(PPF/IFEX) – Pakistan’s embassy in the United States (US) has written a letter to the State Department drawing attention to the investigation of Nayyar Zaidi, a Washington correspondent for the daily “Jang”, the flagship publication of Pakistan’s largest media group, by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. The letter, signed by the deputy chief […]
(PPF/IFEX) – Pakistan’s embassy in the United States (US) has written a letter to the State Department drawing attention to the investigation of Nayyar Zaidi, a Washington correspondent for the daily “Jang”, the flagship publication of Pakistan’s largest media group, by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents.
The letter, signed by the deputy chief of mission, Mohammad Sadiq, says that Zaidi is a “very senior and respected journalist who has represented his newspaper in Washington for more than two decades” and that “the State Department is well aware of his credentials.” When contacted by the “Daily Dawn”, another major Pakistani publication, the State Department said it could not comment on the matter.
According to press reports, Zaidi said that three FBI agents – Chris McKinney, Heather Grow and Michelle Crest – visited his home in Prince County, Virginia, on 20 February 2003 while he was away. They tried to interrogate his 15-year-old son, Zain Zaidi, who telephoned him, but when he arrived home the agents had left. They left a telephone number for Zaidi to contact them.
When Zaidi called the number, agent McKinney asked him to come to the FBI’s Washington field office, where the agent asked him several questions about his personal, social and religious activities.
The agent had asked him to bring his telephone notebook because he claimed that Zaidi’s home telephone was used to make calls to 10 telephone numbers in Pakistan, India, China, the Netherlands and Thailand.
The numbers “brush off” against those already under investigation for links to the events of 11 September 2001, McKinney said.
When Zaidi met the three agents at the field office, they released two numbers in Pakistan and China.
Zaidi says the number in Pakistan is very similar to one of his newspaper’s fax numbers, to which he sends news stories. The Pakistani number was officially investigated by the embassy and turned out to be a disconnected number for a bankrupt textile company, says Zaidi.
One of the agents, Grow, refused to disclose all 10 numbers to Zaidi, saying she felt very uncomfortable doing so.
Zaidi offered to cooperate with the FBI, but refused to give them his telephone notebook and records unless the agents had legal grounds for making the demand.
Zaidi says that after the initial investigation, the FBI did not contact him for several months. However, on 8 August, two different FBI agents visited his home while he was away and left a message for Zaidi to call them.
He called them on 11 August and left three messages, but so far the FBI has not returned his calls.
