Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ISLAMABAD119
2007-01-09 09:18:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Islamabad
Cable title:
EMBASSY PROTESTS ASSAULT ON NEW YORK TIMES
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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
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