Related: U.S. Senate Starts Split From Pakistan
Think what you want of Pakistanis and their lifestyles, America. One thing can be said of them: they are not stupid. They see the writing on the wall.
"More controls sought on aid to Pakistan; Tierney, Lynch want distribution monitored" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | December 10, 2009
WASHINGTON - Two Massachusetts representatives and witnesses at a House hearing yesterday said more safeguards may be required to make sure $1.5 billion a year in US development aid to Pakistan is not spent inappropriately or skimmed off in corruption.
Like the U.S has any standing on that issue.
And the Pakistani Army was already upset by the deal. That's American arrogance for you.
Representatives John F. Tierney and Stephen F. Lynch, both of Massachusetts and both members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said they plan to increase scrutiny of the aid to Pakistan, which was pushed through Congress by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry.
Related: AmeriKan MSM Back to the Same Pack of Lies on Pakistan
Protesting Pakistanis Fly American Flag
Maybe they would rather we leave, huh?
“What has been troubling us is all this money going over there - how are you going to monitor it?’’ said Tierney, who chairs the committee, after a hearing he called to consider ways of guiding the money into the right hands. “If Congress doesn’t do something about this, we are part of the problem.’’
Then STOP FUNDING the WAR-LOOTING OCCUPATIONS and WARS, dip!
The Obama administration is still struggling to determine the best way to deliver the aid. The assistance would give Pakistan up to $1.5 billion per year for civilian development projects during the next five years.
Not that you need that money for anything, America. I mean, you are only 12 TRILLION dollars in the whole and adding another $1.5 trillion this year and next.
And I'll bet the Pakistanis would rather have us leave than the money.
As the security situation deteriorates in Pakistan, with near-daily bombings and an all-out military assault on vast swaths of the country, both US and Pakistani officials have expressed urgency about delivering the funds.
It's amazing how SELDOM THOSE THINGS make my WAR PAPER!
But some of the money is aimed at insurgent-infested areas that are too dangerous for Americans to visit. And Tierney expressed “serious concerns’’ about the ability of the US Agency for International Development to monitor projects “without ever seeing them in person.’’
But not when the money is going to Halliburton or KBR.
He and Lynch said distribution of the money may have to be delayed while such problems are solved. Even in relatively peaceful areas of the country, added Tierney, US officials face a dilemma. If money is guided for projects through US contractors, officials will face criticism that not all of the money is reaching its intended beneficiaries. But channeling the aid through the Pakistani government could fuel corruption and infighting, he said.
As if U.S. contractors are as pure as the driven snow!
“We have to come up with the right idea before we pump more money in to the system,’’ Lynch said.
Yeah, unless they are BANKS!!!
Three witnesses called by Tierney yesterday expressed skepticism that hastily delivered aid will have the desired effect. “In any country in the world, if you spend vast amounts of money with little oversight, you end up fueling corruption,’’ said Andrew Wilder, research director at Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center.
Samina Ahmed, an Islamabad-based project director for the International Crisis Group, said Pakistani authorities will probably not be able to reach the people in the tribal areas who need it most. “Do they have the capacity to deal with that amount of money? No, they don’t,’’ she said.
C. Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, expressed doubt about a possible plan to bring US contractors in to quickly train Pakistani police to “hold’’ areas that Pakistan’s army is currently clearing. “This just seems an impossible task,’’ she said, suggesting that viable security forces need far more time to develop. She suggested the aid money be used instead to give Pakistan’s government an incentive to institute needed political changes, such as bringing the tribal areas under the same laws as the rest of the country.
Let's just KEEP the MONEY and LEAVE THEM ALONE, huh?
But many Pakistanis, especially in the military, vehemently oppose US conditions placed on the aid, saying they denigrate Pakistan’s sovereignty. Conditions that Tierney and his colleagues placed on the military assistance in the aid package caused an uproar that the Obama administration had to smooth over.
Yeah, and just after the military stood up to the U.S. the place was ravaged by a wave of car bomb and suicide attacks!!!
What a coincidence, huh?
--more--"
CIA Supporting Terror Inside Pakistan
Yeah, the Pakistan military knows it and they know who are the AmeriKan tools.
"Pakistan high court ends amnesty; Zardari remains immune while he holds office" by Jane Perlez, New York Times | December 17, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Supreme Court struck down a controversial amnesty yesterday that had dismissed allegations of corruption against thousands of Pakistan’s politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, effectively restoring the cases against them.
As president, Zardari is granted immunity from prosecution under the constitution. But the Supreme Court order is expected to reverberate across Pakistan’s rocky political landscape and to further weaken the standing of Zardari, whom the United States has tried to support as a partner in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Petitions challenging Zardari’s eligibility as a presidential candidate are expected to follow from the ruling, and about a dozen senior members of Zardari’s coterie of advisers will probably face renewed corruption cases. They include the interior minister, Rehman Malik, who is perceived as being particularly close to the Americans; the defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar; and Zardari’s chief of staff, Salman Farooki, said Babar Sattar, a lawyer and analyst of the amnesty policy. Even as the court ruling was awaited yesterday afternoon, a former law minister, Syed Iftikhar Gillani, said the government ministers facing renewed corruption charges should resign.
Zardari and his supporters noted that he has never been convicted, despite having spent 11 years in jail, proof they say that the cases arrayed against him are political vendettas without substance and aimed at undermining the civilian government’s agenda, which is pro-American, in the face of a resurgent military. Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the president, said Zardari and the Pakistan Peoples Party respected the court and its verdict. But he stressed the president’s immunity....
