Try to get your head around the arrogance of this. At the same time they are punishing Pakistan for the audacity of demanding that Washington stop killing its citizens with drone attacks
The truth is that the US is having its arse kicked.
No
money for you! US punishes Pakistan for sentencing doctor who helped
catch bin Laden
A
day after Pakistan sentenced a doctor who helped catch Osama bin
Laden to 33 years in prison, the US Senate retaliated – by docking
$1 million for every year of the sentence from their Pakistan aid
budget
RT,
24
Mayl, 2012
The
Senate Appropriations Committee already decided to slash the
assistance budget to its oft-unreliable ally by 58% from last year,
when Republican Senator Lindsey Graham proposed a symbolic and costly
amendment.
"We
need Pakistan, Pakistan needs us, but we don't need Pakistan
double-dealing and not seeing the justice in bringing Osama bin Laden
to an end," said
Graham.
The
amendment was voted for unanimously by both Republicans and Democrats
on the key financial committee.
“We’re
not going to be giving money to an ally that won’t be an
ally,” Graham
summed up.
Dr.
Shakil Afridi carried out a fake vaccination campaign, in reality
aimed at gathering the DNA of bin Laden's inner circle in the run up
to the raid that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist last May.
At
the time, Pakistan was offended that the US did not co-operate with
its security services when planning the operation on its territory.
The
authorities arrested Afridi soon after. On Wednesday, he was
convicted by a “frontier” court, with a government official
presiding instead of a judge. He was accused of working for a foreign
agency – the CIA.
The
US has pressed for Afridi’s immediate release.
Shakil
Afridi in 2010(AFP Photo/Mohaamad Rauf)
The
Appropriations Committee still decided to allocate a little under $1
billion in assistance to Pakistan, but promised to slash it further
if Pakistan continued to block US supply routes to Afghanistan.
Pakistan
says the block is a result of repeated drone attacks that have
accidentally killed
Pakistani civilians and soldiers.
The US claims Pakistan is using
the incidents to
“extort” more money for passage fees.
Democratic
Senator Patrick Leahy said, "If
this is cooperation, I'd hate like hell to see opposition."
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