FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya.
Yesterday, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Did she know in advance who would kill her? Well, yesterday, CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer disclosed an exclusive e-mail from Bhutto.
Mr. WOLF BLITZER (News Anchor, CNN): Bhutto wrote these words, and let me quote them precisely, "Nothing will, God willing happened. Just wanted you to know if it does, in addition to the names in my letter to Musharraf of October 16th, I would hold Musharraf responsible."
CHIDEYA: The Pakistani government has denied any involvement in Bhutto's death. Among the many questions that remain: Will elections go off as planned and will United States continue to support a Pakistani regime that's under increasing scrutiny?
On today's Reporters' Roundtable, we'll hear from John Yearwood, world editor of the Miami Herald; Laura Washington, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and Roland Martin, a CNN contributor and special correspondent for Essence magazine. Welcome to you all.
Ms. LAURA WASHINGTON (Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times): Hi.
Mr. ROLAND MARTIN (Contributor, CNN; Special Correspondent, Essence Magazine): Glad to be here.
Mr. JOHN YEARWOOD (World Editor, The Miami Herald): Hello, Farai.
CHIDEYA: So, John you are the world editor of the Miami Herald. You must have been swamped yesterday. How did you approach this story and what are you looking forward to as you move forward with the story?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Well, Farai, we approached the story from several different angles. Certainly, we went to get a sense of what was happening on the ground in Pakistan, not only the events of what happened yesterday but also try to look ahead in terms of what's next, not only the implications for Pakistan long term, but also the implications for the U.S. So we looked at those two angles and stories we had out front.
But we also looked at a third angle in that we wanted just to know how local Pakistanis reviewing what happened in Pakistan. And also, as we found out, there were several people here who knew her personally. And, in fact, she had made three trips to our areas, so we looked at that and the various stories that we did on the assassination.
CHIDEYA: Laura, we just heard a little bit of a clip from Wolf Blitzer of CNN. Now, he was sitting in for Larry King last night on "Larry King Live." And he had some of the presidential candidates weigh in on this issue. He asked Giuliani to weigh in on how he would handle the situation differently from John McCain. Giuliani deferred the question saying, quote, "but I don't think tonight is the night to be making a political point on my behalf or somebody else's behalf. Tonight is the night to offer our sympathy and support to the people of Pakistan and to the Bhutto family."
Do you think that it was odd at the least or inappropriate even to ask about the political campaigns here in the U.S. as they related to this assassination?
Ms. WASHINGTON: Well, absolutely not. There's a difference between asking a political question about how a candidate will fare because of this event as opposed to how a candidate's position would be presented because of this event. One of the major issues in this campaign has been foreign policy and the mess in the Middle East.
And so it's certainly a fair question to ask all of the candidates - what's your response, you know, what - it's an opportunity for them to show their knowledge base, to show what they would do in a crisis situation like this. And I'm actually pretty surprised since Giuliani has positioned himself as being the man to protect this country during the war on terror, that he would take a pass on this.
Giuliani is one of the candidates, I think, that you would think could benefit along with John McCain, along with Hillary Clinton, folks who have had - and Joe Biden - people who have had some international experience and who can step forward and say something concrete rather than just a sympathy note.
Mr. MARTIN: But, Farai, I would disagree with that because Rudy Giuliani doesn't have international experience. First off, if you analyzed what happened yesterday, he was the first candidate out of the box with a statement. He was interviewed on CNN early in the day - I would say mid-morning - with regards to situation in Pakistan. Then John McCain came out. In fact, Rudy Giuliani, he released a statement before the White House did. And so I think he was very sensitive to that in terms of some criticism of making a political issue out of it.
And then McCain was very smart to come out and say, hey, Rudy Giuliani did a very good job on 9/11 in terms of keeping the city calm and taking control -assertive control, but what he do internationally. And so although, there's an assumption that Rudy Giuliani has significant experience on the international stage, in fact, he does not.
CHIDEYA: Roland, just to follow up on that, what do you think U.S. politicians - whether they're already in office or people running for office - should do now about Pakistan? The U.S. took a hands-off stance, to say the least, when there was a state of emergency imposed by General Pervez Mussharaf. Is this the time to really reconsider or for, at the very least, for politicians to take a stand about how the U.S. has been dealing with Pakistan?
Mr. MARTIN: Well, absolutely. In fact, on my radio show in Chicago, I had a chance to talk with Ken Cooper who served as the Southeast bureau chief for the Washington Post, who was based in India, spent lots of time in Pakistan. He said that we had a very firm understanding of India because there's democracy. India and Pakistan both came into existence in 1947. In Pakistan, it's a lot different. So he even said that our understanding of that country as a democracy is frankly, you know, shocking because we don't really understand how it all works.
You know, we are so used to operating in a place where you have a central government, where you have control in terms of, you know, (unintelligible) the politicians. And we had to deal with tribal leaders and then you have to deal with people in outlying areas who have their own sort of government. That's why it's been so difficult trying to fight the Taliban because it's been all over the place in terms of who do we deal with, who's the leader.
