BIDEN Issues Statement on New GAO Report on Pakistan
April 17, 2008
Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement in light of the new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on Pakistan:
“For years now, I and others have been warning of the perils posed by the regeneration of Al Qaeda in the border areas of Pakistan. Today, the Government Accountability Office issued a report detailing the Bush Administration’s failure to address this threat to all Americans. The report’s title says it all: ‘Combating Terrorism: The United States Lacks Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close Safe Haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.’
“As the GAO report correctly notes, a comprehensive strategy to combat the terrorist threat in this area was called for by the 9/11 Commission, and legally mandated by Congress, but ‘No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in the FATA has been developed.’ In comments to the GAO report, the Department of Defense and USAID agreed that a comprehensive had yet to be developed—while the Department of State implausibly argued that such a plan was already in existence.
“On April 6, I and virtually all of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate sent a letter to President Bush, voicing the very same message as that of today’s report: ‘An Al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. homeland would likely originate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region,’ we wrote. ‘We urge you to work with Congress on a comprehensive new strategy—to change course now, while time still remains. Clearly, a bold new plan is urgently needed.’
“We received no reply to our letter, and the Administration continues to deny Congressional requests for details on the $6 billion spent on reimbursements for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts. I urge President Bush to work with Congress on a comprehensive strategy for combating terrorism in Pakistan and the wider region.”
