced beforehand, he observed.

Whoever planned this attack — they had time on their hands to plan everything properly, and you saw the results today, he said.

Between 5,000 and 8,000 were at the Rawalpindi rally, which was held at a parkground, he said. We [the news media] all expected it to be filled … but there were less people there than most of us expected to see, he said. When I talked with a number of people, they said that people were just afraid to come out, for the simple reason that they all remembered what happened in Karachi.

Moore said he himself expected there could be another attack following the Karachi massacre. He said he stayed away from gates at the Rawalpindi parkground, where police were searching people, because he suspected that’s where a bomb would go off.

Moore said it was obvious that Bhutto enjoyed being with her supporters. She was clearly in her element, he said. She just wanted to get close to the people, and obviously whoever was after her — they saw that coming. E-mail to a friend

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U.S. lawmakers who were to meet with Bhutto describe shock

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. lawmakers scheduled to meet Thursday with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf were advised by U.S. officials to leave Pakistan after Bhutto’s assassination.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview from his Islamabad hotel room that he and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, were to dine with Musharraf and meet later in the night with Bhutto.

He said he heard about the attack on Bhutto as he was dressing for the dinner with Musharraf.

Our foreign policy had relied on her presence as a stabilizing force, Specter said, emotionally describing her death as a real, real, real shock.

I knew her personally. … She was … glamorous, beautiful smart, he said. Her loss is a setback. But you have to face what is. And now, without her, we have to regroup.

Bhutto was shot to death Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. She served twice as Pakistan’s prime minister between 1988 and 1996 and had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile October 18 to seek the office again.

After learning that she was dead, Specter, Kennedy and Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, went to Bhutto’s campaign headquarters, and laid flowers there under her photo.

They were crying and they were sobbing, Specter said, describing the people there. It’s a night reminiscent of … Robert Kennedy’s assassination.

Specter described the atmosphere in Islamabad as unsettling, saying he felt apprehensive about being an American there out at night. He said he and Kennedy were cutting short their trip by a day on the advice of the State Department.
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Bhutto’s death heightens democracy concerns

(CNN) — World leaders reacted with shock and condemnation Thursday to the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, some expressing concern about the nation’s democratic process.

The opposition leader died after a suicide bombing at a political rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi ahead of parliamentary elections set for January 8.

President Bush, vacationing at his Texas ranch, condemned the assassination as a cowardly act by murderous extremists. See Bhutto shortly before her death

Bush urged Pakistan to honor Benazir Bhutto’s memory by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life. Watch Bush condemn the killing

In Washington, the State Department also condemned the attack. It shows people are still intent on undermining democracy in Pakistan, said deputy spokesman Tom Casey.

Pakistan — which maintains nuclear weapons — has been a key ally of the United States during its war against al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists in neighboring Afghanistan. Watch mourners crowd around Bhutto’s casket

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had met with Bhutto just hours before her death.

Karzai said Bhutto sacrificed her life for the sake of Pakistan, and for the sake of this region. She had love and desire for peace in Afghanistan, for prosperity in Afghanistan, and for Afghanistan and Pakistan that would be happy, prosperous and have good relations with each other, said the Afghan president.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said he hoped elections would move forward as planned and called Bhutto’s death a national tragedy. Watch Durrani on elections

… we have lost one of our important, very important and, I would stress, liberal leaders, Durrani said.

For months, the Bush administration has been encouraging Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to work out a compromise with his political opponents, including the popular Bhutto. The former prime minister’s party is widely expected to do well in next month’s elections. See timeline

Bhutto’s killing prompted Musharraf to declare three days of national mourning and to call on Pakistanis for solidarity and cooperation. This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war, said Musharraf. I have been saying that the nation faces the greatest threats from these terrorists.

Saying he was deeply shocked, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for restraint and unity in the aftermath of the assassination in the former British colony. Bhutto knew the risks of her return to campaign but was convinced that her country needed her, Miliband said in a statement. Watch UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: ‘It’s a sad day for democracy

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who knew Bhutto personally, expressed vivid emotion following the attack, said a statement from his office.

Kouchner strongly condemned this horrible act and reaffirms France’s commitment to the stability of Pakistan and its democracy, the statement said.

In India, which has long had a thorny relationship with its neighbors in Pakistan, an Indian Congress Party spokesman told the Press Trust of India, … we must express our deep concern at anything that disrupts and disturbs the even keel of democratic governance in Pakistan.

The spokesman, Abhishek Singhvi, said Indian democracy loathes violence, saying it is not only anti-democracy but also generates instability.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in a statement, We hope the Pakistani government will identify and bring to justice those behind such a criminal act and restore tranquility to the country.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry called Bhutto’s death a terror attack.

We strongly condemn this terrorist act, present our condolences to the family and friends of Benazir Bhutto and hope that Pakistani authorities will provide for national stability, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly expressed concern that the Pakistani government must do its best to ensure the maximum stability in the election period and prevent terrorist acts against Benazir Bhutto and other political leaders, said the Kamynin statement.

The rally bombing took place as Bhutto campaigned for a third term as prime minister.

It was the second recent attack on Bhutto after she defied death threats and returned to her homeland from eight years of self-imposed exile. On October 18, a suicide bomber targeted her motorcade in Karachi, killing 136 people. Bhutto was unhurt in the attack.
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