Musharraf: Bhutto Knew Of Risks

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, leads a country in crisis ten days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan is the only Islamic country with nuclear bombs, a place where the influence of the Taliban and al Qaeda is growing.

The Bush administration hopes Musharraf can save his country, but he's the man many Pakistanis blame for its crisis. Was he responsible for the assassination, as many Pakistanis believe? Did his government fail to provide adequate protection? Or did Benazir Bhutto take unnecessary risks?

Lara Logan asked these questions of President Musharraf on Saturday in Islamabad, his first interview since the Bhutto assassination.

"So it was just a matter of time, do you think?" Logan asks.

"It's your luck," Musharraf replies. "There's no real protection against a suicide bomber really."

Benazir Bhutto's luck ran out on December 27th. She was leaving a campaign rally in her bid to become prime minister for the third time. Bhutto was waving and smiling from her vehicle as excited supporters swarmed around her.

Gunshots rang out. Then, moments later, a suicide bomber blew himself up. In less than two hours, the announcement came that Bhutto was dead.

"That came as an utter shock. It came as an utter shock," Musharraf remembers.

Asked what the first thing was that went through his mind when he heard the news, Musharraf tells Logan, "Well, I knew there was going to be a disturbance in the country and I immediately told the army commander and told everyone to alert everyone, and we must take immediate measures to control any kind of agitation, any kind of emotional outburst."

The moment word of Bhutto's death hit the streets, riots broke out; much of the rage was directed at President Musharraf, her main political rival.

"By the time of her assassination, how would you describe the nature of your relationship with her?" Logan asks.

"Up and down. It wasn't constant - I had asked her not to come before the election, and that we will arrange - then she could come after the election, which she agreed. She had agreed. But then she decided to come all of a sudden. Now that changed a little. It upset me a little," Musharraf says.

"Were you feeling that she was not sticking to her agreements with you, that she wasn't keeping her word?" Logan asks.

"Well, to an extent yes. She used to change the goalposts frequently, depending on the ups and downs here in the country," Musharraf replies.

"It sounds like she was annoying you," Logan remarks.

"On many occasions," Musharraf admits. "But on many other occasions she was positive."

"Did you like her?" Logan asks.

"I think in such a situation it's not your personal like and dislikes. It's more for the nation that I thought one has to interact with her," Musharraf says.

"When I hear words like that, you know, 'One has to interact with her for the sake of the nation,' sounds to me like you didn't like her very much," Logan remarks.

"No I wouldn't say I didn't like her - well, I like or dislike, I didn't have any kind of personal friendship with her," Musharraf says.

The president was upset with Bhutto last October, when, in spite of warnings, she went ahead with a rally in Karachi on her return from self-imposed exile in Dubai. Her convoy was attacked, with two blasts killing close to 150 people.

"Now, in Karachi we knew from Sheikh Mohammad of Dubai, I mean, I got information, intelligence from him. We had our own intelligence. He sent intelligence that there are suicide bombers there targeting her. We told her this," Musharraf explains. "And she knew it. We told her. Don't do it!"

"And 145 people died," Logan remarks.

"We offered. We said that we can give you a helicopter," Musharraf says. "But she decided to go in that procession. That's what happened."

Asked if he thinks that was a mistake, Musharraf tells Logan, "Yes, indeed. Absolutely."

Musharraf also thinks Bhutto made a mistake by going to the area where she was killed, where a former prime minister had previously been assassinated. And it wasn't the first time Bhutto had tried to hold a rally there.

"We again had intelligence that this is a dangerous place and there's a likelihood of a suicide attempt. We asked her not to go," Musharraf says. "She insisted she will go. We stopped her. And we got such a poor - flak - we got flak from all over the world, from media, from Western media."

"From the U.S.?" Logan asks.

"From everywhere," Musharraf explains.

The night of the assassination, Musharraf believes Bhutto broke a basic rule of security in a crowded charged political rally: to be particularly careful when leaving.

"She should have just gone and moved fast, gone and waved, yes. But if you're standing and -- because you are vulnerable. You're vulnerable and people are charging," Musharraf says. "And all the film that you see, people are charging. Now, when people are there by the hundreds swarming around you, this man is one of them. Who can check these people at that stage?"

"And the mistake she made, if I understand you correctly, was stopping?" Logan asks.

"Yes. But then the mistake was not that," Musharraf says. "I mean, God was kind -- she went into the car in spite of the fact that she was waving and all that. She did go into the car. Now is the point. Why did she stand outside the car?"

"Why did she stand up in the hatch?" Logan asks.

"Entirely. Who's to blame?" Musharraf replies.

Asked who is to blame, Musharraf says, "Only she."

"So Benazir Bhutto, in your words, should bear some responsibility for what took place for her own death?" Logan asks.

"For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone. Nobody else. Responsibility is hers," Musharraf says.

"Don't you think it will make her supporters crazy to hear you say that?" Logan asks.

"Well, I don't think so. I mean, that's the fact. She shouldn't have stood up," Musharraf says.

"Just so I'm clear, even with the benefit of hindsight, you feel that your government, you and your government, did everything possible to give Benazir Bhutto the security she needed?" Logan asks.

"Yes, absolutely," Musharraf says. "She had the threat. So she was given more security than any other person."

Musharraf conceded that Bhutto's return was a bitter pill to swallow. It was part of a deal engineered by the Bush administration after a year of political unrest and extremist violence in Pakistan.

"There was a year of secret negotiations; the United States administration has made their views very clear. President Bush endorsed Bhutto's return, Condoleezza Rice, they had top State Department officials meeting with her. You yourself went to Dubai and met with her twice," Logan says.

"Well, yes. All this was going - you seem to be well-informed. Very good. Yes it was happening, I agree," Musharraf acknowledges.

"One of the reasons Benazir Bhutto had such popularity amongst top U.S. officials is that she cast herself as the person who would take action against al Qaeda. Who would go into the tribal areas. Who would get Bin Laden. Who would do all the things that she said you were not doing," Logan says.

"No. Now, again, these are misperceptions of American thinking. All American media, some officials who don't know Pakistan," Musharraf responds.

"So what are you doing to find Osama bin Laden? What is Pakistan doing? What end are you actually still today - seven years - under you…," Logan asks.

"We are…fighting terrorism. And we are fighting extremism," Musharraf says.

"But the question is really within that fight against extremism, what are you doing - if you like - to find Osama Bin Laden?" Logan asks. "That's what Americans want to know."

"Okay. We are fighting first of all al Qaeda. Let's take al Qaeda. We have arrested or eliminated about 700 al Qaeda leaders. Only Pakistan has done it. And lately also whoever has been killed or arrested, I challenge -- who else, which other country has done this?" Musharraf asks.

"Well, which other country has Osama bin Laden?" Logan replies.

"No, I challenge-- I don't accept that at all. There is no proof whatsoever that he is here in Pakistan," Musharraf says.

"But are you looking for him?" Logan asks.

"No, again, the same answer," Musharraf says. "We are not particularly looking for him but we are operating against terrorists and al Qaeda and militant Taliban. And in the process, obviously, it is combined, maybe we are looking for him also. Yes. If he's here?"

Musharraf was quick to blame Bhutto's assassination on al Qaeda, particularly a local extremist named Beitullah Mehsud, who operates out of Pakistan's lawless tribal region where both al Qaeda and the Taliban enjoy widespread support.

"Point two percent of our population is in South Waziristan and North Waziristan. Point two percent," Musharraf says.

"Well, that point two percent has be able to cause a lot of trouble," Logan remarks.

"Yes. We must not say that Taliban are in Pakistan. Pakistan, this is a frontier region. Two tribal agencies of Pakistan," Musharraf says.

"It's still inside Pakistan. Any way you look at it," Logan points out.

"But it's a small part the population and it is this population where they hide and they get support," Musharraf says.

"But they regrouped under…," Logan says.

"Yes, indeed," Musharraf says.

"…your watch?" Logan says.

"No, they regrouped because -- not under us. Because of Afghanistan. Okay?" Musharraf says.

"But under your term as president," Logan remarks.

"Yes. Yes, indeed," Musharraf acknowledges.

"They have regrouped and they are stronger than ever," Logan says.

"Well, Taliban. Yes. They may be. They may be getting stronger. I can't say for sure," Musharraf says.

Asked if the U.S. shares any of the blame in this, Musharraf says, "Yes, of course. I mean everyone, the whole coalition should share the blame for not succeeding."

Of all the issues 60 Minutes discussed with Musharraf, the one that seemed to affect him the most personally, was about accusations that he may somehow have been involved in Bhutto's death.

"There have been suggestions among certain quarters, particularly amongst Benazir Bhutto's supporters, that you may have had a hand in her killing," Logan says.

"This is unfortunately a very baseless allegation. Nobody has a right to blame anyone for killing anyone unless they have the proof. I've lived in a family which believes in values - it believes in certain principles. It stands for character. And I stand for that," Musharraf says. "Why would I be informing her about all these intelligence reports that we have against her, the threat to her? Why would I be doing that? Why would I be concerned about telling her all this? 'Don't go there, don't do this, don't do that.' So these are all indicators. I can't prove it legally, I can't prove my innocence legally. But I can prove it only through what I stand for as a person."
Produced By Max McClellan, Jeff Newton and Harry Radliffe