In the wake of the recent revelation(Which did not come as a surprise to many) that the Head Honcho himself was living in the midst of the Pakistani WestPoint without the "apparent"(or so they say) knowledge of the ISI/Army, one would expect that there would be a very strict review of the Aid that goes into that country.
However Senator's Kerry and Luger appear to be not willing to shake the boat too much. Considering that the "aid" cost the US taxpayer nearly 20 Billion $ over a period of 9 years(and more to come), and taking into account the severe shortage the states are experiencing now, its my view that this whole Aid thing has to be re-assessed.
Two of Pakistan's key supporters in the U.S. Congress have acknowledged "real and serious questions" about Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, but defend sending money to that country nonetheless.
Before people trash me for saying that we need to cut aid, hear me out.
I do NOT propose we cut aid to Pakistan. What I propose is that
we need Accountability with a big A. Over the past decade the US has been pretty much shoveling bucket loads of money into Pakistan without even verifying the Pakistani claim that the money was used to fight the terrorists.
Here are some interesting points to consider
#1Pakistani ISI chief, Lt General Mahmoud Ahmad transfered 100000$ to Mohamed Atta right before the Sept 11 Attacks.
The Pakistan connection
There is evidence of foreign intelligence backing for the 9/11 hijackers. Why is the US government so keen to cover it up?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/22/usa.september11
Omar Sheikh, a British-born Islamist militant, is waiting to be hanged in Pakistan for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit - of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Both the US government and Pearl's wife have since acknowledged that Sheikh was not responsible. Yet the Pakistani government is refusing to try other suspects newly implicated in Pearl's kidnap and murder for fear the evidence they produce in court might acquit Sheikh and reveal too much.
Significantly, Sheikh is also the man who, on the instructions of General Mahmoud Ahmed, the then head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), wired $100,000 before the 9/11 attacks to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker. It is extraordinary that neither Ahmed nor Sheikh have been charged and brought to trial on this count. Why not?
Summer 2001: ISI Chief Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad transfers $100,000 to 9-11 Ringleader Mohamed Atta.
4 September: Ahmad arrives in the US on an official visit.
4-9 September: He meets his US counterparts including CIA Head George Tenet.
9 September: Assassination of General Massood, leader of the Northern Alliance. Official statement by Northern Alliance points to involvement of the ISI-Osama-Taliban axis.
11 September: Terrorist Attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. At the time of the attacks, Lt General Ahmad was at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees Sen Bob Graham and Rep Porter Goss. Also present at the meeting were Sen. John Kyl and the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Maleeha Lodhi.
12-13 September: Meetings between Lt. General Ahmad and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Agreement on Pakistan's collaboration negotiated between Ahmad and Armitage. Meeting between General Ahmad and Secretary of State Colin Powell
^^ What is the punishment for the ISI chief? for funding the 9/11 Attackers? easy...he takes voluntary retirement and retires to live a cozy life. The same might happen to the current head...no accountability.
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#2Investigation: Nuclear scandal - Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan
The Pakistani scientist who passed nuclear secrets to the world’s rogue states has been muzzled by his government. In a smuggled letter, AQ Khan reveals his side of the storyhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6839044.ece
Just four pages long, it is an extraordinary letter, the contents of which have never been revealed before. Dated December 10, 2003, and addressed to Henny, Khan’s Dutch wife, it is handwritten, in apparent haste. It starts simply: “Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand.” In numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistan’s nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. It ends: “They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.”
There it was in the letter: “We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian).” It went on: “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).” (UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plant.)
