On Friday, the day after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan, my husband and I saw Charlie Wilson’s War at the Balboa. The movie was okay, perhaps a bit too slick, but entertaining. The moment that was most interesting was when a collective “what?!” went up from the small audience about 15 minutes into the film, when Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) goes to the podium to present Pakistani President Zia (Om Puri) with an award, beginning her speech with this statement: “President Zia did not kill Bhutto.”

Benazir Bhutto’s latest book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West, will be published by Harper in April.

Relevant media:
Charlie Rose’s 2006 interview with Bhutto
Pakistan: Eye of the Storm, by BBC correspondent Owen Bennett Jones