TerrorismLawmakers threaten Pakistan aid unless jailed Pakistani doctor is released
Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is threatening to hold up Senate business unless a discussion is scheduled on the fate of the jailed Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who helped the United States locate Ossama bin Laden; Paul has been working for a month to bring the issue of U.S. aid to Pakistan to a vote – and he is gathering support for a vote on freezing all aid to Pakistan until Afridi is freed
Dr. Shakil Afridi aided U.S. in finding and killing Osama bin Laden // Source: muftah.org
Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is threatening to hold up Senate business unless a discussion is scheduled on the fate of the jailed Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who helped the United States locate Ossama bin Laden. Afridi has been jailed by the Pakistan police and charged with treason.
Fox News reports that Paul has been working for a month to bring the issue of U.S. aid to Pakistan to a vote – and he is gathering support for a vote on freezing all aid to Pakistan until Afridi is freed.
“Because of the urgency of seeing that Dr. Afridi is freed, I am prepared to pursue any and all means to secure a vote on my bill immediately, including objecting to other Senate business and recessing the Senate for the election,” Paul wrote in a letter Monday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Paul wrote Reid that after repeated delays in Afridi’s appeals hearing, it is “now abundantly clear that Pakistan has no intention of pursuing a proper and just hearing” for the doctor.
Fox News notes that in a separate statement Monday, Paul said the United States “should not give foreign aid to a country whose government is torturing the man who helped us kill Usama bin Laden.
“We should not be giving foreign aid to any country that is not clearly our ally. This must end, and this week I will renew my push for a vote on this issue, including holding up Senate business to accomplish this goal,” he said.
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Afridi said that ISI, Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, regards the United States as its “worst enemy,” and the Pakistani government’s claims that it is cooperating with the United States are a sham to extract billions of dollars in American aid.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in May she did not believe there was “any basis” for holding Afridi. “His help, after all, was instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most notorious murderers. That was clearly in Pakistan’s interests as well as ours and the rest of the world,” she said.