^^ Do read the times Article..its literally mind blowing and gives insight into how the ISI/Army simply scapegoat people in order to escape any blame which should rightly fall on them
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#3
Kunduz airlift of 2001 (a.k.a "Airlift of Evil")
The Airlift of Evil refers to the evacuation of thousands of Pakistani military personnel, Afghan sympathizers, and some members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from the city of Kunduz during the week before its capture by the forces of the Northern Alliance during the early days of the Afghan war.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3340165/ns/world_news-brave_new_world/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airlift_of_Evil
In 2008, more details emerged in Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid:
One senior (U.S.) intelligence analyst told me, "The request was made by Musharraf to Bush, but Cheney took charge—a token of who was handling Musharraf at the time. The approval was not shared with anyone at State, including Colin Powell, until well after the event. Musharraf said Pakistan needed to save its dignity and its valued people. Two planes were involved, which made several sorties a night over several nights. They took off from air bases in Chitral and Gilgit in Pakistan's northern areas, and landed in Kunduz, where the evacuees were waiting on the tarmac. Certainly hundreds and perhaps as many as one thousand people escaped. Hundreds of ISI officers, Taliban commanders, and foot soldiers belonging to the IMU and al Qaeda personnel boarded the planes. What was sold as a minor extraction turned into a major air bridge. The frustrated U.S. SOF who watched it from the surrounding high ground dubbed it "Operation Evil Airlift." Another senior U.S. diplomat told me afterward, "Musharraf fooled us because after we gave approval, the ISI may have run a much bigger operation and got out more people. We just don't know. At the time nobody wanted to hurt Musharraf, and his prestige with the army was at stake. The real question is why Musharraf did not get his men out before. Clearly the ISI was running its own war against the Americans and did not want to leave Afghanistan until the last moment."
^^ It's evident that the ISi/Army and Musharraf fooled the US into thinking that they were airlifting a few of their men, while they ran an entire air-bridge basically letting thousands of Taliban and AQ operatives escape!
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#4Up to 70% of US aid to Pakistan 'misspent'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/27/pakistan.usaAbout Those Billions
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/10/21/about-those-billions.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#5Musharraf admits US aid divertedhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8254360.stmFormer president Pervez Musharraf says the US military aid given to Pakistan during his tenure was used to strengthen defences against India.
Mr Musharraf said he did not care if this diversion of aid angered the US.
"Whoever wishes to be angry, let them be angry, why should we bother? We have to maintain our security, and the Americans should know, and the whole world should know that we won't compromise our security, and will use the equipment everywhere."
Meanwhile, India said Mr Musharraf's statement merely confirmed "what we have suspected over a long time and what we have suggested all along".
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#6C.I.A. Outlines Pakistan Links With Militantshttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/world/asia/30pstan.html
That ISI officers have maintained important ties to anti-American militants has been the subject of previous reports in The New York Times. But the C.I.A. and the Bush administration have generally sought to avoid criticism of Pakistan, which they regard as a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haqqani_network--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#7Bali bombing suspect Umar Patek 'arrested in Pakistan'(in Abottabad- February)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12900555Bali bomber captured down the road from Bin Laden's secret compound
Leading Indonesian newspaper Koran Tempo quoted an anonymous intelligence source saying that Patek was in Abbottabad to plan terrorist acts to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Indonesia’s defence minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro confirmed that the two terrorists had been planning to meet.
‘Umar Patek was in Pakistan with his Filipino wife trying to meet Osama Bin Laden,’ he said. Another official added that Patek and his wife had travelled to Pakistan under false names to seek Bin Laden’s ‘support and protection’
^^ This guy, the most wanted Indonesian terrorist was caught in Abottabad Pakistan.. why would he come there? instead of going to other northern frontiers where the "tribal" regions which are supposedly the AQ "hangout"s? It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that he came to meet Osama. And the ISI apparently still "did not know" even though they caught him nearly 3 months ago.
Sure...the ISI did not know at all :eyes:
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#8Perpetuating the myth that that ISI and the army are separate entities.Probably one of the best propaganda successes Pakistan has had in this regard is to make people believe that the ISI and the Military are different entities. This cannot be further from the truth.
ISI is a joint forces department of Pakistani military (all the important officers are from army), somewhat similar to DIA in structure but with powers and influence comparable to what CIA+DIA+NSA enjoys.
