The Senate Rebuilds Pakistan

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

In the next 5 years, the Pakistani infrastructure will be fortified by almost $10 billion American dollars, if Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) have anything to say about it. The aptly titled Kerry-Lugar Bill will provided money for rebuilding the lives of civilians in war torn Pakistan.

Both Kerry and Lugar said that most of the money that has been funneled into Pakistan in the past few years has gone towards security. The aim of this bill is to shift the balance, to place more of an emphasis on infrastructure.

The Senators want to use the money for building schools, improving health care, building bridges, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. Kerry said that the target projects are “things that would improve life and give people a sense of progress” to civilians.

The money would also be used for ensuring an independent media, expanding human rights and the rule of law, expanding transparency in government, rooting out political corruption and countering the drug trade.

Additionally military funding would be conditioned upon several things, including Pakistani security forces preventing al Qaeda and Taliban forces from operating in Pakistan. The military forces would not be able to interfere in politics or in the judicial process, according to the provisions of the bill.

The legislation bill would give $1.5 billion each year from FY 2009-2013, and would recommend similar amounts of money over the subsequent five years. There would be required benchmarks to measuring how effective the funding is, and the President will have to submit semi-annual reports to Congress about progress made.

DOD Inspector General's Report Confirms Allegations of Contaminated Water for the Troops in Iraq

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) called for a conference at the U.S. Senate Radio-TV Gallery to discuss the results of a new Department of Defense Inspector General’s report on its investigation of the contaminated water provided by Halliburton-subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR).

The report was requested by Senator Dorgan after the whistleblowers made the allegations at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing in January 2006.

Despite the illness of the dozens of soldiers at camp Vermont in Iraq and other parts of the country, the contractor and the Pentagon denied the allegations saying no facts were presented. Alongside Senator Dorgan, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) stressed the importance of the solution of this issue, urging the Department of Defense to carry out investigations in depth. However, the report provided by the Inspector General confirms that the water provided by the contractor was contaminated.

Senator Dorgan stressed the importance of this issue, by stating that this is abusive to the American tax payers and especially to the American troops. He then added his concerns on “why the Pentagon and the Department denied these allegations although they had facts in their hands.” He is set to send a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, for some answers.