Pakistan Aid Not Fighting Terror

US funds go to forces more suited for battle with India

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 5, 2007 11:05 AM CST

(Newser) – The US has given Pakistan $7 billion in military aid over the past 6 years, yet the paramilitary forces fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are armed with little but “sandals and bolt-action rifles,” a military official tells the LA Times. With militants on the rise because the forces designated to combat them are underfunded, Pervez Musharraf has used the surge to justify emergency rule.

Where is the money going? Into weaponry better suited to battling India, US officials say. Meanwhile, the indigenously recruited paramilitary Frontier Corps, the force that 's leading the pursuit of resurgent Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents, is years from viability. “I think it’s worse than starting from scratch,” says an ex-CIA agent.

Pakistan's paramilitary troops patrol in Hyderabad near Karachi, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih) (Associated Press)

Soldier of Pakistan's paramilitary force shows part of the remains of a vehicle used by a suicide attacker in Thal, a town in the North West Frontier Province near the border with Afghanistan, Monday,... (Associated Press)

Masked militant supporters of Maulana Fazlullah, a hardline cleric, armed with AK-47 assault rifles stand guard outside a building, where paramilitary troops from the Frontier Corps are detained, in... (Associated Press)

Pakistan's paramilitary troops patrol in Hyderabad near Karachi, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih) (Associated Press)

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Pakistan Aid Not Fighting Terror

US funds go to forces more suited for battle with India

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