Arlen Specter: “I rise to comment about a trip which I made over the recess during the period from December 22 of last year to January 4…”

“I rise to comment about a trip which I made over the recess during the period from December 22 of last year to January 4 of this year on travels which I undertook with visits to the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Austria, and Belgium. The stop which Congressman Patrick Kennedy and I made in Pakistan was an extraordinary visit, a shocking visit, and a visit at a time of great tragedy. On Thursday, December 27, Congressman Kennedy and I were scheduled to meet with Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad. She had set the meeting for 9 p.m., at the end of a busy day of campaigning. While we were preparing to go that night to an earlier dinner with the President of Pakistan, President Musharraf, and then plans to go on to meet with Benazir Bhutto, we were informed, within 2 hours of our planned meeting with Ms. Bhutto, that she had been brutally assassinated. It was obviously a great shock, a great loss to Pakistan, obviously, a great loss to her family, and really a loss to the world because she had the unique potential to unite Pakistan and to provide leadership in a very troubled country. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and it is an ongoing matter of concern as to whether those nuclear weapons are being adequately protected. President Musharraf assured us that they were. So did the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And we accept those assurances.”