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'Funds for F-16s to Pakistan is a tough sell'
The Bush administration expects an uphill battle in Congress for permission to use counterterrorism funds to upgrade Pakistan's F-16 fighters, the State Department's top diplomat for South Asia said on Monday.But even if lawmakers balk, the State Department believes it has the authority to shift counterterrorism aid to the fighter programme. "For the moment, we're not taking a legalistic approach to this. We're trying to work it out with the Congress," Richard Boucher, assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, said in an interview with Reuters. Analysts say the F-16 and other big-ticket military items have in the past been viewed by Islamabad as weapons to help Pakistan counter its rival, India. In July, two senior Democratic lawmakers asked the administration not to use the $226.5 million to refurbish the F-16s. They said they feared the plan diverted cash from more urgent counterterrorism equipment like helicopters and night-vision goggles. But Boucher said the F-16s had also been used for counterterrorism missions in hundreds of sorties targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Tribal Areas in recent months. The F-16 upgrade was badly needed, he said, and would give Pakistan a more effective counterterrorism tool, enabling forces to work at night and improve precision-strike capability. He also said the money would come from areas such as maritime patrol programmes, which were not as urgently needed as the fighter upgrades. "I think it's an uphill climb but we don't shy away from uphill climbs," Boucher said of the State Department's effort to convince Congress to allow it to shift the funds to the Pakistani F-16 programme. Lockheed payment: Over the summer, the Bush administration made a payment "in the $100 million range" to F-16 manufactures Lockheed Martin Corp after it became clear the firm would otherwise fire workers involved in the project, he said. The next payment is due in October and the administration is working with Congress to try to resolve the issue by the end of this month, Boucher said. "We don't want to go ahead without some kind of understanding on the part of Congress." A Congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said appropriating subcommittees in Congress were entitled to request a 'hold' on re-programming funds and this had been done on the F-16 upgrades. However, he said this was not legally binding. It was 'atypical' for a government agency to go ahead with re-directing money over the objections of the chair of the relevant committees in Congress, the aide said. Posted by: Fred 2008-09-17 |
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