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Bhutto sent Blitzer security e-mail.
About this event: Let's Share Our Differences
Related to country: Pakistan

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Bhutto sent Blitzer security e-mail, It was a story CNN's Wolf Blitzer hoped he'd never have to report — an e-mail sent to him through an intermediary by Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto complaining about her security. Conditions of use: only if she were killed.

Bhutto, who was assassinated on Thursday, wrote to Blitzer that if anything happened to her, "I would hold (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf responsible."

Blitzer received the e-mail on Oct. 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and longtime Washington spokesman for Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped another attempt at her life.

Bhutto wrote to Blitzer that "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 Pakistani leader was responsible.

Blitzer agreed to the conditions before receiving the e-mail. He said 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 couldn't say why she had insisted on those conditions.

Blitzer reported on the e-mail late Thursday.

He noted that 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."

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

Siegel said he did not believe 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 traveling; Siegel said it seemed evident from pictures taken at the assassination scene that the request wasn't fulfilled.

Bhutto did not necessarily believe that 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.

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."


December 28, 2007 | 5:02 PM Comments  0 comments

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War 'impossible'.
About this event: African And Arab Regional Conference On Electronic Transaction Security, Digital Signature And PKI
Related to country: Egypt

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

2007: A strange year for Iran,One moment, US President George W Bush was warning of the danger of World War III because of Iran's nuclear programme.
In the next, peace was breaking out. It's been a strange year for Iran.

For much of the year the pressure was building inexorably, as Iran refused to compromise over its programme to enrich uranium - a programme the West fears could be used to produce a nuclear bomb.

New sanctions looked inevitable and war was beginning to look like a possibility.

All that changed overnight with the release early in December of a new intelligence assessment in Washington which declared that Iran was not, after all, trying to build a bomb.

War 'impossible'

"It is quite amazing for you to wake up in the morning, and then all the accusations that have been stated against your country day and night, suddenly they have been withdrawn," said Saeed Mohamed Marandi, head of North American Studies at the University of Tehran.


President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in particularly good humour when he met the media a few days after the report was released.

When one reporter asked whether there was a danger of war, the president almost laughed it off.

"What do you think?" he asked the reporter.

"Personally I don't believe it," replied the reporter.

"Well, I agree," the president joked.

Indeed, most observers believe this new intelligence assessment makes war almost impossible, even though Iran is continuing to develop centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Mr Ahmadinejad immediately declared it a great victory for Iran. But politically, it is a double-edged sword for the president.

His government faces crucial parliamentary elections in March and his critics have come out in force.



Now Iran is the only country in the world [where] the interest it is paying is higher than the interest it is receiving. So, this never happened in the world
Hussein Abdoh
Former head of Tehran stock exchange

Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator who may head the anti-Ahmadinejad list for parliament, witheringly declared that the president's foreign policy was little more than "letter-writing and slogans".

He said Iran's power in the world had been reduced by financial sanctions, not increased as the president likes to claim.

The former president Mohammad Khatami attacked the government's programme of "economic justice" and also hinted at support for university students who have been imprisoned by the authorities for leading protests.

Without the threat of war, Mr Ahmadinejad's strategy of calling all opponents "traitors" does not quite have the same force.

'Mayhem at the pumps'


Even the head of the Central Bank has criticised the way the government underestimates the spiralling rate of inflation, which most people believe has now risen to at least 25%.


There are certainly plenty of critics of the president's economic policies.

"Now Iran is the only country in the world [where] the interest it is paying is higher than the interest it is receiving. So, this never happened in the world," said Hussein Abdoh, former head of the Tehran stock exchange.

"In my opinion that policy is taking from the poor and giving it to the rich."

In June, there was mayhem at the pumps after the government introduced petrol rationing.

This, in the country with the world's largest combined reserves of oil and gas.

So Mr Ahmadinejad is paying the price for his own mismanagement, sanctions on the oil industry, the banking sector and years of neglect of the economy.

But don't count him out quite yet.

Crisis or controversy

Earlier in the year I visited the annual Saffron festival in eastern Iran.


They grow more than 90% of the world's saffron here.

The president has increased saffron prices and pumped money into the villages.

Local people who are enjoying having telephones and running water for the first time still like him, and his brand of religious conservatism has plenty of supporters outside Tehran.

The president himself obviously loves being on the world stage, ideally in crisis or controversy. And he has had plenty of both during 2007.

There was the capture of 15 British sailors and marines in March in the northern Gulf between Iraqi and Iranian waters.

The episode ended with an air of absurdity, after the 14 servicemen and one woman were released, flying to freedom in new suits complete with goodie bags that were "gifts" from the Iranian people.

Even stranger was the president's declaration, during his appearance at Columbia University in New York, that Iran didn't have gays like they did in the United States.

And the president had to sit through a remarkable attack by the head of the university, Lee Bollinger.

"We at this university do not shy to challenge the failures of our own government, and we won't be shy about criticising yours," declared Mr Bollinger. "You exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

Surprises in store

But during his speech to the UN General Assembly, Mr Ahmadinejad was able to expand on a theme that has won him much support in the Arab, Muslim and developing world.

He aspires for himself and Iran to be a leader of anti-Americanism in the world and an opponent, for want of a better word, of globalisation.

It is a stand which has helped put pro-western governments in the Middle East under increased pressure.

Mr Ahmadinejad is enjoying his reputation as champion of the world's underdogs.

Will there be more surprises in 2008?

Could Mr Ahmadinejad be the man to lead a reconciliation with the United States some three decades after the Islamic revolution?

It certainly seems unlikely. But then Iran has shown in 2007 that it's a country that never fails to surprise.