Coupled with a statement of the Agency of spying military officer of the army top American last week linking Pakistan to the murder of Pakistani journalist, the stop or the withdrawal of military equipment and other aid to Pakistan illustrates the depth of the debate within the administration of Obama on how to modify the behavior of one of its key partners fight against terrorism.
In total, about 800 million dollars in military aid and equipment, or more than a third of more than $ 2 billion in annual aid of us security in Pakistan, could be affected, said three senior officials of the United States.
This assistance includes about $ 300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the cost in excess of 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border to combat terrorism, and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to education and the military materiel, half a dozen of deployment of the Congress, Pentagon and other administration officials who received the anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive issue.
Some of the shortened aid is material that the United States wants to send but now Pakistan refuses to accept, as guns, ammunition, armor gear and bomb-disposal body that have been removed or blocked after Pakistan ordered more than 100 trainers Army Special Forces leave the country in recent weeks.
Some devices, such as radios, night vision goggles and parts of the helicopter, which can be implemented, certified or used for training, because Pakistan has refused visas to American personnel necessary to operate equipment, two senior Pentagon officials said.
And sometimes help as reimbursements for troop costs, which is currently considered in light of questions about the commitment of Pakistan to conduct operations to fight against terrorism. For example, the United States recently in Pakistan with information about suspected bomb-making plants, only to have the insurgents disappear before the coming of the Pakistani security forces a few days later.
"When it comes to our military assistance," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate Committee last month "we are not prepared to continue to him that at the pace that we were providing less than and up to what we see some action." "".
US officials say that they probably resume deliveries of equipment and assistance if relations improve and Pakistan continues aggressive terrorists. The thresholds do not affect any immediate shipments of military sales to Pakistan, such as aircraft, F-16 fighter, or nonmilitary aid officials said.
Pakistan specific military budget is not known, and while the decision of the US aid would probably have a low impact on the overall military budget, it would more directly affect the counterinsurgency campaign. The Pakistani army spent nearly a quarter of annual expenditures of the nation, according to k. Alan Kronstadt of Congressional Research Service.
While some officials have concluded that Pakistan will never type of partner, the administration has hoped for when President Obama entered the Office, others point out that the United States is a complete rupture of relations or a complete break of similar to what aid arrived in the 1990s, when Pakistan was caught developing nuclear weapons.
But much of recent reductions in aid are clearly intended to force the Pakistani army to make a difficult choice between the choirs in the country which finances most of its operations and its equipment, or continue to provide a secret support for the Taliban and other militants fighting US troops in Afghanistan.
"We have to continue to emphasize with Pakistanis, in the end, it is in their interest to be able to go after these goals as well," Secretary of Defense Leon e. Panetta told journalists Friday en route in Afghanistan.
Some US officials say that Pakistan has only itself to blame, citing the decision of the Pakistani army to distance itself from us in response to humiliation aid suffered RAID commando American in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, and increase the anger officials Pakistan intermediate and Pakistan as senior military publicincluding the General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful army Chief of staff, are too conciliatory to the Americans.
Eric Schmitt reported from Washington and Jane Perlez Islamabad, Pakistan. David e. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington and Ismail Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan.
(credit: AP Photo, j. Scott Applewhite)