Officials speaking on behalf of Pakistan’s government
claimed that Pakistani officials did not know that Osama bin Laden had been
living in Pakistan, and yet a Pakistani court sentenced a Pakistani to a
33-year prison sentence for treason in having conspired “to wage war against
Pakistan” by aiding the CIA in its hunt for bin Laden.[1] If trying to find him
constitutes treason, it follows that the Pakistani government was opposed to
the Americans finding him. Meanwhile, that government accepted hundreds of billions
of dollars in foreign aid from the U.S. Government. The reaction of an appropriations committee
of the U.S. Senate in 2012 was merely to cut $33 million from $800 million in
foreign aid to Pakistan. It would seem that the U.S. Government wanted it both
ways—to castigate Pakistan for essentially hiding bin Laden while seeking to
retain some influence with the Pakistani government by bribing it with foreign
aid.
The full essay is at "U.S. 'Foreign Aid' Enabling Pakistan."
1. Jonathan Weisman, “Senate Panel Holds Up Aid to Pakistan,” The New York Times, May 24, 2012.
