Lawmakers in the United States are up in arms against Pakistan with a Congressman announcing a decision to introduce legislation to bar all aid to Islamabad till it demonstrated that it had no inkling of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts.
The Pakistan Foreign Aid Accountability Act would require the State Department to certify to Congress that Pakistan was not providing a sanctuary for the world’s most wanted terrorist.
“Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do. It seems unimaginable that Osama bin Laden was living 1,000 yards away from a military base in a million dollar mansion built especially for him and no one in the Pakistani government knew about it. I don’t buy it,” said Congressman, Ted Poe from Texas, who is proposing the legislation.
His steps comes as a anti-Pakistan mood prevailed on the Capitol Hill with a significantly large number of Congressmen and Senators believing that the Monday’s special forces operation in Abbottabad had exposed the double game of the Pakistani government.
They now want White House to adopt a tough approach against Islamabad saying that over the years Pakistan has become the nerve centre of terrorism.
“It does cause one to question how this kind of facility, which stood out, was close by a military academy, could exist for the length of time it did exist.
And we now know that bin Laden was there up to six years,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“That’s a substantial period of time when trash is burned rather than picked up by sanitation authorities. It was noted that there was no electronic access, and yet it was a sophisticated facility. So questions had to have been asked, I would think.
Now whether those questions were answered or not by the Pakistanis, I can’t say,” she said, adding that she would be seeking these answers at a meeting with the CIA Director, Leon Panetta today.
Peter T King, a top New York Congressman said he has been discussing this issue with people over the last several days and yesterday he met the Pakistani Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani.
“I don’t think it’s been resolved, no, how ISI, which is a very effective intelligence agency, would not have seen this, and also in view of past actions by ISI which have compromised the United States,” King told reporters at a news conference.
