US lawmaker moves Bill to declare Pak sponsor of terror

The Pioneer, Ideal Media ^ | Saturday, March 11, 2017 | S. Rajagopalan

[Jyotishi]

Washington -- Seeking a "radical reset" of ties with Pakistan for having "aided and abetted enemies of the United States for years", a senior Republican lawmaker has introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives to push for declaring Islamabad a "State sponsor of terrorism".

Sponsored by Congressman Ted Poe, the Bill requires the President to issue a report within 90 days on whether Pakistan has provided support for international terrorism. And within 30 days after that, the Secretary of State must submit a follow-up report containing "either a determination that Pakistan is a State sponsor of terrorism or a detailed justification as to why it does not meet the legal criteria for such a designation".

Poe, who heads the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, termed Pakistan an "untrustworthy ally", noting: "From harbouring Osama bin Laden to its cosy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror. And it's not America's."

"It is time we stop paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a State Sponsor of Terrorism," he said, alluding to the billions of dollars doled out by Washington to Islamabad over the years.

The Congressman from Texas was unsparing on the United States itself, commenting that for decades, successive administrations have "acquiesced in a toxic relationship with Pakistan, putting up with this nominal ally whose military and security leaders play a lethal double game" that has involved production of nuclear weapons and export of Islamist terrorism.

"Successive US administrations haven't found a way out of this, playing instead the theatre of "shared interests" with Islamabad, even when Pakistan's links with insurgents imperil American lives in Afghanistan while feeding wider instability in central Asia," Poe noted in a separate article, written along with former senior Defence official James Clad in the National Interest magazine.

The article went on to say that Congressional testimony and expert analysis from within the administration and outside have over the years reinforced the view that Pakistan has become "a quasi-adversary" that receives billions of dollars from the US "in a strange hostage-like arrangement in which we pay Islamabad to do what it should be doing anyway to protect its own domestic security and buttress Afghan stability".

In all this, efforts by Senators and Representatives over the years to attach conditionality to aid packages for Pakistan have also failed with the authorities in Islamabad diverting the aid to other purposes, Poe and Clad said, stressing: "Something must change in our dealings with a terrorist-supporting, irresponsible nuclear-weapons State, and it must change soon. Acquiescing in the current trends is not an option."

Asking Washington to set the "limits of its indulgence" towards Pakistan, Poe and Clad commented: "Don't let the next crisis in South or Southwest Asia deflect our focus. Don't rush to shore up Pakistan's balance of payments via the IMF or other intermediaries, as we've done in the past. Let China pay that, if the Pakistanis wish to mortgage their future in that way."

[Texas Eagle]

Hard to deny considering they gave refuge to Osama bin Laden and punished the doctor who gave him up.

[WENDLE]

IO support the abolition of aid and severe sanctions to pakistan. They safe harbored osama bin laden!!! We shoul have bombed them but obama was a woman!!

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Sure, we know it’s true. Problem is, the supply lines to Afghanistan to through Pakistan.

[Oldexpat]

We route most military shipments to Afghanistan via Pakistan. We only have airfreight as a substitute.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Pakistan harbored bin Laden and the Saudis funded him and his jihad.
Neither is a friend.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Here's the thing - Pakistan is unquestionably a sponsor of terrorism. They nurtured the Taliban and turned it loose on Afghanistan, they harbored Osama bin Laden and they're still harboring Ayman al Zawahiri to this day. They shared nuclear technology with North Korea and Iran. They've done more to make the world a dangerous place than any other nation since the fall of the Soviet Union.

But if the US breaks it off with Pakistan, China is waiting to swoop in. Pakistan seems quite willing to surrender sovereignty to the Chinese in exchange for security against India, and Pakistan offers China's growing navy ports that give them easy access to the Persian Gulf and the India Ocean. We still have some influence over this dangerous rogue nation - it may not be a good idea to give that up.

[WENDLE]

Russia routes it’s easement in Crimea to their warm water port. I would leave Afghanistan but if we have to stay just blast an easement.I hate Pakistan for intentionally hiding the man who killed 3000 AMERICANS on 911. That is an act of war to harbor that son of a bitch.

[Parley Baer]

Turkey has its hands dirty from supporting ISIS and maybe some other rebel groups.

[FreedomPoster]

Thank you. This guy needs to STHU until we’re clear of Afghanistan.