StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

A new report now indicates that Pakistan, the largest recipient of post-Sept. 11 Coalition Support Funding, has been diverting funds to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India rather than fight al-Qaeda/Taliban.  Anyone who cares should raise an eyebrow (or two).  Check the archives and you will see a consistency.  Trust Pakistan?  Not me!  You?

After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped.

In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.

The problems go beyond accountability for the funds.  On the one hand, billions of dollars may have been misspent.  On the otherhand, this misspending may have gone toward further destabilization of the Pakistan/Indian border region and toward a further militarization of the Pakistani nuclear capability.

While lawmakers have placed restrictions on the $300 million in military aid, and Secretary Rice asserts that Musharraf has, in fact, reinstated democratic rights following the ceasation of the state of emergency, no such restrictions have been placed on the CSF, leaving questions about how the Pakistani “democratic” government is using the funds.

So while the Pakistanis cry about not getting some of the equipment it says that it needs to fight al Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban, one should be questioning what Pakistan is actually doing with all of the funds.  Afterall, the concessions made by Musharraf to the Taliban in the FATA led to some of the instability to which Musharraf pointed when he declared his state of emergency (but isn’t it that Musharraf feared losing his control of the country’s leadership that led to the emergency declaration?).

In its article, Collateral Damage, the Center for Public Integrity raises the serious questions of accountability for the funds provided to Pakistan since 2002.  Their lead statement is: Human rights activists, critics of the Pakistani government and members of Congress all want to know, but most of the money — totaling in the billions — came through a Defense Department program subject to virtually no congressional oversight.

Billions in Aid, With No Accountability
Pakistan receives the most post-9/11 U.S. military funding, yet has failed to ferret out al Qaeda, Taliban leaders

That is a major finding of more than a year of investigation by the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). U.S. military aid to Pakistan since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks includes almost $5 billion in Coalition Support Funds, a program controlled by the Defense Department to reimburse key allies in the global war on terror. Pentagon reports that ICIJ obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests show that Pakistan is the No. 1 recipient of these funds…and that there is scant documentation of how the money was used…

…ICIJ’s data show that when all U.S. programs are combined, Pakistan’s increase in U.S. military aid in the three years after 9/11 is a stunning 50,000 percent, growing from just $9 million in the three years before the attacks to nearly $4.7 billion in the three years after. In the process, Pakistan has become the No. 3 recipient of U.S. military training and assistance, trailing only longtime leaders Israel and Egypt…

…The U.S. State Department rates Pakistan’s human rights record as poor and reports a long litany of abuses. That nourishes critics’ claims that U.S. largesse has been put to abusive purposes, including to buy weapons that have been turned against Pakistani civilians and to offer bounties on suspects the U.S. is seeking…

While recognizing that Pakistan has been of “some” help in the War on Terrorism, I, for one (at least), continue to question what appears to be a blind trust of the Pakistani government.

● Olga Oliker, an expert on U.S. defense policy and co-author of a recent RAND think tank report on the human rights performance of internal security forces in South Asia: “In implementing assistance,” she told ICIJ, “the U.S. has paid relatively little attention to human rights abuses and oversight. People weren’t paying attention.”

● Another “source”: “Right from the beginning it was very difficult to pin down what the costs were and how they were computed. Initially there were very round numbers reported. Now figures are coming out with more specificity. Whether or not they are inflated, it’s difficult to get a handle on that.”

● “The American-supplied military arsenal has been used against Baloch nationalists,” Sen. Baloch told ICIJ. “Sophisticated helicopters bought to control the drug trade have been misused against the Baloch people.” He said he and others have gone to the State Department, “and the State Department says [the U.S. has] given military hardware with no conditions.”

● Says T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia and Pacific at Amnesty International USA: “Pakistan is a solid dictatorship. The U.S. is being taken for a big ride. Musharraf is not the right person for the war. Powerful sections of the ISI [remain] involved with the Taliban. They’re waiting for time, biding their time.”

Storm note: That last bullet point is critical.  Pakistan is a dictatorship.  Many (or most) people remain convinced that Pakistan is our ally in the War on Terror…perhaps so, perhaps not.  But as with many other situations, whether in this region of the World or not, there are other agendas (some of the hidden agendas are the most devastating when they become better known). If you all feel that you want to trust Musharraf and/or Pakistan, it is your right to do so…This writer continues to see Pakistan more as a destabilizing factor in the World.  In my opinion, we are failing miserably in recognizing that national and regional conflicts and discontents trump the Global War on Terrorism…Pakistan is a perfect example.  Miscalculating the tribal influences in Afghanistan is another…not recognizing the Bedouin influence in Iraq is still another (T.E. Lawrence learned it in 1916-1918…we seem to treat that lesson as just another movie).

For comments on another of our “allies,” Saudi Arabia, please see Right Truth, The Saudis Are Coming, from one of her guest authors.

You can vote for this article at Real Clear Politics or (maybe) here (if you wish, of course)

al Qaeda, balochistan, Center for Public Integrity, Coalition Support Funding, Condoleeza Rice, Pakistan India, T.E. Lawrence, Taliban, u.s. department of defense, U.S. State Department