Cousin Ike ...
You were on my mind Sat afternoon when, MUCH to my suprise, your Pres Mush visited MY Paris and NOT yours .......
theparisnews.com
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The semi-secret visit to our local Medical Center was much the topic of conversation in this small sleepy NE Texas hamlet.
A number of streets were closed, as well as the entire sixth floor of the hospital ... IDs were checked for ALL hospital visitors for all morning Saturday and the local neighborhood where he had lunch was securely isolated.
To exemplify the class of Pres Mush, he visited a goodly number of the surrounding homes to visit with the residents and thank them for putting up with the elaborate security methods which had caused them some discomfort in their daily lives.
He appears to me, after his visit to my home town, and a close personal observation of his actions, to be a worthy leader as you have vouched the last few years.
here is a partial read of the ParisTexas News Sunday edition ...
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Pakistan president speaks of peace plan
By Phillip Hamilton
The Paris News
Published September 24, 2006
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, expounded on his “Enlightened Moderation” initiative and talked about his White House visit with President George W. Bush in a brief exclusive interview with The Paris News.
Musharraf declined to comment on an alleged threat delivered in 2001 by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state, to Musharraf’s intelligence director.
“I have a book coming out the 25th — Monday, you know, so I cannot comment on that at this time,” he said.
In an interview to air on CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes tonight, Musharraf states, “The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.’”
He told CBS reporter Steve Kroft that the threat was insulting.
“I think it was a very rude remark,” he told Kroft, but he would not comment on the threat at a White House press conference Friday and declined to comment in Paris again Saturday.
However, Musharraf described his visit with President George W. Bush on Friday as “extremely positive.” He meets with Bush again Wednesday.
Musharraf said his “Enlightened Moderation” initiative is “a strategy for bringing peace to the world.”
“It has two prongs,” he said, “One for the Muslim World and one for the Western World.”
“The Muslim World must reject extremism,” Musharraf said, adding that Muslim nations must also embrace economic changes.
“The Western World must recognize the political rise” of Muslim nations and understand “the anger in the Muslim world,” he said. “Palestinian soil is a part of that.”
The brief interview came during a private luncheon at a Paris physician’s home.
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Hospital: General ‘in excellent health’
By Phillip Hamilton
The Paris News
Published September 24, 2006
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, underwent routine testing at Paris Regional Medical Center on Saturday.
“President Musharraf was found to be in excellent health,” the hospital said in a statement confirming that Musharraf had been a patient during his two-hour stay at the hospital’s South Campus.
Due to an agreement reached Thursday, The Paris News is not publishing the name of the attending physician due to security concerns.
After tests were completed, Musharraf traveled to the home of a Paris physician for a private luncheon attended by several physicians, hospital administrators, the president’s staff and other guests.
Musharraf appeared to be in good health as he dined with family, personal staff and guests before personally greeting those attending the dinner and having his photograph taken with several guests. Among those traveling with him was Major. Gen. Shafqaat Ahmed, military secretary to the president.
Security was tight throughout Musharraf’s visit. A heavily armed 29-vehicle motorcade brought him from Dallas to Paris. Entry into the hospital was limited, and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers stood guard outside. Explosive-sniffing dogs were used to search the area.
It was raining as the motorcade entered Paris on Texas 24 and traveled north on Church Street and east on Clarksville Street to PRMC. Vehicles carrying Musharraf, his staff and security personnel went into the underground doctors parking area and entry to the hospital was gained from there.
Musharraf was in the hospital from 10:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., but he was not involved in testing throughout that time. He took time to visit with PRMC Chief Executive Officer Andrew Knizley and his wife, Elizabeth, along with their children Lincoln and Lillian. The children presented Musharraf with a bouquet of yellow roses and drawings about his country. Lillian Knizley presented him with a ‘thank you’ drawing of a snow leopard similar to one Pakistan recently donated to the Bronx Zoo in New York.
After the luncheon, Musharraf walked with his motorcade through The Hills subdivision to personally greet the physician’s neighbors who had been inconvenienced by security measures associated with his visit. He was scheduled to tour Paris before traveling back to Dallas.
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I wasn't expecting an exclusive interview
By Phillip Hamilton
The Paris News
Sometimes is pays to keep a secret.
The rumor seemed impossible when I heard it, but I learned a long time ago that you check out everything you hear. So when I heard that Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was coming to Paris to visit Paris Regional Medical Center, I decided we had better at least check it out. It sounded too crazy to be possible, but you never know.
A call reporter Josh Edwards placed to one of the hospital’s PR guys appeared to yield little information as he was told, “I don’t have information about that that I can give you.” But the question got wheels moving among hospital administrators.
A couple of hours later, Publisher Mike Graxiola happened to be at a meeting with PRMC Chief Executive Officer Andrew Knizley, who pulled him aside and said, “We need to talk.”
That brief conversation resulted in a hastily called meeting in the office of the doctor who would examine Musharraf on Saturday and conduct the “routine testing.” At the meeting, the physician and Knizley stressed to Mr. Graxiola and me the need to not publish a story in Friday’s edition heralding the arrival of Musharraf on Saturday morning. We agreed to not publish a story after hearing what they had to say.
“If you had five minutes with him, what would you ask him?” the doctor asked me.
Guessing that political questions might be forbidden, I replied, “Why Paris? Why Paris Regional Medical Center? Why this doctor? And then maybe some questions about the political situation.”
“You must not ask him that,” the physician responded.
“We’re all about local,” I said. “People will want to know why.”
He answered the question right there.
“Why here? Because I told him to come here,” the physician answered. “I’m his doctor. I told him to come here, so he is coming here.”
It was then that I realized that one of PRMC’s physicians is among the finest in the world. I became aware that this isn’t the only high-ranking official he has treated.