And that's a problem that we're seeing right now because although Musharraf is the president and he ran the military, until, of course, he turned in his uniform. Now, you really don't understand who's in control. That's very difficult for America. And look, it took us a long time in Iraq to figure out how that country even operated in terms of how do you deal with struggles within the country.
CHIDEYA: John, this is also a question of two places that have nuclear powers and don't really like each other. I'm talking about India and Pakistan. The idea of what's been going on in the Kashmir region, this disputed region between the two nations. The idea that there's nuclear weapons there. What, at this point - what kind of conversation should people in the U.S. government be having about how to help mitigate some of those tensions as well as the issue of extremism that Roland was talking about?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Well, one of the sad things about this whole episode, Farai, is that a lot of the moderating forces are unfortunately - have unfortunately been killed. Certainly, we saw what happened to Benazir. There are others in the region who are no longer there because of the Taliban and others. What I think that the U.S. needs to do in the short-term, however, is to work with President Musharraf, to continue the election scheduled that he's on. The country, particularly in Pakistan, needs to move to election so that the rest of the world can have some confidence that Pakistan is moving to what some semblance of democracy.
Now, the question of which political leader will emerge as the prime minister, it seems clear to me that if elections are held as scheduled on January 8th, that Ms. Bhutto's party will win. And one of the sad legacies, I suppose, that she will leave is that during her tenure as party leader, she never really groomed anyone to be a powerful number two. So the question is who will be the incoming prime minister and what kind of power that person will have. Will that person have enough power to take on General Musharraf or will we leave it ultimately to the new chief of the army that the general named a few a few weeks ago?
CHIDEYA: Laura, I want to take on us on a quick tour of a domestic issue. As the new year approaches the city of Los Angeles might have set a record. It has reached its lowest number of homicides in 40 years. Now, we're not talking about the rate here - 40 years ago, L.A. had about a million less people. But residents are finding relief in the news, but questions as to why the decrease happened. Some folks are saying its gentrification. It's like, hey, as things get more expensive in the city, the riffraff move out. Do you buy that explanation?
Ms. WASHINGTON: Well, I think that crime - there are ebbs and flows in crime rates in all major cities, and I - and even though this appears to be a record, I wouldn't hold out much hope that this is going to - the decline will stabilize.
I think one big reason is technology. Technology, in many ways, has made people at least feel safer in the case of computer programming, finding new ways, like police departments finding new ways to determine where the hotspots are - determine where the crime patterns are, allows them to put more resources into places where the crime is happening. But of course, that might be some of the areas that are in the process of gentrifying right now.
I think, though, the major culprit that will not go away when it comes to urban crime until something serious is done about it, is guns and the availability of guns, and the level of opportunity that young people and criminals have in terms of access to guns. I've been really disappointed that this has not been a major campaign issue in the presidential campaign, I'm not surprised because it's an urban issue, and right now, the candidates want to stay away from that. But I think until you deal with the gun crisis in these cities, this is just going to be a blip on the radar.
CHIDEYA: Roland, what do you think is behind the crime stats? I mean, I guess, shouldn't we just be happy? Maybe not question too much, but if we are going to question, what's behind it.
Mr. MARTIN: No. I think you got to question because you have to find out what actually worked, I mean, what was it. Remember, early in the year, you had a significant issue going on between the fights between black and Hispanic gangs. Then, you saw a significant outreach from community leaders to address this issue. And so, as long as people assume that the problem with homicide is a police issue, then I think you're going to continue the problem. It really is a three-prong issue. It is a police issue in terms of how do you combat it. But then, you also - it's a matter of community leaders getting involved, but also economics, because if you do not have alternatives - meaning jobs - then you're going to continue to see, you know, the sort of drug crisis you see.
We hear all the time in Chicago as well in terms of how do you combat what's going on in terms of the people who are behind the murders. And so, again, I think the city owning up to the black-Hispanic struggles in terms of these gangs, that was decisive because they had to get a handle of it while the city was spiraling out of control. It was crazy in the first quarter of this year in terms of the deaths and the killings that were going on in Los Angeles.
CHIDEYA: John, very quickly, take us out of here. What's working in Miami?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Okay. Well, there are a lot of things that are working here. One of the things that - the neighborhood policing is one of the things that Miami has looked at. But - if I may return really quick to the Los Angeles question, Roland and I lived in Dallas at the time when the crime rates were going down dramatically. And there were still a lot of questions at the time about whether or not the rates were real.
I remember the police chief once had a press conference and - very frustrated, he told reporters, look, we're not dragging the bodies into the other county at night. The rates are indeed going down. And, you know, and one of - the point that you were making that we were doing some things here that are working. And as Roland was saying, I think it's really important to really understand what it is that's working and - not only to use that in those cities where it's working, but also to help use that in other areas that can use some help.
CHIDEYA: Well, John, Laura, Roland, thanks so much.
Mr. MARTIN: Thanks so much.
Ms. WASHINGTON: Thank you.
Mr. YEARWOOD: Okay, thank you, Farai.
CHIDEYA: John Yearwood is world editor of the Miami Herald. He's at WLRN in Miami. Laura Washington is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and is at NPR's Chicago bureau. And Roland Martin is a CNN contributor and special correspondent for Essence magazine.
Coming up, What our top presidential candidates promising to do in the world of tech.
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