Video footage shows a man firing at Bhutto

Published 9:31 pm Monday, December 31, 2007

WASHINGTON — The United States provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her before the former Pakistani prime minister was assassinated and advised her aides on how to boost security, although key suggestions appear to have gone unheeded, U.S. officials said Monday.

And in Pakistan, new video of the attack and an inconclusive medical report raised new doubts about the official explanation of her death Thursday.

Senior U.S. diplomats had multiple conversations, including at least two private face-to-face meetings, with top members of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party to discuss threats on the Pakistani opposition leader’s life and review her security arrangements after a suicide bombing marred her initial return to Pakistan from exile in October, officials said.

The intelligence was also shared with the Pakistani government, the officials said.

Much of what was passed on dealt with general threats from Taliban extremists and al-Qaida sympathizers and “was not actionable information.”

The officials said Bhutto and her aides were concerned, particularly after the October attack, but were adamant that in the absence of a specific and credible threat there would be few, if any, changes to her campaign schedule ahead of parliamentary elections.

“She knew people were trying to assassinate her,” said an intelligence official, who added that while the U.S. could share the information, “it’s up to (the recipient) how they want to take action.”

“We gave them a steady stream of intelligence,” one official said.

U.S. diplomats recommended as many as five reputable local Pakistani and regional firms that could be contracted to supplement Bhutto’s security and urged the party to limit the size, scope and type of her public appearances, upgrade armoring on vehicles in which she might travel and require her to wear protective clothing, the officials said.

However, there was no indication that Bhutto’s team — including her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who attended at least one of the meetings — had followed through on the most critical of the recommendations, including the hiring of private guards and reducing her visibility in large crowds like the one in Rawalpindi where she was killed.

Cause of death disputed

New video footage shows a man firing a pistol at Bhutto from just feet away as she poked her head out of the sunroof to greet a swarm of supporters. Her hair and shawl then jerked upward and she fell into the vehicle just before an explosion — apparently detonated by a second man — rocked the car.

No police were seen trying to push the crowd away.

Bhutto’s aides, including one who rushed her to the hospital, said they were certain she was shot and the video appeared to bolster that claim. She was buried Friday without an autopsy.

The government, citing a report from doctors at the hospital where she died, said she was not hit by bullets but killed when the force of the blast slammed her head into a lever on the sunroof.

However, a copy of the medical report sent to reporters said the doctors had made no determination about whether she was shot or not. It gave the cause of death as “open head injury with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest.”

The report, signed by seven doctors at the hospital, said no surrounding wounds or blackening were seen around Bhutto’s head wound. “No foreign body was felt in the wound. Wound was not further explored,” said the report, released by Athar Minallah, a prominent opposition lawyer who is a member of the hospital board.

Bhutto’s husband said Sunday he had refused an autopsy because he did not trust President Pervez Musharraf’s government to carry out a credible investigation. He also rejected the government’s account about his wife’s death as “lies.”

The Bush administration has quietly joined calls for Pakistan to allow international experts to join the probe into Bhutto’s slaying. U.S. officials said they expected an announcement soon that investigators from Britain’s Scotland Yard would be asked to play a significant role.

Election delay likely

Meanwhile, parliamentary elections in Pakistan are set to be postponed by several weeks despite opposition demands they go ahead as planned on Jan. 8, Pakistani government officials said Monday.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, now the country’s most prominent opposition leader, threatened street protests if the vote is delayed. “We will agitate,” he said. “We will not accept this postponement.”

Western governments are urging the government to go ahead with the polls without major delays. They see the elections as a key step in U.S.-backed plans to restore democracy to the nation as it battles Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the government should set a specific date for new elections, but he said the timing was “up to the people of Pakistan.”