Posted on 02/26/2009 5:29:15 AM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
WASHINGTON: The United States is lining up billions of dollars in new economic and military aid to Pakistan despite reports that Islamabad is using American tax-payer money for deals with the Taliban and accounts of US arms ending up in the hands of the extremists.
Amid an ongoing review of the so-called Af-Pak policy initiated by the Obama administration, Washington, under pressure from influential Senator John Kerry among other lawmakers and lobbyists, is said to be considering a one-time $ 5 billion aid to Pakistan over and above the $ 1.5 billion annual package for ten years currently under review for passage through Congress.
Releasing a report by the think-tank Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Kerry, who is also the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is in a position to pilot the aid package, raised the prospect of a total collapse in Pakistan if it was not helped urgently.
"If we fail, we face a truly frightening prospect: terrorist sanctuary, economic meltdown, and spiraling radicalism, all in a nation with 170 million inhabitants and a full arsenal of nuclear weapons," he said. "The stakes could not be higher, and [this] report could not be more timely."
The 27-page report calls for "a total of $4-5 billion above the (Biden)-Kerry-Lugar proposals and beyond the IMF and other loans from the US. and other sources," for Pakistan. Of this, it recommends, about $3 billion should go to the economic and social sectors directly. About $1 billion of fresh or redirected funds would go to security forces -- both military and law enforcement.
US government reports in recent times have detailed how Pakistan has misused billions in aid for a military build-up against India instead of using it for the intended war on terror. Audits have also detailed million of dollars in fraudulent claims by the Pakistani military. Reimbursement to Pakistan have been halted for several minths because of this but are set to resume soon after the Obama administration has given a green signal pending further audits.
More recent accounts from Pakistan have described how high end US military equipment is ending up with extremists through arms bazaars in the country's frontier. Earlier this week, reports from Pakistan detailed $ 6 million paid through back channels to the Taliban in the latest truce in Swat with more in the pipeline.
Reports of enhanced American aid to a suspect ally at a time of economic woes in the US has caused consternation in strategic circles.
"Not only is the United States paying the Pakistani government to abdicate territory to the Taliban, we get to fund the Taliban as well," said Bill Roggio, an expert in the war on terror, questioning the Kerry-Lugar proposal aimed to tripling military aid to Pakistan.
"It's time for the US. government to ask if it is getting a good return on its investment. Considering that more than $3.8 billion of $5 billion of US. aid to Pakistan has gone unaccounted for and the Taliban is being funded by the US, perhaps the answer is no," Roggio, who runs the blog Long War Journal, added.
Kerry made no mention of any Pakistani transgression in his alarming presentation as he pushed for increased aid amid intense Pakistani lobbying in Washington. Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, its Army chief Pervez Ashraf Kiyani, and the ISI Director-General Shuja Pasha have been in intense consultations with US interlocutors this week to seek a bail-out for Islsmabad, warning that a meltdown in Pakistan can affect the neighborhood and the whole world.
Although the Atlantic Council report has several recommendations to temper Pakistan's militaristic outlook, its embrace of extremism, and the need to promote peace with India, the proposed aid is not contingent on Islamabad living up to any benchmarks.
The report largely glosses over the Mumbai attack, in which 159 people including six Americans died, while empathizing with Islamabad for its predicament in initiating action against those who plotted the carnage.
"Pakistan must clearly do more to neutralize and control terrorist organizations operating on its soil and hence must meet some demands it believes are harsh and too biased towards Indian preferences," it says on the Mumbai attack, but adds, "Giving Pakistan leeway to do so on its own timetable may be a way out and prevent the government from being seen as doing so at India's bidding."
Makes one so eager to pay taxes!
Sure, fund the people that are fighting our soldiers, that makes a whole lot of sense.
These people are dangerous.
Letting Pak collapse into 4-5 independent stans is the best outcome. Riven by ethnic divisions, these stans will squabble, rely on external support and occupy themselves there.
Pak’s collapse would be the best, hardest and most irrecoverable blow to terrorism the world has seen in a long time.
I guarantee that the MSM will NEVER show this! If the American public would wake the HECK up....people, these morons in office have a few things in mind:
-Destroy this country
-Take the wealth and power
At some point we need to uphold the Constitution!
Un-freaking-believable.
I’m leaning toward the “fix what Ghandi couldn’t” or didn’t want too. I’m not big on genocide, but if it weren’t for nuc’s India could pretty much take care of the Pakistan problem. By giving up on a free India and allowing the Muslim’s to start up Pakistan, the “problem” got a giant generational shift.
Now we have an interesting balance of power problem coupled with the Taliban running a good portion of Pakistan, while India gets hammered in a terrorist attack, and just can’t wait for the next one.
I think we are on the same page.
“Makes one so eager to pay taxes!”
Daschle style.
"Paks collapse would be the best, hardest and most irrecoverable blow to terrorism the world has seen in a long time.
I agree, but only if the nukes can be extracted.
The Taliban and Alqaeda
May as well just send them missiles, bombs, poisonous agents and instruction manuals.
Madness!
That;s our boy Bama.
Who said he isnt Muslim.?
A few billion here, a few billion there. Who keeps count? Certainly not Geithner. He can’t even do TurboTax.
Those billions are going to end up killing our guys in Afghanistan.
>>”Not only is the United States paying the Pakistani government to abdicate territory to the Taliban, we get to fund the Taliban as well,” said Bill Roggio,
Roggio is sounding more like an Indian than even the majors and colonels of the US Army stationed in Afghania, lol.
>>Roggio is sounding more like an Indian than even the majors and colonels of the US Army stationed in Afghania, lol.
Maybe, maybe not.
Its no secret what the basic premise of NATO policy seems to be in that region.
And it is that terrorism is terrorism only when western targets are hit, and when Indian targets are hot, oh, it must be some regional differences like Kashmir.
Baloney.
Apart from rank hypocrisy against a fellow secular-pluralistic-giant democracy, its self-defeating in the long run.
NATO is allowing a monster to grow in the region by not strangling the Pak army-ISI nexus that directly feeds and the Taliban/Al Qaeda jihadists.
I repeat, ‘Give peace a chance, destroy Pakistan’. Rather, allow it to commit (assisted) suicide. Withdraw all life-support such as emergency aid etc. Then see how long they last.
We already funnel billions into saudi arabia and a large chunk of that goes to terrorist support so why not just cut out the oil fields and dump cash right in their laps?
It’ll save us money in the long run.
>>its self-defeating in the long run.
Well, yes, that’s what I mean, but, the key is not Afghania but Pakistan, where things are nicely simmering.
Hey, I’m an optimist. I want Pakistan like an icecream cone melting in the summer sun.
Which, inshallah, it is doing rather swimmingly right now.
>>>Indian targets
Yes, of course, like the Bombay 2006 Train Attacks, hardly mentioned by anyone even when referring to London, Madrid, etc.
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