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2011年7月6日星期三

Pakistan’s Spies Tied to Slaying of a Journalist

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New classified intelligence obtained before the May 29 disappearance of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, 40, from the capital, Islamabad, and after the discovery of his mortally wounded body, showed that senior officials of the spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, directed the attack on him in an effort to silence criticism, two senior administration officials said.

The intelligence, which several administration officials said they believed was reliable and conclusive, showed that the actions of the ISI, as it is known, were “barbaric and unacceptable,” one of the officials said. They would not disclose further details about the intelligence.

But the disclosure of the information in itself could further aggravate the badly fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan, which worsened significantly with the American commando raid two months ago that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistan safehouse and deeply embarrassed the Pakistani government, military and intelligence hierarchy. Obama administration officials will deliberate in the coming days how to present the information about Mr. Shahzad to the Pakistani government, an administration official said.

The disclosure of the intelligence was made in answer to questions about the possibility of its existence, and was reluctantly confirmed by the two officials. “There is a lot of high-level concern about the murder; no one is too busy not to look at this,” said one.

A third senior American official said there was enough other intelligence and indicators immediately after Mr. Shahzad’s death for the Americans to conclude that the ISI had ordered him killed.

“Every indication is that this was a deliberate, targeted killing that was most likely meant to send shock waves through Pakistan’s journalist community and civil society,” said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the information.

A spokesman for the Pakistan intelligence agency said in Islamabad on Monday night that “I am not commenting on this.” George Little, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency, declined to comment.

In a statement the day after Mr. Shahzad’s waterlogged body was retrieved from a canal 60 miles from Islamabad, the ISI publicly denied accusations in the Pakistani news media that it had been responsible, calling them “totally unfounded.”

The ISI said the journalist’s death was “unfortunate and tragic,” and should not be “used to target and malign the country’s security agency.”

The killing of Mr. Shahzad, a contributor to the Web site Asia Times Online, aroused an immediate furor in the freewheeling news media in Pakistan.

Mr. Shahzad was the 37th journalist killed in Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Pakistan’s civilian government, under pressure from the media, established a commission headed by a Supreme Court justice to investigate Mr. Shahzad’s death. The findings are scheduled to be released early next month.

Mr. Shahzad suffered 17 lacerated wounds delivered by a blunt instrument, a ruptured liver and two broken ribs, said Dr. Mohammed Farrukh Kamal, one of the three physicians who conducted the post-mortem.

The anger over Mr. Shahzad’s death followed unprecedented questioning in the media about the professionalism of the army and the ISI, a military-controlled spy agency, in the aftermath of the Bin Laden raid.

Since that initial volley of questioning, the ISI has mounted a steady counter-campaign. Senior ISI officials have called and visited journalists, warning them to douse their criticisms and rally around the theme of a united country, according to three journalists who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

Mr. Shahzad, who wrote articles over the last several years that illuminated the relationship between the militants and the military, was abducted from the capital three days after publication of his article that said Al Qaeda was responsible for an audacious 16-hour commando attack on Pakistan’s main naval base in Karachi on May 22.

The attack was a reprisal for the navy’s arresting up to 10 naval personnel who had belonged to a Qaeda cell, Mr. Shahzad said.

The article, published by Asia Times Online, detailed how the attackers were guided by maps and logistical information provided from personnel inside the base.

Particularly embarrassing for the military, Mr. Shahzad described negotiations before the raid between the navy and a Qaeda representative, Abdul Samad Mansoor. The navy refused to release the detainees, Mr. Shahzad wrote. The Pakistani military maintains that it does not negotiate with militants.

Jane Perlez reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Eric Schmitt from Washington. Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington.

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Vacationing Myanmar Democracy Leader Draws Crowds

BAGAN, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was supposed to be on a private tour of the temple city of Bagan, but she drew crowds Tuesday in a test of the government's tolerance after it warned her against political appearances.

Suu Kyi, in her first trip out of the main city of Yangon since she was released from house arrest in November, was visiting the ancient city with her youngest son.

"I am very happy. This is my first vacation with my son in twenty years," Suu Kyi told reporters after praying at one of Bagan's famous temples. "I never have enough sleep at home but now I want to sleep all the time. I have time to rest."

