Pakistan to Press Swiss Case Against Zardari

Swiss charges against Bhutto ended with her death.

Pakistan will pursue the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto for 60 million Swiss francs ($54 million) it says the couple hid illegally in Switzerland, its lawyer said on Tuesday.

A hearing is expected to be held in Geneva in late January in the long-running money-laundering case, begun in 1997 against Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, according to Jacques Python, Pakistan's lawyer in the Swiss city.

Zardari, now de facto leader of the Pakistan People's Party, is carrying the Bhutto dynasty's torch after the former prime minister was killed in a gun and bomb attack on Dec. 27 as she left an election rally. Elections have been put off to Feb. 18.

"We remain a civil party in the (criminal) procedure against Mr. Zardari," Python told Reuters. "To our knowledge, 60 million Swiss francs remain frozen in connection with the case."
The amount is four times the $13 million previously referred to as being blocked in connection with alleged kickbacks from Swiss cargo inspection companies. Geneva judicial officials were not available to comment.

"She (Bhutto) appears little in the bank documents. On the other hand, Zardari's name appears as the beneficial owner of most of the accounts that are frozen," Python said.

"The time has come to look at the technical issues so that the frozen funds can be returned to Pakistan."

The couple always denied the charges and Bhutto came to Geneva several times to testify that the case was politically motivated. They were convicted in 2003 of laundering funds worth $13 million and ordered to return that sum to Pakistan.

But the verdict was thrown out on appeal, sparking a fresh probe by a Geneva judge, whose confidential findings last year were contested by lawyers for both Bhutto and Zardari.

The forthcoming hearing in Geneva will decide whether the case returns to the judge for more work or goes to chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli who can drop it or order a trial.
Swiss charges against Bhutto ended with her death.

"She always affirmed that the accounts were not hers and she did not have any access to them," her former Swiss lawyer Alec Reymond said on Tuesday.

DENIES CHARGES

Saverio Lembo, Zardari's lawyer in Geneva, reaffirmed on Tuesday that his client denied the money-laundering charges.

"We requested that the case be sent back to the judge for more investigation, including calling other witnesses," Lembo told Reuters. "My client has never been heard in this case."

Asked whether Zardari might come to Geneva to try to clear his name, he said that his client's health was "very fragile" after 8 years in jail in Pakistan and heart surgery.

President Pervez Musharraf signed an amnesty last October to prepare the way for a power-sharing accord with Bhutto by erasing graft charges against her and Zardari in Pakistan. Pakistan's Supreme Court has yet to rule on the amnesty.

"Corruption cases against Mrs Bhutto and my client have been dropped. No crime has been established in Pakistan," Lembo said. "That makes it difficult to pursue (a case) in Switzerland."

Reuters

Baitullah Denies Hand in Benazir's Assassination

By Mushtaq Yusufzai and Javed Afridi PESHAWAR, Pakistan, 30 December 2007 (The News) -

Commander Baitullah Mehsud, accused of masterminding the attack that killed former PrimeMinister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, has rejected the allegations as baseless.

"We are equally grieved by the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto andextend our sympathies to her family and party workers in this hour ofgrief," said Mr. Omar, a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud and hisTehreek-e-Pakistan [Pakistan Movement], a conglomerate of all the [Pashtun] organisations operating in tribal areas as well as thesettled districts of the NWFP.

Baitullah Mehsud, Ameer or central leader of the recently-formedTehreek-e-Pakistan, was accused by the Interior Ministry SpokesmanBrig. (retd.) Javed Iqbal Cheema of sending the bomber near thevehicle of Benazir Bhutto outside the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. Mr. Omar, who made a call to The News from an undisclosed location, onSaturday said Baitullah Mehsud, while sensing the gravity of theallegations levelled against him, convened an emergency meeting ofTehreek-e-Pakistan [Council] comprising senior commanders at a secretplace somewhere between South and North Waziristan tribal region toclarify his position.

"Why on earth would we kill her [Benazir Bhutto]? We had no enmity with her and more importantly she had done no wrong to us," Mr. Omarsaid while quoting Baitullah Mehsud as telling the [Council] meeting. He said that it was against the teachings of Islam and Shariah, aswell as the centuries old rich traditions of the tribal people, not toharm a woman and added that the [illegal Pervez Musharraf] government allegations against the commander were part of face-saving moves ithad resorted to ever since the incident took place.

