Elisabeth Bumiller

Washington: Benazir Bhutto always understood Washington more than Washington understood her.

Bhutto had a more extensive network of powerful friends in the capital’s political and media elite than almost any other foreign leader. Over the years, she scrupulously cultivated those friends, many from her days at Harvard and Oxford. She was rewarded when her connections, at the White House, in Congress and within the foreign policy establishment, helped propel her into power in Pakistan.

But in the end, with yet another US administration behind her, Bhutto’s Washington network only underscored how little the US fathomed the feudal
politics of South Asia, and its own ability to control events in the cauldron of Pakistan.

“I always thought this was roughly how it would end for her, but I didn’t think it would happen today,” Peter W Galbraith, a former US ambassador and a longtime friend of Bhutto’s, said.

Benazir arrived at Harvard in 1969 as a primly dressed 16-yearold, bewildered by American customs. But Bhutto adapted, and quickly befriended not only Galbraith but EJ Dionne and Michael Kinsley, now both columnists for The Post, and Walter Isaacson, the president of the Aspen Institute and a former managing editor of Time.

Benazir’s first important trip to Washington was in 1984. Her goal was to persuade conservative Reagan administration officials that they would be better off with her in power. “What she was up against was her reputation of being this anti-American radical,” Galbraith said. “So we spent a lot of time talking”.

“She was this completely charming, beautiful woman who could flatter the senators, and who could read their political concerns,” Galbraith said.

Husain Haqqani, a former adviser to Bhutto and a professor of international relations at Boston University, agreed that her Washington network helped her become PM, particularly in the face of Pakistan’s powerful army and intelligence service.

Although Bhutto was twice expelled from office, she kept up her visits to Washington. She would call on administration officials and members of Congress willing to see her as well as reporters and editors at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Soon, her American Christmas card list, excluding people in government and Congress, was up to 375 names.

Benazir kept up her networking until the very end. Last week, said, Mark Siegel, a political operative who had been executive director of the Democratic National Committee. He e-mailed Bhutto to tell her he had heard that their publisher, Harper-Collins, was pleased with the book the two had just turned in, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West.

He received a happy response from Bhutto by BlackBerry. “Which we called her ‘crackberry’ because she was so addicted to it,” Siegel said.

The time was 2 am Thursday, noon in Rawalpindi. Six hours later, Bhutto was dead.

As always, her last e-mail message to Siegel had been an almost instantaneous response.“She would answer me within 15 minutes, even at crazy times,” Siegel said. “I said, ‘Why are you up?’ And she would say, ‘I’m working'”.

Source : DNAIndia