However, she and son Kim were mobbed by a small crowd of local residents and shadowed by dozens of plainclothes police during the second day of her visit.

The police made no moves to break up the gatherings.

Suu Kyi has said she will soon travel around the country to meet her political supporters, drawing a warning in the state-controlled press that she could cause chaos.

Suu Kyi drew large crowds when she last made a trip to the countryside in 2003, and her popularity badly rattled the then-military government. Supporters of the junta ambushed her entourage as it toured northern Myanmar, killing several of her followers. She escaped but was detained. There were suspicions that the attack was organized by the army, which denied involvement.

Suu Kyi often faced problems in the past when she traveled outside Yangon — where she lives and her National League for Democracy is headquartered — with the government stopping her motorcades.

Although her reception in Bagan was relatively modest, with perhaps 100 to 200 supporters and the curious turning out to see her at various stops, the area is loosely populated and publicity over Suu Kyi's plans has been low-key.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the U.S. hopes that Suu Kyi's ability to travel and meet with supporters after her freedom from house arrest is a "harbinger of better things" in Myanmar.

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Explosion in Iraq Draws Victims for a Second Blast

BAGHDAD — First, at midday, a truck exploded near a municipal building in Taji, north of the Iraqi capital. As people rushed to help the injured, a second, larger explosion struck. Nearly three dozen were killed, and many more wounded.

In the afternoon at a nearby hospital in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya, a macabre scene unfolded, as women cried and shouted over the bodies of their husbands and sons, and the wounded, bloody and covered in dust, sought care. A list of the dead and wounded adorned a wall; the youngest victim was 3 years old.

“Why am I still alive?” moaned Hesham Hasoon, 23, sitting on the floor. “My brothers, friends, everyone left me.”

Mr. Hasoon, who works at a light bulb factory, said two of his brothers were killed.

“When the first explosion happened, I saw the people and the kids start to gather near the car bomb and I knew something else would happen,” he said. “I called on the stupid soldier to evacuate the place, but he didn’t care.”

Some witnesses said a third attack came from a suicide bomber, although this was not verified by an official at the Interior Ministry.

But at the hospital, two police vehicles arrived, one carrying four charred bodies, the other the ashen hulk of the truck and a severed head that one officer said was that of a suicide bomber.

As is usual in the aftermath of such attacks, precise casualty figures were hard to come by. The list at the hospital showed 32 dead and 61 wounded. The Interior Ministry official said that 35 were killed and 28 wounded. The Associated Press reported 35 killed and 47 wounded.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was in the same style as similar strikes by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which frequently singles out the infrastructure of the state — whether it be government buildings, police stations, army barracks or security forces on patrol.

“Our district is mixed with Shiites and Sunnis, and we haven’t witnessed any sectarian problems, but we know Al Qaeda is active and we are always afraid of them,” said Ali Shakir, 40, a member of the local council who was in the area when the attack occurred but was uninjured.

Large-scale attacks in the capital that take aim at civilians had abated compared with previous years, but Tuesday’s bombings came less than two weeks after three explosions tore through a public market, killing at least 21 people.

As the final months for the American military presence here approach — all troops are scheduled to be out by the end of the year barring a request from the Iraqi government to extend the deadline — the layered attack on Tuesday highlighted the fragile state of security here, even eight years after the American invasion.

As Sunni insurgent groups, like the Qaeda affiliate, continue attacks against the government and civilians, Shiite militant groups — including the Promised Day Brigade, which is linked to the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr — have stepped up attacks against American troops. In June, 14 American soldiers were killed by enemy attacks, the most since 2008.

On Monday night, a rocket fired at the Green Zone in Baghdad struck near Al Rasheed Hotel, killing three people, according to the Interior Ministry official.

Meanwhile, perhaps the biggest security threat in the heavily fortified capital has been assassinations of government officials and military officers, many dozens of whom have been killed this year by pistols with silencers.

As the violence persists, the country’s troubles are compounded by political stalemate.

