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India-Pakistan

US Senate passes Pakistan aid freeze legislation

2011-12-17

[Pak Daily Times] The US Senate passed a $662 billion defence bill on Thursday that also freezes some Pakistain aid, imposes sanctions on Iran's central bank, and approves the indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists.

The Democrat-led Senate voted 86-13 for the Defence Authorisation bill, which was passed on Wednesday by the House. President Barack I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go Obama was expected to sign it as early as this weekend after dropping a veto threat.

The measure, which also sets high hurdles for closing Guantanamo Bay, had drawn fire from civil liberties groups that strongly criticised its de facto embrace of holding alleged gun-hung tough guys without charge until the end of the "war on terrorism," which was declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Obama, who had threatened to veto earlier versions of the yearly measure, will sign it when it reaches his desk despite lingering misgivings, his front man Jay Carney said before the House vote on Wednesday.

The legislation, a compromise blend of rival House and Senate versions, requires that al Qaeda gunnies who plot or carry out attacks on US targets be held in military, not civilian, custody, subject to a presidential waiver.

The bill exempts US citizens from that fate, but leaves it to the US Supreme Court or future presidents to decide whether US nationals who sign on with al Qaeda or affiliated groups may be held indefinitely without trial.

The bill also freezes roughly $700 million in aid to Pakistain, pending assurances that Islamabad has taken steps to thwart forces of Evil who use improvised bombs (IEDs) against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

"If this legislation becomes law, we'll work with the government of Pakistain on how we can fullfil the requirements. But, this requires us to maintain a strategic perspective," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistain angrily criticised US moves to freeze the aid money - the latest rifts in a fraying alliance that has been in deep crisis since air strikes by US-led forces killed 24 Pak soldiers.

"We believe that the move in the US Congress is not based on facts and takes a narrow vision of the overall situation; hence, wrong conclusions are unavoidable," said Foreign Ministry front man Abdul Basit.

The legislation also brings tough new sanctions to Iran, with the aim to cut off Tehran's central bank from the global financial system in a bid to force the Islamic republic to freeze its suspect nuclear programme.

The goal is to force financial institutions to choose between doing business with the central bank - Iran's conduit for selling its oil to earn much-needed foreign cash - or doing business with US banks.

Posted by:Fred

#7 ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [PakNationalists.com] AWWW! NO [more] FRIED CHICKEN FOR US SOLDIERS IN AFGHANISTAN. Beginnings of MINOR-FOR-NOW HARDSHIPS as repor by returning US Soldiers.

ARTIC = Over 1/2 of US-NATO supplies into Afghainstan goes through critical Pakistan-based routes - despite US-NATO rhetoric to the contrary, US SOLDIERS MAY BE BEGINNING TO FEEL THE PINCH FROM PAKIS SUPPLY BLOCKADE AS FAVORITE AMER FOODS QUIETLY QUICKLY DISAPPEAR FROM BASE/
CAMP MENUS, e.g. FRIED CHICKEN + FRENCH FRIES; + NOW ON-BASE FOOD VENDORS CLOSE UP SHOP [e.g. Popeye's]???

Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-12-17 22:50

#6 Great article that touches on how we should conduct our foreign policy towards these types of regimes.

Its called A 4th approach:

excerpt...
The Fourth Way is Accountability and it is simple enough. Stop arguing over who will rule in which Muslim country. That is a decision that only the inhabitants of that country can make. And they wont make it through elections, so much as through dealmaking among their oligarchy, tribal leaders and occasional outbursts of armed force. It would take a massive project of decades to have any hope of changing that. But we dont need to. What we need to do is make very clear the consequences of attacking us to whoever is in charge.

Rather than trying to shape their behavior by shaping their political leadership, we can use a much more blunt instrument to unselectively shape all their leaders. A blunt instrument does not mean reconstruction. It doesnt mean Marines ferrying electrical generators. It doesnt mean nation building. It means that we will inflict massive devastation on any country that aids terrorists who attack us. If they insist on using medieval beliefs to murder us, we will bomb government buildings, roads, factories and power plants to reduce them back to a medieval state. We will not impose sanctions on them, we will simply take control of their natural resources and remove the native population from the area, as compensation for the expenses of the war.

Accountability means no more aid to tyrants or terrorists, and no grand democracy projects either. It means that we stop trying to pick a side, and just make it clear what happens when our side gets hurt. We gain energy independence and never look back. And when weve done that, the Muslim world will no longer be able to play America against Russia, against Asia and Europe. Instead it will suddenly find itself stuck with a predatory Russia looking for an energy monopoly, a booming China expanding into their part of the world, and no Pax Americana to protect them from either one.

America has provided the stability that kept many Muslim countries from imploding. It has protected others directly and indirectly from being conquered more times than anyone realizes. All the treachery and terrorism that has been carried out, has been done under an American umbrella. Now is the time to furl up the umbrella, and let the rain fall where it may.

It will be a cold day indeed, when Russia and China realize that they can do what they like in the Muslim world, without the US to stop them. And a colder day still, when European countries realize that there is nothing standing the way of deporting their insurgent Muslim populations, because the US will not lift a finger to protect them, as it did in Yugoslavia. That is accountability. And in both its active and passive forms it will exact a high price from the enemy, and none from us. To employ it, we must be prepared to use massive force casually without considering any collateral damage. We must achieve energy independence at any cost. And we must be prepared to realize that everything else we have tried has failed. Only by disengaging from the Muslim world, can we ever be free of it....

read the whole thing @

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25659

Posted by: Mikey Hunt 2011-12-17 19:47

#5 @#4 . . . . correct!

Posted by: Snineque Glolung9673 2011-12-17 19:42

#4 Cut it all off. Paks have to learn consequences for their backstabbing and shutoff of our logistics

Posted by: Frank G 2011-12-17 09:19

#3 What about the rest of the taxpayers' money? Last year's US jizya to Pak was $4.4 billion.

Posted by: Ulose Munster2089 2011-12-17 08:14

#2 "Earlier on Thursday, Pakistain angrily criticised US moves to freeze the aid money."

Heaven forbid if Pakistan had said something gentler such as "We always appreciate U.S. aid and hope it will continue."

Posted by: American Delight 2011-12-17 07:23

#1 Lets hope it isn't "too little, too late".

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-12-17 01:51

00:00