Report on Seymour Hersh's comments on Bhutto murder bogus

Dubai: Gulf News has dismissed as bogus a story quoting the UAE-based newspaper's interview with US journalist Seymour Hersh about a White House conspiracy.

Hersh also denied ever making the comments. He told Gulf News in an email that he was not aware of who had written the bogus story.

Watch interview with Seymour Hersh

A story purportedly from Pakistan quoted Hersh as telling "an Arab TV channel" that an assassination wing—headed by former US vice president Dick Cheney—was responsible for the assassination of Pakistan former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The article also named Gulf News as the paper to which Hersh said on May 12 that "Ms Bhutto was assassinated because the US leadership did not want [Osama] Bin Laden to be declared dead".

Gulf News did interview Hersh on May 12, in which the journalist dismissed Cheney's involvement in Hariri's assassination, however, the published interview made no reference to Bhutto.

It appears that the story originated from Pakistan and quickly spread on blogs and even websites of the Wall Street Journal and Pakistan's the Dawn newspaper. Most newspapers have removed the link to the story.

Meanwhile, the Economist alleged that the bogus story first appeared in Pakistan's The Nation paper, which has not removed the story from its web site.

Gulf News has distanced itself from the reports and denied the suggestion that the comment attributed to Hersh was published in the paper or appeared in a Gulf News' video interview with him.