US Can't Be Sure Pakistan's $5.6B Went to Fight Terror

The Defense Department cannot show that nearly $6 billion the US has sent to Pakistan since 2001 has been used, as intended, to fight terrorism. In a report yesterday, the Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon hadn’t properly tracked the funds, CNN reports, blindly signing off on questionable charges—leading critics to charge that Pakistan bolstered its own defense capability at US expense.

A case in point was $200 million spent on air-defense radar, though the Taliban and al-Qaeda have no known air forces. The Pentagon acknowledges the money problem, but says Pakistan has also paid a high price in the war on terror, losing roughly 1,400 soldiers. (More Pakistan stories.)