The reopening of key Pakistani border-crossings into Afghanistan for NATO supplies has earned Islamabad support of influential American lawmakers in reimbursement of the long-held Coalition Support Funds.
The Obama administration has told Pakistan it will release $1.1 billion of Coalition Support Funds (CSF) to the Pakistan military now that Islamabad has reopened the Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC) through which the US supplies troops in Afghanistan. The funds are reimbursement money that Pakistan has already spent in the joint effort to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban that were already authorized by Congress.
A Foreign Policy magazine report said Washington had been holding up the money over the past six months as the supply lines were closed. Pakistan had closed those supply lines after NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border in November, but opened them this week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally said publicly that “we’re sorry” for the mistakes that led to those killings. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) could hold up the funds, but its leaders say they don’t plan to do so. “I would approve it,” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) told The Cable on Tuesday. “They’ve presumably earned it by the money they’ve laid out in terms of their anti-terrorist activities and protecting our flow of oil.” There are costs incurred by Pakistan in facilitating the movement of oil and training and equipping their own forces engaged in the fight against insurgents, Levin said.
“This is not supposed to be a gift, this is supposed to be a reimbursement,” he explained. But Levin is still not satisfied with Pakistan’s level of cooperation when it comes to combating terrorist safe havens on their soil and protecting their side of the Afghanistan border. “I think they’ve done an adequate job in some areas, a spotty job, a job that is not consistent ——- but the deal was there would be reimbursement for their costs and that’s what’s been held up.” Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, also believes the CSF money should go through. “The money’s been stuck in a pipeline and the reason it hasn’t flowed faster is that we can’t be sure it’s going to be spent wisely. If our commanders believe releasing the funds helps the war effort, I don’t want to second guess them,” Graham said, according to the report.
