Posted on 09/24/2009 7:31:25 PM PDT by Saije
Ask Pakistanis why the United States needs to expand its embassy here in the capital and you'll hear a host of alarming answers.
It's a cover for the construction of a Guantanamo-like prison.
It's part of a U.S. attempt to colonize Pakistan.
It's the first step in a covert plan to take over Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
What you don't hear is the reason cited by American officials: the need for a bigger embassy operation to better manage the increased financial aid that Washington will be channeling to Pakistan in coming months...
Embassy officials have held briefings for Pakistani reporters to put out the word that the expansion is all about distributing funds more efficiently. And Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the aid illustrates long-term support for Pakistan.
The message is having trouble getting through.
The embassy expansion plans have spawned conspiracy theories that course through newspapers and blogs, reflecting the deep suspicion Pakistanis harbor about Washington.
An editorial in the Nation, a leading English-language daily, fretted that "there seems to be something fishy" in the embassy plan, theorizing that the United States' actual goal is to entrench itself in Central Asia to lay claim to its vast energy resources.
A petition filed in Pakistan's Supreme Court this month labels the expansion an attempt at colonization. Pakistani lawyer Zafarullah Khan, the petition's author, calls it the means by which the U.S. will "bring us down on our knees."
In an interview last week in a Pakistani newspaper, former intelligence chief Hamid Gul said the expansion masked Washington's real aim: to seize the country's nuclear arsenal.
"What I fear is that they really want to go for Pakistan's nuclear assets," Gul said. "They are inching closer to those nuclear assets day by day."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Bigger embassy, more staff, more jobs, more government spending, more government bureaucrats with desk jobs, more tax money, more US aid to terror supporting dictators...... the new US strategy for Afghanistan. If we cant increase the number of troops we can certainly increase the number of government officials and bureaucrats in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.