Robin Raphel's close link with Pakistan military generals and Taliban makes her appointment controversial.
.DC resident David Dienstag, dressed as an Afghan mujahideen inside Afghanistan in the eighties.
By: Ahmar Mustikhan
Each American family will pay $41.24 towards helping Pakistan under a new US law -- in the hope there will not be a second 911 -- though questions remain if this aid is actually going to buy security for Americans because of the posting of a woman Deputy Czar who will be handling the package.
Robin Raphel, 67, who has the dubious distinction of being a lobbyist for the former military regime of General Pervez Musharraf and who also has close ties with the Taliban as part of her lobbying for UNOLOCAL, will be the main person overlooking the $1.5 billion aid package to Pakistan, giving rise to concerns the U.S. taxpayers monies would go down the Pakistan drain.
Raphel is widow of former US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel who had perished in the mysterious aircrash that killed Pakistan military dictator General Ziaul Haq and top brass of the military on August 17, 1998.
US. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton appointed Raphel last month as deputy to Mr. Richard Holbrooke, the US. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The U.S. Senate approved the Kerry-Lugar Bill in June, now called Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act.
"Secretary Clinton assures us that the money will be accounted for. Jezail very much doubts this assertion," said David Dienstag, founder of Jezail and an Afghan war veteran who who was in the Afghan battlefield prior to the Americans walking away from Afghanistan to give the turf to the infamous Inter Services Intelligence.
"For one thing, there is no adequate mechanism to do so. Pakistan has a long history of siphoning off money from American aid. Investigations have come in, after the fact, and established that hundreds of millions of dollars have disappeared but no one was ever held accountable and money continued to pour in," Dienstag said.
He said another reason to doubt Secretary Clinton's assertion of accountability is in the naming of Robin Raphel as a deputy to Ambassador Holbrook.
"She had been a Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs beginning in 1993 and on her watch, the Madrassas bloomed. Robin Raphel is the person who, during the Clinton presidency, squired Taliban officials around Washington as the next best hope for Afghan leadership," Dienstag recalled.
Raphel was lobbying for the ill-fated UNOCAL pipe line project at the time.
Raphel eventually became a lobbyist at Cassidy & Associates for the military administration of General Pervez Muaharraf. "She was responsible for the lobbying for Pakistan in the state department as a registered foreign agent of Pakistan and the firm had a $1.2 million contract with the Govt of Pakistan. At this time Jezail sees this as a highly dubious appointment of a well known revolving door retread to a sensitive position," Dienstag said
"However, when the appointment is seen as being roughly contemporary to the passage of the largest aid bill Pakistan has ever received, Jezail sees a motive, a message and a method," he said.
Dienstag said Ms. Raphel is meant to be a deputy to Mr. Holbrook. However, Mr. Holbrook reports directly to the White House because they understand that Mrs. Clinton has a weak foreign policy background in a delicate situation.
"But Ms. Raphel reports to Secretary Clinton. Jezail sees this appointment as an attempt to wrest control of policy back from Mr. Holbrook at the expense of the tax payer," he said. "Secretary Clinton can claim what she likes but Jezail sees this as business as usual with Pakistan. It is more wasted money to an unstable Islamic kleptocracy," he added.
Dienstag, who believes Pakistan is a criminal enterprise run by the Inter Services Intelligence and jihadist generals, said the "revolving door" career issue all but institutionalizes and legalizes corruption for high ranking civil servants by allowing them to work for any foreign country or corporation that pays them while out of government service. "The obvious potential for conflicts of interest is ignored and the false argument is foisted that 'these people have a right to make a living'," he said.
Dienstag says this creates an environment in which civil servants often begin to curry favor with a foreign government while serving as diplomats, or in the military or even as intelligence officials. Once they establish a relationship with a client, they become loyal representatives often developing personal ties to the people who pay them. "If, and when, they go back into government, they don't leave their biases at the door as they always claim," Dienstag lamented.
He recalls the early 1990s when the Pakistani government was ramping up the Taliban and deliberately de stabilizing Afghanistan, then Ambassador Raphel ignored their misdeeds and claimed that the UNOLOCAL pipe line was in Afghanistan's best interests.
Raphe, as assistant secretary of stae for South Asia, l had expressed admiation for the Taliban at a speech in the United Nations five years before the 911 attacks.
The $7.5 billion aid spread over five years, requires certification that Pakistan military establishment is actually taking actions against the Taliban -- a process which would now be in the hands of Raphel.
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