US lawmaker introduces legislation to cut off aid to Pak

WASHINGTON: A key US lawmaker has introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives to stop American aid to Pakistan, saying the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad has made it clear that Islamabad concealed, protected and enabled him for many years. "We can no longer afford this foolishness," Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said after introducing the 'Defund United States Assistance to Pakistan Act of 2011' in the House of Representative. "The time has come for us to stop subsidizing those who actively oppose us. Pakistan has shown itself not to be America's ally," he said. The bill says that terrorist outfits based in Pakistan, especially Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been responsible for terrorist strikes inside India including the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008, in which 166 people including six American nationals were killed. Rohrabacher is a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The bill outlines several accounts of Pakistan's duplicitous behavior toward the US including recent reports of Pakistani leadership lobbying Afghan President Hamid Karzai to move away from "imperial" America and to embrace Communist China, said a statement issued by the Congressman. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said the Pakistani intelligence service has had a long relationship with the Haqqani terror group that is right now "killing Americans" in Afghanistan. In 1998, Pakistan's military and intelligence services facilitated the transfer of an unexploded American Tomahawk missile recovered by Taliban to China. The Chinese were then able to reverse engineer the missile and dissect its components allowing them to learn its vulnerabilities and defeat its capabilities. During last week's raid in Abbottabad, a specially configured stealth US Special Forces helicopter crashed and even though US soldiers attempted to destroy it, the tail was left intact and recovered by the Pakistanis. Rohrabacher demanded immediate return of the debris for fear of American military secrets being compromised. "If this is not done immediately, it is probable, given Pakistan's history, that our technology has already found its way into the hands of the Communist Chinese military that is buying, building, and stealing the necessary military technology to challenge the United States," said Rohrabacher. According to a May 9 report in Defense News, the wreckage has seemingly disappeared, leading to speculation that pieces may have been shipped to China or made available to Chinese engineers in Pakistan. The bill prohibits assistance to Pakistan under any provision of law and would take effect on the date of enactment.