In December, two politicians, Ayad Allawi, the leader of the Iraqiya bloc, and the country’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, entered into an American-backed power-sharing agreement. But since then, the men have been unable to agree on who should run the Interior and Defense Ministries, the government’s two most important departments.

The United States has been unable to end the stalemate, demonstrating to some analysts and Iraqis its waning influence here.

“The insurgents are taking advantage of this,” Iskandar Jawad, a member of Parliament’s security committee, said in an interview.

Duraid Adnan contributed reporting.

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Japan’s Reconstruction Minister Resigns Over Verbal Gaffes

The reconstruction minister, Ryu Matsumoto, was forced to step down after offending local officials during a visit to the northern areas of Japan that bore the brunt of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Mr. Matsumoto, who assumed the post just last week, angered local governors by confessing his ignorance of local geography, and then showing irritation when one local governor made him wait in a reception room.

The final straw appeared to come when he demanded that disaster-struck local areas play a role in leading their own reconstruction. This is a political no-no in a nation where rural regions enjoy disproportionate voting power, and are used to being coddled by a financially generous central government.

“We will try to help those places that come up with ideas to help themselves, but not those that don’t,” Mr. Matsumoto told the governor of Iwate Prefecture on Sunday.

The comments were front-page news on Tuesday in Japanese newspapers, which criticized Mr. Matsumoto, a relative newcomer who held his first cabinet job last fall, for insensitivity toward regions where some 22,500 are dead or missing. They were also seized upon by the opposition, which jumped on another chance to accuse Mr. Kan of weak and clumsy leadership in handling the disaster.

“His remarks were out of the ordinary and awful,” said Ichiro Aisawa of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

Later Tuesday, Mr. Kan appointed Tatsuo Hirano, a senior vice minister for national policy and another relative newcomer to the cabinet, as the new reconstruction minister.

The resignation comes as Mr. Kan struggles to pass a series of earthquake- and energy-related bills that he says are needed for Japan to recover from the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Facing intense public criticism for his handling of the triple disaster, Mr. Kan has promised to step down once the bills are passed, effectively making himself a lame duck.

On Tuesday, his cabinet agreed on a supplementary budget bill for 2 trillion yen, or $24.7 billion, in spending for reconstruction, compensation to displaced residents and health checkups for those who lived near the Fukushima plant. The government will submit the bill to Parliament in hopes of winning passage by the end of the month.

However, passage would require cooperation from the opposition, which has seized on Mr. Kan’s weakness as a chance to push a general election and possibly regain power. Despite public distaste for political maneuvering during a national crisis, the opposition apparently sees an irresistible opportunity as Mr. Kan’s approval ratings have dropped into the 20 percent range in recent polls.

Mr. Matsumoto at first tried to control the damage by apologizing for the remarks, which he made during his first visit to the tsunami-ravaged northeast since assuming his newly created post.

In one exchange that was vividly recounted in local newspapers, Mr. Matsumoto fumed in front of reporters as he waited in a reception room for the governor of Miyagi Prefecture, Yoshihiro Murai. When Mr. Murai finally came, Mr. Matsumoto refused to shake his hand, and instead scolded him: “When a guest comes, you have to be present.”

“Instead of speaking in a tone of command, it would be better to respect each other’s positions,” Mr. Murai told reporters on Monday.

In a separate meeting, Mr. Matsumoto apparently stunned the Iwate governor, Takuya Tasso, by confessing he did not know the geography of the region that he was supposed to be helping.

“I’m from Kyushu, so I don’t know which city is in which prefecture,” he reportedly said, referring to Japan’s southernmost main island, hundreds of miles from the devastated northeast coast.

To the end, Mr. Matsumoto denied that the remarks were out of line.

“I feel sorry if my remarks hurt the feelings of earthquake victims,” Mr. Matsumoto told reporters. “But if you check what I said, I believe they require no explanation.”

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Acquittals of Ex-Officials Feed Anger Across Egypt

The acquittals were seen as especially provocative because they followed by one day a separate Cairo court decision to release on bail seven police officers charged with killing 17 protesters and wounding 350 in the city of Suez during the revolution. That decision set off a riot at the courthouse and led protesters to block a major highway for hours.

