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Author Topic:   Pak fleecing US in war on terror - American auditors report
venusdeindia
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posted June 28, 2008 04:55 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote



Pak fleecing US in war on terror


quote:
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has been fleecing the US with exaggerated and sometimes fabricated expenses for its role in the war on terror, American auditors have reported, just hours after the Bush administration forked out $ 523 million in the latest payout to its ally.

Washington has paid more than $5 billion to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism expenses of which the administration could not account for as much as $ 2 billion, according to a Government Accounting Office (GAO) audit presented before a Congressional committee on Tuesday.

The GAO report spoke of auditors uncovering an array of dodgy costs, including millions "spent" on roads and bunkers that were never built. Islamabad also billed $200 million for an air defence radar system, even though al-Qaida has no known aircraft.

The GAO disclosures, which first surfaced last month, led some US experts to conclude that Pakistan has used the money from the war on terror to bulk up its military for future confrontation with India.

A more detailed scrutiny of the GAO report now reveals wide range of questionable billing, including inflated expense for meals and vehicle maintenance. At one time, the defence department was paying the Pakistani navy more than $3.7 million per year in repair and maintenance charges on a fleet of fewer than 20 passenger vehicles that was never used in combat. The charges amounted to more than $19,000 per month for each vehicle.

The report said that more than a third of US funds provided to Pakistan after 9/11 were subject to accounting problems, including duplication and possible fraud.

Pakistan is the largest recipient of the so-called Coalition Support Funds that the Bush administration launched in 2001, receiving more than $5.5 billion of the nearly $7 billion distributed to 27 countries.

There was the predictable volley of questions and criticism when the matter came up on Tuesday before lawmakers tasked with oversight and government reform, even as their colleagues in other committees were busy forking out more money to Pakistan.

"The more I learn about US coalition support funds to Pakistan, the more I am troubled: first, in terms of waste, fraud, and abuse of a huge amount of US taxpayer funds; second, about the program's failure to achieve vital US security objectives; and third, about the program's incompatibility with a long-term strategic partnership between the US and Pakistan," said John Tierney, chairman of the House oversight and government reform subcommittee on national security.

There was also criticism from the senate. "It seems as though the Pakistani military went on a spending spree with US taxpayers' wallets and no one bothered to investigate the charges. To this day we do not have proper verification for how our money was used," said senator Tom Harkin.

Other senators have argued for even greater funding for Pakistan, albeit in the social sector, a fact that the Pakistani envoy to US seized on to press for more money after the House cleared the latest CSF bill for $ 373 million.


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venusdeindia
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posted June 28, 2008 05:03 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
same old story
quote:
The GAO disclosures, which first surfaced last month, led some US experts to conclude that Pakistan has used the money from the war on terror to bulk up its military for future confrontation with India.


poor old Henry Kissinger had to pull Bhuottos ears like a scholl boy to get his point ...dont use nuclear intelligence provided for a possible Russian offensive against India...

and Bhutto walked out of a UN special meeting held to resolve the same...embarrasing everyone in the Nixon establishment...

same old story....no lessons learnt

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 29, 2008 12:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
VDI, why are you bringing up "ancient history"?

My God, Nixon and Kissinger. Don't you know Nixon resigned August 8, 1974? That's ummmm, about 34 years ago.

Live in the present VDI...while being mindful of history so you don't repeat the mistakes of the past.

"Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge."
~ William Shakespeare

"Enjoy the spring of love and youth,
To some good angel leave the rest,
For time will teach thee soon the truth,
"There are no birds in last year's nest."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
It is not always May

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