[FoxNews] Lawmakers are attaching some strings to $33 million in aid to Pakistain, making the funds contingent on freeing the doctor who helped the CIA find the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee inserted language that appears to withhold the foreign aid unless the State Department certifies Dr. Shakil Afridi is released from prison, where he's serving a 33-year sentence on a dubious conspiracy conviction. The condition left Pak officials fuming.
"Any linkage of US assistance to this case is not in keeping with the spirit of cooperation between the two countries," said Pakistain Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam.
President B.O. signed the bill on Jan. 17. As so-called omnibus legislation, it includes appropriations for all federal agencies, including the State Department. While the overall foreign aid appropriation would be left to the State Department to dole out, the Pakistain portion can be made conditional on a determination by Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
that Afridi has been released and cleared of all charges.
The State Department has repeatedly decried Pakistain's treatment of Afridi, but officials did not say if Kerry is prepared to withhold the funding. |