US to use funds for aid on ‘super embassy’ project: Dawn

By Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: In what could be a recipe for a new controversy, the United States will spend nearly one billion dollars from its $2.4 billion war supplement aid for Pakistan on the construction and fortification of its new embassy in Islamabad and additional staffing of the mission, in what is seen here as a departure from the usual practice of using State Department finances for such projects.

Under a programme to strengthen its presence in Pakistan, the US will bring here about 1,000 personnel, including a large number of Marines.

It has already undertaken a project to rebuild and refurbish the embassy building and construct accommodation for the new staff and a massive complex for the Marines to be stationed in the capital.

The US plan to reinforce its presence has already created ripples here and, according to a senior official, it would mean stationing of ‘more American military and intelligence personnel in diplomatic guise.

And a retired diplomat says the upcoming American hub in Islamabad will be used to influence development in the region by remote control.

US Charge d’Affaires Gerald Feierstein, in a letter to Dawn, described the plan as a positive development symbolising US commitment to stand by its friends in Pakistan. He said the new embassy building would be a landmark in the diplomatic enclave.

The US media, meanwhile, has described the upcoming structure as a ‘super embassy’ rivalling only the American mission in Baghdad.

The project, US official estimates show, will cost about $1 billion. And the Obama administration has worked out an easy way out, footing the bills from Pakistan’s $2.4 billion share in the Pentagon War Supplemental Package for the fiscal year 2009.

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