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Pakistan Arrests Opposition Leader for Exposing Official Secrets, Harming National Interest

Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (archive)
Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (archive)
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Pakistan Arrests Opposition Leader for Exposing Official Secrets, Harming National Interest

Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (archive)
Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (archive)

Pakistan’s top investigation agency has arrested an opposition leader, who is a close aide of convicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan, for exposing official secrets and harming state interests, according to case documents revealed Sunday.
It’s the latest development in a standoff between the administration of outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his predecessor Khan, who was jailed earlier this month on graft charges, The Associated Press said.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi was arrested Saturday night at his Islamabad home by the Federal Investigation Agency on charges of exposing a letter last year to claim that Khan was ousted from power by the US.
The letter has not been made public but was apparently diplomatic correspondence between a Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
Cricketing hero Khan was booted out of parliament in April 2022 in a no-confidence vote. He insists his removal was engineered by Washington, Sharif's government and the military. All three deny the allegation.
Case documents about Qureshi’s arrest said he, Khan and others are involved in the communication of information in a secret classified letter to unauthorized people by “twisting the facts to achieve their ulterior motives and personal gains.”
The documents allege they conspired to misuse the contents of the letter to accomplish their “nefarious designs.”
Nobody from the Federal Investigation Agency was immediately available for comment.
Qureshi was arrested hours after he held a press conference Saturday evening demanding a level playing field for Khan's party, alleging that thousands of supporters are behind bars. He said the party will challenge any possible delay to elections, due to be held later this year.
Khan, who is serving a three-year term in a high security prison in eastern Punjab province, has also been arrested in the case, known locally as Cypher. Qureshi is standing in for Khan as leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI.
Sharif accused Khan of exposing an official secret document in an incident last year when he waved a confidential diplomatic letter at a rally.
Khan has more than 150 legal cases against him, including several on charges of corruption, “terrorism” and inciting people to violence over protests in May that saw his followers attack government and military property across the country.
Authorities have moved to rein in the outspoken politician’s supporters and allies since May, detaining thousands of Khan’s followers for their alleged involvement in the turmoil.

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Soldier who Blew Up Tesla at Trump Hotel Left Note Saying Blast Was to be a 'Wake Up Call' for US

Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
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Soldier who Blew Up Tesla at Trump Hotel Left Note Saying Blast Was to be a 'Wake Up Call' for US

Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS

A highly decorated Army soldier who fatally shot himself in a Tesla Cybertruck just before it blew up outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left notes saying the New Year's Day explosion was a stunt to serve as a “wake up call” for the country’s ills, investigators said Friday.
Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in one letter found by authorities and released Friday.
The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. According to The Associated Press, authorities said that Livelsberger acted alone.
Livelsberger's letters covered a range of topics including political grievances, societal problems and both domestic and international issues, including the war in Ukraine. He said in one letter that the US was “terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”
Tesla engineers, meanwhile, helped extract data from the Cybertruck for investigators, including Livelsberger’s path between charging stations from Colorado through New Mexico and Arizona and on to Las Vegas, according to Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren.
“We still have a large volume of data to go through,” Koren said Friday. “There’s thousands if not millions of videos and photos and documents and web history and all of those things that need to be analyzed.”
The new details came as investigators were still trying to determine whether Livelsberger sought to make a political point with the Tesla and the hotel bearing the president-elect’s name.
Livelsberger harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said. In one of the notes he left, he said the country needed to “rally around” Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” Spencer Evans, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said Friday.
Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Investigators have not yet explained how Livelsberger shot himself inside the Cybertruck while simultaneously igniting fireworks and camp fuel packed inside, causing the explosion.
Among the charred items found inside were a handgun at Livelsberger’s feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
In recent years Livelsberger confided to Alicia Arritt, a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse, that he faced significant pain and exhaustion she attributed to traumatic brain injury.
He opened up to Arritt, 39, whom he met and began dating in Colorado in 2018, about exhaustion, pain that kept him up at night, and reliving violence from his deployment in Afghanistan, Arritt said.
“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he told Arritt in text messages during their early days of dating that she shared with The Associated Press.
The Green Berets are highly trained US Army special forces who specialize in guerrilla warfare and unconventional fighting tactics. Livelsberger rose through the ranks and deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, according to the Army. He recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died.
He was awarded five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
Authorities searched a townhouse in Livelsberger's hometown of Colorado Springs Thursday as part of the investigation. Neighbors said the man who lived there had a wife and a baby.
Across-the-street neighbor Cindy Helwig said she last saw him when he asked to borrow a tool to fix an SUV.
“He was a normal guy,” said Helwig.
The explosion came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot to death by police. The FBI says they believe Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.