Pakistan lobbies against sanctions as the Senate takes up 9/11 bill

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Pakistan lobbies against sanctions as the Senate takes up 9/11 bill
By Roxana Tiron

Pakistan’s weeks-long lobbying effort to thwart potential security aid sanctions is culminating this week as the Senate takes up its version of the 9/11 Commission recommendations bill, approved by the House in early January.

Legislation crafted by the office of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and included in the 9/11 bill has put Pakistan’s embassy in Washington on the defensive. Officials there fear such blunt legislation could alter the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.

The lobbying drive’s latest lap coincides with Vice President Cheney’s unannounced trip to the country, where he expressed Monday the administration’s concern that al Qaeda is regrouping in the tribal areas at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and pressed for a clampdown ahead of a Taliban “spring offensive” in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s role as both a key non-NATO ally of the U.S.-led war against terrorism and a host to an unruly population of Islamic extremists has led to a widening rift between Congress and the White House on how to handle cooperation with Pakistan.

According to a Monday New York Times report, Cheney told Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that a Democratic-led Congress could cut aid to his country if it fails to hunt down al Qaeda operatives.

The Bush administration, which has been publicly complimentary of Pakistan as an ally, opposed the House legislation imposing security aid sanctions on Pakistan, but now is using Congress as a sledgehammer against the Pakistani government, said a source following the issue closely.

“They know they can’t threaten Musharraf directly,” said the source. “It is a tactic that has some teeth in it.”

A congressional source said Cheney’s trip to Pakistan and the threat that Congress may cut off aid will put Pakistan issues on the front burner in the Senate and increases pressure on the chamber to act.

None of the legislation dealing with the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations likely to be taken up in the Senate includes any reference to Pakistan. Such language would come under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), although any other senator can offer legislation.

A 9/11 bill authored by New Jersey Sens. Robert Menendez (D) and Frank Lautenberg (D) includes Pakistan-specific clauses and has been referred to Biden’s committee.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/022707_pakistan.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. Pakistani ISI

http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html