US pays Pakistan to hunt down terror suspects

[Bull]

Nice reply!
keep it up.
Kashif

Nice reply uh, so you also think we said what he claims. Why dont you just post one such posts of ours. Lets see.

 

[Samudra]

Indulge me for an off-topic rant.

I think one of the fundamental mistakes Muslims make is to assume everybody of the other religion defends their religion for the heck of it and practice it fearing hell and wishing for heavens and whatnots.

Unfortunately, the world has moved on leaving the pious and religious very far behind. The majority of Kaffirs don't subscribe and follow their books to the T. They don't defend their religions blindly. They know better than books with many pages and chapters.

I'm afraid the religiosity of Muslims is driving the guys on the other side of the pool to be more assertive about their faiths. Sigh...the world could have been a better place without religions.

 

[Neo]

U.S. official defends Pakistan as ally

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
Mon May 21, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite persistent unease about Pakistan's commitment to the U.S.-led war on terrorism, a senior U.S. official on Monday said Islamabad has been increasingly active in repelling Taliban and al Qaeda forces on the Afghan border.

Trying to allay doubts about Pakistan's credibility as the U.S. Congress considers new aid funding requests, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said Islamabad has taken a more aggressive approach since December that has gone largely unacknowledged.

"They've had 80,000 troops in that (border) area who've been active and I would say, for the last six months they've been increasingly active in preventing infiltration across the border, disrupting and arresting Taliban and supporting tribal leaders who are trying to expel foreign militants," Boucher said in an interview.

But a congressional aide who follows the issue was skeptical, saying: "I haven't heard anyone make that claim."

The United States enlisted Pakistan as a front-line ally in the anti-terror war after the 9/11 attacks, but since then discomfort with Islamabad's commitment has grown.

In February, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Afghanistan and Pakistan and urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to take tougher action against militants on his side of the lawless border where U.S. commanders say radical fighters are training.

'SOURCES OF INSTABILITY'

Late last month, top U.S. counter-terrorism officials Frank Urbanic and Russ Travers said that "despite Pakistan's effort to eliminate threats and to establish effective governance in the (border region), these tribal areas continue to be terrorist safe havens and sources of instability for Pakistan and its neighbors."

They said Pakistan's military has raided al Qaeda and other militant safe havens. But they said tribal leaders in North Waziristan, a hotbed of support for Islamist militancy, failed to fulfill promises to cooperate with efforts to quell militants under an agreement with Musharraf, leading to additional insurgent infiltration.

A U.S. official, elaborating on Boucher's comments, said North Waziristan is only one part of the region and while the September agreement led to a pullback of Pakistani troops and removal of some checkpoints, much of that has been reversed.

This includes the redeployment of Pakistani troops from the Indian border to the Afghan border, the official said.

A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion since 2001 but there is little accountability.

That includes some $700 million a year in economic, military, education, health and democracy-promotion assistance plus about $100 million per month in reimbursements to cover Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts.

Critics argue that given Pakistan's track record, the largely unregulated counter-terrorism funds, in particular, have been a waste of money.

Boucher, who oversees South and Central Asia, said much of the $700 million annual aid is for "shared" objectives to help Pakistan become a more moderate and modern society. This includes plans to spend $750 million over the next five years to develop remote tribal areas, he said.

Asked about Musharraf's decision not to allow exiled former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to return home for elections later this year, Boucher said while Washington supports free and fair polls, the exiled leaders "have issues with the Pakistani judicial system and I'm not in a position to judge. Those have to be solved by Pakistan."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070522/wl_nm/pakistan_usa_dc_1

 

[Neo]

Army not receiving $1 billion per year from US: ISPR

ISLAMABAD (May 24 2007): A spokesman of ISPR on Wednesday contradicted remarks and opinions voiced by the anchor person and participants during the programme "Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Saath", that Pakistan Army receives one billion dollar per year on account of participation in global war on terrorism from USA.

He stated that Pakistan Army does not get any reimbursement or financial support directly from any foreign country. "Whatever support is being given to Pakistan is provided to the government of Pakistan," he said adding Pakistan Army like other institutions and establishments of the state requests the government of Pakistan for assistance and financial support as per its requirement through a well established institutional framework which is totally transparent and its expenditures are subject to checks and audit as part of the existing system.

The spokesman also debunked media reports and clarified that Pakistan Army has not received one billion dollar per year for participation in the 'War on Terror' as has been reported in the press and in this programme. Reports appearing in the press and as highlighted in the programme are baseless, distortion of facts and malicious in intent to malign and denigrate the military, the spokesman added.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=568141&currPageNo=2&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

 

[Neo]

Pakistan largest recipient of anti-terror funds: report

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, May 23: Pakistan is the largest recipient of US assistance from a fund created to support Washington’s war on terror, says a new study released on Wednesday. In the first four years after 9/11, Pakistan received more than $3 billion from the Coalition Support Fund.

The report by the Centre for Public Integrity, a Washington-based non-profit organisation, claims that at one point, Pakistan was billing the US government for almost $200 million per quarter for assistance in hunting down terrorists on the Afghan border.

Because of CSF, Pakistan now ranks as one of the largest recipients of US military aid and assistance, rivalling long-time US favourites Israel and Egypt.

“With the possible exception of Iraq reconstruction funds, I’ve never seen a larger blank check for any country than for the Pakistan CSF programme,” Tim Rieser, a key adviser to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and the majority clerk on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on foreign operations, told the surveyors. “CSF is a backwater of lax oversight and poor accountability.”

The report claims that when Senator Jack Reed, another Democrat, returned from an October 2006 trip to Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, he noted that “the US Defence Representative Office [in Islamabad] recommends changing the Coalition Support Fund programme to paying for specific objectives that are planned and executed, rather than simply paying what the country bills.”

The CSF programme was created in the series of emergency supplemental appropriations that Congress passed after the 9/11 attacks.

Unlike ordinary US military training and financing programmes, such as the International Military Education and Training programme or the Foreign Military Financing programme, which provide grants, CSF reimburses approved governments for the cost of fuel, ammunition, security and airlift and the like for counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The report says that in some countries, human rights have suffered as authoritarian regimes are rewarded for their strategic and political importance. Often times, military aid was given with little oversight by Congress, it said.

The change in priorities often came at the cost of human rights and fiscal accountability, according to the report.

http://dawn.com/2007/05/24/top9.htm