"By blaming us for the murder of an important political leader likeBenazir Bhutto, the government is in fact misguiding the world.Planning such actions is simply beyond our imagination," he claimed. "We want to assure the Pakistan People's Party [PPP] leaders and itsworkers that we can't even think of killing their leader. We are withthem in this hour of grief and sorrow," claimed the spokesman.

He alleged that the [unlawful Musharraf] government was attempting toportray the tribal areas as centers of "terrorists" so as to earndollars from, what he termed as, Western masters. "This is why theykeep the tribal belt in continuous grip of violence." Accusing the [Pakistan Army's] secret agencies for the crime, he saidthe modus operandi and precision of the strike revealed that thegruesome act was committed by professional hands.

It may be recalled here that Baitullah Mehsud was also [maliciouslyand illegally] accused of threatening Benazir Bhutto with "suicideattacks" - [by the Musharraf government-controlled Daily Times of Najam Sethi and Salman Taseer(Publisher and Minister for Industries, Production and SpecialInitiatives in the unlawful Caretaker Cabinet of Tyrant Musharraf and Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro)] upon her arrival in[Karachi] Pakistan [on 18 October 2007] - that he later denied.

The commander at that time said he had never thought of such an attackas he knew that it would kill innocent people. Mr. Omar said they had time and again disowned the statementattributed to Baitullah Mehsud regarding the "suicide attacks" on Benazir Bhutto upon her return from abroad, but lamented that certainpeople conveniently ignored the same to promote their interests.

Benazir's Last Moments: Dramatic Footage

The fresh video from Channel4.com of the assassination from the reverse angle to what the government officials had released! It clearly shows the shooter walks up to the car, raise the sidearm and shoot thrice or more times at the back of the head and the head slouches rightwards, not leftwards towards the trapdoor handle as it has been claimed. The head was far below the level of the trapdoor handle to be hurt by it from the left on the temporal lobe. See for yourself.

U.S. Troops to Head to Pakistan

Washington Post: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.

These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the U.S. military and for U.S. Pakistan relations. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the U.S. used Pakistani bases to stage movements into Afghanistan. Yet once the U.S. deposed the Taliban government and established its main operating base at Bagram, north of Kabul, U.S. forces left Pakistan almost entirely. Since then, Pakistan has restricted U.S. involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.

But the Pentagon has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani national forces to control the borders or the frontier area. And Pakistan's political instability has heightened U.S. concern about Islamic extremists there.

According to Pentagon sources, reaching a different agreement with Pakistan became a priority for the new head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. Eric T. Olson. Olson visited Pakistan in August, November and again this month, meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen. Tariq Majid and Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in northwest Pakistan. Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a separate paramilitary force recruited from Pakistan's border tribes.

Now, a new agreement, reported when it was still being negotiated last month, has been finalized. And the first U.S. personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan by early in the new year, according to Pentagon sources.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. William Fallon alluded to the agreement and spoke approvingly of Pakistan's recent counterterrorism efforts in an interview with Voice of America last week.

"What we've seen in the last several months is more of a willingness to use their regular army units," along the Afghan border, Fallon said. "And this is where, I think, we can help a lot from the U.S. in providing the kind of training and assistance and mentoring based on our experience with insurgencies recently and with the terrorist problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we share a lot with them, and we'll look forward to doing that."

If Pakistan actually follows through, perhaps 2008 will be a better year.

Bhutto Blamed Musharraf for Lack of Security

In an e-mail she sent two months ago that was to be made public in the event of her death, Benazir Bhutto blames Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the nation's Intelligence Service for a lack of security and her ultimate death.

The recipient of that e-mail, Mark Siegel, had been helping her to write a book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West, to be released in 2008. He was a business associate and friend who had known Bhutto for 25 years.

Siegel says Bhutto had asked for an investigation into an assassination attempt in October, when she returned to Pakistan, but was rebuffed. She and her husband also had sought increased security measures — none of which the government would provide.