EMBASSY PROTESTS ASSAULT ON NEW YORK TIMES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 000119 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2016 TAGS: PHUM PK PREL SUBJECT: EMBASSY PROTESTS ASSAULT ON NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST Classified By: Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶2. (C) On the morning of December 19, post received a message from S/ES-O and SCA that New York Times (NYT) reporter Carlotta Gall had been assaulted in her hotel room while on assignment in Quetta, Balochistan. On December 20, post's Information Officer contacted Gall by telephone to inquire into her condition. After Gall's return to Islamabad on December 21, she briefed post's Information Officer and Political Counselor on the details of the incident. ¶3. (C) According to Gall, she and her Pakistani colleague Akhtar Soomroo, a freelance photographer, had arrived in Quetta on December 14 to research a story on the recruitment of suicide bombers in Pakistan for deployment by the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. On the evening of December 19, plainclothes officials who identified themselves as Special Branch police officers knocked on Gall's hotel room, requesting an interview. Gall declined to open the door to speak to them. Plainclothes officers then detained Soomro and seized his computer and cameras. Later in the evening, four plainclothes security officials broke into Gall's hotel room, seizing her computer, notebooks and telephones. When Gall objected to the officers' taking her handbag, the men pinned her arms and punched her in the face. The men accused Gall of being in Quetta without permission and visiting an area of the city -- Pashtunabad (the Afghan quarter) -- that is off-limits to foreigners. Gall's belongings were returned to her late the same night. Gall left Quetta on a commercial flight to Islamabad the next day. ¶4. (C) After debriefing Gall, emboffs contacted relevant Pakistani officials to protest the incident in Quetta. The Ambassador personally protested to Information Minister Durrani and Foreign Minister Kasuri. The DCM and PolCouns demarched MFA (Americas) Additional Secretary Shaid Kamal, presenting a diplomatic note that had been cleared with the SCA front office. Post's Information Officer contacted Information and Broadcasting Ministry. In response to the Embassy protests, Pakistani officials expressed concern upon hearing the story of Gall's ordeal, pledged to investigate the incident and to advise the Embassy of their findings. (Note: Post coordinated its protest of the harrassment of Gall with the British High Commission, as Gall is a UK national. End note.) On December 30, a senior Pakistani security official informed the Ambassador that Quetta officials have been reprimanded for the assault on Gall. ¶5. (C) Comment: Gall's experience is all too familiar to Pakistani journalists, who have reported extensive harrassment from Pakistani security agencies as they pursue stories in Balochistan and the border areas. Gall's report that Islamic militants have used the North Waziristan Agency jirga agreement to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, published in the December 11 issue of the New York Times, deeply irritated Pakistan's establishment. At least one of Gall's Pakistani colleagues, the editor of an influential Engligh-language paper, attempted to alert her that she had touched a raw nerve. Gall admitted to emboffs that she did not understand the full import of the editor's cryptic warning, delivered via cell phone, until he contacted her after the Quetta incident. Pakistani officials in both Islamabad and Washington clearly received instructions on how to respond to questions regarding the Gall case within hours of the assault, as Department and Embassy officers heard exactly the same talking points blaming Gall for unlawfully entering Pakistan and traveling to Quetta. (Note: Gall denies this charge, saying that she arrived in Pakistan on December 13 on an NGO charter flight and cleared passport control at the Islamabad Airport with a multiple-entry visa. End note.) That said, Pakistani officials contacted by the Embassy reacted with genuine dismay at the description of the harrassment Gall suffered, regretting the assault itself and the possible repercussions for Pakistan's international ISLAMABAD 00000119 002 OF 002 reputation. End comment. CROCKER