The decisions have aggravated growing anger at the military council now running the country. It has faced mounting criticism from protesters who say it is too slow to prosecute former officials, yet has moved quickly and aggressively to prosecute hundreds of civilians before military courts in connection with pro-democracy activities.

“People see more and more that nothing is changing,” said Lilian Wagdy, who is helping to organize a large protest in Tahrir Square on Friday. “Those who have been robbing this country for 30 years get acquitted, while protesters are found guilty before military courts.”

Egyptian officials have increasingly struggled to contain deep public anger and frustration. Those demanding political change are angry over alleged rights violations and unsatisfactory trials. Others are fed up with the post-revolutionary uncertainty and crippled economy. Their sentiments often erupt in violence, sometimes pitting policemen against protesters, and civilians against civilians.

A coalition of human rights groups sued the military council on Tuesday on behalf of a woman they said was tried before a military court in March, tortured and forced to submit to a “virginity test” within view and earshot of military prison workers.

Violence has also continued in the capital. On Saturday, 47 people were injured when protesters in Tahrir Square clashed with tea vendors they accused of being agents planted by the police.

So far, only one police officer has been convicted, in absentia, of killing protesters. The former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, was sentenced in May on corruption charges, but his trial over protester deaths was postponed. The former president, Hosni Mubarak, has also been charged in the deaths of protesters and is scheduled to have his first day in court Aug. 3.

“People, especially families of martyrs, have had enough,” said Sarah Abdelrahman, an activist, referring to those killed in the uprising. “The more people continue to stall, the angrier people are getting.”

Tuesday’s acquittals involved a former finance minister, Yousef Boutros-Ghali, and a former information minister, Anas el-Feqy, over charges of misusing about $6 million in public funds on parliamentary and political campaigns. Mr. Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of the former United Nations secretary general Boutros?Boutros-Ghali, has been abroad since February and was earlier sentenced to 30 years in absentia for misuse of office equipment. Mr. Feqy remained in prison on other charges.

The third official, Ahmed el-Maghraby, was found not guilty of profiteering from an improper sale of state-owned land when he was housing minister. He maintained throughout the trial that it happened before he took office.

In a fourth, separate case, the court convicted a former minister of trade and industry, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, of profiteering and the misuse of public funds totaling more than $2 million. He was also tried in absentia. Mr. Rachid, who was visiting Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, when the revolution began and has stayed there since, insisted on his innocence.

During President Mubarak’s last years in power, he appointed a government that had the unpopular task of redesigning the economy, and often was the focus of public ire. Mr. Rachid championed Egypt’s economic liberalization, which was marked by high growth rates but also a yawning gap between rich and poor. Mr. Boutros-Ghali, the former finance minister, also promoted that effort. Mr. Feqy, the chief propagandist and a friend of the Mubarak family, aggressively defended the regime on state-run media during the uprising.

“There is no doubt in the minds of most people in Egypt that these guys are guilty of something,” said Samer Shehata, a professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University.

Mr. Maghraby’s acquittal has been met with some surprise. The Housing Ministry was long seen as a clearinghouse for the illicit sale of publicly owned land through sweetheart deals, and Mr. Maghraby, already convicted in May over a separate land deal, is the subject of seven corruption investigations, said his lawyer, Hussein Abdelsalam el-Feki.

“Anyone who knows anything about Egyptian politics knows that the Housing Ministry is the center of corruption in Egyptian politics,” said Mr. Shehata, who called illicit land sales under the Mubarak government “the rule, not the exception.”

Mr. Feki said he expected the government to appeal the acquittals and accused prosecutors of “trying to appease sentiments in Tahrir.”

“It is typical that the general prosecutor’s office is trying to appease the feelings on the street,” he said. “It is difficult for them to deal with the acquittal, even if the men are innocent, because they are on a witch hunt.”

Dina Salah Amer and Lara el-Gibaly contributed reporting.

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Nearly 200 Migrants Feared Drowned Off Sudan as Boat Burns

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Nearly 200 African migrants were feared drowned on Tuesday after a boat carrying them to Saudi Arabia caught fire off Sudan’s northeastern coast, a semiofficial news agency reported.

