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Friday, December 16, 2011
US House passes legislation to ‘freeze’ Pakistan assistance* Bill will freeze roughly $700 million in aid to Pakistan pending assurances that Islamabad has taken steps to thwart terrorists who use IEDs against US-led forces
WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation to freeze some Pakistan aid, slap harsh new sanctions on Iran, and endorse indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists.
Acting shortly after the White House dropped a threat to veto the bill, the Republican-led chamber voted 283-136 to approve the $662 billion Defence Authorisation bill, which also sets high hurdles for closing Guantanamo Bay.
The Democratic-held Senate was expected to vote on the same bill as early as Thursday.
The measure had drawn fire from civil liberties groups that denounced its de facto embrace of holding alleged extremists without charge until the end of the “war on terrorism” declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
US President Barack Obama, who had threatened to veto earlier versions of the yearly measure, will sign it when it reaches his desk despite lingering misgivings, spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement before the vote.
The legislation, a compromise blend of rival House and Senate versions, requires that al Qaeda fighters who plot or carry out attacks on US targets be held in military, not civilian, custody, subject to a presidential waiver.
And they slightly diluted the legislation’s tough new sanctions on Iran, which aim to cut off Tehran’s central bank from the global financial system in a bid to force the Islamic republic to freeze its suspected nuclear programme.
The goal of the legislation is to force financial institutions to choose between doing business with the central bank - Iran’s conduit for selling its oil to earn much-needed foreign cash - or doing business with US banks.
The bill would also freeze roughly $700 million in aid to Pakistan pending assurances that Islamabad has taken steps to thwart terrorists who use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against US-led forces in Afghanistan.
“If this legislation becomes law, we’ll work with the government of Pakistan on how we can fulfill the requirements. But, this requires us to maintain a strategic perspective,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk