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US Supplied Bhutto With Security Intel

But stopped short of 'micromanaging arrangements'

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 29, 2007 2:59 PM CST

(Newser) – Washington gave Benazir Bhutto intelligence to protect her from militants for weeks but would not guard her with its own private contractors, the Los Angeles Times reports. An ex-adviser to Bhutto said the US refused to be "micromanaging the security arrangements of another country." The US embassy in Islamabad was slipping Bhutto the data on likely threats and advising her on how to boost her own security.

Meanwhile, through diplomatic channels, Washington backed President Pervez Musharraf and pressed him to improve Bhutto's protection. Bhutto sought international contractors to guard her, but Musharraf refused to allow such a plan, which Bhutto would have funded herself. "It sure bothers me that she did not have the kind of protection she needed," said Sen. Joe Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Benazir Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, receives applause as she is introduced to a joint meeting of Congress prior to her address in Washington D.C., in a June 7, 1989 photo. Standing behind Mrs. Bhutto are house speaker Tom Foley, left, D-Wash, and Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Senate...
Benazir Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, receives applause as she is introduced to a joint meeting of Congress prior to her address in Washington D.C., in a June 7, 1989 photo. Standing behind Mrs....   (Associated Press)
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks while campaigning at a house party in New Ipswich, N.H., Monday, Dec. 17, 2007.(AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., speaks while campaigning at a house party in New Ipswich, N.H., Monday, Dec. 17, 2007.(AP Photo/Jim Cole)   (Associated Press)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at her last rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007. Bhutto was assassinated with 20 others in a suicide attack as she left the rally. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at her last rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007. Bhutto was assassinated with 20 others in a suicide attack as she left the rally....   (Associated Press)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives to signs a condolence book for slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, seen on portrait, Friday, Dec. 28, 2007,at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives to signs a condolence book for slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, seen on portrait, Friday, Dec. 28, 2007,at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington....   (Associated Press)
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