One of the immediate consequences of Hillary Clinton’s apology to Pakistan earlier this month for a Afghanistan/Pakistan border incident (in which Pakistani troops fired on coalition forces, prompting a deadly retalitory response) is that it has re-opened the U.S. taxpayer spigot for Pakistan.
The Pakistani Express Tribune reported late last week:
Now that ties between Pakistan and US are fast thawing, Islamabad has sent the first Coalition Support Fund (CSF) bills to Washington since the US Navy SEALs raid to hunt down Osama bin Laden in May last year.
The Joint Staff headquarters has sent fresh CSF claims to Pentagon, a senior official from the finance ministry told The Express Tribune. Neither the ministry nor the US Embassy in Pakistan disclosed the exact amount of the claims, but it is said to be between $500 and $600 million.
During the earlier stalemate, both the military and civilian leadership had maintained national pride and sovereignty were more important than financial gains. Pakistan had decided not to send any receipts for expenditures incurred from the May 1, 2011 US raid which killed Osama Bin Laden to the air strike that claimed the lives of over 24 Pakistani soldiers at the Salala check post on November 24.
However, the first bill sent to Pentagon since the raid in Abbottabad on May 1 last year is, interestingly, for expenditures incurred during the same period.
The report also notes:
Replying to another question, Stroh said Obama’s administration had notified the Congress regarding reimbursement of existing claims worth $1.1 billion. According to standard procedure, the Congress has 15 days from the day of the notification to object to the claims. If no objections are raised, the administration is allowed to complete the transaction.
Now remember that Pakistan sheltered Osama bin Laden for at least several years, and evidence indicates that he was in “routine contact” with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency based on evidence gathered during the bin Laden raid.
Also remember that the Pakistani doctor that aided the CIA in tracking down bin Laden’s location was given a 33 year prison sentence.
And last September, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen testified before Congress that Pakistan was “exporting violence” to Afghanistan by funding the anti-coalition forces Haqqani network:
Appearing on Capitol Hill today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen maintained their hard-line stance that Pakistan has to do more to rein in the Haqqani Network that uses safe havens on the Pakistani side of the border to launch attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Mullen even went so far as to say that Pakistan is “exporting violence” and that Pakistan’s intelligence agency provided the Haqqanis with support for their recent terror attacks in Kabul.
Mullen went further than defense officials who’ve said that the Haqqani Network was responsible for the recent terror attacks in Kabul prior to former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani’s assassination, although the bomber’s affiliation has yet to be determined.
The Haqqanis are “veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency [ISI],” he said in opening remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee, adding that it had provided the Haqqanis with support to conduct the Kabul attacks[…]
Mullen said Pakistan’s government has chosen to “use violent extremism as an instrument of policy,” which jeopardizes its relationship with the United States and its role as a player in the region.
Speaking of its support for the Haqqani Network, Mullen said, “they may believe that by using these proxies they are hedging their bets, or redressing what they feel is an imbalance of regional power. But, in reality, they have already lost that bet.”
He added that by “exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic well-being.”
According to Adm. Muller, our partners in the War on Terror are actually net exporters of terror. Perhaps the most notorious example is the critical support role that the Pakistani ISI played in the November 2008 swarm attack on Mumbai by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group. And the jihadist ideology that inspires Islamic terrorism is a matter of official policy and indoctrination in Pakistan’s army.
So courtesy of the Obama State Department, led by Hillary Clinton, U.S. taxpayers are back to paying for Pakistan’s exporting of terror.
Hey America, how’s that “smart power diplomacy” working out for you?
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