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Book: Mush linked Bhutto’s security to her ties with
him
Gen a liar, says AQ Khan’s wife
No relief for Charles Sobhraj
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Toronto Blasts
UN again fails to agree on ceasefire
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Book: Mush linked Bhutto’s security to her ties with
him
President General Pervez Musharraf linked slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's security to her ties with him, turned down her bid to acquire private foreign security team, while his main support US Vice-President Dick Cheney opposed Bhutto's return to Pakistan, a new book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Ron Suskind has revealed.
The book further says the US intelligence agencies taped Bhutto's phone calls, prior to her arrival in Pakistan, in a bid to "play under-the-table, cut-throat games more effectively". "The Way of the World", authored by Ron Suskind, is full of disclosures, with its fair portion about Musharraf-Benazir conversation, including Musharraf's quote "You should understand something, your security is based on the state of our relationship". When Bhutto was assassinated on December 27 last year, she was unprotected and a van containing a small band of policemen, untrained in anti-terrorism techniques, had already left the scene of murder. Suskind writes that Bhutto's case of returning to Pakistan was strongly backed by Condoleezza Rice-led state department and equally opposed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, who considered Bhutto "complicated and unpredictable". The book also discloses details of Bhutto's meeting with US senator John Kerry, requesting for her security and his reply that "the US is generally hesitant to ensure the protection of anyone, who is not a designated leader”. The book said whenever Bhutto went harsh on Musharraf, the US ambassador in Islamabad advised her to "tone down any criticism of Musharraf". The author said Bhutto often regretted that Vice-President Cheney never called Musharraf asking him to "behave" and instead kept her pressing for coming to terms with him. The book reveals the US intelligence once intercepted Bhutto's conversation with her son, Bilawal. "They've been listening to her calls for months, including an earlier call, she made to her son." In that call, the book said, she told him about the secret bank accounts that hold the family's fortunes that investigators have long suspected were ill-gotten. Therefore, when Bhutto once floated the idea of freezing the foreign accounts of "key people around Musharraf", a US official let her understand that the US could, if need be, "constrain her assets" just as she was now suggesting they do to Musharraf. According to the author, Bhutto's representative started approaching the State Department, in spring 2006 to work out a plan for her return, but the White House began taking her seriously after the widespread demonstrations in backdrop sacking of the chief justice. US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was more cordial with Bhutto. On the eve of Bhutto's return to Pakistan, Rice and Bhutto talked several times, ironing out some sticking points with Musharraf.
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Gen a liar, says AQ Khan’s wife
In an account to be published in SPIEGEL on Monday, the wife of Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan, accused of running a global nuclear weapons bazaar, alleged that President Pervez Musharraf had lied about her husband's role in the country's nuclear programme. She claimed that her husband had only carried out government orders. Khan's wife lodged serious accusations against Musharraf. She claimed that her husband, now under house arrest, was not a nuclear dealer, adding that a trip to North Korea was carried out "at the specific request" of Musharraf. In his 2006 memoir, Musharraf had denied any prior knowledge of AQ Khan's alleged nuclear network. "On the basis of the thorough probe that we conducted in 2003-2004, I can say with confidence that neither the Pakistan Army nor any of the past governments of Pakistan were involved or had any knowledge of Khan's proliferation activities. The show was completely Khan's," Musharraf had written. Hendrina Khan argued, "It is too late (for the government) to 'confess'. The consequences for the country would be too drastic, especially for the Americans who have been supporting Musharraf through thick and thin."
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No relief for Charles Sobhraj
Kathmandu, August 10 A joint Bench of justices Min Bahadur Raymajhi and Kalyan Shrestha today heard the appeal of Sobhraj against the verdict of the Kathmandu District Court, which had sentenced him to life imprisonment in July 2004, on charges of murdering the American tourist. However, the top court did not give any verdict and the hearing on the case has been continued, a court official said. He said the hearing could not be completed today as there was another important case pending in the court for immediate attention. Nicknamed the ‘Bikini killer’ and ‘Serpent’ Sobhraj has been accused of luring young women and killing many of them. The 64-year-old celebrity criminal, who has been splashed in the international media recently for his “engagement” to a Nepali girl Nihita Bishwas, was arrested from a Kathmandu casino in September 2003. Sobhraj’s fiancé was present in the court during the one-and-half-hour-long hearing. Sobhraj, who has pleaded innocence, was brought to the court amid tight security, with large number of mediapersons keeping an eye on the hearing. —
PTI
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Toronto Blasts
Toronto, August 10 With a number of fires still burning at the round-the-clock facility, the police asked people within a mile (1.6-km) radius to leave their homes, fearful that two railcars of propane could still explode. Amateur videos showed an orange glow that rapidly grew into a fireball and then into billowing clouds of flames and smoke. ''Big balls of fire were falling down,'' resident Tony Testa told CP-24 Television. ''I thought I was going to die. It was unbelievable. The house shifted. The front door — it's a solid wooden door — it's in pieces.'' Fire officials said they were focusing on ensuring the two railcars of propane were kept cool and vented. ''We are asking people to leave their homes,'' police official Neil Corrigan told a press conference. ''We are asking people to take medication, take any pets you may have in your home -- anything that you require for today.'' He said thousands of people, some of them elderly, lived in the area northwest of the city center. The explosions rattled windows well away from the scene and closed a 10-mile (16-km) stretch of one of Canada's busiest highways, the 401 expressway. A fire official said homes in the area were damaged but it was not the worst post-explosion damage he had seen. ''I had furniture move across the room,'' one witness told CP-24.The whole building shook.'' —
Reuters
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UN again fails to agree on ceasefire
United Nations, August 10 The 15-member council met for the third time in 36 hours last night over the escalating Russia-Georgia conflict, but was paralysed by differences among key members with its diplomats saying it looks impossible that it could take any action or even call for ceasefire at this point of time. Diplomats trying to draft a presidential statement calling for ceasefire were presumably continuing their labour despite their failure last night. The Council meeting itself came amidst reports that US officials have made it clear that Washington would not intervene militarily in the conflict with diplomats saying that Moscow is sending a clear message that it would not tolerate interference by any other power in its backyard. That was the message Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave when he went straight from Beijing to an area neighbouring South Ossetia, analysts say. The New York Times quoted chief executive of geopolitical analysis and intelligence body Stratfor George Friedman as saying that what Russian did is, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have taken a decisive military action. — PTI
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President General Pervez Musharraf linked slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's security to her ties with him, turned down her bid to acquire private foreign security team, while his main support US Vice-President Dick Cheney opposed Bhutto's return to Pakistan, a new book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Ron Suskind has revealed.