Three people were rescued, the news agency, the Sudan Media Center, reported. The boat had departed from Red Sea State, one of Sudan’s 26 states, and sailed for four hours in Sudanese territorial waters before the fire broke out, the news agency said.

The local authorities were still searching for possible survivors, it said. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The news agency said that the effort to smuggle the illegal migrants into Saudi Arabia was planned in Port Sudan, which is a main port in Sudan and the capital of Red Sea State. The boat sank south of Sawaken, which is at the south tip of Red Sea State, the agency reported.

The report said the owners of the boat, all Yemenis, had been arrested.

Human trafficking is rife in Sudan as smugglers use locally manufactured boats and take advantage of lawless areas in the conflict-ridden country.

There have been several other instances of illegal migrants drowning off the coast of Sudan on their way to nearby countries in the past. Thousands of African migrants, especially Eritreans and Ethiopians, risk the dangerous routes to escape conflicts in their countries and to seek better lives in oil-rich states in North Africa and the Middle East.

In early June, a ship carrying about 850 migrants fleeing the conflict in Libya capsized off Tunisia, and 150 of the passengers drowned.

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Brawl Erupts During Impeachment Talks in Afghan Parliament

The dispute centers on the legality of a special court set up by President Karzai to adjudicate allegations of fraud by candidates who lost their seats or were disqualified in last September’s parliamentary elections. Two weeks ago the special court ruled that 62 members of the current Parliament should be replaced by those who brought challenges, many of whom are allies of the president.

Neither the country’s election authorities nor the international community have recognized the court’s authority, and the prospect of now having to give up their seats has enraged a large bloc of the current 249-seat Parliament. All of the legislators have already been sworn in.

The fight between the Parliament and Mr. Karzai has halted the normal workings of government. Nine months after the election, the president has yet to introduce a transitional government — or to submit proposed legislation for review. He has been ruling by decree and by allowing a number of acting ministers and acting Supreme Court justices to remain in charge.

The result is a situation in which the majority of the Parliament does not trust the president; he has lost trust in them as well as they have become more hostile and estranged.

In clips of the session broadcast on the Afghan Tolo Television Network, most members of Parliament appeared to be present Tuesday as the impeachment discussion got under way with much shouting and banging on desks. “The president is sick,” said Mohammed Shafiq Shahir, a member of Parliament from Herat.

He was drowned out by one of Mr. Karzai’s defenders, a member of Parliament from Kandahar, Abdul Rahim Ayoubi. There was no substitute for the president, he argued. “Do we have an alternative for the president, do we have the knowledge and wisdom of running the country ourselves?” he asked. “Why should we sacrifice the achievements gained by the blood and money and sacrifice of the international community and sacrifice it in favor of 62 fraudulent Parliament members?”

The Afghan Constitution provides for the impeachment of the president under Article 69, which says that crimes against humanity, national treason or other crimes can be grounds for the chief executive’s removal.

Soon after Mr. Ayoubi spoke, Hamida Ahmadzai, who represents the Kuchis, a Pashtun minority, expressed her support of the president’s position. She had previously been part of a coalition of Parliament members who had agreed to stand together against the special court.

Her switch in position infuriated Nazifa Zaki, a former police general and representative from Kabul. She reached under her desk, removed her shoe and hurled it at Ms. Ahmadzai, according to another Parliament member who was there. “Your support is wrong; you may have taken money to support bad people and you are taking the wrong road!” Ms. Zaki shouted.

Ms. Ahmadzai took the only weapon she had to hand — a bottle of water — and threw it at Ms. Zaki, who rushed at her and began punching her; Ms. Ahmadzai managed only one or two punches in return before the two were separated.

By then legislators were swarming around them, still yelling.

The scene might appear to be merely political opera, but the situation has reached a point where it is difficult to see a way out that would be acceptable both to the members of Parliament and Mr. Karzai.

The majority of Parliament members, 200 out of 249, according to Fatima Aziz, a Parliament member from Kunduz, have decided to stick together, putting the president in the position of having to take an extreme step if he wants to force them to comply: either dissolve the Parliament or order their arrest — either of which could turn violent. Senior government officials have unsuccessfully tried to divide the anti-president bloc, according to several Parliament members.

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