U.S. reviews aid sent to Pakistan

Pakistan’s Frontier Corps is
underequipped and outgunned despite $7 billion in military aid from the U.S.

COMBINED DISPATCHES

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the United States would review its $150 million-a-month assistance program to Pakistan in response to the declaration of emergency rule by the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who also suspended the country’s constitution.

Any reassessment will have to keep in mind that “some of the assistance that has been going to Pakistan is directly related to the counterterrorism mission,” Rice said. “I would be very surprised if anybody wants the president to ignore or set aside our concerns about terrorism. ... But obviously the situation has changed and we have to review where we are.”

The Bush administration seemed to still be reeling from Musharraf’s announcement Saturday and waiting for the rapidly shifting events to settle before making any move beyond expressing strong disapproval.

U.S. aid to Pakistan over the past six years has totaled nearly $11 billion, most of it in military hardware and budget support. Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush lifted aid sanctions imposed on Pakistan and India after both countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998. Additional sanctions set against Pakistan after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 were also waived.

Rice emphasized that U.S. economic and educational assistance was “not to Musharraf, but to a Pakistan you could argue was making significant strides on a number of fronts.”

Rice said she last spoke directly with Musharraf on Wednesday, when she said she emphasized that the United States would not support any extra-constitutional measures.

Despite the billions in aid to Pakistan over the past six years, the paramilitary force leading the pursuit of al-Qaida militants remains underfunded, poorly trained and overwhelmingly outgunned, U.S. military and intelligence officials said.

But rather than use U.S. funding to bolster its counter-terrorism capabilities, Pakistan has spent the bulk of the more than $7 billion in military aid on heavy arms, aircraft and equipment that U.S. officials said are far more suited for conventional warfare with India, its regional rival.

That has left fighters with the paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps, often equipped with little more than “sandals and bolt-action rifles,” said a senior Western military official in Islamabad, even as they face al-Qaida and Taliban fighters equipped with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

The arms imbalance has contributed to al-Qaida’s ability to regroup in the border region and reflects the competing priorities that were evident even before this weekend between two countries that are self-described allies in the “war on terrorism” but have sharply divergent national security interests.

The situation also has emerged as a significant obstacle as the United States and Pakistan seek new approaches after a series of failed strategies in the frontier region, where Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

U.S. officials have urged Pakistan to move more aggressively against militants and bolster the capabilities of the Frontier Corps, an indigenously recruited force of about 40,000 troops that was formed under British rule and is traditionally used to guard the border and curb smuggling.

Although Musharraf said Saturday that his actions were a necessary response to rising security threats, one senior U.S. official who was not authorized to speak on the record said the Pakistani leader told the administration last week that the Supreme Court would soon rule him ineligible for re-election.