“You must not use my name,” he said. “If you won’t use my name, I can get you five minutes with him. You can ask him all that political stuff. That’s OK. He’s used to that. But no ‘Why Paris? Why this hospital?’ “
As we continued to discuss the planned visit, the doctor flipped open his cell phone and walked out of the room. When he returned, he said, “He says he cannot talk to you. His book is coming out Monday, and he is under contractual obligation to not give interviews until the book is released.”
Imagine my surprise Friday when I heard Musharraf tell the White House press corps the same thing. “Wow! We heard that first,” I thought to myself.
The physician had another offer.
“You can have a telephone interview with him after the book comes out,” he said.
I had walked into the meeting just wanting to cover Musharraf’s visit, but I walked out with an agreement to cover the visit and get a telephone interview with this international leader. All I had to do was keep the secret that Musharraf was coming and not mention the doctor’s name.
Newsroom staff that needed to know, which was just about everyone on our small staff, was told what was going on and instructed to respond to questions by saying, “A dignitary is visiting the hospital and we will have a story in Sunday’s paper.” Others in the building were told nothing.
Nothing appeared in the paper Friday except an Associated Press story about his White House visit, but calls started coming in. We stuck to our line, even when we were asked why folks were told to keep parked cars off Church Street on Saturday.
The real test came after Musharraf was already at PRMC. Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland, who lives in Paris, called me at the office.
“Do you know what is going on at the hospital?” he asked. “I’ve heard the president of Pakistan is there. A DPS trooper said there is going to be a press conference over in the Brookshire’s parking lot. There wasn’t anyone over there.”
When Ragland mentioned a doctor’s name, I thought it best to let him in on some of what I knew.
“Where can I meet you?” I asked.
A few minutes later we were chatting at an antiques store on the Plaza.
Ragland said the office in Dallas had come up with a name. I cautioned him against using any name and offered no confirmation or denial of the one he had. I also made sure he knew Musharraf wasn’t ill — that this was not an emergency visit.
Then, I went back to the office to conduct my usual Saturday morning editing duties.
At 12:45 p.m., I got the call that turned my day more upside-down than it already was.
“I have been authorized to take you to the house,” said Derald Bulls, PRMC’s marketing director.
“Can I bring a photographer?” I asked. “I have not been authorized to bring a photographer. I got a call saying I was authorized to send a car for you and bring you out there. I’ll be by in a few minutes.”
“Wow!” was my first thought. “I’m not prepared” was my second, and “I’m wearing faded jeans, an old shirt and dirty tennis shoes” was my third.
I had planned to allow Josh to do the telephone interview later in the week, so he had done all the prep work. I hastily searched for his notes and asked reporter Mary Madewell to do the fastest Google search she had ever done. By the time Bulls pulled up in front of the office, I had done a lot of cramming.
After passing three security check points, I was finally near the door of the house.
“You the reporter?” asked a Secret Service agent.
“Managing Editor,” I wanted to say, but I thought it best not to bring up petty issues. I’d gladly answer to “reporter” to get in the door. Heck, I’d answer to almost anything to get inside that door.
After an up-close-and-personal search, I was told to wait for an escort who arrived shortly. At the door, I was greeted by the doctor.
“Come in and eat. After he eats, you will have time with him, but you can only ask him what we talked about,” he said.
I agreed, and we stepped inside.
The food was incredible, and I’m still wondering if my fork was made of gold. It sure looked like it was. On a journalist’s salary you don’t eat off very many gold forks. I was so nervous that I couldn’t eat much, but what I did eat was excellent.
Soon, Musharraf was making the rounds, greeting guests and having his photo made with just about everyone. Across the room, I saw another physician hand him a copy of The Paris News. Wanting to know why, I listened closely as the doctor explained that the newspaper contained a story about a Pakistani Presbyterian minister that visited Paris last week. The physician noted the favorable comments the minister had made about Musharraf.
He smiled as he read.
Whew! I could relax a bit.
Musharraf greeted other guests and then made his way toward me. We exchanged greetings, and then I asked him if I could ask him a couple of questions. Armed with Josh and Mary’s prep material, I asked away, but I never asked, “Why Paris? Why Paris Regional Medical Center? Why this doctor?” I already knew the answer.
I asked political questions, and he answered all of them except one. He wasn’t about to answer anything about the U.S. threatening to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age.”
I found Musharraf to be very easy to talk to, and was intrigued by what he had to say about his “Enlightened Moderation” initiative to “bring peace to the world.”
I was also impressed by the way he walked with his motorcade through the neighborhood so that he could greet neighbors who had been inconvenienced by the security measures required for his visit.
Before leaving the house, the physician placed the telephone number of a CNN reporter in Atlanta in my hand and said, “Would you please call this guy and tell them that he’s not in surgery and that you have seen him eating and standing and visiting?”
“Sure,” I said.
Back at the office, I called my wife and my mother before I called the CNN reporter.
“Hey, my voice may be on CNN in a few minutes,” I told them. “I’ve been asked to call CNN.”
My wife knew what had been going on, but it took a little explaining to get my mother up to speed.
The call to CNN was the first of many to major news outlets as those infamous talking heads I write about so often learned of my exclusive interview and started calling.
“So is this a drill or the real deal?” asked Kimberly Biederman of Fox News. “Did you see him?”
“Yeah I saw him. I got to talk with him for a few minutes,” I said.
In addition to my call to CNN, I provided assistance to the Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News and I don’t know how many others. Everyone wanted to know if Musharraf was healthy and what he said in my three-minute interview.
They also wanted to the name of the doctor, but I didn’t tell anyone.
Sometimes is pays to keep a secret — even a big secret.
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Cousin Ike ...
NEXT time there is to be a suprise like this ... please let me know in advance ..... LOL
Nemer |
