NEW YORK: Billions of dollars in American aid given to the Pervez Musharraf regime for anti-terrorism efforts have been wasted and much of it was diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India rather than fight al-Qaeda and Taliban, US officials have said.
After the US has spent more than USD 5 billion to bolster the Pakistani military campaign against al-Qaeda and Taliban, some Bush administration officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money and the strategy to improve the Pakistani military needs to be completely revamped, the New York Times reported.
In interviews in Islamabad and Washington with the paper, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not al-Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said adding, the US has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.
"I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation," a senior American military official who has reviewed the program, told the paper referring to Pakistani requests for reimbursement. "Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn't have to give them money this way," he added.
Pakistani officials were quoted as saying that they are incensed at what they see as American "ingratitude" for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts that have left about 1,000 of its soldiers and police officers dead.
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