The 20 briefed by the ISPR – by Adnan Farooq
Raheem Ullah Yousafzai, Mujeeb Ur Rehman Shami, Haroon Ur Raheed (columnist), Talat Hussain, Zahid Hussain (Wall Street Journal), Ijaz Haider, Moeed Peerzada, Qatreena Hussain, Mehar Bokhari, Sana Bucha, Hamid Mir, Javed Ch., Saleem Safi, Arshad Sarif, Kashif Abbasi, Ibsaar Aalam, Mubashir Luqman, Nadeem Malik, Rana Mubashar and Haroon Ur Rasheed (BBC) were ‘debriefed’ on May 6
Daily The News in a report titled ‘Army top brass blames civilians’ (Saturday, May 7) reported: ‘The top military leaders on Friday met about 20 top TV anchors and journalists and revealed that the present government had not discussed the war on terror with the army “even once during last three years”’. Understandably, The News correspondent has not revealed the names of 20 anchorpersons and journalists even if it is not hard to guess. However, Viewpoint has dug out the list of these 20 anchorpersons and journalists.
It is interesting to note that the ISPR has not been able to issue one press release on the Abbottabad episode, however, it could ‘brief’ 20 media celebrities. At the May 6 briefing (or was it debriefing), anchorpersons and journalists were ‘briefed’ by army chief Gen. Kayani, ISI chief Gen Pasha and the DG ISPR, Maj Gen. Atthar Abbass.
These journalists and anchorpersons may find no moral dilemma in attending the ISPR briefings. However, it is not a professional routine in line with journalistic ethics to attend a ‘briefing’ on such a vital issue as Abbottabad operation against Osama bin Laden, an event making global headlines, and hide it from their audiences. Only BBC’s Haroon Rashid was honest enough to have written a blog about this briefing.
Though Viewpoint is not fully aware of the proceedings yet the May 6 ‘briefing’ is mirrored in the media madness that has followed since. The May 7 report in The News, quoted above, itself is evident of the message conveyed at the briefing: blame the ‘bloody civilians’ for the mess created by the Khakis.
It is up to the readers to judge how crudely or subtly it has been done, since May 6, by the following ‘debriefed 20’:
Raheem Ullah Yousafzai
Mujeeb Ur Rehman Shami
Haroon Ur Raheed (columnist)
Talat Hussain
Zahid Hussain (Wall Street Journal)
Ijaz Haider
Moeed Peerzada
Qatreena Hussain
Mehar Bokhari
Sana Bucha
Hamid Mir
Javed Ch.
Saleem Safi
Arshad Sarif
Kashif Abbasi
Ibsaar Aalam
Mubashir Luqman
Nadeem Malik
Rana Mubashir
Haroon ur Rasheed (BBC)
Thank you very much for providing valuable info. It makes it easy to understand who is speaking whose language . There was indeed an hectic effort by majority of these ‘journalists’ to control the damage. It is also interesting that most of these people talked about the failures of CIA, KGB, Mossad etc. in their programs. And almost all of them talked about the 7000 visas to US citizens and none of them ventured to touch the subject of OBL presence in Abbotabad for five years.