The ISI officers are regular Paskistani Army officers transferred over to ISI from the Army. Most serve short terms and are transferred back.
The current army chief, Gen Ashfaq kiyani was director general of ISI right around the time OBL is supposed to have taken sanctuary in that compound, during gen pervez musharraf's reign.If one realizes that the current head of Military was also the ex-head of the ISI, it becomes clear that there is no such "split" between the ISI and the Army as the Pakistani government would have us to believe. In fact its well known from the wikileaks that even America knows this to be the case, and also is aware how much the Army/ISI actively aid and abet the Taliban/AQ.
There have been many instances in Afghanistan where NATO forces exchange fire/kill what they presumed to be Taliban/AQ only to realize that the targets/opponents were ISI working with the Taliban. Of course..the ARMY/ISI automatically term them "rouge operators" and are not affiliated with Pakistan.
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#9 Logan: Pakistan has U.S. "blood on its hands"http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20059243-503543.html
Other groups, including networks linked to the Taliban -- some of which were created explicitly by the nation's security agencies and which have broader anti-Western and anti-U.S. aspirations -- are given too much freedom, says Logan.
"If you walk in Arlington Cemetery, past the fresh graves of American soldiers coming back from the field over there, Pakistan has some of the blood on its hands. They need to answer for that."
How many thousand of American and other civilians lives would have been saved if this Americans staunchest ally on the war on terror actually stopped aiding the terrorists(let alone aiding the US in fighting them)....not to mention tipping Osama off every time about an impending American raid..except for the only time they did not let the ISI know (and they got himt he first time they didnt inform the ISI)
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To wrap up this long post, one suggestions from me
#ACut off any military aid that does NOT have a counter terrorist use. For example lets look at some of the military Aid Pakistan has gotten in the past
To use the old Red-Riding hood line
Granny Granny why do we give Pakistan
Upgraded f-16s. = so the Pakistan Airforce can shoot down Taliban fighter jets my dear child :)
Amraam and Tow missiles = to shoot down Taliban fighter jets and Main battle Tanks
Latest Air defense radars = Again to shoot down Taliban/AQ fighter jets and maybe glider borne Taliban invaders?
maritime recon and strike aircraft = to find and destroy Taliban Navy
An Oliver Hazzard Perry class destroyer - to check the Taliban Navy in the Indian ocean
:eyes:
^^ it would have been fun if not for how sad this is.
Lets look at this scenario....What if Russia starts giving free Fighter jets, Missiles, Radars, Submarines..Naval Ships to Mexico in the pretext of helping fight dissidents?..instead of giving them stuff that only is effective against low key militants.(lets assume that in this alternate universe the US and Mexico are sworn enemies and Mexico actively carries out/supports terrorist attacks inside US) What would the American reaction be? Now replace Mexico and the US with Pakistan and India...and the Russians with America and ask the same question again?
Its obvious from the evidence presented above, in the numerous articles and links that America knows exactly what Pakistan is doing..its deep seated duplicity and is still unwilling to realize the truth staring at its face.
Maybe the MIC wants the war to continue...and they do not care about the Billions being spent and the Thousands of Americans and Afghani/Pakistani lives being lost.
Maybe some politicians might not want to accept that they were "Dead wrong" in their strategy to ally with Pakistan that they keep this sorry story on just to save face.
They can try to do a couple of things immediately
#BEnsure that any humanitarian aid that is given should be disbursed under American oversight to the people..NOT to agencies which divert it to fund the military...the pockets of the generals...or even the AQ and Taliban. This would also serve to win the hearts and minds of the people.
#CDemand Accountability for every $ spent.The Current American policy towards Pakistan is a joke and has nothing to show except the lives of thousands of American servicemen...American/Pakistani Civilians...and the erasure of any goodwill towards America.
Furthermore Schools, services..and people here in America are in dire shortage of Money..Billions being wasted on indirectly funding the very people who Attack us should be used judiciously, sparingly and with full accountability..or it would be better served by giving it to the people here who have an urgent need for it.
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