In all, nearly 6,000 politicians and bureaucrats across all political parties, including the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif, benefited from the amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Order, according to filings with the Supreme Court.
More than 10 days of hearings on the amnesty before the Supreme Court have driven home the impression among the public that Pakistan’s politicians reap vast financial benefits beyond their meager salaries and often stash their gains abroad in flashy apartments, offshore accounts, and businesses.
In other words, their politicians are no different than anyone else.
The amnesty was devised in 2007 during the presidency of General Pervez Musharraf with the help of the United States and Britain as a way to engineer the return of Zardari’s wife, the two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, after years in exile. One of Bhutto’s chief demands was the dropping of a corruption cases that hung over the couple. In December 2007, Bhutto was assassinated as she left a political rally, and Zardari assumed leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party and became president nine months later.
I'm always amazed at how quickly they skip past that lady's assassination.
Related (about three clicks down): Pakistan's American Face
Of most interest to the court, led by the feisty Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was the question of who had authorized the return of $60 million in suspect gains of Zardari to offshore companies in his name after the government withdrew criminal proceedings against him in Switzerland last year.
Also read: This Time, Iftikhar Chaudhry Is A Hero
The Supreme Court said in its decision that the withdrawal of the cases against Zardari in Switzerland, which was ordered by the former Attorney General, Malik Qayyum, was illegal and that the government should contact the Swiss authorities to restore the proceedings....
One possible basis for a challenge, lawyers including Sattar said, is that Zardari failed to appear when he was called before the High Court in Lahore after he was released from jail in 2004, and may therefore be considered an absconder. Under Pakistani law, absconding is akin to conviction....
Whether or not the Supreme Court ruling sets off such a chain of events, Zardari’s political fortunes have sunk perilously low just 15 months into his five-year term. American officials, who consider Zardari the rightfully elected leader, described the president as desperately trying to find ways to hang on....
--more--"Related: Pakistan denies coup as court ruling rocks Zardari government
"In visa snags, Pakistanis seem to send US a message" By Anne Gearan, Associated Press | December 17, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has held up visas for US diplomats, military service members, and others, apparently because of hostility within the country toward the expansion of US operations in Pakistan, a senior US diplomat said yesterday.
Translation: They DO NOT LIKE the FALSE FLAG ATTACKS!!!
American diplomats have also been stopped repeatedly at Pakistani checkpoints as part of what US officials say is a wider focus on foreigners working in Pakistan. The US cars are searched, although diplomats are told to open the trunk but to refuse access to the passenger compartment. The visa holdup is the latest tangible sign of the volatility of official US-Pakistani relations. The two nations have an improving military relationship but mistrust and suspicion still shadow many government interactions, including US attempts to help Pakistan.
What an ABSOLUTE LIE about the military, huh?
The US diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive interaction between the two countries, said that the visa clampdown seems to be a reaction to widespread anti-American sentiment, even though many of the affected workers would be doing jobs that bring aid and other help to Pakistan.
Yeah, our CIA and Blackwater spooks are "helping out."
The official said the reaction is probably temporary and that the United States does not plan to do more than press Pakistani authorities to relent. The US Embassy is large and expanding, with plans to go from about 500 employees to more than 800 over the next 18 months. Most of the growth is related to the expansion of US aid to Pakistan, some of which comes with requirements for accounting and oversight that have rankled Pakistanis....
What cover story crap!
The official said that among those whose visas were held up are mechanics who tend to a fleet of US helicopters that supports Pakistani military operations in the frontier areas.
Related: Blackwater missile-load contract canceled
Mechanics, huh, MSM?
The helicopters stopped flying when there were insufficient mechanics to maintain them, the official said. Some visas were approved after Pakistani authorities inquired about the grounded helicopters. In October, President Obama signed into law a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan. Pakistan’s military criticized the aid as American meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
Yup!
The measure provides $1.5 billion annually over five years for economic and social programs. Pakistan has suffered a string of violent militant attacks and bombings as its military orchestrates an offensive into the Taliban heartland.
As if it were a work of art! How disgusting!
The aid package is the Obama administration’s attempt to strengthen the weak civilian government in Islamabad and encourage its fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants operating along the border with Afghanistan, where the United States is in its eighth year of war. The stability of a nuclear-armed Pakistan is deemed crucial to US-led efforts to battle extremists in South Asia....
Yup, the NEO-CON GOALS for ALL TO SEE!!!
Related: You Have to Get Up Pretty Early in the Morning to Fool a Pakistani
Yeah, they ain't fooled like the Amurkn audience!
"The question is, what can and is the US prepared to do to prevent Zardari from being forced to resign in this matter?? The Pakistani military, which has been a very vocal and visible part of the running of Pakistan since its inception, doesn't particularly like to be perceived as the henchmen for the US's orders on the "War On Terror", which has them them to literally declare a war against their own people. That war is having an horrendous effect on the Pakistani people, with thousands being displaced due to military raids. The scenario, should Zardari be forced to resign, does not augur well for the US's geopolitical plans for Pakistan....
Pakistan is the next US target in its "War on Terror". One has to wonder, in light of the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country, when the US will decide that it must "save Pakistan from itself". It will be interesting to see, if Zardari is forced to step down due to corruption charges, how that process will play itself out....
One has to wonder if that person who may well replace Zardari has been picked by the US because the US and NATO see this individual potentially "more compliant" with US/NATO demands." -- Wake the Flock Up